What would Ben do? Jumping off from the pseudonymous letters Ben Franklin fooled his older brother into publishing when he was still a teenager, young literary lovers dive into acting, writing, and addressing a local issue with wit and satire in imitation. High schoolers study Franklin’s writing in pairs and use his approach as a jumping-off point for their own opinion pieces.

Concepts

humor, journalism, letter writing, opinion writing, social issues, satire, characterization, acting, current events

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Invite editors of local papers to watch student presentations and discuss the issues they raise
• Team with an English teacher and/or acting instructor to support cross-curricular initiatives
  

Classroom Considerations

• Dictionaries might help English learners due to the complex language of the papers
  

Pros

• Provides a well-constructed opportunity for students to go beyond linguistic intelligence
• Engaging activity brings current or historical issues to life
• Lesson creates interdisciplinary connections between Social Studies, English, and Drama/Acting

Cons

• Links to most of the resources do not work, but most materials are easily found online

Common Core

RI.9-10.1 RI.11-12.1 W.9-10.1.a W.9-10.4 W.11-12.1.a W.11-12.4 RH.9-10.1 RH.11-12.1