Literacy Ideas

The Ultimate Guide to Opinion Writing for Students and Teachers

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

The Importance of Opinion Writing

Encouraging our students to express their personal opinions is an important part of the learning process; healthy even. To do this effectively, it is equally important that we help them acquire the necessary skills to express these opinions in a reasoned and coherent manner when teaching opinion writing.

Writing is one of the best possible vehicles for our students not only to express their opinions but to explore the strength and validity of those opinions.

CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE WRITING AN OPINION ESSAY

For our students to competently express their opinions in writing, they must first understand the specific requirements of the type of question they are answering. Of course, there are many types of questions and fun opinion writing prompts that are geared towards coaxing personal opinions from a student and each will require its own specific tailored response.

It’s clear that personal opinions permeate a wide range of genres and media. We find opinions everywhere from hotel reviews and infomercials to political commentary and newspaper editorials. But, despite the diversity of forms opinion writing can take, we can helpfully identify some general criteria that will assist our students in navigating the challenge of most opinion writing prompts and questions.

Let’s take a look at some of these criteria in more detail.

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OPINION WRITING CRITERIA TO ADDRESS

1. identify the audience: speak clearly.

Writing is about language and language is about communication; students should understand that we do not write in a vacuum. The purpose of an essay, letter, or any other form of writing we care to name, is ultimately to be read.

This means that it is essential that consideration be given to the character of the intended audience. Also, remind students that when they are writing, the reader is not privy to the inner workings of the writer’s mind. They must make their thoughts explicit in their writing and ensure that these thoughts are expressed in a coherent manner.

The student writer should always avoid making the assumption that the reader knows things that are not expressed explicitly in the writing.

2. Take a Stance: Stand Firm

From the very outset, the student should state their position boldly. More than that, they must stand firm in that opinion throughout the entirety of the piece.

Opinion writing is not about communicating a series of pros and cons or discussing at length the various related advantages and disadvantages, the place for that is not here. The opinion piece should open with a bold statement of opinion that is clearly expressed, and that opinion should be held unwaveringly and reinforced constantly throughout the text.

As with many other writing genres , employing a hook to grab the reader’s attention is good practice too. This hook can take the form of a quotation, an anecdote, a statistic, or even a joke. Whatever form the hook takes, it should reveal the writer’s take on things too.

To summarize, whatever the topic and however the student opens their opinion piece, they should ensure they express their opinion immediately and coherently. There should be no doubt in the reader’s mind as to where the student-writer stands on the issue.

3. Choose Appropriate Evidence: Back It Up

There is no doubt that subjectivity is an important aspect of opinion writing in general. That does not mean, however, that opinions do not need to be substantiated.

Your students will need to recognize that each and every statement of opinion will need to be supported by appropriate evidence. This will also help students to develop their critical reading skills as they will be able to better recognize when unsubstantiated claims are made by other writers. Opinions backed up with evidence help lead the reader along the writer’s pathways of thought; making the writing more convincing as a whole.

This evidence can take a wide variety of forms, ranging from personal anecdotes and quotations to statistics and references to scientific studies. Students should also always be encouraged to choose evidence that is broadly suited to the subject they are writing about.

4. Draw Conclusions: Wrap It Up

In the well-organized piece of opinion writing, as with many other types of extended writing, the writing should be structured in paragraphs. Paragraphs are essential elements of good writing organization.

Generally speaking, an opening paragraph gives way to body paragraphs. These body paragraphs, or development paragraphs, describe in more detail the ideas laid out in the initial opening paragraph by further exploring, explaining, and providing supporting evidence for each point.

The final concluding paragraph serves to close the circle by restating the central points in a closing endeavor to drive home the writer’s opinion.

5. A Word on Words

Writing is an art form. Attention to detail is important. But, it isn’t only important to look at the big picture things like structure, students should be encouraged to shift their focus from the text level down to the word and sentence levels too. In an opinion piece, strong, forceful verbs should be the order of the day. There is little space for passive forms when engaged in the construction of convincing arguments.

Things should be kept interesting too. Students should vary their sentence structures grammatically and in length. Variety is key.

 As always in writing, editing should be emphasized. The editing process polishes the well-wrought opinion piece by putting the final gloss on the student’s work.

The OREO Opinion Writing Process Explained

As with all genres, there’s a lot to remember here and acronyms are a helpful way to commit these important things to memory. Luckily, few things can be easier to commit to memory than the name of a delicious cookie:

O – Opinion

R – Reasons

E – Evidence or Examples

O – Opinion (restated)

This memorable acronym will help students remember some of the main elements of opinion writing as outlined above. But, sometimes the hardest thing for students to do is to get the writing ball rolling.

opinion writing | 4 opinion writing28129 | The Ultimate Guide to Opinion Writing for Students and Teachers | literacyideas.com

Opinionated Sentence Starters

Sentence starters provide students with great ways to kick-start their writing. Reminding students of simple ways of introducing opinion sentences can be helpful. Here are a few for ‘starters’ for starters:

●     In my opinion…

●     I think that…

●     It seems to me that…

●     It appears to me…

●     I feel that…

opinion writing | 1 0001 sentence structure guide for teachers and students | The Ultimate Guide to Opinion Writing for Students and Teachers | literacyideas.com

Once the student-writer has effectively expressed their opinion on a matter, they then will need to provide the reader with the reasons for why they think what they think. In an essay, these reasons will usually be found in the body paragraphs or development paragraphs. Normally, these paragraphs will explore a single reason each.

Some helpful sentence starters for introducing these reasons include:

●     One reason I feel this way is…

●     Evidence to support this can be found in…

●     I believe this to evident in…

Opinion Writing Activities for Students

Students will certainly need practice completing sustained pieces of opinion writing, but some of the most valuable activities to help students evolve their opinion writing abilities barely require a pen to be put to paper.

While the following two activities do not require students to engage in extended pieces of writing, the activities below will assist students in grasping some essential concepts. These activities demonstrate good practice through modelling and also encourage dialogue, discussion, and debate as a means to strengthen opinion writing.

Activity 1: Opinion Writing – What Is It?

This exercise is a good follow-up to introductory work outlining the criteria of opinion writing as described above.

●     Start by passing out copies of a piece of opinion writing you have selected to read with the class. Read the text aloud as the students follow along with their copy. The opinion text chosen can come from a wide range of genres, including advertisements, letters, editorials, essays, articles, or reviews.

●     Assign students a talking partner and instruct students to take five minutes to identify the various criteria employed in the text. Encourage students to mark and annotate their copies of the text accordingly. You may even wish to supply students with a checklist compiled from the criteria mentioned previously in this article.

●     As a whole class, discuss how successfully the text fulfills the criteria. What did the writer do well? What could they have done better? You can record their responses on the whiteboard.

The aim of this exercise is for students to hone their critical faculties while internalizing the criteria. This will reap rewards when the students later engage in their own extended opinion writing.

Activity 2: The Collaborative Case

This activity employs collaboration to help students build a stronger case for their opinion on a divisive issue.

●     First, define the parameters of the exercise by presenting an either/or conundrum to the class. This doesn’t have to be overly controversial in nature, just stated in such a way that it forces the students to take one side or another. This could be stated simply as a choice, e.g. Dogs or cats? City or countryside? Beach or Mountains? Sweet or savory?

●     Students then divide into two groups according to their stated preferences. In their groups, they then discuss and compile as many supporting reasons for their choice as they can come up with. As a group, they will discuss the relative merits of each reason, before agreeing on their top five.

●     The groups then share their reasons in a debate format, using arguments and counter-arguments, leading into an open, free-ranging discussion.

The value of this exercise lies in the collaborative and ‘combative’ natures of the exercises. Just as our physical muscles can grow through resistance, so too can the strength and resilience of our opinions and arguments.

This activity can also be used as a lead-in to opinion writing as it works well as a prewriting preparation exercise. The complexity of the issue to be discussed and debated can easily be modified to suit the abilities of the students too.

A COMPLETE UNIT ON TEACHING FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE

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OPINION WRITING VIDEO TUTORIALS

These videos from teaching without frills are an excellent starting point for opinion writing. You can view the entire collection here.

opinion writing | 4 opinion writing28229 | The Ultimate Guide to Opinion Writing for Students and Teachers | literacyideas.com

  The Wrap Up

Opinion writing is a higher-level skill that makes many demands on our students. It will challenge them to move beyond parroting the facts and figures they have acquired in their learning to formulate their own thoughts on topics they have learned about in class, or in the wider world beyond the school gates.

It will make demands on their skill as writers too. Our students must learn to mold and mechanically manipulate the language on the page to express their beliefs persuasively and effectively. To do this successfully, they will need ample opportunities to practice their writing craft. Once a firm understanding of the structures involved has been established, the student can become more fluid in their expression. They will add art and flair to their craft. But first, they must build on these firm foundations.

OTHER GREAT ARTICLES RELATED TO OPINION WRITING

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Top 5 Persuasive Writing Techniques for Students

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5 Top Persuasive Writing Lesson Plans for Students and Teachers

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How to Write Perfect Persuasive Essays in 5 Simple Steps

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23 Persuasive writing Topics for High School students

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How to Write a Winning Debate Speech

The content for this page has been written by Shane Mac Donnchaidh.  A former principal of an international school and English university lecturer with 15 years of teaching and administration experience. Shane’s latest Book, The Complete Guide to Nonfiction Writing , can be found here.  Editing and support for this article have been provided by the literacyideas team.

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How to teach Opinion Writing to 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders

Opinion writing, also known as Persuasive writing, is by far an easy enough genre to teach 3 rd , 4 th, and 5th graders. Unlike narrative writing where creativity and flair come into play, the elements of opinion writing are more structured, almost formulaic, and thus easier to assimilate.

How to teach opinion writing to 3rd, 4th, 5th grades

Teaching The Structural Components of Opinion Writing

Students are known to turn out better writing pieces if they have direction. Hence explicitly teaching the structural components of a persuasive/opinion essay is essential.

If students are taught the form and structure of opinion writing, the job is half done. The success of the other half pretty much depends upon the writer’s content knowledge of the subject.

Teaching the structure of an opinion essay can thus be broken down into three major sections: The Introduction, The Body, and The Conclusion.

How to teach kids opinion writing

✏ The Introduction of Opinion Writing

How many times have we reminded our students that the beginning of an essay is so very important – that it has to arrest the reader’s attention so they are hooked to continue reading.

For the introduction to be effective, it must have a hook , the writer’s opinion, and a thesis statement . This is the structure of the introduction.

If students just practice writing an introduction on several given writing prompts for a week, adhering to structure for this section, will be second nature.

The Hook In the Introduction

Teaching students just one way to hook the reader in an opinion essay is not enough as different types of hooks would create different effects – besides we need to give our little writers lots of choices when it comes to writing. This flexibility goes a long way in getting their creative juices going when writing supporting details that support their opinion.

5 Popular Hooks to Support the Opinion

So you can teach your 3 rd , 4 th, and 5 th graders to begin their opinion essay with any one of the five different hooks. Interestingly, they are also called sizzling starts. And rightly so.

Students may begin with any one of the below hooks:

  • Strong Statement
  • Rhetorical Question

The first two starters are popular starters and I often encourage my 5 th graders to use either of them in their introduction.

How to teach persuasive writing to 3rd, 4th, 5th grades

Writing the Opinion of an Opinion Essay

Right after the hook, students write their opinion on the issue after weighing the pros and cons.

Now for the lower grades (grades 1-3), students could simply begin their opinion with any of the phrases:

  • ‘In my opinion..’
  • ‘I firmly believe…’
  • ‘I am of the opinion…’

However, 3 rd , 4 th, and 5 th graders need to show more sophistication in their writing, so beginning with these opinion starters would not do justice to the writing skill they are actually capable of implementing.

Instead, students need to convey their opinion subtly by reflecting on the issue. This will consequently lead to the thesis statement that follows next and sums up the introduction.

Do you need to teach your 3rd, 4th or 5th grade students how to write an opinon or a persuasive essay? This resource will help scaffold the techniques and the structural elements.

✏ Writing The Body of an Opinion Essay

We can teach our 3 rd , 4 th, and 5 th graders to adhere to structure when they write the body paragraphs of their opinion essay too.

Each body paragraph needs to have a reason introduced by a topic sentence , supporting details that support the reason, and a concluding sentence that sums up that body paragraph. If students are explicitly taught this structure, then they are more likely to stay on task and won’t get carried away in their writing.

So, how many body paragraphs should there be?

The best number, I tell my 5th-grade students is – three. Each reason is given its very own paragraph, with the last paragraph reserved for the most important reason.

The least strong reason should be sandwiched between the first strong reason and the last. This is in keeping with the notion that the beginning and end of any piece of writing are the most important.

How to teach opinion writing to 3rd, 4th, 5th grades

✏ Writing The Conclusion of an Opinion Essay

Some students are known to get so carried away with their reasoning in the body paragraphs that they often skip this last important section or don’t have the time to write it – if sitting a timed writing examination.

It is in this section, that students need to be reminded to re-visit their opinion, provide a summary statement of their reasons, and the most important of all – give a call to action that causes the reader to reflect on the issue.  In a real-life context, this call of action would induce the reader to take action on the basis of the arguments put forth.

how to teach opinion writing to grade 6

The Effective Approach to Teaching Opinion Writing

Now that all the structural elements of an opinion essay have been dissected, how does one go about teaching them explicitly to students – that is the question.

