Introduction to the Project

Grades 8–12

7 Sessions: 1 Hour Each

Narrative

Projects

PS You Sound like Someone I Can Trust

by Maria Villareal, 826CHI

1. Introduction to the Project

2. Meet Your Partner & Introduce Yourself

3. Finish Your Introduction Letters

4. Why We Write

5. A Time for Reflection

6. Big Changes

7. A Time for Celebration

Students will exchange letters with students from different classes or schools. By listening to others’ stories and sharing stories of their own, students will practice to read and write with empathy.

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Introduction to the Project

In this session, students learn about the project, as well as their future pen pal’s school, community, or organization, and respond to a few writing prompts with letter-writing themes.

What Your Students Will Learn

Students learn about the project, as well as their future pen pal’s school, community, or organization, and respond to a few writing prompts with letter-writing themes.

Common core standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2.B

Develop the topic with relevant, well-chosen facts, definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.8.2

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas, concepts, and information through the selection, organization, and analysis of relevant content.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2.B

Develop the topic with well-chosen, relevant, and sufficient facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2

Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas, concepts, and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.11-12.2.B

Develop the topic thoroughly by selecting the most significant and relevant facts, extended definitions, concrete details, quotations, or other information and examples appropriate to the audience’s knowledge of the topic.

What Your Students Will Produce

Students fill out a survey and generate some initial writing and brainstorming.

What You Will Need

Paper, writing utensils
“Match-Up Survey” — Handout
Mentor Text “Dear Brave People” — Handout

Before You Start

This project entirely depends on close collaboration with another educator and class/group, although many of the related activities can be facilitated without the exchange of letters between groups of students.

If you are participating in a letter exchange, carve out some time to discuss shared objectives and a timeline with your partner teacher before beginning. Make sure you ask for any information (basic or otherwise) that will help introduce their group of students to yours—ages, location, key demographics, and their history are good places to start!

We highly recommend purchasing a class copy of Dear My Blank: Secret Letters Never Sent edited by Emily Trunko, if possible, or sharing a letter from the popular Tumblr that inspired the collection with your students (which Emily began when she was 15 years old!). The letter titled “Dear Brave People” is used as a mentor text in this lesson (see handout), but this could easily be swapped out with any letter from the book’s collection or Tumblr. Note that the Tumblr letters are submitted anonymously and some contain highly sensitive content that may not be appropriate to share with younger students.