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An Opinion about the Best Job in the World

Grade 6 English Language Arts

Learning Module

Abstract

In this module students learn how to state an opinion, supported by a reason and example. They draw on their background knowledge, and read and research to gather more information as they write their own opinion text.

Keywords

Opinion, Reason, Example, Research, Summarize.

1. Overview

For the Student

In this learning module you are going to learn about how to write your opinion about a topic and include reasons and examples to support your opinion.

Focus Questions

What is the best job in the world?

What are the advantages and disadvantages of that job?

How do I write an opinion supported by reasons and examples?

Comment: If you could have your dream job, what would it be? Post the name of the job and see the list of jobs posted by your peers. Comment on the ones you are interested in, giving reasons for your opinion. When you comment on another student's post, start with @Name (insert their name).

Fig. 1: A Career in Sports

For the Teacher

In this module students learn how to state an opinion, supported by a reason and examples. Students explore opinions through an online discussion in Community, learn about developing an organizational structure for their writing by dividing their work into ‘Elements’, using the Structure tool in Scholar, and incorporating media.

Students draw on their background knowledge and are also encouraged to read and research to gather more information.

This initial activity introduces students to Community with a simple post of a few words and comments on their peers' posts.

Main CCSS Focus

W.5.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

2. What is Your Opinion?

For the Student

Learning Intention: To share my opinion about teaching as a job and include a reason and example.

Think about the job of teaching. You are all experts about what school is like so you should have some strong opinions about whether teaching is the best or worst job in the world. Start by sharing your opinions with a partner. Each person in the pair should think first about their opinion. Then Person 1 speaks for 45 seconds while Person 2 actively listens. Repeat, with Person 2 speaking and Person 1 listening. Include reasons and examples to justify your opinion. Here is an example for you to follow:

Teaching is the best job in the world because teachers get to read great books with their students (Reason). An example of this is when our teacher reads A Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson to us (Example).

Comment: Why is teaching the best or the worst job in the world? Add your comment to Community and include a reason for your opinion. Use words (conjunctions) such as because, since and as to combine your opinion with a reason in one sentence. You may include more than one reason! Then comment on another student's comment or ask a question.

Fig. 2: A Career in Education

For the Teacher

This activity aims to engage students in their learning by connecting them to a knowledge building community. Comments in Community Updates are used throughout the module to engage students and as a tool for collaboration and reflection.

Use a Think-Pair-Share to scaffold students’ thinking before they write their comments in Community. In a Think-Pair-Share, students think for one minute and then share their ideas with a partner. In the sharing, each person speaks for about 45 seconds while the other person actively listens.

Encourage students to support their peers through their comments in Community. In addition, discuss the importance of using formal academic language. This can be reinforced through the teacher writing comments to students in Community.

CCSS Focus

SL.5.1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 5 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly.

SL.5.1c: Pose and respond to specific questions by making comments that contribute to the discussion and elaborate on the remarks of others.

L.5.3a: Expand, combine and reduce sentences for meaning, reader/listener interest, and style.

3. Research and Summarize

For the Student

Learning Intention: To summarize the advantages and disadvantages of a job that you think is the best in the world.

What do you think is the best job in the world? Is it a chocolate taster, a water slide or video game tester, sports player, chef, actor or perhaps a wildlife or zookeeper, doctor or architect? What makes it the best?

To help you think about ideas, look at some YouTube Videos about amazing jobs such as 1500' Tower (2.07) and Camille Seaman: Photos from a Storm Chaser (TED Talk, 3.26), and you will never be bored with Extreme House Cleaning (3.15).

Research your job by looking up articles, books, and video and audio clips. Then identify the positives and negatives of that job. Refer to at least three sources. You can summarize your key ideas in a T-Chart. You should have more positives than negatives if it is the best job in the world.

Advantages Disadvantages
Sources
T-Chart
Fig. 3: A Career in Acting

Comment: Find some links to some other amazing jobs and share them with your peers by posting the links in the Comment box. What makes them great jobs? Then comment on why you think it is important to identify advantages and disadvantages when researching this topic? Can knowing a disadvantage change your opinion or make your opinion stronger?

For the Teacher

In this activity students research a job that they believe is the best job in the world. Their goal is to come up with three reasons why that job is so good. They must also acknowledge a counter point by identifying at least one disadvantage of the job.

