The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate. Students begin by determining their goal or thesis. They then identify three reasons to support their argument, and three facts or examples to validate each reason. The map graphic in the upper right-hand corner allows students to move around the map, instead of having to work in a linear fashion. By clicking the printer icon, students can preview their map, return to their map for revisions, or print their completed map for future reference.

Visit this interactive tool at: http://www.readwritethink.org/materials/persuasion_map/.

ReadWriteThink Lessons That Use This Tool

A Case for Reading—Examining Challenged and Banned Books  (3-5)
The purpose of this lesson is to inspire students to critically examine a book, which has been selected from the American Library Association Challenged/Banned Books list. The students will analyze the book and document their findings as they read. They will then write a persuasive piece, synthesizing their view about the book and what should be done with the book at their school.

Analyzing Advice as an Introduction to Shakespeare (6-8)
Popular culture provides an introduction to Shakespeare’s poetic devices in this lesson, which asks students to explore an excerpt from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia (9-12)
Students work together to create their own utopias, using blogs as the primary source of publication.

Book Report Alternative: A Character’s Letter to the Editor (6-8)
Students assume the persona of a character from a book that they have read and write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper from that character’s perspective, focusing on a specific issue or situation explored in the novel.

Boys Read: Considering Courage in Novels (6-8)
Engaging stories featuring acts of courage can inspire boys to read and discuss literature with their peers. In this lesson, boys select, read, and discuss a novel with a male protagonist and write a persuasive essay addressing the ways in which the protagonist showed courage.

Brave New Words:  Novice Lexicography and the Oxford English Dictionary (9-12)
Students will become novice lexicographers as they explore recent new entries to the dictionary, learn the process of writing entries for the Oxford English Dictionary, and write a new entry themselves.

Campaigning for Fair Use: Public Service Announcements on Copyright Awareness (6-8)
Students explore a range of resources on fair use and copyright then design their own audio public service announcements (PSAs), to be broadcast over the school’s public address system. Work can also be published as podcasts on the Internet. Students tap research and persuasive writing strategies as they design announcements for an audience of their peers.

Can You Convince Me? Developing Persuasive Writing (3-5)
This lesson teaches elementary students to write persuasive arguments. Within the context of a game, students are made aware of their inherent knowledge of how to persuade. The lesson then extends their understanding of oral argument into the written word.

Communicating on Local Issues: Exploring Audience in Persuasive Letter Writing (9-12)
Students will research a local issue of personal concern to them then write letters to two different audiences that ask readers to take a related action or adopt a specific position on the issue.

Comparing a Literary Work to Its Film Interpretation (9-12)
Students read an original piece of literature and view its film interpretation to compare the two works. They then write a persuasive essay about the validity of the adaptation.

Copyright Law: From Digital Reprints to Downloads (6-8)
In this lesson, students look briefly at the history of copyright law and generalize about how and why it has changed over time. Students then apply this information to recent copyright issues, look at these issues from the perspective of a particular group, and create persuasive arguments to convince others to see the issue from their perspective.

Creating a Persuasive Podcast (6-8)
In this lesson, students create and share short podcasts detailing their views on a current event that affects their lives. Students develop the skill of persuasion while practicing critical thinking and improving media literacy.

Crit Lit for Kids: From Critical Consciousness to Service Learning (6-8)
An award-winning picture book provides the platform for an introduction to reading with critical awareness. Students explore concepts of social justice through discussion and journal responses. The class plans a service-learning project and creates a multimedia presentation to garner community support for their proposal.

Dear Librarian: Writing a Persuasive Letter  (3-5)
Inspire students to write their librarian a persuasive letter, requesting that a specific text be added to the school library collection. As they work on the project, students plan their arguments and outline their reasons and examples. Finally, students write a persuasive letter, which is assessed using a rubric.

Designing Effective Poster Presentations (9-12)
Students explore the genre of posters, review informational writing and visual design, and then design poster presentations to share in class or at a school-wide fair.

Exploring Free Speech and Persuasion with Nothing But The Truth (6-8)
After reading Avi’s Nothing But The Truth and examining the resources related to First Amendment and student rights, students will decide whether the rights of Philip, the protagonist in the novel, are violated. After making their decision, students compose and present position statement and supporting evidence to the class.

Exploring Setting: Constructing Character, Point of View, Atmosphere, and Theme (9-12)
This lesson uses canonical and non-canonical texts by Dybek, Dickens, Poe, and Morrison to help students understand how authors use language to create setting and, in turn, how setting constructs other elements in a literary work. The lesson offers extension opportunities through formal essays, film reviews, and poetry analysis.

