October Unit Plan: Open Letter
Diving into persuasive writing in an age of outrage
You can’t lose with an open letter unit.
The reason that reviews work so well with student writers is the same reason that open letters are always a hit — because adolescents are strong-opinion machines. They love nothing more than to have a hot take and share it widely. Open letters allow them to do just that.
I love teaching open letters because they are such an awesome mode-blend. Students use narrative as evidence, make strong claims (which they also need for argumentative and analytical writing), and weave in persuasive devices. It’s a one-stop shop for all kinds of writing with a super-clear purpose, full of voice and perspective.
To make it even better, the New York Times Learning Network is repeating its open letter student contest this year! And you have oodles of time to get ready for it!
An added bonus with this unit: most of the instructional strategies I’m using in this unit are really templates that can be used to teach ANY writing unit. So even if you don’t teach open letters (or plan to teach open letters!), you can modify this unit endlessly to teach any unit.
Let’s peek at the unit, and I’ll follow with tips and tricks!
The Unit Plan
Click below to grab your copy of the unit plan with linked resources!