Persuasive Letter Writing

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Persuasive Letter Writing

• 8th Grade Reading and Language
• By Mary Kennedy Jacob

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1. The Question

• Why is increased understanding of discrimination
  and prejudice and its effects important in our
  world?

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Lesson designed by Mary Kennedy Jacob 7-27-06
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2. The Task

• It has been decided that due lack of finances,
  the students that will attend Grand Blanc West
  Campus will not have the opportunity to
  participate in extra curricular sports activities
  until further notice. The East Campus will
  continue to provide extra curricular sports. Your
  task is to convince the school board that this is
  an example of discrimination and convince them to
  keep sports opportunities equal between both
  campuses.

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3. The Student Activity
Working in pairs, students will go to the
following web site (wikipedia.com). First, you
will type in the term discrimination. Second,
you will read the definition and the article that
follows. Third, you will determine the main idea
of the article and list 3 important facts that
support your position. Last, you will follow the
same steps after typing in the word prejudice.
Click here to go to Wikipedia
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4. Assessment

• You are the student council president
  at West Campus and your student body wants you to
  write a persuasive letter to the Board of
  Education fighting for the equality of sports
  availability at both campuses. Create a three
  paragraph letter persuading the board to see your
  point of view. Your letter should state your
  opinion, explain how the lack of sports at West
  Campus is an example of discrimination and the
  possible long/short term effects, and last call
  the board to action.

Rubric for Persuasive Letter
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5. Take a Deeper Look at Discrimination.

• Students will view the video The Blue Eyed Brown
  Eyed Experiment with Jane Elliot provided by the
  Genesee Intermediate School District.  Using a
  Venn Diagram students will compare and contrast
  the students in the video to the students at west
  campus.
• Venn Diagram

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6. Standards Benchmarks

• Reading
• R.N.T. 08.01 Investigate through classic and
  contemporary literature recognized for quality
  and literary merit various examples of distortion
  and stereotypes such as those associated with
  gender, race, culture, age, class, religion, and
  other individual differences.
• Writing
• W.PR. 08.02 Apply a variety of pre-writing
  strategies for narrative text (e.g., story maps
  designed to depict rising and falling actions,
  roles of minor characters, credibility of
  narrator) and informational text (e.g.
  compare/contrast, cause and effect, sequential
  text patterns).
• W.PS. 08.01 Exhibit individual style to enhance
  the written message (e.g. in narrative text
  personification, humor, element of surprise, in
  informational text emotional appeal, strong
  opinion, credible support.

Technology Content Standard 2 All students will
use technologies to input, retrieve, organize,
manipulate, evaluate, and communicate
information. 1.Demonstrate skill using
technologies to prepare, evaluate and synthesize
information collected and stored (voice, data,
video, graphics, etc).
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7. Teacher Tips

• 1. Students will have read several nonfiction and
  fiction stories in the Language of Literature
  Text that deal with discrimination prior to this
  assignment
• 2. Have video The Blue Eyed Brown Eyed Experiment
  with Jane Elliot available in classroom..
• 3. Have copies of Venn Diagram in class.
• 4. Have copies of Main Idea worksheet available
  in class.

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8. Bibliography
Clip Art http//office.microsoft.com/clipart/defau
lt.aspx?lcen-us

• Rubric
• http//rubistar.4teachers.org/index.php?screenSho
  wRubricrubric_id1293528
• Venn Diagram

http//www.teach-nology.com/cgi-bin/venn.cgi
Wikipedia.com http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Pa
ge
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