Based on my personal experience and in my opinion, the best approach would be to teach each structural component separately . This would entail providing ample practice and modeling on the elements involved.

Once students have a good understanding and practice of the structural components of each section, then they can write out the entire opinion essay, given a prompt. Prior to doing so, brainstorming ideas for each section on a graphic organizer would help structure students’ writing further and provide direction.

My Summary of How to Teach Opinion Writing to 3 rd , 4 th and 5 th Graders

So just a few take-away points for you when you next teach your 3 rd , 4 th, or 5 th graders how to write an opinion essay.

1. Teach students each structural component separately prior to having students write out the entire opinion essay based on a prompt.

2. Teach students how to write the introduction first in an opinion essay. This should include the different types of hooks, the opinion, and the thesis statement.

3. Teach students how to write the body of an opinion essay. This should also include each reason introduced by a topic sentence, 2-3 supporting details to support the reason, and a concluding sentence to conclude the paragraph and link back to the first reason in the topic sentence. This explicit teaching should be done for all body paragraphs.

4. Teach students how to write the conclusion which restates the writer’s opinion, provides a brief overview of the reasons, and gives a call to action.

5. And above all, remind students to edit their draft prior to publishing.

All this explicit teaching needs to be adequately supported by teacher modeling and ample student practice for each structural component of the opinion essay.

To conclude this post, structure provides focus and clarity of thought. Both of which we desire our students to have in order for them to turn out writing pieces that they are proud of and that we enjoy reading and – yes marking.

How to teach persuasive writing to 5th grade

Need a collection of self-written mentor texts ( no need to spend on books ), print-n-go sheets, interactive notebook activities, Scavenger Hunts, flipbooks, anchor charts, posters, checklists, and  marking rubrics  to teach your students a step-by-step approach to writing an opinion essay effectively? Then access the Opinion (Persuasive) Writing Growing Bundle.

Teaching Opinion Writing digitally? Learn more here.

And if you’d like a set of free Opinion Writing Signal Words posters to display in your classroom, access the link in the image below.

Opinion Writing Posters

Until Next Time…

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Teaching with Jennifer Findley

Upper Elementary Teaching Blog

February 5, 2017 | 37 Comments | Filed Under: Writing & Grammar

How to Teach Writing in 5th Grade

Let’s be real for a moment. During my first year teaching I did a terrible, horrible, rotten job at teaching writing. My students (3rd graders at the time) were not assessed on writing, and I really didn’t know how to teach writing at that point in my career (especially since my students seriously struggled with all things literacy when they came to me).

I remember teaching it and having some fun lessons that I am sure helped the students a little. But mostly, we just aimlessly read read alouds, wrote to prompts, and shared our writing. I “did” all the right things but I didn’t do them very purposefully or effectively. I honestly feel like I should write a formal apology to my first group of students.

Fast forward a few years and a grade level change, and I finally feel like I have a handle on teaching writing. I am super purposeful and everything I do now has a reason behind it. Though my instruction is still not perfect (is anything in teaching ever perfect?), I feel much more confident that I am growing my students as writers and helping them to love writing.

In this post, I want to share how I teach writing in 5th grade (very applicable to 3rd and 4th grade as well).

Want to take a peek at how others teachers teach writing? This post details exactly how one teacher teaches writing in 5th grade using a writing workshop model.

I spend approximately 9 weeks on each main genre of writing (narrative, persuasive, and informational/expository).  I teach the writing genres in this order: personal narrative, fictional narrative, persuasive, how-to informational, compare and contrast, descriptive/explanatory informational.

Want to take a peek at how others teachers teach writing? This post details exactly how one teacher teaches writing in 5th grade using a writing workshop model.

Closer Look at Each 9 Weeks

Now, let’s take a closer look at what each of those 9 weeks would look like:

Two Weeks Explicitly Teaching Genre

I spend the first two weeks of my pacing explicitly teaching the aspects of the genre we are studying and writer’s craft as it relates to the genre we are studying. We do this by reading mentor texts and making charts about what we notice the author does well. These noticings then turn into mini-lessons. You can read more about how I come up with writing mini-lessons (and the three types of mini-lessons) by clicking here .

During these two weeks, the students are writing their first essays in this genre, but it is very guided. For example, we would read mentor texts to look for good beginnings, then we create a chart of good beginnings, then we choose a writing topic from our lists (read more about that here ), and practice writing good beginnings. I may have the students write 2-3 beginnings, then chose their favorite. We also spend a lot of time sharing during this time so the students can apply what they are learning and hear lots of examples from their peers.

Three W eeks of Writing Based on Lists and Specific Lessons Based on Students’ Writing  

After we have learned and applied all the strategies for a genre to one piece of writing, we are ready to try out some more. In this three week period, the students choose more topics from their lists to write about.

As the students are writing, they are referring to charts and examples from our previous mini-lessons to help them apply what they have learned. I also do a lot of conferences during this time, but mostly lean-in conferences because I want the students writing and trying out the new strategies.

The mini-lessons during this time frame are very specific to the students’ writing. While I am completing my lean-conferences, I jot down notes of struggles and strengths. At this point in the instruction, I am writing notes about conventions and mechanics for future mini-lessons, but my main focus is on the writer’s craft and getting the students to write and try out the genre.

At this point, it is also clear which students need extensive re-teaching. About 2-3 times a week, I pull small groups for re-teaching. However, I typically only pull the students who are seriously struggling at this point in instruction.

Three Weeks of Writing to On-Demand Prompts

At this point in our pacing, I have taught a lot of writing craft skills, and the students have several essays, applying what they have learned (usually 3-5 essays by this point). Now, it is time to get into perfecting their conventions and practicing on demand prompts .

The lessons during this three week period are very mini and focus mostly on conventions and mechanics. These lessons come from what I see as a need during my lean-in conferences and what I know will help move my students beyond their current writing (varying sentence lengths, using complex sentences, using introductory phrases, etc).

Also during this time, we typically have a longer share time, so the students can hear each other’s writing, give and get feedback, and learn even more writing strategies to use in their own writing.

As I mentioned above, this time is also spent primarily writing to on-demand prompts. These can be a simple prompt, a prompt that also uses a text stimulus (or paired text stimulus), or a prompt in response to a mentor text. This three week period is important because the students learn to write about topics that are not their choosing and they learn to stay on topic and follow the expectations of a prompt (which I explicitly teach them). However, I don’t recommend writing to prompts all the time because it doesn’t promote a love of writing with most students.

Remember how I said I did mostly lean-in conferences in the above section? Well, at this point, I have enough data to group my students into small groups for re-teaching or extension lessons. During independent writing time, I regularly pull small groups (about 1-2 a day) for reteaching. I also mix in independent conferences as well, as needed.

One Week of Publishing

For our final week in a genre, my students choose their favorite piece, meet with me for an independent conference and a final revise and edit, and then type it. We only publish (by typing) one story in each genre. However, we revise and edit every piece that we write. Ultimately, the students decide which of their essays are worth publishing. This essay is also taken as a final grade.

…………..

By the end of the 9-week period, my students have usually written around 6-8 essays in that genre. My expectation is an essay per week, and I do have them turn them in. I use these essays (along with my conferences) to guide my mini-lessons and reteaching groups.

Here is a recap of each 9-Week Period:

Want to take a peek at how others teachers teach writing? This post details exactly how one teacher teaches writing in 5th grade using a writing workshop model.

Note : I do modify this a bit for informational writing since I explicitly teach how-to writing, compare and contrast writing, and then explanatory/descriptive informational writing separately and then together.

What Does a Typical Writing Lesson Look Like?

The total time I have for writing is 60 minutes (I will share a modified schedule for 30 and 45 minutes, too). Here is how I typically segment my writing time. However, from reading the above section, you will notice that sometimes mini-lessons or share times are shorter or longer, depending on where we are in our pacing.

  • 15-20 minute mini lesson
  • 30-40 minutes for independent writing and conferences/ small groups
  • 5 minutes for closing, sharing, and reflecting

Modified Schedule for 45 Minutes

  • 15 minute mini-lesson
  • 25 minutes for independent writing and conferences/small groups

Modified Schedule for 30 Minutes

For 30 minutes, I recommend more of an A/B type schedule. Something like this:

A Schedule: – 15 mini-lesson and 15 minutes of independent writing where the students are directly applying the strategy to their writing

B Schedule: 20 minutes independent writing (continued from Monday) and conferences and 10 minutes for closing and sharing

Monday : A Schedule Tuesday : B Schedule Wednesday : A Schedule Thursday : B Schedule

Friday : Whichever schedule you need to meet the needs of your students. I have found that it is better to end the week with more independent writing to apply all they have learned. Likewise, I prefer to begin the week with the mini-lesson.

Materials I Use to Teach Writing

  • Mentor texts- For mentor texts, I use tradebooks (picture books and excerpts from longer works), released exemplars from state assessment, student stories (shared with permission), and teacher-written stories. You can read how I used one mentor text during my persuasive writing unit by clicking here .
  • Anchor charts – As a class, we create anchor charts for almost every writing mini-lesson I teach. Those anchor charts then provide an anchor for the students while they are writing. Want to see charts that I used to guide some my persuasive writing mini lessons? Click here to go straight to the post .
  • Student reference charts – My students use their writing notebooks to keep their writing lists and to keep reference charts for almost every lesson that I teach. We create an anchor chart together and then I give the students a printable copy of the chart that is already made or that I make after the fact. These charts are glued into their writing notebook and they refer to them regularly as they write.
  • Sentence stems -Most of my students are nowhere near proficient writers when they come to me. One way that I support my students is through sentence stems. Based on the needs of my students, I may provide sentence stems for beginnings, adding more details, using transitional phrases, or conclusions. The best part is that the stems give the students much needed confidence in their writing. As they become more confident, they will move away from using the sentence stems and create more original and unique sentences.

What About Early Finishers?

Since I use a workshop model and the students work through the writing process primarily at their own pace, I do need to have expectations and procedures in place for early finishers. Here are the three different procedures I have put in place over the years for my students who finish a writing piece early:

1. The easiest one is already embedded in my instruction: the students choose another writing topic from the list of topics we generate at the beginning of a new genre.

2. The other option is to request a peer conference with another student who is already finished. If you choose this, you need to have a clear procedure in my place for finding or requesting a student, what to do if no one is ready to hold a peer conference with you, and you need to explicitly teach the students how to hold peer conferences.

3. For some students, they need a bit more structure when it comes to choosing an “early finisher” activity.  This is where my writing choice boards come in. I have one choice board per genre that I teach. As we learn about a genre, I print the choice board and place it on a ring. Over time, the ring will have several choice boards. Early finishers may grab a ring of boards (I make about 5-6) and choose any prompt from any of the choice boards.

Writing choice boards are a great way to get students about writing. Click through to read more about these choice boards and other ways to get your students to love writing.

These writing choice boards are available in my TeachersPayTeachers store. The resource includes 7 writing choice boards in all! Click here to see them now.

Preparing for Writing Assessments

The question I always get is: How do you use a workshop model and still prepare your students for very “unworkshop” like writing assessments? The answer is that I embed it throughout in an authentic way.  Let’s take a look at an example:

My students are expected to write essays in response to two texts. So, when my students are learning how to write compare and contrast essays, we pull up information, articles, and read alouds for them to integrate their information from. This is authentically preparing them for the writing assessment in a way that still engages them in the writing.

Here is another example:

While we are writing persuasive essays, we may read two articles from two different perspectives on the topic we are writing. Then we will use those articles (and our own reasons and experiences) to craft a persuasive argument. But I never do it in a this is “test prep” way. I always try to authentically and naturally introduce the text as a way to support and strengthen our writing-this makes a HUGE difference with the students’ mindset.

Another way that I prepare my students is by taking the last nine weeks of my pacing (or 6 weeks if the writing test falls sooner) to review and practice all three genres of writing together. I think it is very important that the students are exposed to writing in all three genres together and not just in isolation. This helps solidify the differences among the three types. A resource I use to jump-start my review of all three main types of writing is my Writing Test Prep Resource.

Want to take a peek at how others teachers teach writing? This post details exactly how one teacher teaches writing in 5th grade using a writing workshop model.

This resource has sorts, prompts, practice printables, teaching posters, and more. It is a great way to review all three genres of writing and teach students how to analyze and respond to writing prompts. I use this resource at the beginning of my  last nine weeks of instruction. It lasts about a week to go through the resources and review all the genres.

Want to take a peek at how others teachers teach writing? This post details exactly how one teacher teaches writing in 5th grade using a writing workshop model.

After using that resource , we move into more rigorous text stimulus writing (as required by my state assessment). However, because I have embedded this type of writing in my instruction all year, this is nothing the students haven’t already seen or done.  The activities from the Writing Test Prep Resource then go into a test prep writing centers to continue reviewing before the day of the test.

I plan to write another blog post about preparing your students for writing assessments all year (and in authentic, engaging ways). Stay tuned for that!

Is how you teach writing similar or very different from how I teach? I would love to hear your thoughts on writing instruction. Let me know in the comments.

