ReadWriteThink: National Writing Project Resources: Letters to the Next President

ReadWriteThink resources can support your students as they write Letters to the Next President as part of the National Writing Project initiative.

ReadWriteThink Student Interactive Tools

Letter Generator http://readwritethink.org/materials/letter_generator/: The Letter Generator tool is designed to help students learn to identify all the essential parts of a business or friendly letter, and then generate letters by typing information into letter templates. A sample letter is included, and students can learn about the parts of a letter by reading descriptions of each part. Once students have become familiar with letter formats, they are prompted to write their own letter using a simple template.

Persuasion Map http://www.readwritethink.org/student_mat/student_material.asp?id=34: The Persuasion Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to map out their arguments for a persuasive essay or debate. Students begin by determining their goal or thesis. They then identify reasons to support their argument, and three facts or examples to validate each reason.

ReadWriteThink Lesson Plans Related to Persuasion and/or Letter Writing

Communicating on Local Issues: Exploring Audience in Persuasive Letter Writing http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=945: Students are asked to identify and then research a local issue that concerns them, using Internet and print sources. They will then argue a position on this issue in letters to two different audiences, addressing their own purpose and considering the needs of the audience in each letter. Students will work with peer groups as they draft and revise their letters before sending them to their intended readers.

Persuading the Principal: Writing Persuasive Letters About School Issues http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1137: This lesson gives students the opportunity to examine opinion editorials and write their own on school issues. After reading and listening to opinion pieces, students identify strong examples of persuasion and record them on a graphic organizer. Small groups then brainstorm issues in the school that they believe deserve action plans. Each group uses graphic organizers to explore its issue. The group then constructs a letter on that issue. The letter is then edited for grammar and content, typed on a word processor, printed, and delivered to the school principal.
Persuading an Audience: Writing Effective Letters to the Editor http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=929: Students write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper, focusing on a current local or national issue and requesting a specific action or response from readers. The lesson includes an exploration of the genre, a review of persuasive writing structure and letter format, and an emphasis on multi-draft writing.

The Correspondence Project: A Lesson of Letters http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1083: Letter writing is perhaps one of the most functional writing forms covered in the writing classroom. This lesson covers the differences between business and friendly letter formats, using examples and a Venn diagram. Students then write letters for varying audiences and real-world purposes. A range of writing prompts is included.

Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=268: Critical stance and development of a strong argument are key strategies when writing to convince someone to agree with your position. In this lesson, students explore environmental issues that are relevant to their own lives, self-select topics, and gather information to write persuasive essays. Although this lesson focuses on the environment as a broad topic, many other topics can easily be substituted for reinforcement of persuasive writing.

Finding Common Ground: Using Logical, Audience-Specific Arguments http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=938: When students write argumentative or persuasive essays, they often ignore the viewpoints of their opponents, the potential readers of their essays. In this lesson, students use a hypothetical situation to predict and articulate the audience’s predicted resistance to their arguments. After they have examined the opposing view, they can then revise their arguments to better decide how to use them to counter the opponent logically, perhaps finding common ground from which their arguments might grow. Thus, the activity becomes a lesson not only in choosing arguments but also in anticipating audience reaction and adapting to it.

ReadWriteThink Lesson Plans that Can Enrich and Extend Your Students' Learning

A Poem of Possibilities: Thinking about the Future http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=943: Combining poetry writing, potential publication, and a way to process the pressures of change, this activity delights students. Inspired by John Updike’s poem “Ex-Basketball Player,” each student creates a poem or prose poem presenting a vivid picture of who he or she will be and the life he or she will lead five years in the future. Sealed in a stamped envelope, each letter poem is mailed by the teacher five years later.

Connecting Past and Present: A Local Research Project http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1027: When students make real-world connections between themselves and their community, they can participate in authentic communication activities based on issues that matter to them personally. In this activity, students become active archivists, gathering photos, artifacts, and stories for a museum exhibit that highlights one decade in their school’s history. The final project can be shared and displayed in your classroom, in the school auditorium or in the library.

Exploring Free Speech and Persuasion with Nothing But The Truth http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=394: After reading the novel Nothing But The Truth, students discuss the protagonist Phillip and this right to free speech as well as their own rights. Students examine various Web sites to research First Amendment rights, especially as they relate to the situation in the novel. After their research, students will compose a position statement regarding their opinion of whether Philip’s rights were violated then work with small groups to strengthen their statements and supporting evidence. Groups present position statement and supporting evidence to the whole class and debate Philip’s civil rights as a culminating activity.

Breaking Barriers, Building Bridges: Critical Discussion of Social Issues http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=86: Critical stance and development of a strong argument are key strategies when writing to convince someone to agree with your position. In this lesson, students explore environmental issues that are relevant to their own lives, self-select topics, and gather information to write persuasive essays. Although this lesson focuses on the environment as a broad topic, many other topics can easily be substituted for reinforcement of persuasive writing.

Exploring Audience and Purpose with a Single Issue http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=948: Students explore the rhetorical concept of audience and purpose by focusing on an issue that divided Americans in 1925, the debate of evolution versus creationism raised by the Scopes Monkey Trial. Students analyze the audience and purpose of at least one resource on the debate and then consider how audience and purpose might shape other communication on the issue.

Promoting Diversity in the Classroom and School Library through Social Action http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=317: Through an exploration of stereotypes in children’s picture books such as books from Disney’s Princess Collection, students identify the limited view established in these fictional worlds. Next, students compare these stereotyped representations to more diverse portrayals in matching texts, such as The Paper Bag Princess or Mufaro’s Beautiful Daughters. Finally, students use their findings to promote diversity by creating paired books or text sets that match stereotypical portrayals with balanced and diverse texts. Students create bookmarks that encourage readers to question the assumptions of stereotyped books and to seek out matching, balanced texts.

Worth Its Weight: Letter Writing with “The Things They Carried” http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=1061: This lesson pairs reading and discussion of Tim O’Brien’s story “The Things They Carried” with a letter-writing activity intended to help students develop the empathy needed to be insightful readers and to give students the opportunity to examine the symbolic weights they carry and, in turn, create meaningful, dynamic, and publishable prose.

Letters and Learning Genre http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=978: This lesson combines a lesson on genre with an opportunity for students to write and experience how genre changes a situation. By examining letters in picture books, students will see concepts of genre in action: that genres respond to social situations, that genre choice can also influence the situation, that genres have flexibility, that they aren’t just forms, and that they can be used in different situations. They will apply these generic concepts as they rewrite a story in a different genre.

Seeing Integration from Different Viewpoints http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=816: This lesson uses The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles, which describes the court-ordered desegregation of an all-white school in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1960, as a basis for a Directed Reading–Thinking Activity. A prereading strategy captures students' interest using a question and a during-reading strategy focuses their attention on key ideas. Finally, a postreading group activity called The Five Decision Lenses, (adapted from Six Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono, Back Bay Books, 1999) uses colored glasses to encourage students to view court-ordered desegregation from different perspectives.

From Friedan Forward—Considering a Feminist Perspective http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=955: Picture books can invite students to engage in critical discussion of complex issues of race, class, and gender. They challenge students to confront the injustice of barriers that separate human beings from one another and to examine the role of prejudice and stereotypes in sustaining these barriers. Read aloud, they enable students to engage in dialogue as they consider the narratives in terms of historical contexts, the nature of the implied barriers, and how individuals can take action to promote social justice and equity.