Build Mastery: Thank-you Letter

From FreeReading

What to Do

Prepare

Display the group thank-you letter.

Model/Instruct

1. Explain the lesson.

Today you will use what you have learned about thank-you letters to write your own thank-you letter.

2. Ask students to tell you about the punctuation, capitalization, and special formatting of thank-you letters.

Let’s look at our group letter. What do you notice about how the date is written? That’s right, the month begins with a capital letter and there is a comma between the date and the year.

What do you notice about how the greeting is written? Yes, the greeting and the name of the person begin with capital letters and there is a comma after the greeting.

Remember that the body of the letter tells why you are writing and gives the reasons. Try to include at least three reasons that you are thankful when you write the body of your letter.

What do you notice about how the closing is written? Great, the closing begins with a capital letter and there is a comma after it.

What do you notice about how the signature is written? That’s correct: all names begin with a capital letter. Be sure to remember that the date and the signature line up together on the page.

Practice

3. Have your students use the group letter as a guide to help them draft and revise thank-you letters.

Now you will draft your own thank-you letter. You can use our group letter to help you. Make sure to check for punctuation, capitalization, and the five parts we've talked about.

Adjust

For Advanced Students:

Encourage these students to write as many reasons as possible in the body of their letter.

For Struggling Students:

These students can work with the teacher to compose another group letter.

For ELL Students:

Provide these students with a short checklist of punctuation and capitalization rules.

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