Writing with Impact

Twenty six students, aged 10-12, reached out to the local community to persuade them to donate to multiple charities.  This is what happened...

This year, my grade ⅚ class has been looking for ways to have an impact with their writing.  The intention was for the impact to go well beyond our classroom and have a real-life effect on others.  With this in mind, we created a collaborative writing project using persuasive writing techniques to persuade people to donate to a charity.  My role as their teacher was to guide them through the process.  

Our first step was to discuss the parties that would need to be contacted.  Students felt comfortable choosing charities from their prior knowledge and experience.  

Gathering information on their charity choices was an important first step.  Before students could persuade people to donate, they had to understand why that charity deserves donations.  

After enough information was developed, students were responsible to contact the charity and receive permission to create a letter and donation box in that

charity’s name.  To raise money, students then contacted a local business to leave the donation box and letter for a period of two weeks.  

Throughout this process, my students were able to show professionalism and responsibility.  The importance of written communication had direct impacts on this task.  Charities and business had to trust students when being contacted and feel comfortable with the responsibilities of the task, also.  

The results were fantastic!!  Students were engaged, and left with an overall feeling of success!  The charities have been overwhelmed and have asked to feature students in newsletters, on social media and in local newspapers.    

“Overall I thought this assignment was very fun and interesting!  I thought it was a great idea.  I was very interested and excited that I could be part of raising money for a charity.  It was a good lesson about responsibility because it gave me a chance to actually be able to communicate with people from different charities and businesses!  Also, I really liked how hands on it was.  I was able to get very creative with the donation box and letter.  I really enjoyed this assignment and I loved the experience!” - Grade 6 student - Ella, 2015

“I really liked the Charity Persuasive task because it was really fun to do!  I thought it was really cool that we could contact a charity and raise money for that charity by making a donation box and letter, then putting in a local business for 2 weeks.  It was an interesting and super cool task to do!”  - Grade 5 student - Charlie, 2015

Post by guest blogger:Mr. Jeff Cardy, @mistercardy, elementary teacher in Forest, Ontario