Using Weekly Letter Writing In the Classroom

Guest blog post by Mary from Teaching With a Mountain View.

I vividly remember my first day student teaching... not the details of what I was teaching or the clothes I was wearing, but the way my cooperating teacher captivated her students. She handed them their first homework assignment— writing a letter in response to a letter she had written to them—and explained that it would be a weekly assignment. They groaned, but she didn’t miss a beat. “You’re going to grow to love this!” she told them. They trusted her, and she couldn’t have been more right.

Since that year, I have always written weekly letters to my students and required that they respond to me. It has become a part of our weekly homework routine, and it is the one thing I most look forward to grading every single week. It builds community among the class, my students (and their parents) get to know me, I get to know my students, it is an excellent way to review material from the week or let students get creative, and kids learn to love writing in a totally nonthreatening environment. 

How It Works 

Every Sunday evening, I curl up on the couch with my laptop and write a letter to my students. I do a quick recap of anything entertaining from my weekend (kids love to know you’re human, too!), and I may ask them to share something about their life with me. Then, I give them a prompt or two that they must answer in a letter back to me. 

For example, if we focused on a specific character trait the previous week, I would ask them to give me examples of how they embodied that trait this week. When we were studying regions of the United States, part of their letter back to me would require them to tell me where in the world they would go if they could go anywhere. 

Typically, I would give them each a copy of the letter on Monday morning, and they would turn in their responses (in letter format) by Thursday. At the beginning of the year, we spent time reviewing the format and conventions of a letter.

You Can Do It!

I know what you are thinking: This sounds like a huge amount of work. I promise, it’s not! It took me less than 10 minutes each week to write my letter. You could even assign a monthly letter if weekly sounds overwhelming, or if you have younger students.

When my teammates got on board with letter writing, we would take turns writing the assignment part of the letter and just add our own introduction. I would also jot down topics all week so that it wouldn’t take me long to write my letter when it came time. I tried to include different types of writing (persuasive, informative, descriptive, narrative) throughout the year. My two all-time favorite prompts were the one where students had to argue for or against a weekend of shopping and the one where they had to come up with 5 pieces of advice that started with “Never” and 5 pieces of advice that started with “Always.”

Here are some topic starters or themes to get you thinking:

• Current Events, Sports, Holidays

• Funny or Bizarre Holidays and Dates

• Current Classroom Topics of Study

• Follow Up or Reflecting on Read Alouds or other Books

• Reading Responses 

• Weekend Recaps

Believe it or not, students look forward to receiving their new letter every Monday. They equally look forward to the (very brief) notes I jot on their return letters. In addition to writing short notes (Wow! Awesome! Did you really do that? I totally agree!) on their letters, I used a half-page grading rubric to hold them accountable for their writing. 

Letter-Writing Freebie
You can download the free grading rubric, example letters, an information sheet, and monthly topic ideas at my Teachers Pay Teacher store! 

Letter writing is a wonderful way to keep even the most reluctant writers writing and to hone those writing skills all year long! 

Mary teaches grades 3-5 in beautiful Colorado and has a passion for creating differentiated and engaging assignments. She creates teacher resources and blogs at Teaching With a Mountain View.

Take Procedural Writing to the Next "Step"

Guest post by Michael Friermood at The Thinker Builder.

I almost returned it before even getting started. They don’t tell you on the box, and certainly not on the display, that there are 37 steps to assemble the shoe cabinet that you are about to buy.

Seriously. Thirty-seven. I was still trying to wrap my mind around the $129 we just spent, and then I see the “this-is-going-to-take-all-afternoon” manual. It was a deflating start. Wouldn’t it be better with, oh I don’t know, maybe... 3 steps?

Okay, only three steps might sound a bit extreme, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. By grouping all of these tiny, detailed steps into three main steps, I would:

1. See a "big picture" view of the entire assembly process.
2. Not want to hurt myself with the enclosed Allen wrench.

I even started thinking it through for the shoe cabinet—Step One: Put the frame together. Step Two: Put the drawers together. Step Three: Install the cabinet. All thirty-seven little steps are still in there, now just neatly organized.

And so began the idea for a lesson on how to teach procedural writing by grouping smaller steps into three main steps. What’s interesting is how many other literacy strategies are embedded. Be on the lookout for skills like determining importance, summarizing, finding main ideas and details, and of course, sequencing.

