P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
“An Open Letter to Incoming High School Freshmen”
The 5E Model
Overview
This lesson is designed to familiarize the students with the genre of the open letter as
well as review (or introduce) the writing process. Done with a partner, the student
should gain a sense of security in prewriting and gathering the information to be
contained within the assignment. Two professional pieces of writing are used to
demonstrate the genre of an open letter and to allow the students to discover common
elements between the two selections. These common elements will form the basis of
the rubric that will be used to assess the assignment, giving students input into the
evaluation process. Throughout the process, students will act as peer reviewers and
engage in self-reflection about their writing process. Two vocabulary lessons of the
instructor’s choice (ten words each) are included within this lesson, and mini-lessons
reviewing complete sentences, fragments, run-ons, and comma splices (fused
sentences) are also included within this framework.
This lesson is a work-in-progress, although many portions have been fleshed out. I still
need to read the two works to create the sample list of criteria the students can generate
that will become a portion of the rubric. I also need to develop the rubric by which to
assess this assignment. I incorporated various activities that could be used to generate
daily/quiz/homework grades during the course of this 15-day assignment. The length of
the assignment does NOT take into consideration any potential global class interruptions
(fire drills, class meetings, review of campus handbook, plagiarism discussions, etc.) that
often plague the high school classroom.
I have drafted this lesson using the 5E Model of Lesson Plans, beginning the process by
engaging the student through discovery and inquiry and moving through to the
evaluation stage. These five elements incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy.
College Readiness Standards that this assignment meets include
English Language Arts Standards
I. Writing
A. Compose a variety of texts that demonstrate clear focus, the logical
development of ideas in well-organized paragraphs, and the use of appropriate
language that advances the author’s purpose.
1. Determine effective approaches, forms, and rhetorical techniques that
demonstrate understanding of the writer’s purpose and audience.
2. Generate ideas and gather information relevant to the topic and purpose,
keeping careful records of outside sources.
3. Evaluate relevance, quality, sufficiency, and depth of preliminary ideas and
information, organize material generated, and formulate thesis.
4. Recognize the importance of revision as the key to effective writing. Each draft should
refine key ideas and organize them more logically and fluidly, use language more
precisely and effectively, and draw the reader to the author’s purpose.
5. Edit writing for proper voice, tense, and syntax, assuring that it conforms to standard
English, when appropriate.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
II. Reading
A. Locate explicit textual information and draw complex inferences, analyze, and
evaluate the information within and across texts of varying lengths.
1. Use effective reading strategies to determine a written work’s purpose and intended
audience.
3. Identify explicit and implicit textual information including main ideas and author’s
purpose.
5 Analyze the presentation of information and the strength and quality of evidence used
by the author, and judge the coherence and logic of the presentation and the credibility
of an argument.
8. Compare and analyze how generic features are used across texts.
9. Identify and analyze the audience, purpose, and message of an informational or
persuasive text.
10. Identify and analyze how an author's use of language appeals to the senses, creates
imagery, and suggests mood.
B. Understand new vocabulary and concepts and use them accurately in reading,
speaking, and writing.
1. Identify new words and concepts acquired through study of their relationships to other
words and concepts.
2. Apply knowledge of roots and affixes to infer the meanings of new words.
3. Use reference guides to confirm the meanings of new words or concepts.
C. Describe, analyze, and evaluate information within and across literary and other
texts from a variety of cultures and historical periods.
3. Analyze works of literature for what they suggest about the historical period and
cultural contexts in which they were written.
D. Explain how literary and other texts evoke personal experience and reveal
character in particular historical circumstances.
1. Describe insights gained about oneself, others, or the world from reading specific
texts.
III. Speaking
A. Understand the elements of communication both in informal group discussions
and formal presentations (e.g., accuracy, relevance, rhetorical features, and
organization of information).
1. Understand how style and content of spoken language varies in different
contexts and influences the listener’s understanding.
2. Adjust presentation (delivery, vocabulary, length) to particular audiences and
purposes.
B. Develop effective speaking styles for both group and one-on-one situations.
1. Participate actively and effectively in one-on-one oral communication situations.
2. Participate actively and effectively in group discussions.
IV. Listening
A. Apply listening skills as an individual and as a member of a group in a variety
of settings (e.g., lectures, discussions, conversations, team projects,
presentations, interviews).
3. Use a variety of strategies to enhance listening comprehension (e.g., focus attention
on message, monitor message for clarity and understanding, provide verbal and
nonverbal feedback, note cues such as change of pace or particular words that indicate
a new point is about to be made, select and organize key information).
B. Listen effectively in informal and formal situations.
2. Listen actively and effectively in one-on-one communication situations.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
3. Listen actively and effectively in group discussions.
Cross-Disciplinary Standards
I. Key Cognitive Skills
A. Intellectual curiosity
1. Engage in scholarly inquiry and dialogue.
2. Accept constructive criticism and revise personal views when valid evidence warrants.
B. Reasoning
1. Consider arguments and conclusions of self and others.
2. Construct well-reasoned arguments to explain phenomena, validate
conjectures, or support positions.