Encourage students to read a range of texts, including video and audio texts. The comment promotes active knowledge making through students posting links to videos about interesting jobs. This may also inspire some students to think more widely about what they will focus on in their writing project.

To develop critical thinking, the discussion in Comment discusses some of the disadvantages and why including counter points in an opinion, strengthens the writing. In fact, showing an understanding of a counter point but still holding an opinion strengthens the writer’s position.

To provide extra support to students, post the following Overt Instruction Updates from the Writer’s Toolkit: Reading Strategies for Writing in the New Media to Community. Alternatively, individualized or small group support may be provided through structured mini-lessons.

  • Internet Searches and Citing References
  • Vocabulary and Spelling

Students can refer to their completed T-Charts as they move into writing in Creator. However, for accountability, students may also be required to submit them to the teacher through Submissions in Community.

CCSS Focus

RI: 5.4: Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a grade 5 topic or subject area.

RI.5.7: Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.

W.5.7: Conduct short research projects that use several sources to build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.

W.5.9: Integrate information from several texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably.

4. Project Information and Draft

For the Student

Learning Intention: To start my writing project and to use the Rubric to identify what is important to include.

Project Name: What is the Best Job in the World?

Description: Write your opinion about the best job in the world. Include at least three points to support your opinion and at least one counter point. Include multimedia.

Check the Work Request in your Notifications. Click on this link to open the “Untitled Work” in Creator. Then, change the title, and begin a first draft. Go to About This Work => Project => Description for further project information.

For what you need to do in order to write a good informative/explanatory text, go to Feedback => Reviews => Rubric. Keep the Rubric open and refer to it as you write.

When you are ready to submit, click “Submit Draft” below the work. This is the version of your work that will be sent to others for review.

Comment: Do you have any questions about how Scholar works? Make a comment in this update. If you think you have an answer to another student's question, please answer it - be sure to name the student you are replying to in your comment by starting with @Name.

Fig. 4: A Career in Science - Robotics

For the Teacher

Assigning the project to the students at this stage is important to set clear expectations, and also so students understand how the activities that follow will support them.

As students begin to draft their work, encourage them to use the Structure Tool to organize some of the key ideas they have gathered from the reading and summarizing activities. The Structure Tool supports students to develop an initial structure for their text, including notes based on their background knowledge. As they continue to research and discuss ideas in the Community Updates, they add more notes, refine the elements of their text, and draft new versions, transforming their notes into well written text. Students should also refer to the Rubric as a guide as they write in Creator. If necessary, look through the Rubric with students.

For first time users of Scholar, the following Overt Instruction Updates from the Writer's Toolkit: Strategies for Writing in the New Media may be useful to add to Community:

  • How to Write in Scholar
  • Using the Rubric and Checker
  • Planning Using the Structure Tool

Project Rubric

CCSS Focus

W.5.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

W.5.4: Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development and organization are appropriate to task, purpose and audience.

W.5.6: With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as interact and collaborate with others.

5. Survey: Comprehension, Text Structure and Language

For the Student

Read the opinion, Teaching is the Best Job in the World, and then complete the survey: Comprehension, Text Structure and Language Features of an Opinion.

Teaching is the Best Job in the World

Teaching is the best job in the world because it has many rewards. One reward is seeing students learn and grow. Another reward is that teachers build relationships with their students. Also, there is a lot of variety in teaching and that makes the job interesting despite all the time teachers have to spend planning lessons and assessing students’ work.

Teaching is a great job because teachers see their students learn and grow. For example, in all subjects, science, math, English, music or history, teachers help students gain new knowledge and skills in writing, speaking, thinking, reasoning, researching, collaborating, performing and many more. Consequently, teachers see their students grow in confidence, developing their talents as well as their skills and understanding. In fact, teachers see students’ growth and development every day.

As teachers develop relationships with their students, teaching becomes more rewarding. Teachers work closely with their students in the classroom, on excursions and field trips, and extra-curricular activities. They are able to challenge students to learn because they get to know their students’ strengths and weaknesses. They laugh with their students and support them when they are unhappy or facing problems. When students from around the world were asked, what makes a good teacher, many referred to the importance of relationships. For example, Christiane Stroeher from Germany said, ‘A good teacher should be friendly and consequently should listen to the pupils and he/she should care for every pupil in the class.” (Source: http://www.unicef.org/teachers/teacher/teacher.htm, UNESCO, 1996). When teachers develop good relationships with their students, they also enjoy teaching more.

