Opinion writing is a major emphasis of the Common Core Standards. How can we help our students with this genre of writing? By providing them with good models. Here are 12 opinion pieces on the best types of pets (4 on dogs, 4 on cats, and 4 on fish). Each set has 4 levels of writing (1 scoop, 2 scoops, 3 scoops, and 4 scoops). These models show children in an explicit manner what constitutes an effective opinion piece. Also included is an ice cream scoop rubric for evaluating the writing s