Week 7 Update

Kia Ora All,

Welcome to week 7!

We're currently in the thick of a persuasive writing unit. A couple of parents have talked to me recently about wanting to do more writing at home as part of their child's home learning. Persuasive writing is a fun genre, so here are some ideas to help you out at home. You could even submit your argument to the Golden Bay Weekly! 

The basic structure of an argument is:

• Tell us what you are arguing about e.g., Dear So and So, I think we should ban...
• Firstly, a paragraph backing up your argument with some ideas / facts.
• Secondly, a paragraph backing up your argument with some ideas / facts.
• Lastly, a paragraph backing up your argument with some ideas / facts.
• A conclusion summing up what you want to happen - this should basically be your introduction e..g, For the above reasons, I think we should ban...

To make it even harder / more interesting, here is the paragraph format we've been looking at: 

Statement - open your paragraph with one sentence statement which has the key idea/the point of what this paragraph is about.

Explain - you need to explain and expand on the statement in detail using specific …...

Examples - from your source of information, e.g. quotes, names, date, events, statistics (often this can be within/built into your Explain part of the paragraph)

Conclude - finish your paragraph by saying how this paragraph answers the question.

Here is an example

In the school holidays I went to the Tahuna Hydroslide. A hydroslide is a long and twisting pipe that has water flowing through it. You sit on a mat and slide down, landing in a pool at the bottom. I went on it with my daughter. At first she was scared, but once she got going we went again and again. The hydroslide was sick.

Here are some possible topics:

• Should we wear school uniform?
• Should there be a compulsory bedtime for primary aged students?
• Should Homework be made compulsory?
• Should schools bring back the strap?
• Should we have a ban on all junk food at Motupipi School?
• Should the police be armed?
• Should we have KFC or McDonalds for school lunches?
• Should we ban 1080?
• Should the Takaka Grandstand be kept?
• Hats should not be compulsory at schools.
• Life is easier today than in the past.
• Dogs are a better pet than cats.
• Cats are a better pet than dogs.
• Every child should have a pet.
• School uniform should be compulsory.
• All children should have to play sport.
• Boys and girls should not be allowed to eat sugar.
• Lollies- should they be banned at school?
• Recycling is the most important thing we can do as a family.
• Computer games - are they a waste of time?
• What is more important - friends or family?
• Caged or free - should animals be kept in zoos?
• Reading books is better than watching TV.
• Everyday people waste power, we should save electricity when possible.
• It is better to live in the city than the country.
• It is better to live in the country than the city.
• School should run seven days a week.
• Sharing - we should share everything with everyone.
• Fresh air - every child should spend half their day outside.
• Rest is important - every student should go to bed at 8pm.
• Stop school break time - we should have more time studying.

Rock On,

Mr M