3. Gather evidence to support arguments, findings, or lines of reasoning.
4. Support or modify claims based on the results of an inquiry.
C. Problem solving
1. Analyze a situation to identify a problem to be solved.
2. Develop and apply multiple strategies to solving a problem.
3. Collect evidence and data systematically and directly relate to solving a problem.
D. Academic behaviors
1. Self-monitor learning needs and seek assistance when needed.
2. Use study habits necessary to manage academic pursuits and requirements.
3. Strive for accuracy and precision.
4. Persevere to complete and master tasks.
E. Work habits
1. Work independently.
2. Work collaboratively.
F. Academic integrity
4. Understand and adhere to ethical codes of conduct.
II. Foundational Skills
A. Reading across the curriculum
1. Use effective prereading strategies.
2. Use a variety of strategies to understand the meanings of new words.
3. Identify the intended purpose and audience of the text.
4. Identify the key information and supporting details.
5. Analyze textual information critically.
6. Annotate, summarize, paraphrase, and outline texts when appropriate.
7. Adapt reading strategies according to structure of texts.
8. Connect reading to historical and current events and personal interest.
B. Writing across the curriculum
1. Write clearly and coherently using standard writing conventions.
2. Write in a variety of forms for various audiences and purposes.
3. Compose and revise drafts.
E. Technology
2. Use technology to organize, manage, and analyze information.
3. Use technology to communicate and display findings in a clear and coherent manner.
4. Use technology appropriately.
Source: http://www.thecb.state.tx.us/CollegeReadiness/CRS.pdf
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
English III TEKS that this assignment meets include
(1) Writing/purposes. The student writes in a variety of forms, including business,
personal, literary, and persuasive texts, for various audiences and purposes. The
student is expected to:
(A) write in various forms with particular emphasis on business forms such as a report,
memo, narrative or procedure, summary/abstract, and resumé;
(B) write in a voice and style appropriate to audience and purpose; and
(C) organize ideas in writing to ensure coherence, logical progression, and support for
ideas.
(2) Writing/writing processes. The student uses recursive writing processes when
appropriate. The student is expected to:
(A) use prewriting strategies to generate ideas, develop voice, and plan;
(B) develop drafts both alone and collaboratively by organizing and reorganizing content
and by refining style to suit occasion, audience, and purpose;
(C) proofread writing for appropriateness of organization, content, style, and
conventions;
(D) frequently refine selected pieces to publish for general and specific audiences; and
(E) use technology for aspects of creating, revising, editing, and publishing texts.
(3) Writing/grammar/usage/conventions/spelling. The student relies increasingly
on the conventions and mechanics of written English, including the rules of usage
and grammar, to write clearly and effectively. The student is expected to:
(A) produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct use of the
conventions of punctuation and capitalization such as italics and ellipses;
(B) demonstrate control over grammatical elements such as subject-verb agreement,
pronoun-antecedent agreement, verb forms, and parallelism;
(C) compose increasingly more involved sentences that contain gerunds, participles,
and infinitives in their various functions;
(D) produce error-free writing in the final draft; and
(4) Writing/inquiry/research. The student uses writing as a tool for learning. The
student is expected to:
(A) use writing to formulate questions, refine topics, and clarify ideas;
(B) use writing to discover, organize, and support what is known and what needs to be
learned about a topic;
(D) represent information in a variety of ways such as graphics, conceptual maps, and
learning logs;
(E) use writing as a study tool to clarify and remember information;
(F) compile written ideas and representations into reports, summaries, or other formats
and draw conclusions; and
(5) Writing/evaluation. The student evaluates his/her own writing and the writings
of others. The student is expected to:
(A) evaluate writing for both mechanics and content; and
(B) respond productively to peer review of his/her own work.
6) Reading/word identification/vocabulary development. The student acquires an
extensive vocabulary through reading and systematic word study. The student is
expected to:
(A) expand vocabulary through wide reading, listening, and discussing;
(B) rely on context to determine meanings of words and phrases such as figurative
language, connotation and denotation of words, analogies, idioms, and technical
vocabulary;
(C) apply meanings of prefixes, roots, and suffixes in order to comprehend;
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
(E) use reference material such as glossary, dictionary, thesaurus, and available
technology to determine precise meaning and usage;
(7) Reading/comprehension. The student comprehends selections using a variety
of strategies. The student is expected to:
(A) establish and adjust purpose for reading such as to find out, to understand, to
interpret, to enjoy, and to solve problems;
(B) draw upon his/her own background to provide connection to texts;
(C) monitor his/her own reading strategies and make modifications when understanding
breaks down such as by rereading, using resources, and questioning;
(E) analyze text structures such as compare/contrast, cause/effect, and chronological
order for how they influence understanding;
(F) produce summaries of texts by identifying main ideas and their supporting details;
(G) draw inferences such as conclusions, generalizations, and predictions and support
them with text evidence and experience;
(8) Reading/variety of texts. The student reads extensively and intensively for
different purposes and in varied sources, including American literature. The
student is expected to:
(A) read to be entertained, to appreciate a writer's craft, to be informed, to take action,
and to discover models to use in his/her own writing;
(B) read in varied sources such as diaries, journals, textbooks, maps, newspapers,
letters, speeches, memoranda, electronic texts, and other media;
(C) read American and other world literature, including classic and contemporary works;
and
(D) interpret the possible influences of the historical context on literary works.
(9) Reading/culture. The student reads widely, including American literature, to
increase knowledge of his/her own culture, the culture of others, and the common
elements across cultures. The student is expected to:
(A) recognize distinctive and shared characteristics of cultures through reading; and
(B) compare text events with his/her own and other readers' experiences.
(10) Reading/literary response. The student expresses and supports responses to
various types of texts. The student is expected to:
(A) respond to informational and aesthetic elements in texts such as discussions,
journal entries, oral interpretations, enactments, and graphic displays;
(B) use elements of text to defend, clarify, and negotiate responses and interpretations;
and
(11) Reading/literary concepts. The student analyzes literary elements for their
contributions to meaning in literary texts. The student is expected to:
(E) connect literature to historical contexts, current events, and his/her own
experiences; and
(12) Reading/analysis/evaluation. The student reads critically to evaluate texts
and the authority of sources. The student is expected to:
(A) analyze the characteristics of clearly written texts, including the patterns of
organization, syntax, and word choice;
(B) evaluate the credibility of information sources, including how the writer's motivation
may affect that credibility; and
(C) recognize logical, deceptive, and/or faulty modes of persuasion in texts.
(14) Listening/speaking/critical listening. The student listens attentively for a
variety of purposes. The student is expected to:
(A) demonstrate proficiency in each aspect of the listening process such as focusing
attention, interpreting, and responding;
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
(B) use effective strategies for listening such as prepares for listening, identifies the
types of listening, and adopts appropriate strategies;
(C) demonstrate proficiency in critical, empathic, appreciative, and reflective listening;
(D) use effective strategies to evaluate his/her own listening such as asking questions
for clarification, comparing and contrasting interpretations with others, and researching
points of interest or contention; and
(E) use effective listening to provide appropriate feedback in a variety of situations such
as conversations and discussions and informative, persuasive, or artistic presentations.
