Pen+Pals

**Pen Pals**

**Content** With written letters to pen pals, student learn the fundamentals of grammar, writing, and the format of a letter. They also learn about people in different areas who may have different cultures from their own. With video pen pals, students will learn about technology and video editing, while also learning about people in different areas who may have different cultures from their own.

**Grade Level** This can be done with any grade level. I have seen it done in Kindergarten, 1st grade, and middle school. The example below also shows high school.

**Curriculum Standards** RLA.O.6.2.2: Use the five step writing process to generate topics, plan approaches, and develop descriptive and narrative writing tasks. RLA.O.6.2.5: Use analogies illustrations, examples, illustrations, or anecdotes to enhance written communication. RLA.O.6.2.6: Edit one's own compositions as well as the writing of others to correct errors in organization, content, usage, mechanics, and spelling. 21C.O.5-8.1.LS.3: Student presents thoughts, ideas, and conceptual understanding efficiently, accurately and in a compelling manner and enhances to oral or written presentation through the use of technology.

 **Description of Practices**
 * In order to implement pen paling in the classroom, the teacher must first locate pen pals for his/her students. There are lots of websites that will pair classrooms or teachers may have a friend who is a teacher at another school that he/she could pair with.
 * Each student is paired with another student who will then be his/her "pen pal."
 * Writing to pen pals could occur weekly or every other week. Students will be instructed on how to construct a letter. Before writing a letter, they can brainstorm to get ideas about what to write about and what is appropriate.
 * They will use the writing process to create their letters.
 * When they receive letters from their pen pals, they will answer their questions, ask more questions, and tell them about themselves, their school, and their lives.
 * Students can also send video letters to each other. This would give experience with using video and video-editing software.
 * If possible, students can meet at the end of the assignment, or if distance is a factor, they could use Skype to meet each other.

**Implementation Considerations** This could take place in a self-contained classroom, a small group, or a whole group setting. Depending on the abilities of the students, co-teaching would be ideal so there is more help for the students. Students would need to have guidelines about things that are appropriate and things that would be inappropriate to talk about in the pen pal letters or video. Some students may benefit from typing their letters.

**Example** http://youtu.be/HTlzbR3GR2c (this example shows 2nd grade, but is a great example) http://youtu.be/f0UhLBq81yg (this is an example of video pen pals in high school)

**Citation** Gambrell, L. B., Hughes, E. M., Calvert, L., Malloy, J. A., & Igo, B. (2011). AUTHENTIC READING, WRITING, AND DISCUSSION: An Exploratory Study of a Pen Pal Project. // Elementary School Journal //, // 112 //(2), 234-258.