‘Million Dollar’ Neighborhood Essay

Sarah Bacus
Essay Lesson Plan
OWP Summer ‘10

Unit: During Year of the River students partake in an urban planning story line. Throughout the storyline
the students visit and examine various neighborhoods and urban planning features and issues in Portland.
They select different attributes that they want to apply to the urban renewal plan for the fictional city,
Brownfields.

Grade: 6-8

Objective: Students will write a persuasive essay supporting their ‘million dollar idea’ for Oregon and
submit it to OPB’s Think Out Loud- Million Dollar Ideas.

Learning Context: Students have been gathering information related to five different expert areas in
urban planning: housing, transportation/waste, economics, health/safety, parks/arts. This acquisition of
information has occurred through multiple field trips in and around Portland, reading articles/essays,
watching/discussing videos. Students will pull out what the important urban planning features are for a
city and choose one to support and submit in the form of a persuasive essay to Think Out Loud.

Procedure:
- Introduce students to OPB’s Think Out Loud- Million Dollar Ideas by playing parts of the radio
show, reviewing the guidelines for the contest and examine some of the ideas submitted by other
people in the areas of housing, transportation/waste, economics, health/safety, parks/arts.
o After giving out more than $500 million over the last 32 years, the Meyer Memorial Trust has
decided that it will now let a village (or, actually, a state) take a crack at figuring out how it
should spend its next million. The foundation has opened up a contest of sorts. The plan:
o [T]o jumpstart Oregon's historically innovative initiative in the face of the state's multitude of
challenges by looking for a million dollar idea proposed by the state’s collective brain....
o We begin by inviting all Oregonians and others to help us identify funding opportunities to create
a better future for Oregon. Tell us what you think is the most pressing issue facing Oregon that an
investment of up to $1 million could provide meaningful support and leverage over the next two
years. Give us your best ideas about the form that support and leverage might take.
- Brainstorm ideas in the 5 different areas that we have seen in Portland on field study or learned
about that are happening in other parts of the world.
o For example: Transportation/waste: green streets, public solar-powered trash compactors;
Housing: affordable housing/green housing; Economics: mini grants for people to open
food carts; health/safety: distance people live from the freeway; Parks/art: installing
public art that reflect the identify/history of the neighborhood
- Students choose 2 ideas they are most interested in and compare/contrast the benefits of both.
Students will create a Venn diagram and list the benefits that each idea individually contributes
and the benefits both ideas contribute. After pair-sharing with a partner and having more time to
add additional benefits to their diagram, they choose the idea they want to most support.
- Students form ‘research support groups’ based on the area their million dollar idea falls under.
For example, those who chose a transportation/waste idea will sit together. Utilizing field study
notes, posters in the room, video/article notes, and guest speaker notes, students will gather
facts/anecdotes related to their idea and the urban planning area.
- Sample persuasive essays with student discovery of elements and a created class list of
elements/criteria.
- Examine sample thesis statements and create a thesis wall. Students will use theirs and other’s
ideas to craft their thesis statement.
- Writing time. Draft the supporting paragraphs – include evidence, anecdote, and/or writer’s
perspective.
- Examine sample introductions. Students write their own introductions or use the examples to
help make theirs juicier.
- Mini lesson on transitions. How can they be use to keep your essay moving?
- Examine sample conclusions. Students write their own.
- Read around in response groups and feedback.
- Students use feedback to strengthen their evidence/examples. Can the essay benefit from an
anecdote?
- Color marking of draft for persuasive essay criteria with checklist.
- Mini lesson on active verbs. Revision.
- Peer review letter
- Revision and editing
- Read around of favorite paragraph.
- Submit to OPB’s Think Out Loud- Million Dollar Ideas
 Million Dollar Idea Checklist

Use the following checklist to make sure that you have included all the necessary elements for your
persuasive essay. You may use color highlighters or colored pencils to mark your draft. This sheet
needs to be attached to your essay.

___1. Thesis Statement: Stated or implied. Write it in the space below and highlight it on your paper.

___ 2. Introduction: What kind of introduction did you use?

Anecdote
Quote
Question
Bold statement/startling fact
Other: __________________________________

___ 3. Transitions: Refer back to your thesis and keep your essay moving. (Highlight the transitions
you use in your essay)

___4. Evidence: Prove your point with specific examples you have seen/learned about. On your
essay mark each of the ways you used examples.
Field study observations
Quotes from articles
Summary/anecdotes from guest speakers
Analysis – why this evidence proves your point

___ 5. Conclusion: What kind of conclusion did you use?

Summary
Circle back to the beginning
Restate and emphasize thesis
Further questions to think about

___6. Tight Writing:

Active verbs
Lean language
Sentence variety

___7. Grammar, punctuation, spelling checked and corrected

On the back of this page, describe what you need to do to revise this essay.