Name of Lesson: It’s Definitely Not all Roses: Recognizing ...
Name of Lesson:
The power of the letter for the children of Attawapiskat: Workshops in writing to persuade
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|Grade Level:6 |
|Time: 250 minutes (5 x 50 minutes language arts periods) |
|Objectives: To provide students with an authentic, non-fiction writing experience that will allow them to take action on an issue |
|affecting the education of a First Nation community |
|Curriculum Expectations: |
|Language Arts |
|Reading |
|read a wide variety of texts from diverse cultures, including literary texts, graphic texts, and informational texts (e.g. print and |
|online editorials) |
| |
|Writing |
|Organizing Ideas |
|1.5 identify and order main ideas and supporting details and group them into units that could be used to develop a structured, |
|multi-paragraph piece of writing, using a variety of strategies |
|Form |
|Write longer and more complex texts using a wide range of forms |
|Assessment Strategies: Formative assessment: Anecdotal notes from teacher roving conferences to assess student’s abilities to |
|organize ideas and write longer and more complex texts using the letter form, anecdotal notes about students’ contributions to the |
|“facts” charts. Summative assessment: Assessment of finished letter to be included in students’ portfolios (using attached rubric) |
|Differentiated Instruction: |
|Universal design for this lesson includes roving conferences, which provides the opportunity for the teacher to give direct, |
|one-to-one assistance to students whose IEPs indicate difficulties with writing. Universal design for the lesson also involves |
|having mixed-ability groups, providing opportunities for students whose IEPs indicate difficulties with reading to be able to access |
|facts of the situation that will provide them with the background needed to write their letters. Universal design for learning also |
|includes a media presentation, in the form of a youtube video, that will allow all students, including English language learners and |
|students whose IEPs indicate difficulties with writing, to access information about the situation in Attawapiskat. English language |
|learners will be paired with a student who speaks their first language when reading the articles. They will also be allowed to write |
|in their first language and this will subsequently be translated by a peer or their parent. During a roving conference, the teacher |
|will help students translate their thoughts directly into English. |
|Materials required: |
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|5 Photocopies of newspaper article Joyless return for native students Colleen Schenk. Toronto Star. Aug 26, 2008. pg. AA.4 |
|5 Photocopies of newspaper article Reserve teens want school building; Cree students tell peers from 'big comfy schools' what it's |
|like to study in a string of portables |
|Louise Brown. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Nov 27, 2008. pg. A.20 |
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|5 Photocopies of newspaper article Kids show way in fight for schoolCarol Goar. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Jul 28, 2008. pg. AA.6 |
|5 Photocopies of newspaper article Native students go away disappointed; No money in budget for new elementary school, Indian affairs|
|minister tells Attawapiskat children Linda Diebel. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: May 30, 2008. pg. A.18 |
|5 Photocopies of newspaper article Native pupils ask Strahl for school Bill Curry. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: May 30, 2008. |
|pg. A.11 |
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|Computer with internet access to show youtube video clip on the fight for a school in Attawapiskat |
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|oi=video_result_group&resnum=4&ct=title# |
|and to use the letter generator found at |
|Overhead of excerpt from newspaper article “Native students go away disappointed” and overhead markers |
|Overhead of excerpt from newspaper article “Kids show way in fight for school” |
|Small stool with collapsible legs |
|Overhead of excerpt from Toronto Star Article “Kids Show Way in Fight for School” |
| |
|Overhead of letter on page 8 of the book Dear Mrs. LaRue |
|Markers |
|Chart paper |
|Smartboard |
|2 signs (for building the school in Attawapiskat, against building the school in Attawapiskat) |
| |
|Introduction (Hook): |
|Language Period 1 |
| |
|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
|Tell students that today we will start working on our persuasive writing, and since we have been talking about issues facing First |
|Nations communities, we will start by looking a situation involving students in a school in Ontario that is happening right now. |
|Show the class the youtube video on the fight for a school in Attawapiskat. Have the following discussion about the video with |
|students, asking them to think-pair-share in response to each discussion question: |
| |
|What happened in the video? |
|What opinion do you think the creator of the video has on the situation in Attawapiskat? |
|What other points of view might there be about the situation? (e.g. people who don’t live in Attawapiskat might be happier that they |
|are getting tax cuts, other schools might be more in need and that’s why they haven’t gotten their school yet) |
|Was it harder to identify the other point of view? Why? |
| |
|Explain to students that, this particular video persuaded thousands of elementary students, like themselves, to write letters to the |
|Indian Affairs minister to ask for a school for the children in Attawapiskat. Tell the class that they will be asked to take a stand|
