{"id":11390,"date":"2016-06-06T13:04:42","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T20:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/?p=11390"},"modified":"2016-06-06T15:15:58","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T22:15:58","slug":"letters-to-the-next-president-2-0","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educatorinnovator.org\/letters-to-the-next-president-2-0\/","title":{"rendered":"Letters to the Next President 2.0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Our partner Edutopia explains how Letters to the Next President 2.0\u2014hosted by the National Writing Project, KQED and Educator Innovator partners\u2014can productively bring the presidential election into classrooms to improve students\u2019 argumentative writing and media literacy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Letters to the Next President<\/a> (L2P) began as an activity sponsored by the National Writing Project and Google during the 2008 presidential election. At that time, Google Docs was the newest way for teachers and students to share writing across the internet and revise in real time. This project allowed students to publish their opinions to a global audience through a well-publicized forum.<\/p>\n

The next iteration of L2P is ready for the 2016 election. L2P 2.0, indicating both its second version and its reflection of our 2.0 communication world, allows students to voice their opinions about the issues surrounding their lives. As adults, we might assume that because students don’t talk about politics in front of us, they must not be interested in the subject and are disengaged from the process as a whole. Nothing could be further from the truth. Students are very interested in political discussions but may not have the background on subjects to speak with authority. Thus, they often feel that no one wants to hear their voices. Writing a letter to the next president, whomever she or he might be, allows students the space to demonstrate the power of words, facts, and argument in a democratic society. Once they feel like they have a voice, they’re more likely to become involved in the political process.<\/p>\n

Creating a Safe Space<\/h4>\n

A classroom consists of diverse students from every background. As teachers, we don’t want politics itself to become the focus; rather, we want student discussions to focus on the issues. Teenagers are impressionable, and teachers need to encourage students to take a step back from the heated rhetoric and really analyze the issues.<\/p>\n

The cardinal rule of writing classrooms is building a community so that all writers feel safe to explore openly and creatively, and share their work in a supportive environment. This community must be established early in the year, if not during the first class meeting. For any political discussions to be successful, teachers must create a class culture that welcomes all political beliefs. They can establish a Purple Party, a safe zone in which no one is red and no one is blue. The focus needs to be on language only, not judgments of which side is correct. Classroom debates should focus on the strength of arguments and the use of evidence to support a claim. One evening’s campaign speech can become the text for the next day’s classroom study. Once the students understand the value of the individual voice in the open community space, amazing discussions will take place. Students will realize that it’s OK to debate and question beliefs, especially those learned in home environments.<\/p>\n

Strategies for Entering the Discussion<\/h4>\n

To help support their own Purple Party, teachers can encourage students to analyze speeches using the Say, Mean, Matter strategy:<\/p>\n