The Genre

Author Heather Lattimer describes editorials as reflecting “the essence of our democratic society. Here is a form of writing that is entirely dedicated to civic discourse, changing minds, and effecting change.” This writing genre can be particularly motivating to young adolescents as they wake up to their surroundings and the associated challenges and frustrations. As teachers, we can capitalize on our students’ emerging passion and their attraction to the controversial by providing them with ways to thoughtfully express themselves on the issues that matter.

The Author

Dr. Heather Lattimer is an Assistant Professor in the School of Leadership and Education Sciences at the University of San Diego. Formerly a high school teacher and literacy coach, Heather has taught English, history, and mathematics in a diverse range of high school and middle school classrooms in both Northern and Southern California. Her expertise is in supporting struggling readers and writers and challenging chronic underachievers. Heather has consulted for schools and school districts throughout the country. Dr. Lattimer is the author of a professional text for teachers, Thinking through Genre: Units of Study in Reading and Writing Workshops, 4-12, published by Stenhouse in 2003. She holds a B.A. from Harvard University, received her M.A. in Education from Stanford University, and completed her doctorate in education at the University of California, San Diego, where her research focuses on educational access and equity for low-income students, teaching excellence in literacy and the social sciences, and the professional growth of teachers working in urban secondary schools.

Lessons at a Glance

The unit offers six weeks of instruction and is suitable for a wide range of middle school classrooms.

Step 1: Select Your Topic

This beginning step supports students in developing ideas for their own writing.  After exploring the persuasive nature of editorials, students brainstorm ideas for their own writing. By the end of this step, students commit to editorial topics that they believe are controversial and about which they feel passionately.     

Lesson 1.1 Define an Editorial

After being introduced to Writing Editorials by watching the animated program, students learn some of the reasons why editorials are written. Students read two editorials and identify the characteristics of this genre, with an emphasis on how editorials persuade readers to change their actions, thoughts or feelings.

Lesson 1.2 Identify Your Passions

Students brainstorm eight to ten possible editorial topics, focusing on issues or challenges they encounter in their daily life that they feel should be changed. Students narrow this list of topics to the single one about which they feel most passionate.

Lesson 1.3: Focus Your Topic

Students continue to work with the editorial topics that they feel most passionate about. As a strategy to focus their topics even further, students respond to a series of “should” questions that help them identify whether or not their topics are sufficiently controversial to be appropriate for an editorial.

Lesson 1.4: Test Your Topic (Supplementary)

Students use computers to do preliminary research on their short list of topics.  Based on the availability of appropriate information sources, students either commit to their editorial topics or investigate alternatives from their list of questions they generated in the previous lesson.  Students post their selected topics in the Writer’s Room.

Step 2: Gather Your Evidence

While students are writing about topics with which they are familiar, editorials are only persuasive if they include solid evidence supporting the writer’s position.  With this in mind, students begin to develop strong arguments by gathering facts, quotes, statistics and examples related to their topics. Students use web searches, books, etc. to gather material that will ultimately be incorporated into their written pieces.

Lesson 2.1: Do the Research

Students analyze a mentor text to see how the author uses evidence - facts, quotes, statistics and examples - to support his/her arguments and make the editorial more persuasive. Students then identify potential sources of evidence for their editorials.

Lesson 2.2 Evaluate Internet Sources

Students use the Internet to search for relevant evidence to be included in their editorials. Students learn how to use search engines to find websites and then evaluate the websites for trustworthiness. 

Lesson 2.3: Take Notes

Students learn strategies for taking effective notes and apply them to websites and/or articles relevant to their editorial topics. They record key information on what they find, using their own words, and indicating how the information will be used in their editorials.

Lesson 2.4: Develop Your Arguments

Students begin to structure their editorials by using their research findings to draft an opinion statement and develop supporting arguments.

Step 3: Plan Your Editorial     

During Step Three, students organize the information they gathered to make it meaningful and persuasive to readers. After selecting their most powerful evidence to deepen their arguments, they identify the “other side” of the argument and best approach to countering it. By the end of this step, students should have outlined the body of a convincing editorial.

Lesson 3.1: Structure Your Arguments 

Students analyze a mentor text to see how a published author structures an editorial. Students then begin to structure their own editorials by incorporating supporting arguments into an editorial outline.

