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State Your Case!

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Subject: ELA (English Language Arts)

Lesson Length: 45 mins

Topic: Opinion Writing

Grade Level: 5

Standards / Framework:

Brief Description: Students will create a comic expressing an opinion with reasons to support the opinion.

Know Before You Start: Students will need some knowledge of opinion writing. This lesson is helpful in giving students practice organizing their thoughts for an opinion writing piece.

Hook:

  • Read and discuss the sample comic. 
    • What opinion is being presented? 
    • What reasons support this opinion?
    • What other reasons could have been given? 
    • How was the comic organized to help the reader understand the point of view?

Activity:

  • Using the sample comic as a guide, have students create a five-panel comic to express and support an opinion.
  • Have students brainstorm topics in which they have a strong opinion. They may have strong opinions about things such as favorite foods, mandatory school uniforms, or the best quarterback of all time.
    • Panel 1: State the opinion.
    • Panels 2-4: Provide reasons in support of the opinion.
    • Panel 5: Summarize the opinion.

Closure:

  • Share the opinion comics via a gallery walk or by projecting them for the class to view. 

  • Discuss how strong reasons help others consider varying points of view on topics.

Differentiation:

  • Allow students to use the speech-to-text feature.

  • Print the sample comic for students to take notes.

  • Provide sentence frames.

  • Use a graphic organizer for students to organize ideas.

Resources:

  • Comic to print or display: Comic.

Suggested Content Packs:

Suggested Story Starters:

Related Ideas

Would You Rather?

Play a game of Would You Rather to create opinion comics with your students.

Supporting Your Opinions

Students will practice responding to opinion statements of others with their own personal preferences.

Prove It!

Students will learn to support a point of view.