At the beginning of the target, I made a 2 page packet with all the language we would be focusing on (Nouns, Adjectives, Phrases, etc.). This is heavily pulled from Susana Dutro's ELD binder. I'll try to figure out a way to upload it for sharing.
Eventually, students had to write a letter expressing their opinion about an educational issue. The main three that we had discussed and practiced with were (1) bilingual vs. English-only schools (2) whether or not undocumented students should get to come to American public schools and (3) whether or not standardized testing should be tied to graduation. Students worked through 3 drafts of their letter, then sent the letters to the school principal, the district superintendent, the Oregon Dept. of Ed, the federal Dept. of Ed, or the White House.
This is my second time having students send letters to politicians. Both times, it seemed like no matter how many times I said "we're REALLY mailing this. We're PUTTING THEM into the mailbox and SENDING them," I still had students look at me with shock when I told them we can't send the President a letter in pencil, with words scratched out, with the holes on the right side, with something else written on the back, etc. This is a great reminder of how completely school activities are usually cut off from "the real world." I feel like I should make a note at my desk that says "Is it for real?" to make me take lessons outside of the classroom more often.
Also, the majority of the students had NEVER mailed a letter, so we went through many more envelopes than I expected. Such is life in the age of email.
We already got a nice long response from our superintendent! I'm excited to share that as a reading comprehension activity this week.
Great project! Keep us posted as to any other responses. What did the super have to say?
ReplyDeleteThe superintendent wrote a really nice letter, pretty much agreeing with everything my students said. They were all pretty surprised to get a response! It was awesome. Plus, she used a lot of idioms, so that was good practice for my students!
ReplyDeleteI also got an email from the assistant to the Superintendent of the Oregon Dept. of Ed. She just wanted to let me know that they are working on a response for all the letters. :)
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