I review components of a friendly letter and offer minimal support. I use this as a chance to see their background skills in writing and guide my future mini-lessons.
The letters are pretty enlightening. Yes, I get to see their writing skills and yes, it's clear to see which teachers didn't really emphasize writing in second grade. It's also another chance to learn a little bit about them. Several have told me that they want to be a teacher just like me, which is sweet. Several have also shown me that they didn't follow directions with how to organize their paper, so that's been very helpful too.
I don't take a grade on the assignment, so that puts students at ease. I do however, read each one and take notes about student strengths and weaknesses. I record these notes in a Google doc so I can quickly access it from any school computer. While it's more work to type the data in twice, it also means I don't have to lug around a huge stack of papers around to all my meetings.
After I make my way through this stack:
(I'm about half done)
I'll seal them in envelopes. We took a "brain break" and decorated envelopes.
(It was nice to give them a chance to be creative and exercise the right hemisphere of their brains. I also know I have a very artistic and creative class, so they loved this opportunity. Plus it was only 10 minutes, so it can't really be viewed as "wasted learning time".)
I then take the envelopes:
And hide them until May. A majority of my students forget about them, so it's a fun surprise at the end of the year.
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