(15) Listening/speaking/purposes. The student speaks clearly and effectively for a
variety of purposes. The student is expected to:
(A) use the conventions of oral language effectively;
(B) use informal, standard, and technical language effectively to meet the needs of
purpose, audience, occasion, and task;
(C) communicate effectively in conversations and group discussions while problem
solving, and planning;
(D) use effective verbal and nonverbal strategies in presenting oral messages;
(E) ask clear questions for a variety of purposes and respond appropriately to the
questions of others; and
(F) make relevant contributions in conversations and discussions.
Source: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/rules/tac/chapter110/ch110c.html
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
DAY 1 (in week 1 or 2 of 1st semester)
Engage—You are an incoming freshman at a two-year college/vocational/trade school
or a four-year university outside of the San Antonio area. With a partner, draw a “map”
of the “campus” indicating all the important areas that you will need to know about to
survive your first semester. Also include at least 10 questions you will need answered.
(20 minutes—blank paper, pencils, colored pencils/markers)
Teacher notes:
Possible locations to include: living quarters, eating location(s), classroom
locations, health clinic, library, game rooms, stadium, bookstore, mall, parking
location, bank/ATM, police/security location, bus stops, bicycle racks, gyms, fast
food restaurants, student union, counselor/advisor locations
Time keeper
Recorder
Explore—Journaling question: After completing your “map” of your “campus,” respond
to “How would having a set of directions or a ‘How to make it through the first semester’
list of guidelines have helped you with deciding what to include on your list of questions
and map? (10 – 15 minutes)
Explain—Debrief with peers (group to group and whole class) (10 – 15 minutes) Create
list of “common” ideas
Time keeper
Recorder
Turn in maps and lists
HOMEWORK—Vocabulary Lesson 1—review words and definitions
DAY 2
Explain—Post maps and lists and debrief (10 minutes)
Explore—Journaling—What problems did you have when you first came to the high
school campus? What questions did you have? What made high school difficult? What
made it easy? Integrate as many vocabulary words from the lesson as possible.(15
minutes)
Explain—Debrief (10 – 15 minutes)
Explore—With your partner brainstorm what solution(s) could help solve those
problems/questions that freshmen encounter when entering high school? List all
possible sources (individuals, groups, locations) of helpful information and assistance.
(10 – 15 minutes—blank paper and markers)
Teacher notes: Students will probably focus on administration, faculty, library,
webpages, etc. Use questioning strategies until they begin to see themselves as
sources of information and expertise on the high school experience. Turn in list of
sources.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
DAY 3
Explain—Debrief on previous lesson and list of sources of helpful information. (10
minutes) Post lists on wall. Incorporate vocabulary words from lesson in discussion.
Explain—Definition of “open letter” (10 minutes)
http://www.answers.com/topic/open-letter
Explore—Read “Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of Fat Kids”—An Open Letter to
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (Appendix) (5 – 10 minutes)
Explain—Definitions of audience, claim, support (10 minutes)
Explain—With your partner, use the text to brainstorm answers to the following: What
topic is the subject of the “open letter”? What is the author’s purpose for writing this
letter? Who is the audience for this letter? What is the author’s chief claim? How does he
support his claim? What action does the author want from his audience? (10 – 15
minutes—blank paper and markers)
Turn in lists
HOMEWORK—Read Jesse Owens’ “Open Letter to a Young Negro” (Appendix) and be
prepared to identify the purpose, audience, and claim of the text. Write at least three
questions you have about the text.
DAY 4
Explain—In-class writing reading check: Using the text, identify the purpose, audience,
and claim for “Open Letter to a Young Negro.” (10 minutes FIXED) Collect written
answers.
Explain—Debrief on reading—With your partner, list and discuss the questions you had
over the text and list possible answers (10-15 minutes—blank paper and markers)
Time keeper
Recorder
Explain—Whole class debrief (10 – 15 minutes)
Explain—With your partner, compare/contrast the two “open letters” examined. Create
a visual representation of the similarities and differences. (15 minutes—paper and
markers)
Time keeper
Recorder
Turn in lists and visual representation.
HOMEWORK—Write a poem about your memories of being a freshman and incorporate
the ten words from Vocabulary Lesson 1.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
DAY 5
Elaborate—With your partner, create a list of elements/criteria that an open letter
contains. (10 – 15 minutes)
Teacher notes:
READ BOTH PIECES TO CREATE SAMPLE LIST
Explain—Debrief with class; create “master” list of criteria (10 – 15 minutes)
Elaborate—Look at your list of problems and emotions incoming high school freshmen
encounter and possible sources of information and select the three or four issues that
you and your partner believe to be the most important for success and survival in high
school. For each problem, provide a workable solution with a reasonable explanation for
why it works. (20 minutes—note cards and pencils)
Turn in criteria and note cards
DAY 6
Elaborate—Review the criteria for an open letter. Review your note cards of
problems/solutions. Individually,
1)
Draft an Open Letter to Incoming High School Freshmen that
incorporates the three or four problems and solutions that you
previously identified;
2)
Identify your audience for your letter ;
3)
Identify your claim(s);
4)
Identify your support for your claim(s);
5)
Put only your ID number on the draft. (45 – 50 minutes)
Turn in drafts for next day activity.
HOMEWORK—Vocabulary Lesson 2—review words and definitions
DAY 7
Computer Lab
Type draft—double spaced, Arial 12 pt. font—and print two copies for next day
activity. Students should simply type the draft as it has already been drafted. Revision
will come later. Number the lines on the left-hand side of the page on each draft.
DAY 8
Evaluate—Peer reviews of draft 1 with Writer Reflection (150 words)
Questions to be answered in Peer Review 1: (15 – 20 min. each)
POINT out what you think is well done in the paper.
SAYBACK what you believe the writer’s main focus is.
What MORE is needed?
What is needed LESS?
