Writing Persuasive Essays

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Middle School

Learning Objectives

• Outline a persuasive essay with a clear claim and supporting reasons.
• Find strong and relevant evidence to back up your reasons.
• Use different persuasive techniques to convince your reader.
• Use transition words to connect your argument's ideas together.

Learning Objectives

• Outline a persuasive essay with a clear claim and supporting reasons.
• Find strong and relevant evidence to back up your reasons.
• Use different persuasive techniques to convince your reader.
• Use transition words to connect your argument's ideas together.

Understanding Persuasive Essays

• A persuasive essay is writing meant to convince a reader to agree with you.
• Start with an introduction that includes a hook and your main claim.
• The body paragraphs use reasons and evidence to support your claim.
• End with a conclusion that has a call to action for your reader.
• Find the audience and purpose by underlining verbs in the writing prompt.
• We'll use colors: blue for claims, green for reasons, and yellow for evidence.

I Do: Crafting a Strong Claim and Reasons

• Write a single, arguable sentence for your claim, like "School should start later."
• Check if your claim is focused, debatable, and has the right scope.
• Ask "Why?" about your claim to brainstorm at least three good reasons.
• List your reasons and ensure each one clearly supports the main claim.
• Order your reasons from the strongest to the weakest for more impact.
• Number these reasons to plan the order of your body paragraphs.

Example: Persuasive Essay in Action

• Sample introduction: Hook—“Imagine waking up…”; Claim—“Middle schools should adopt later start times.”
• The hook grabs the reader's attention; the claim clearly states your viewpoint.
• A body paragraph shows underlined evidence from a credible source like a medical study.
• Transition words like Moreover and Therefore help create a smooth, logical flow.

Open Ended

Question type isnt fixed, we do question

Building Reasons and Evidence

• In your group, brainstorm three reasons that support the class claim.
• Use sentence starters like “According to…” to introduce your evidence.
• Your teacher will ask questions to help you check your reasons.
• Share your strongest reason and choose a transition to link ideas.

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You Do: Independent Practice

• Write the introduction and first body paragraph for your persuasive essay.
• Your claim should persuade students to read for 20 minutes nightly.
• Include a clear claim with at least one reason and supporting evidence.
• Make sure you use effective transitions to connect your ideas together.
• You will have fifteen minutes and should use your planner checklist.
• Color-code your claim blue, reasons green, and your evidence yellow.

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Multiple Choice

Exit question

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Multiple Choice

Exit question

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