---PRINT--- Lesson 2a: Class Letter of Introduction ---PRINT---

Lesson 2a: Class Letter of Introduction

Overview
Each school will submit a Letter of Introduction to the Discussion Area which includes information about your class such as where your school is located, etc. (A full description of what to include is listed below in the Procedure). If more than one class is participating, Please limit one per school. Different classes can combine their letter into one by having separate paragraphs for each class if possible.

Objectives
Students will:

Collaboratively write a class letter in clear, concise, organized language that presents basic information about their class.

Revise and edit the content of the letter using self, peer, and teacher collaborative feedback.

Publish the class letter to the online Discussion Area.

Time
One or two 45 minute class periods.

Materials

Computers with Internet access

Printable Student Worksheet (Optional)

Teacher Preparation

Writing the Class Letter is best done as a class where all students can contribute. Alternatively, you can request that students draft Letters of Introduction individually or in small groups and select the one that best meets the criteria listed in the section below. Also, it may be useful to have students research their city / town prior to this activity so they will be prepared to include background information about their school.

You may find it useful to consult the following:

Implementation Assistance Strategies

Assessment Suggestions
Since students will be collaborating as a class when writing your Letter of Introduction, the students' participation in the activity can be used for assessment.

Alternatively, if students individually drafted Letters of Introduction, you can assess these letters based on their content (e.g. Do they include all the necessary information?, Is the letter in the appropriate format based on the audience?, etc.).

Procedure

NOTE: The following instructions also appear in the Project Instructions section of this web site.

	Activity 2a: Class Letter of Introduction
	Each school will write and submit a Letter of Introduction to the project Discussion Area. We would appreciate your limiting letters to one per school. If possible, have different classes combine their letters. The Letter of Introduction should include the following: Name of your school and grade level of your class Location of your school, including: city, state / province, country, latitude and longitude (so other students can pin-point locations on a map) Hypotheses from the previous activity (Activity 1) Any other information that you would like to share about your school, community, etc. Submit your Letter of Introduction to the Discussion Area of this project once you have completed it. Please include the name of your school as well as the city and country in the Subject of the your message. e.g. Letter of Introduction from Frazee Elementary School, Frazee, MN, USA Once you have posted your Letter of Introduction, return to the Discussion Area frequently and respond to replies and postings from other participating schools.