Discussion Texts PowerPoint - Years 5 & 6

This PowerPoint is for a unit of work that took a week with my Year 6 class and looked at the features of discussion texts. Persuasive techniques are also revised. The texts are taken from The National Literacy Strategy ‘Argument Unit’.

Children read and analyse a persuasive text ‘Should mobile phones be banned in schools?’ as a class and come to define the key features of discursive writing.

Pupils then analyse a different text based on the circus and highlight the key features that they have previously identified.

Pupils then prepare for a debate. Taking the story of the Pied Piper, pupils are assigned roles and have to prepare a persuasive speech to argue their point of the debate. We then hold debate and discuss the value of debates in real life.

Pupils finish the week with two lessons to write a piece of discursive writing on whether pupils should be able to write on laptops in schools. Pupils are provided with the arguments for and against, but must do the rest of the work on their own. This then forms an assessment piece.

National Curriculum Links: Year 5 & 6 Programmes of Study

• discuss and evaluate how authors use language, including figurative language, considering the impact on the reader
• plan their writing by: identifying the audience for and purpose of the writing, selecting the appropriate form and using other similar writing as models for their own.

Through debate the pupils also hone their speaking and listening skills and this also provides a good opportunity for assessment.