The year 3 students this English unit of work on persuasive writing is

aimed at is diverse in age, academic ability, socio-culturally and writing

developmental stages with the class size of 29. The ages of the students
vary from 8 to 9 years of age. This fact has been considered when
designing this unit of work as some students potentially could have spent
8 12 months extra in the schooling system, which may place them
further along the academic learning scale in comparison to students who
have spent less time at school.
The cohorts ability levels consist of medium ability (18), lower ability (7)
and high achieving (4) students. The lower ability students are working at
below year level and closer to a year 2 level in their reading, displaying
lower level of sight words, word recognition phonemic awareness and
comprehension skills. Their writing is still ego centric and minimal and
students can spell some frequently used words accurately at times and
can make some connections within a text. They lack strategies to work
through general classroom activities on their own needing explicit
teaching and scaffolding.
The high achieving students are working at a year 3 and beginning of the
middle primary writing stage with the ability to communicate ideas after a
class discussion in a mix of personal and impersonal writing. This in itself
raises various issues in the successful delivery of this unit surrounding
equitable assessment, communicating clear assessment goals to
students, teacher marking time and assessment validity with Brady (2012)
stating that Valid and reliable assessment tasks will ensure that there is a
solid foundation for the assessment process.
There is a minority of students from differing cultural backgrounds
including 4 Indigenous, with 2 in the lower ability range, 1 ESL learners in
the lower ability grouping also within the classroom students come from
varying family situations from single parent, living with care givers, dual
parents and foster care. The majority of students in this student cohort
have progressed through schooling at the same rate and have shared
class teachers previously. This lends to close group ties that will
strengthen the collaborative approach in completing the main learning
objectives of this unit to develop their oral, reading and writing skills.

The main learning objectives for this unit are for students to develop and
understanding of the purpose, language features, text structure, audience
and format of persuasive writing thought a gradual release of
responsibility model with links to the Australian Curriculum all of which are
in the unit outline.

Basic understanding of an exposition and its structure

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Students to understand what an exposition is used for

Students understand that technical vocabulary is used to help shape
argument
Students can distinguish emotive vocabulary and its uses in convincing
the reader
Students can locate and give examples of points of views from persuasive
texts
Students can make judgements on who text is written for (audience)
Students will understand that the introduction of a persuasive text is to
appeal to the reader and grab their attention
Students understand the introduction also contains the writers view point
or opinion and stance on the topic
Through modelling, deconstruction and construction of introduction
student will understand what an introduction contains
Through modelling, deconstruction and construction of body student will
understand the body points are from most to least importance and in
paragraphs
For students to understands to persuade the reader verbs , present tense
and emotive vocabulary can represent emotion, points of view and
consolidate ideas
Students develop an understanding of sound letter relationships and
knowledge of prefix and suffixes
Students to use opinion , facts, statements in supporting their points of
view when writing the body of a persuasive argument
Students to utilize graphic organisers to compare/contrast opposing
arguments in text
Students understand that conjunctions join sentence ideas and
connectives links ideas from different sentences
Students to understand that modality helps strengthen writers ideas and
statements
Through modelling, deconstruction and construction of conclusion
students will understand that a conclusion is a summary of arguments and
it reiterates the authors point of view
Students to understand the differences between homophones and that
they can contain dissimilar meanings. I.e. heard, herd, hear, here
Through modelling, deconstruction and construction of introduction, body
and conclusions students will learn to plan a draft and write a persuasive
text taking into account purpose, language features, text structure,

audience and format based on their own experiences.

Each of the objectives have been developed with the theme of exploring different
persuasive texts and stimuli giving the students a balanced view on persuasive
text and formats. I have written the objectives for this essay and only now
included them into my unit plan as I have tried using a different method of
writing objectives so I can adjust my unit sequence and resources upon
reflection.