|on the issue, and after doing that, they will be writing letters to persuade the Minister of Indian Affairs, Chuck Strahl to either |
|build the students of Attawapiskat a school, or not to build these students a school. |
| |
|Middle |
|Persuasive Letter writing mini-lesson 1—Playing detective: Doing the research |
|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
|“Writers don’t start writing their letters right away, if they want them to be really persuasive. Writers are like detectives—in |
|order to form an opinion about something, writers have to find out the facts of the case.” |
| |
|Ask students to think-pair-share in response to the following question: |
|Where could we get information about the situation going on in Attawapiskat? |
|Ask students to popcorn a few responses. |
| |
|Tell students that they will be given newspaper articles about the situation in Attawapiskat, from which they must pick out the facts|
|of the situation. |
| |
|Model finding the facts in a newspaper article using an excerpt on overhead from the Toronto Star article “Kids show way in the fight|
|for school” (see attached). |
| |
|“These are parts of the articles that you will be reading to find the facts of your case, and this part describes a teacher (Angus) |
|talking about Attawapiskat being promised a real school building. It says here that they were promised a school in 2000. Wow! They |
|have been saying they were going to build them a school for 9 years. I think that’s an interesting fact of the case. It also says |
|here that the Indian Affairs minister, Chuck Strahl, says that he won’t promise a school because there are other communities who are |
|experiencing worse conditions. So that’s also a fact. What about this part here? It says that Angus considers it wrong that a |
|promise to the First Nations community can be broken on a whim.” Draw a t-chart on the chart paper. In one column write down the |
|word “Facts” as a heading, on the other column, write down the word “Opinions” as a heading. Write this information down on chart |
|paper under the heading “Facts” and display it on the board. |
| |
|Ask students to think-pair-share about whether this statement is a fact or an opinion. Discuss with students the wording that makes |
|it an opinion (i.e. considers it wrong) |
| |
|Timing: 20 minutes Grouping: Small Groups |
|Using chart paper which will be turned into placemats, students in each group will read their assigned article. Students will pick |
|out 4 facts about the situation each, and write them down in their placemat section. Students will also pick out at least 2 |
|opinions. The group will then combine everybody’s facts to make a list of facts for the class. Each chart will be displayed on the |
|walls. |
| |
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|Take a Stand Activity: |
|Grouping: Whole Group Timing: 10 minutes |
|Make 2 signs (“For building a school in Attawapiskat” and “Against building a school in Attawapiskat”) and place them at opposite |
|ends of the carpeted circle area. Tell students to think about the facts that they have just read, and then ask them to line up, |
|based on how strong their opinion is, from one sign to the other. Ask some students to share their opinions, and support them with |
|reference to the facts listed on the charts. |
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|Language Period 2 |
|Writing Workshop 1: |
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|Persuasive letter writing mini-lesson 2: What will support my opinion? |
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|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
|“Yesterday, we did some research about what is going on in Attawapiskat and thought about what our opinions might be. Today we are |
|going to talk about how to convince people that our opinions are right, and we do that by using main ideas supported by facts. |
|Remember, anyone can have an opinion about something, but in order to convince people of our opinions, we need to have something |
|supporting them. Your opinion is like the top of this stool (show students the stool), the main ideas are like the screws connecting|
|the legs to the stool top, and the facts you use are like the stool’s legs—without both main ideas and facts to hold your opinion up,|
|your opinion will collapse. (During this explanation, collapse the legs of the stool). Today I will teach you that, in order to |
|write an effective persuasive letter, we need to back up our opinion with main ideas supported by concrete facts.” |
| |
|Use the following think-aloud to model for students how to come up with facts that support their opinion. “Last night, I thought it |
|would be a good idea to convince our school principal that all the classes in our school should join our class in our letter-writing |
|campaign. I think that’s a really good idea. But then I thought to myself, well, just because I think it’s a good idea doesn’t mean|
|that the principal will agree with me. So I am going to have to convince her by using some main ideas supported by facts.” Have a |
|pre-made graphic organizer template drawn on chart paper(see attached for the student version). “So what main ideas could I use to |
|support my opinion? Well, I did some research, just like you did when you looked at the articles yesterday, and I found out that |
|writing letters fits in easily with the language arts program that students have to learn. So that will be one of my main ideas. Some|
|facts that I will use to support this main idea are that letter writing is a good way of teaching persuasive writing. Another fact |
|that supports this idea is that research shows that students write better when they are writing for a real audience. I also found out|
|that other schools have written these letters. So that is another main idea. I will support that main idea with the facts that |
