For Earth Day, use newspapers to encourage the study of issues relevant to students’ lives; help them self-select topics.

Directions in the following lesson on writing persuasive or evaluative essays encourage teachers to gather newspapers to supplement students’ research on environmental issues. After identifying stories about environmental issues in the print version of their local or regional newspaper, students should search for additional information in the archives of Web or electronic editions of their newspapers.

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Students may also evaluate opinions about the environmental issues offered in editorials, letters to the editor, columns and cartoons. Students should use the news and commentary to form their own opinions and craft effective persuasive or evaluative essays.

North Carolina’s Standard Course of Study includes argumentation (problem-solution and evaluation) as a goal in the English/Language Arts curriculum.