Kate Gallion
Lesson Plan – Writing a Letter to the Editor
SIOP® LESSON PLAN
Date: July 21, 2007Grade/Class/Subject: 10th Grade Language Arts
Unit/Theme: Teaching the concept of a persuasive essay through writing a letter to the editor of the local newspaper. Students did an extended lesson the previous week on how to write a persuasive essay. This lesson continues the process by practicing writing in persuasive mode in another form, a letter. Connections will be made in the current lesson to what they learned last week.
Standards: Arizona Strand 3: Writing Applications. Writing skills particular to the applications listed here may be taught across the curriculum. It is imperative that students write in all content areas in order to increase their communication skills, and ultimately to improve their understanding of content area concepts.
Content Objective(s): Students will be able to:
Write a persuasive composition (in this case a letter to the editor) that:
Language Objective(s): Students will be able to:
Background
1. In Arizona, students must pass the AIMS test in order to graduate. One of the types of essays students are required to write on the AIMS is a Persuasive Essay. Therefore it is important for the students to have practice writing samples of the forms of persuasive essays.
2. Reading the newspaper on a regular basis is an important habit for students to acquire. Students need to know what types information can be found in the paper and make a connection between what goes on in their lives and how reading the paper involves them.
3. Being able to form an educated opinion on a subject, and be able to articulate that opinion, will be a useful trait to learn for the student’s current and future life.
Preparation
Previously the students learned in class what a persuasive essay is and practiced how to write persuasive essays. This lesson will build on that information.
Content Objectives: Students will understand the different sections of the newspaper and what information can be found in each. Students will be able to find the section of the Arizona Daily Star where letters to the editor appear. They will be able to differentiate and circle the letters to the editor section as opposed to the editorials or other writings, which appear on that page.
Language Objectives: Students will be able to define pertinent vocabulary relating to the newspaper, a persuasive essay, and a letter to the editor. Students will read aloud multiple letters to the editor in their groups and after discussion within their group be able to write in one to three sentences the subject of the letter and the opinion on the subject of the person writing the letter.
Materials: Copies of the Arizona Daily Star (each student will have their own copy of the paper), paper and pencil to write ideas on, interactive whiteboard (Smart Board), if possible, find a newspaper written in Spanish (or any other languages available), either in paper form or on the Internet, that contains letters to the editor, a short list of vocabulary words (written on the board) students need to know to be successful in this lesson: persuade, persuasive, opinion (vs. fact), editor and any other words that come up in the discussion. Encourage students to add to the list of words that need defining.
Motivation
Talk to the students about their personal association to the newspaper. Ask students if any of them read a newspaper and how often? Do their families read the newspaper? Where do you get newspapers? Ask students if they know what any names of local newspapers, the national newspapers, are? Do they know of any newspapers they can get in Tucson in their primary language? Do they ever read a newspaper online? Find out which parts of the newspaper the students currently read and what kinds of information they are looking for? What kinds of information have they found in the newspaper? Have they used a newspaper for research for either school projects or personal projects before? Did they ever use a section of the paper for another class? How would one go about getting a subscription to the paper?
Pass out copies of the Arizona Daily Star and take students through each of the sections of the newspaper, pointing out what each section is called, have a student write the main sections on the board, and talk briefly what the purpose of each section is for or what information can be found in that section. Now that they know more about the different sections, which sections would have the most information they might want to read?
Review with the students what they learned last week about writing a persuasive essay. Inform them that today’s lesson will focus on how to read and write a Letter to the Editor. Discuss why a letter to the editor is a form of a persuasive essay to connect the two lessons together. The class will discuss aloud why having a section for letters to the editor is important. Who can write a letter to the editor? Can they see any reason why they might at some point want to write a letter to the editor? How can this section of the paper be useful to them either to read or participate in? Do they know anyone who has written a letter to the editor? Was it published? What do persuasive essays and letters to the editor have in common? Refer back to the list of vocabulary words up on the board. Add to list if necessary. Ask students if they can define the new vocabulary on the board and write in the definitions.
Presentation
On the Smart Board, have ready to show a couple of examples of letters to the editor. Search for other papers online in other languages for ELL students to read. Have links ready for students to use once the class begins the group/pair participation portion of the lesson. Discuss what criteria it takes to make a good letter to the editor. Is that the same criteria that it takes to make a good persuasive essay? Have the students take note of the proper (business) form of the letter. Try to incorporate some of the new vocabulary words they learned having to do with persuasive essays during the discussion.
With the class’s participation, have them try and discern the topic of each of the letters and see if they can determine what opinion the writer of the letter is trying to get across. Since a Smart Board can be written on and highlighted in different colors, students can come up to the board and underline or highlight ideas from this discussion. Ask if the writer did a good job of explaining his or her position on the subject. Did they see any common threads in the letters published; were any of them about the same subject? Did the same subject letters have the same opinions? Have them look to see who are the people writing letters to the editor. Do they see any other information about the people writing the letters? Throughout this interaction teacher can hear if students understand the concepts of both persuasive writing and how to write a letter to the editor.
Practice
With their own newspaper, each group will find the section with the letters to the editor and begin reading samples of letters to the editor for practice before they try and attempt to write a letter of their own. They can pair up in their group also to read to each other if some students are more comfortable working this way. At this point, a peer or the teacher can help the ELL students if they need it. Perhaps even the teacher, with her limited Spanish speaking skills, can help if needed. The teacher will circulate around the room observing and providing feedback in each group or pair’s discussion. The teacher can be asking if they students have questions regarding the letters or if they see any vocabulary they don’t understand. Ask the students if they can easily find the topics and the writer’s opinions in their letters. Ask them to see if they can find a letter written by a teenager or a letter with a subject that affects them personally.
Students will now start the process for them to prepare to write their own letters. After allowing time for letters to be read in the small group, have each group come up with at least three topics, pertinent to teenagers, that could be the basis for a letter to the editor. Did they happen to come across any of these topics in the letters they read? Students will come back together and each group will present their ideas verbally to the class. A list of the topics they come up with will be written on the board. Students will need to copy this list from the board to be able to choose (at a future time either for homework or in the next class), 2-3 of the ideas for themselves they think they could develop their own letter to the editor. They will need to underline, circle, or put a star next to the ideas they liked.
Review
Ask class to name one thing they learned during the lesson that they didn’t know before.
Review new vocabulary they learned pertinent to this lesson.
Review persuasive writing structure and business letter format.
Review the criteria for effective letters to the editor.
Review the format of a newspaper and where specific information is found.
Assessment
Continuous assessment occurs during the lesson in class with the teacher listening to the student’s comments and providing feedback when needed to help guide the learning process.
Written vocabulary quiz at end of unit on writing types of persuasive essays.
Future assessment will be each student’s ability to construct and outline a letter to the editor,
following the parameters found in this lesson, which will be handed in.
Homework
If there was enough time to get through the whole lesson, students will be able to write a letter to the editor using the principals they learned in the writing of a persuasive essay. Choosing one of the ideas from the list the class came up with, students will first make an outline of what they want to write in their letter to the editor, then they will compose one letter to the editor to bring into class the next day. They will need to at least have a rough draft done to bring into class the following day.
If there wasn’t enough time to complete the lesson, the teacher will give the students a list of new vocabulary words and concepts the students should have learned. Words/concepts need to be defined, and used in a sentence, which shows they understand them. Then writing a letter to the editor can be done in the next class period or as a homework assignment, depending on how much more time it takes to thoroughly execute the lesson.
This lesson could be easily expanded and taught over a couple of days. There are many interesting exercises students could do to expand knowledge.