|schools like St. Mary’s wrote these letters and even had students from Attawapiskat come to visit them. Another fact I will use to |
|support this main idea is that the students of St. Mary’s found the experience rewarding.” |
|“I also found out, as you can see from my list, that writing these letters takes a lot of time. I don’t think I’ll put that main |
|idea down though. It goes against what I am saying about the letter writing campaign being a good idea. Hmm…what else is on my |
|list? I also said that I really think this issue is important. Would this be a main idea or a fact I could use?” |
|Ask students what they think of the last comment. Ask them to think-pair-share about whether the last statement is a main idea, fact|
|or an opinion and then discuss why this is an opinion with the class. |
|Ask a few students to come up to generate another main idea and some facts that might support the teacher’s opinion. Have students |
|write these facts on the chart paper. |
| |
|Grouping: Independent Timing: 30 minutes |
|Share rubric with students for this writing task (see attached). Students will continue to research the topic and independently |
|organize the facts they have previously researched about the Attawapiskat into main ideas and supporting details, writing them on the|
|given graphic organizer (see attached). During this independent work period, the teacher will conduct one-to-one roving conferences |
|with students on today’s writing topic. These conferences are based on the needs of the individual student, and during each |
|conference, the teacher will scaffold student work by researching what the child is doing as a writer (observing their writing), |
|teaching a specific point, supporting the student as they try out that point and linking what the student just did to what they |
|should do in their future writing. |
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|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
|Ask student volunteers to share what they have worked on today (note: as the teacher is conferring, pick out examples from students |
|who have grasped today’s teaching point and ask them if they would be comfortable sharing). |
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|Language Lesson 3 |
|Writing Workshop 2 |
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|Persuasive letter writing mini-lesson 3: There’s two sides to every story, but what do I do about the other side? |
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|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 15 minutes |
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|Tell students the following: “Yesterday we talked about how to organize facts to support our opinion. But there’s another side to |
|the story, and that side has facts to support its opinion as well. Today I want to teach you that in order to present our opinion, |
|it helps to state the other side of the story, and then use a fact to weaken that side of the story.” |
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|Display the excerpt from the Star article “Native Students go away disappointed” on overhead. Ask students to identify Phil |
|Fontaine’s opinion. |
|Ask students to think-pair-share in response to the following question: Why does Fontaine include facts that would support Chuck |
|Strahl’s opinion? Discuss student answers. |
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|Say the following to students “In presenting his opinion, Phil Fontaine does a very smart thing. He acknowledges the opinion of the |
|other side and states a fact that supports Chuck Strahl’s opinion. But then, he gives other facts that go against the fact that |
|supports Chuck Strahl’s opinion, making it seem like Chuck Strahl’s case is not very strong.” |
| |
|Ask students to come up and identify the facts using the overhead marker. Ask students to think-pair-share about how those facts |
|weaken Chuck Strahl’s argument. Discuss student answers. |
| |
|Grouping: Independent Timing: 25 minutes |
|Teacher will conduct roving conferences (see description of components of roving conference above) with students who need extra help |
|with today’s teaching point. |
| |
|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
|Ask student volunteers to share what they have worked on today (note: as the teacher is conferring, pick out examples from students |
|who have grasped today’s teaching point and ask them if they would be comfortable sharing). |
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|Language Lesson 4 |
|Writing Workshop 3 |
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|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
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|Persuasive letter writing mini-lesson 4: The Letter form |
|Using the Smartboard and the link to the on-line letter generator, go over features of the letter. Explain each feature of the |
|business letter as prompted by the generator. First use the teacher generated letter (see attached). Then allow students to come up|
|to the Smartboard to enter in information and generate templates for their own letters to Indian Affairs Minister, Chuck Strahl. |
| |
|Grouping: Independent Timing: 30 minutes |
|Teacher will conduct roving conferences with students who need extra help with today’s teaching point. |
| |
|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
|Ask student volunteers to share what they have worked on today (note: as the teacher is conferring, pick out examples from students |
|who have grasped today’s teaching point and ask them if they would be comfortable sharing). |
| |
|Language Lesson 5 |
|Writing Workshop 4 |
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|Persuasive letter writing mini-lesson 5: Improving my work with persuasive words |
