Jonas's Community Letter Worksheet
📝 Part 1: Understanding PEER Structure
You are Jonas from The Giver! You want to write a letter to community leaders about the problems in your society. Use the PEER structure to organise your ideas.
1. What does PEER stand for? Fill in the blanks:
P = ________________
E = ________________
E = ________________
R = ________________
📖 Part 2: Example PEER Paragraph
Read this example paragraph from Jonas:
Point: Our community's practice of "releasing" people is deeply wrong.
Example: When I watched my father release the newchild twin, I saw that release actually means killing innocent people.
Explanation: This shows that our community has been lying to us about what release really means, and we are unknowingly supporting murder.
Relate: If we continue this practice, we will keep destroying lives and living a lie that goes against basic human values.
2. Circle the sentence starters used in each part of PEER:
"Our community's practice..."
"When I watched..."
"This shows that..."
"If we continue..."
💡 Part 3: Planning Your PEER Paragraph
3. Choose your main point. What problem in Jonas's community will you write about?
No emotions or feelings allowed
People don't get to choose their jobs
Families are assigned, not chosen
The practice of "release"
No colour or music in daily life
4. POINT: Write your main argument. Use these sentence starters:
Choose one: "The most serious problem in our community is..." OR "Our community needs to change because..." OR "I believe that..."
5. EXAMPLE: What specific example from the book supports your point?
Start with: "For example, when..." OR "I remember when..." OR "In the book, Jonas..."
6. EXPLANATION: Explain why your example proves your point.
Start with: "This shows that..." OR "This proves..." OR "This demonstrates..."
7. RELATE: Connect to bigger ideas or consequences.
Start with: "If this continues..." OR "This matters because..." OR "We must change this so that..."
✍️ Part 4: Write Your PEER Paragraph
8. Now put it all together! Write your complete PEER paragraph as Jonas writing to community leaders:
Dear Community Leaders,
Point: ________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Example: ____________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Explanation: _______________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Relate: ____________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________
Sincerely, Jonas
✅ Part 5: Self-Assessment Checklist
9. Check off each item when you've completed it:
I made a clear point about a problem in the community
I included a specific example from The Giver
I explained how my example supports my point
I connected my ideas to bigger consequences
I used appropriate sentence starters
I wrote as Jonas speaking to community leaders
My paragraph flows logically from P-E-E-R
I checked my spelling and punctuation
10. What was the most challenging part of writing your PEER paragraph?
11. How could you improve your paragraph?
