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Lesson:  I Can Be Your Hero Grade Level: Grades 4 & 5 Rationale: To help students exhibit their knowledge of what a hero is and to acknowledge the many people in our lives who are our heroes.  Cognitive Objectives: ∑ Students will use what they learned about heroes to choose a personal hero in their own lives. ∑ Students will learn how to properly address an envelope and correctly write a letter,  ∑ Students will write letters to their personal heroes thanking them for what they have done.  Materials: ∑ Lined paper ∑ Pencils ∑ Envelopes ∑ Stamps Procedure: 1. Recap on the things the class learned the previous week of class about heroes.  Ask students, “What qualities and characteristics can heroes have?” and “What type of people can be heroes?” 2. Direct students to decide who their own personal heroes are.  3. Have students identify reasons why they choose the heroes that they did. 4. Tell students to each take out a piece of lined paper and a pencil. 5. Teach students how to appropriately write a letter.  6. Tell students to include a date, heading, greeting, body, closing, and signature in their letters and demonstrate how to properly complete each of these.  7. Lead students to each write a letter to their own hero.  The letter should thank the hero and let them know what heroic qualities that student sees in them. 8. Once students are finished writing their letters, teach them how to appropriately address an envelope. 9. Tell students to include both a return address and a delivery address, then explain what each of these are and how to properly write an address. 10.  In an address, make sure students include a name, street address, city, state, and zip code.   Verify that students are aware that they must also include the country if they are mailing out of the United States. 11. Show students correct placement of the return and delivery addresses as well as the stamp. 12. Once the envelopes are addressed and the letters are written, let students hand in their completed hero letters to be mailed.  If students do not have addresses available, assign them to obtain those addresses as homework and address their letter the following day of school. Closure: 13. To wrap up what was learned from the letter-writing to heroes, hold a class discussion. 14. Ask questions to the class, including: ∑ Who did you choose as your hero? ∑ Why did you choose this hero? ∑ What type of qualities do you admire about your hero? 15. End this discussion by having students name people who were heroes during the events which took place on September 11th, 2001.  Illinois Learning Standard Addressed: ∑ Social/Emotional Learning State Goal 2B.1b. - Describe positive qualities in others. ∑ English Language Arts Writing State Goal 3.B.1a – Use prewriting strategies to generate and organize ideas (e.g., focus on one topic; organize writing to include a beginning, middle and end; use descriptive words when writing about people, places, things, events). ∑ English Language Arts Writing State Goal 3.C.2a - Write for a variety of purposes and for specified audiences in a variety of forms including narrative (e.g., fiction, autobiography), expository (e.g., reports, essays) and persuasive writings (e.g., editorials, advertisements). ∑ English Language Arts Listening and Speaking State Goal 4.B.2b - Use speaking skills and procedures to participate in group discussions. ∑ English Language Arts Listening and Speaking State Goal 4.B.3d - Use verbal and nonverbal communication strategies to maintain communications and to resolve conflict. Formative Assessment: ∑ Students should actively participate in the discussion of heroes. ∑ Students should complete the writing activity having written a letter including all appropriate parts and addressed a letter with the proper labels and addresses.  Students will be given a grade of complete or incomplete. Accommodations: ∑ With special needs students who have difficulty with writing, give them the option to draw a picture for their hero or write a short poem instead after verifying that the students still understands the various parts of a letter. ∑ Help students with correct abbreviations of states and street titles (i.e. St., Blvd., Ln., Ct., etc.) when addressing their envelopes.