|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
| |
|Tell students that we have been working on writing our letters, but today I want to teach you that persuasive writers often use |
|persuasive words to make their writing even stronger. Tell students that persuasive words are words that exaggerate to have an |
|effect. Using an overhead from page 8 of the book Dear Ms. LaRue (with which students are already familiar from an earlier |
|read-aloud), use the following think-aloud to model the use of persuasive words. |
|“Mark Teague uses an interesting choice of words in this sentence “Day after day I’m forced to perform the most meaningless tasks.” |
|Hmm. I wonder why he didn’t just say “I perform boring tasks.” Well, let’s think about the phrase “day after day.” It makes me |
|think that the dog just keeps doing the same thing over and over again, every day, for the rest of his life—even though I’m sure this|
|is not exactly true. Here Mark Teague is exaggerating the dog’s boredom. He also uses descriptive words like “most meaningless” to |
|describe the tasks the dog is performing at obedience school. These descriptive words also seem to be an exaggeration: There could be|
|tasks out there that are more meaningless than sitting or rolling over, and sitting and rolling over do have some kind of meaning. |
|But I think he wants us to see that the dog is really unhappy at the school by using these words. So he’s exaggerating to create an |
|effect.” |
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|Ask students to think-pair-share about what other words could be exaggerating to create an effect. Have students come up to |
|underline these words on the overhead. Start a list on chart paper of these words, entitled “Exaggerating to create an effect” and |
|display it in the classroom. |
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|In groups of 4, ask students to come up with as many words as they can think of that could also be used to exaggerate to create an |
|effect (e.g. severely, all, always, never, every time, everyone, etc.) |
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|Grouping: Independent Timing: 30 minutes |
|Students independently work on revising their letters by adding persuasive words. During this independent work period, the teacher |
|will conduct one-to-one roving conferences with students on adding persuasive words in their writing. |
| |
| |
|Grouping: Whole Class Timing: 10 minutes |
|Ask student volunteers to share what they have worked on today (note: as the teacher is conferring, pick out examples from students |
|who have grasped today’s teaching point and ask them if they would be comfortable sharing). |
Excerpt for Mini-lesson 1: Taken from Kids show way in fight for school
Carol Goar. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: Jul 28, 2008. pg. AA.6
Robert Nault was the first Indian affairs minister to promise a new school in 2000. Andy Scott repeated that pledge in 2005. And Jim Prentice assured the community last year he would seek funding for the school.
Now, everything has changed. Strahl says the long-promised school is no longer on Ottawa's priority list. "The facilities in Attawapiskat are not as high up as some unfortunate schools that are in worse shape." Angus doesn't dispute that urgent needs exist on other reserves. But he considers it wrong that signed agreements with First Nations can be broken on a whim.
Excerpt for Mini-lesson 3: Taken from Toronto Star Article “Native students go away disappointed; No money in budget for new elementary school, Indian affairs minister tells Attawapiskat children”
Linda Diebel. Toronto Star. Toronto, Ont.: May 30, 2008. pg. A.18
The minister said he prioritizes infrastructure needs of First Nations schools, starting with health and safety - and "the facilities in Attawapiskat are not as high up as some unfortunate schools that are in worse shape."
Phil Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, agrees with Strahl about conditions in other schools, noting that 39 First Nations communities are without schools of any kind and "many, many more are in terrible shape."
But Fontaine sees no reason the Conservative government doesn't make First Nations children a priority and fix the schools, whatever they need. To leave conditions as they are in Attawapiskat is "completely unfair to the kids," said Fontaine. "These children are being short-changed and it can't be allowed to continue."
Information for teacher-generated letter for Mini-lesson 3
123 Your Address St.
Toronto, ON
M2N 3L4
February 18, 2009
Ms. Stroz
Principal
St. Matthew Catholic School
12 Lavender St.
Toronto, ON M4K 2L3
Dear Ms. Stroz:
I am writing to ask if all classes in the school could participate in writing letters to support the children of Attawapiskat in their fight for a school.
Other schools in our board have participated, and I believe we should join them in this cause. St. Mary’s wrote letters, and they got to meet the students of Attawapiskat. Students at that school have said it was a very rewarding experience.
All students must learn writing in their language program. Writing letters is a good way of teaching persuasive writing. Research has also shown that students who write for real audiences are more successful writers. If all students joined the letter writing campaign for Attawapiskat in our school, they would be improving their language arts experience.
As Catholics, we are asked to be living witnesses to our faith by fighting for social justice. What better way to have the students practice their faith than by taking action to help students who are being discriminated against? Many Catholic role models such as Mother Theresa have shown that we should be involved in fighting the unfairness that exists in our world. Let’s have our students do the same.
