Lesson 4: Writing a Letter

Objective: Students will demonstrate correct form for business letters, and use them for real purposes.  They will send and receive individual e-mail messages. 

Students visit The Epals Web site to find a key pals to e-mail and use online services, such as The Yahooligans Search Engine as an information source for their research.  

Students will also use desktop publishing to record information for a seven day travel journal.

Activity:  After mapping the seven-day road trip in Lesson 3, the students will contact various Chambers of Commerce for the cities they plan to visit.  
They will write business letters and e-mail to gather information on points of interest, industry, natural resources, products, and tourist attractions they will visit. 
Review the format of a business letter: date, name and address of recipient, greeting, body of letter, and salutation. Text is justified to the left with no indentations for paragraphs.
Students will use keywords such as points of interest, industry, natural resources, travel, maps, and geography to locate information on the Internet.  
The students will then use the information to create a travel journal with entries for each day of their road trip (ex: Miami Chamber of Commerce Website). 
Students can add clip art, graphics from Internet and scanned in photos to journal
Students will also visit Grammar Glossary to learn how to about correct grammar.

Evaluation:  Each student will complete a seven day-travel journal using desktop publishing program.  

Extension Activity: Netiquette

• Some tips about netiquette for kids:

  1. Avoid hurting someone's feelings with e-mail.

  • Sometimes, online, people can't tell that you are joking. When you write an e-mail message, make sure the person you're sending it to will know whether you are happy, sad, angry, joking, etc. You can do this by using smileys, such as :).
    
  • 2. Respect other people's online rights.
  • People on the Internet have rights just as they do in everyday life. If someone sends you a threatening letter, or makes crank phone calls to your house, it can be annoying and sometimes very scary. The same is true on the Internet. If someone sends you e-mail which threatens you or makes you feel uncomfortable, talk to a parent or other adult right away.
    
  • 3. Avoid insulting someone unless you want to start a flame war.
  • A flame war is when angry people try to punish each other with e-mail. Sometimes this can be done by sending so many messages that a mailbox gets jammed, and sometimes this is done by sending a few very nasty messages meant to hurt someone's feelings. If you insult someone with e-mail, they will probably get angry just as they would if you insulted them face to face.
    
  • 4. If someone insults you, be calm.
  • Starting a flame war is serious business on the Net. Even if you are angry with someone, you don't need to take things any further. Try being calm, ignoring the message, or sending a polite message asking for them to explain what they meant. It may have been a misunderstanding.
    
  • 5. Avoid "crashing" discussion groups or forums.
  • People on the Net frequently get together online to talk about things they may have in common. This can be done on a listserv, a bulletin board, a chat group, etc. If you join the discussion just for the fun of "crashing" it, or ruining it, people will definitely get angry.
    
  • 6. Respect the privacy of other people.
  • If someone tells you something secret, it should be kept secret. This includes passwords, full names, addresses, or interests. Sharing your own password with someone else, even someone you like, is never a good idea. Passwords and personal information are private, and are never safe to share with others.
    
  • 7. Be responsible online.
  • When you are at the computer, you are in control. Avoid using the computer to harm other people. Taking things which are not yours (such as files, passwords, or credit card numbers), spreading rumors about other people online, and infecting other computers with viruses (on purpose) are examples of harming other people online.
    
  • 8. Help other people learn more about the Net.
  • Chances are someone else taught you a lot of what you know about the Internet. The Net is growing quickly, and it's difficult to keep up. Other kids, or even your parents and teachers, may need help understanding what it's all about. Try to help them if you can. Who knows? They might show you a thing or two someday
• Have students practice writing draft copies good and bad netiquette email

• Check over and send good email to Chambers of Commerce

Homework: Review how to address an envelope, give students an envelope, and ask them to address it at home and bring it in the next day. Visit The Post Office Web site to learn correct abbreviations.