In addition, there is always variety in teaching because teachers have different students each year and teach different courses and topics. With about 25-30 students in a class in elementary schools, and with four or five classes in middle and high school, teachers interact with many individuals. A teaching day is never boring when there is so much variety.

However, one of the disadvantages of teaching is the time teachers spend planning lessons, creating resources and grading/assessing students’ work. This planning and assessment often happens in the evenings and on weekends so can take time away from family life and recreation. Nevertheless, teachers accept this as part of the job. With good planning and assessment, students learn more and there are fewer discipline problems. So teachers see this as a reward that makes up for all the time they have to invest.

The rewards of teaching are many, including seeing students grow and learn, building relationships and variety. These outweigh any disadvantages, especially the time needed to plan, create resources and assess. Every day teachers are challenged to be the best they can be so their students are the best they can be, and that makes teaching the most rewarding job in the world.

Teaching is the Best Job in the World

For the Teacher

This survey builds in definitions of the structural and language features of an opinion. This text also provides a model of an opinion which will support students as they write their own opinions.

Survey Results: Go to the Survey Tool in Publisher. Then go to Find a Survey => Already Distributed Surveys => Results.

The survey is followed up by Paragraphs in Opinions. Students should then be able to move into writing in Creator. To provide extra support to students, post the following Overt Instruction Updates from the Writer’s Toolkit: Strategies for Writing Arguments in the New Media to Community if they need to focus on this aspect of writing at this time. Alternatively, individualized or small group support may be provided through structured mini-lessons.

  • Transition Words in Arguments

CCSS Focus

RI.5.8: Explain how an author uses reasons and evidence to support particular points in a text, identifying which reasons and evidence support which point(s).

W.5.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

W.5.1a: Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which ideas are logically grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

W.5.1b: Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.

W.5.1c: Link opinion and reasons using words, phrases and clauses (e.g. consequently, specifically).

W.5.1d: Provide a concluding statement or section related to the opinion presented.

6. Paragraphs in Opinions

For the Student

Learning Intention: To understand how to write a paragraph that presents an opinion that is supported by reasons and examples.

Paragraphs: A text is organized into paragraphs. The length of a paragraph ranges from one sentence to many sentences (e.g. 5-10). Read the following paragraph from Teaching is the Best Job in the World.

Teaching is a great job because teachers see their students learn and grow. For example, in all subjects, science, math, English, music or history, teachers help students gain new knowledge and skills in writing, speaking, thinking, reasoning, researching, collaborating, performing and many more. Consequently, teachers see their students grow in confidence, developing their talents as well as their skills and understanding. In fact, teachers see students’ growth and development every day.

With a partner, discuss the following questions:

What is the writer’s opinion?

What is the main reason to support the writer’s opinion?

What are some examples that the writer provides?

Sentences and Words in Opinion Paragraphs

  • The first sentence tells the reader what the paragraph is mainly about. It also includes the main reason to support the author’s opinion. This sentence is called the topic or point sentence.
  • The next sentences provide examples or evidence to support the topic sentence. Reasons may followed by other evidence such as facts, statistics and quotations. Graphics (charts, tables) and multimedia also provide evidence.
  • Words such as because, as, and since can be used to combine opinions with reasons in a sentence. Phases such as for example, for instance, in order to, in addition, consequently and specifically also link opinions and reasons.

Comment: Post another opinion about any topic. Include a reason to support the opinion. Comment on at least one other student’s comment. Do you agree or disagree? Provide a reason for your opinion.

Fig. 6: A Career in the Food Industry

For the Teacher

In this activity students analyze a paragraph in an opinion text. This paragraph can also serve as a model when writing their own opinion texts. Using a single paragraph is useful to focus students’ attention on the links among opinions, reasoning and evidence.

The initial activity is to discuss what the text is about. This is important to engage students before the close analysis of the structure of the paragraph. If necessary, students may practice the skill by analyzing other paragraphs.