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
Questions for Writer Reflection 1: (10 – 15 minutes)
Where are you in the composing stage of this paper? How do you feel
about what you have written and why? What problems have you had in drafting this
paper? What strategies do you have for continuing with this paper? What would you like
help with?
Turn in draft, peer reviews, and writer reflection 1. Peer reviews and Writer Reflection 1
graded.
DAY 9
Computer Lab
Explore/Elaborate—Re-read your draft, the two peer reviews, and your writer reflection.
Decide how to improve your draft from your reviews and your reflection. Revise your
draft accordingly. Integrate vocabulary from Lessons 1 & 2 into your paper as much as
possible. Save this draft as a new document and print out two copies of this new
document. Double-spaced, 12 pt. Arial font, lines numbered on the left-hand side of the
page. (45 – 50 minutes)
Turn in revision and all supporting papers.
DAY 10
Mini-lesson—Sentence structures (fragment, run-on, comma splice) and sentence
length variety (20 – 25 minutes)
Explore/Evaluate—With your partner, look in your own drafts and locate any examples
of fragments, run-ons, or comma splices. Revise your sentences to create—for effect—
a variety of sentences of differing lengths. Highlight them and revise them to reflect
Standard American English. Hand write the revisions into the drafts. (20 -25 minutes)
DAY 11
Evaluate—Peer reviews 2 and Writer Reflection 2
Questions to be answered in Peer Review 2: (10 – 15 minutes each)
POINT out what you think is well done in the paper
POINT out the claim of the draft
POINT out the evidence used to support the claim
POINT out vocabulary words from the first two lessons contained in the
draft
What MORE is needed?
What is needed LESS?
Questions to be answered in Writer Reflection 2: (250 words) (15 – 20
minutes)
How has your writing changed from the first draft? How do you feel about
your writing now? What problems did you find as you revised your initial draft?
How did you deal with them? How did using the new vocabulary words in your
writing make you feel?
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
DAY 12
Computer Lab
Explore/Elaborate—Re-read your draft, the two peer reviews, and your writer reflection.
Decide how to improve your draft from your reviews and your reflection. Revise your
draft accordingly. Check vocabulary integration and sentence structure accordingly.
Save this draft as a new document and print out two copies of this new document.
Double-spaced, 12 pt. Arial font, lines numbered on the left-hand side of the page. (45 –
50 minutes)
Turn in revision and all supporting papers.
HOMEWORK—Create a poem about writing using the vocabulary words from Lesson 2.
DAY 13
Evaluate—With your partner and using the peer reviews of each of your drafts, decide
which of your papers you will proceed to take to the final draft. Write a JOINT Writers’
Reflection.
Questions for JOINT Writers’ Peer Review: (20 minutes)
POINT out the criteria you used to decide which paper to use as the basis
for the one you take through a final revision and submit for grading
POINT out the strengths of each writer’s draft
What MORE is needed?
What is needed LESS?
Questions for JOINT Writers’ Reflection: (250 words)
How do you each feel about selecting only one paper to submit for a
grade? What revision needs to be done to this draft to prepare it for publication
(grading)? What composition problems will revising this draft present? What strategies
will you use to overcome these problems?
DAY 14
Computer Lab
Elaborate/Evaluate—Use the peer reviews to evaluate your draft and elaborate (revise)
any portion that you as the writers think needs to be “transformed” for the readers
(audience). Save this draft as a new document and print out two copies of this new
document. Double-spaced, 12 pt. Arial font, lines numbered on the left-hand side of the
page. Put both writers’ names in the heading. (45-50 minutes)
DAY 15
Evaluate—Peer Review 3 and Writers’ Reflection 3
Questions for final Peer Review: (20 minutes)
Celebrate the writing on the paper.
POINT out the improvements visible in the paper.
SAYBACK the thesis (claim) of the paper.
SAYBACK the evidence used to support the thesis (claim)
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
Questions for final Writers’ Reflection: (20 minutes) (250 words)
How is the process you experienced with this paper similar to or different
from what you have experienced in previous English classes? How did you feel about it?
How will you use what you learned in this process as you approach your next writing
assignment?
Complete a Rubric on your own final draft with any comments you would like me to keep
in mind as I apply the rubric to your writing. Attach your Rubric to the BACK of your final
draft.
Turn in Final Draft. Keep all previous drafts, peer reviews, and writer’s reflections in
your Writer’s Notebook.
Estimated time for return from instructor: One week
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
Appendix
Source Materials needed for Unit
1. Definitions of “open letter” from about.com, wikipedia,
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, American Heritage Dictionary
2. “Indiana Jones and the kingdom of fat kids”: An Open Letter to
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg (provided)
3.
“Open Letter to a Young Negro” (provided)
4.
Sample List of Criteria (in process)
5.
Sample Rubric (in process)
6.
Vocabulary lists (teacher selected)
7.
Review materials for sentence structures
Complete sentences, fragments, run-ons, comma splices (fused
sentences)
Sentence length variety
Artistic Materials Needed for Unit
1.
Colored pencils/markers
2.
Butcher paper or poster board quarters
3.
#2 pencils
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
Indiana Jones and the kingdom of fat kids
With childhood obesity at alarming rates, movie tie-ins to fast food are irresponsible.
An open letter to George Lucas and Steven Spielberg.
By Rahul K. Parikh, M.D.
May. 21, 2008 | Dear Mr. Lucas and Mr. Spielberg,
When I was a kid, your movies were a big part of my summers. So were all the
goodies that came with them -- "Star Wars" action figures, Indiana Jones
trading cards, Reese's Pieces (E.T.'s favorite candy). Somewhere in my
parents' house, I think I've still got a box of treasures with all of those
memories. Among them are souvenirs I picked up at Taco Bell and Burger
King, like a "Return of the Jedi" soda glass with a portrait of the menacing
Darth Vader painted on it.
A generation later, I still eagerly anticipate your movies. My friends and I lined
up hours in advance to see "The Phantom Menace" in 1999, and I weaseled
my way out of a family obligation with the in-laws so I could catch "Attack of
the Clones" in 2002. A couple of weeks ago, I hopped online to check out the
trailer for the new Indiana Jones movie, "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of
the Crystal Skull," and I'm looking forward to buying the first three films on
DVD.
