The Letter to Self is to be written into you Composition notebook. The Letter to Self is not shared, not even with your teacher. Rather, it is a letter written to the you whom you become at the end of the year.
Letter to SELF
STEP ONE: Read this handout and think about the questions. (10 min.)
STEP TWO: On the back of this handout do some brainstorming. Write down anything that comes to mind. (5 min.)
STEP THREE: Write a LETTER to yourself. I want you to do some reflecting and some exploring of your feelings in relation to the following: (30 min.)
- How are you feeling about yourself right now?
- How are you feeling about your senior year of high school?
- How are you feeling about learning and experiencing and exploring new things?
- What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
- How do you feel about yourself as a reader?
- How do you feel about yourself as a writer?
- What have you written that you feel proud of?
- What would you like to do with your writing?
- What matters to you MOST in life right now?
- What you do expect to get out of this English class?
- What do you expect me to be like as your instructor?
- What are your first impressions of this class in general?
- Discuss your willingness to be open to change and new ideas.
- What are your goals for the future?
- What questions do you have?
- Add any additional comments.
Suggestions: Reflect and explore as you write—write to discover how you feel about these things; don’t erase; don’t cross out; don’t tear up the page; don’t worry about punctuation and paragraphs and such—just write and reflect and feel. Fold the letter up; write your name, period, and today’s date on the OUTSIDE. No one else will read this! Put your papers in the class envelope. This envelope will be kept in a special place until the end of the year when your writing will be returned to you for use in composing a final piece of writing for yourself.
Standards: 12.W.4a: Produce clear coherent function writing (i.e. letters) in which the development and organization are appropriate to the task, purpose, and audience.
Download the paper copy below: