Writing - A Letter to the Editor

Intermediate
Pre writing: a letter to the editor
Campaigns 
Lead-in


I was once told that classrooms are the least friendly learning environment  and that teachers should make lessons more meaningful by adding emotions to boost the learning brain. I also read in the book - The Art of Changing the Brain that all learning is experiential (school learning included) and that teachers should take the most powerful sensory input in consideration and use in class activities that bring a rich blend of senses to please the learning brain. With these ideas in mind, I set out to plan lead-in to trigger physical sensations and sparkle curiosity in a group I had last semester.
Bring to class a yummy dessert, pass it around, and let students see and smell it. Tell them they cannot have the dessert though because it`s No Sugar Day. Show the poster below and expand on each supporting idea by adding at least two arguments. They surely will be excited and curious at this point, and you might take advantage of this energy to have them engage in the pre writing phase. Ask students if they can think of other campaigns that could have an impact in their communities, and tell them that they might get away with the No Sugar Day Campaign and eat the cake if they convince you that their campaigns are better than yours. Students get into small groups to create a similar poster for their campaigns and share their work during the debriefing phase. Then the posters are used as a reference for the writing task - A letter to the editor about a their campaigns.