OREO Writing

        This is an oldie-but a goodie so I thought that I would share.  My students and I just finished up persuasive writing and the strategy that I taught my students to make sure that they had each of the elements from the writing standard is OREO. 
        We of course went through the writing process beginning with brainstorming all the different ideas that we had opinions about, our favorite pet, holiday, place to go, etc . .  Then I gave each student a planning sheet that was broken into sections for them to write out their opinion and the reasons and details that matched/supported that opinion.  After planning on their own, checking with a peer and then checking with me everyone was ready to start writing their first drafts.
        It was modeled that we start our essays with our opinion (O), we also included an exciting beginning to make the reader want to read our essays.  Next we took each of the reasons (R) that we thought of and our explanation/examples (E) and wrote a separate paragraph for each.  Finally we wrapped up our essays but restating our opinion (O) but in a different way and talking to our reader.  Ta da OREO!  (O=opinion, R=reasons, E=explanations/examples, and O=opinion).
        ***On a side note I decided to have my students publish their essays into tri-fold brochures-super cute!  I wish I would have brought one home.  I will try to make sure I do that on Monday, (although I am sure you can imagine what they look like).  During our publishing celebration each student was given the opportunity to share his/her persuasive essay and we ate OREOs while we listened.  YUMMY!!!