In the 30 years since you've started making movies, one thing that hasn't
changed is a kid's (or in my case, a grown man's) imagination and wonder.
And who sparks that better than you?
But a lot of other things about kids have changed. Their health is one of them.
Today, almost one in four kids is obese, putting them at risk for, among other
things, diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The epidemic of obesity is
serious enough that we're predicting that this current generation won't live as
long their parents and grandparents. That's incredible if you think about it.
Which brings me to why I wrote this letter. I'm a pediatrician, and every day I
see overweight kids coming into my office. Getting families and kids to change
how they eat is an uphill battle, and it doesn't get easier when big studios like
yours wheel and deal with companies that peddle junk food and fast food.
You tied "Star Wars" to Pepsi and Frito-Lay, plastering Yoda and Obi-Wan
over 2-liter bottles and Doritos bags. Recently I was watching CNBC and saw
the chief marketing officer of Burger King unveil the Indy Whopper, a
mammoth, juicy burger with pepper jack cheese and jalapeño sauce (to give it
"adventure," the CMO pointed out), a tie-in to "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom
of the Crystal Skull." I see you also got Mars to manufacture a Snicker's
Adventure Bar with coconut and chai that has Dr. Jones' face on the wrapper.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
Besides the fact that none of these foods is healthy, one has to ask if they're
what your characters would eat. Would Lord Vader chug down a Pepsi before
he wielded his light saber? (If he did, would he drink it with a straw or take off
his entire mask?) Wouldn't Indy, now a senior citizen, have more than just a
little bump in his cholesterol if he had scarfed down his namesake burger with
fries and a soda? How could he be fit enough to chase down ancient relics
while dodging boulders and outwitting Nazis?
You may think I'm playing the blame-the-media-and-Hollywood game. But an
increasing body of medical evidence shows that child advertising and obesity
are correlated. Take a look at a study by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
According to the report, each week American kids spend a full-time job's worth
of time in front of the TV, on the Web and playing video games. They will see
about 40,000 ads per year, and two-thirds of those ads are for junk food and
fast food. Studies show that what kids see on TV is what they tell their parents
they want for supper. No doubt the Indy Double Whopper -- with bacon! -- will
be flying off the greasy grill in short order.
It's not all the media's fault. Parents need to take charge of what foods they're
buying and how they're preparing those foods. Many families, especially poor
ones, get a whole lot for their hard-to-earn dollars when they buy cheap,
processed and calorie-dense foods. Fresh fruits and vegetables are more
expensive, don't last as long and take time to prepare -- time that's hard to find
if both parents work full time to pay the bills. This gap between the waistlines
of the rich, middle class and poor is only going to get worse with rising food
prices. It's also a crime that many hospitals, like shopping malls, now contain
a McDonald's, where patients with Type 2 diabetes, cancer and other serious
illnesses can gorge on fast food before and after they get treated for those
very diseases.
So I'm asking you: Why do you still tie in your movies with junk food and fast
food? I know that you and your corporate partners make millions from deals
with conglomerate food companies and fast-food chains. But do you really
need the extra cash at this point? Wouldn't it be better, in a corporate crusader
kind of way, to change course? Stop these deals, or partner with somebody
who thinks a little healthier?
I don't want to single out just movies. There's a ton of companies that use
characters and celebrities to peddle junk food. Check out this summary from
the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Being a sports fan, my favorite is
the one about Jason Giambi, who endorsed Pepsi by saying that drinking
several a day really "lifts him up." (Actually, I think it's safe to say that it was
more than Pepsi that lifted Jason's batting average during the 1990s.)
On the other hand, you are two of the most powerful and influential people in
the media today. Mr. Lucas, you've even been called the forefather of the
movie tie-in. So if you change, and do so publicly, others may well follow suit.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
About two years ago, Disney backed out of its long-term partnership with
McDonald's in part because of the issue of childhood obesity. Would you both
be willing to do the same?
If not, then perhaps a little truth in advertising, or in cinema, is in order. You
should show us how your characters would look if they ate the food that you
helped peddle. In that vein, you got Jabba the Hutt right. But Princess Leia in
her skimpy steel bikini with cellulite? Indiana Jones having to hit the brakes
during a car chase and find a glass of water so he can take his Lipitor? Now
that I think about it, wouldn't Viagra have been the best tie-in for the new
movie?
Humor aside, I ask you to consider the reality of childhood obesity. It's a
serious problem; it needs serious solutions. Doing your part would help more
than you might imagine.
Sincerely,
Rahul K. Parikh, M.D.
-- By Rahul K. Parikh, M.D.
**Hyperlinks contained in this article have been removed. See document on the web for
links.
Source: http://www.salon.com/mwt/vital_signs/2008/05/21/indiana_jones_obesity/
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
“Open Letter to a Young Negro”
Blackthink, Chapter 10
—Jesse Owens
[p. 181]
Chapter 10: Open a Letter to a
Young Negro
10: Open Letter to a Young Negro
"Tell them how the good times between us were."
-- Luz Long
"All black men are insane. . . . Almost any living thing would quickly go mad under
the unrelenting exposure to the climate created and reserved for black men in a
white racist society. . . . I am secretly pleased about the riots. Nothing would please
the tortured man inside me more than seeing bigger and better riots every day."
Those words were spoken by Bob Teague to his young son in Letters to a Black Boy.
He wrote these letters to "alert" his son to "reality" so that the boy wouldn't "be
caught off guard -- unprepared and undone."
Are his words true?
[p. 182]
Does a black man have to be just about insane to exist in America?
Do all Negroes feel a deep twinge of pleasure every time we see a white man hurt
and a part of white society destroyed?
Is reality something so stinking terrible that it'll grab your heart out of your chest
with one hand and your manhood with the other if you don't meet it armed like a
Nazi storm trooper?
Bob Teague is no "militant." He's a constructive, accomplished journalist with a wife
and child. If he feels hate and fear, can you ever avoid feeling it?
