Dear Librarian: Writing a persuasive letter
http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=875
A lesson plan for grades 3–5 English Language Arts
In this lesson, students use online writing tools to plan and write a persuasive letter to their school librarian requesting new books be added to the library collection. After students have read Emily’s Runaway Imagination, by Beverly Cleary, the teacher engages students in a conversation about their favorite books. Then, using the online persuasion map and letter generator provided by Readwritethink, the teacher guides students through the steps of planning and writing a persuasive letter. After students have completed their letters and printed them, they share their work with the class and eventually the librarian. In addition to providing links to online writing tools, and an assignment guide and rubric, this lesson plan suggests several extension activities to use while reading Beverly Cleary’s book.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
English Language Arts (2004)
Grade 3
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.02: Use oral and written language to:
- present information in a sequenced, logical manner.
- discuss.
- sustain conversation on a topic.
- share information and ideas.
- recount or narrate.
- answer open-ended questions.
- report information on a topic.
- explain own learning.
- Objective 4.04: Use planning strategies (with assistance) to generate topics and to organize ideas (e.g., drawing, mapping, discussing, listing).
- Objective 4.05: Identify (with assistance) the purpose, the audience, and the appropriate form for the oral or written task.
- Objective 4.09: Produce work that follows the conventions of particular genres (e.g., personal narrative, short report, friendly letter, directions and instructions).
- Objective 4.02: Use oral and written language to:
Grade 4
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.02: Use oral and written language to:
- present information and ideas in a clear, concise manner.
- discuss.
- interview.
- solve problems.
- make decisions.
- Objective 4.05: Use planning strategies to generate topics and organize ideas (e.g., brainstorming, mapping, webbing, reading, discussion).
- Objective 4.07: Compose fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using self-selected and assigned topics and forms (e.g., personal and imaginative narratives, research reports, diaries, journals, logs, rules, instructions).
- Objective 4.09: Produce work that follows the conventions of particular genres (e.g., personal and imaginative narrative, research reports, learning logs, letters of request, letters of complaint).
- Objective 4.02: Use oral and written language to:
Grade 5
- Goal 4: The learner will apply strategies and skills to create oral, written, and visual texts.
- Objective 4.02: Use oral and written language to:
- formulate hypotheses.
- evaluate information and ideas.
- present and support arguments.
- influence the thinking of others.
- Objective 4.05: Use a variety of preliminary strategies to plan and organize the writing and speaking task considering purpose, audience, and timeline.
- Objective 4.07: Compose a variety of fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and drama using self-selected topic and format (e.g., poetry, research reports, news articles, letters to the editor, business letters).
- Objective 4.09: Produce work that follows the conventions of particular genres (e.g., clarification, essay, feature story, business letter).
- Objective 4.02: Use oral and written language to:
