Lake Ice-Out Lesson 4 - Write a Recommendation Letter

• This lesson challenges students to compose a letter that presents data about ice-out day, describes the trends, and recommends future scheduling of the ice-out fishing derby based on the observed data.
• A student graphic organizer, slides of the data, and sample grading rubric are included in the lesson plan.
  

Positives

• This lesson shows students how to be active members of their community. 
• This lesson reinforces the idea that evidence and reasoning are the pillars of a strong argument.
  

Additional Prerequisites

• Students may need to zoom in to clearly read the data.
• Students have to make a copy of the "Lesson 4 Graphic Organizer" in order to fill it out.
  

Differentiation

• Teachers could craft a similar lesson where students write to state officials about combating climate change that uses both local and global data.
• This lesson could fit within a larger unit on the human impacts of climate change.
• To finish the lesson, the teacher could instruct students on the various ways they could communicate their recommendations to derby organizers.
• Younger students may need assistance with filling in the graphic organizer and/or transferring their statements into a letter format.