Whether it's Uncle Tom or ranting rioter doing the talking today, you're told that
you'll have to be afraid and angry. The only difference is that one tells you to hold it
in and the other tells you to let it out. Life is going to be torture because you're a
Negro, they all say. They only differ on whether you should grin and bear it or take it
out on everyone else. But National Urban League official, Black Panther leader or any
of the in-betweens all seem to agree on one thing today: "We must organize around
our strongest bond -- our blackness."
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
Is that really our strongest bond? Isn't there something deeper, richer, better in this
world than the color of one's skin?
Let me tell you the answer to that. Let me prove it to you so strong and deep that
you'll taste it for all the days to come. Let me throw my arm around your shoulder
and walk you to where so much good is and where the only blackness worth fearing
is the black they're trying to color your soul.
Even though you weren't born for ten, maybe twenty
[p. 183]
years after, you've probably heard the story -- the story of the 1936 Olympics and
how I managed to come out with four gold medals. A lot of words have been written
about those medals and about the one for the broad jump in particular. Because it
was during that event that Hitler walked out on me and where, in anger, I
supposedly fouled on my first two jumps against his prize athlete, Luz Long. The
whole Olympics for me and, symbolically, for my country, seemed to rest on that
third jump.
Yes, a lot of words have been written about that day and the days that followed. And
they've almost been true, just as it's almost true that sometimes every black man
weakens a little and does hate the white man, just as it's almost true that reality is
tough at times and does make you want to weaken.
Yet, just like those "truths," what was written about me was only a half-truth without
some other more important words. I want to say them to you now.
I was up against it, but long before I came to the broad jump. Negroes had gone to
the Olympics before, and Negroes had won before. But so much more was expected
of me. Because this was the time of the most intense conflict between dictatorship
and freedom the world had ever known. Adolf Hitler was arming his country against
the entire world, and almost everyone sensed it. It was ironic that these last Olympic
Games before World War II was to split the earth were scheduled for Berlin, where
he would be the host. From the beginning, Hilter had perverted the games into a test
between two forms of government, just as he perverted almost everything else he
touched.
Almost everything else.
The broad jump preliminaries came before the finals of
[p. 184]
the other three events I was in -- the hundred-meter and two-hundred-meter dashes
and the relay. How I did in the broad jump would determine how I did in the entire
Olympics. For here was where I held a world record that no one had ever approached
before except one man: Luz Long, Hitler's best athlete.
Long, a tall, sandy-haired, perfectly built fellow (the ideal specimen of Hitler's "Aryan
supremacy" idea), had been known to jump over twenty-six feet in preparing for the
Games. No one knew for sure what he could really do because Hitler-kept him under
wraps. But stories had filtered out that he had gone as far as I had, farther than
anyone else in the world. I was used to hearing rumors like that and tried not to
think too much about it. Yet the first time I laid eyes on Long, I sensed that the
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
stories hadn't been exaggerated. After he took his first jump, I knew they hadn't.
This man was something. I'd have to set an Olympic record and by no small margin
to beat him.
It would be tough. August in Berlin was muggier than May in Ann Arbor or Columbus.
Yet the air was cool, and it was hard getting warmed up. The ground on the runway
to the broad jump pit wasn't the same consistency as that at home. Long was used
to it. I wasn't.
His first jump broke the Olympic record. In the trials!
Did it worry me a little? More than a little. He was on his home ground and didn't
seem susceptible to the pressure. In fact, he'd already done one thing I always tried
to do in every jumping event and race I ran: discourage the competition by getting
off to a better start.
Well, there was only one way to get back the psychological advantage. Right off the
bat I'd have to make a better jump than he did. I didn't want to do it that way -- it
[p. 185]
wasn't wise to use up your energy in preliminaries. Long could afford to showboat in
the trials. This was his only event, the one he'd been groomed for under Hitler for
years. I had to run three races besides, more than any other athlete on either team.
But I felt I had to make a showing right then. I measured off my steps from the
takeoff board and got ready. Suddenly an American newspaperman came up to me.
"Is it true, Jesse?" he said.
"Is what true?" I answered.
"That Hitler walked out on you? That he wouldn't watch you jump?"
I looked over at where the German ruler had been sitting. No one was in his box. A
minute ago he had been there. I could add two and two. Besides, he'd already
snubbed me once by refusing the Olympic Committee's request to have me sit in
that box.
This was too much. I was mad, hate-mad, and it made me feel wild. I was going to
show him. He'd hear about this jump, even if he wouldn't see it!
I felt the energy surging into my legs and tingling in the muscles of my stomach as it
never had before. I began my run, first almost in slow motion, then picking up
speed, and finally faster and faster until I was moving almost as fast as I did during
the hundred-yard dash. Suddenly the takeoff board was in front of me. I hit it, went
up, up high -- so high I knew I was outdoing Long and every man who ever jumped.
But they didn't measure it. I heard the referee shout "Foul!" in my ears before I even
came down. I had run too fast, been concentrating too much on a record and not
enough on form. I'd gone half a foot over the takeoff board.
[p. 186]
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
All the newspaper stories and books I've ever seen about that Olympic broad jump
had me fouling on the next of my three tries, because the writers felt that made the
story more dramatic. The truth is I didn't foul at all on my second jump.
I played it safe. Too safe. I was making absolutely sure I didn't foul. All right, I said
to myself. Long had won his point. But who would remember the preliminaries
tomorrow? It was the finals that counted. I had to make sure I got into those finals. I
wasn't going to let him psyche me out of it. I wasn't going to let Hitler anger me into
throwing away what I'd worked ten years for.
So I ran slower, didn't try to get up as high during my jump. Hell, I said to myself, if
I can do twenty-six feet trying my best, I sure ought to be able to do a foot less
without much effort. That would be enough to qualify for the finals, and there I'd
have three fresh jumps again. That's where I'd take apart Luz Long.
