Organ donation

Organ donation

Pencil and paper
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Further Resources
This task is about writing an argument, discussing, and defending your point of view.

Your task is to write an argument on the topic of organ donation.

You may argue for or against organ donation, or express views supporting both sides of the argument. 

You may use the information and opinions below to help you develop your argument.

"Seven year old Nicholas Green was shot in a botched robbery while travelling in Italy. His parents donated his organs and seven Italian recipients benefited..."

"One year the organs from our 40 donors resulted in approximately 200 transplant procedures (68 kidneys, 25 hearts, 23 lungs, 33 livers, and up to 50 cornea, heart valve or bone transplants) and as many happy recipients."

"I believe an individual's spirituality and dignity are not things the state or others have a right to subsume or demand. And this applies to your body after you're dead."

"People are dying on waiting lists, their need is great."

"The overwhelming majority of people – about 350 – on the transplant list are waiting for kidneys..."

"People have strong attachments to people they love. This doesn't stop the moment they die. If we ride over that, then we are debasing something about our humanity and spirituality. The human body is more than just goods to be disposed of, like a boat or a Mercedes..."
surgery

If you would like to find out about the structure and language features of an argument, ask your teacher for the checklist, Writing an argument - Learning intention guide.

Task administration: 
Alongside this task, students use the Writing an argument - Learning intention guide to scaffold their writing.
For the e-asTTle exemplars, rubic, and student exemplars, go to http://e-asttle.tki.org.nz/Teacher-resources/Marking-resources-for-e-asTTle-writing .
 
Copyright: 
Text source: 'To Give or Not to Give', by Jenny Chamberlain, North & South, March 2004, reproduced by permission of the publisher.
surgery
Image source: US Department of Defense, Wikipedia (Public domain).
Level:
5
Curriculum info: 
English, Creating meaning, Writing
Key Competencies: 
Using language, symbols, and texts
Keywords: 
argument, point of view, debating, opinion, structure and language
Description of task: 
This transactional writing resource requires students to express their views about organ donation.
Curriculum Links: 
Links to the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing:
This resource helps to identify students’ ability to:
  • choose effective content, language, and text structure
  • generate content that is relevant to the task
as described in the Literacy Learning Progressions for Writing at: http://www.literacyprogressions.tki.org.nz/The-Structure-of-the-Progressions.
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with
Creating texts to influence others, sets 4-5
Writing meaningful text: text features, sets 5-7
within the Writing Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
For students to self or peer assess this task, use the Assessment Checklist: Writing an argument - Learning intention guide.