Emilee Cahill, Shaina Gauthier, and Ashley Purvis

ECED 4300 Section BInstructor: Dr. Tonja

RootFall Semester, 2008

Grade 5Pen Pal Letters

Dear Pen Pal,Hello! How are you? My name is Michael and I am nearly 13 years old. I

live in Boston, Massachusetts with my family. I will send you a picture in my next letter, but right now I will just describe myself. I am about five feet tall and 100 pounds. I have black hair and brown eyes. I have an older brother and a younger sister. We visit my grandparents often. They live in New York, which is about 200 miles away from Boston.

My school is close to my house. It’s less than a mile away. My favorite class is gym. I love to play basketball. When gym is over, I feel like I have to drink a gallon of water before I go back to class! My teacher only lets us get a quick drink, though.

Boston is a nice place to live. It is a city in Massachusetts. There’s lots to do here. Last summer, for example, my family and I drove to Mt. Greylock, which is the highest point in Massachusetts, measuring 3,491 feet! In the summer, it is usually around 80 degrees. But, in the winter, it gets so cold. It may read 20 degrees on the thermometer, but it feels like below zero with the wind! Well, it was nice writing to you. It’s nearly 1:00 and that’s when we eat lunch.

Sincerely,Michael

Dear Michael,My name is Peter and I am 12 years old. I live in a city called Auckland.

Auckland is in the north part of New Zealand. I am 1.6 meters high and weigh about 50 kilograms. I have two younger sisters.

Our teacher asked us to look up facts on Boston, so that we could compare our two cities. Auckland used to be the capital of New Zealand, but the capital changed to Wellington in the 1800s. My grandparents live in Wellington, which is about 450 kilometers away. Auckland is still the biggest city in New Zealand.

One thing that is different about our two cities is when you have your seasons. In Auckland, summer is from December to February, fall is from March to May, winter is from June to August, and spring is from September to November. Right now it is spring. It is about 15 degrees here today. In the winter, it can get as cold as 13 degrees, but in the summer, it warms up to around 24 degrees.

The most exciting thing is happening in Auckland next April. We are hosting the World Cup for soccer. I can’t wait. Soccer is one of my favorite sports. It is the perfect weather for soccer in April, around 20 degrees. My dad is going to try to get tickets. We’re lucky because we only live about 10 kilometers from the stadium. My train is at 14:30—I’ve got to run!   Sincerely,

Peter

January 31, 2006Dear Pen Pal,My name is Teresa and I live in Mt. Shasta, California. I am a

girl and I am twelve years old. I live in a house with my mother and two sisters, ages 6 and 2. I go to Sisson Elementary School and I am in 7th grade. My favorite part about school is our reading. I love to read especially books about horses. I like to play sports like soccer and tennis. When I grow up I want to be a teacher.

What is it like in your town? What do you do for fun? Pleasetell me about yourself. Do you have access to e-mail?I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,Teresa B. Happy

PrewritingGPS: ELA5W1. The student produces writing that

establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure; the student

a. Selects a focus, organizational structure, and a point of view based on purpose, genre expectations, audience, length, and format requirements.

PLO: Students will complete a graphic organizer.

Emilee Cahill

Pen pal letters are written between two people. You will write a letter to a pen pal. A pen pal is someone who lives somewhere else that you communicate with through letters. In the first letter, you will introduce yourself. You will then write about things pertaining to you. You may tell your hobbies and interest. You can also write about your family. This is letting your pen pal know about you. You will need to include questions to your pen pal asking anything you want to know about them. The letter is written in a friendly, casual format. You may use everyday language. You will need to write in the correct letter format.

Pen Pal Letters

During the prewriting stage, you will learn 4 important items. The first is form. Form is what type of writing you are writing. A pen pal letter is your form. The second is purpose. Purpose is why you are writing. For pen pal letters, you are writing a letter to communicate about yourself and other topics of interest with a distant friend. The third is audience. Your audience is who you are writing to. In your letter, your audience is your pen pal. You are writing to them. The fourth is topic. Your topic will be to write a letter to a pen pal introducing yourself. You will also state some important items about yourself: hobbies, interest, dislikes, and family. During the prewriting stage, you will complete a graphic organizer. The graphic organizer will help you organize items about yourself which you will include in your letter.

Prewriting Stage

YOUR NAME:

FamilyHobbies

Interests:

Dislikes:Hometown/School:

Questions to Ask:

Practice Activity As a class, we will complete a class graphic

organizer. We will complete the graphic organizer as our class. We will be writing a pen pal letter as if we were sending it to a class at another school. We will use the interactive writing technique. You will tell me what to write, and I will write what you tell me.

You will complete your own graphic organizer about yourself. You will need to include enough information so your pen pal will know a good amount about you. Remember, you will need to include questions you want to know about your pen pal.