It's funny how sometimes you can forget the most important things. I forgot that I
wasn't the kind of guy who could ever go halfway at anything. More than that, no
sprinter or jumper can really take just a little bit off the top. It's like taking a little bit
off when you're working a mathematical equation or flying an airplane through a
storm. You need the total concentration and total effort from beginning to end. One
mistake and you're dead. More than that, my whole style was geared to giving
everything I had, to using all my speed and energy every second of what I was
doing. Once or twice I'd tried a distance race just for kicks. I was miserable at it. If I
couldn't go all out all the time, I was no good.
So my second jump was no good.
[p. 187]
I didn't foul. But I didn't go far enough to qualify, either. It wasn't just Long and
Owens in the event anymore. There were dozens of other participants from other
countries, and a bunch of them -- too many -- were now ahead of me.
I had one jump left.
It wasn't enough.
I looked around nervously, panic creeping into every cell of my body. On my right
was Hitler's box. Empty. His way of saying I was a member of an inferior race who
would give an inferior performance. In back of that box was a stadium containing
more than a hundred thousand people, almost all Germans, all wanting to see me
fail. On my right was the broad jump official. Was he fair? Yeah. But a Nazi. If it
came to a close call, a hairline win-or-lose decision, deep down didn't he, too, want
to see me lose? Worst of all, a few feet away was Luz Long, laughing with a German
friend of his, unconcerned, confident, Aryan.
They were against me. Every one of them. I was back in Oakville again. I was a
nigger.
Did I find some hidden resource deep within me, rise to the occasion and qualify for
the finals -- as every account of those Olympics says?
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
The hell I did.
I found a hidden resource, but it wasn't inside of me. It was in the most unlikely and
revealing place possible.
Time was growing short. One by one the other jumpers had been called and taken
their turns. What must have been twenty minutes or half an hour suddenly seemed
like only seconds. I was going to be called next. I wasn't ready. I wanted to shout it
-- I wasn't ready!
Then the panic was total. I had to walk in a little circle to keep my legs from shaking,
hold my jaw closed tight to
[p. 188]
stop my teeth from chattering. I didn't know what to do. I was lost, with no Charles
Riley to turn to. If I gave it everything I had, I'd foul again. If I played it safe, I
wouldn't go far enough to qualify. And this is what it all comes down to, I thought to
myself. Ten years and 4,500 miles to make a nigger of myself and not even reach
the finals!
And then I couldn't even think anymore. I started to feel faint, began to gasp for
breath. Instinctively, I turned away from everyone so they couldn't see me. But I
couldn't help hearing them. The thousands of different noises of the stadium
congealed into one droning hum -- ch-ch-ch-ch ch-ch-ch-ch, louder and louder in my
ears. It was as though they were all chanting it. Hatefully, gleefully. Ch-ch-ch-ch.
Ch-ch-ch-ch. CH-CH-CH-CH.
Suddenly I felt a firm hand on my arm. I turned and looked into the sky-blue eyes of
my worst enemy.
"Hello, Jesse Owens," he said. "I am Luz Long."
I nodded. I couldn't speak.
"Look," he said. "There is no time to waste with manners. What has taken your
goat?"
I had to smile a little in spite of myself -- hearing his mixed-up American idiom.
"Aww, nothing," I said. "You know how it is."
He was silent for a few seconds. "Yes," he said finally, "I know how it is. But I also
know you are a better jumper than this. Now, what has taken your goat?"
I laughed out loud this time. But I couldn't tell him, him above all. I glanced over at
the broad jump pit. I was about to be called.
Luz didn't waste words, even if he wasn't sure of which ones to use.
[p. 189]
"Is is what Reichskenzler Hitler did?" he asked.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
I was thunderstruck that he'd say it. "I --" I started to answer. But I didn't know
what to say.
"I see," he said, "Look, we talk about that later. Now you must jump. And you must
qualify."
"But how?" I shot back.
"I have thought," he said. "You are like I am. You must do it one hundred percent.
Correct?" I nodded. "Yet you must be sure not to foul." I nodded again, this time in
frustration. And as I did, I heard the loudspeaker call my name.
Luz talked quickly. "Then you do both things, Jesse. You remeasure your steps. You
take off six inches behind the foul board. You jump as hard as you can. But you need
not fear to foul."
All at one the panic emptied out of me like a cloudburst.
Of course!
I jogged over to the runway. I remeasured my steps again. Then I put a towel
parallel to the place half a foot before the takeoff board from where I wanted to
jump.
I walked back to the starting spot. I began my run, hit the place beside the towel,
shot up into the air like a bird and qualified by more than a foot.
The next day I went into the finals of the broad jump and waged the most intense
competition of my life with Luz Long. He broke his own personal record and the
Olympic record, too, and then I -- thanks to him -- literally flew to top that. Hours
before I had won the hundred meters in 10.3, and then afterward the 200 meters in
20.7 and helped our team to another gold medal and record in the relay.
During the evenings that framed those days, I would sit with Luz in his space or
mine in the Olympic village, and we would form an even more intense friendship. We
were
[p. 190]
sometimes as different inside as we looked on the outside. But the things that were
the same were much more important to us.
Luz had a wife and a young child, too. His was a son. We talked about everything
from athletics to art, but mostly we talked about the future. He didn't say it in so
many words, but he seemed to know that war was coming and he would have to be
in it. I didn't know then whether the United States would be involved, but I did
realize that this earth was getting to be a precarious place for a young man trying to
make his way. And, like me, even if war didn't come, Luz wasn't quite sure how he
would make the transformation from athletics to life once the Olympics were over.
We talked, of course, about Hitler and what he was doing. Luz was torn between two
feelings. He didn't believe in Aryan supremacy any more than he believed the moon
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
was made of German cheese, and he was disturbed at the direction in which Hitler
was going. Yet he loved his country and felt a loyalty to fight for it if it came to that,
if only for the sake of his wife and son. I couldn't understand how he could go along
with Hitler under any circumstances, though, and I told him so.
