Objectives
COM, CCT, PSVS, IL
Identify and assess ideas and values against ideas in text.
Relate literary experience to personal experience.
Recognize current social issues in their own life experiences and their role in influencing these issues. (CEL:PSVS)
Practise the behaviours of effective strategic readers. (CEL:CCT)
Recognize current social issues in their own life experiences and their role in influencing these issues. (CEL:PSVS)
Practise the behaviours of effective readers and viewers.
Assess an author's ideas and techniques. (CEL:CCT) |
Activities
Some sample concluding activities for the unit are described below. Choose from these activities or develop alternatives. It is important to involve students in the development of a culminating activity.
- What can I do? Awareness of the issues is not enough. Translate your awareness into action. Ask students what they see as the most pressing social issue. What are its causes and consequences? What can they do as individuals or as a group? Brainstorm as a group. Have each student choose one idea that is realistic for him or her. In their journals, have students create a scenario in which their idea is enacted to address the issue.
Whenever you are in doubt...apply the following test: Recall the face of the poorest or weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to control over his own life and destiny?
-Mahatma Gandhi
- Persuasion is an attempt to convince. A writer or speaker can persuade by appealing to emotion or to reason or to both. More and more we are faced with requests to help those less fortunate. Those asking for help all use persuasion techniques to convince us to give.
Have students collect a number of letters from different charitable organizations asking for funds (e.g., "Save the Children", a local shelter for the homeless, a youth group, etc.). As they read each letter, they should identify:
- the charity
- the audience
- the appeals to emotion
- the appeals to reason
- the personal priority for themselves (from 1=not very important to 10=very important).
Have students complete the following sentence: Based on my priority rating, I plan to ...
- Have students choose one ad such as "Imagine Your Child" (Writer's Voice 1, p. 147) found in a current magazine. Have them describe the ad, and identify the charity, the audience, and the appeals to emotion and reason. Have them share their findings with one other person. Which ad was most effective? What actions might they take based upon this effective ad?
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Objectives
COM, PSVS, CCT, IL
Practise the behaviours of effective speakers.
Identify and assess ideas and values against ideas in text. (CEL:PSVS)
Practise the behaviours of effective writers.
Write a convincing argument in support of a clearly defined position. (CEL:CCT)
Experiment with a variety of forms of writing such as poem, play, anecdote, and short story.
Write business letters in language appropriate for purpose and audience. (CEL:COM)
Rethink a previous position on an issue. (CEL:CCT) |
Activities
- Ask students to think about the following sentence and what it means:
Act upon one's knowledge, values, and abilities for the well-being of others.
Have them read "What's the Verdict?" (T. LeValliant and M. Theroux) and choose one case. Ask them to determine what they think the verdict should be and why. Have students present their verdict orally.
- Writing: Students have explored a number of issues. They can now write a persuasive essay in which they present and defend their position on an issue important to them. The teacher should review the writing process, the conventions of a persuasive essay, and ensure the students have a grasp of audience, purpose, and situation. The previous video or drama activity could serve as a springboard for, or an addition to, the persuasive essay (see activity on p. 195).
- Writing: Have students review log/journal entries as well as literature studied in this unit. Using one entry or idea, have them explore writing in one of the following formats: poem, play/script, anecdote, short story.
- Final novel assignment: Have students think back to the activity in which they wrote a letter concerning a novel's removal from the school library. Have them answer the following questions about that novel:
- What do you believe the author has achieved? Explain.
- Explain how this novel can affect a reader.
- What can you use to defend this novel's exclusion or inclusion in a course of study?
- Have you changed your mind since you wrote the letter, or is your opinion the same?
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