4 can you convince me?

We've been working a ton on persuasive writing in my class. I told my kids that they have a super stubborn teacher and it's really hard to get me to change my mind. I also told my kids I was sick of the snow and if they wanted me to stay in Utah they'd have to convince me. Immediately I saw tears well up in the eyes of a few kids and others dramatically flopped to the floor. Wrong thing to say. They thought my bags were already packed and I was ready to flee...

Anyways, they worked on a persuasive piece to read to their parents at parent-teacher conferences. They had to persuade me that Utah was the best state to live in.

Now, parent-teacher conference week is the busiest week of my life. A million things to prepare. So, being the naiive teacher I am, I decide not to chief-edit their work before they presented it to their parents. After self and buddy editing, they were off to their final draft.

Come conference time, one of my students is reading her beautiful piece of writing. Her parents and I are so proud that she has followed every guideline. I'm excited to hear her 3rd reason, because I always tell my students the 3rd reason needs to be the punch! of your writing to really convince your audience. She gets to the 4th paragraph and stops. "Dad, I need to apologize for what I am about to read to you...."

We all get a little nervous.

She reads on:

"Finally, Utah has the best boys to date. They are all cute RM's. You can practically get a date anywhere you go. Once you leave Utah, the dating pool is much smaller and you will not have as cute of boys to choose from. And, I mean, you need to get married. That's why Utah is the best state for you to live in."

pause.....

(insert innocent face)

"What??? I had to convince Miss Stolworthy!"

Her dad was laughing hysterically.

She definitely wrote to her audience.