Persuasive Writing Plan

I made the link between boxing and writing. When trying to persuade we need to not only put forward our strongest 2-3 arguments (throw our strongest 2-3 punches), we also need to defend ourselves against any opponent's argument (block) and then say why it isn't a good enough reason against our argument (counter punch).

This simple plan really helped my students work out what exactly they were arguing for and against and how to formulate a counter argument. The boxing analogy - which we acted out - really helped them understand what a counter-argument actually was. I had my class of 8 year old kids in Japan write a persuasive argument in favour of a chosen energy source with a counter argument. This was not an easy task - the fact they all managed to achieve the end goal was in large part to the solid foundations this plan gave them.