Letters to the Next President 2.0 English 12

Focus Question Where in your world do you want to see change? Examples can be your personal life, school life, this nation, a new topic of social injustice that has entered your mind, or maybe in the entire world Write about what you wish the change would be and what you would hope would be different after the change. 5 minutes, half a page in length, and in the Focus Question section of your writer’s notebook.

How Powerful Can a Letter Be in Making Change? Examine the short article given to you about an incident of rape at Stanford. The woman who was attacked, was raped by another student. He only received 6 months in jail from the judge vs the average sentence of at least 14 years. She decided to write a letter about her feelings on the sentence. Question: Read the article for details of what happened in this case. After annotating the article, what would you say if you were writing a letter to the judge who made this decision? Brainstorm a list-Assignment Section http://www.smh.com.au/world/stanford-rape-case-brock-turner-released- after-serving-half-of-sixmonth-jail-sentence-20160902-gr7xmw.html

Introduction to Letters to the President Writing letters to presidents has a long history, long before people took their voice to social media outlets. We are going to preview some letters that have been written to presidents. The following examples were written by students to President Obama. We are going to read one letter together, and after discussion, you will choose your own to examine. The questions to answer will be on the next slide.

Questions to Ponder-Takes Notes While Reading and During Our Discussion What requirements are there for the structure of the letter? What is the purpose of the writing of the letters? What stance is being taken in the writing? What does the writer do to make his/her argument? What do they hope happens as a result of their letters? What kind of things would you want to say in a letter to the future President?

Focus Question Take some time to explore the topic that you might want to focus on for your letter to the future president. This time, I’m giving you some sites to examine for your focus When you find a website that can assist you, make sure to copy the link and paste it into a file inside your Google Docs. Hint: You might need it later. Put the title: Activism Links on that document. KQED (Do Now or Big Issues), NYTimes (Learning Blog, Room for Debate, or Opinion Pages), Youth Radio, or Fusion: Dear Next President, USA Today, or Newsela

Things For You to Answer Before Starting to Write Why does this issue matter to you? Why does this topic matter to a larger audience? How does your personal experience connect to the nation? Who else does this issue matter to? Who is affected by this issue? What are the different perspectives on this issue? Does everyone believe the same thing? What can the President or the government do about this issue?

Getting Rid of the Maturity Gap in Your Writing General Topics/Questions School Testing Why does this issue matter to you? Why does this topic matter to a larger audience? How does your personal experience connect to the nation? Who else does this issue matter to? Who is affected by this issue? What are the different perspectives on this issue? Does everyone believe the same thing? What can the President or the government do about this issue? Researchable Questions How much has school testing grown in the past ten years? Who chooses what test students take? What are the effects of school testing on students? What are the pros and cons of school testing?

Time to Build Note-Catchers: You Need Three Facts: What are the facts and background of the issue? _______________________________________________ Effect: What are the effects of the issue? Who is affected? And in what way? What can be done about the effects? Questions I still need to answer: Causes: What are the causes of the issues? What can be done? _______________________________________________ Perspectives, Sides, Examples: What are the different perspectives and experiences of this issue? Possible Claim:

After Gathering Your Resources, You Have to Claim It! GUT: Testing is bad for students You feel that this is important. Your soul wants to let the reader know that it is true, but… Don’t be childish as a senior in your writing. Just because your gut feels it doesn’t mean anyone should care. Be refind and you can’t be denied. REFIND: With the rise in school testing over the past ten years, stress levels of students has also risen, so one issue worth considering in the next four years is reducing the amount of testing students do in schools. It sounds academic. It has an expanded thought. The wording demands urgency and attention. This is what you want to be if you are writing to the president (and anyone else).

Organizing Your Thoughts Introduction (with claim) Background on the issue Causes of the issue Effects: who and how Varying Perspectives What can be done Conclusion We will NEVER...EVER...EVER write in 5 paragraphs. Colleges don’t accept it and neither do I.

Say-Mean-Matter Say-(What the source says)-We must give credit to the source that we use also. It’s not fair to steal someone else’s words, thoughts, and/or ideas. Mean-(Restatement of what the source means/the take away from the information)-These are your words and your translation to the information. Matter (Why this fact/source connects to and matters to the reason or claim)- Don’t leave people thinking “So what?”

Say-Mean-Matter Example Say: Citing a recent study about testing, Strauss says, “The average student in America’s big-city public schools takes some 112 mandatory standardized tests between pre-k and the end of 12th grade-an average of about eight a year… That eats up between 20 to 25 hours every school year.” Mean: This means that a large portion of the school year is spent on prepping for and taking test at every grade level. Matter: This matters because the instructional time is lost for students, not only on taking the actual test, but also on preparing for and worrying about the test. With this much lost time, learning is also lost. This point should lead to a reduction of focus on standardize testing.

Last Check of Making Sure Your Letter is Worth Reading We are going to return to the sample letters for one last check We are going to look at “Run, Forest, Run!” and “We Cannot Do it Without You.” Both of these letters added a personal story to the letter-anecdotes Does your letter have that kind of “spark” in the message? Is your letter effective? Is it interesting? What is missing in your letter? Is it following the format of the others? Have you checked your grammar, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation? Remember, I’m not your focus audience.

It’s Time to Publish