I am constantly asking members in the Pinwheel speech community (Join here!) what types of resources they need for their caseloads. Recently, I have had some requests for activities for older students. One of my favorite activities for 4-8th grade students is discussing opinions. Not only do I enjoy the discussions, I find that my students do as well!
Persuasive Speaking
Persuasive speaking (or persuasive writing) is a common classroom standard. According to our state educational standards in Colorado, even Kindergarten students are expected to be able to engage in discussions and respectfully acknowledge the ideas of others. I have found there are many speech and language skills that can be addressed during persuasive speaking activities. In the early elementary years, I like to use “Would you rather…” (AKA: “This or That” ) questions to practice stating opinions and other conversation skills. As my students reach the upper elementary grades (4-6), we move on to more structured discussions about our opinions on engaging topics.
When we discuss our opinions, we always practice using complete sentences to state our opinions. We also use sentence stems to practice agreeing and disagreeing in a respectful manner (“I think……because……..”, “I agree with you because…..”, “I disagree with you because……”, etc.). This is also known as accountable talk or talking stems. As a person who runs from conflict and usually avoids any type of disagreement (Enneagram 9 – About me), I wish I would have learned how to disagree in a healthy manner as a child. I strongly believe that this is a valuable skill for anyone who wants to develop healthy communication skills.
Speech and Language Skills
I have found that persuasive speaking activities work well for mixed speech and language groups because there are so many different skills that can be addressed. Here are some of the speech and language skills that you can address with persuasive speaking activities:
- Persuasive speaking skills
- Understanding Facts vs Opinions
- Active Listening
- Vocabulary
- Conversation skills
- Perspective taking
- Flexible Thinking
- Critical Thinking
- Conflict Management
- Learning how to respond to others who have different opinions
- Explaining your thinking with supporting details
- Using complete sentences
- Using subordinating conjunctions (Because, Although)
- Speech carryover skills (Articulation or Fluency)
"In Your Opinion..." Activity
I created a Boom Cards resource called, “In Your Opinion” in 2020 during our remote learning period to support our virtual discussions and it has come to be one of my favorite resources. In addition, I have since added printable task cards to the activity for in person learning.
These reviews illustrate how this activity can be used in a variety of ways:
This activity was just what I needed for a group of 5th graders working on expressing their opinions and using perspective taking skills. The topics were great for discussion and differing opinions. – Amy D 
Great for practicing target sounds or fluency skills along with sharing opinions in an appropriate way-thank you! – Merritt G.
My students loved this, and it’s great for sentence expansion and students working on explaining their reasoning. – Stefanie K.
This was a good activity to address flexible thinking with my social skills group. – Paula F
Free Printable Task Cards
Download 8 FREE printable task cards by clicking on the image below!
I hope this blog post inspired you to try some persuasive speaking activities with your speech and language groups! I would love to know your thoughts on this topic too! Please comment below!