P.S. Do you want to see how I teach reading? Click here to read a detailed post that breaks down how I teach reading in 5th grade.

Share the Knowledge!

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

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This post shares practical and realistic tips to help teachers get students excited about writing and enjoying it. Must read for writing teachers!

Reader Interactions

37 comments.

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February 9, 2017 at 10:42 am

Thanks for this post! It is great to get a look behind the curtain into the way other teachers teach writing. Lots of schools are rolling out blanket approaches now and I really think it is best to leave it to the person that knows the class best – the teacher!

That said it helps no end to learn about other people’s practice.

Love your blog 🙂

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February 13, 2017 at 8:52 pm

Thank you for your kind words! Yes, it is great to have choice and to see how other teachers teach. I am always saddened when I hear that so many teachers don’t have the choice to do what they know is best for their students.

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February 16, 2017 at 5:05 pm

Thanks for sharing! It’s great to see what strategies and procedures other teachers are using in order to enhance what I’m doing with my students.

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February 18, 2017 at 3:58 pm

Hey I love this idea, what’s the best way or resource you have to get started!

February 19, 2017 at 12:36 pm

Hi Michelle, I am working on a resource for launching writers workshop, but it won’t be ready until next school year. Until then, I recommend Fountas and Pinnell Guiding Readers and Writers, which is where my philosophy and instruction is grounded.

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August 2, 2023 at 11:11 pm

Hi! Is a resource available?

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March 25, 2017 at 10:50 pm

I feel as if you are an answer to prayers, as a first year teacher of 5th grade, my writing instruction has not been successful as far as I can tell. I am nervous to the writing assessment, but I now have hope that I can make some changes and improve my teaching. Thank you for sharing your craft.

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March 30, 2017 at 10:42 pm

I definitely agree with your writing pacing. I like that you spend nine weeks on one genre. That makes total sense to me! My district requires us to teach all three genres, narrative, opinion, and informational, all in one trimester. There is just not enough time to really focus on one genre. I also agree that it is so important to use students’ own writing to guide instruction through mini-lessons. I’ve found this to be very valuable in my classroom.

April 1, 2017 at 11:09 am

So glad you found this helpful, Meghan!

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July 10, 2017 at 3:52 pm

Just a quick question- I loooove this format for teaching writing but just have a couple questions. How do you start the year? Do you just jump right in with narrative the first week, or do you teach any of the 6 traits? Or anything similar? Just curious how you map out the first few weeks with writing. Thanks!

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July 22, 2017 at 11:34 pm

This is wonderful! Thank you for sharing your craft. Do you implement 6 + 1 writing traits at all? Or do you just do it without calling them that?

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August 20, 2017 at 7:52 pm

I have been teaching Lower Elementary for 17 years and am in my first year as a 5th grade teacher. The team I have joined has not been teaching writing and my background is writer’s workshop. This is a big help in figuring out how to implement Writer’s Workshop into my day since I’m going it alone.

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August 21, 2017 at 12:24 pm

I just want to take a moment to say THANK YOU for this. I have been struggling with writing instruction (last year was not good) and I have been searching for a post like this to help breakdown the workshop model. Thank you again for posting it! You are amazing.

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July 22, 2018 at 7:53 pm

My sentiments exactly!!!!

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August 25, 2017 at 12:31 pm

Hi!! First year 5th grade teacher but 13th year teacher. I can’ wait to really dive into this and read what great ideas you have!! My district uses a series and it lacks in some areas. I had a question about where you find inspiration for your mentor texts? Thanks

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September 15, 2017 at 2:13 pm

Thank you so much for sharing a modified schedule for 30 minutes!!!

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September 27, 2017 at 5:12 pm

Thank you for this post. I will take away much to break it in to smaller pieces for better organized conferences. I am curious though, what is a reasonable essay length to expect from a student? I would like to set a standard for a minimum on paper writing/typing page or word count for beginning year and end of year expectations. Maybe you have some reasonable amount you have expected for their age/grade level in each session and assessment? Some are gifted and can explain in detail their story, but putting into written form tends to stop up the creativity in my experience for a few.

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October 19, 2017 at 2:14 pm

Hi Jennifer,

Where do you get ideas for the on demand prompts that you use the last 3 weeks of the units? Thanks!

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November 14, 2017 at 10:15 pm

Thank you for this post! I just found your website, and have really enjoyed reading how you teach all your classes! I am new to 5th grade this year, and struggling to fit everything in. I work at a bilingual school, and I get one hour of English Literacy every day. In that time I am suppose to cover reading, writing, grammar, and spelling. Do you have any suggestions on how to divide the time?

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September 15, 2021 at 7:59 pm

I have that same questions. We are on a 9 period – 6 day rotation schedule with 2 groups we see ( AM and PM). Some days I see the kiddos for 80 mins and other days it could 120. Within that time frame some of those 80 min days its split. For example I have them for period 6 for 40 mins but don’t get them back until period 8 for another 40 mins. Any ideas on how to fit grammar, reading workshop, and writing workshop in would be HUGE! Thank you for your help.

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May 22, 2018 at 12:21 pm

Sister thanks for this sincere post you helped show me how to take responsibility for my teaching. I teach writing under some difficult situations 40 mins weekly. It started out as a special storytime/ shared reading/ read Aloud but and now creative writing. I have struggled for 4yrs and recently the Lord helped me to approach writing using Persuasive, narrative and expository. What about poetry? It gets confusing but reading your post helped out with some perspectives. God bless you dear.

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July 16, 2018 at 8:32 pm

Thank you so much for these tips and guides. I have been struggling to teach writing for five years now, especially with the way they expect students to cite text, use it appropriately and almost perfectly during their testing. Unfortunately at my school and most schools in my county writing is not taught until students get to fourth grade, where it is tested. In addition, the state does not release any mentor texts, only from the sampling year, which district personnel tell you to ignore as they are not good examples. I wanted to know where do you gather your mentor texts from? I love the idea of students learning from the other writers, but I don’t know where to find these resources. I would greatly appreciate any of your assistance. Thank you!

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November 11, 2018 at 7:53 pm

How would you differentiate for Learning Support Students in a 3rd Grade that can’t write a sentence independently?

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January 6, 2019 at 1:06 pm

I found this so helpful! Although I’ve taught for a number of years this is my first year teaching grade 5 writing. It was reassuring seeing your outline of the different genres of writing. We’ve done narrative and fictional writing so far. This gives me direction for the new year – persuasive writing. The links for anchor charts and mini lessons are so helpful – thank-you so much! I’m feeling inspired and excited to start up again after the break!

January 6, 2019 at 9:52 pm

Hi Jen, I am so glad you found this helpful! Thank you for your kind message!

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May 11, 2019 at 10:21 am

Thank you! This is very helpful! I teach 5th grade writing (and only writing-our students rotate and another teacher teaches reading) and started halfway through the school year. We just got a new writing “program” called SRSD for informational writing, and I really like it, but it’s more of a method of writing than a paced program, so this is really helpful for determining how much time to spend on each part. I have very limited resources currently for mentor texts, but use a lot of articles from Newsela- they have lots of articles on various topics and you can change the lexile level, which is really helpful! Since I don’t teach reading but all of our informational writing is based on texts, this has been a great resource!

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August 30, 2019 at 12:49 pm

Hi! I am absolutely in love with your resources. They have helped me tremendously! I was curious if you had resources similar to the reading/grammar resources for writing?

September 8, 2019 at 4:41 pm

Hi Brooke, I don’t for writing. For 5th grade language, I do have some resources which you can see here:

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Jennifer-Findley/Category/ELAR-Language-Resources-88773

Thanks for asking!

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March 3, 2020 at 12:20 pm

HI there. I have been using a lot of your resources for ELA during this school year and decided to research how you teach writing. I have never been a very strong writing teacher and realize that I am doing my students a disservice in this area.

I need some ideas on how to do an effective writing review in 5 weeks time to prepare the students for the state assessment, which is at the end of April. Mind you, I have not been teaching writing as effectively as you have during the year. I currently have a 90 minute ELA block which includes reading, writing, grammar, etc. I think I may only be able to do 30, maybe 45 minutes per day.

What do you recommend? Feel free to email me your response if you would like.

Thanks so much!

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September 30, 2020 at 6:11 am

This article is EVERYTHING right know! I am currently teaching 4th Grade ELAR as a first year teacher, I am struggling to teach writing well! My student are all very low, and struggling to provide good writing- do you have any tips? Thanks for all writing this?

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March 10, 2021 at 10:49 am

I love every one of your resources and they have been a huge hit in my classroom. We have totally adopted your math centers and resources while I was departmentalized so I am eager to add in ELA when we go back to self-contained with our fifth graders. I would love to hear about how you organize the ELA instruction for students – how many notebooks, folders, what they are called, what gets turned in daily, weekly, how many and which ELA grades are weekly and which ones are final project grades. Love how real you are. Any attempt to add structure to this crazy ride of education is so greatly appreciated

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April 25, 2021 at 2:54 am

Hi Jennifer, I was happy to come across your Anchor Charts for persuasive essay on your website when searching on how to teach my son to write a persuasive essay. I would love to have your anchor charts for narrative and informative writings. Do you have a digital package I can purchase where you have the anchor charts information all together to help out homeschooling moms by any chance? Thank you.

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June 5, 2021 at 7:52 am

Love your resources and posts. Thank you! How do you balance reading and writing lessons? Through a week or another time period, what’s your schedule for when you teach writing and when you teach reading? Hoe do you successfully plan for both?

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August 4, 2021 at 8:36 am

Excellent information!- I am a tutor and was trying to gauge my pace with what typically happens in schools- I do not think you are typical- you are a 99%ile teacher I can tell- but still extremely helpful. Thank you so much!!!

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November 7, 2023 at 9:09 am

Not sure how much you read this post these days, but I wanted to put a question out there anyway. I am a fifth-grade teacher at a hybrid school. We plan lessons for 5 days but teach in our classrooms on M-W-F only. Parents teach at home T-TH. This has its own unique challenges. But teaching writing is the bane of my existence. We are forced to use a program called IEW. I hate it! Kids who have been on the program are some of our worst writers. But I have to use it. Have you ever heard of it? What we have is really not a curriculum either. So it leaves me pulling my hair out most days. Any advice on teaching writing when you are getting to teach 5 days?

November 7, 2023 at 10:33 am

I haven’t heard of that program, but that does sound so difficult! How are your students assessed in writing? Are they writing just to prompts or in response to texts? Feel free to send me an email to jennifer @ jenniferfindley.com (no spaces)!

November 9, 2023 at 7:16 am

Thank you so much!!

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how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Welcome friends! I’m Jennifer Findley: a teacher, mother, and avid reader. I believe that with the right resources, mindset, and strategies, all students can achieve at high levels and learn to love learning. My goal is to provide resources and strategies to inspire you and help make this belief a reality for your students. Learn more about me.

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Scaffolding opinion writing essays using sentence starters, paragraph frames, and templates in upper elementary

Scaffolding an Opinion Writing Essay With Frames and Templates

Scaffolding opinion writing essays using sentence starters, paragraph frames, and templates in upper elementary

Teaching opinion writing to your 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade students soon?  Use the sentence starters and paragraph frames below in your lessons to help students structure their writing, use transitional words, stay on topic, and support their opinions.

Templates like the examples below are a great way to introduce opinion writing.  The hope is that eventually, students will go on to write without a provided outline and add a little of their own personality to their writing, but starting off with a clear structure helps students learn to become better writers.

Start Small - With Opinion Writing Sentence Starters or Frames

3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students love giving their opinions, so help them structure their opinions with sentence starters and frames. This is a great way to introduce opinion writing and doesn't frustrate students.

Providing structure is especially beneficial for your ELL and low language students, but ALL students can improve their writing with this scaffolding.

Some example sentence starters are below.  Depending on the topic being discussed and the opinion being shared, not all sentence frames will work in all situations.  Adapt them for your particular scenario!

Example Sentence Starters

  • In my opinion, _____ is better than _____ because _____.
  • The best thing about _____ is _____.
  • I am strongly against _____ because _____.
  • Although some people believe _____, I believe _____.
  • Ever since _____, I have believed _____.

Using a Paragraph Template or Frame

Example paragraph frames.

In my opinion, __________ is better than __________ because __________.  For example, _______________.  Furthermore, _______________.  Clearly, _______________ is the worse option.

I prefer __________ because __________.  For instance, _______________.  Also, _______________.  Finally, _______________.

Opinion Writing Essay Template / Structure / Outline

Going from writing paragraphs to writing an entire essay can be overwhelming for upper elementary students - and middle school students as well!

Modeling how to write an opinion essay is an essential first step.  (My Scaffolded Opinion Writing Resource includes a teacher model to make this easy for you.)

After modeling an opinion essay, provide students with an opinion writing template/outline to help them structure their own writing.  This will help students stay on topic, use transitional words, and provide support for their opinions.  And, most importantly, it will keep students from feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.

Scaffolded Opinion Writing Essay Template for 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students

If you know your students would benefit from this type of scaffolding but don’t have the time to create it yourself, check out my Scaffolded Opinion Writing Resource.

