There's a lot to be said for hearing the post plop through the letter box at 2pm and finding you've got a lovely letter to open...and then opening it to find some beautiful letter that has been thoughtfully and carefully crafted just for you.
Well, this is how I and my top set Yr 7 French class feel when we receive our letters. We've set up an exchange of class letters with our partner school in France. It's such a simple idea and hundreds of people have done it before but this is the first year I've ever set up a letter exchange as a class. It's easy, we just do our extended writing tasks at the end of units as proper, real letters for proper, real people and then we get replies. The great thing is that doing it in class time means no-one's penfriend trails of and is never heard of again and everybody sends something and receives something. The excitement that goes round the room when I arrive with a package fresh from France is amazing! And the pupils acutally WANT to write in French and make it right etc, etc... Which is what it's all about at the end of the day, isn't it? Using languages for real communication.
Now I know that there are some who might say "can't this be done via email? It's quicker" etc...but, personally I have to admit that nothing beats a real letter in real handwriting with lovely drawings and pictures etc..., yes , I'm sure that, in time we will graduate to some emails and even the odd video-conference but for now we are still enjoying our lovely old-fashioned letters and keeping them safe to look at in years to come and remember our French penfriends by!
No comments:
Post a Comment