In “practice-what-you-preach” style, here are the three main steps to teach the lesson on three-step procedural writing:

Step One: Teacher models the process. 
I first modeled the process of narrowing a list of steps. I used the topic, “How to Make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich.” Together, we brainstormed a laundry-list of all the steps needed to make the sandwich, even little ones like “unscrew the lid.” I was looking for about a dozen or so steps. I wrote them down sequentially on the left side of my paper.

On the right side, I showed students how to narrow down our list to just three steps. I began grouping similar steps together, making sure each task fit into one of the three groups. I then looked at each group, and decided on its main idea, which became the title of the step. It was important to explain that I didn’t need to give all the information in the main step’s title—I would still have space to add details to each main step when I wrote my final instructions in the mini-book.

Step Two: Students plan their instructions. 
Students then planned their own set of instructions. For my class, I was tying our writing into our science unit on plant growth, so my students had the topic, “How to Plant Our Seeds.” We had just completed the seed-planting process earlier in the week, so I felt like we would have a common understanding, and it was a good opportunity to use some of our new vocabulary.

As students were planning, I allowed them to brainstorm with their table groups their long list of steps for the left side of their planner. Then they worked with their science partner to narrow their list to the three main steps.

Step Three: Students create the foldable mini-book. 
The final phase was to take our procedural plans and use them to complete a cool little foldable mini-book, which just so happens to have spaces for three steps. As a whole class, I showed how to cut and assemble the mini-book, and as students were writing, I came around and stapled them—the books, not the children. (You could also attach the pages with a thin line of glue along the fold between the pages.)

In the mini-book, there are pages for all three main steps. On each of these pages, I required students to write their main step as the heading, add details and tips that fit the step, and draw a diagram of the most important part of the step.

You can pick up the materials for this lesson for free right HERE. And while you’re doing that, I’m going to take my shoes off and relax... after I put them away, of course.

Michael Friermood is a third grade teacher who encourages deep, bold thinking from his students. He has taught at the elementary level for ten years. You can find more fresh ideas for your classroom at his blog, The Thinker Builder.

Fun Twist on Book Reports!

Five Looks on a Book is a simple and fun activity that offers a nice twist on the traditional book report. Students name five adjectives that describe their book and then write one supporting detail for each adjective. You can download this freebie from my Reading Workshop page on Teaching Resources.

The original idea for the activity came from 3rd grader Adrienne Duarte, and I created the graphic organizer to go with her idea. When I first shared this activity online, Facebook fans helped me brainstorm adjectives to describe books. We came up with 99 different adjectives, and Stephanie Schifini compiled and alphabetized the list. Thanks, Adrienne and Stephanie!

If you use this activity with students, I would recommend having students brainstorm adjectives for books before showing them your list of 99 adjectives. In fact, why not make it a challenge? Tell them that you have a list of 99 adjectives and you want to see if they can come up with a list of 99 adjectives without looking at your list!  

Post a large sheet of paper on a bulletin board and allow students to add adjectives throughout the week. When they have found as many as possible, reveal your words and compare the two lists. After students complete their worksheets, arrange them on the bulletin board around the poster. Title the board, "Take A Look!" and you've just created an instant bulletin board display!

Five Looks on a Book is such a quick and easy activity that you could easily repeat it several times throughout the year, or even once a month. You can download this 3-page freebie from my Reading Workshop page on Teaching Resources. Give it a try, and let me know what you think!

Christmas Paper Chain Connections Craftivity

I love dreaming up new seasonal activities, but I always try to make them educational. A few days ago I remembered how I used to love to make paper chains to decorate our Christmas tree, and I realized that this craftivity could easily be adapted to the classroom by having students write on the slips of paper first. In fact, this idea would fit perfectly into a lesson on making connections while reading!

Making connections helps the reader make sense of what he or she is reading, and we often teach our students about three different types of connections: text to text, text to self, and text to world. Children are often taught to recognize and distinguish between these three, so I created a printable to make it super easy for students to record and classify their connections. (For some great mini lessons on teaching connections, read Stephanie Harvey's book, Strategies That Work.)

You can use this activity just before the holidays and have students create paper chains to decorate their Christmas trees, or you can do the activity at another time during the year and make paper chains for fun. The Paper Chain Connections activity can also be used with a "reading marathon" right before the holidays. Everything is fully explained in my free holiday lesson packet called Christmas Decoration Connections. You can download it from my Seasonal page on Teaching Resources during December, or my TeachersPayTeachers store any time of the year. If you download it from TpT, please take a moment to rate it. I hope you and your students enjoy this activity!

Teaching Resources ~ http://www.lauracandler.com