Persuade Your Community

Overview

This is lesson 7 of 10 in Our Place, Our Stories. Students examine how local environmental campaign materials use language, evidence and rhetorical devices, then revise a short environmental message for a selected community audience. Tasks can be adjusted for Years 1–8 through the choice of text length, vocabulary and writing expectations.

Learning intentions

• WALT use persuasive techniques suited to a particular audience and purpose.
• WALT identify how tone and language influence a reader.
• WALT select relevant evidence and rhetorical devices.
• WALT revise environmental writing so it is clear, convincing and appropriate.

Success criteria

• I can identify who my audience is and what I want them to do.
• I can choose a suitable tone for my audience.
• I can use evidence, emotive language and a rhetorical device effectively.
• I can explain at least one change I made to improve my writing.

Curriculum links

• Creating meaning through writing: organising ideas and using language features for a clear purpose.
• Understanding and responding to texts: identifying how language choices shape meaning and audience response.
• Oral language: discussing, explaining and responding to ideas with increasing confidence.
• Key competencies: thinking; using language, symbols and texts; relating to others; participating and contributing.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–5 minutes – Hook and learning focus Open with the campaign hook and lesson goals. Show two short environmental messages about the same issue, such as reducing rubbish: “Put your rubbish in the bin” and “Will you help keep our awa clean?” Students vote on which is more convincing and briefly explain why. Share the WALT and success criteria in age-appropriate language.

2. 5–15 minutes – Notice persuasive choices Use the local campaign examples to display two or three short, familiar campaign texts or poster-style messages. Model identifying the audience, purpose and tone. Think aloud about facts or evidence, emotive words, rhetorical questions, repetition, inclusive language and calls to action. For younger students, read the messages aloud and discuss how they make people feel; older students annotate the choices and explain their likely effect.

3. 15–25 minutes – Paired analysis Place students in pairs. Give each pair the audience and persuasive language analysis sheet. Students analyse one campaign message, recording its audience, purpose, tone, evidence and persuasive techniques. They complete the final prompt: “This message might persuade people because…” Circulate, prompting students to distinguish between a fact, an opinion and an emotional response.

4. 25–32 minutes – Share and compare Bring the class together using the discussion prompts. Invite pairs to share one effective language choice. Compare how the same environmental issue might be presented to tamariki, whānau, the school community, local businesses or the council. Emphasise that effective writers make deliberate choices rather than using every technique at once.

5. 32–48 minutes – Revise for an audience Students choose a community audience and revise a short environmental message from the current unit, or compose one from a shared class example. They use the planning and revision section to identify their purpose, select a tone and add at least one piece of evidence, one emotive phrase and one rhetorical device. Students may write a poster message, short letter, speech opening or digital announcement. Younger students may draw, orally rehearse and dictate sentences; older students should develop connected paragraphs and explain their choices.

6. 48–56 minutes – Peer response and editing Students read their message to a partner. Partners respond to three prompts from the peer feedback prompts: “Who is the audience?”, “What action is requested?”, and “Which language choice is most effective?” Writers make one purposeful revision for clarity, tone or impact. Confer with selected students, particularly those needing support with audience or sentence construction.

7. 56–60 minutes – Plenary and evidence of learning Display the final reflection prompt. Students share one change they made and why it suits their audience. Collect worksheets and writing, or invite students to give a brief oral response: “I changed ___ because ___.” Connect forward to lesson 8, where students will further craft and publish their community messages.

Resources

• the complete campaign-language slide deck
• the audience and persuasive language analysis sheet
• Short local environmental campaign examples, printed or displayed
• Whiteboard and markers
• Highlighters or coloured pencils
• Writing books or devices
• Technique cards or a class word bank
• Sentence starters and suitable exemplars

Assessment

• Listen to paired discussion to assess whether students can identify audience, purpose, tone and persuasive techniques.
• Review the revised message for a clear audience, appropriate tone, relevant evidence, emotive language and at least one rhetorical device.
• Use the final explanation or written reflection to assess whether students can justify a language choice and revision.

Differentiation

• Provide technique cards, sentence starters, a shared exemplar and an oral rehearsal before writing. Use a teacher scribe or speech-to-text where appropriate.
• Offer accessible campaign texts with visuals, read texts aloud, pre-teach key vocabulary and allow EAL learners to discuss ideas in their strongest language before sharing in English.
• Support students who need it with a reduced choice of audiences, collaborative writing, highlighted examples and teacher conferencing.
• Extend confident writers by adapting the same message for two different audiences and justifying changes in language, evidence and tone. They may also compare which version is likely to be more effective and why.