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Friendly Letter to E-mail |
Credits:
MaryAnn Pyle
Mountain View Elementary, Broomfield, CO
VITAL INFORMATION
Subject Matter:
Literacy/Writing
Grades:
2-3
Software:
StarOffice Writer
Lesson Description
Summary:
Students are working on a friendly letter unit in the classroom and computer labs. Students are learning the format of a friendly letter and format of an email. They should be able to compare and contrast these two types of writing.
Students may email parents, teachers, or each other in this unit.
State and National Standards:
CO- Colorado Academic Standards
Subject : Reading and Writing
Standard 2: Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences
Writing and speaking are essential tools for learning, for success in the workplace, and for responsible citizenship. Developing a range of writing and speaking abilities requires extensive study, practice, and thinking. Students need frequent opportunities to write and speak for different audiences and purposes, and they need to be able to communicate expressively, informatively, and analytically. Growth in writing and speaking abilities occurs by applying skills to increasingly challenging communication tasks
Grade/Level : Grades K-4
Performance Indicator : generating topics and developing ideas for a variety of writing and speaking purposes (for example, telling a story, publishing a class newsletter, writing a letter to an adult, writing or orally presenting a book report, creating and producing a play, introducing a speaker or an event, narrating a presentation);
Performance Indicator : organizing their speaking and writing
Performance Indicator : choosing vocabulary that communicates their messages clearly and precisely
Performance Indicator : revising and editing speech and writing
Performance Indicator : creating readable documents with legible handwriting or word processing at the appropriate time
Standard 3: Students write and speak using conventional grammar, usage, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and spelling
Students need to know and be able to use standard English. Proficiency in this standard plays an important role in how the writer or speaker is understood and perceived. All skills in this standard are reinforced and practiced at all grade levels and should be monitored by both the teacher and student to develop lifelong learning skills
Grade/Level : Grades K-4
Performance Indicator : knowing and using subject/verb agreement
Performance Indicator : knowing and using correct modifiers
Performance Indicator : knowing and using correct capitalization, punctuation, and abbreviations
Performance Indicator : spelling frequently used words correctly
using phonics rules and exceptions
Standard 4: Students apply thinking
skills to their reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing
Students use reading, writing, speaking, listening, and viewing to think and learn. By moving beyond a literal interpretation of text to an analysis of an authoręs, speakeręs, or directoręs purpose and perspectives, students practice and improve their higher-level thinking skills. Students need to recognize and evaluate different points of view and to follow a line of reasoning to its logical conclusion. Students need to think about their writing and reading skills and work toward improvement.
Grade/Level : Grades K-4
Performance Indicator : recognizing an authoręs point of view
Performance Indicator : using reading, writing, speaking, and listening to define and solve problems
Performance Indicator : responding to written and oral presentations as a reader, listener, and articulate speaker
Performance Indicator : formulating questions about what they read, write, hear, and view
Local Standards:
INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY SKILLS CONTINUUM
Standard #2 Productivity Applications: Students use technology tools to enhance learning, increase productivity, and promote creativity.
2A Word Processing
2A.1 Keyboarding 2A.1.1 Uses special function keys such as: tab, number pad keys, keyboard shortcuts, alt, control and symbols ($,#,%, etc.)
2A.2 Editing 2A.2.1 Edits text by using select/deselect, cut/copy/paste, delete and undo
2A.2.2 Places cursor at the specific location
2A.2.3 Uses spell check and thesaurus
2A.3 Formatting 2A.3.1 Changes character formatting such as: font, font size and font style (B, I, U)
2A.3.2 Uses different document layouts (i.e. letter, sign, banner, etc.)
Standard #3 Telecommunications: Students use telecommunications to retrieve and exchange information which supports and enhances District 12 curriculum frameworks.
3A Understands and practices ethical and appropriate use of technology
3A.1 Practices responsible use and adheres to all site-based rules governing the use of electronic sources of information
3A.2 Recognizes individual's rights of ownership to computer-generated work
Lesson Outcomes:
Students read and discuss handout on similarities and differences of emails and friendly letters as a group. (This handout is included for your information.) Students then start Netscape, log into gaggle.net, and open their mailboxes by using their user name and password. Students then choose to write a designated pen pal from the class on the first session. Students write their parents on the second session. Students write the teacher on the third session. Students check mail and answer mail on sessions 4-7. Students in Session 8 complete an assignment for reading and StarOffice, paste it, copy it, and send it to their teacher in StarOffice.
Assessment:
Students will send an email to a friend and print a hard copy for the teacher.
