Preparing ELLs for Opinion Writing: Choosing Language Objectives

As language teachers, we consider the linguistic demands of the learning tasks in each unit we teach. So naturally we started by asking, "What language will the students need to be successful writers in this genre?"

Narrative, information and opinion writing have distinct features. The language of stories looks and sounds much different than the language of opinions. When selecting language objectives, we always let the genre be our guide. We consider the three following areas as we establish objectives: structure, language features, vocabulary.  

Structure

We first examine the building blocks of the genre. Students need to have an understanding of how a text is structured. Every text goes through a series of steps to achieve its purpose. For each genre, these steps are more or less predictable. We refer to these as the stages of the text. Stages shape a text, defining its structure. 

There are many kinds of opinion writing including reviews, expositions (arguing for a point of view), and interpretations. Although each of these maintain the same purpose - to evaluate - they have different structures. 

Our first grade students will be writing reviews in this opinion writing unit. A review has three stages: context, description, evaluation. A review begins by stating the subject of the review and a few relevant details to provide context (author, location, classification). In the description, the writer offers a short summary of events or a description of key features. In the final section of a review, the writer shares opinions or recommendations with supporting reasons. 

While our unit objective is for students to use the full structure of evaluative texts, our initial teaching focuses on developing the evaluation stage. The foundation for any opinion text is claims and justifications; therefore, we introduce these building blocks first. Context and description become increasingly more important as students shift to reviewing books, movies and places in the community.

Language Features

In order to be successful opinion writers, students need to have command of the following language features: 

We treat this list as a menu of options, selecting the grammar objectives that meet the needs of our students. It is helpful to choose the widest-reaching objectives, ones that will give the learner the biggest advantage.  

Vocabulary

It is also important to consider the salient vocabulary, specifically the Tier 2 words, that students will come across, and need to OWN in this unit. In order for students to own these words, they need to not only know what they mean, but use them correctly in context. It is imperative that teachers explicitly teach these words so students have a language to discuss and analyze their writing. 

With so many possible goals to choose from, selecting language objectives can seem overwhelming.  Allowing genre to guide this process really narrows the pool of options and makes the task more manageable. This approach also ensures that we are selecting goals that are specific and functional.

In our next post, we will explore an approach for teaching academic language for opinion writing.

Part Two: Teaching Academic Language