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The unit of work was developed to appeal to the students sense of moral
judgement by exploring both sides of a persuasive argument surrounding the
effect and use of environment resources. The theme focuses on what impact our
actions can have on the environment and the dilemma of sustaining ourselves in
order to survive and the lasting impact that our footprint can leave on the
environment and how different types of persuasive texts can convince us.
Students will explore their own thoughts and feelings on the use of natural
resources. Is it ok to use environmental resources? Should we care if they are
renewable? Who does it effect? What are the outcomes of our use? Should we be
able to pollute? Should we care if it affect others? This theme will be explored
through a persuasive writing format that will look at persuasive adverts,
narratives, and videos with differing viewpoints and persuasive techniques.
The text this unit utilizes range from YouTube adverts, posters and narratives.
The YouTube advert is from an oil company and it tries to persuade the watcher
by using a sincere casually dress employee of the company , who is talking with
emotion and sincerity that they (the company) are committed to funding, finding
and developing renewable energy resources, combined with another person
alongside that being a trustworthy and intelligent teacher mentioning the exact
same points, thus trying to persuade the watcher that the company has the
same ideas and focus on renewable energy as teachers have and that that both
agree. This video we can explore as class and highlight how the advert is trying
to persuade us that both the teacher and company man are in agreement in
what needs to happen right now but when you break down the video the teacher
mentions renewable energy resources of wind and solar however the company
man only agrees on solar and mentions bio fuels technologies which is a
resource that needs to be manufactured. As a learning material we can explore
the use of technical, emotive vocabulary, passive, active voice, fact, opinion, text
structure and audience.
The resources, Should we pay for plastic bags?, My Favourite animal, The world
best animal is are to be used as a starting point for students to dissect,
deconstruct, construct text into, body and conclusion as well as using it as
stimuli for developing further ideas for developing arguments on either side for
or against or differing opinions. These resources combined with the
introduction/body/conclusion worksheet will form part of the formative
assessment on students understanding of persuasive devices and text structure
through teacher modelling.
The What you do in your garden resources is for the class to discuss the visual
metaphors persuasive texts can take and the impact it has in persuading the
reader. This is to be used as an oral discussion point in as an inclusive class
activity. The class will be able with scaffolding to deconstruct/ construct the text
in info, body and conclusion while examining the language features.
The main text of focus for this unit is The Lorax written by Dr Seuss which is a
story about issues of environmental destruction and consumerism. This story
gives students rich examples of language features, text structure, audience,
differing purposes and many areas to initiate oral discussions. The story is able
to create connections to the real world with scaffolding from the teacher has
numerous examples for explicit teaching in the deconstruction of text, finding
prefix, suffixes, verbs, voice, phonemes, homophones, conjunctions, connections,

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tense, text structures, facts and opinions. The book has all the attributes needed
as a source in the teaching of persuasive writing.
The idea of the above mentioned text resources being in contrasting forms from
posters, videos, narratives to expositions is so the students develop the
understanding that persuasion can come in various formats but still have one
main goal, which is to persuade the reader or watcher.

Analyse and critically reflect on unit outline

The unit outline that I have created covers most areas of persuasive writing and
is at a comparable level for year 3 students
Students who display a low ability in reading, comprehension and spelling
potentially could face difficulties throughout this unit. The opening lesson for
this unit focus on different types of texts from adverts which are visual in form to
multimedia YouTube videos, written text in persuasive text and narrative. I have
adjusted the initial instruction sequence by including modelling, demonstrative
practices, sharing, and have involved student collaboration combined with
guided practice and teacher scaffolding when needed as to include the diversity
of learners in the student cohort. I have provided opportunities for myself and
students to think aloud through each process in the lessons from questioning,
providing feedback.
The main focus text The Lorax may be too hard for some students to read and
comprehend so a strategy I have used is for the students to watch a narrated
YouTube version which we will stop and discuss as an inclusive activity. Other
learning areas covered throughout this unit may be challenging for some
students but utilising the gradual release of responsibility pedagogical approach
and including a diverse range of resources such as multimedia should ensure
that students will not be left to their own devices until they can demonstrate
through formative/summative opportunities that they are ready for more
responsibility in applying their understandings and skills independently.

References
ACARA see Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority

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Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2014). Year 2:

English. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/Year3

Brady, L., & Kennedy, K. (2012). Assessment and reporting: celebrating student
achievement. (4th ed., p. 31-47). NSW: Pearson Australia.

Det.act.gov.au,. (2014). Literacy - Education and Training Directorate. Retrieved

28 April 2014, from
http://www.det.act.gov.au/teaching_and_learning/literacy_and_numeracy/literacy
Fisher, D. (2008). Effective Use of the Gradual Release of Responsibility Model
(1st ed., pp. 1-4).

Appendices

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Unit Focus
Persuasive Writing

Unit Duration
Possibly 3x40 min lessons
per week for 4 weeks.

