1. Text

Students will choose one opinion column and one news article from a national or local newspaper to read.

2. Reading as a reader, students should:

Ÿ         Learn to differentiate between the purposes of feature news articles and opinion columns. The news is written to inform in an unbiased manner, so when students read these articles, they should notice the ways in which facts are presented; i.e., statements explaining what happened, where, with whose involvement, etc. When reading others’ opinions, students will practice recognizing when arguments are made in writing; the columnists do not merely present facts, but also an argument with supporting evidence and appeals to readers. In this way, while reading as readers, students will also learn how opinions are effectively presented – as an appeal to a particular audience.

Ÿ         Notice the differences in tone, style, structure and voice between the two types of articles. How are quotes used in each type of article? What kinds of introductions and conclusions does each type of article have?

Ÿ         Evaluate the articles’ effectiveness; was the news report thorough enough? Was the opinion columnist’s perspective clear?

3. Reading as a writer, students should:

Ÿ         Ask, what choices do writers make in each type of writing, and why? For example, are there differences in sentence structure? In diction? What function do these choices serve?

Ÿ         Recognize what characterizes a piece of writing as objective or subjective, and be able to appropriately reproduce these characteristics in their own writing.

Ÿ         Notice the length and structure of each form of writing and understand how these features fit the purpose of the writing. How long should each piece be? How does the writer introduce and conclude each piece?

4. Writing assignment:

DIRECTIONS: Choose a current issue in the news, to which you will respond in the form of your own opinion column. There is no length requirement, but keep in mind that due to space constraints, newspaper columns of this type tend to be around 600-700 words.

Write as though your opinion is to be published in the local newspaper – remember to keep your audience in mind.

I will be checking your rough draft for completion tomorrow, at which point you will receive instructions for revision. You will ultimately be graded on the care you take in expressing your opinion, so be as thorough and precise as you can. I will be paying specific attention to style and voice in your writing. Your draft may be hand-written or typed. You may be creative with the formatting of your piece, but be careful: remember that, as part of a newspaper, it needs to be readable. Be sure to see me if you have questions!

5. Drafting & revision

Students will have class time to begin, and possibly finish, their initial drafts of the assignment. The second part of the assignment will be given the next day, when they will trade drafts (and the news articles to which their drafts respond, so that each reader will understand what the other‘s draft is in reference to) with a partner in class and respond to one another’s opinions with a letter to the “editor.” We will have looked at a few letters to the editor together first to help students understand the purpose and format of this type of writing. Students will have around 15 minutes to write their letters, then each pair of students will collaborate to help one another edit and revise their opinions and letters. (The following rubric will only be used to grade the final draft of the opinion column).

6. Rubric

7. Context

A few of the “big ideas” in model unit 10.1 include “conviction,” “civil liberties,” and “responsibility of individuals as members of a community,” and feature news articles are included in the genre study options under the “Informational Text” heading. This text and writing assignment would access these elements of the model unit. In the context of the entire unit, this assignment would fall at a relatively early point, when students will already have examined American historical documents, such as the Bill of Rights, and become familiar with the writing of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Paine, for example. Feature news articles are included in unit 10.1 as a review of 9^th grade, so it would make sense to address them relatively early in the school year. The assignment would fall after students have studied some of the writings produced by revolutionary American figures; in this way, students will have an opportunity to see the Bill of Rights in action (freedom of speech, freedom of the press), and they will learn how their own voices can contribute to a greater communal dialogue.

FEEDBACK

Nicole,

Great job on your rough draft! I can tell you were really thinking about what makes a good opinion column as you built your argument based on the facts presented in your chosen news article. I especially like your introductory and concluding sentences. Your introduction gets right to the point, and your closing sentence makes a persuasive appeal to your audience.

I have a couple of suggestions as you head into the revision process. First, read your draft out loud, slowly, to yourself. See if you notice anything that doesn’t sound right – this will help you hunt down a few mechanical errors. Secondly, I would like to see you flesh out the body of your column with some background information. For example, you mention high tech video cameras – are these a part of the study you are criticizing? The connection isn’t quite clear. One way to improve this might be to make sure you explain the study you are criticizing very thoroughly, then begin your critique. Be sure to see me if you have questions about my comments!

