Alex Lancia

Seeing as I always gather great ideas from others online, I thought it only fair to share this “virtual opinion” writing unit for grade 2 that my co-teacher Ms. Yuka and I recently completed.  The lessons are listed via image thumbnails in the sequential order that the lessons were taught – in our minds there is a progression to them.  Clicking on the link should get you a viewable version of the slide that you can copy/edit or use the associated Seesaw Activity link in the caption for that lesson.  The Seesaw Activities are complete with a screen casted mini-lesson of sorts and then templates/instructions and clickable scaffolds where required.  Please note that if you plan on following this scope and sequence then you might want to add a few lessons prior to starting this clarifying the difference between fact versus opinion.

This first lesson is focused around giving an opinion and supporting with reasons.

The second lesson builds by adding examples to support reasons.

The third lesson is about giving opinions and reasons on a favourite book (via a video clip) – as a stepping stone towards book reviews.

The fourth lessons builds on lesson 3 by asking to support the reasons with examples.

The next 3 lessons are a series focused around fairy tales, with lesson 5 specifically addressing how to write a lead and summary.

Lesson 6 delves into writing the body of a favourite fairy tale opinion piece using the opinion/reason/example framework.

Lesson 7 addresses the digital media piece by publishing the reviews online.

Lesson 8 asks students to take all the work they have done on opinion pieces so far to recommend a favourite book in writing.

Lesson 9 opens up the spectrum of opinions even further to write reviews on anything.

This final lesson is about making a video of their favourite written recommendation based on lesson 9 and leaving kind digital feedback.

And that’s it.  We think.  Our best effort anyway.  The standards we targeted:

W.2.1: “Write opinion pieces in which they introduce the topic or book they are writing about, state an opinion, supply reasons that support the opinion, use linking words to connect opinion and reasons, and provide a concluding statement or section.”

W.2.6: “With guidance and support from adults, use a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing, including in collaboration with peers.”

The intention behind these series of lessons was to tackle some of the opinion writing standards in grade 2 that we had not yet taught, while also providing a somewhat “scripted” format that is easy to follow and “deliver” as our first extended virtual teaching experience.  Feedback for how to improve this mini-virtual unit always welcome and appreciated. And as always much thanks to my co-teacher Ms. Yuka, without whom much of this wouldn’t be possible.