Return Address

What’s My Address?

What’s My Address?• This strategy will

enable students to engage historical addresses and speeches and employ research strategies, collaboration and 21st Century Learning Skills.

What’s My Address?

• Students will evaluate the place and significance of the address, and acquaint themselves with the chronology and historical narrative surrounding the address.

• Students will also be decision-makers with this strategy.

Popular Addresses

• Way: Proposes a solution to a problem1963 Social-Economic Equality Way, Washington, DC 20001

• Drive: Charts a new course or Direction, announces a new policy

• Place: Sets the parameters of a policy or historical moment

Popular Addresses• Circle: Seeks to bring

closure to an issue or announce the conclusion of project, marks the end of an era.Ex. 1968 Camelot Circle

• Lane: Raises issues associated with historical memory; the long term consequences or legacy of an issue.

• Court: Someone flirting with or “Courting” disaster or victory.

Address ChartAddress and Description Address and DescriptionWay: Proposes a solution to a problem

Circle: Seeks to bring closure to an issue or announce the conclusion of project, marks the end of an era.

Drive: Charts a new course or Direction, announces a new policy

Lane: Raises issues associated with historical memory; the long term consequences or legacy of an issue.

Place: Sets the parameters of a policy or historical moment

Court: Someone flirting with or “Courting” disaster or victory.

The Common Core Standards

This is an EXCELLENT way to have students interpret text and formulate a response – which will be KEY to the Common Core Standards and Assessments

“We Shall Never Surrender”

• 5141940 War for Survival Place

Apt 10Downing, LDN, SW1A 2AA.

Notice how we’re using the mailing address to support geography, date, main point and overall role of the address.

Always engage Time and Space

• Have students identify the person

• Identify the title of the address and the occasion on which it was presented

• Locate the place it was given on the map

• Find the zip code

Provide the address and let the students dig for the

justification.

Then analyze the speech• Churchill, Winston. “Blood, Toil, Tears and Sweat: Address to Parliament on

May 13th, 1940.” Lend Me Your Ears:• Great Speeches in History, 3rd Edition. Edited by William Safire. New York: W.

W. Norton, 2004. (1940)• From “Winston Churchill Braces Britons to Their Task”• I say to the House as I said to ministers who have joined this government, I have

nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears, and sweat. We have before us an ordeal of the most grievous kind. We have before us many, many months of struggle and suffering. You ask, what is our policy? I say it is to wage war by land, sea, and air. War with all our might and with all the strength God has given us, and to wage war against a monstrous tyranny never surpassed in the dark and lamentable catalogue of human crime. That is our policy. You ask, what is our aim? I can answer in one word. It is victory. Victory at all costs - Victory in spite of all terrors - Victory, however long and hard the road may be, for without victory there is no survival. I take up my task in buoyancy and hope. I feel sure that our cause will not be suffered to fail among men. I feel entitled at this juncture, at this time, to claim the aid of all and to say, “Come then, let us go forward together with our united strength.”

Why is this address determination important?

• It’s going to serve as the basis for constructing a thesis statement that students will prove and validate.

A House cannot be built on a weak Foundation

• Foundation: What is the topic being discussed and what is the opinion on the main issue of the figure delivering the address?

• Level One: Social• Level Two: Political• Level Three: Economic• Level Four: Cultural• Street Address

Establishing an Address

Foundation – Main Idea and opinion of the deliverer concerning that topic

Main Point 2 – Add SPEC significance

Main Point 3 – Add SPEC significance

Main Point 4 – Add SPEC significance

Conclusion – attach street name

Main Point 1 – Add SPEC significance

Scaffolding the process• Provide students

with the mailing address and have them search for the proof of the street designation.

• Then ask them if another interpretation could fit.

In time . . .

• You can flip the script and have them make the determination on their own.

Adapt for Literature!• Lee, Harper. To Kill A Mockingbird. New York: HarperCollins Publishers,

2006. (1960) From Chapter One• When he was nearly thirteen, my brother Jem got his arm badly broken at the

elbow. When it healed, and Jem’s fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, he was seldom self-conscious about his injury. His left arm was somewhat shorter than his right; when he stood or walked, the back of his hand was at right angles to his body, his thumb parallel to his thigh. He couldn’t have cared less, so long as he could pass and punt. When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain that the Ewells started it all, but Jem, who was four years my senior, said it started long before that. He said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out. I said if he wanted to take a broad view of the thing, it really began with Andrew Jackson. If General Jackson hadn’t run the Creeks up the creek, Simon Finch would never have paddled up the Alabama, and where would we be if he hadn’t? We were far too old to settle an argument with a fist-fight, so we consulted Atticus. Our father said we were both right.

Now let’s take some of the remaining Documents and

work as groups and report out.

Constructing an Address:

Number

Could be the year, place in document or something creative

Main Point

The main point of the excerpt condensed into one or two words

Purpose

The street designation, what is the author trying to do with the main point

Place

Can be geographic location or something creative

State, Zip

Real state/zip or something creative

BE CREATIVE!

A cool route

to follow!

New Streets

Apartment Numbers

Intersections

Address ChartAddress and Description Address and Description

Way: Proposes a solution to a problem Circle: Seeks to bring closure to an issue or announce the conclusion of project, marks the end of an era.

Drive: Charts a new course or Direction, announces a new policy

Lane: Raises issues associated with historical memory; the long term consequences or legacy of an issue.

Place: Sets the parameters of a policy or historical moment

Court: Someone flirting with or “Courting” disaster or victory.