In conclusion, I believe that because our students could benefit both academically and spiritually, and because other schools in our board have also participated in this letter writing campaign, all the classes at St. Matthew’s should definitely write persuasive letters to Indian Affairs Minister Chuck Strahl.
Sincerely,
Ms. Ferrante
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|Grade 6: Rubric for Persuasive Letter |
|Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 |
|Reasoning |The student: | | | | | | |
|– complexity of ideas |– writes a few simple, | |--writes and develops a | |--writes and develops ideas | |--develops ideas fully to create |
|– exploration of the issue in|undeveloped ideas | |variety of simple ideas | |of some complexity | |greater understanding |
|Attawapiskat |--states facts about the issue | |--shows some understanding | |--shows understanding of the| |--shows thorough understanding and|
|– number and relevance of |in Attawapiskat, but shows | |of the issue in | |issue in Attawapiskat | |commitment about the issue in |
|main ideas and supporting |little under-standing of it | |Attawapiskat | |--supports his or her point | |Attawapiskat |
|details |– does not provide at least 3 | |--provides some supporting | |of view with at least 3 main| |--supports his or her point of |
| |main ideas | |main for his or her point | |ideas supported by relevant| |view fully with 3 or more main |
| |--provides few facts supporting | |of view | |facts | |ideas supported by relevant facts |
| |his or her point of view | | | | | | |
|Communication |The student’s letter: | | | | | | |
|– purpose (to express an |– states facts | |--attempts to persuade | |--is persuasive i.e. | |--is very persuasive i.e. |
|opinion in a letter to |– contains no clear opinion or | |i.e. contains an | |contains an opinion or point| |contains an opinion or point of |
|Minister of Indian Affairs, |point of view | |--opinion somewhat clearly | |of view expressed clearly | |view expressed clearly and |
|Chuck Strahl) |– contains few ideas and facts | |expressed | |--contains ideas and facts | |convincingly |
|– voice (opinion) – clarity |clearly stated | |-- contains some ideas and | |that are mostly clearly | |--all or almost all ideas and |
|and precision of ideas |– contains little or no evidence| |facts clearly stated, but | |stated | |facts clearly and concisely stated|
|– word use and vocabulary |of persuasive vocabulary or | |which may be repetitive | |--contains persuasive | |---contains persuasive language |
|– sentence variety |vocabulary that suits the | |--contains some persuasive | |vocabulary that suits the | |and tone that support the opinion |
|(structure, type, length) |audience | |vocabulary | |purpose and audience | |presented as well as the audience |
| |--does not acknowledge the other| |--ineffectively | |--effectively acknowledges | |--effectively acknowledges the |
| |side of the story | |acknowledges the other side| |the other side of the story | |other side of the story and |
| |– relies on one sentence type | |of the story | |& weakens it | |supports own opinion by weakening |
| | | |--contains a variety of | |--contains a wide variety of| |it |
| | | |sentences | |sentences | |--contains a wide variety of |
| | | | | | | |sentences used effectively |
|Organization |In the student’s letter: | | | | | | |
|– overall structure |– there is no clear overall | |--there is some evidence of| |--the organization is | |--the organization sup-ports the |
|(introduction, body, |structure or organization | |a structure or organization| |logical and appropriate | |purpose and enhances the argument|
|conclusion) |– very little attempt has been | | | |--the student’s opinion is | | |
| |made to state the student’s | |--the student’s opinion is | |defined in the introduction,| |--the introduction clearly states|
| |opinion in the introduction | |mentioned in the | |and the introduction and | |the student’s opinion on the |
| |--there is no summary of the | |introduction | |conclusion are connected | |issue, the issue, captures the |
| |reasons that support the | |--some attempt has been | |--the final paragraph | |reader’s attention, and is |
| |student’s opinion or clear call | |made to summarize the | |summarizes the reasons for | |connected to the conclusion |
| |to action | |reasons that support the | |the student’s opinion and | |--the reasons for the student’s |
| | | |student’s opinion | |requests further action | |opinion are summarized and the |
| | | | | | | |request for action is clear and |
| | | | | | | |compelling |
|Conventions |In the student’s letter: | | | | | | |
|– grammar, spelling, |– there are several major errors| |--there are several minor | |--there are only a few minor| |--there are practically no errors|
|punctuation |or omissions | |errors or omissions | |errors or omissions | |or omissions --the visual |
|– visual presentation (i.e. |– few aspects of the expected | |--some aspects of the | |--the visual presentation is| |presentation is effective |
|paragraphs, spacing, letter |visual pre-sentation are evident| |expected visual | |appropriate | | |
|format) | | |presentation are evident | | | | |
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