Letter Writing

Letter writing introduces students to the use of writing to communicate to others. Young students excel in the informal use of oral language. Letter writing encourages students to use conversational language in written communication.

Purposes

• to encourage students to communicate with others in writing
• to provide opportunities for students to apply their understanding of oral language to the process of writing
• to develop students' awareness of writing for varied audiences and purposes
• to acquaint students with the basic format of friendly or informal letters

Procedure

• Introduce letter writing as a collaborative writing activity.
• With students, decide the purpose for the letter and the recipient.
• Suggest that letters may be written to parents, other classes, principals or teachers, classmates who are ill or have moved away, school caretakers, and community groups or services.
• Brainstorm and record ideas for letter contents.
• On an overhead transparency, chalkboard or chart paper, structure brainstormed ideas into letter format, repeating the sentences as they are written.
• Read the completed letter together with students and make any necessary revisions.
• Copy, or have students copy, the drafted letter onto letter-size paper.
• Mail or deliver the letter to the recipient.
• Keep a copy of the letter in a class diary, scrapbook or correspondence file.
• Provide opportunities for individual letter writing.

Assessment

• Observe students' enthusiasm to communicate to others in writing.
• Note students' participation in collaborative writing tasks.
• Monitor individual efforts to compose messages and letters to others.
• Date and file copies of letters written by students in students' writing folders.

Teacher Note:

• Help students understand that letters represent meaningful communication with a genuine audience.
• Encourage emerging writers to combine drawings and print in their letters.
• Encourage students to share experiences, thoughts, comments and questions with their audience.
  

What Students Learn about Language

• Purposes and audiences determine what is written and how it is written.
• Writing is used to communicate with others for various purposes.
• Knowledge of conventional spelling and syntactic patterns, use of punctuation and capitalization, and legible handwriting increase the effectiveness of written communication.

Adaptations and Applications

• Students can create greeting cards, invitations and thank-you notes.
• Messages and letters to classmates can be encouraged by providing individual mail boxes.
• Teachers could display a written message to the class every morning.
• Class messages could be structured as modified cloze passages.
• E.S.L. students in the emerging phase of language development may need to write in their first language, then work with a partner to translate the letter into English.
• Students can practice writing business letters, such as letters requesting information to assist research in all subject areas.