Let’s DBQ it!• Now we can get bonus

points on our DBQ’s by grouping documents according to purpose using the address chart!

• Your students will not only analyze the documents in sophisticated ways, but they will be proving a thesis/ argument.

Social Political

Economic Cultural

Charting a new course

Provides closure

Courts disaster

The AP US Essay Guidelines• The standard essay questions may require students to relate developments indifferent areas (e.g., the political

implications of an economic issue), to analyze common themes in different time periods (e.g., the concept of national interest in U.S. foreign policy), or to compare individual or group experiences that reflect socioeconomic, ethnic, racial, or gender differences (e.g., social mobility and cultural pluralism). Although historiography is not emphasized in the exam, students are expected to have a general understanding of key interpretations of major historical events. When questions based on literary materials are included, the emphasis will not be on literature as art but rather on its relation to politics, social and economic life, or related cultural and intellectual movements.

• Answers to standard essay questions will be judged on the strength of the thesis developed, the quality of the historical argument, and the evidence offered in support of the argument, rather than on the factual information per se. Unless a question asks otherwise, students will not be penalized for omitting one or another specific illustration.

• The required DBQ differs from the standard essays in its emphasis on the ability to analyze and synthesize historical data and assess verbal, quantitative, or pictorial materials as historical evidence. Like the standard essay, however, the DBQ will also be judged on its thesis, argument, and supporting evidence.

• Although confined to no single format, the documents contained in the DBQ are unlikely to be the familiar classics (the Emancipation Proclamation or Declaration of Independence, for example), but their authors may be major historical figures. The documents vary in length and are chosen to illustrate interactions and complexities within the material. The material will include—where the question is suitable— charts, graphs, cartoons, and pictures, as well as written materials. In addition to calling upon a broad spectrum of historical skills, the diversity of materials will allow students to assess the value of different sorts of documents. The DBQ will typically require students to relate the documents to a historical period or theme and, thus, to focus on major periods and issues. For this reason, outside knowledge is very important and must be incorporated into the student’s essay if the highest scores are to be earned. It should be noted that the emphasis of the DBQ will be on analysis and synthesis, not historical narrative.

Return AddressYep – It’s not over until we

formulate a response!(This is the part I really love!)

The Premise

• When examining the text or audio/ visual deliveries of speeches and addresses; we typically ask students questions to make sure they got the main idea and the supporting details.

• Let’s extend “What’s Your Address?” and have students respond in a thoughtful way while tying in language arts and skills of courtesy.

Based on the last presentation:

• We’ve established – The Foundation– The Main Ideas– The SPECial

significance– The Conclusion – And created the

address

Why not make them figure out the Return Address?

Step 1

• Utilize the address determination of the Address that you or your students created.

Remember that address? Let’s respond!

Step 2• Have students collect facts and materials that

support the determination they made.• In this step – they must physically or virtually

collect the text (primary or secondary), audio, or images that support that determination and the main points from the previous exercise.

STOP• If students are confused by the

chronology of the materials they’ve found and the address; you’ll need to have them sort out the events that happen BEFORE and AFTER the speech. – This is very important as students gauge

their reactions to the address.

The Mailbox

• Students will compile their research materials into a mailbox.

This is similar to the dreaded manila envelope. Students should use this to focus their research. It need not be physical. Let’s 2.0 it.

Step 3• Student uses the address determination, main

points, and research materials collected to evaluate the person speaking.

• The written response is in the form of a standard friendly letter.

Sample Friendly Letter Format• The President has made his return address. Now students have to

respond. For the final step student will write the “author” a letter using the standard 3rd Grade format for writing a friendly letter.

• Grades K-3rd• Young school aged children can begin to write friendly letters as

soon as they can write. Using a letter they have received as a model, show them the form the letter follows. A friendly letter has these parts:

• The Heading- Address (optional) and date • The Salutation or Greeting- Usually starting with Dear …, • Body of the Letter- The message you want to send • Closing- Generally: Sincerely, Your friend, Love or Very truly yours • The Signature- Usually first name only

Thesis reminder . . .• Allow the topic/ thesis statement to

utilize the address determination from What’s My Address.

The Stamp – Have the students design their own stamp that encapsulates the issue

Envelope design image

Address determination

Return Address Stamp Design

What about the back of the envelope?

Citations of sources go on the back.

• Have students cite the pertinent sources they used in constructing their friendly letter.– Citation formats differ across disciplines –

pick the one your school uses:– MLA– APA– Chicago-Style– Turabian

Why?

• It is going to give students practice in the following skills:

• Researching a topic• Presenting an opinion• Supporting the opinion• Citing their sources

Let’s 2.0 it . . .

• Create an online blog.• Post a video or podcast

response to the address.• Allow students to

“informally” evaluate the letters.– The evaluation should come

from you but a student exchange and editing process can be most helpful.

How do we know the letter was received?

Final step• To demonstrate good etiquette and

provide a unique evaluation piece the teacher should send each student a thank you letter from the person which will serve as the final evaluation.

Also include a holistic rubric or another sort of evaluation.* The Thank You note can be a form letter.

How about?• Letting the students

construct the Thank You notes before you attach the evaluation.– It allows the Thank You

note to be personalized and it gives kids practice with a little bit of character education along with collaboration and evaluation.

Extension . . .

• Was there an official return address?– Did someone react?

• How did it match with the student response?• How did events change immediately and

subsequently?• Did they see the determination in the same way

as you or the student did?

So . . .

• How can we modify this activity to suit your needs?

afitzpatrick@aihe.info