It is late Thursday afternoon. Mrs. Hein’s kids are gathered on the brightly colored carpet in the front of her room. They are reviewing a letter they wrote together the day before. The letter is addressed to Mr. Poppleton, a fictional character who has a problem in common with our school. Mr. Poppleton has large, shiny icicles hanging from his roof. The letter is meant to persuade him to take them down, because they have become dangerous.
I quickly recognize this lesson as a continuation of the one I saw in Mrs. Dahlin’s classroom yesterday. These second graders are learning the next step in how to use the written word to persuade an audience to take action of some sort.
When the students move to their writing spots to tackle their own organizers, many of them take out the lists they've made of things to potentially try to change in the world. Some of them go immediately to work, completing the organizer with relative ease. Others struggle to narrow the list to a single topic . . . “You have to choose something you really care about or you won’t be able to persuade others.” Mrs. Hein reminds them, “ You have feel passionate about it to make it work!”
This is challenging work. Everyone is at the beginning. Everyone is doing this for the first time. And everyone seems to need some level of help with getting going. This is a whole different type of project than these writers have tackled before. But their teacher is beside them, mentoring them and supporting them the entire time.
She is clearly passionate about this work. They are destined to succeed!
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