It walks students through the writing process with support each step of the way. This resource also provides a model essay so that you can model expectations for your students. Plus, it can be used over and over again with different topics.

If you found these opinion writing tips to be useful, then you will probably like these tips for teaching students how to write a compare and contrast essay. 

Want a Compare and Contrast Freebie?

Free reading comprehension practice for third, fourth, and fifth graders - paired passages about Thomas Edison and Benjamin Franklin

Download these reading passages with a compare and contrast activity for free and use it to today!

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The Not So WImpy Teacher creates resources for busy teachers in grades 2-5 who are looking to deliver engaging and meaningful lessons without overwhelm and chaos.

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Opinion Writing Unit FIFTH GRADE

Grade Level: 5th Grade

My fifth grade opinion writing unit includes 8 weeks of done-for-you writing lessons about how to write a strong opinion essay . This unit contains detailed lesson plans, mentor texts, anchor charts, student writing tasks, and rubrics –everything you need to be a capable, confident writing teacher with students who love to write.

Also available in the following bundles

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

More about this resource

If teaching writing has ever made you cry, weep, tear out your hair, question your existence, or binge-watch reality television—because it’s just that frustrating and overwhelming—this writing unit is perfect for you. 

If your students dread writing time more than meatloaf in the school cafeteria…this writing bundle is perfect for them, too. 

Teaching writing can be tough. Teachers tell me that their district-provided writing curriculum is:

  • too complicated

Or worse, they don’t have any curriculum at all. Yikes! 

But my fifth grade opinion writing unit makes teaching writing easy . It takes all the guesswork out of teaching writing and gives you the tools you need to teach engaging and effective writing lessons without breaking a sweat.

This resource is part of a money-saving writing writing bundle! Click HERE to see the bundle!

The ready-to-use lessons and activities in this opinion writing unit will teach your students h ow to use supporting facts, reasons, and examples, consider opposing viewpoints, write topic and concluding sentences, and structure paragraphs . And all you have to do is print and teach . The lesson plans are that simple. Seriously.

Student-friendly mentor texts make it easy

And best of all, my opinion writing unit  makes writing fun  for  ALL  your students – from  reluctant writers  to  excited writers . The  Student Success Path  helps you identify where your students are on their writing journey and plan just-right lessons and  interventions .  Short, focused lessons  keep students engaged. Simple, direct writing tasks help kids develop confidence.  Conference materials,  including outlines and topic cards, you can use to guide small group discussion make it easy for you to  differentiate lessons.

Choice empowers students  to write about things they care about and makes them more invested in their writing. And that’s a big deal because  students who enjoy writing and get lots of practice perform better on standardized testing.

Plus, these materials are  easy-to-use . Everything is organized in folders to help you find just what you need. A  Quick Start Guide  makes it simple to get started and provides tips on how to prep materials for long-term use.

The 2-week  Starting Writing Workshop mini-unit  will help you start your writing instruction on the right foot. Detailed teacher directions show you exactly how to use all the resources and activities.

What’s Included:

  • Detailed teacher directions and suggestions for simple implementation
  • Unit-at-a-glance calendar for each unit
  • 7 exclusive videos walking you through how to get the most out of these writing units
  • 40 days of lesson plans that include guiding questions, materials, mini lessons, student work tasks, student share tasks, intervention, and several extension activities
  • 14 original mentor text passages
  • 24 opinion writing task cards (identifying whether a topic is an opinion)
  • 24 opinion writing prompts task cards
  • 11 teacher anchor charts (blank and filled in versions)
  • Student anchor charts and printable for writing notebooks
  • Conference and goal tracking forms
  • Writing grades tracking forms
  • List of 10 additional mentor text books (Remember, using them is optional, because I’ve included all the mentor texts you need) 
  • 6 different writing publishing papers
  • Student writing notebook cover and dividers
  • Teacher notebook covers and binder spines
  • Multiple ideas for author share celebration
  • DIGITAL writing notebooks on Google Slides
  • Conferencing Materials – Conference outlines, a sample conference, and topic cards you can use to guide your small-group conferences
  • Student Success Path – Identify where your students are on their writing journey
  • Starting Writing Workshop Bonus – Two weeks of writing lesson plans to help build stamina and set your students up for writing success

Skills Covered:

Students learn h ow to craft a strong opinion essay using supporting facts, reasons, and examples, topic and concluding sentences, and structured paragraphs. Lessons include:

  • Setting goals
  • What is an opinion essay?
  • Generating essay ideas
  • Writing strong opinion statements
  • Writing a lead
  • Supporting your opinion with reasons
  • Considering your audience
  • Consider opposing opinions
  • Supporting your opinion with examples
  • Topic and concluding sentences
  • Word choice
  • Transitions
  • Writing a conclusion
  • Generating deeper topics (research based)

How to Use it in the Classroom: 

A typical day of writing:.

I recommend you set aside 30-45 minutes for writing each day (or more if you have it). Check out the sample schedules below. Each day follows the same plan:

  • Mini-Lesson (8-10 minutes):  The day kicks off with a mini-lesson to teach a particular skill. The mini-lesson uses mentor text (remember, it’s included in the unit) and anchor charts. For the teacher version of the anchor charts, you can project and fill them out with the class, or print and display them in your classroom. The student versions are smaller so they can fill them out and keep them in their writing notebooks for reference.
  • Work Time (18-20 minutes) : Students will apply the skill they just learned into their writing each day. The included writing tasks make it crystal-clear what to do during independent writing time–for you and your students. By the end of the unit, they will have completed two full masterpieces and many other independent writings.
  • Share Time (2 minutes) : Students are encouraged to share a piece of their writing with a partner or with the entire class. This makes writing more meaningful to kids and holds them accountable.

Organization Made Easy:

  • The opinion writing unit is organized into multiple folders and files so it’s easy for you to find what you need.
  • A 40-day daily schedule so you know exactly what to teach each day.
  • Detailed daily lesson plans make teaching writing easy.

Differentiation:

There are many ways to differentiate writing assignments:

  • These daily writing prompts are intentionally short and sweet so that all students, even those below grade level, can feel successful. Most tasks can be completed in 1-2 sentences.
  • More advanced writers can write longer responses, or work on a second masterpiece if they finish early.
  • Students can complete fewer task cards or work with a partner; you can also provide support to students as they work on task cards.
  • The process for teaching writing includes group conferencing time. These groups should be based on ability so that you can individualize your instruction to meet the specific needs of the group.

❤️❤️  WHY YOU’LL LOVE THIS WRITING UNIT:  ❤️❤️

  • You’ll save hours of prepping and planning time. The daily lesson plans are easy to implement. All you have to do is print and teach.
  • Mentor texts are included. You do not need to hunt down or purchase any additional books! (Unless you want to. Far be it from me to stand between a teacher and new books.)
  • Digital anchor charts project onto your white board-so you don’t have to be Picasso or Renoir to anchor your kids in the lesson.
  • Pre-printed student anchor charts make it easy for students to follow along without having to write every word and draw complicated diagrams.
  • Digital student notebooks are perfect for 1:1 classrooms and a great way to save paper.
  • These lessons work for all students, even students below grade level.
  • Task cards incorporate movement, reinforce concepts, and make learning fun. Daily share time encourages students to take pride in their writing.
  • Direct writing instruction provides a solid foundation of writing skills that leads to increased test scores

*****************************

More Fifth Grade Writing Units:

Personal Narrative for Fifth Grade

Informational Writing for Fifth Grade

Fiction Narrative for Fifth Grade

Writing Units for Other Grade Levels:

Second Grade Writing Bundle

Third Grade Writing Bundle

Fourth Grade Writing Bundle

Frequently Asked

Yes. I also have personal narrative , informational essay , and fiction narrative writing units available.

This opinion writing unit is available for grade 5. I also have opinion writing units available for grades two , three , and four .

I prefer composition notebooks because they are sturdy and easy to use and store. But other teachers have used spiral bound notebooks or three-ring binders.

Yes. These writing lessons are based on Common Core standards.

The lessons for consecutive grade levels are very similar because the standards are similar. The biggest difference is that the reading level on the mentor text passages is modified to meet the specific grade level. Other differences include new examples in the lesson plans and anchor charts and new task cards. It is generally fine to use units that are one level above or below grade level. You might want to select the lower grade level to ensure that the mentor texts are easier for students to read.

Each unit includes eight weeks of materials. I recommend spending 30-45 on writing each day. The lesson takes 8-10 minutes and the rest of the time would be used for independent writing.

Students complete two masterpieces in each unit. But they may work on additional pieces if they finish daily assignments early.

My writing units are a standalone curriculum. They are not based on or aligned with any other curriculum. However, they are based on the writing standards. My curriculum is organized into units of study and formatted in the workshop model and hundreds of teachers have successfully used my writing units with their district provided curriculum.

My writing units are a standalone curriculum. They are not based on or aligned with any other curriculum. With that being said, I have hundreds of teachers who have chosen to use my units as a supplement to their Lucy curriculum because it is more manageable and engaging for students.

You May Also Enjoy These Resources

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Teacher's Notepad

55 Opinion Writing Prompts For 5th Graders

I believe that libraries should be open twenty-four hours a day. Keeping libraries open would give people who work odd hours the opportunity to use the services offered. It also gives unhoused individuals somewhere to go when the weather is bad at night. In addition…

Learning to form an opinion and supporting it is an important part of your education.

It makes you a stronger writer  and  it teaches you how to properly research things that are important to you.

Check out our list of prompts below, and get ready to write!

Using This Guide

There is no right or wrong way to use this guide. As long as you’re practicing the skills you’ve learned in school, you’re already on the right track. But if you need some ideas to help you get started, try one of these ideas:

  • Scroll through the list and pick the first prompt that jumps out at you.
  • Add today’s month and date, and use that number.
  • Ask your teacher which topic they think you would be most interested in.

Pick a Prompt and Go!

  • Which subject is the most important for students to learn? Why?
  • Is it better to take risks or to be careful?
  • Do you think sports should be segregated by gender? Why or why not?
  • Is it important for kids to know about current events?
  • Do you think school lunches should be healthier?
  • Should students be allowed at parent-teacher conferences?
  • Do you think students should be required to learn cursive? Why or why not?
  • Should students be allowed to choose their teacher?
  • Why do you think your favorite professional sports is team the best?
  • Should Black history be taught more than just one month out of the year?
  • Do you think 5th graders need cell phones?
  • Would you rather wear a uniform to school, or casual clothes? Why?
  • Should students have several short breaks throughout the day, or one long break?
  • Are cell phones the biggest distraction in class? If not, what is?
  • Do you think homework should be mandatory?
  • Write a persuasive essay to your principal asking for a later start time.
  • Would it be better to start and end school one hour earlier, or one hour later?
  • Should students be required to read classic literature?
  • Which type of pet is the best?
  • Should students be allowed to pick where they sit in class?
  • Should schools grade on a pass/fail basis or keep the A-F scale?
  • Would you rather be the very best at one thing, or “just okay” at a bunch of things?
  • You just caught your best friend cheating on a test. Do you tell the teacher? Why or why not?
  • Should competitive gaming be considered a sport?
  • Should students be paid for going to school? If so, what should they be paid for, and how much?
  • Should schools teach more LGBT+ history?
  • Do schools do enough to prevent bullying?
  • What is the best video game ever made? Why?
  • Should kids get to choose their own bedtime?
  • In your opinion, is virtual school more or less beneficial than in-person learning?
  • Is it important to try new things?
  • Should students be required to take PE?
  • Are mental health days important for students?
  • Does your city do enough to help the environment?
  • Do you prefer sweet or salty treats?
  • Would you rather be too hot or too cold?
  • Do you think aliens are real?
  • Should students be required to take an art or music class? Why?
  • What is the best board game ever made? Why?
  • Is it important for everyone to learn at least one foreign language?
  • Is cold pizza a tasty breakfast?
  • Who is the better hero: Harry Potter or Percy Jackson?
  • Are 5th graders responsible enough to babysit?
  • What is the best book ever, and why?
  • Should etiquette be taught in schools?
  • Is your city a good place to live?
  • Should students be allowed to be more involved in school politics?
  • Do grades really matter? Why or why not?
  • What do you think is the hardest job in the world?
  • Should kids be allowed more screen time?
  • Are schools inclusive and accessible enough? What more could they do?
  • Who is the best Marvel hero? Why?
  • Should the voting age be lowered? If so, to what age?
  • Is social media harmful to preteens and teens?
  • Which season is the best? Why?

Looking For More?

If you’re looking for more prompts, activities, and homework resources, we’ve got you covered.

And if you’re looking for something specific but can’t find it, let us know! We’d love to hear from you.

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

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how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

5th grade writing doesn’t have to be a struggle! This blog post will provide all of my best tips and ideas for teaching your fifth graders to succeed as writers.

I’ve had classes where writing was a struggle allll yearrrr longggg. I’ve also had classes where I’d swear my students were one step away from writing professionally.

Your groups will never be the same and that’s ok. Just roll with it!

Take heart in the fact that when students leave your class at the end of the year, they will be MUCH better writers than when they entered in the fall.

No matter how good (or bad) my students are at writing when 5th grade begins, we always start at the very beginning and work on writing strong sentences.