Assessment Activity

Drafting

GPS:

ELA5W1. The student produces writing that establishes an appropriate organizational structure, sets a context and engages the reader, maintains a coherent focus throughout, and signals a satisfying closure; the student

b. Writes texts of a length appropriate to address the topic or tell the story.

c. Uses traditional structures for conveying information (e.g., chronological order, cause and effect, similarity and difference, and posing and answering a question).

 

ELA5W4. The student consistently uses a writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing; the student

a. Plans and drafts independently and resourcefully.

PLO: Students will compose a handwritten pen pal letter draft.

Ashley Purvis

Drafting StageThe drafting stage is the second stage of the writing

process. You will write your ideas down on paper during this stage. This is known as the rough draft. You will mark your writing as a rough draft. You will emphasize content instead of mechanics. You must skip lines on your paper, so you can leave space for revisions. As a reminder, you will also place an x on every other line of the paper in order to make the revisions. This process is not graded on neatness. It is often quite messy. You will quickly write to get their ideas on paper. It is acceptable to leave out words or phrases and make several spelling errors.

Practice ActivityAs a class, we will take the information from our

graphic organizers and begin writing our drafts. Remember, we will be writing a pen pall letter as if we were sending it to a class at another school We will use the interactive writing technique. You will tell me what to write in the draft, and I will write down the information that you tell me.

AssessmentYou will complete your own pen pal letter draft.

You will use the information that you wrote in your graphic organizer to complete your draft. You will need to skip lines and place an x on every other line. Remember spelling and neatness are not important in this stage. The most important thing in this stage is getting your ideas on paper.

Revising and Editing

GPS:

ELA5W4. The student consistently uses a writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing;

the student

b. Revises manuscripts to improve the meaning and focus of writing by adding, deleting, consolidating,

clarifying, and rearranging words and sentences.

ELA5W3. The student uses research and technology to support writing; the student

c. Uses various reference materials (e.g., dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, electronic information) as

aids to writing.

g. Uses a thesaurus to identify alternative word choices and meanings.

ELA5W4 The student consistently uses a writing process to develop, revise, and evaluate writing. The student

c. Edits to correct errors in spelling, punctuation, etc.

PLO:

A. Students will work on organizing the content of their pen pal letter.

B. Students will correct the mechanics of their pen pal letter.

Shaina Gauthier

Revising StageBefore beginning this stage it is a good idea to put your draft a side for

a few days before looking at it to revise. To revise a paper you should

start fresh. Give yourself plenty of time for the revision stage.

Something that sounded good one day may not sound so brilliant the

next. Revising focuses on the content of the paper. Add details to the

story by using adjective, describing words. Change characters, or put

dialogue to make the story more interesting for the reader. This is a

good time to rethink the setting or events. If rearranging is necessary

then do it! Don’t be afraid to move things around or change words.

Now is the time to make sure your story has a nice flow to it. Check

to see if you have been redundant or repetitive. Delete any sentences

that you feel have nothing to do with the topic. Sentence variety also

is a big deal. Make sure all your sentences do not start with “I would”.

Be creative and come up with different ways to start a sentence.

Revising StageAfter writing your draft you should start the

revision stage. This stage focuses on the content. Revise your paper by adding and deleting sentences to make better since of your story.

Editing StageThis stage focuses on the mechanics of the paper. Set aside

your pen pal letter for a little while then look at it with fresh eyes to proofread it. This may have to be done several times in order to fix all the errors. While you are proofreading you are looking for errors like misspelled words, capitalization, words that do not belong, and make sure punctuation marks are being used correctly.

The fourth step in the writing process is editing. This stage is sometime mistaken for the revision stage. The difference is that the editing stage does not focus on content but the mechanics. It is similar in some ways like it is a good idea to set the paper aside for a few days then come back to proofread your paper with fresh eyes. Make changes like capitalization, spelling, and grammar

Practice Activity As a class the students will revise and edit a sample

pen pal letter. I will have a sample pen pal letter projected on the board. Together we will focus on the content and mechanical errors of the letter Remind students that during this stage they do not write on other students paper, only their own.

Assessment Activity Now lets get creative! Take out your draft pen pal

letter. First I want you to read through your letter, and see how it can be improved. Add, delete, and rearrange words and sentences. Then read through it again to correct misspelled words and punctuation errors. Use a dictionary, thesaurus, encyclopedia, or the computer to improve your pen pal letter.

APA citation for pen pal letters

Michael (personal communication, 2000). http://balancedassessment.concord.org/docs/m023tr.doc

Peter (personal communication, 2000). http://balancedassessment.concord.org/docs/m023tr.doc

T. Happy (personal communication, January 31,2006). http://clubs.ca4h.org/siskiyou/strawberryvalley/Uganda_penpal/Project1.htm