Year Level
3

Unit Overview
This unit of work on persuasive writing will utilise the book The Lorax as stimuli in developing
a deep understanding of the concepts involved in writing persuasively. The unit will focus on
verbs, tense, prefix, suffix, conjunctions, connectives, modality, passive voice, phonemes,
rhymes, homophones and exposition structure, combined with a class and student focus on
deconstruction, joint construction, and finally individual construction of persuasive writing
text. This unit will be taught using Tyson Yunkaporta's "8 ways of Learning" pedagogical
model, through modelling, sharing, guiding and independent writing.
The culminating activity of students work is to write a persuasive text either supporting the
Lorax or Once-lers view on utilising natural resources.

Learning Outcomes
Australian Curriculum English
Language
Examine how evaluative language can
be varied to be more or less forceful
(ACELA1477)
Understand how different types of texts
vary in use of language choices,
depending on their purpose and context
(for example, tense and types of
sentences) (ACELA1478)
Understand that paragraphs are a key
organisational feature of written texts
(ACELA1479)
Understand that verbs represent
different processes, for example doing,
thinking, saying, and relating and that
these processes are anchored in time
through tense (ACELA1482)
Learn extended and technical
vocabulary and ways of expressing
opinion including modal verbs and
adverbs (ACELA1484)
Understand how to use soundletter
relationships and knowledge of spelling
rules, compound words, prefixes,
suffixes, morphemes and less common
letter combinations, for example tion
(ACELA1485)

Focus Questions

Cross Curricular priorities

Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander
histories and culture
Asia & Australias engagement
with Asia
Sustainability
General Capabilities
Literacy

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Literature

Discuss texts in which characters,

events and settings are portrayed in
different ways, and speculate on the
authors reasons (ACELT1594)
Draw connections between personal
experiences and the worlds of texts,
and share responses with others
(ACELT1596)

Numeracy
ICT
Critical & creative thinking
Ethical behaviour
Personal & social competence
Intercultural understanding

Literacy

Identify the point of view in a text and

suggest alternative points of view
(ACELY1675)
Identify the audience and purpose of
imaginative, informative and persuasive
texts (ACELY1678)
Plan, draft and publish imaginative,
informative and persuasive texts
demonstrating increasing control over
text structures and language features
and selecting print,and multimodal
elements appropriate to the audience
and purpose (ACELY1682)
Write using joined letters that are clearly
formed and consistent in size
(ACELY1684)

Year 3 Achievement Standard

Receptive modes (listening, reading and viewing)
By the end of Year 3, students understand how content can be organised using
different text structures depending on the purpose of the text. They understand
how language features, images and vocabulary choices are used for different
effects.
They read texts that contain varied sentence structures, a range of punctuation
conventions, and images that provide additional information. They identify
literal and implied meaning connecting ideas in different parts of a text. They
select information, ideas and events in texts that relate to their own lives and to
other texts. They listen to others views and respond appropriately.

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Productive modes (speaking, writing and creating)

Students understand how language features are used to link and sequence
ideas. They understand how language can be used to express feelings and
opinions on topics. Their texts include writing and images to express and
develop in some detail experiences, events, information, ideas and characters.
Students create a range of texts for familiar and unfamiliar audiences. They
contribute actively to class and group discussions, asking questions, providing
useful feedback and making presentations. They demonstrate understanding of
grammar and choose vocabulary and punctuation appropriate to the purpose
and context of their writing. They use knowledge of sounds and high frequency
words to spell words accurately, checking their work for meaning. They write
using joined letters that are accurately formed and consistent in size.

Unit objectives

Basic understanding of an exposition and its structure

Students to understand what an exposition is used for
Students understand that technical vocabulary is used to help shape
argument
Students can distinguish emotive vocabulary and its uses in convincing the
reader
Students can locate and give examples of points of views from persuasive
texts
Students can make judgements on who text is written for (audience)
Students will understand that the introduction of a persuasive text is to
appeal to the reader and grab their attention
Students understand the introduction also contains the writers view point or
opinion and stance on the topic
Through modelling, deconstruction and construction of introduction student
will understand what an introduction contains
Through modelling, deconstruction and construction of body student will
understand the body points are from most to least importance and in
paragraphs
For students to understands to persuade the reader verbs , present tense
and emotive vocabulary can represent emotion, points of view and
consolidate ideas
Students develop an understanding of sound letter relationships and
knowledge of prefix and suffixes
Students to use opinion , facts, statements in supporting their points of
view when writing the body of a persuasive argument
Students to utilize graphic organisers to compare/contrast opposing
arguments in text
Students understand that conjunctions join sentence ideas and connectives

