When I thought about a persuasive mentor text, my first thought was to go with The Pigeon, Mo Willems' crabby bird who demands things. I almost dismissed this Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus writing idea because I thought my kids will probably think it is childish, but I went with it anyway. I'm so glad I did! It was so silly that they completely enjoyed it. Mo Willems' pigeon was was the perfect character for a persuasive writing lesson. You'd think there was a young audience for the book. Revisiting Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! with older kids allowed them to practice writing on a subject that was very humorous!
The mentor text I'll use is Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! by Mo Willems.
In this popular book, we are a part of it. The bus driver approaches the readers to ask us to say no to the pigeon. Of course, the rest of the book is the pigeon asking to drive the bus and being denied (supposedly).
The purpose of this writing assignment was to decide: Did the pigeon's arguments persuade you? What evidence do you see that he would be a good bus driver? Should the bus driver let him drive the bus?
I want like the kids to explain to the bus driver why he should or should not let the pigeon drive the bus.
Does the pigeon make a strong argument for driving the bus? Let kids decide and prove it with evidence from the book!
Although I am strongly on the "don't let the pigeon drive!" side of the argument, I think it is important for kids to think of reasons for themselves. The pigeon makes a lot of arguments. The question is, Do we trust him?
I am hoping that this simple template will help them put reasons to their argument. It's important that students brainstorm. Can they put themselves on both sides of the argument? When they can do that, they can argue better against those things as a good reason. It will make their overall persuasion stronger.
You can get the Pigeon Persuasive Writing Mini-Lesson from the VIP Resource Library. Sign up for the Line upon Line Learning Newsletter to become a VIP.
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