Lesson 3.2: Select Your Evidence

Students learn the importance of selecting evidence that will be persuasive to their audience. Based on their knowledge of their audience, students review the evidence they have collected. As part of this process, students identify arguments that require additional evidence/research.

Lesson 3.3: Counter the Other Side

Students analyze a mentor text to see how the writer addresses and counters the “other side”. Students then identify one argument from the other side that is likely to sway their audience and develop a counter-argument supported with evidence.

Lesson 3.4: Use the Computer (Supplementary)

This supplemental lesson is helpful if students are inexperienced using word processing software. Students learn file saving practices and begin typing their first drafts. Students learn to upload their typed documents to the Online Classroom.

Step 4: Write Your First Draft

Students draw on both the research they completed and the outline constructed earlier in order to draft their editorials.  Students are encouraged to stay focused on their arguments and counterarguments while crafting paragraphs that convince their readers of their position on their topic. At the end of the week, each student should have a complete draft of his or her editorial. 

Lesson 4.1: Draft Your Arguments

After viewing the introductory animation for Step 4, students begin to draft the argument portion of their editorials, using their completed Editorial Organizers as a guide.

Lesson 4.2: Draft Your Counterargument

Guided by their completed Editorial Organizer (Step 3), students draft a paragraph that explains one argument used by “the other side”. They also generate a counterargument supported by relevant evidence.

Lesson 4.3: Draft Your Introduction

Students learn the role of an engaging opening and introduction in a successful editorial. Using the teacher model and mentor text for guidance, students plan an engaging opening sentence and powerful introductory paragraph for their pieces of writing.

Lesson 4.4: Draft Your Conclusion

Students plan and draft a concluding paragraph that restates their position on their topic, issues a call to action for the reader and provides a powerful closing message.

Step 5: Revise

During the fifth step of the Writing Editorials unit, students add details and revise their texts for persuasiveness and clarity of meaning.  They work together with peers and the teacher to ensure that written work conveys meaningful ideas and inspires readers to take action and/or agree with the author’s position.  

Lesson 5.1: Revise for Clarity of Meaning

Students learn how to revise their writing for clarity of meaning.  They craft transitions between the paragraphs of their editorials to clearly delineate their supporting arguments.

Lesson 5.2: Revise for Persuasion

Students sharpen the persuasiveness of their editorials by incorporating strong, authoritative language into their writing.

Lesson 5.3: Use Point of View

Students learn about the importance of maintaining a consistent point of view when writing. After learning to distinguish between first, second and third person point of view, they revise the use of point of view in their own writing.

Lesson 5.4: Use Hyperlinks (Supplementary)

Students learn how hyperlinks can make their editorials more informative and persuasive by giving readers access to additional evidence.  After identifying appropriate places in their editorials for adding hyperlinks, students add the relevant URLs to their drafts.

Step 6: Edit & Publish

During this final step of the unit, students edit and proofread their editorials for grammar and spelling errors.  At the end of this step, they celebrate their accomplishments by publishing their completed articles online.

Lesson 6.1: Evaluate with the Rubric

Teacher and students use the Editorial Rubric to evaluate and revise their editorials. The rubric will serve as a guide as students prepare to edit and publish their editorials.

Lesson 6.2: Edit Your Writing

After learning about standard proofing symbols, students edit printed copies of their editorials using an Editing Checklist. Students learn about relevant tools in Microsoft Word (i.e., Spelling and Grammar Check, Dictionary, Thesaurus). Students work on computers and use the editing tools to improve their writing.

Lesson 6.3: Title and Publish

Students create an engaging title for their editorial. With the guidance of the teacher, students use the Writing Matters tool to publish online.

Lesson 6.4: Respond to Published Work (Supplementary)

Students learn how to comment on the published writing of their peers.  They read the other editorials published by the class and use sentence starters to provide thoughtful feedback.

References

On Writing

Buckner, Aimee. Notebook Know-How: Stratefies for the Writer’s Notebook. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2005

Calkins, Lucy. The Art of Teaching Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1994.

Fletcher, Ralph. Writing Workshop-The Essential Guide. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2001. 

Fletcher, Ralph. What a Writer Needs. Portsmouth:  Heinemann, 1992.

