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﻿﻿ ** Final for English 10A **

It’s been an absolutely wonderful experience teaching all of you and I can’t begin to thank you enough for the animated discussions, the constant problem-solving and the collaboration. Throughout the year we talked extensively about problems within society as well as within ourselves. More importantly, though, we talked about the necessity of providing solutions. And that’s precisely why, (with a lot of collaborative help), I’m focusing this summative on putting solutions into action. As we’ve discussed, one subject that is close to everyone’s heart because it impacts everyone is education. Education is the foundation of everything we do and the result of everything we see, and so it’s time you use your voices. You’ll be writing a letter to the department of education expressing what you see as the biggest problem plaguing education/public schooling today and develop it into a persuasive argument while of course utilizing ethos, pathos and logos. And, yes, I will be mailing them. I’m not messing around here!

What does that mean? That means you’re going to have to research on your own, read up on No Child Left Behind, charter schools, corporate America’s recent involvement in education, high stakes testing, whatever you want! You need to educate yourself and form an opinion, which is the most important lesson I want you to take from this class. And again, no solid argument exists on one appeal. You must write your letter while keeping ethos, pathos and logos first and foremost in your mind! J FORMAL LETTER WRITING: = **Requirements** := · The letter must be typed and signed · The letter must reference current trends based on research and keep potential concessions in mind. · The letter must be in first person and needs to be honest, solution-based and forward thinking, not whiny. · Your writing must be articulate, free of grammatical errors, sentence fluency problems and wordiness. The letter should be no more than a page, 12 point font. AND DON’T USE COMIC SANS or any other silly, childish font. People are going to be reading this that are far away from this classroom so remember that you’re not only representing you, you’re representing high school students across the nation. Make yourself proud. · You have to be proud of the final project. As far as I’m concerned, you all will get one hundred percent if you do everything I said above. If it’s not print-worthy, you’ll get no more than a 70% and probably less, so take it seriously. · Start researching on your own now. You can use anything from the news, magazines, websites, etc. Just make sure you use a credible source.

**Timeline:**

 * Monday, 5/16: BRING YOUR ARTICLE/SOURCE. We’ll have an open discussion about education (PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS!), current issues, etc, just to get the ideas flowing!**
 * Tuesday, 5/17: Begin working on a rough draft in class.**
 * Wednesday, 5/18: Continue working on rough draft**
 * Thursday, 5/19: Rough draft is due at the end of class.**
 * Friday, 5/20: Corrections handed back (I’m going to try to get lab time, but not guaranteed so be prepared)**
 * Monday, 5/23: Final draft due at the end of the period (I’m going to try to get lab time, but not guaranteed so be prepared)**

U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, D.C. 20202 301 Centennial Mall South P.O. Box 98987 Lincoln,NE 68509-4987
 * The Department's U.S. Postal Service mailing address is: **
 * Nebraska Department of Education**