Expository Escapade—Detective’s Handbook (6-8)
Students will combine reading in the detective fiction genre with expository writing. Embedded in this unit are reading and writing skills such as defining, editing, explaining, illustrating, justifying, revising, supporting, and validating.

Finding Common Ground: Using Logical, Audience-Specific Arguments (9-12)
Using a hypothetical situation, students generate arguments from opposing points of view, discover areas of commonality through the use of Venn diagrams, and construct logical, audience-specific arguments in order to persuade their opponents. Students also have an opportunity to role-play with classmates in order to refine their arguments.

Inventing and Presenting Unit 3: Persuasive Speaking and Invention Promotion (6-8)
Students design, build, and test inventions to solve problems they have identified. All data is recorded using commonly accepted scientific principles, and students propose in writing an appropriate speech for sharing the results of their experimentation. Final speeches, including graphs, brochures, PowerPoint Slides, and demonstrations, are presented before combined classes.

Joining the Conversation about Young Adult Literature (9-12)
Students create a persuasive case calling for the adoption of a particular young adult literature title into their school’s language arts curriculum. They then present their argument in the form of a letter or speech addressing school decision-makers such as the English department chair or the language arts curriculum coordinator.

Literary Characters on Trial: Combining Persuasion and Literary Analysis (6-8)
Using characters from a piece of literature, students choose and portray characters and relevant situations then use textual evidence to try the character in a mock trial. Students exercise their oral and written persuasion skills by playing a role in a mock trial of a literary character. The class will act as a jury for the literary trial.

Love of War in Tim O’Brien’s “How to Tell a True War Story” (9-12)
Students explore texts on camaraderie among soldiers as an introduction to the theme of love of war. As a culminating activity, students compose a visual collage depicting their own beliefs about the relationship between love and war.

MyTube: Changing the World With Video Public Service Announcements (9-12)
Capitalizing on the popularity of self-made videos, this lesson engages students by asking them to create their own public service announcements about social, cultural, economic, and political topics.

Persuading an Audience: Writing Effective Letters to the Editor (9-12)
Students write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper, focusing on a current local or national issue and requesting a specific action or response.

Persuading Readers with Endorsement Letters (9-12)
Students explore the genre of commercial endorsements and then write letters of endorsement for products or services that they use.

Persuading the Principal: Writing Persuasive Letters About School Issues (6-8)
Adolescents love to share their opinions about the way life “should be.” This lesson gives students the opportunity to examine editorials and write their own persuasive letters on issues that are important in their school community.

Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues (6-8)
Critical stance and development of a strong argument are key strategies when writing to convince someone to agree with your position on a topic. This lesson focuses on having students create persuasive essays that address environmental issues that are relevant to their lives.

Propaganda Techniques in Literature and Online Political Ads (9-12)
In this lesson, students draw conclusions from an analysis of propaganda techniques used in a piece of literature—such as the novel Brave New World, the play The Crucible, or the movie Dr. Strangelove—and political advertisements posted on the Internet. Students also make connections to their own world by looking for examples of propaganda in other media, such as print ads and commercials.

Reader Response in Hypertext: Making Personal Connections to Literature (9-12)
In this lesson plan, students choose four quotations to inspire personal responses a novel that they have read. Students write a narrative of place, a character sketch, an extended metaphor poem and a persuasive essay then link all four texts to the quotations. If desired, students incorporate photos into their presentation then publish the collected texts on their Web site.

Searching for Gold: A Collaborative Inquiry Project (3-5)
In this collaborative inquiry activity, the real gold is the inquiry skills and content area knowledge that students develop. Students study the Gold Rush using a collaborative inquiry strategy: each of several small groups research one aspect of the topic and teach that topic to the rest of the class. Students create a project to aid in their oral presentation of their researched topic.

Tracking the Ways Writers Develop Heroes and Villains (9-12)
After considering how the Star Wars character Darth Vader is cast as a villain, students read novels in small groups and track aspects of character development. After reading, students create a presentation that shares how a trait is developed for a character in their reading.

Vote for Me! Developing, Writing, and Evaluating Persuasive Speeches (3-5)
Effective persuasive speeches require the logical formulation of solid arguments that are backed by examples. They also need good delivery. This lesson encourages fourth- and fifth-grade students to think critically and write persuasively by focusing on preparing, giving, and evaluating mock campaign speeches.

Voting! What’s It All About? (3-5)
Students learn about the voting process through read-alouds, partner and independent reading, as well as guided Internet exploration of child-friendly Web sites. Students share information through writing and whole group discussions, explore the difference between fact and opinion, and create a large graffiti wall mural with information they’ve learned.