RESPONSE TO COMPLETED 9TH GRADE ASSIGNMENT

Ultimately, I was impressed with the way Nicole handled my 9^th grade assignment. I did not actually ask her to find her own opinion column as a mentor text and a news article upon which to base her opinion column, as these activities would be accomplished leading up to the assignment itself, but she cut out the articles anyway and gave them to me along with her completed assignment. And I’m glad she did, because that made it much easier for me to see how the style and structure of her written piece echoed the style and structure of her mentor text, and it helped me to understand the content of her opinion piece, which was based upon a news item I would otherwise have had no knowledge of.

Because Nicole chose a somewhat technical topic to tackle (the use of government funds for a traffic study), I have taken a step back from the assignment itself to consider its practical application. I realize that it may be a stretch for some 9^th grade students to find an opinion column and news article that are decipherable, as many contain technical or political terminology that may be unfamiliar to them. But I hope that there are enough news sources available, printed or electronic, from which students will be able to dig something up that they not only can understand but that genuinely piques their interest, as I think Nicole was able to do. This also serves to expose students to the vast quantities of information available to them that they may not have known about.

Regarding the assignment itself, one thing I did not take into consideration when I initially designed the rubric was content. Considering the sometimes technical nature of opinion writing I mentioned above, it is entirely possible that some students will choose to respond to articles they don’t completely understand, and end up writing garbled, jargony opinion columns, rendering them essentially meaningless in any practical sense. And honestly, I’m not sure how to address this. I could add content to the rubric, but what if students think they understand a particular topic but prove themselves wrong, to me, through their writing? I’m more concerned that students participate and learn some of the conventions of editorial writing than that their writing adequately addresses their chosen topics, but content is an issue I could foresee arising.

KYRA’S ASSIGNMENT

1. Why is this an epic poem?

One characteristic of “Ode of Mulan” that identifies it as an epic poem is the content; the theme of courageously and dutifully riding into battle is typical of epic poetry. Another identifying characteristic is its formal structure.

2. How is this story still relevant today?

“Ode of Mulan” makes connections between current and historical gender issues; while women have gained greatly expanded societal roles in the last century, the battlefield is still primarily reserved as the responsibility of men. Readers of this poem may also be reminded of Eowyn from The Lord of the Rings series and make comparisons between her and Mulan. This poem also contains a familiar family dynamic that readers will likely find relevant to their own lives. And finally, the themes of duty and courage are universally relevant, as people of all historical periods and backgrounds encounter situations that require these traits.

3. What is the overall message of the story?

The overall message of the story is two-fold; in part, it is to honor the courage of someone who stepped up to take on a responsibility that nobody else was in a position to assume. The message also, through the twist at the end of the story, is that a woman can possess just as much fortitude and resolve as a man in harrowing situations.

Journal entry as Mulan:

It is getting dark now. I have reached the Yellow River and will camp here for the night. Father and Mother will be looking for me now, but they will not find me. It is for them, and for Elder Sister and Younger Brother that I now ride into battle as a man. I have no ties, nothing holding me back there. Mother, Father, Elder Sister and Younger Brother can take care of each other without me. I know they are in distress because of my leaving them, but one day, perhaps, they will see me again. But for now my duty lies ahead, and I will not turn back homeward until it is finished. I go willingly into battle for the sake of my homeland. And the fierce courage of my comrades will carry us to victory.

While abhorring segregation, we shall love the segregationist. This is the only way to create the beloved community.

To our most bitter opponents we say: “We shall match your capacity to inflict suffering by our capacity to endure suffering. We shall meet your physical force with soul force. Do to us what you will, and we shall continue to love you. We cannot in all good conscience obey your unjust laws because noncooperation with evil is as much a moral obligation as is cooperation with good. Throw us in jail and we shall still love you. Bomb our homes and threaten our children, and we shall still love you. Send your hooded perpetrators of violence into our community at the midnight hour and beat us and leave us half dead, and we shall still love you. But be ye assured that we will wear you down by our capacity to suffer. One day we shall win freedom but not only for ourselves. We shall so appeal to your heart and conscience that we shall win you in the process and our victory will be a double victory.”