This post will give you a step-by-step breakdown of how I help my students move from dull to dazzling sentences: How to Help Your Students Write Better Sentences

Once they’ve got the hang of writing an excellent sentence, then we move on. Your class may move slowly or quickly but be sure to watch their writing closely for clues that you may need to slow down.

You need to know where you’re going to know how you should plan the journey. So, the next section lays out my end-of-the-year goals for my 5th grade writers. Everything I do all year leads to the completion of these goals.

End of the year goals for 5th grade writers

My end-of-the-year goals for my 5th grade writers….

By the time my students walk out of my classroom for the last time…

1. I want them to be able to efficiently organize their ideas and plan/write a five paragraph essay.

2. I want my students to be able to construct narrative, informative, and opinion essays.

3. I want my students to be able to choose appropriate sources and write a simple research report. 

4. I want my students to be able to closely read two paired passages and write an essay in response to a prompt. 

If you’re looking for a hyperlinked pdf version of my pacing and sequence for 5th grade writing, click the link below to have it sent to your email address. As a bonus, you’ll become a member of my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers. 🙂

5th grade writing samples

Obtain a Writing Sample!  

Give students a simple prompt and ask for a response in a paragraph or two. Emphasize to students that you are not grading writing samples for grammar, spelling, or structure. You are interested in the quality of their ideas. 

This writing sample will be valuable as the year goes on. Your students will improve so much that their first samples will (hopefully) be pathetic compared to their new, improved writing pieces.

I usually whip out their first samples after we’ve written a few five paragraph essays. Students feel inspired to keep growing their writing skills when they see how far they’ve come in just a few months. 

Example Writing Sample Prompts: 

  • Describe a talent or characteristic that makes you unique and different.
  • Tell about a time when you set a goal for yourself and reached that goal.
  • Pretend you live in a society where children are required to choose their future career paths in the 5th grade. What path would you choose? Explain.

5th grade writing reference notebooks

Create Writing Reference Notebooks with students! 

I’ll admit it – I’m a little obsessed with writing reference notebooks. We use composition notebooks to create these amazing sources of knowledge and we use them all year long. 

So, where do we start with creating writing reference notebooks?

The beginning section of students’ notebooks hold reference materials. I want students to have plenty of resources at their fingertips to improve their sentence writing, including alternatives for overused words and my specialty, sparkle words. Sparkle words are words that are just a little bit special and make my students’ writing shine, like scandalous, embrace, and intriguing.

Other ways that my students use their writing reference notebooks:

  • Writing journal entries
  • Creating a personal thesaurus
  • Writing topics & ideas list
  • Taking notes on writing skills lessons
  • Writing first drafts of longer assignments

This resource will give you an idea of the printable pages that I use for students’ notebooks: Writing Interactive Notebook – Reference Pages

Do I take grades on students’ writing reference notebooks? Not really. I want these notebooks to be a safe space for students to jot ideas and take risks with their first drafts. I do sometimes take a participation grade on their notebooks. This encourages students to keep their notebooks organized and up to date.

5th grade sentence writing

Start with sentences!  

When teaching 5th grade, you can expect students to start the year writing complete sentences, right?! No, sorry. Whether it’s the long break or maybe your students’ 4th grade teachers never required a lick of writing, your 5th graders will often begin the year with less-than-stellar sentences. 

So, I just plan to start with sentences first every year. We work on building and expanding sentences for about two weeks. Yes, two weeks probably seems like a really long time, but spectacular sentences are the foundation for creating great writers.

To improve my students’ sentences, I take the basic, simple sentences that students write and we work on adding more specific details and interest. First, I give students a list of five nouns and ask them to write one sentence using each noun.

I usually get sentences similar to these:

  • Pie is my favorite dessert.
  • My dad’s car is red.
  • I wear my jacket when it is cold.
  • This school is a nice place to learn.
  • The tree is tall.

This is where I want students to get in their sentence-writing before moving on:

  • Pecan, cherry, apple, or pumpkin… any type of pie is delicious!
  • My dad spends his Saturdays washing and shining up his candy apple red Jeep.
  • A puffy, hooded jacket is the first thing I reach for on chilly mornings.
  • My school, North Hills Elementary, has the best teachers and students.
  • The tall Redwood tree in my front yard is a welcome sight to visitors and makes my house look spectacular.

Students should write every single day!

My students write every single day!  

I vividly remember being in 5th grade myself and writing long papers on the most boring topics ever, like “The Science of Light” and “The History of Mapmaking.” Snooze fest! I vowed to never do that to my students. Instead, I took a different route.

Students absolutely need to learn to write full reports and five paragraph essays, but they don’t need to do this every week. They do, however, need to continually practice writing. I find that if I make writing assignments engaging, my students don’t complain and actually seem to enjoy writing.

I assign Weekly Writing Choice Boards . This writing has made all the difference in my classroom! Students are now excited about writing class. They see writing as a treat and a fun way to express their thoughts and opinions.

I hand out a new choice board every week and students must complete three assignments from the board. I don’t grade these on perfect grammar, spelling, or punctuation, instead I look for ideas and effort. Even imperfect writing practice will improve your students’ writing skills tremendously!

Enter your first name and email address below for a free set of 6 Weekly Writing Choice Boards! The pdf file will be sent directly to your inbox. As a bonus, you’ll become a member of my weekly VIP email club just for upper elementary teachers. 🙂

If you teach social studies in addition to writing, this blog post will give you a bunch of engaging social studies journal entries that will help you tie social studies into your writing instruction.

Teach your 5th grade students to proofread and edit!

Train students in proofreading and editing!  

Student need to practice proofreading and editing their writing (and the writing of other students) near the beginning of the school year.

Repeatedly practicing the steps of the proofreading/editing process will help your students to internalize this procedure. You’ll find that they will start to catch their mistakes earlier and more independently.

I find it valuable to establish and consistently use a common “proofreading language” in my classroom. It takes a little time up front to teach students the markings and their meanings but having a common system for proofreading will save loads of time throughout the school year.

This resource will give you an idea of the proofreading marks and practice that I use in my classroom: Proofreading and Editing Activity Pack

Asking your students to proofread and edit their own writing is a must but it’s also a good thing to have students pair up and look over a partner’s writing also. Your students will receive valuable feedback on their writing, editing ideas, and they’ll get to see some writing styles that are a little different from their own.

Teach 5 paragraph essays one piece at a time!

Teach five paragraph essays one piece at a time! 

Simple Paragraphs

Once my students are stellar sentence writers, we move to simple paragraphs. The simple paragraphs that I use with students consist of a topic sentence, three detail sentences, and a closing sentence.

Starting with simple paragraphs is much less threatening than jumping straight into five paragraph essays, so I find that spending some time helping students write excellent simple paragraphs is the perfect bridge into essays.

Additionally, we color-code our simple paragraphs. This allows students to think critically about what sentence types they have written and provides a visual for students (and for me) to see that all required parts of the paragraph are included.

The color-code I use with students:

  • Topic sentence – green
  • 3 detail sentences – yellow
  • Closing sentence – red

Planning and Writing Body Paragraphs

Once students are able to write great simple paragraphs, we dive into the planning and writing of body paragraphs.

This isn’t too much of a jump for students because the body paragraphs are structured similarly to the simple paragraphs that we have practiced over and over. The only difference is that they are using one prompt to write three body paragraphs.

Many teachers think they have to start with the first paragraph of the essay, the introduction paragraph. This isn’t what I recommend. Starting by teaching students to write the three body paragraphs helps to steer the rest of the essay.

Adding an Introduction Paragraph

Now that students are able to write their three body paragraphs, it’s time to add the introduction paragraph.

The introduction paragraph contains a hook, commentary, and a thesis sentence.

The hook is a sentence (or two) that “hooks” readers and builds interest in the upcoming essay. I teach my students several types of hooks, including quotes, questions, bold statements, or sharing a memory.

After the hook, I ask students to write a sentence or two of commentary on the hook or on the prompt in general. This helps to “bulk up” their introduction paragraph a bit and make it more interesting.

The final part of the introduction paragraph is the thesis sentence. Because students already learned to write the body paragraphs, crafting a thesis sentence is so much easier.

The formula for writing a thesis sentence: Restate the prompt briefly + detail 1 + detail 2 + detail 3.

Additionally, I teach transition teams at this point. Students need to use a transition word or phrase at the beginning of each body paragraph, so that’s where transition teams come in. Transition teams are sets of three transition words or phrases that work well together.

Examples of transition teams:

  • First, Second, Finally
  • To begin, To continue, To end
  • One reason, Another reason, A final reason

Adding a Conclusion Paragraph

When conclusion paragraph day finally arrives, my students are so excited because they can finally write an entire five paragraph essay.

In my opinion, conclusion paragraphs are super easy to teach because they only have two parts. Here’s the conclusion paragraph formula: Write the thesis sentence in a different way + add a closing thought.

I allow students to be creative with their closing thoughts. I tell them that this is the final thought that your readers will take with them, so it needs to relate well to your entire essay while being engaging and thought-provoking for readers. Some examples of closing thoughts are calls to action, quotes, personal opinions, and brief personal experiences.

Teach, Discuss, & Practice with Rubrics

I inform my students that from this point on in their school journey, they will be graded with rubrics fairly often, so this is a good time to learn about rubrics and become familiar with them.

I create or find five paragraph essay samples that are good, bad, and in-between. We read and examine the samples as a class and circle the applicable parts of the rubric. If students are able to grade a few assignments using a rubric, it’s not this unknown, scary thing anymore. 

Are you grading every single word and making a million corrections on students’ essays? I give you permission to stop doing that! 🙂

You are going to burn yourself out and get to where you hate grading and teaching writing. To be honest, your students will not become better writers when their papers are marked all over with suggestions in the margins.

Help! I need more support…

Please visit the following blog post for in-depth explanations and examples of my five paragraph essay teaching and grading process: 

Tips for Teaching and Grading Five Paragraph Essays

This resource will provide you with a full, scaffolded unit that will help you to teach the five paragraph essay process to students! Five Paragraph Essay Instructional Unit

Teaching students to write narrative, opinion, and informative essays

Narrative, Informative, and Opinion Essays

As much as we’d like to just have our students write simple, straightforward five paragraph essays all year, that’s just not feasible.

But I promise, once your students can crank out those five paragraph essays on simple topics, moving to other modes of writing is no sweat! 

In my classroom, we spend time learning to write opinion essays, narrative essays, and informative essays. 

I start with opinion writing because my students have a lot of opinions, haha! We channel those opinions into five paragraph essay format. 🙂

Teaching research reports to 5th grade students

Research Reports

The skills involved in writing a research report are valuable for 5th graders. They need to be able to judge the reliability of a source and cite their sources properly. 

Research reports also teach students to organize their ideas, take notes, make an outline, write a draft, and create a final report. 

I’d like to point you to the following blog post where I detailed my entire process for teaching research reports.

The Step-By-Step Guide to Teaching Research Reports

Teaching paired passages to 5th grade students

Paired Passages

5th graders are too young to compare two passages and write a response. Right?! 

No, this is not true at all. I think that reading paired passages and using them to craft a written response is a valuable skill for 5th graders. 

Steps to analyzing paired passages and writing an essay to answer a prompt:

First, dissect the prompt.

Second, closely read the paired texts.

Third, organize thoughts using the prompt.

The following blog post explains my paired passage writing steps in detail. Take a moment to check it out. You’ll be glad you did! 

How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

Sequence & Pacing for Teach 5th Grade Writing

My Sequence & Pacing for Teaching 5th Grade Writing

Don’t stress! This sequence and pacing guide is hyperlinked and ready to be sent to your email address. Go to the bottom of this blog post to request the guide.

1st Month of School

We start school in the middle of the month, so I only have two weeks to teach during the first month of school.

This is the rundown for the remainder of the month:

Month 1, Week 3

The first week of the school year is all about teaching and practicing procedures. Teach it right or teach it all year! 🙂

Classroom Procedures – I recommend you check out this blog post:  5 Tips for Establishing Procedures in the Upper Elementary Classroom

Welcome Activities –  Welcome to 5th Grade: First Week of School Activities

Blog Post – Back to School Writing Prompts for 5th Graders

Month 1, Week 4

During this week, I review and continue practicing procedures with students but we do go ahead and start working on writing.

I establish my expectations and procedures for my students’ Weekly Writing Choice Boards.

We set up writing notebooks together, including the table of contents, cover page, and an  About the Author  page. 

Obtain a writing sample

We start working on improving sentences.

2nd Month of School

Month 2, Week 1

We continue working on improving sentences.

Start proofreading/editing instruction and practice.

Month 2 , Week 2

Review the process for writing excellent sentences.

Finish proofreading/editing instruction and practice.

Month 2, Weeks 3-4

Writing simple paragraphs (include color-code)

3rd Month of School

Month 3, Weeks 1-2

Planning & writing body paragraphs (include color-code)

Month 3, Weeks 3-4

Teach introduction paragraphs

Writing introduction plus body paragraphs (include color code)

Transition teams

4th Month of School

Month 4, Weeks 1-2

Teach students how to write conclusion paragraphs.

Students will write their first full five paragraph essays this week.

Month 4, Weeks 3-4

Write 5 paragraph essays with a variety of basic prompts.

Have students proofread/edit other students’ essays.

