Dear Me Letters

ACTIVITY to do for the beginning of the year:
(I do this with my 8th grade lang. arts class every year...they LOVE it!)

Show the proper way to write a letter by having students write a letter to themselves! This letter will map out goals for their school year, fears, likes/dislikes so far, etc. After modeling how to do the letter, the teacher should collect students' letters after they seal them with a sticker. The teacher then puts them together by class period, saving them until the last week of school when the students get their letters back to read. They then write a paragraph in reaction to their DEAR ME letters. Did they accomplish their goals? Why or why not? How have they grown over the course of the year. Did their likes/dislikes change? Did they overcome their fears they had when school first started? The students love to see how much different they are in comparison to the start of the school year. It is a great activity that causes them to reflect and analyze themselves.
Have fun with this!