Reading
Hey, Little Ant with kids is a great way to practice writing to persuade. I also believe that it is important to be informed when we make decisions. Research can strengthen a persuasive argument. This lesson, based on the story
Hey, Little Ant, helps students learn the strength of persuading through research.
Discussing Hey, Little Ant
Hey Little Ant! by Phillip and Hannah Hoose is a rhyming picture book with dialog between a kid and an ant. The kid almost steps on an ant, and the ant responds with reasons he should not be stepped on. The story was originally a song written by the father/daughter team. Listen to it at
www.heylittleant.com.
What should the kid do? The book clearly sets up the reader for a discussion about the pros and cons of stepping on the ant. It can be used to discuss bullying and the need for greater compassion and tolerance. Just because everyone is stepping on ants does not make it alright!
The students can find the reasons given by both parties, as indicated in the book. Whose argument seems stronger?
Persuading with Research
The two writing prompts included in my lesson build on those possibilities. First, the students write a basic persuasive letter to the kid, either for or against stepping on the ant. First they brainstorm: should the kid step on the ant? Why or why not? What reasons have been given in the picture book? The second page provides sentence frames to help make the reasons into a letter to the kid.
Then, using similar strategies outlined in
yesterday's lesson, students gather facts about ants, keep track of resources references, and make a nonfiction booklet about ants.
Finally, now that the students have learned more about the subject, they can better persuade in their letter to the kid. They return to their original persuasive writing and decide if their mind has been changed. By adding in the research they have discovered, they can make their argument stronger.
There are so many issues that can be explored this way. Students (or a class) would choose a subject of interest to the. Begin by brainstorming the reasons for or against. Then, conduct some basic research to become armed with facts. Once the student understands the facts, he or she can make a stronger persuasive argument!
Download the Lesson
Once again, I've put together some simple worksheets to go along with the process I describe above. It does have a small cost. Download it from
my shop,
TeachersPayTeachers, or
Teacher's Notebook.
This is the last in a 5-day series of
Picture Book Writing Prompts for Elementary Students. See my landing page for links to more posts and ideas like this one!
Related Articles:
In Tia Isa Wants a Car and A Chair for My Mother, kids work towards earning money for a goal. Although they are very different stories, the goals of the main characters make them perfect for a lesson in comparing and contrasting. The ultimate goal setting lesson from these books is also a great character
Read More
The Red Book by Barbara Lehman is a wordless picture book, so it may not be the first to come to mind when considering a book to “read aloud” to a class. However, because the illustrations tell the story, The Red Book can be an ideal book to use as students practice outlining and retelling
Read More
I had a lot of fun considering favorite picture books as I considered the variety of ways one could organize a story. So many times in elementary school kids are given a prescription for writing and they must follow that. Obviously many stories follow a traditional structure with a clear beginning, a middle, and an
Read More
For our writing class, we compared the perspective of the two characters in A Tale of Two Beasts, beginning with a Venn diagram to brainstorm. A Tale of Two Beasts by Fiona Roberton is an amusing tale about a girl who finds a strange beast in the woods and brings him home to take care of him.
Read More
To encourage my children to write more often, I’ve tried to make sure I have a writing center easily accessible to them in our school room (which is also our playroom). As we make writing a fun part of our days, my children get handwriting practice as well as practice writing from their own creativity
Read More
I’m always excited to find picture books that would work well as writing prompts for elementary school kids, so I was extra excited to find Ten-Word Tiny Tales: To Inspire and Unsettle by Joseph Coelho (Candlewick, 2023). This new volume has stories that are each, as the title suggests, just ten-words long. With a variety of illustrators
Read More