Alicia PowellAlicia PowellAmy GibbsAmy Gibbs

ECED 4300 BDr. Tonja RootSpring 2007

Grade Level: 3rd Form: Courtesy Letters

Alicia Powell

ECED 4300 B

Dr. Tonja Root

Spring 2007

Grade Level: 3rd

Form of Writing: Courtesy Letters

Stage of Writing: Prewriting

Form of Form of WritingWriting

The form of writing is courtesy letters. These include thank-you letters and invitations. Today, we will focus on thank-you letters.

Thank-you letters are mostly written to people who are familiar with you, therefore you will begin your letter with the date. This is known as the heading.

Form of Form of WritingWriting

After the heading, you will need a greeting. Dear is the most common greeting. After you write your greeting, you will need a comma.

The body of your letter is where you include what you want to say to that person. This is the main part of your letter. You will begin your body by indenting five spaces.

Form of Form of WritingWriting

The closure is where you end the letter. You can use sincerely, your friend, love etc. After your closure, you will need a comma.

Finally, you will need to sign your name. This is called your signature. Use your best handwriting on your signature.

Stage of Stage of WritingWriting

Prewriting is the first stage of the writing process.

This stage is where you decide what your topic will be.

You will also need to consider who you are writing for, or you audience.

Stage of Stage of WritingWriting

The purpose should be known so that you are aware of what you are writing about.

The form is important because it tells whether you will be writing a poem, letter, narrative, etc.

A graphic organizer should be used to help you plan and arrange your ideas.

Graphic Graphic OrganizerOrganizer

Leedy, L. (1991). Messages in the mailbox: How to write a letter. New York: Holiday House.

12/29/99Dear Great Grammy, Thank you for the sweater you knit for me. It fits perfectly, and everybody says it looks pretty on me.

I love you! Kim

Heading

Greeting

Body

Closure

Signature

The book gives examples of different types of friendly letters. Included are the types of courtesy letters such as invitations and thank-you letters.

The book shows how to set up the different courtesy letters and why you use these letters.

Also, it gives ideas for greetings and closures. The book gives examples of the courtesy letters that students could use as a guide.

Practice Practice ActivityActivity

The students will use “shared pen” to complete the graphic organizer about a class visitor. We will create a thank-you letter to Mr. Bob the firefighter who visited our classroom yesterday. The students will consider our topic, audience, form, and purpose for our writing.

Assessment Assessment ActivityActivity

The students will be given their own graphic organizer to complete. They will be reminded to consider their audience and purpose for writing. Their topic will be caregivers and their form will be thank-you letters.

Can you give me some examples of caregivers for you?

Helpful HintsHelpful Hints•Why are you thankful?

•What did the person do for you?

•How did they help you?

•What is your favorite thing this person does for you?

•What have you learned from this person?

Other Helpful Other Helpful HintsHints

•What did you receive?

•What will you do with your gift/item?

•When would you use your gift/item?

•How would you use your gift/item?

Amy Gibbs

ECED 4300 B

Dr. Tonja Root

Spring 2007

Grade Level: 3rd

Form of Writing: Courtesy Letters

Stage of Writing: Revising

Form of Form of WritingWriting

The form of writing is courtesy letters. These include thank-you letters and invitations. Today, we will focus on thank-you letters.

Thank-you letters are mostly written to people who are familiar with you, therefore you will begin your letter with the date. This is known as the heading.

Form of Form of WritingWriting

After the heading, you will need a greeting. Dear is the most common greeting. After you write your greeting, you will need a comma.

The body of your letter is where you include what you want to say to that person. This is the main part of your letter. You will begin your body by indenting five spaces.

Form of Form of WritingWriting

The closure is where you end the letter. You can use sincerely, your friend, love etc. After your closure, you will need a comma.

Finally, you will need to sign your name. This is called your signature. Use your best handwriting on your signature.

Stage of Stage of WritingWriting

Revising is where you improve your ideas and the content of your paper.

It is when you meet the needs of you audience and enhance your writing by adding ideas, deleting ideas that do not belong, substituting, and rearranging.

Stage of Stage of WritingWriting

By adding information, you are making your letter stronger and giving it more details.

By deleting information, you are taking away unnecessary ideas. This makes your letter clearer.

Stage of Stage of WritingWriting

By substituting information, you are replacing the content with better ideas.

By rearranging information, you are making your letter more organized.

Leedy, L. (1991). Messages in the mailbox: How to write a letter. New York: Holiday House.

Heading

Greeting

Body

Closure

Signature

1/3Dear Mrs. Green, Thank you so much for having me stay at the ranch. I liked feeding the chickens, but the best part was riding the ponies. I’m not sore anymore!

Sincerely, Sarah

The book gives examples of different types of friendly letters. Included are the types of courtesy letters such as invitations and thank-you letters.

The book shows how to set up the different courtesy letters and why you use these letters.

Also, it gives ideas for greetings and closures. The book gives examples of the courtesy letters that students could use as a guide.

Practice Practice ActivityActivity

The students will use what they learned about adding, deleting, substituting, and rearranging to revise their letters. We will begin by rereading our letter sentence by sentence making changes where needed. The teacher will make the changes on the class model as appropriate.

Assessment Assessment ActivityActivityThe students will begin adding,

deleting, substituting, and rearranging to revise their letters. They will begin by rereading their letter sentence by sentence making changes where needed. They will use a different color then their original writing to make their changes.

Students will then get with a partner and read their letter. Their partner will tell them where changes should be made.