One of the hardest parts about teaching writing is trying to cater to every student. You will have some students who struggle to write a sentence, others who can write pages, and then a whole bunch of students in between. It can feel overwhelming trying to support such a range of writing abilities. The key here is to provide the same activity, but truly differentiate so that you can meet each of your students where they are at. Today, I want to support you with how to differentiate your opinion writing lessons.
What should students produce?
When it comes to opinion writing, there’s a progression in what students are expected to produce in their first few years of schooling.
Students start off introducing the topic and simply sharing their opinion in kindergarten.
By first grade, they are expected to provide a reason to support their opinion and then a sense of closure.
By second grade and third grade, they need to supply multiple reasons and a concluding statement or section. They even need to use linking words (such as ‘because, and, also’ in 2nd grade and ‘therefore, since, for example’ in 3rd grade).
Adjust your expectations
In an ideal world, every student in your class would be capable of these grade level expectations, but we know that is simply not true. There will always be students who struggle and others who go beyond what’s expected.
If you try to force your whole class to meet these expectations exactly, you’re in for a headache. This is where relectant writers shut down because they are being pushed too hard and it’s where advanced writers lose interest because they get bored and don’t feel challenged.
So, what should you do? Instead, it’s best to meet students where they are at and provide learning experiences that are appropriate to their abilities. Basically, give them the chance to produce writing that they are truly capable of.
For example, let’s say you teach second grade. Some of your students will only be capable of sharing their opinion and perhaps one reason.
Others may be able to provide multiple reasons and a sense of closure. It’s best to provide activities that allow for this variation.
The key is to provide the same activity, but offer different versions and have different expectations. Struggling writers don’t like being singled out, so avoid giving them something that is vastly different to their peers in terms of topic or prompt.
Provide different amounts of Writing lines
This is where you might provide the same writing topic or prompt and just adjust your expectations when it comes to what students will produce. If you’re using worksheets or prompts, it’s best to have a different number of writing lines, so that students can write as little or as much as they can.
If you give your students the exact same worksheet, it can often lead to frustration for your learners who are struggling or advanced. There’s nothing more overwhelming to an emergent writer than a full page of small lines. Conversely, there’s nothing more frustrating for an advanced writer than not having enough space to share their thoughts. Simply put, some students need more lines and others need less.
Cater to your student’s handwriting
While we’re talking about writing lines, this is a great opportunity to provide lines that are appropriate to your student’s handwriting size. Some students need bigger lines or dotted lines, others may only need smaller or plain lines.
Use sentence starters and sentence frames
The size and number of writing lines is a great place to start, but like I mentioned earlier, full pages of lines can be daunting to struggling writers.
Some of your confident writers don’t need any support. They’ll happily just start writing on the lines provided. However, many of your students will have no idea where to begin.
This is where sentence starters and sentence frames come in. A sentence starter might be something as simple as ‘I think…’ or ‘In my opinion…’ This is a great starting point.
A sentence frame offers even more support, as students fill in the gaps. For example, ‘____ are better than____’
The reason why sentence starters and sentence frames are so great is that they take away some of the burden and overwhelm for students. Instead of wondering how to start the sentence or how to spell ‘opinion’, they can dive straight into sharing what their favorite animal is.
Sometimes sentence starters and sentence frames can feel like offering too much support. Students may end up only writing a small amount if most of the sentence is written for them. This is where tracing comes in. It’s great if you can offer the option for students to trace the sentence starter or sentence frame.
In summary
The best approach for how to differentiate your opinion writing lessons is to offer the same topic or prompt, but provide a variation in the worksheet style. Some students will thrive with a few, big dotted lines and a sentence frame, others will succeed with a large number of small, plain lines. Finally, be sure to adjust your expectations for what students can produce. The goal is to meet the standards, but not overwhelm or hold back students in pursuit of them.
Throughout this post, I have shared some images of differentiated opinion writing prompts. If you like the look of these prompts, be sure to check them out here.
Want to learn more about the opinion writing prompts?
Here’s a few things to know:
- There is cute clip art to color in and space for students to draw a picture.
- There is a writing checklist at the bottom of each page (reminding students about finger spaces, capital letters, punctuation, writing neatly, checking work, and sounding out words).
- There are 7 planning page options included (1, 2, and 3 reasons, with and without a concluding statement)
- There are blank templates (in case you or you students want to write your own prompt).
- There are extra full lined writing pages, in case your students want to write more.
The Differentiation
One of the reasons that this resource is so valuable is that each of the 50 prompts is offered in 12 versions! There are 4 dotted, 5 dotted, 7 plain, and 10 plain lines to choose from. Also, there are 3 options for each line style (sentence frames, dotted sentence frames, and completely blank).
types of prompt
There are 6 types of prompts:
- ‘Which Is Better…’
- ‘The Best…’
- ‘Would You Rather…’
- ‘Do You Prefer…’
- ‘My Favorite…’
- ‘Should…’
If you like the sound of the writing prompts mentioned in this post, check out the freebie here!
Good luck with teaching opinion writing!
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