Hargett_performance


 * Objectives:**


 * A. Students will practice researching non-fiction information to understand racism by creating a two-column chart with information from a variety of texts provided in one column and relevant information about racism from the novel Maniac Magee in the other column.**
 * B. Students will use their research chart to compose a Letter to the Editor of the Two Mills newspaper that explains the racial tension present in their community from the perspective of a main character or another member of the community**.


 * Activity Description:**

Students will be asked to write a Letter to the Editor as a resident of Two Mills discussing the racial issue within the town. They can choose to write as one of the characters from the book or just a resident of the town. Students must incorporate an outside source referring to racism in the past or as it occurs today. These sources can include our history textbook, an internet website (there will be a list of appropriate websites for 5th graders to visit to learn more about racism provided), books from the library, news articles, etc. Students will have time to research and will be given a two-column chart to write down the information they want to incorporate from their outside source and information from Maniac Magee. Students will then be given 30 minutes to write their rough draft of their letter. A copy of letter format will be provided to the students to remind them of what a letter should look like. Once they have completed their rough draft, students will gather in groups of four to do a peer writing workshop. They will each take turns reading each other’s letter, and create a comment sheet for their partner, writing down any mechanical errors they noticed, and writing down any recommendations they might have. Once they have finished the comment sheet, they will discuss their findings with each other and tell their group member one thing they liked about their editorial and one thing they wondered about. (I will emphasize the importance of constructive criticism) Once they have gathered three comment sheets from their peers their homework will be to go home and read over what their peers have had to say and revise their letter to hand in to the Editor-in-Chief (Me). I will explain to students that they don’t need to change everything that their peers have suggested, however some changes should be made to the original and they will need to decide which suggestions will make their paper better. After being looked over by the Editor-in-Chief, I will hand them back in for final revisions and create our own classroom Editorial Page (formatted like a newspaper) that can be handed out to the class. Students who finish early will help the Editor-in-Chief by entering everyone’s articles into the computer’s newsletter template.


 * Research Rubric:**

CATEGORY || || Check plus || Check || Check minus || Amount of Information || || Students have collected at least 4 facts from at least one research source || Students have collected 2-3 facts from at least one research source. || Students have collected at least one fact from at least one research source. || Internet Use || || Successfully uses suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance. || Occasionally able to use suggested internet links to find information and navigates within these sites easily without assistance. || Needs assistance or supervision to use suggested internet links and/or to navigate within these sites. || Quality of Information || Information clearly relates to the main topic. It includes several supporting details and/or examples. || Information clearly relates to the main topic of racism. || Information somewhat relates to the main topic. || Information has little or nothing to do with the main topic. || Maniac Magee || || Student has included at least 3 pieces of information from Maniac Magee in their double-column research chart || Student has included at least 2 pieces of information from Maniac Magee in their double-column research chart. || Student has included at least one piece of information from Maniac Magee in their double-column research chart. ||

__**Letter Rubric:**__ CATEGORY || 4 || 3 || 2 || 1 || Salutation and Closing || Salutation, closing and date have no errors in capitalization and punctuation. || Salutation, closing and date have 1-2 errors in capitalization and punctuation. || Salutation, closing and date have 3 or more errors in capitalization and punctuation. || Salutation, closing and/or date are missing. || Content Accuracy || The letter contains relevant information from your research along with information from Maniac Magee about racism || The letter contains inaccurate information from your research or Maniac Magee about racism. || The letter contains information from only Maniac Magee or only from your research about racism. || The letter contains no information from either your research about racism or Maniac Magee. || Length || Student wrote at least 5 sentences || Student wrote 3-4 sentences. || Student wrote 2 sentences || Student wrote 1 sentence or less. || Character || You wrote a believable letter as if you were a member of the Two Mills Community. || You wrote as if you were from of Two Mills, but got out of character at times. || You made a mention that you were from Two Mills, but did not write as if you were that person. || You did not write as if you lived in Two Mills. ||