Literacy Letters

When I was a kid I used to write letters. I guess it started when I was 11 and in sleepaway camp. I made friends that didn't live nearby and calling them was expensive. We didn't have email or text messaging back then. In some ways I miss letter writing. Now when I check my mail box it's either junk or bills. I used to love getting letters in the mail.

Last year I was talking to a friend of mine that I used to work with. She moved upstate and sometimes we chat on FB messenger or text about what books we're teaching and we'll share ideas, handouts, etc. We were both teaching Macbeth so we decided to do literacy letters. I had my students start. They each wrote a handwritten letter to a student about the book and then they shared a little about themselves. I read the letters before mailing a nice big envelope upstate to my friend's school.

It took time but I remember the day I got a big envelope and started handing letters out in my classroom. The kids were so excited to get handwritten letters from other teenagers.

We wrote back and forth a few times. Suddenly I started hearing that my kids were playing X-Box against her kids and they were friends on Facebook and following each other on Instagram. One of my students was concerned that a boy talked about owning guns in his letter (he was into hunting). I tried explaining to her that deer hunting was popular upstate. Being an inner city kid is very different from a kid from the country. I meant for my students to discuss literature and although the conversations took on a life of their own I found this assignment to be a success that I'd like to try again sometime.