The conjunctions that create the relationship between opinion and reasons are identified in this activity.

CCSS Focus

W.5.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons and information.

W.5.1a: Introduce a topic or text clearly, state an opinion, and create an organizational structure in which related ideas are logically grouped to support the writer’s purpose.

W.5.1b: Provide logically ordered reasons that are supported by facts and details.

W.5.1c: Link opinion and reasons using words and phrases (e.g., so, consequently, specifically).

7. Give Feedback and Revise

For the Student

REVISION REQUEST

Learning Intention: To review other students’ works and then revise my own.

Check your Notifications for Feedback Requests: You have received a Feedback Request. Click on this link to take you to the work you have been assigned to give feedback. Go to Feedback => Reviews => Review Work. Rate the work on each criterion and explain why you gave the work that rating. Make in-text comments at Feedback => Annotations. Make an overall recommendation at Feedback => Recommendation. Submit your feedback once it is finished at About This Work => Project => Status. You will not be able to submit your feedback until all requirements set by you teacher have been met. These may include a review, annotations, and/or a publication recommendation.

The next stage of the writing process is to revise your own work.

Check your Notifications for a Revision Request: You have received a Revision Request. Click on this link to take you to the most recent version of your work. Then go to Feedback => Reviews => Results to see the reviews, and Feedback => Annotations to see in-text comments. Once you have incorporated all of the feedback (Reviews/Annotations) from your peers, click “Submit Revision” below the work. 

You can also write a self-review, explaining how you have taken on board the feedback you received.

Comment: Do you have any more questions about Scholar at this stage? Make a comment in this update. If you think you have an answer to another student's question, please answer it - be sure to name the student you are replying to in your comment by starting with @Name.

Fig. 7: A Career in the Tourist Industry

For the Teacher

This update covers two stages of the writing process in Scholar: Review and Revision.

The following Overt Instruction Updates from the Writer's Toolkit: Strategies for Writing in the New Media may be useful to add to Community. They may be used with first time users or it may be appropriate to introduce them in a second writing project so students learn about the features of Scholar over time.

  • Constructive Feedback: Annotations - this guides students in how to provide specific feedback through Annotations.
  • Constructive Feedback: Reviews - this describes types of feedback such as critical, cheerleader and constructive feedback.
  • Revision Phase - this focuses on how to use the feedback students receive to improve their writing, and includes writing a self review.

Before the students submit their final work, run the Analytics. Check the percentage of text revised between one draft and the next, the number of words currently written and the grade level of the writing. You may wish to ask some students to do more work before they submit.

CCSS Focus

W.5.5: With some guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, editing, rewriting, or trying a new approach.

W.5.6: With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as interact and collaborate with others.

L.5.1: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English grammar and usage when writing.

L.5.2: Demonstrate command of the conventions of standard English capitalization, punctuation and spelling when writing.

8. Publish and Reflect

For the Student

Learning Intention: To identify what is successful writing.

Check Notifications to see if your work has been published and whether works that you provided feedback on have been selected for publication. Published works may be viewed on your and any collaborators' individual profiles in Community.

Comment: Read two or three other students’ published opinions. What are some interesting opinions and evidence you have learned from reading other students’ work? These might be ideas you hadn’t thought of, or interesting evidence such as facts that you didn’t know. Also comment about one thing you have learned about writing opinions. Mention the creator and title of the work, and make a link to that page so the person reading your comment can jump to the page quickly.

Fig. 8: What will your future career be?

For the Teacher

Notifications of publication are provided to the creator and all reviewers.

This reflection activity promotes student metacognition about what makes quality writing by reading and reflecting on other students’ writing. Ask students to look over other people’s published works - have them read at least two or three works. Ask them to comment on something interesting they learned from reading other students’ work.

Refer to Analytics to see how students have performed.

CCSS Focus

W.5.6: With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing.

9. Acknowledgements

Title: Apple (Source); Fig. 1: A Career in Sports (Source); Fig. 2: A Career in Education (Source); Fig. 3: A Career in Acting (Source); Fig. 4: A Career in Science - Robotics (Source); Fig. 5: A Career in Education (Source); Fig. 6: A Career in the Food Industry (Source); Fig. 7: A Career in the Tourist Industry (Source); Fig. 8: The Future (Source).