Resources and Letter Writing

Day 2

Goals:

1. The students will work together to plan and take responsibility for putting together a class trip to the Caribbean.

2. Brainstorm on ways of getting information about professional organizations.

3. Students will learn how to write a form letter.

Time:

105 minutes

Resources/Materials:

sample letter requesting information about a country, chalk, chalkboard, notebooks, pens, lists of island nations in the Caribbean including addresses, letter writing paper(if necessary), http://www.lib.iastate.edu/scholar/db/eoasxx.html (encyclopedia of associations), sample package of information received - video on the Bahamas, travel agencies to contact, sites to visit, lists of touring companies

Procedure:

1. Begin the lesson by facilitating a discussion on various ways of retrivng information. "If you wanted to attend a concert, how do you find out about that information?" or "How do you buy things without going to actual stores?" Try to avoid ways of getting information where a person has to go to an actual place. Develop means of retrieving information that can be used from home or school. Web ideas on the board that students offer letter writing, phone, literature (informational books, magazines), reference books (Caribbean countries' embassies or embassies in general). Have the students ask their parents, relatives, or friends about resources on the Caribbean.

2. For the next step, draw a typical letter format on the board (rectangle). Ask the students to offer what things are necessary on any letter they write and include those on your drawing as they are offered by students - date, to whom, from whom, body.

3. Introduce an actual sample letter written to a professional organization that is appropriately requesting information - country embassies, travel agencies. Explain the logistics and what is needed in such a letter and then show the students a sample package of what might be received by writing a letter such as this. Some letters to Caribbean embassies might come back with videos on the area or literature on where to go and where to stay.

4. Explain to the students the standard format of a letter requesting information from a professional organization - date, to whom and what they represent, introduction, body, conclusion, from whom and placement of these elements.

5. Next give a list of places in the Caribbean - Jamaica, St. Lucia, Puerto Rico, Haiti, Dominican Republic, Bahamas, Cayman Islands. This is to get them thinking of where they might want to write to. Give a list of travel agencies and touring companies for the students to write their first letter requesting information about the Caribbean in general.

6. Divide the students up into pairs and have them write a rough draft of a letter to a travel organization of their choosing. These letters should request general information about the Caribbean.

7. After the students have written a rough draft, they should trade the letters with their peers to proofread.

8. Authors make the corrections and turn them into the teacher for final corrections.

9. The instructor should correct the letters for the next school day.

Assessment:

Rubric

4 Student creates a letter with no mistakes and exceeds conventional standards.

3 Student creates a letter that meets the requirements and conventional standards.

2 Student creates a letter that does not meet a few important standards.

1 Student creates a letter that does not address the majority of the conventional standards.

(Adopted from Green Bay Area Public Schools)

Curricular Strands:

Language Arts - writing a letter, structure, rough drafts, proofreading

Art/Communication - Music Social Studies - travel/resources

Critical Thinking - feedback, what goes in letters

Cooperative Learning - pairs writing letters

This page submitted by St. Norbert College Ocean Voyagers Program