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links ideas from different sentences

Students to understand that modality helps strengthen writers ideas and
statements

Through modelling, deconstruction and construction of conclusion students

will understand that a conclusion is a summary of arguments and it
reiterates the authors point of view
Students to understand the differences between homophones and that they
can contain dissimilar meanings. I.e. heard, herd, hear, here
Through modelling, deconstruction and construction of introduction, body
and conclusions students will learn to plan a draft and write a persuasive
text taking into account purpose, language features, text structure,

audience and format based on their own experiences.

Unit Planning Template

Learning Experiences

Teaching Strategies
Intro into unit of work:
Persuasive writing

Learning Sequence 1
Exposition, what is it?

Learning Sequence 2
Text Orientation

Learning Sequence 3
Text Orientation

1. Read as a class The

Lorax
Purpose, generic
structure
Modelling write and
display example
Deconstruct text
group.
Look at other
persuasive texts
2. Class to focus on
language features
Focus on one side of
text
3. Class to focus on
language features
Focus on both sides of
text
Discuss as class

Adjustments for needs of

Learners
Utilize YouTube reading of
The Lorax on Interactive
white board:
Where appropriate, use
graphics to communicate and
support text
If appropriate read questions
or text to student
Use scaffolding to help
student reach next level ie a
list of web sites or printed
information to scaffold
research, research
scaffolding questions
If requested and appropriate,
offer to record oral responses
to questions
Give feedback in a familiar
and comfortable setting

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different points of view

change according on
audience

Learning Sequence
4&5
persuasive writing :
Introduction

4& 5 Introduce
Introduction: Teacher
model, share, guide
using examples
As a class find and
discuss verbs, present
tense, prefix,
suffix ,emotive
vocabulary in text
Jointly constructed &
deconstructed writing

Learning Sequence
6&7
Persuasive writing:
Body

Identify strategies for

achieving competence in the
future

Use feedback as a learning

opportunity
applied learning and connect
to the Real World
Use of home language
Collaboration in learning
(sense of community)
Allow for indirect questioning

6& 7 Explore Body : 3

arguments
Teacher model, share,
guide using examples
Students joint construct
& deconstruct text
Use T graph to
compare/contrast ideas
Find and discuss
conjunctions,
connectives, modality,
passive voice in text

Learning Sequence
8&9
Persuasive writing:
Conclusion

8 & 9 Explore
conclusion: Teacher
model, share, guide using
examples
Students joint construct
& deconstruct text
Discuss phonemes,
rhymes, homophones,
voice and opinion in
supporting arguments
Hang the jointly

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constructed text, intro,

body, conclusion in
class for students to
use as format and
stimuli for persuasive
writing final task.

Learning Sequence
10
Plan construction

10 Explore plan: Modelling,

sharing, guiding,
independent

Learning Sequence
11
Individual construction

11 Students utilise plan to

construct persuasive
text.
Teacher to scaffold
students if needed
referring back to model,
share and guiding text
constructed.

Learning Sequence
12
Publish - share

12 Students publish and

share their text.

Culminating activity/presentation of student work

The culminating activity of students work is to

write a persuasive text to persuade the reader of
either the Lorax or Once-lers view on utilising
natural resources.

Resources
The Lorax YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=soRbNlPbHEo
The Lorax book (soft cover)

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Develop Assessment

Type of assessment
Formative.

Summative

What will be assessed

When it will be assessed

Lesson activities,
construction and
deconstruction.
Portfolios
Students
engagement/participation
levels in group discussion.
Students engagement and
participation levels in group
work
Students appropriateness of
questioning
Presentation /Summary of
findings/ Content knowledge

Formative assessment
will be conducted
throughout each lesson
focusing on students
engagement levels,
contribution to research
and content knowledge
via portfolio.

Peer assessment

Peer assessment will be

conducted alongside
teacher summative
assessment on the final
task. Marking criteria will
be in the form of
assessment rubric.

Assessment for students with special education needs:

Modification of the assessment process

Modification of assessment activities (Fewer questions to be asked, use
simpler language,)
Different response design ( Dot point reporting, graphic presentation)

The ongoing assessment of this unit of work is to guide students learning

experiences as the bases for students progression through the learning
sequences, culminating in the students informed presentation.

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