Are you looking to teach opinion writing digitally this school year? If so, why not try teaching digital writing with google slides. 

This format of writing is fun, easy and convenient to assign via Google Classroom.

Besides, teaching students opinion writing with google slides templates can no doubt subtly scaffold the structural elements of the genre and make writing digital and so much more fun to teach in the process.

Teachers (myself included) have often commented about how difficult it often is to teach writing – be it a narrative, persuasive, or even a creative genre.

How do you teach a student to write with flair?

Of course, it takes time, practice, knowledge of subject content, and consistency before a student is able to write with a fair degree of cohesion. 

Opinion Writing Structural Elements With Google Slides

Interestingly, if students are explicitly taught the structural components of a writing genre, the job is half done.

How so? 

For one thing, scoring is attributed to the hook, opinion, reasons, and supporting details in an Opinion Essay, also called a persuasive essay or the elements of a plot in a narrative.

Sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation in addition to the flair for writing make up the other half of the scoring.

So setting up a child for a more or less 50% success rate by initially focusing on the structural elements of a writing genre is quite forthcoming.

Scaffolding Structure With Google Slides Templates

It is interesting to note that writing for the reluctant becomes less intimidating if it is integrated with technology and based on a theme – makes sense doesn’t it – considering that most students love learning that involves digital devices and moreover a topic they can relate to.

The google slides templates in this Earth Day themed writing resource are interactive and serve the purpose.

A simple drag and drop activity can help students identify and analyze the structural components.

Integrating Opinion Writing With a Theme

Opinion writing can be all the more interesting to students when it revolves around a specific theme.

For instance, this Persuasive/Opinion writing freebie in Google Slides features sample texts with an Earth Day theme.

That’s content knowledge at students’ fingertips. Now all students have to do is make a choice, take a stand, and write their opinion on the issue.

All you need is a Google Drive account and you can assign this resource to your students via Google Classroom or any other safe online learning platform.

I’ve also projected this lesson in Zoom by simply sharing my screen and walking students through the scaffolded steps outlined in each section of the writing lesson.

The Flexibility of Google Slides Templates

The versatility of working with a writing lesson in Google Slides is that it could be a combination of presentation and interactive slides that involve typing, clicking, and dragging to order the elements of the genre.

So for instance, a slide detailing information can be presented by accessing ‘view’ on the menu bar in Google Slides and selecting the option ‘present’.

Information to guide students can also be written on each slide itself thereby scaffolding the structural elements of the genre.

Dragging sentence strips and placing them in the right order further reinforces the structural components of a persuasive piece.

Google Slides Templates: Reflection and Identification

In addition, constructive questions on the mentor text help students reflect on the components of the opinion essay.

Color/colour coding in Google slides is an effective visual aid and here students can color/colour code the mentor text thereby further assimilating information on the structural components of the persuasive/opinion essay. The mentor text in this resource is editable – which makes this possible.

The constructive questions are editable too, giving the teacher flexibility to change spellings or content. This is especially useful if your curriculum revolves around British English or American English.

Google Slides Templates as a Means to Aid Pre-Writing

Graphic organizers/organisers are a powerful tool to guide writing and this helps students to keep their writing on track and adhere to structure. That, as I mentioned earlier, is a job half-done.

Opinion Digital Writing Publishing Made Easy

And finally, after students have planned their writing using the graphic organizer, they are ready to write their persuasive piece. The checklist on the right in the slide below would be a great reference tool as they write. Best of all, as this is a digital resource – students type. The perfect outlet for students who are reluctant writers.

So, if you haven’t yet started on having your students digitally write in Google Slides or you would like to try out this complete digital writing lesson on Persuasive/Opinion Writing – then do access this resource by clicking here or on the image link. 

If you do use this resource with your students, I would be thrilled if you tag me on instagram @teachtotell.

You will find a big bundle of writing resources that will also be updated with digital writing resources and many more writing activities HERE.

Stay safe! Until next time…

Looking to teach writing from a point of view to students in grades 3-6? Click here to read this post.