Provide mini-lessons on grammar structure or other issues you are noticing in students’ writing.

5th Month of School

This is where our winter break falls, so I only have two weeks to teach this month.

This is a great time to review what we’ve been working on all year and assign some fun journal prompts.

Also, writing mini-lessons are good fillers for this time.

This Winter Writing Project is a student favorite right before winter break!

6th Month of School

Month 6, Week 1

When we come back from winter break, I like to teach the research report process. I spend a week teaching the process and giving students time to research while I’m there to help.

Month 6, Week 2

Student complete their research reports, including outlines, citing sources, and etc.

I ask my students to do super quick presentations on their research topics. It’s 1-2 minutes max. I don’t want them to read their reports aloud because that’s boring. Instead, I want them to quickly highlight what they learned about their topics and what was fascinating to them.

Month 6, Week 3

We review the five paragraph essay process and write/proofread/edit an essay with a simple prompt.

Month 6, Week 4

I start opinion writing this week. You’ll find that students will slide into opinion writing easily because they already know five paragraph essay structure.

7th Month of School

Month 7, Week 1

Continue working on opinion writing. By the end of this week, students should be able to write an opinion essay using a prompt.

Month 7, Weeks 2-3

We spend two weeks on narrative writing. By the end of the second week, students should be able to write a narrative essay using a prompt.

Month 7, Week 4

This week, I teach the process of writing an informative essay.

8th Month of School

Month 8, Week 1

Continue working on informative essays. Students should be able to write an informative essay using a prompt by the end of this week.

Month 8, Weeks 2-3

Teach students how to write an essay using paired passages.

For more information on how I teach the steps above, visit this blog post: How to Teach Writing Using Paired Passages

Month 8, Week 4

Now that students know the process of using paired passages, I provide a set of paired passages and ask students to answer prompts in a variety of genres, like opinion, narrative, informative, poetry, and etc.

This resource makes it easy:

Paired Passages with Writing Prompts and Activities Bundle

9th Month of School

Month 9, Week 1

Continue working on using paired passages to write in a variety of genres.

Talk about last minute standardized testing tips to help students with their writing tests.

The rest of the month is taken up with standardized testing, so I do a lot of review activities, free writing, and etc.

I do have a set of suspense stories that my students love to write during this month. Check them out here: Suspense Stories Bundle

10th Month of School

During this month, we are wrapping up the year. Students participate in multiple activities and field trips, so there’s not much teaching time.

If you are still feeling overwhelmed, don’t dismay. Instructing young, inexperienced writers is a challenge. Just work on one step at a time to avoid overwhelming yourself and your students. Once you’ve taught writing for a year or two, you’ll feel like an old pro. Promise! 

How I Teach 5th Grade Writing

If you’d like to keep this blog post for later, simply save this pin to your teacher Pinterest board!

Are you that teacher saying, “oh my goodness, please just give me the print ‘n go pages so that i can start teaching writing tomorrow” it’s all here for you:.

writing lessons for 5th grade

I’m not a teacher, perhaps in my heart I am. I am an older Mom who adopted late in life as God gave us our newborn in our 50’s! By His grace, we are healthy, fit, youngish 50’s LOL! I love your stuff and have always supplemented Fi’s education., for I find the California standards quite low. Now that I have her in a college-prep school (5th Grade) I find she is much more prepared because of your wisdom! Thank you. Sophia Joy is someone who has always had to work hard at school, but it is paying off! Thank you and God bless you richly for being so generous with your wisdom,it will all come back to you 100-fold! Sincerely, Susan, Sophia Joy’s Mom

Thank you so much, Susan! You certainly have a heartwarming story with your precious girl 🙂

Hello When you do the back to school journal prompts, where do you have students complete these? On single paper, google classroom?

Hi Sarah! Usually, I have students complete the prompts in their social studies interactive notebooks. This year, however, we were virtual at the beginning of the year, so I had students type their entries onto Google Docs.

Hi! I am a new 5th grade teacher, and I’m wondering if your school uses a particular writing curriculum? Your website has been so helpful – thank you!!

Hi Jenny! We don’t use a particular writing curriculum at my school. I use my own resources to teach writing. Please reach out to me at [email protected] if I can help or answer any questions for you 🙂

Do you have any resources in Spanish?

Hi Danielle! The only resources I have in Spanish are my Parent’s Guide to Reading resources, grades K-5.

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6 strong anchor charts for opinion writing.

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Opinion Writing may seem like the most simple of the writing standards, but without adequate modeling and practice, students won’t be able to fully develop their opinion writing skills. Today, I am going to talk about 6 strong anchor charts for opinion writing. Anchor charts are always a great tool for instruction, especially when introducing a new skill. They are visual, interactive, and they can help students organize their thoughts!

Introducing Opinion Writing Structure

Check out these great opinion writing anchor charts. From introductions to conclusions, these 6 anchor charts will engage your students. Start by teaching the opinion writing overall skill, then move on to using anchor charts to teach specific parts of opinion writing!

When introducing opinion writing, you will want to preview the overall structure. Students need to know what they’re looking for in writing examples and modeling. This is always one of my 6 anchor charts for opinion writing because the “OREO” acronym is very helpful! This is an easy way for students to remember what to include in an opinion writing piece. The first O is the introduction (which we will talk about later in the post). The introduction will need to include the writer’s opinion. This is followed by the R, reasons, and E, examples, or evidence. Finally, students will need to restate their O, opinion in the conclusion. If they can remember OREO, they can remember the Opinion Writing structure!

Teaching How to State an Opinion

Check out these great opinion writing anchor charts. From introductions to conclusions, these 6 anchor charts will engage your students. Start by teaching the opinion writing overall skill, then move on to using anchor charts to teach specific parts of opinion writing!

After introducing the structure, students will need to start developing their own opinion statements. This simple anchor chart can be an interactive lesson, with your students’ involvement in the process. Students will need to have a collection of Opinion Stems in their mental writing toolbox so that they can develop strong opinion statements. They will need to learn to include an opinion stem in the statement. So, instead of saying, “cats are the best,” they will say, “In my opinion,” or “I believe that cats are the best type of pet.” Providing examples for the students to reference will help them state their opinions across all content areas, too!

Anchor Charts that Teach Supporting Reasons

Check out these great opinion writing anchor charts. From introductions to conclusions, these 6 anchor charts will engage your students. Start by teaching the opinion writing overall skill, then move on to using anchor charts to teach specific parts of opinion writing!

Next, comes another reusable anchor chart for opinion writing. Students are going to benefit from learning how to supply reasons within their opinion writing and throughout the rest of their skill development. Not only with they use this skill in writing class, but across all content areas and in their real lives. When teaching this skill, you will want to focus on the question: Why? I also like to reference the phrase: Prove it. Provide plentiful examples for reasons and evidence so that students are able to pick out quality over quantity.

This easy, reusable anchor chart allows students to think about reasons and evidence. When discussing an opinion topic, record two solid pieces of evidence or reasons, written in strong opinion statements. If you laminate it, you can have students record their own examples throughout your opinion writing unit. The more they practice, even when seeing other student examples, the more they learn!

Teaching Introductions and Conclusions Explicitly

Check out these great opinion writing anchor charts. From introductions to conclusions, these 6 anchor charts will engage your students. Start by teaching the opinion writing overall skill, then move on to using anchor charts to teach specific parts of opinion writing!

Now, just because opinion writing follows more of a formula than the other types of writing, doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be interesting. Hooking your reader and reminding them of your purpose is going to improve any type of writing. So, it is important to have explicit instruction and practice for introductions and opinions. These anchor charts could be reused and referenced for opinion writing pieces throughout your year.

Create an anchor chart with different examples of interesting introductions. Again, these can be changed throughout your unit. In fact, as a positive reinforcement tool, when you read a great introduction from one of your students, stop and call attention to it. “Wow! I have just read a great introduction by _______. It hooked me! ________ would you like to add that to our introductions poster?”

With conclusions, students will need to learn solid conclusion stems. So, another simple anchor chart with sticky notes should do! Keep the focus on redirecting the reader. Students will want their readers to finish the piece knowing exactly what their opinion is.

Don’t Forget Linking Words and Transitions

Check out these great opinion writing anchor charts. From introductions to conclusions, these 6 anchor charts will engage your students. Start by teaching the opinion writing overall skill, then move on to using anchor charts to teach specific parts of opinion writing!

Finally, the last of my 6 anchor charts for opinion writing! We can’t forget linking and transition words. Use an anchor chart like the one above to create a collection of strong linking and transition words. Students will most likely need plenty of modeling and examples for this part of the process. It is very easy for students to get stuck on a few transition words that they end up repeating again and again. These can be taught or revisited in the editing and revision process to clean up their pieces. Then, keep the anchor chart accessible so that it can be easily referenced and added to.

Interested in Ready-Made Lesson Plans for Opinion Writing?

If you’re interested in getting your students to master opinion writing without having to spend hours on planning and prep, I have all-inclusive units for you! These no-prep units have everything you need to teach opinion writing in your classroom!

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Opinion Writing Units come complete with anchor charts, lesson plans, graphic organizers, writing prompts, and more! Click the button for your grade-level below:

Want a free set of Narrative Graphic Organizers?

Want to learn more about opinion writing.

  • How to Teach Opinion Writing
  • Mentor Texts: Opinion Writing
  • Read more about: Anchor Charts , Common Core Aligned , Writing Blog Posts

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How to Teach Opinion Writing

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

In this post, I share 5 tips for How to Teach Opinion Writing and provide details about the Opinion Writing Units resources I have created for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students.   Be sure to download 3 FREE opinion writing graphic organizers !

The Common Core writing domain focuses on three big types of writing: informative, narrative, and opinion writing.  Each genre serves a unique purpose and follows a specific structure in which we must explicitly teach our students.   In my last post I shared tips and resources for teaching Informative Writing and today I’m excited to move on to Opinion Writing. 

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Opinion Writing is one of my favorite genres to teach.  Young students have opinions on just about EVERYTHING and they usually aren’t afraid to share them!!  For this reason, they find the genre highly engaging! 

Today I’m sharing 5 tips for teaching opinion writing, as well as a valuable resource that has everything you need to bring opinion writing into your kindergarten , first grade, or second grade literacy centers! 

Tips for Teaching Opinion Writing

1.  read opinion writing mentor texts .

Before you can ask your students to write in a genre that is new to them, you must first immerse them in it.  So to begin your unit, you’ll want to share examples of opinion writing with your students.  These mentor texts provide students with excellent examples of opinion writing. 

As you read them aloud, highlight the way the author structures their writing.  Identify the author’s topic or opinion and point out the reasons he or she gives to support their opinion.  All of these things will help students better understand what type of writing we are asking them to do.    

When you’re picking opinion mentor texts to share with your students there are a few things to consider .  First, do you (the educator) think it is excellent?  Second, is it easy for your students to understand?  And finally, is it relevant to the type of writing you are teaching?  If you answer “Yes!” to all three, then you’re good to go!

To help you out I’ve created a list of excellent mentor texts you can use when teaching opinion writing to kindergarten, first, or second grade students.  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

A List of Opinion Writing Mentor Texts:

  • Duck Rabbit by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
  • I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufmann Orloff
  • Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems
  • Red is Best by Kathy Stinson
  • Can I Be Your Dog? by Troy Cummings
  • The Big Bed by Bunmi Laditan

I’ve saved all these titles on one board so you can easily take a closer look at these mentor texts.  Click here to see this list on Amazon.

2.  Model Your Own Opinion Writing

I know I say this a lot, but it’s worth repeating…. MODEL, MODEL, and then once again MODEL what you expect your students to do!  It is a tremendously powerful instructional tool! 

When teaching opinion writing you’ll first model how to choose a topic.  When you generate ideas you can ask yourself, “What do I know all about?” “What do I care about?” “What do I wish other people believed?”.

If these questions feel too broad for your students you can use simple “would you rather” questions to get your ideas for an opinion piece.  For example, “Would you rather have a dog or a cat?”  This could lead to the topic, “Dogs are the best pet.” Keep it simple and choose a topic that is relatable to your students.    

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Next, model how you plan your writing using a graphic organizer.  Show them how you open with a topic sentence that states your opinion. Next, come up with your supporting reasons. End with a closing sentence that restates your opinion.  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Model how you use the graphic organizer to guide you as you write out your full piece. 

Finally, reread your work aloud and show students how you catch silly mistakes such as spelling, capitalization or punctuation errors.  You can also show how you add additional supporting reasons to make your writing more persuasive to the reader.  

3. Use Anchor Charts

You want your students to know that when they write an opinion piece they are sharing their own opinion. They are not sharing true facts. Take time to review the difference between facts and opinions. Create an anchor chart that defines fact vs. opinion.

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

You’ll also want to review language that is specific to the genre. Remind students of the linking or transitional words that connect their opinion to their reasons.

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Finally, you’ll want to create an anchor chart using the writing you model. This will serve as another example of excellent opinion writing.  As a class, add labels to identify the topic sentence, supporting reasons and the closing sentence in your shared writing.  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

All of these anchor charts can be posted in your writing center. Encourage your students to refer back to them and use them as support as they write their own pieces.

