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Looking for ways to engage your students in online literacy learning? Find more interactive tools that help them accomplish a variety of goals-from organizing their thoughts to learning about language.
Check out our collection of strategy guides to find effective literacy teaching and learning strategies to use in your classroom.
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Student Interactive
Letter Generator
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| Grades | K – 12 |
| Interactive Type | Writing & Publishing Prose |
| Tech Requirement | |
| URL | http://www.readwritethink.org /files/resources/interactives /letter_generator/ |
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ABOUT THIS INTERACTIVE |
The Letter Generator tool is designed to help students learn to identify all the essential parts of a business or friendly letter, and then generate letters by typing information into letter templates. A sample letter is included, and students can learn about the parts of a letter by reading descriptions of each part.
Once students have become familiar with letter formats, they are prompted to write their own letter. Students follow the steps and fill in specific fields in the template (for example, heading, salutation, closing, signature, and so on). They may even add a decorative border and postscript to the friendly letter. The finished letter can be saved, e-mailed, or printed.
This useful tool provides step-by-step instructions for familiarizing users with the necessary elements of written correspondence, and can serve as an excellent practice method for composing and proofreading both formal and informal letters.
For ideas of how to use this tool outside the classroom, see Letter Generator in the Parent & Afterschool Resources section.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Expository Escapade—Detective’s Handbook
Students create a Detective's Handbook based on a detective mystery they have read. The handbooks include expository and descriptive writing, as well as a letter.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Who’s Got Mail? Using Literature to Promote Authentic Letter Writing
Students discuss and chart letter elements and write their own letters to adults at school, reinforcing letter-writing skills beyond the classroom lesson.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Using Writing and Role-Play to Engage the Reluctant Writer
What does the world look like through a javelina’s eyes? Students become javelinas in this lesson when they analyze a character and write from his or her perspective.
Grades 3 – 6 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Guided Comprehension: Self-Questioning Using Question-Answer Relationships
Guided comprehension moves your students beyond decoding to become independent readers. Generating questions to guide reading helps readers make connections with the text and supports independent comprehension of new texts.
Grades 4 – 6 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Guided Comprehension: Making Connections Using a Double-Entry Journal
Based on the Guided Comprehension Model by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen, this lesson helps students learn three types of connections (text-to-text, text-to-self, and text-to-world) using a double-entry journal.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Book Report Alternative: Creating Careers for Characters
Students select a job listing for a character in a book they have read, then create a resume and application letter for that character.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Blending Fiction and Nonfiction to Improve Comprehension and Writing Skills
Students use a text set to increase understanding of content area material and demonstrate what they have learned by writing an original piece that blends together narrative and expository elements.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
An Exploration of Text Sets: Supporting All Readers
Students create text sets on a high interest topic and use the texts to practice three strategies for reading for information.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Promoting Diversity in the Classroom and School Library through Social Action
Students explore the effects of stereotypes by analyzing children’s books. Then they create bookmarks that encourage readers to question the assumptions of stereotyped books and to seek out matching, balanced texts.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Investigating Junk Mail: Negotiating Critical Literacy at the Mailbox
Students increase their media literacy skills by critically examining and revising junk mail.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
A Genre Study of Letters With The Jolly Postman
Students read The Jolly Postman, in which a postman delivers letters to storybook characters. They explore different types of mail and categorize letters from the book and their own mail.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Investigating the Holocaust: A Collaborative Inquiry Project
Students explore a variety of resources as they learn about the Holocaust. Working collaboratively, they investigate the materials, prepare oral responses, and produce a topic-based newspaper to complete their research.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Our Classroom: Writing an Owner’s Manual
Students write an owner’s manual that helps them get to know their classroom, provides them with a sense of ownership, and lets others know about their classroom.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Dear Librarian: Writing a Persuasive Letter
Students write persuasive letters to their librarian requesting that specific texts be added to the school library. As they work, students plan their arguments and outline their reasons and examples.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Book Report Alternative: A Character’s Letter to the Editor
Students write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper from a selected fictional character’s perspective, focusing on a specific issue or situation explored in the novel.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Book Report Alternative: Creating a Childhood for a Character
Students explore familiar literary characters, usually first encountered as adults, but whose childhood stories are only told later. Students then create childhoods for adult characters from books of their choice.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Using their prior knowledge of books containing letters, students show their understanding of genre by rewriting a story and reflecting on how traditional stories differs from stories told in letters.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Zines for Kids: Multigenre Texts About Media Icons
Special edition! Students use ReadWriteThink tools to create magazines about prominent figures using a variety of writing genres and styles.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Critical Perspectives: Reading and Writing About Slavery
Students critically explore the moral issue of slavery through reading fiction and nonfiction children's literature about the Underground Railroad, and they extend their understanding through creative writing projects.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Students as Creators: Exploring Copyright
This lesson gives students the tools they need to consider the ethical issues surrounding use and ownership of copyrighted materials.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Persuading the Principal: Writing Persuasive Letters About School Issues
Students learn that you don’t have to raise your voice to raise a point. Writing a persuasive letter to your principal is a great way to get your opinions heard.
Grades 3 – 5 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Cultural Connections and Writing for Change
A little understanding can go a long way. After learning about difficulties that Palestinian youths face, students will write a letter to an official discussing these issues.
Grades 6 – 8 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Sí, Se Puede: Making a Difference, One Letter at a Time
After reading the book ¡Si, Se Puede!/Yes, We Can!: Janitor Strike in L.A., students learn about labor unions, strikes, and organizing for change. Students interview staff members in their school to learn about their daily work life, and write persuasive advocacy letters.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Using published writers’ texts and students’ own writing, this unit explores emotions that are associated with the artful and deliberate use of commas, semicolons, colons, and exclamation points (end-stop marks of punctuation).
Grades K – 8 | Student Interactive | Writing & Publishing Prose
The Postcard Creator helps students learn to identify all the typical parts of a postcard, and then generate their own postcard messages by typing information into letter templates. After printing their texts, students can illustrate the front of their postcards in a variety of ways, including drawing, collage, and stickers.
Grades 1 – 12 | Calendar Activity | July 7
Write letters that make things happen!
In a small group or as individuals, students write letters related to a unit of study or particular topic they have studied.
Grades 9 – 12 | Calendar Activity | December 10
Poet Emily Dickinson was born in 1830.
Students discuss Dickinson's poem "This Is My Letter To The World" and use it to focus on how audience affects voice.
Grades K – 12 | Strategy Guide
This strategy guide explains how to use shared writing to teach students effective strategies that will improve their own independent writing ability.
Grades 6 – 8 | Activity & Project
Write Letters to Friends and Family
Invite young adults to write letters to classmates, postcards from travels, and e-mails to family and friends.
Grades 3 – 5 | Activity & Project
Children learn how to make a convincing argument—an important skill in school and in life.
Grades 3 – 8 | Game & Tool
The Letter Generator shows children the key parts of a letter and lets them practice writing either a friendly or business letter.
