Analyzing a Letter About Ford Pardoning Nixon

Suggested Teaching Instructions

Begin the activity in a full-class setting and ask students to try to decipher information about the author, including age, location, and purpose for writing. Ask students to focus on the details to try to answer these questions to teach effective document analysis.

Ask students what they think is written behind the black spots. What kind of event do they think happened for Anthony to write this kind of letter?

Finally, students can use the clues they have found in their analysis to form a hypothesis about what specific event happened.

When students have shared their answers, share with them that a third-grade student named Anthony Ferreira wrote this letter to President Gerald Ford in 1974 regarding the pardon of Richard Nixon.