Students will send an email to a parent and print a hard copy.
Student will send an e-mail to the teacher.
Student will send completed homework to the teacher via email.
Students emails will be graded according to district friendly letter rubric and information included in email handout that is attached.
Classroom and Time Management
Student Prerequisites:
None
Lesson Preparation:
The teacher will need to visit gaggle.net and become a user so that students can have a free email account through this server. The teacher will need to decide on a user name for the student and a password for the user. A helpful hint is to use part of the teacher's name or classroom in front of their use name so that your whole class is logged in one place in the gaggle.net directory. My students' user names are classroom number first name. Next, choose a password that all the students will know. Our password is our class stuffed animal's name. No one at this point is allowed to change the password due to their young age. Also, the teacher may want to log into their account to see why something wasn't received. If the teacher doesn't know the student password, this can't happen. Allow at least an hour to set up individual student accounts on gaggle.net.
Next, if the students are going to send messages to their parents, parents will need to give you their email address so that a parent email directory can be made for the students. (This step may not be necessary for older elementary students.) Parents can do this by sending you an email or by completing a form that is sent home.
Time Frame:
Eight 45 minutes sessions
Implementation Steps:
Session 1 Students compare/contrast information on email vs. friendly letter format by discussing the attached handout.
Session 2 Students are taught how to start Netscape and log in and out of gaggle.net
Session 3 Students email another pen pal in the classroom. The student was assigned another student through drawing a names from a hat.
Session 4 Students email parents at their address. Students without an email address write the classroom teacher or lab coordinator.
Session 5 Students email their teacher.
Session 6 Students answer emails received from parent, teacher, or other students.
Session 7 Students email person of choice.
Session 8 Students complete class assignment in StarOffice then copy and paste it into email to send to their teacher.
Later Sessions Students are given an opportunity to check email and respond biweekly for the rest of the year.
Please note: The teacher will need to be familiar with school email program and procedures and how to help them correct addresses when email does not go through the first time.
RESOURCES
District guide to writing friend letter.
Handout on Friendly Letter/email.
STUDENT PRODUCTS
Description of product:
Students will create a variety of emails for different audiences for the rest of the year.
REFLECTION
Beware of clicking more than once on Netscape! The first day I discovered that some of my students started Netscape 5 times!!!!
Handout for Comparing Friendly Letter to an E-mail:
Subject: Comparing/contrasting emails to friendly letters.
Hi!
I hope this answers your questions about emails. E-mails are ways for people to send friendly letters, messages, jokes, pictures, etc., to others through using the internet. E-mail is much
quicker than regular mail. However, friendly letters and email have some similarities.
Addresses are needed for both types of letters. In email you need the address that finds your computer and email server and the email address and server of who you are writing. Your email server that you will be using is gaggle.net. Can you think of other email servers?
If you wrote a friendly letter, you would need an address for the sender and the receiver.
Dates also appear on email. However, the computer usually dates your letters for you and it also gives the time that the letter was mailed. This is true for friendly letters, too. The postmark has a
date and time that the letter was processed through the local post office. Most emails do not have formal headings because your email address is all that is needed. If the person wants to respond to the person who wrote them, all they need to do is type the email address of the
person in the "To" box. Greetings are sometimes used in an email but not always. Some people
skip this and try to get right to the point of their email. You'll need to decide if you want to use a greeting or not. However most people think email is friendlier with a greeting. The body of an email is written in the message window. Closings are also optional in an email. Some people use them and some people choose to skip this for the sake of time. E-mails also have signatures. Some people create special email signatures that contain more than just their name. The email
signature might include a famous quote, poem, or mail/phone number information. Mr. Gandy has an email signature. Maybe he will choose to show this to you! Below are some items that are special to just emails! In an email most people do not indent. This is because different
computers and servers recognize spacing differently. You place a hard return between paragraphs. You do this by hitting the "Enter" Key then start your next paragraph. E-mails also have a "Subject" box that a friendly letter lacks. In this space, the email author writes a brief phrase that describes the content of email. The "To" Box is where the address of the person is placed that you want to write. The "From" Box tells who the email author. The "CC" Box allows you to send a carbon copy of your email to someone else's email address. This is handy if you want to invite the whole class to a party. You can write one invitation and zap it to all 23 people in the class. This is much faster than writing 23 different letters and envelopes! I hope this answers your questions about emails!
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Developed under a grant from Sun Microsystems, Inc. Open Gateways at Mountain View
Elementary School by Steve Gandy, Technology Coordinator - mountain.adams12.org/TISS
© 2003