Opinion and Review Writing Lesson Plans

ASNE Lesson Plans for Opinion and Review Writing

Day One
Opinion Writing Lesson – Day One
Opinion Writing PowerPoint – Day One
Editorial Policy Builder
Editorial Writing Prompt

Day Two
Opinion Writing Lesson – Day Two
Opinion Writing PowerPoint – Day Two
Opinion Writing Prompt
Review Writing Prompt

Editorial

• Editorial Writing as a Catalyst for Discussion of Important Issues
  This lesson teaches students editorial-writing by making them decide what’s important.
• Editorial Writing: What’s on your Mind?!
  A unit that asks students to express their opinions in editorials. It asks them to interview people, conduct research and to confirm information before writing an editorial in a journalistic form.
• Introduction to the Editorial
  A well-thought-out unit on editorial writing that covers research, knowing your audience and errors in logic, among other things.
• Learning Types of Editorials — and Writing Some
  Students learn to identify types of editorials and eventually write some.
• Writing Meaningful Editorials
  How do you write gripping editorials? Make sure the topics are current and that the arguments are compelling. This lesson and exercise will give some other ideas, as well.
• Writing Point-Counterpoint Articles for the Editorial Page
  This lesson asks kids to critically think about complex issues and formulate point-counterpoint arguments that they can then use on the editorial page.
• Finding a Voice in Editorial and Opinion Writing
  This lesson addresses these questions (among others): What is an editorial? What are the basic parts of an editorial? What is a column? A review? What is the role of an editorial board? What are logical arguments and fallacies?

Reviews

• Should I Spend My Money? A Guide to Analyzing Reviews
  A look at what makes a review (of a movie, CD, book, video game or video) good. Aimed at making students better consumers of reviews with a future eye toward improving their ability to write reviews.
• What’s a Good Movie Review?
  A five-day lesson that explores all reviews with movie reviews as the example. Uses “Absence of Malice” as the movie to review (with the added benefit of teaching about libel). Asks what makes a good review — it’s more than “Thumbs Up” or “Thumbs Down.”