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Lesson Plan #2: Google Lit Trip

Authors

Erin Gotay

Summary

The class will read "Arthur Meets the President" by Marc Brown and view the accompanying Google Lit Trip as a lead into writing letters. Students will organize ideas to write a persuasive letter to someone in legislation about what they can do to help make America great.


Materials

-Book "Arthur Meets the President" by Marc Brown
-Computer with Internet access
-Projector
-Google Earth download (available from the below website address)
-Attached Google Earth Lit Trip


Intended Learning Outcomes

Students will learn how to use a web to organize their ideas to write a letter. Students will also learn the genre of persuasive writing and will learn how to use that genre in writing a letter.


Instructional Procedures

DAY 1:
1. Read aloud the story "Arthur Meets the President" modeling voice and expression.
2. Discuss the story as a class and reinforce the story by viewing the Google Earth Lit Trip.
3. Inform the class that they will be learning how to write a persuasive letter to someone in legislation about how they can help to make America great. Ask students to think about ideas they could write about to be discussed in the next lesson.

DAY 2:
1. As a class, discuss any ideas that students came up with and brainstorm additional ideas.
2. Select an idea from the discussion and model how to use that idea in generating and organizing a web chart focusing on voice, expression, who the intended audience is, and what the desired outcome is.
3. Review the web chart as a class and discuss how voice and expression can be used in their writing to persuade another to think about something differently or to take action and do something.

DAY 3:
1. Google "persuasive letter examples" and select a few examples to read to the class to help them understand what a persuasive letter is. Or, if past year's letters are available, read those to the class and point out things that were good or bad about the letters.
2. Show the attached letter template to the class on the projector and discuss the components of a letter. The final draft of the letters can be typed or handwritten depending on the ability for the letters to be typed.
3. Model on the projector, with the idea selected as a class, a think-aloud session and demonstrate how to write a persuasive letter again focusing on voice, expression, who the intended audience is and what the desired outcome is. Answer any questions that students may have during the process.

DAY 4:
1. Students will use the web chart they created on their idea to begin writing the rough drafts of their letter.

DAY 5:
1. Model how to review, edit, and revise a letter as a class. Then, have the students pair up and peer review each others letter.
2. Students will then write a second draft of their letter for teacher review.
3. If additional corrections are needed, students will write another draft of their letter for review.
4. If no additional corrections are needed, letters are ready to be written in final form, assessed, and sent out if the students desire.


Assessment Plan

Assess the letters to determine if the students understood and demonstrated the proper use of persuasive writing.


Rubrics

Created: 04/27/2010
Updated: 02/05/2018
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