· You are invited to write a letter from a character’s eyes (point of view). You will pretend to be a character in the book (The Gardener). You will write a letter to another character in the book (Uncle Jed’s Barbershop).

o [As a teacher, an alternative could be to have students write to another character in the same book or to someone in the class. Your students could also write as themselves to a character, asking questions, and have another student respond to the letter—write a letter back as the character. You could draw names to find out which classmate will get which letter.]

· Your letter may explain how you feel about someone in the book or something that happened in the book. You may feel free to tell us details about your thoughts and feelings (as the character) that we didn’t find out from the book. You can assume the character writing the letter knows the other character that will receive the letter and knows a little about what has happened to that character.

o [An alternative: You may assume that your character does not know about what has happened to the other character and is asking questions to find out. This works well if you are planning on having another student answer back.]

· We have been learning a lot of information about communities from the past. In your letter, be sure to include some information about your character’s community.

· You are invited to include an artistic impression of your character. We look forward to reading your letter.

An alternative: As a teacher, if you have students write as a character to a classmate, you will want the classmate to write back to the character—you would ask the students to respond to the book character’s letter. The students will respond by first telling the book character a little about themselves. The students then may wish to answer any of the book character’s questions. Ask the students to include their feelings and opinions about the book and about what happened to the character. Have the students explain to the character how their communities differ from the character’s community. Ask the students to include some examples of how their communities are similar to the character’s community. You may want to ask students to include an artistic impression of their communities or of themselves. You could collect all the letters and create a class book of letters!

Finally, you also could write a class book about our community. Use Bryan Collier’s book Uptown to inspire the students.

These activities are examples of wonderful ways to integrate language arts (writing) lessons with social studies curriculum—see the standard course of study for social studies.

PARTS OF THE LETTER
Heading	This includes the address, line by line, with the last line being the date.
Greeting/Salutation	The greeting always ends with a comma. The greeting may be formal, beginning with the word “Dear” and using the person’s given name or relationship, or it may be informal if appropriate.
Body	This is the main text, which includes the message written. The tone is friendly and often includes news and invitations.
Closing	This short expression is always a few words on a single line. It ends in a comma.
Signature Line	There is a typed or printed name added here.
Postscript	If your letter contains a postscript, begin it with “P.S.” and end it with your initials.

Adapted from: http://www.readwritethink.org/lesson_images/lesson322/LetterAttributes.pdf

For 2 excellent resources visit:

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=322 (Jolly Postman)

http://www.readwritethink.org/lessons/lesson_view.asp?id=85 (Writing Authentic Letters)