Feedback on completed assignment: feedback

Response to completed assignment: response

[HEAR!TSIDE]

As students of literature and writing, we are used to spending lots of class time in open discussion with our professors and with one another. Thus, suddenly changing our class “discussion” format to a (necessarily) rigidly structured process, it seemed to me, felt like a clunky substitute for what we are accustomed to in our classrooms as students. From my perspective, the process didn’t flow very well for us; it probably would have progressed more smoothly if we were more familiar with the structure. And I’m not sure it would have been worth it to spend valuable time learning how to participate using the “Roberts Rules” beforehand.

I was thinking about the democratic political process, as a general concept, during our session, and it seemed clear to me that while it felt aggravatingly slow and cumbersome for us, some type of similar structure is necessary to ensure order and equal speaking opportunity in governing bodies which carry the serious responsibility of serving a population of people. That being said, I’m not convinced of the usefulness of the process in the writing classroom. While I highly value the concept of teaching writing and literature as a necessity in a democratic society, I’m not sure we need to implement the actual process (writing a position, mediating between one’s own and others’ positions, and engaging in debate to vote on outcomes) in a general English class. I feel this way partially because the two class discussions we had (the one in which everyone who wanted to contributed their positions to the discussion, and Tuesday’s session) felt weightier than our actual written positions from our blogs. It seemed to me that we could have done away with the writing portion of the process altogether and still accomplished the same end, simply by brainstorming our list of ideas in class and then engaging in the voting process.

And then there’s the issue of what we’re actually doing for the next few weeks for class. I was initially glad of the opportunity to contribute to the last few weeks of our syllabus, as there are aspects of the teaching of writing I could use clarification on; however, I also want to be challenged and sure of what is expected of me. We came up with an assignment for next week and decided on the final exam, but what about the rest of our time?

In reading through what I’ve just written here, it sounds pretty negative, and I didn’t intend that. I did actually enjoy participating in the process.  I’m just not yet convinced of its usefulness in the writing classroom.

In addition to these issues, and while the idea didn’t show up on a multitude of our blogs, I want to highlight what Kelly suggested about using technology more effectively in classroom settings. Part of the value in blogging is the ability to respond directly to writers’ writing. As teachers, we are all going to be using web-based technologies in our teaching at some point, and blogs are one of the tools we could provide to our students as a way to encourage them to write, as well as to respond to one another’s writing. I don’t feel we have utilized our blogs to their full potential, and it may be beneficial to shift the focus of our blogs from simply writing reading responses to a more interactive approach, as we have done with our position essays. This may be difficult, given our time restraints, but I think it would be worthwhile to find a way to structure blogging into our syllabus.

Even though we just created lesson plans covering two hours’ worth of writing instruction, I still do not feel at all confident in planning lessons over an extended period of time. At times I’ve felt overloaded with information from our various texts and, when I think about it, I really have no idea how I would go about putting together an extended unit for the teaching of writing. I think we should work on that for the rest of the semester. I’m talking about planning every detail of an entire multi-week, or possibly even year-long, cohesive unit.

Because I haven’t gone through the undergraduate education program, I’ve never even seen, let alone created, lesson plans before. And I’m the kind of student who likes to have specific instructions; I want to know what specific task I need to do and in exactly what way it should be done. I’m speaking for myself here, but I feel that, as a student of teaching, I need to know what a unit plan should specifically include, and what it should not include. I need to know what a logical sequence for unit instruction would look like, and I need feedback on the lessons I design.

From our texts and through in-class discussions, we’ve absorbed lots of knowledge about teaching grammar and mechanics, assessing student work, multigenre writing, the revision process, etc. How do we synthesize these pieces of pedagogical content? How do we use what we have learned to sustain a writing class over the course of a marking period or semester?