I have seen this idea before – kids write a letter to their teacher telling all about themselves. These are often expected to be multi paragraph writing pieces. Often teachers use it as an all about me activity and a writing assessment all-in-one. I RESIST this kind of activity at the beginning of the year and so I came up with this activity instead. And, I LOVE it.

Why I Don’t Do Begining of The Year Assessments, Like “A Letter to My Teacher”

I don’t like doing assessments in the first couple weeks of school. I know a lot of teachers who do but what I have found is that kids are just not in ‘school mode’ yet. They forget what they learned last year, probably because few of them read, write or do math over summer vacation. In addition, there is no trust. Trust is built over time and the kids who are in my class, often are meeting me for the first time and it is the start of a new grade. It’s stressful for many of them. Stress skews test results. When I did give assessments in the first two weeks of school, I found that kids did not score well – some of those kids just a week or two later begin to show what they know because 1) We’ve reviewed 2) We are beginning to develop trust. 3) Stress over starting a new grade is fading. Giving the assessments in the first two weeks gives false results which are truly useless in helping plan future lessons, units or groupings of students for instruction. I use the two weeks to review what was learnt and to remind students of the expectations. Then, I’ll do assessments.

Why I LOVE This Scaffolded A Letter to My Teacher Activity

1. It shows that I CARE about them – I want to know more about them. See, a step towards building trust. You can’t get that with an assessment.
2. It gives me a ton of INFORMATION about the student.
3. They are PRIVATE – I tell kids that these letters are not being shared with the class. They are just for me. That title – “A Letter for My Teacher” is true – it is for me only.
4. It’s OPEN ended without being too open ended. Kids are give prompts to answer with a lot of space to add extra information to the prompts and places to ask questions or add what they believe to be important. It gives those reluctant writers a nudge.
5. It is FUN to give these back to kids at the end of the year. Students couldn’t believe their responses! Some commented on how their writing conventions improved and how off they were on some of the expectations they had when entering Grade 5.
6. It is LESS INTIMIDATING for ESL, reluctant writers and those with learning disabilities. It’s not an assessment, there is no pressure to come up with ideas and supporting details or worry about conventions.
7. Kids get out some of what they are FEELING right away – good information for teachers. You can see what kids are happy to be in school, who is not and which kids are anxious (and sometimes even why).

If you would like to try my version of “A Letter to My Teacher”, you can pick one up in my Teachers Pay Teachers store by clicking here.