Pen Pal Program Makes Writing Fun at Waccamaw School
Corri Proctor, CIS Success Coach at Waccamaw School, has been running a Pen Pal Program throughout the course of the year. At the beginning of the year, some CIS students were assigned a Pen Pal from an Elementary School from New York State (Hinsdale Central School, Hinsdale, NY). Throughout the year they have been writing letters back and forth.
Through this program students have worked on their writing skills: spelling, grammar, sentence structure, social skills, have learned how to write a proper letter, address an envelope, learned the process of sending a letter and how long it takes to get one back, learned about a different part of the country, and made connections with students from another school solely through writing. The students sent each other drawings, stickers, and much more. They just sent their last letter.
With technology today many students don’t know how to write a letter or address an envelope and don’t realize that they won’t get an immediate response back like social media or texting. This program has allowed CIS students to learn so much. They are looking forward to doing it again next year!
Working with students to develop skills, like writing, takes a variety of diverse activities to engage them and make learning fun. Exposing them to letter writing is just one creative way our Success Coach Corri found to do so. The more numerous and varied opportunities you can provide to students, the more likely it is that at least one type of activity will resonate with them and result in them being engaged in learning without sometimes even realizing they are learning because they are having so much fun doing it!
