Letters to students

The first or second day of school, students wrote in response to a prompt which asked them to tell about something they were proud of. As the semester went on, they wrote to other prompts: about their pets, their grandparents, what they wish for, what they would do if they became a scientist. I used these essays as a basis for individual personal letters I wrote to each student.

When I wrote a letter to a student, I took the student's essay - sometimes more than one essay - and tried to imagine what image that student had of herself or himself. I thought about my own view of the student. I tried, in my letters, to reflect back the student's self-image as I had seen it in the essay, and to add to it my adult vision of what that might mean in the world, and in the student's future.

My goal was to show each student that I had looked carefully and noticed something unique, that I had seen her or him as an individual, I wrote only positive things, nothing negative. I wanted to let my students know I valued them as individuals.

After I started writing these letters, I noticed a number of subtle but definite changes. Students smiled at me more. They looked me in the eye more often. They seemed a little more open in class, more willing to learn. And, having spent half an hour thinking about a student, I saw that student differently.

I delivered these letters by putting the letter, decorated with stickers and stamps, in an envelope, along with the essay I was answering. I taped the envelope into the student's science journal. A few students got letters at a time. Students usually looked very pleased to get a letter. Most took the envelopes out of the journal and took them home. I had a few parents call to tell me how much the letter meant to their son or daughter. And, to my delight, two students wrote letters back to me.

Worries, concerns, and criticisms: The first year I started writing letters to students, I wrote to only one class. The next year, two classes. Then last year, one class. For me, I don't think I can do it for more than one or two classes. One of the most important results of writing to individual students is that it helped me enjoy them more and like my job more. When I tried to write to two classes (60 students) I started to dread it. I would never advise a teacher to try to do this with 150 students. But I think it is important to do it with every student in the class I am writing to so no one feels left out. I found, however, that even for the classes I didn't write to, I began to see students more as individuals as a result of writing individual letters to students.