Freeman, Marcia S. Building a Writing Community: A Practical Guide. Gainesville: Maupin House Publishing, 1995.

Graves, Donald H. A Fresh Look at Writing. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1994. 

Heard, Georgia. The Revision Toolbox: Teaching Techniques that Work. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2002.

Ray, Katie Wood. Wondrous Words: Writers and Writing in the Elementary Classroom. Urbana: National Council of Teachers of English, 1999.  

Ray, Katie Wood. The Writing Workshop: Working through the Hard Parts
(And They’re All Hard Parts). Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2001.

On Reading and Balanced Literacy

Ainsworth, Larry. Student Generated Rubrics: An Assessment Model to Help All Students Succeed. New York: Dale Seymour Publications, 1997.

Anderson, Carl. How’s it going?: A Pratical Guide to Conferring with Student Writers. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2000.

Anderson-McElveen , Susan. Literature Models to Teach Expository Writing. Gainesville: Maupin House Publishing, 2001.

Beers, Kylene. When Kids Can’t Read – What Teachers Can Do. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2002.

Booth, David. Literacy Techniques: For Building Successful Readers and Writers. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2004.

Daniels, Harvey. Literature Circles: Voices and Choice in Book Clubs and Reading Groups.  Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2001.

Goudvis, Anne. Strategies That Work: Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 2000.

Hindley, Joanne. In the Company of Children. Portland: Stenhouse Publishers, 1996.

Serafini: Frank. The Reading Workshop: Creating Space for Readers.  Portsmouth: Heinemann, 2001.

Zemelman, Steven.  Best Practice: New Standards for Teaching and Learning in America’s Schools (2nd ed).  Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1998.

Research Articles for Additional Reading
Carnegie Foundation (2005). Living the Life of A Reader and Writer. Retrieved March 2006 from http://quest.carnegiefoundation.org/~dpointer/jennifermyers/workshopapproach.htm (Take particular note of the video clips)

Fox, M. (2001). Radical Surgery in the Writing Curriculum: Replacing the Meaningless with the Meaningful. Reading Online. Retrieved March 2006 from
http://www.readingonline.org/international/inter_index.asp?HREF=fox/index.html

Fox, Mem. (2002). Review of the Literature Regarding The Benefits of Student Publishing.Retrieved March 2006 from http://www.publishingstudents.com/researchbenefits.html

Karchmer, R.A. (2001). The journey ahead: Thirteen teachers report how the Internet influences literacy and literacy instruction in their K-12 classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, Vol. 36 (4).Retrieved March 2006 from
http://146.145.202.164/Library/Retrieve.cfm?D=
10.1598/RRQ.36.4.5&F=RRQ-36-4-Karchmer.pdf

Standards

New York City Standards
The lessons in this project support the New York City ELA Middle School Performance Descriptions for writing a persuasive essay. (E2e)
According to the Standards, “a student produces a persuasive essay that:

• Engages the reader by establishing a context, creating a persona, and otherwise developing reader interest;
• Develops a controlling idea that makes a clear and knowledgeable judgment;
• Creates and organizes a structure that is appropriate to the needs, values, and interests of a specified audience, and arranges details, reasons, examples, and anecdotes effectively and persuasively;
• Includes appropriate information and arguments;
• Excludes information and arguments that are irrelevant;
• Anticipates and addresses reader concerns and counter arguments;
• Supports arguments with detailed evidence, citing sources of information as appropriate;
• Provides a sense of closure to the writing"

New York State Learning Standards for Middle School

ELA 3.1 Speaking and Writing
Present (in essays, position papers, speeches, and debates) clear analyses of issues, ideas, texts, and experiences supporting their positions with well-developed arguments

Develop arguments with effective use of details and evidence that reflect a coherent set of criteria (e.g., reporting results of lab experiments to support a hypothesis)

Monitor and adjust their own oral and written presentations according to the standards for a particular genre (e.g., defining key terms used in a formal debate)

Use standard English, precise vocabulary, and presentational strategies effectively to influence an audience

ELA 4.1 Reading and Writing
Write social letters, cards, and electronic messages to friends, relatives, community acquaintances and other electronic network users

Use appropriate language and style for the situation and the audience and take into account the ideas and interests expressed by the person receiving the message

Read and discuss social communications and electronic communications of other writers and use some of the techniques of those writers in their own writing