Have you ever noticed how pirates always get what they want? At first when sailors see a pirate ship approaching they try to run away, but in the end they seem to realise that giving up their treasure is in their best interest. Now you may be thinking it’s because pirates are a little intimidating and scare people into doing whatever they want, but in fact, the real reason pirates always get their way may be because they have very good persuasive writing skills….
Students
Ahrrrr mate, you are about to begin your journey to becoming as persuasive as a pirate. There are four activities that will teach you the secrets to writing a very persuasive text and ultimately, getting you whatever you want!
All Cut Up
Let me tell you a wee story… I had just finished writing a very persuasive text when me crazy mate Blackbeard came rushing into the room waving his sword like a mad man. He had obviously had a very stressful day! Amongst the confusion my writing was cut into shreds! Your task is to read through the cut up text and try to put it back into the correct order.
Paragraphing
If you’re a lazy landlubber this activity is for you! In this activity you’ll learn about how to write a good persuasive text. It tells you what you need to put in each paragraph and how many sections your writing will need. All the work is done for you, you just need to read.
Connectives
Have you noticed that pirates speak a little differently to you landlubbers? In this activity you will learn about sequencing connectives, something that pirates always use when they are making people see their point of view.
Modality
This is another language activity to make your writing more persuasive. Learn about words that show modality then see how many you can find yourself. Use modality and it will be impossible for people not to come around to your way of thinking!
Teachers
Persuasive Pirates is a writing website with four activities that will introduce your students to persuasive writing. It is aimed at competent year three students (Grade 3 for American systems), however, it would also be adequate for students of higher grades who haven’t had experience with the persuasive text type before. The activities can be done in any order, though I would recommend doing the structure activities first and then the language tasks.
All Cut Up
This is a good way to introduce persuasive writing to your students and can be used before or after the 'Paragraphing' activity. The text has been split into paragraphs and the student must rearrange them to make the text make sense. If used as an introduction you can ask the students about the different features that helped them order the text and this moves them into the next activity. If used after the 'paragraphing' activity, it can be used as an informal assessment to see how well the students learnt the different parts of the text.
Paragraphing
This is a text explanation that breaks the paragraphs down and describes each section. You could do it before or after the 'All Cut Up' activity. It not only describes each section, but also explains how each paragraph is made. Therefore, it explains the structure of the overall text, as well as the structure of each individual paragraph. It is quite prescribed, but it can help students who struggle to build paragraphs.
Connectives
This activity explains sequencing connective to the students. Students are then asked to identify the three connectives in a text.
Modality
This activity introduces students to modality. It is very general and mainly has examples of adverbs. However there are also modal verbs and adjectives.