POSTCARD PROJECT
Objectives: The students will create their own postcard to introduce themselves.
The project: On a piece of cardboard that students provide, (the back of a cereal box...preferably empty :) ) they will introduce themselves both visually and in writing. On the front of the card board, I ask my students to cut out from magazines, things they relate to. For exemple, they might want to find the logo of their favorite professional team, the picture of their favorite actor, favorite activity, favorite place and so on. If some of your students are artists, it might be interesting that they include a drawing or do it all together by hand. Needless to say that the front part of the postcard can be done in collaboration with the art teacher.
I also strongly suggest that they put a picture of themselves on the front. If they feel comfortable with this, I can tell you that students really appreciate to be able to put a face to their pen-pals. Some other students prefer to get to know their pal a little bit more before they send a picture. You will know which approach is best.
On the back of the postcard, students must describe themselves in writting. I ask my students to divide their message in two parts. One in English and one in French. But don't be mistaken. The two parts must not be a simple translation. It allows them to practice their second language as well as their mother tongue (they desperately need it :( ). It also helps them to be more
" natural " when they write in their mother tongue.
Furthermore, students could find the mistakes most commonly made and it would force them to pay more attention to their own language. Once they find these mistakes, they could talk about them with their pen-pal. This is only a suggestion.
In their message, the students should include the following:
-Name, age
-Physical description
-Familly:parents, brothers, sisters, pets
-Hobbies
-Favorite school subject, if any :)
-One particular talent
-Questions to their new pen-pal to keep the dynamics of the exchange
-Any other subject you think might be of interest.
Once you have gathered all the postcards, you put them in a big envellope and send them by snail mail. The front part could be done in the art class or at home but the written part should be done in class. Allow them about a week to complete the work.
I had a hard time last year respecting this because I didn't grade their work for this. It was an experimental year. This year is quite different. I give 10 for the front part ( artistic and effort) and 10 for the message on the back (quality of message in both languages).
Once you put the postcards in the mail, watch your students get all excited as they wait for a reply. They will ask you: " Did we get mail, did we get mail???? ". And be sure to notice their happy faces when you will finally show them the big envelope you have received.
This first contact by postcards can then be the starting point of a quicker way to correspond: via email.
To avoid confusion when comes time of distribution, you will want to agree with the other teacher on the way you will match each student. A simple way of doing this is to exchange a list of students for each class.
I hope this could be of help to many teachers who want to link their class to another class somewhere on this big (but yet so small) planet.
�cole Secondaire Marie-Anne
100 rue Sauv�, est
Montr�al, Qu�bec, Canada
H3L 1H1
C/O : Marc G. Dub� (ESL teacher)
Thank you!