Letter Writing Co-Op Class

[mom31257]

I'm going to be teaching a letter writing class to a group of 3rd/4th graders in our co-op next year. Would you take a look at this possible list of topics to teach and assignments? The group has had no writing class at co-op before, and I'm not sure the level of all the kids. The parents were all excited about the idea and are ready to start doing some writing there since it has been mostly enrichment classes thus far. 

 

* Purpose of writing letters, story book(s) which have letters in them, possibly a famous letter

* Types of letters

* Parts of a letter and addressing envelopes

* Personal narrative: write someone telling about summer experiences

* Pen Pal: find a pen pal and write all year 

* Thanksgiving letter to someone telling why thankful for that person

* Christmas gift thank you notes

* Business letter requesting tourism information from different states 

* Persuasive letter to a local or state politician suggesting some change

* Oral speech sharing what they learned from their pen pals

 

 

[happi duck]

I love real mail!!

 

I haven't looked at it in years but I remember liking the book The Jolly Postman. It has letters to read that, iirc, reference fairy tale characters.

 

I think it would be nice to add something about stamps and let the kids design a stamp. They could write a paragraph about why what they chose should be honored with a stamp. (Give them a large stamp shape to work on, just like stamp artists work much larger at first.)

 

Imo, be thoughtful regarding pen pals. Some pen pals don't work out. It's depressing to be the kid with the dud... btdt. :( Are you organizing the pen pals? Will they be dependable to really write all year?

 

Maybe the oral presentation could be about their stamp design instead so that not so much is pen pal dependent, kwim?

 

Another idea is writing to a postmaster to request a postmark. (Maybe with parts of a letter/addressing envelopes) You can send an addressed, stamp envelope *inside* another stamped envelope adressed to the Postmaster in a town with a fun name. They will postmark the envelope and mail it.

[happi duck]

Regarding the Thanksgiving letter:

Sometimes at that age writing about a person can be hard. Imo, I'd consider expanding the assignment to writing to a person or place or company that they are thankful for.

 

When my kids were young we made a "thankful tree" and on Thanksgiving picked things from the tree for sending thank you notes. It might have been a person, or a museum, or the shelter where we adopted our cat, or the company that made a favorite toy, or an author etc.

 

Just my two cents!

[happi duck]

The National Postal Museum website has some curriculum and classroom resources.

[mom31257]

Thank you for all those wonderful ideas, happi duck!! I'm definitely heading back to the drawing board!

Edited March 5, 2017 by mom31257

[athomeontheprairie]

Will the class go over Christmas? If not, I wouldn't do Christmas thank you's.

You could talk about when you need to send thank you cards, and if they haven't received a gift that would warrant a card, they could think about a time someone food something nice for them and write a card thanking them for that.

[Lori D.]

I'm going to be teaching a letter writing class to a group of 3rd/4th graders in our co-op next year. Would you take a look at this possible list of topics to teach and assignments? The group has had no writing class at co-op before, and I'm not sure the level of all the kids. The parents were all excited about the idea and are ready to start doing some writing there since it has been mostly enrichment classes thus far. 

 

* Purpose of writing letters, story book(s) which have letters in them, possibly a famous letter

* Types of letters

* Parts of a letter and addressing envelopes

* Personal narrative: write someone telling about summer experiences

* Pen Pal: find a pen pal and write all year 

* Thanksgiving letter to someone telling why thankful for that person

* Christmas gift thank you notes

* Business letter requesting tourism information from different states 

* Persuasive letter to a local or state politician suggesting some change

* Oral speech sharing what they learned from their pen pals

 

I LOVE your class idea, and all of your assignment/topic ideas. :)

 

My thoughts:

 

- Having had a struggling writer, I don't recommend having any in-class writing that has to be created on the spot. It is very humiliating for a student who struggles with spelling, the physical act of handwriting, or with getting thoughts from their brain out onto paper to have to do writing in a group situation which makes it clear to everyone this is the student's area of struggle or where the student is behind. Perhaps make the assignments "optional to do at home"? And then in class have students verbally contribute what they would write and *you* do the actual writing on the whiteboard? That also allows you to model things like margins, spacing, where a date or heading goes, etc.

 

- About the only exception I can think of to the no writing in class would be the day you do addressing the envelope. Even struggling writers can usually manage copy work. So that would be the other thing that would be needed on that day -- the students need to bring in their own address on an index card, so they can copy it (because many students likely do NOT know their own address), and then on another index card, the address of who they will be sending the letter to. So that could be a take-home assignment: explain what is needed and during the week at home, parents help the child assemble the 2 addresses, and the next week the students bring that in to class...

