Indiana Wesleyan University

Elementary Education Lesson Plan Template

Reading, Writing, and Oral Language
2007 ACEI Standards
READINESS
I.
Goals/Objectives/Standard(s)
A. Goal(s) Students will be able to write a persuasive letter
B. Objective(s) After seeing it modeled, students will be able to write a persuasive letter to
the principal on whether they believe there should be less technology in the classroom or
more technology in the classroom.
Standard(s): 4.W.3.1 Write persuasive compositions in a variety of forms that:
In an introductory statement, clearly state an opinion to a particular audience.
Support the opinion with facts and details from various sources, including texts.
Use an organizational structure to group related ideas that support the purpose.
Connect opinion and reasons using words and phrases.
Provide a concluding statement or section related to the position presented.
II.

Materials:
document camera
Paper
Envelopes
III.
Anticipatory Set (5 minutes)
Turn to Mr. Brooks, Hey I am going to text you really quick, tell me when you get it. text
him. Then do the same with e-mail.
Now I am going to write you a letter. Write a couple sentences on a paper and put it in an
envelope and stamp it, then fake put it in the mailbox.
Writing a letter took a longer didnt it? And, he wont even get the letter for a couple more
days, right? So why dont we use letters anymore? What has changed? Do we still think
there are some ways that letters can be useful?
Purpose: Today, we are going to learn how to write a professional and persuasive letter, so that
we may use this in the future if we want to help make change in our school, community, or
country.
PLAN FOR INSTRUCTION
Adaptation to Diverse Students
I will give Landon and JaMari copies of my example letter so they can model after me without
having to ask for extra help throughout the work time. But I will make sure that they actually
form their own opinions rather than copying what I have written.
(ACEI 3.2)
Lesson Presentation (Input/Output)
Input (10 minutes)
Who in here has ever written a letter?
Let the students raise hands
Who has ever sent a text or a message on facebook?
Let students raise their hands
We live in a world today that has almost forgotten the beauty of written language. It used
to be that the only way to communicate long distance was through a letter, but now we dont
really need to wait a week to get a reply. We can just send a text or e-mail and get a reply
instantaneously. So what if we have a real issue with something that is going on around us?
What if there was a restaurant that wouldnt let you eat there just because you had blonde
hair? One way to help address this issue is to write a letter to a city official.
Writing letters can be formal and persuasive ways to make a difference in the world around
us. So today, we are going to write a persuasive letter.
Remember when we talked about technology and whether we thought it was good or bad
for our society? Well we are going to take those opinions, and we are going to write a letter
to the principal, Mrs. Liddick. Each of you are going to get a piece of paper, and you are
going to write a letter trying to convince her that either you need more technology in the
classroom or less technology in the classroom.

So I am going to show you first how we are going to do it, then we are going to do the first
part together, and then you will finish the letter by yourself.
Put my example letter on the document camera
Just listen for now, keep your pencils down. We are going to go to the top right of the paper
and put the date.
Then we are going to go down one line, and go back to the left of the paper. There, we are
going to write our greeting. This will say Dear Mrs. Liddick. We put a comma after her
name, then we go down a line again.
Now we are going to start our actual letter. What do we do first when we first start writing a
paragraph?
Call on someone to answer
Right, we indent. So we indent and then we start writing. Since this is a persuasive essay,
and we are trying to convince Mrs. Liddick of something, our first paragraph will say what it
is we are talking about. Here you will say I believe we should have more/less technology in
the classroom. You will have a couple more sentences about what you think.
Then you go to the next paragraph. In the second paragraph, you will tell reasons why you
think that.
In the third paragraph, you will restate what the issue is, and then you will wrap it up with a
thank you. I want at least three good sentences per paragraph.
Now, to finish our letter, we have to say who it is from. So we are going to go to the next
line. We will go back to the right of the page, and you will write Sincerely with a comma,
skip down another line, and then sign your name in cursive.
Does anyone have any questions so far
Now lets start. Who can tell me what we do first?
Let someone tell me to do date first. Write the date together as a class and the same with
the greeting.
Ask what the first paragraph is about, then let a student answer
Now you are going to write on your own. This is your own letter, so you need to say what
you feel and give reasons why you feel that way. When you are finished with your first
paragraph, bring it to me so I can check to make sure you are on the right track. I will also
be walking around the room if you need help.
Output (15 minutes)
Students write their letters as I walk around the classroom for any questions or help. I will leave
the example on the board and give hand out examples to the ones who need it.
(ACEI 2.1) (ACEI 3.3)
V. Check for understanding.
- I will walk around the room as the students are working on their letters. I will glance over
everyones shoulders to read what they have written and make sure it is written correctly. I will
also have students bring me their letter when they are done with their first paragraph to make
sure they are on the right track.
VII. Review learning outcomes / Closure (5 minutes)
To review our lesson, can someone tell me what the basic parts of our letter are? (Looking for
date, greeting, body, signature)
And why are letter important? Why are they different from texts and e-mails?
PLAN FOR ASSESSMENT
Formative: I will walk around the classroom during the independent practice to make sure everyone is
on task and is able to write sentences in the letter about the topic. I will also have students bring me
their letter after they are finished with the first paragraph so I can see if they are working correctly and
understand the concept.
Summative: I will collect the letters at the end of the lesson and create a rubric to score them.
(ACEI 4.0)
REFLECTION AND POST-LESSON ANALYSIS
1. How many students achieved the lesson objective(s)? For those who did not, why not?
2. What were my strengths and weaknesses?
3. How should I alter this lesson?

4.
5.
6.

How would I pace it differently?

Were all students actively participating? If not, why not?
What adjustments did I make to reach varied learning styles and ability levels?
a. Blooms Taxonomy
b. Gardners Multiple Intelligences

7.

Were the students able to write their own opinions, or did they model their letters completely
after my example?
Were the students able to see the importance of writing letters in certain situations?

8.

Revision Date: August 3, 2015

2007 ACEI Standard

April 11, 2016

Dear Mrs. Liddick,
I believe that we need to have less technology in our classroom. We always have laptops
or iPads in our room to use for stations or free time. I think that we need to spend more time in
books than computers.
I think we need to have less technology in the classroom because it is distracting. There
are so many fin games to play on the internet that it is hard to stay on the site we are supposed to
be on. I also think it is more fun to use real books and games because then I get to use my hands
instead of just watching a screen.
I really think our classroom would be better if we had a little less technology. It is good to
have sometimes, but not all the time. I hope you consider what I have said. Thank you for taking
your time to listen to my concerns.
Sincerely,
Miss Beachy

Letter Rubric

Formatting

Persuasion

Language

Exemplary

Good

Fair

Poor

The student had a

date, greeting,
three body
paragraphs, a
closing, and a
cursive signature
The student had
three sentences in
each paragraph
that supported
his/her argument

The student was

missing one of the
key elements of a
letter

The student was

missing two or
three elements of
a letter

The student was

missing four or
more elements of
a letter

The student had

two sentences in
each paragraph
that supported
his/ her argument

The language in
the letter was
easy to
understand and
there were few
grammatical
errors, so they did
not distract from
the content

The language was

easy to
understand, but
there were a few
too many
grammatical
errors that began
to take away from
the meaning

The student had 1

to 3 sentences in
the paragraph,
but they did not
all support the
argument
The letter had
numerous
grammatical
errors and the
language was
hard to
comprehend at
times

The student had 1

to 2 sentences in
the paragraph
that did not
support the
argument
The letter was
incomprehensible
and could not be
understood due to
poor language
choices and
grammatical
errors