Persuasive Essay Materials-8th Grade

When I taught 8th grade, we had to prepare the kids for the state writing exam, which could ask kids to write a persuasive piece, a narrative piece, or an expository piece. Mostly, though, the prompts required a persuasive response, so I spent a lot of time on persuasive techniques with my 8th graders. I remember really liking persuasion because the introductory elements were concrete and easy to teach, which was such a nice break during my first year of teaching. Below are some of the introductory persuasion materials that I used with my 8th graders around 2006-2007.