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Adolescent literacy has, for many years, been a forgotten area as educators have focused their attention on early literacy, in particular, Grades K-3. However, in the last few years adolescent literacy has gained more attention as policy makers and educators realize that literacy is a critical issue even as students transition into the middle and high school settings.

When you set out to persuade someone, you want them to accept your opinion on an issue: you want to change that person's mind to your way of thinking. To do this, you will - just as with 'writing to argue' - be presenting a written argument; but when you are trying to persuade, your argument will need to be more one-sided than the balanced presentation of views typically required in a "Writing to Argue" essay question. This is because persuasion is based on a personal conviction that your way of thinking is the right way.

Unit 1

Students learn about child labor, as it occurred in England and the United States during the Industrial Revolution and as it continues around the world today. Selected websites describe the conditions under which children worked during the Industrial Revolution. Each student gathers information at these websites and prepares and presents a monologue in the "voice" of someone involved in the debate over child labor in England. After dramatically assuming that person's point of view on the issue, he or she responds to audience members' questions. Students then explore and discuss the conditions of contemporary child laborers and compare them to those of the past.

"Elizabeth Birr Moje, professor of Literacy, Language, and Culture in Educational Studies at the University of Michigan, and Sunil Iyengar, director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts discuss the new literacy issues presented by computers and the internet."

Once Upon a Fairy Tale: Teaching Revision as a Concept Overview Students sometimes have trouble understanding the difference between the global issues of revision and the local ones of editing. After reading several fractured fairy tales, students make a list of the ways the original stories have been revised-changed or altered, not just "corrected"-to begin building a definition of global revision. After students have written a "revised" story of their own, they revise again, focusing more on audience but still paying attention to ideas, organization, and voice. During another session, students look at editing as a way to polish writing, establishing a definition of revision as a multi-level process.

Unit 1

Child Labor Resources

"Voice lesson plan by Gigi Goshko Academy of American Studies, New York "

After this unit, students will have: Explored poetry as another medium of written and spoken expression. Students will appreciate poetry as another medium for authors to express commentary on the pressing social issues of the times Learned the following literary techniques used by poets in their writing: metaphor simile symbolism point-of-view Interpreted meaning Identified and examined the significance of specific themes that manifest themselves in the writings of poets from around the world Drawn parallels between the themes addressed in selected poems and the themes addressed in the literature read in class through out the year

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