Huia 1 - Our History 2009 - 2014: Be Careful What You Teach the Class

Last week Huia 1 were invited to one of Mr Yates' class debates. The topic was "Bull Fighting Should be Banned" and students were so influenced by the persuasive skills of the speakers that the majority of the audience ended up voting that Bull Fighting should not be banned!

Motivated by the speaking and writing skills of students in Mr Yates' class, we started our own persuasive writing this week.

In short, expository (or persuasive) writing has: - a title - an introduction outlining the issue and the writer's viewpoint. - a series of paragraphs, each outlining a specific point to support the viewpoint, including further evidence or reasons to expand the idea. - a summarising conclusion which restates the issue and viewpoint. - emotive or controlling language

So, when we ran out of time to finish dancing practice for the upcoming Intermediate ball, Huia 1 students asked me, (before lunch) if they could do dancing again in the afternoon instead of topic work.

I said, "Hmmmm, I would have to be persuaded..."

One hour later......

Dear Mrs Vincent,

Dancing is an amazing art and many people around the world enjoy it, including our intermediate team. It amazes me how much we have improved since the beginning but we are still lacking in some areas.

If we do dancing this block, we can polish off what we have learned so far, therefore we won't make fools of ourselves on the dance floor. After all, many of us not been to a dance or social before and are not accustomed to dancing with girls/boys. If we practise more there will be less of a chance that all the time you took off to teach us would be wasted.

If any of us mess up this incredible chance to dance a proper social, it will mess it up for everyone. People all over the Intermediate team are relying on this letter to persuade you to let us practise our dancing. Everyone in the Intermediate team really wants this to happen. You should let us do dancing in the afternoon block.

Yours sincerely, Ricki-Jean

P.S. ¡Feliz cumpleaños!

Dear Mrs Vincent,

In two days, the Intermediate social is being held and some of us still haven't grasped the concept of dancing. We do not have any more chances to practise dancing as the hall is full during the rest of the time.

Many of us would like to dance after lunch because we would like to express ourselves in dance and we feel that we haven't done enough dancing for this special occasion (social). We don't feel absolutely confident to dance (for us girls) in high heels and fancy clothes.

We really hope you take this into consideration when you make your decision on whether or not we are to do dancing and we are prepared to do anything you wish for us to do. Excludes cleaning toilets.

Yours sincerely,

Rosie

PS Happy birthday!
You don't look a day over 21!

Dear Mrs Vincent,

I think we should do dancing instead of topic work.

Today is your birthday and we Huia 1 want you to have fun. So, if you let us do dancing not only will we have fun, but you will have fun too.

We are still not sure about some parts of some dances. We want to be perfect for the ball night. We all love dancing and I'm sure you do too. So, have fun and please let us all (including you, Mrs V) do dancing.

Kumiko.

And here's what happened next.....