Last year, Balmain Public School participated in a Pen Pal writing initiative run by AusPost. We are now looking to register again for 2020, to embrace authentic writing opportunities. We will continue to place an emphasis on our writing skills (paragraphing, drafting, editing, sentence structure), handwriting, questioning and comprehending.
Australia Post matches classes to schools around Australia with classes of the same grade with similar student numbers.
Teachers will approach this authentic writing opportunity with sensitivity to the disclosure of personal information. For example, letter writing will not respond to personal questions and will only engage in general questions based around school life. A student’s full name, age or address will not be communicated at any time. The letter writing process will be explicitly guided by the classroom teachers.
Students will engage in writing and responding through this initiative.
General topics discussed in letter writing may include:
- Favourite colours, subjects, interests
- School programs: investigations, music, ProjectNEST, Freedom 2 Learn
- Current incursions/excursions
The letter writing experience is supported by The Pen Pal Club by Sally Morgan. Lesson plans have been developed to further support writing in a specific manner. For example, whilst this whole experience places an emphasis on letter writing, lessons hone in on the various skills required to write a letter. A very specific example may include the teaching of adjectives. This encourages students to ask themselves, how can I make my writing more interesting through the use of adjectives?
We look forward to commencing our letter writing next week!
