Persuasive Unit or Literature Unit “Whole Student”
Techniques to Accompany Persuasive Essay and/ or Paper About Literature 
1. Students write questionnaires/ surveys and give them
to the class. I pass out a short
instruction sheet on types of questions and as we go through the types, students
write their own during class, according to the topic each has chosen. Students bring 10 copies of their
questionnaire to class and pass them around in a large circle. After finishing, we pass them back, going the
reverse direction. How to Design Effective Questionnaires
2. Students interview each other in pairs, threes, or
fours about the topics on which they are writing. This engenders some of the most
meaningful, searching exploration of the topics and their implications. I like to have it directly follow the
questionnaire time.
3. Use film clips with music and emotional impact,
such as the montage of violence perpetrated by the U.S.
government in Bowling for Columbine, with ironic musical background.
4. Crossword puzzles that incorporate the vocabulary
necessary to understand the reading. I make these up myself – it’s fun. Use this link to help you: http://www.crosswordpuzzlegames.com/create.html 5. Have a stand-up and move-around “mixer” in which
everybody gets the name of a character on his/ her back and must use questions
that can only get “yes” or “no” answers to figure out who they are. Have plenty so people who solve theirs can do
another one. An alternative
version of this is to “jigsaw”: Every
person reads one of four to eight articles or parts of articles and then moves
around finding people who have read the other parts. They listen to the person tell them about the
other article/ section and then write down a paraphrase of each until they have
completely understood all articles/ sections.
- Bring
in props or food connected to the literature such as Vietnamese or Chinese
paper clothing, cars, etc. for “No-Name Woman,” Masks and Renaissance hats
for “Cask of Amontillado,” udon for Kitchen, or purse and
paper money for “Los Vendidos.”
- Play
Jeopardy using play money, answers, and money amounts covering the
answers to review either grammar or facts about a book. This can be done on the computer ahead of time if you have a smart classroom.
- Go
over grammar issues, either with your grammar book or using rules based on
previous student papers – having the students teach with large
posters. Students make the
posters with butcher paper and scented pens, giving the rules and then
showing an error and the same sentence done correctly. They then present these grammar rules to
the class in a very short teaching demo.
I keep the posters and put them up around the room when the
students are taking their grammar final.
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