4. Allow students to edit and share their writing

Provide a good writers checklist at your writing center.  For opinion writing you’ll want the checklist to include items such,  “Do I have a topic sentence that clearly states my opinion?”  “Do I have supporting reasons ?” and “Do I have a closing sentence?”, as well as reminders to check for spelling, capitalization, and punctuation errors.  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

You can also create a rubric specific to the genre. Model how you use it to assess your own work and how it can be used to provide feedback to others.   

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Give students the opportunity to share their writing with others!  Pair students with partners and let them read their pieces to each other.  Encourage them to provide feedback using the editing checklist and the rubric as a guide.  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

5. Provide Daily Opportunities for Students to Write

As with all things, writing takes PRACTICE!  Students need dedicated instructional time to learn the skills and strategies necessary to become effective writers, as well as time to practice what they learn.   When you think about your daily instructional schedule, make sure you are giving your students ample opportunities to practice their opinion writing through whole-group instruction, small groups and/or independent practice in writing centers. 

Opinion Writing Unit For Kindergarten, First, and Second Grade Students

Today I’m excited to share with you the details about my Kindergarten Opinion , 1st Grade Opinion , and my 2nd grade Opinion Writing units!  I love them because they have ALL the resources you need to give your students the practice they need to master opinion writing.  

These units were developed with standards-based research specific to each grade. You can use them within whole class or small group instruction, or as a literacy center activity where students can practice opinion writing independently!  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

What’s Included in these Opinion Writing Resources?

The kindergarten , first grade , and the second grade opinion writing resources each include information to help you unpack the unit and a mini-lesson you’ll teach to give your students a review of opinion writing.  You’ll get a list of suggested mentor texts and online resources, printable anchor charts, graphic organizers, seasonal writing prompts, and conversational task cards to help get kids to share their opinion on different topics.  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Kindergarten Opinion Writing Unit

Kindergarteners will probably need a review of fact vs. opinion so the kindergarten resource includes a printable fact vs. opinion anchor chart . You’ll also get charts with opinion writing sentence starters to help them organize their reasons and thoughts.  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

The kindergarten seasonal writing prompts come with traceable sentence stems and picture supported vocabulary word bank to assist young writers in brainstorming ideas and spelling words while writing.

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Finally, you’ll get an editing checklist that is specific to opinion writing but also appropriate for the kindergarten level. 

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

First Grade and Second Grade Opinion Writing Units

The first and second-grade resources include fact vs. opinion and linking words anchor charts that provide review and help them organize their ideas.  

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

To help first and second-graders practice writing you’ll get 28 “Would You Rather” seasonal conversational opinion centers and 24 writing prompts. That’s more than enough to keep kids engaged in sharing their opinions all throughout the year!  

The prompts are both PRINTABLE & DIGITAL. The digital version has been PRELOADED for you, with 1 click add them to your Google Drive or upload them to SeeSaw.

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Each seasonal prompt printable paper includes a story-specific vocabulary bank to provide spelling assistance and help students get ideas for reasons to support their opinion. 

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Finally, you’ll also get a self-editing checklist and rubric that have both been made specifically for opinion writing.  This rubric can be used as a self-assessment tool or as a guide for peer feedback.     

I love these writing units because they can be used in so many different ways.  They offer opportunities for students to practice opinion writing as a whole class, in small groups, as a literacy center activity, for homework, or as a meaningful activity for when they have a substitute teacher!  

FREE Opinion Writing Graphic Organizers

Are you ready to begin Opinion Writing in your classroom? To help get you started, I am happy to offer you 3 FREE Opinion Writing Graphic Organizers! You can download them here .

The ability to state one’s opinion and support it with persuasive reasons is a valuable academic and LIFE skill!  I hope the information and resources I’ve shared today will help to bring stronger opinion writing instruction and more meaningful practice to your kindergarten, first and second-grade classrooms!

Be on the lookout for my next post that will focus on the final genre… Narrative Writing! I’ll share information and tips for teaching narrative writing, as well as give you details about my Narrative Writing Units for kindergarten , first and second-grade students!

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Kindergarten Opinion Writing Graphic Organizers & Centers

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how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Shared Teaching

Systematic Teaching for First and Second Grade

How to Teach Opinion Writing

January 10, 2023 | Leave a Comment

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Wondering how to teach opinion writing? Let me show you what I do to teach my second graders. I like to plan out my lessons using a systematic approach. Keep reading to find out all about it.

Start With the End in Mind

Whenever I am planning out a unit, I like to start with my end goals in mind. First, I’ll look at the standards the unit covers. 

The Common Core Standards states, “write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because , and , also ) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.”

This second grade standard tells me that the main components students must learn in opinion writing are:

  • Introductions
  • Stating an opinion
  • Provide reasons to support their opinion
  • Linking Words
  • Conclusions

The way the standard reads I am getting that all five of these pieces can make up one paragraph. However, this is for second grade so I feel I can stretch my students to write at least 2 or 3 paragraphs. 

I know that in third grade for our SBAC (Smarter Balanced assessments) students are expected to write a 5 paragraph essay. If they can write 3 paragraphs in second grade, then 5 paragraphs won’t be a tough stretch next year.

From the standard I also see that I should cover at least two types of opinion writing - book reviews and an opinion piece. When I’m creating my plans I will want to make sure I have activities that cover both of these.

Figure Out the Building Blocks

The next thing I do when figuring out how to teach opinion writing is to think about the building blocks students need to be successful in learning the main components. 

What skills will they need to learn first? What should they have learned in the previous year?

Before you begin teaching opinion writing, I would recommend having students do a writing baseline assessment. The pre-assessment will give you great insight into answering these two questions. I talk more about baseline writing assessments in my post How to Improve Writing Skills in Your Students .

Now that you have figured out what skills to teach and where your students are at, it’s time to start introducing opinion writing.

Frontload Opinion Writing With Books

Although I use several opinion writing mentor texts, I like to add a few more read alouds to help get students excited about writing opinions. I usually read these texts before I start opinion writing so they can get used to this new style of writing. The mentor texts are saved for my actual opinion writing lessons.

Disclosure: I am an affiliate of Bookshop.org and I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. Bookshop.org is an online bookstore that helps local, independent bookstores.

Some of my favorites are:

I Wanna Iguana by Karen Kaufman Orloff and David Catrow

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon

The Most Magnificent Thing by Ashley Spires

In My Opinion by Deb Bird

Don’t Take Your Snake for a Stroll by Karin Ireland

Smelly Socks by Robert Munsch

Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon by Patty Lovell

The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown

Duck & Goose by Tad Hills

I use most of these books throughout my lessons but feel that reading them before I begin my opinion writing unit makes it easier to hold a focused discussion later. When the story is not new to students I feel student discussions are stronger.

Plan Out Smaller Lessons

Last but not least when figuring out how to teach opinion writing is to plan out the actual lessons . I love to have small, bite-size lessons when I teach. When my lesson only takes a maximum of 15 minutes (more if I read a longer story), it saves more time for students to spend writing. Short lessons also keep students focused and the objective super clear for students.

My second tip is to make sure each lesson builds on the last. I also like to start each lesson with a review. For example, today when I was teaching about how to state an opinion I started off the lesson by reminding students about the definition of an opinion. Anchor charts are also great to reference for this part of the lesson.

My writing block consists of the 10-15 minute lesson, 20-30 minutes of independent writing time, and 5 minutes of share time.  I usually only get 45 minutes to teach writing which gets even shorter with bus students dismissing earlier than the school dismissal. The shorter I can keep those mini-lessons the better!

How has this post helped you figure out how to teach opinion writing? Leave your comments below. I love hearing from my readers!

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how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Shared Ideas

STAAR Prep: A K-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Strategy

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

As we all know here in Texas, every grade level will have an “extended constructed response” on the STAAR test this school year. This response will either be informational or argumentative and will be an “essay.” Let’s take a look at exemplars and rubrics before we dive into an argumentative/opinion writing strategy for the elementary grades.

STAAR Test Example Responses

Here are some exemplars for grades 3 and 5 (for both short and extended constructed responses) provided by TEA (Texas Education Agency). These prompts and exemplars come from the field test, and this document walks you through the scoring. I go over more information about the constructed responses, STAAR test tools, and provide a few resources in Reading Language Arts STAAR Test Resources .

STAAR Argumentative Writing Rubrics

  • RLA Grades 3-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Rubric   (10/18/22)
  • RLA Grades 3-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Rubric-Spanish   (10/18/22)
  • RLA Grades 3-5 Informational Writing Rubric   (10/18/22)
  • RLA Grades 3-5 Informational Writing Rubric-Spanish   (10/18/22)

What’s the Difference Between Short and Extended Constructive Responses?

Here are exemplars from the stand-alone field test. The 5th grade prompts and responses are for the same passage, “Steam and Sail”. The responses on the left are short constructed responses (SCR), and the one on the right is an extended constructive response (ECR). The grade 3 response is within the writing domain, not the reading domain. There are no exemplars for grades 3 and 4 to reference for ECR in the scoring guide.

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

How to Teach Argumentative/Opinion Writing

So, of course, there are lots of ways to teach opinion writing to elementary students. But I’m a huge fan of the Gradual Release of Responsibility (GRR) , and I’m also a huge fan of discussion and verbal practice before beginning the writing process. That said, I’m going to walk through using GRR with some resources for teaching opinion/argumentative writing at the elementary level. This strategy is adaptable and meant to be built on over time, so the example given isn’t necessarily 5th grade, score point 5 level, but it can get students there with practice and some adapting!

Review: Fact vs. Opinion

Whether you’re teaching first grade or fifth grade, it’s always good to start with a review of the difference between fact and opinion. Here are a few resources for this.

  • Florida Center for Reading Research Fact or Opinion Game
  • Factile Fact vs. Opinion Game
  • Teaching with a Mountain View: Four Activities to Teach Fact vs. Opinion in Upper Elementary

Talk Before You Write!

This is what I like to call, the “Speak Cycle.” Students may need to practice one or more of these steps, or the whole cycle, multiple times before moving on to writing. Speaking before writing helps students learn to organize their thoughts, look for text evidence, and also familiarizes them with proper sentence structures for opinion writing before they actually start writing. You might think, “Ok, maybe for lower elementary.” Sure, but even older students benefit from verbal practice before writing! It’s a form of rehearsal and planning.

1. Whole Group: Read the text. Discuss opinions as a class. Highlight the evidence.

Before broaching the topic of supporting evidence for an opinion, read the text and discuss opinions. Then ask students for supporting evidence. It’s much easier to talk about supporting evidence than it is to start writing about it from the get go! Here is an example text that works well for third and fourth grade from Education.com . I recommend starting with short texts and then, as stamina improves, introducing longer texts over time.

Education.com Argumentative/Opinion writing

“Today, we’re going to read a text together about ___________. We’re going to discuss our opinions on ___________ based on what we read, and I’m going to highlight facts from the text to help support our opinion.” [Read the text] [Read the question] “So, what are our opinions?” [Student one offers an opinion.] “Thanks for sharing your opinion! What information in this text led you to think that?” [Highlight what the student references in the text. Repeat this with other examples.] “Ok! So, from our reading today, we formed the opinion ______. And we formed that opinion because [read off highlights of the text].”

In this practice, you are showing the students how to identify and highlight supporting evidence in the text, but this is first a verbal exercise. Start with easier texts and move to more difficult texts as students become more autonomous.

You can create your own questions, but here are a few resources that offer texts with questions for opinion writing.

  • Education.com
  • Ereadingworksheets.com
  • National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE)

2. Small Group: Read the text. Discuss opinions with a small group. Highlight the evidence together.

This works best if you group students on similar reading levels. Give each student in the group the same short text that’s on their reading level. Read it together, discuss an opinion, and have students highlight the supporting facts with your guidance. Then, have students verbalize their opinions and reference the highlighted text evidence. Students should speak using the same sentence structures you want them to use when writing. Having these up as a visual is great for practice! This is all to get students ready to write.

  • “I think…”
  • “In my opinion,…”
  • “I believe that…”
  • “This is my opinion because…”
  • “According to the text,…”
  • “First, the author states…”
  • “Second, I read that…”

3. Independently: Students read the text, highlight evidence, and discuss their opinion and supporting evidence with a partner or group.

Have students read a short text, think about their opinion, and highlight facts to support their opinion on their own. Students can discuss an explanation of their opinion and text evidence with a partner, or they can explain it in a small group setting. Students should still be speaking using the same sentence structures you would like them to write with.

It’s Time to Write!

Now that students are familiar with reading, forming an opinion, highlighting evidence to support their opinion, and using sentence structures verbally, it’s time to start writing. But it’s not quite time for them to write independently. First, we will model good writing for them, following a similar process to the speaking cycle.

1. Whole Group: Read the text. Highlight the evidence. Model the writing for the class.

So this step is similar to step one of the speak cycle, but instead of just discussing, you are going to be modeling the writing. Here’s one formula I like to use called, “It’s Peanut Butter Jelly Time!,” and I’ve included an example using the video game article from the beginning of this post.

The Bread: The Introduction (2-3 sentences)

  • Write one sentence to state your opinion.
  • Write a second sentence introducing two main facts from the text that support your opinion.
“In my opinion, video games are harmful to kids. Video games can be unhealthy. They can also be too violent.” (Just an example! This is not necessarily reflective of my actual opinion on video games.)

