Year 7 are starting their persuasive writing unit and need a clear model before they write their own. The teacher has written a one-page letter to the headteacher arguing that lunch should be fifteen minutes longer, and shows it on PowerPoint one paragraph per slide while reading it aloud. After each paragraph students fill in a three-column table in their books: the device (rhetorical question, statistic, rule of three, direct address, counter-argument), the exact words, and what it is meant to make the head think or feel. The teacher lingers on the counter-argument paragraph, which opens "Some staff may worry that a longer lunch means a later finish", to show how a writer concedes a point and then answers it. Students end by choosing the sentence most likely to change the head's mind and writing two lines explaining why.
Tools: PowerPoint Nine ideas for your own version in Generate
This page is one of a growing set of PICRAT examples by cell, subject and grade. Page maintained by Andy Perryer.