Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Thursday, 18 October 2012

Lesson plan for thank you letters

Lesson plan for thank you letters for TD Bank, Frontier College and First Books

Background: This letter writing lesson was delivered as part of a series of lessons on letter writing. This became one of the culminating pieces.

Outcomes: 1.2. Clarify and Extend: Combine ideas:use talk, notes, personal writing and representing to record and reflect on ideas, information and experiences.

4.1 Enhance and improve: Enhance legibility, write legibly, using a style that demonstrates awareness of alignment, shape and slant.

4.2 Attend to conventions.

Introduction: Help students recall the books that they were given. Have them come up with the important things about writing a personal letter. Write components on the board to act as scaffolding later on.

Body: Now that we remember what a letter is about, we will start to brainstorm things that might go in a letter to the people who gave us the books. Activity: Have the students think, pair, share for ideas that we might want to include in our letter. Again, write these ideas on the board so that it will help students during their writing. Display a properly formatted letter for the students to reference as they are writing (http://www.nhcs.net/parsley/curriculum/Graphics/PostalProgram/FriendlyLetter.gif). Now they begin writing their letter, using the scaffolding on the board to aid them. Once finished, provide the students with a writer's checklist to help them check for format, conventions, etc.

Closure: Discuss the fundamental parts of a good letter (voice, form, ideas, etc.), as well as the lesser parts (conventions, etc.). As an exit strategy/assessment, have the students use sticky notes whereupon they must write two of the most important things about writing a letter before leaving the classroom.