Imaginary Correspondence

Students will tell a story through letters and postcards

Level: Jr. Sr. High School
Originated by: Ms. Connie Jonett, Stratford High School, Stratford, Wisconsin

Students will work in partners so that each person will have a finished project.  Each student will have two roles: the traveler in their partner’s book (they will need knowledge of the area where they are traveling) and as the writer from their home (their book to keep).

• Students will need to come up with names and background information for their characters.  They should write about what they know or what they can make believable.  Keep in mind that letters to and from the East Coast, West Coast and southern areas in the United States generally take five days after the postmark to arrive.   Responses should be dated accordingly.
• Each student will write five times per book.  As the traveler, they will need to mention the places that they are traveling, impressions of the locality, make up people they meet, and ask about people back home.  As the home person, they will need to write about what is going on back at home and make references to family members and friends that the traveler would know.  The student is responsible for decorating their home book.
• By the first letter, the characters are to have some sort of problem which they encountered (minor conflict).  By the last postcard, the characters are either at their destination, coming home, or wrapping up the story in some way.  Not all stories have happy endings either.
• All postcards and envelopes are to be highly decorated and designed mainly by the home person.  Students may choose to draw postcards about the sights they are seeing, or may choose to draw more metaphorical creations bout what the character is thinking.