 

- That brings me to another related thought... If you don't use the class time for actual writing, I'm having a hard time envisioning that the weekly topic will last long enough to fill the class period without using the bulk of the time for the students to actually do the writing... Hmmm, maybe instead of a no in-class writing policy, make it very clear that there WILL be writing in class each week and what exactly that will look like, so families can decide if their struggling writers could manage that or not. Maybe you could make it clear that you'll walk around and help with spelling or any other questions the children have as they write??

 

- Perhaps pick a longer book that involves letter-writing (Sarah Plain and Tall, or Dear Mr. Henshaw, or I Will Always Write Back), and read out loud a chapter a week in class...?

 

Ideas of books with letters / letter-writing:

- The Best Children's Books: Teaching Letter Writing with Children's Books -- lots of ideas of books with/about letter writing

- Amazon Listmania: Picture Books That Inspire Letter Writing -- books with characters writing letters

 

Ideas for other assignments/topics:

- draw names and each student writes a letter to their "secret class pen pal"

- letter of encouragement to deployed military personnel

- letter of appreciation to a living person that the student looks up to

- an invitation for a fictional party or event -- a special kind of letter, that includes special kinds of info

 

Teaching resources:

- Teacher Link: Nancy Hussey -- lists several books with letter writing as part of the book

- Reading Rockets: Introduction to Letter Writing -- a reprint of an article from My Child Magazine; some good ideas for types of letters

Edited March 5, 2017 by Lori D.

[mom31257]

I LOVE your class idea, and all of your assignment/topic ideas. :)

 

My thoughts:

 

- Having had a struggling writer, I don't recommend having any in-class writing that has to be created on the spot. It is very humiliating for a student who struggles with spelling, the physical act of handwriting, or with getting thoughts from their brain out onto paper to have to do writing in a group situation which makes it clear to everyone this is the student's area of struggle or where the student is behind. Perhaps make the assignments "optional to do at home"? And then in class have students verbally contribute what they would write and *you* do the actual writing on the whiteboard? That also allows you to model things like margins, spacing, where a date or heading goes, etc.

 

- About the only exception I can think of to the no writing in class would be the day you do addressing the envelope. Even struggling writers can usually manage copy work. So that would be the other thing that would be needed on that day -- the students need to bring in their own address on an index card, so they can copy it (because many students likely do NOT know their own address), and then on another index card, the address of who they will be sending the letter to. So that could be a take-home assignment: explain what is needed and during the week at home, parents help the child assemble the 2 addresses, and the next week the students bring that in to class...

 

- That brings me to another related thought... If you don't use the class time for actual writing, I'm having a hard time envisioning that the weekly topic will last long enough to fill the class period without using the bulk of the time for the students to actually do the writing... Hmmm, maybe instead of a no in-class writing policy, make it very clear that there WILL be writing in class each week and what exactly that will look like, so families can decide if their struggling writers could manage that or not. Maybe you could make it clear that you'll walk around and help with spelling or any other questions the children have as they write??

 

- Perhaps pick a longer book that involves letter-writing (Sarah Plain and Tall, or Dear Mr. Henshaw, or I Will Always Write Back), and read out loud a chapter a week in class...?

 

Ideas of books with letters / letter-writing:

- The Best Children's Books: Teaching Letter Writing with Children's Books -- lots of ideas of books with/about letter writing

- Amazon Listmania: Picture Books That Inspire Letter Writing -- books with characters writing letters

 

Ideas for other assignments/topics:

- draw names and each student writes a letter to their "secret class pen pal"

- letter of encouragement to deployed military personnel

- letter of appreciation to a living person that the student looks up to

- an invitation for a fictional party or event -- a special kind of letter, that includes special kinds of info

 

Teaching resources:

- Teacher Link: Nancy Hussey -- lists several books with letter writing as part of the book

- Reading Rockets: Introduction to Letter Writing -- a reprint of an article from My Child Magazine; some good ideas for types of letters

 

Lori, THANK YOU for such great resources and ideas to think about!

 

The class will only be 30 minutes and meet every other week. The writing assignments will be done at home during the two weeks between classes. 

 

I hadn't thought about the struggling writers, but I plan to put the kids in groups with an adult helper to do some exercises and practice in class so they see and experience some models without having to do the actual assignment there. That would help those kids. 

 

I also plan to make some puzzles and hands-on games to practice things like the parts of a letter and addressing envelopes. 

[mom31257]

Will the class go over Christmas? If not, I wouldn't do Christmas thank you's.

You could talk about when you need to send thank you cards, and if they haven't received a gift that would warrant a card, they could think about a time someone food something nice for them and write a card thanking them for that.

 

We take Christmas off but start back in very early January, so I don't think it would be too late. I would tell the parents to make sure and help the kids keep a list of gifts they received. 

[happi duck]

I like the idea of "secret pals" that you assign. Then if someone isn't getting a reply you can deal with it.

 

For the thank you note assignment you could hand out wrapped gifts at the end of the day and they can open it at home and write you a thank you note. I'm thinking something small but cute. Oriental Trading has stuff like variety packs of rubber duckies.

[Lori D.]

The class will only be 30 minutes and meet every other week. The writing assignments will be done at home during the two weeks between classes. 

 

I hadn't thought about the struggling writers, but I plan to put the kids in groups with an adult helper to do some exercises and practice in class so they see and experience some models without having to do the actual assignment there. That would help those kids. 

 

I also plan to make some puzzles and hands-on games to practice things like the parts of a letter and addressing envelopes. 

 

Oo, the puzzles and hands-on games are more great ideas! :)

 

Some more ideas here: Teaching with TLC: Fun Ways to Teach Letter Writing

A free printable here: This Reading Mama: Teaching Kids How to Write a Letter

 

 

I didn't want to sound like a "Debbie Downer"... But having had a struggling writer/student with LDs sure has changed my perspective about using certain skills in co-op classes. In 3rd grade, I think my struggling writer DS could manage about 2-3 sentences, each with about 3-4 words (and he worked to figure out the shortest words possible, because spelling AND the physical act of handwriting were so hard for him.) I don't ask even my middle/high school students to write in class because every year I have 2-3 students (grades 7, 8, 9, 10...) who are dyslexic or have other LDs and writing issues, and they just would not be able to do it. :(

 

Having 2 adults in the class should help. And modeling -- orally, with you writing on a white board. And also modeling with "fill in the blank" templates could help! When I was digging around for ideas of resources for you, I saw one ELS teacher uses fill in the blank models when teaching writing invitations.

 

This Pinterest link has some possibly useful templates, such as a letter writing checklist, or a list of suggested friendly greetings... and others. :)

 

You always come up with such fun co-op class ideas. Hope you have a SUPER class! Warmest regards, Lori D.

[Lori D.]

 

* Oral speech sharing what they learned from their pen pals

 

PS -- and in case some pen pals don't pan out, maybe the oral speech towards the end of the semester (year) could be sharing about ANY letter they received -- from the place of business, or a response to the Thanksgiving letter, or the personal letter, etc. Esp. if they write to a sports figure or politician or favorite author asking a question, there is a good chance they'll get a signed photo or something in response, that they could then share with the class. Or, if any of the families support children with Compassion International, they could share about writing to the child the family supports, and a letter the child from the foreign country wrote to the family...

 

 

Also, I thought your students might find this young man inspiring: Toby Little, who decided at age 5 to write letters to people in every country of the world. He is 9 years old now, and continuing on his quest, with 474 answers to his 1098 letters sent. He has written to all 193 countries and all 50 US states. :)

 

His website: Writing to the World

And the book with the story of his quest: Dear World: How Are You?

Edited March 6, 2017 by Lori D.

[athomeontheprairie]

Op, I'm not trying to hijack your thread.

 

Lori, can i ask a question? If the focus on a class was writing why would you enroll a child that is unable to write? Or when talking about the high school students, did you mean writing DURING class is too hard, but they are able to complete assignments outside of class?

[Ellie]

Understanding Writing teaches children to write by having them write letters. :-) If you can find a copy of it, perhaps you might get some good ideas from it.

 

One of the things it does is have the children think about the people to whom they might write, because they will write differently to their friends than they would to their grandparents. And it teaches children to narrow down their topics so that they describe one thing well and in-depth rather than a few details about many things.

[Lori D.]

Op, I'm not trying to hijack your thread.

 

Lori, can i ask a question? If the focus on a class was writing why would you enroll a child that is unable to write? Or when talking about the high school students, did you mean writing DURING class is too hard, but they are able to complete assignments outside of class?

 

I p.m-ed you a response. :)

Edited March 6, 2017 by Lori D.

[mom31257]

Thanks, Lori! You are always so helpful, and I appreciate all you do to share resources and ideas on this board. I actually got the idea for this class from here three years ago. Someone posted that they had been asked to teach a writing letters class at a co-op and needed ideas. I loved the idea and sat down and came up with a lot of these ideas, and I posted some potential lesson plans. I've wanted to teach the class ever since, but I haven't had time with other classes I've been teaching. The window of opportunity opened up for next year, so I went right on through it! 

 

I've got another class to plan, so I'll be back soon with another thread. It will be an introduction to writing for 1st-2nd graders.