Letters to the Next President

This rubric takes the score points for persuasive writing that are used in Maryland on the MSPAP test and adjusts them to language that works with 8th graders.

In this series of lessons, students analyze letters to the editor as genre and then write their own. The lessons include time with the letter generator and persuasion map for students on computers.

What if you could scan the front pages of hundreds of newspapers everyday? What would that tell you about what was on the public's mind? The Newseum, the museum of journalism in Washington, allows the viewer to do just that in its daily gallery of front pages. Currently the site includes more than 600 front pages from 62 different countries, all fully displayed in an easy to navigate gallery.

Do I mean "militate" or "mitigate"? Hmmm. Just doesn't sound right. This website has as its sole goal helping us all navigate among common confusing words. Nice to have on hand in the midst of writing and editing when something just sounds a little off.

If you love lists (and since you're reading one, you might), the collected lists at Educhoices will intrigue you. This list brings together dozens of great sites for writing and research, but on the same page you'll find links to even more lists that will intrigue you. Beware though, you can waste some serious time on this site. For that reason we're listing it as a teacher's resource.

In this short group writing project on LinkedIn, a range of professional writers provide their tips for the editing process. Students might be interested to see the strategies that professional writers use...and that they are not that much different from what their writing teachers recommend.

Artist Sheryl Oring has been using an old typewriter to start conversations and encourage people to express their opinions to the next president. This video, on NPR's Bryant Park Project, shows her at work in "I wish to say." LIsteners are also invited to submit letters, and links to blog posts and some audio recordings are on the site.

Gloria Ladson Billings, who addressed NWP's Urban Sites Network in 2007, has crafted an article on directions she would recommend to the next president. The article is free to Athens subscribers, but requires purchase for others. Here is a description: "The next president of the United States faces monumental challenges in the areas of national defense, the economy, and health care. However, one daunting domestic issue the nation must face is the continued educational inequity that exists between children of color and their white counterparts in our schools"

Here is something for teachers' interests. If you could send a message directly to the next President of the United States suggesting ways to improve the condition of education, what would you say? This question was posed to a diverse group of thinkers including prominent educators, lawmakers, students, and others. The result is 'Letters to the Next President: What We Can Do About the Real Crisis in Public Education', originally published by Teachers College Press in 2004 and now reissued in 2008. This collection of 33 article-length letters presents an array of viewpoints, covering topics ranging from No Child Left Behind to the physical facilities in which children are taught. Contributors include Linda Darling-Hammond, TMaxine Greene, and Ted Sizer, among others. The book opens with a prologue by Bill Cosby, and closes with an epilogue by the late U.S. Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota. A pdf of the introduction is available at http://www.tcpress.com/pdfs/GlickmanIntro.pdf.

Each of the eleven Presidents I have known personally, from my favorite, Harry Truman, to your immediate predecessor, found himself standing before God on inauguration day, reciting the Oath of Office, hand on the Bible, and confronting the startling reality that no man or woman can ever truly be prepared for the awesome responsibility that now falls on your shoulders." Thus begins Senator Robert C. Byrd's letter to our next president. This book length missive draws on 56 years of experience in Congress and a life as a public servant.

In this letter, two members of the NewSchools Venture Fund argue for a presidential focus on education. Excerpted here, the full article is available to subscribers in the May/June 2008 issue of Journal of Teacher Education.

Literary Cavalcade, the magazine for student writers published by Scholastic, has made an archive of some of its best articles for young writers available through the Teacher Center. For Writing Our Future, see especially three useful pieces on persuasive writing: Introduction to a Persuasive Essay (November/ December 2003), Persuasive Essay- Writing a Well-Crafted Argument (January 2004), and The Power to Persuade (January 2005). Students nearing publication will appreciate Polish Your Prose (May 2004). All are available as PDFs that you can share with your young writers.

Project Vote Smart, which aims to create a 'voter defense system', maintains a huge amount of information about candidates for President, Vice-President, and Congress. Watch the video under the About Us tab for a sense of the organization at work.

PBS VOTE 2008 is the new election hub for information, lesson plans, and tracking tools to assist teachers and students in covering the election. This comprehensive site is good one-stop searching for PBS -related content.

The folks at Common Craft, whose job is explaining things in 'plain English', have posted a short video about the election process, electoral college, and why the popular vote doesn't necessarily determine a winner.

Using the conventions of a 'tag cloud', the New York Times has produced a fabulous graphic comparing the use of specific words across the major speeches in both conventions. This would be a wonderful graphic to use with students.

RemixAmerica has produced a mash up of video footage from recent presidents from Carter to Clinton as a way of sending their Letter to the Next President.

RemixAmerica has produced a mash up of video footage from recent presidents from Carter to Clinton as a way of sending their Letter to the Next President

Thanks to Chris Sloan for pointing out this website that his students really likes. This site invites you to state your position on an issue; it then provides you with the other side. As they describe in their about section: "You Decide is an online devil's advocate designed to challenge your point of view on current issues. Perhaps the arguments in these activities will encourage you to reconsider your position... or maybe not. But one thing is certain. The issues Americans face are complex, our opinions are passionately held, and the devil is in the details." Great site!

This high school editorial captures a big issue in a way that might provoke thought for Letters to the Next President.