Opinion Writing: Letter to NASA

So you want to be an astronaut? This activity is a motivating way to encourage students to write an opinion piece. They read articles about astronaut selection and training and then apply to NASA to become one of the newest astronaut candidates.This project incorporates paragraph structure practice, opinion writing techniques, practice with business letter format, and imagination. At the end of the project, students receive a simulated letter from NASA accepting them into the astronaut training program. Also included are lessons and presentations on the SEE method of writing powerful paragraphs and a lapbook.

In this resource you will find:
Table of Contents
Lesson Plan
Informational article on astronaut candidate selection
Informational article on astronaut training procedures
NASA letter of application guidelines
Lapbook for displaying student's letter and showing business style format
Sample SEE Method paragraph structure to be used for writing the letter
Sample business letter format
Online links to fun and educational NASA sites for students
Color stationery to be used for handwritten letters
Color computer stationery for typed letters
Simulated NASA letter of acceptance into the astronaut candidate program (editable Word document to personalize it for each student)
Black and white version of all documents listed above

SEE Method Introduction for writing powerful paragraphs. Package includes: Brief history and rationale, student samples, revised samples, SEE paragraph structure, student practice page and answer key, SEE Method PowerPoint presentation for students,
SEE Method Notebook presentation for students

Created by collabor8