Your Next Class Trip

Students work to persuade their principal to take their class on a trip to the location of their choice.

Engage

Ask students where they want to go for your class trip. Ask students to form teams based on interest and create a persuasive presentation for this location.

Have students first research destination to provide facts and details necessary for making and supporting an argument, such as location, price, transporation, timing, and connection to learning.

Assign each team a Notetaking template so you can easily follow their work from your account.

Note Taking Template

Create

In persuasive, or argumentative, writing, the author convinces others to agree with our facts, share our values, accept our argument and conclusions, and adopt our ways of thinking. Discuss the elements of persuasive writing with your students.

Just like a written essay, a persuasive presentation should begin with a position statement, like "For our next class trip, we should visit ___ because..." Each of the arguments should be clarified in separate points or pages. The presentation should end by restating the position and summarizing the most compelling parts of the argument.

Presentation Templates

Each page should include graphics, sounds, narration, and/or video to support the position.

Share

Each team should present their project to the entire class body. Invite the principal to make the presentation even more important! The rest of the class can vote on each location with a ballot, with the principal making the final choice in the event of a tie or close results. Within your class, students can rank the projects based on the persuasiveness and effectiveness of the presentations.

Standards for English Language Arts - Grade K-5

Writing Standards

1. Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence

4. Produce clear and coherent writing in which the development, organization, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

7. Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation