Are you looking for an engaging topic to motivate your readers and writers? After reading the NF passage, students will form their own opinion about “Should kids stop using plastic straws?” and write a paragraph stating their opinion with three strong reasons. Teachers will love the colorful and creative bulletin board that they can create to show off the hard work of their students!
Breakdown of this resource:
1. Skip Plastic Straws and Save the Sea Turtles: This article is a two page non-fiction passage about the effect that plastic straws have on sea turtles. The reading passage is written at a third grade reading level and can be adapted for younger or older grades. There is also a cover page for the article, which has a photograph of a sea turtle.
2. Reading Comprehension Questions: There is a mix of true/false, multiple choice, and short answer questions. There is an answer key provided.
3. Slides to Display on Your SmartBoard: These slides are in color, so that they display nicely with your technology. One slide poses the question “Should kids stop using plastic straws?” and the other slide provides sentence stems for your writers who need more support.
4. Success Criteria for Opinion Writing: A list of statements students can read to determine their success on this writing project. In addition, I provided a writing sample that meets all the criteria.
5. Graphic Organizers for Prewriting and Opinion Writing Paragraph: The graphic organizer helps students to clearly state their opinion with an introduction, three supporting reasons, and a strong conclusion.
6. Writing Checklist: An opinion writing checklist is included. The checklist is specifically geared towards an opinion writing piece.
7. Opinion Writing Rubric: This one page rubric is a powerful way for students to self-assess their writing. The teacher can also use the rubric to assess writing.
8. Peer Editing Checklist: With guidance from their peers, students develop and strengthen their writing as needed by editing, using this helpful checklist.
9. Final Copy Paper: There are 2 different versions of lined pages for students to choose from as they write their final copy- primary and intermediate lines.
10. Templates for Bulletin Board: There are two color photographs for you print and display with the opinion writing- one of sea turtle an one of a paper straw in a glass of water. There are 9 pages to print and display as the title of your bulletin board. You can print these on colorful card stock paper. There are also colorful printables to create an anchor chart.
11. Cause and Effect Relationship: Students will read the article and use text evidence to find examples of cause and effect relationships. There are two pages of student printable to go with this activity.
12. Reusable/Paper Straw Tag Printable: Celebrate the end of this reading and writing lesson by surprising each student with paper or reusable straw, attaching this tag to it.
If you have any questions, please reach out to me!
