Letter to Teacher | First Weeks
- May 2, 2020
- 2 minutes read - 296 words
Overview
From personal experience, I’ve found that many students are open to sharing many aspects of their lives. The stories ranged from funny, wholesome adventures to stories of when they were homeless or in dangerous situations. Regardless of the emotions their stories evoked, I always appreciated their stories and it helped me adjust how I approached teaching them.
Materials
Handouts, paper; can also be done digitally, if resources are available
Resources
Pacing
Suggested Pacing
Day 1- go over instructions | assign as homework
Pacing w/ Teacher Notes:**
Day 1 - After icebreakers, I go over the instructions and questions for the Letter to Teacher. I let them know that they are free to share as much or as little as they’d like in the letter, as I won’t be sharing them with other people. For students who say their lives aren’t interesting, I try to share an experience of how different my childhood was to their current lives, and I encourage them to think about an experience that was funny, awesome, scary, happy, sad, unique, unexpected, etc.
I’m also honest about why I ask them to do this: 1) I want to get to know them better, and 2) it gives me an idea of where their writing skills are at. I tell them that they will get credit as long as they finish it, so they don’t need to stress about it being perfect. I also let students know that I accept it handwritten or typed.
Alternatively, if you have access to computers, you can also do this assignment on Google Classrooms or another digital format. This would save on paper usage and make it easier to read what they write.
Credits: Cover image by Bill Watterson, creator of Calvin and Hobbes.
