Opinion Writing Teaching Resources

Explore opinion writing graphic organizers, prompts, activities, classroom posters and more — all created by teachers for teachers like you!

This collection of writing printables and activities is packed with teacher resources aligned with the Common Core curriculum and designed to help your students meet your state-level standards. Best of all, each writing resource for students has undergone our teacher team's review process to ensure it's ready for your classroom, your lesson plans and — of course — your students!

Looking for help teaching opinion writing this school year? Read on for a primer from our teacher team!

How to Teach Opinion Writing — Tips From Our Writing Teachers

Looking for some simple ways to teach opinion writing?

We asked a few members of our teacher teams to share their step-by-step processes for teaching students to create 3- and 5-paragraph essays!

Writing a 3-Paragraph Essay

1. Provide students with two opinion passages about the same topic — one should argue for the subject, the other against it.
2. Read and discuss the passages as a class, and decide together if you're for or against the topic.
3. Brainstorm a list of ideas (as a class!) to support that opinion. What are the claims? What is the evidence?
4. Create an outline for your students what the 3 paragraphs of an opinion essay on the topic should include, including the introduction paragraph, body paragraph and the conclusion.
5. Write or type the introductory paragraph for your class, while they do the same at their desks, writing the same text. Make sure you model referring back to the outline that you created!
6. Write or type the body paragraph for your class, while they do the same at their desks, writing the same text. Be sure to use evidence!
7. Write or type the concluding paragraph for your class, while they do the same at their desks, writing the same text.
8. Repeat steps 1 through 4 with your students, but this time have students create their own essays with your support.

Writing a 5-Paragraph Essay

1. Read examples of opinion writing together as a class so students can see what each of the 5 paragraphs are and what they should look like.
2. Write an opinion essay together as a class.
3. Provide a graphic organizer and a list of topics for students to write about.
4. Have students use their graphic organizer to map out their paragraphs based on their side on the chosen topic. The intro should include their argument and personal connection. Their body paragraphs should include their topic sentence and evidence. Their conclusion should cover a re-statement of their argument and the claims that back it up.
5. Once they've completed their graphic organizer, have students use it as a guide to write their opinion essay.
6. Have your students add in transitional sentences between their claims and evidence to make the essay flow!