Education Technology


NCTE: Assessing Persuasive Letters

Activity Overview

Each student group will exchange persuasive letters with another group. Each group will read the exchanged letter and determine its effectiveness. The effectiveness will be evaluated using a Likert Scale for each of the required elements.

Before the Activity

See the attached Activity PDF file for detailed instructions for this activity.

Print the appropriate pages from the Activity for your class.

Install the LearningCheck™ App on the students' graphing calculators following the attached instructions.

Review the elements of effective persuasive writing. This assessment activity can be performed using the handheld device or using the traditional paper-based method.

During the Activity

  • Distribute the appropriate pages from the Activity to your class
  • Distribute the LearningCheck file(s) to your class using TI Connect™ and the appropriate TI Connectivity cable
  • Follow the procedures outlined in the Activity


  • Students will:
  • Be introduced to three main elements and several strategies of persuasive writing.
  • Brainstorm a list of situations where persuasive writing skills would be necessary.
  • Create a written persuasive argument.
  • Collaborate to take the writing project from idea to product.
  • Analyze and evaluate peers writing for required elements of persuasive argument.
  • Make formal suggestions for improvement of the persuasive argument they evaluate.
  • After the Activity

    When each group has received the assessment of their letter, invite the groups to incorporate the suggestions offered in the assessment into final drafts of the letters.

  • Student groups using the electronic evaluation form transfer it to the group that wrote the letter they evaluated. Use the TI Connectivity cable or TI-Navigator™ to perform the document transfer.


  • Student groups using the paper-based assessment return the assessment form to the group that wrote the letter.