Topic:  Friendly Letter
Grade Levels: 2/3

Instructional Objectives:
1. Students will comprehend the five parts of a friendly letter.
2. Students will write their own friendly letters using the five parts as well as correct punctuation and grammar.

Materials Required:
1. Letter written to the class on poster-board to display to the class
2. Xeroxed copies of the letter to give to each student
3. Paper
4. Pencil

Concepts:
Five parts of a friendly letter
Writing
Grammar
Punctuation

Anticipatory Set:
    Ask the students different ways of communicating.  Responses should range from telephones to computers and letters.  If a student does not suggest writing letters as a form of communication, then steer the class towards that way of thinking.  Explain that you will be learning about the proper form of a letter.

Procedure:
1.  Follow anticipatory set.
2. Display the letter that was written beforehand on poster-board to the class.
3. Read the letter to the class once and then have the class read the letter together.
4. Identify the five parts of the letter.
5. Give each student a copy of the letter.
6. As a whole group, have the students circle the date, box the body, put a line under the greeting, draw an arrow pointing to the signature and make two lines under the signature.
7. Give closure and assessment assignment.

Key Discussion Questions:
 1. How can we communicate?
 2.  What are the parts of a friendly letter?
 3.  How can we write a friendly letter?

Closure:
 Ask the class to turn to the person next to them and name one thing that they learned in this lesson.  Repeat two times having students talk to different classmates.
 

Assessment:

Practice:  This assessment is designed to evaluate how well the students grasped the concepts of letter writing.

Assignment:  Write a letter to me telling me some things about yourself.  Some ideas may be your favorite food, what you like to read, a sport or hobby that you enjoy or where you live.

Rubric:
 
 
 

Criteria	Advanced	Competent	Developing	Not Yet Apparent
Form	Students has all 5 parts of a Friendly Letter	Student has 4 parts of a Friendly Letter	Student has 3 parts of a Friendly Letter	Student has 2 or less parts of a Friendly Letter
Topic	Student includes creative and descriptive details	Student writes on topic with creativity	Student does not not write on topic, but is creative and includes detail	Student does not write on topic and does not demonstrate creativity or detail
Grammar	Student uses proper grammar	Student uses adequate grammar	Student uses inventive grammar	Student uses no grammar
Punctuation	Student uses proper punctuation	Student uses adequate punctuation	Student uses inventive punctuation	Student uses no punctuation

Reflection on the lesson:

Justification for the entry:
    According to the Allentown School District timeline, the 2nd and 3rd graders needed to begin lessons on writing a Friendly Letter.  This was a good introductory lesson meant to orient them to the form and process of this form of communication.  By writing a relevant letter to them, I wanted to capture their interest and attention to focus them on the task as well as show relevance.

Connection between lesson and philosophy of learning and teaching:
    This lesson corresponds to my philosophy in that it encourages the teacher and the students to work together with both parties having responsibilities and clear roles.  The teacher is incorporating the backgrounds of the students and is inviting personal responses within structured guidelines.

Evaluation of methods:
    My method included a letter that I wrote to the class, discussion of the parts of the letters and time for the students to practice learning the letter form.  In retrospect, I believe that this was beneficial to the students in that it showed connection and relevance.

Possible Improvements:
    It would have been helpful if I had stationery for the students to practice their letter writing on.  As it was, they were left to practice on everyday lined paper and the students that needed some extra help in learning the parts of the letter would have benefited from that material.