The Peanut Butter : Paragraph 2 (2-3 sentences)

  • Write a few sentences to support the first fact.
“According to the text, video games can be unhealthy if children play them for too long and don’t move around or exercise. This can make kids overweight and have health issue.”

The Jelly : Paragraph 3 (2-3 sentences)

  • Write a few sentences to support the second fact.
“Sometimes, violence can make kids fight, and this can be harmful to friendships. Violence isn’t good for kids’ brains and can lead them to become bullies.”

The Bread: The Conclusion (2-3 sentences)

  • Say your opinion – again.
  • Say why your opinion is true – again.
“I believe that video games can be harmful to kids. Sitting for too long in front of the game can cause health problems and violence can lead to aggressive behavior. It’s better for kids to be active and be more positive and less violent.”

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

2. Partnered Writing: Students read the text together, highlight the evidence, and write with a partner.

It’s similar to the whole group exercise, except that students are practicing writing more independently with a writing partner/buddy. In this step, you can offer students graphic organizers or an outline template to help them remember all the elements of their argumentative writing. They can work together to write one essay or they can each write an essay and then review each other’s writing.

3. Independently: Read the text. Highlight the evidence. Write the essay.

At this stage, students are practicing writing on their own. They may or may not need supports like sentence starters, graphic organizers , checklists , and visuals to reference in the room. But the goal is for students to be able to produce writing that expresses their opinion in response to a text and provide text evidence to support that opinion.

Practice, Practice, Practice!

It takes a lot of time and a lot of repetitive practice. As Miguel Guhlin references in his article, Writing Strategies: Insights from a Twitter Chat , discussing, teaching sentence structures/vocabulary, and showing examples isn’t enough. Deliberate, repetitive practice, and time, are key to teaching writing.

Do you have other ideas, strategies, or resources that have worked well for you and your K-5 students when it comes to argumentative/opinion writing? Please share them with us in the chat! We’d love to hear what’s worked in your classroom.

Additional STAAR and TEKS Articles You May Find Useful

Reading Language Arts STAAR Test Resources

The K-5 ELAR TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

The K-5 Math TEKS and Free, Editable Spreadsheets

A Practical Strategy for Teaching Editing Skills

A Powerful and Easy Strategy for Teaching Text Evidence

how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Emily has been in education since 2008. Prior to joining TCEA in 2021, she worked as a preK-8 grade principal for four years. Additionally, she taught middle school music, preschool, prekindergarten, and second grade in a trilingual school setting. Before that, she was a K-8 technology integrator and taught second through fifth grade enrichment classes and kindergarten, fifth, and sixth grade technology classes. She has a master’s degree in teaching, specializing in elementary education, and her Certificate of School Management and Leadership (CSML) from Harvard Graduate School of Education. Outside of work, she enjoys seeing movies, attending concerts, going camping and hiking, and spending time with her two cats.

Writing Strategies: Insights from a Twitter Chat

Resources shared at the 2023 tcea convention & exposition, you may also like, five powerful citation tools to unlock academic success, nanowrimo’s young writer’s program (ywp), ai meme generators and classroom activities, cer resources for the science classroom, two new google ai tools: help me write..., how reliable are ai detectors, what you need to know about copyright, nine tips for overcoming test anxiety, four ways ai can help teach poetry, seven ways teachermade can help you prepare for....

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how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

Fifth Grade Opinion Writing Prompts and Worksheets – 5th Grade Early Finishers

These opinion writing prompts for 5th grade are perfect for your writing lessons or literacy centers. There are 25 opinion writing worksheets, so that writing for the year is covered!

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This 30 page fifth grade opinion writing resource is a must-have for teaching opinion writing or persuasive writing. Your 5th grade students will love these prompts during writing lessons, writing centers, or writer’s workshop. These writing activities are no prep worksheets, so simply print and go!

This is a year’s worth of worksheets that includes student friendly and also seasonal topics (so that students can have fun writing opinion pieces throughout the school year, e.g. Easter, Halloween, Christmas, Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter)!

Note: These worksheets can also be used for fourth grade students, depending on their capabilities.

What is included:

30 pages of writing prompts/worksheets (25 ready to go and 5 blank templates).

The prompts are in 5 different template styles. Some are more scaffolded/picture based, whereas others have more lines, for more advanced writers.

  • The Best Animal
  • The Best Insect
  • The Best Christmas Treat
  • The Best Season
  • The Best Sport
  • The Best _______ (Blank Template)
  • Do You Prefer Butterflies or Ladybugs?
  • Do You Prefer Rain or Snow?
  • Do You Prefer Summer or Winter?
  • Do You Prefer Birthdays or Halloween?
  • Do You Prefer Easter or Christmas?
  • Do You Prefer_______?(Blank Template)
  • Would You Rather…be the teacher or the student?
  • Would You Rather…be strong or be able to fly?
  • Would You Rather…be a mermaid or a leprechaun?
  • Would You Rather…play basketball or soccer?
  • Would You Rather…be a dinosaur or a lion?
  • Would You Rather_______?(Blank Template)
  • My Favorite Candy
  • My Favorite Dessert
  • My Favorite Junk Food
  • My Favorite Fruit
  • My Favorite Drink
  • My Favorite_______(Blank Template)
  • Which Is Better…cats or dogs?
  • Which Is Better…reading or playing sport?
  • Which Is Better…sand or snow?
  • Which Is Better…spring or fall?
  • Which Is Better…doughnuts or sundaes?
  • Which Is Better_______?(Blank Template)

When/how to use these Fifth Grade Opinion Writing worksheets:

  • Whole group writing lessons
  • Small group work (literacy and writing centers)
  • Writer’s Workshop
  • Independent writing practice
  • Early finishers
  • Morning work

Please note –

At first glance, this product may seem somewhat easy for the grade it is advertised for. This product is not meant to be pages full of writing lines (although some of the prompts are). It is a more scaffolded approach to teaching writing, with word prompts and linking words, as well as some small clip art and drawing boxes in order to be engaging. It is perfect for students who are struggling with writing or first learning the genre during the school year.

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IMAGES

  1. Fifth Grade Opinion Writing Unit

    how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

  2. How to teach Opinion Writing to 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders

    how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

  3. 18 Fun Fact Or Opinion Activities

    how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

  4. How to teach Opinion Writing to 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders

    how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

  5. How to teach Opinion Writing to 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders

    how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

  6. How to teach Opinion Writing to 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders

    how to teach opinion writing 5th grade

COMMENTS

  1. The Ultimate Guide to Opinion Writing for Students and Teachers

    Table of Contents The Importance of Opinion Writing CONSIDERATIONS BEFORE WRITING AN OPINION ESSAY OPINION WRITING CRITERIA TO ADDRESS 1. Identify the Audience: Speak Clearly 2. Take a Stance: Stand Firm 3. Choose Appropriate Evidence: Back It Up 4. Draw Conclusions: Wrap It Up 5. A Word on Words The OREO Opinion Writing Process Explained

  2. Teaching Opinion Writing Tips and Activities

    1st: Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or name the book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply a reason for the opinion and provide some sense of closure.

  3. How to teach Opinion Writing to 3rd, 4th and 5th Graders

    'I firmly believe…' 'I am of the opinion…' However, 3 rd, 4 th, and 5 th graders need to show more sophistication in their writing, so beginning with these opinion starters would not do justice to the writing skill they are actually capable of implementing. Instead, students need to convey their opinion subtly by reflecting on the issue.

  4. Teaching Opinion Writing: 8 Must-Do Tips

    1. Start with a pre-assessment The first must-do tip for teaching opinion writing is to start with a pre-assessment. The pre-assessment allows you to see how much students know so you can tailor your lessons appropriately and it allows you to measure student growth at the end of the unit.

  5. 7 Ways to Introduce Opinion Writing to Elementary Students

    229 How do you introduce opinion writing to your students? Do you use fun videos, interactive games, books to build background knowledge or current events? There are many different ways teachers can help students understand the purpose of opinion writing. Here are a few ideas about opinion writing to get you started.

  6. How to Teach Writing in 5th Grade

    Pacing I spend approximately 9 weeks on each main genre of writing (narrative, persuasive, and informational/expository). I teach the writing genres in this order: personal narrative, fictional narrative, persuasive, how-to informational, compare and contrast, descriptive/explanatory informational. Closer Look at Each 9 Weeks

  7. Introduction to Opinion Writing // 5th Grade Writing Online Lesson

    115 20K views 3 years ago 5th Grade Writing This lesson focuses on the components of opinion writing for a fifth grader. This is a series of videos that start at reading the passage...

  8. Teach Students to Write an Introduction for Opinion Writing

    7 Ways to Introduce Opinion Writing Picture Books to Teach Opinion Writing Teaching How to State an Opinion Teaching How to Supply Reasons Teaching How to Introduce the Opinion Writing Teaching How to Conclude the Opinion Writing Teaching Ideas to Solidify Students' Understanding of Opinion Writing Table of Contents

  9. Scaffolding an Opinion Writing Essay With Frames and Templates

    3rd, 4th, and 5th grade students love giving their opinions, so help them structure their opinions with sentence starters and frames. This is a great way to introduce opinion writing and doesn't frustrate students.

  10. Writing an Opinion Piece Unit Plan

    Text Structures Download 11 x lessons | Suitable for grades: 5 - 6 This English unit addresses the genre of opinion writing; specifically, how to write an effective opinion piece. It consists of 11 lessons of approximately 60 minutes duration.

  11. Opinion Writing Unit FIFTH GRADE

    The ready-to-use lessons and activities in this opinion writing unit will teach your students how to use supporting facts, reasons, and examples, consider opposing viewpoints, write topic and concluding sentences, and structure paragraphs. And all you have to do is print and teach. The lesson plans are that simple. Seriously.

  12. 55 Opinion Writing Prompts For 5th Graders

    55 Opinion Writing Prompts For 5th Graders I believe that libraries should be open twenty-four hours a day. Keeping libraries open would give people who work odd hours the opportunity to use the services offered. It also gives unhoused individuals somewhere to go when the weather is bad at night. In addition…

  13. Teach How to State an Opinion to Elementary Students

    Day 1: Teach State an Opinion Day 2: Use Sentence Frames to State an Opinion Day 2: More Practice with Stating an Opinion Day 4: Even More Practice Stating an Opinion Day 5: Practice Writing Opinion Statements Samples of Opinion Writing from Students Reflection on the Whole Week of Teaching Students to State an Opinion

  14. How I Teach 5th Grade Writing

    1. I want them to be able to efficiently organize their ideas and plan/write a five paragraph essay. 2. I want my students to be able to construct narrative, informative, and opinion essays. 3. I want my students to be able to choose appropriate sources and write a simple research report. 4.

  15. 6 Strong Anchor Charts for Opinion Writing

    This is always one of my 6 anchor charts for opinion writing because the "OREO" acronym is very helpful! This is an easy way for students to remember what to include in an opinion writing piece. The first O is the introduction (which we will talk about later in the post). The introduction will need to include the writer's opinion.

  16. 30 Great 5th Grade Opinion Writing Prompts

    Use these 5th grade opinion writing prompts to get your kids thinking about new issues they may have never considered before and to help them learn exactly what it takes to justify those opinions and persuade others to share their thoughts. Oh yeah! Let's get to it.

  17. Opinion Writing: Using the letters O.R.E.O to learn how to write a

    The letters O.R.E.O. help us remember the parts that are needed in opinion writing.This lesson introduces opinion or persuasive writing. Exact strategies fo...

  18. How to Teach Opinion Writing

    shares In this post, I share 5 tips for How to Teach Opinion Writing and provide details about the Opinion Writing Units resources I have created for Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd grade students. Be sure to download 3 FREE opinion writing graphic organizers!

  19. Opinion Writing Teaching Slides

    Opinion Essays Don't Have to Be Hard! Make it Easy With Opinion Writing Examples and Analysis Activities. This Google Slides Teaching Slide Deck has been designed to teach your students about the text structure and language features of opinion writing. This slide deck follows the I Do, We Do, You Do method of controlled release instruction.

  20. How to Teach Opinion Writing

    The Common Core Standards states, "write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words (e.g., because, and, also) to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section."

  21. STAAR Prep: A K-5 Argumentative/Opinion Writing Strategy

    The Bread: The Introduction (2-3 sentences) Write one sentence to state your opinion. Write a second sentence introducing two main facts from the text that support your opinion. "In my opinion, video games are harmful to kids. Video games can be unhealthy. They can also be too violent." (Just an example!

  22. How to Teach an Opinion Writing Conclusion

    Table of Contents. Explicitly teach what an opinion writing conclusion is and how to write one. Use picture books and samples to generate ideas for conclusions statements. Consider organizing the conclusion statements when teaching how to write a conclusion. Give Students Sentence Frames to Use when Writing a Conclusion Paragraph or Statement.

  23. Fifth grade opinion writing prompts

    This 30 page fifth grade opinion writing resource is a must-have for teaching opinion writing or persuasive writing. Your 5th grade students will love these prompts during writing lessons, writing centers, or writer's workshop. ... It is a more scaffolded approach to teaching writing, with word prompts and linking words, as well as some small ...