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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.
Home › Classroom Resources › Student Interactives
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 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Paying Attention to Technology: Exploring a Fictional Technology
Students complete a short survey to establish their beliefs about technology. They compare their opinions to the ideas in a novel that depicts technology (such as 1984 or Fahrenheit 451).
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Exploring Literature through Letter-Writing Groups
Students discuss literature through a series of letter exchanges, as a one-time assignment or throughout the year with the students discussing, and making connections among, a number of literary works.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Star-Crossed Lovers Online: Romeo and Juliet for a Digital Age
Explore the modern significance of an older text, such as Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, by asking students to create their own modern interpretation of specific events from the drama.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Minilesson
Draft Letters: Improving Student Writing through Critical Thinking
Draft letters ask students to think critically about their writing on a specific assignment before submitting their work to a reader. This lesson explains and provides models for the strategy.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Persuading an Audience: Writing Effective Letters to the Editor
Students use persuasive writing and an understanding of the characteristics of letters to the editor to compose effective letters to the editor on topics of interest to them.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Blogtopia: Blogging about Your Own Utopia
Students work together to create their own utopias, using blogs as the primary source of publication.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Communicating on Local Issues: Exploring Audience in Persuasive Letter Writing
Students will research a local issue, and then write letters to two different audiences, asking readers to take a related action or adopt a specific position on the issue.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
From Friedan Forward—Considering a Feminist Perspective
Students write letters expressing personal views on issues like equal pay, equal education/employment opportunity, and gender roles—and receive these letters six years later.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Worth Its Weight: Letter Writing with "The Things They Carried"
This lesson uses a letter-writing activity based on Tim O’Brien’s story “The Things They Carried” to build empathy as students examine the weight they symbolically carry in their own lives.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
The Correspondence Project: A Lesson of Letters
After exploring business and friendly letter formats, students write letters for various audiences and real-world purposes.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Persuading Readers with Endorsement Letters
Students explore the genre of commercial endorsements, establishing characteristics and requirements for the genre. Each student then composes an endorsement of a product, service, company, or industry.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Joining the Conversation about Young Adult Literature
Students create a persuasive case calling for the adoption of a particular young adult literature title into their school’s language arts curriculum by writing letters or speeches.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Developing Persuasive Arguments through Ethical Inquiry: Two Prewriting Strategies
In this lesson, students use focused prewriting strategies to explore content and ethical issues related to a persuasive assignment.
Grades 9 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Unit
Resumes and Cover Letters for High School Students
High school students are taught how to use resumes and cover letters to highlight their skills and make them stand out, whether applying to college or for a job.
Grades 10 – 12 | Lesson Plan | Standard Lesson
Life is Beautiful: Teaching the Holocaust through Film with Complementary Texts
After students have read a book about the Holocaust, such as The Diary of Anne Frank or Night by Elie Wiesel, students will view Life is Beautiful and complete discussion questions to challenge their ability to analyze literature using film.
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 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 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 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.