He wasn't angry when I said it. He just held out his hands and nodded. He didn't
explain because he didn't understand completely himself, just as I couldn't explain to
him how the United States tolerated the race situation. So we sat talking about these
things, some nights later than two Olympic performers should have. We didn't come
up with any final answers then, only with a unique friendship. For we were simply
two uncertain young men in an uncertain world. One day we would learn the truth,
but in the
[p. 191]
meantime, we would make some mistakes. Luz's mistake would cost him too much.
Yet we didn't make the mistake of not seeing past each other's skin color to what
was within. If we couldn't apply that principle to things on a world scale, we still
could live it fully in our own way in the few days we had together, the only days
together we would ever have.
We made them count. We crammed as much understanding and fun as we could into
every hour. We didn't even stop when we got out on the track. Luz was at my side
cheering me on for every event, except the broad jump, of course. There he tried to
beat me for all he was worth, but nature had put just a little more spring into my
body and I went a handful of inches farther.
After he failed in his last attempt to beat me, he leaped out of the pit and raced to
my side. To congratulate me. Then he walked toward the stands pulling me with him
while Hitler was glaring, held up my hand and shouted to the gigantic crowd, "Jesse
Owens! Jesse Owens!"
The stadium picked it up. "Jesse Owens!" they responded -- though it sounded more
like Jaz-eee-ooh-wenz. Each time I went for a gold medal and a record in the next
three days, the crowd would greet me with "Jaz-eee-ooh-wenz! Jaz-eee-ooh-wenz!"
I'd had people cheering me before, but never like this. Many of those men would end
up killing my countrymen, and mine theirs, but the truth was that they didn't want
to, and would only do it because they "had" to. Thanks to Luz, I learned that the
false leaders and sick movements of this earth must be stopped in the beginning, for
they turn humanity against itself.
[p. 192]
Luz and I vowed to write each other after the Games, and we did. For three years we
corresponded regularly, though the letters weren't always as happy as our talks at
the Olympics had been. Times were hard for me and harder for Luz. He had had to
go into the German army, away from his wife and son. His letters began to bear
strange postmarks. Each letter expressed more and more doubt about what he was
doing. But he felt he had no other choice. He was afraid for his family if he left the
army. And how could they leave Germany? It was Luz's world, just as the South had
been the only world for so many Negroes.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
The last letter I got from him was in 1939. "Things become more difficult," he said,
"and I am afraid, Jesse. Not just the thought of dying. It is that I may die for the
wrong thing. But whatever might become of me, I hope only that my wife and son
will stay alive. I am asking you who are my only friend outside of Germany, to
someday visit them if you are able, to tell them about why I had to do this, and how
the good times between us were. Luz."
I answered right away, but my letter came back. So did the next, and the one after.
I inquired about Luz through a dozen channels. Nothing. A war was on. Finally, when
it was over, I was able to get in touch with Luz's wife and find out what had
happened to him. He was buried somewhere in the African desert.
Luz Long had been my competition in the Olympics. He was a white man -- a Nazi
white man who fought to destroy my country.
I loved Luz Long, as much as my own brothers. I still love Luz Long.
I went back to Berlin a few years ago and met his son,
[p. 193]
another fine young man. And I told Karl about his father. I told him that, though fate
may have thrown us against one another, Luz rose above it, rose so high that I was
left with not only four gold medals I would never have had, but with the priceless
knowledge that the only bond worth anything between human beings is their
humanness.
Today there are times when that bond doesn't seem to exist. I know. I felt the same
way before my third jump at the 1936 Olympics, as well as a thousand other times.
There've been many moments when I did feel like hating the white man, all white
men, felt like giving in to fearful reality once and for all.
But I've learned those moments aren't the real me. And what's true of me is true of
most men I've met. My favorite speech in a movie is the scene in High Noon when
Gary Cooper, alone and hunted by the four sadistic killers, momentarily weakens and
saddles a horse to get out of town. Like everyone else, his deputy wants him to do it
and helps him. But Cooper finally won't get up on the horse.
"Go on!" his deputy shouts. "Do it!"
"I can't do it," Cooper says.
"You were going to a minute ago!"
"I was tired," Cooper tells him. "A man thinks a lotta things when he's tired. But I
can't do it."
We all get tired. But know yourself, know your humanness, and you'll know why you
can never finally throw in with the bigotry of blackthink. You must not be a Negro.
You must be a human being first and last, if not always.
P. Donahue
Bridging the Gap Open Institute, July 2008
San Antonio Writing Project
Reach back, Harry Edwards. Reach back inside yourself and grapple for that extra
ounce of guts, that last cell of manhood even you didn't know you had, that
something
[p. 194]
that let you stand the pain and beat the ghetto and go on to break the records. Use
it now to be totally honest with yourself.
For when the chips are really down, you can either put your skin first or you can go
with what's inside it.
Sure, there'll be times when others try to keep you from being human. But
remember that prejudice isn't new. It goes way back, just as slavery goes way back,
to before there ever was an America. Men have always had to meet insanity without
losing their own minds.
That doesn't mean you should stand still for bigotry. Fight it. Fight it for all you're
worth. But fight your own prejudice, too. Don't expect perfection in your white
brother until there's not an ounce of blackthink left in you. And remember that the
hardest thing for all of us isn't to fight, but to stop and think. Black, think . . . is the
opposite of . . . blackthink.
I'm not going to play any Establishment games with you. My way isn't its own
reward. Self-knowledge, getting rid of the bitterness, a better life are the rewards.
So be a new kind of "militant," an immoderate moderate, one hundred percent
involved, but as a man, not a six-foot hunk of brown wrapping paper, be an
extremist when it comes to your ideals, a moderate when it comes to the raising of
your fist.
Live every day deep and strong. Don't pass up your Olympics and your Luz Long.
Don't let the blackthinkers sell you out for a masquerade rumble where the real you
can never take off the mask.
You see, black isn't beautiful.
White isn't beautiful.
Skin-deep is never beautiful.
Owens, Jesse, 1913-1980, Chapter 10: Open a Letter to a Young Negro in
Blackthink: My Life as a Black Man and White Man. Neimark, Paul G.. New York,
NY: William Morrow & Co., 1970, pp. 181-194 [Bibliographic Details] [1970]
S8198-D011