Analyzing a Student’s Letter about the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill

This activity can be used as an introduction to civic participation in government, or as an introduction to a unit on the environment. For grades 3-5. Approximate time needed is 30 minutes.

Students can work individually or in pairs; or you can choose to present the activity to the entire class and analyze the document together, using the questions for class discussion.

Students will be asked to look at the drawing of sea otters and read through a three-page letter written by second grader for a school project. Kelli Middlestead, from Franklin School in Burlingame, California, asked the Alaskan Regional Director of Fish and Wildlife Service, Walter Stieglitz, to clean up the Exxon Oil Spill. They will answer questions about the author, recipient, and author’s intent, following the framework for document analysis:

• Meet the document.
• Observe its parts.
• Try to make sense of it.
• Use it as historical evidence.

Following the analysis, students should click on “When You’re Done” and respond to the following:

• Do you think that other kids have written letters similar to this one about other events that have happened?
• What other kinds of events do you think kids might write to the Government about?

Proceed with a class discussion about when and why citizens might write to their Government.

Students may want to know more about the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. You can find a summary on the website of the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency).