Robin Bridger, Elisabeth Peters, Anica Brown

Teacher Applicants: Anica Brown, Elisabeth Peters, Robin Bridger
Project Title: Linking Through Letters
School: Pound Middle School
Grade: 6

Project Description:
In an age when most of the writing that twelve-year-old students complete is online and through text messaging, our year-long letter writing project, Linking Through Letters, provided 216 sixth grade students the opportunity to practice their grammar skills while connecting with our Nebraska Army National Guard soldiers. Students demonstrated their written skills in the friendly letters they wrote to their soldier pen pals. Sharing conversation through handwritten letters was a way of recording history and to recall what we learned from each other. We were able to build connections beyond our classroom with 182 members of the 600th Transportation Company deployed in Iraq and 11 soldiers stationed in many parts of Afghanistan. Additionally, through this handwriting journey, our students have learned what it means to be patriotic, shared ideas about citizenship for our country, raised their knowledge about the world globally, and have been able to demonstrate their personal support for our troops.

Writing handwritten letters has helped our students grow in their expressive language. We teach the Six Traits writing lessons as a guide to expanding written techniques in word choice, sentence fluency, organization, and most of all, voice. As the year progressed, our students have shown growth in all of these areas. As we received letters back from our soldier pen pals, they mentioned that our handwritten letters were a tremendous break from the daily routine of combat. They shared how they benefited from our personal touches of support, our Nebraska news from home, and a connections that was a source to boost their morale while in harm’s way. We’ve learned that on a daily basis our soldiers provide all kinds of humanitarian aid in the way of stability for the people they encounter in Iraq and Afghanistan, giving them a chance at opportunities that we so often take for granted.

During this writing project, we discovered and discussed many different aspects of the military. The RECON videos we received through The Pentagon Channel enhanced our perspectives on the past and present service of our military, as well as the History Channel segments we watched. During a two-week period, we invited veterans to come into our classrooms and share their experiences in the service as part of the History Channel’s “Take a Vet to School Day” project. We followed these presentations by holding a memorable Veterans Day assembly on Monday, November 12, 2007, at our school. Students invited their families and veterans, who were recognized in their field of service and stood when our eighth grade  band played their military song. Through these experiences, students have grown in their understanding and respect for what our military has done for us in the past and what it continues to do for us every day, here and abroad.

Our pen pal project has provided us with other opportunities and activities to share. We created a banner that was signed by the entire sixth grade class and teachers as a sign of support for our troops. It was then sent to our pen pal soldiers in Iraq. We also sent home school supplies to the children in Afghanistan. We have stayed in touch with our soldiers’ missions through the 600th Transportation Company’s monthly newsletter, The Dispatch, and PowerPoint presentations sent by e-mail from Major Gary Ropers in Afghanistan. We shared messages of support through The Hometowns to Heroes Project that Nebraska Senator Ben Nelson provides on his website to let citizens share their well wishes during the holiday season. Tricia Fintel, our contact at The Pentagon Channel, was pleased we were interested in using their RECON videos so much that they wrote an article about our pen pal project in their newsletter with several quotes from our students about the importance of viewing the videos.

Students continued writing letters throughout the year even though they knew that they wouldn’t receive a letter back. They realized that it was in the gift of the letter that they kept demonstrating their support. In addition, students wrote poems expressing their feelings about the soldiers, their freedom, and the United States. Our DVD presentation for Cable in the Classroom is a collection of excerpts from these poems- a reflection of what our sixth grade students feel they have learned from our pen pal project. They have also created classroom podcasts of these patriotic poems, which were posted on their teacher’s podcast website for our soldiers to hear.
 
We have planned a Celebration of our Nebraska Army National Guard program at our school for this spring. On Tuesday, May 20, 2008, the week prior to Memorial Day Weekend, we have invited family members of our soldier pen pals to join our families, friends and veterans in our auditorium to recognize these courageous men and women we have been writing to this year. Letters, pictures, and items received from our soldiers will be on display. We are planning for our sixth graders to share songs of patriotism, some poems and speeches, and most importantly, to honor these soldiers and their families for faithfully serving our country. We also will thank the Nebraska Army National Guard for making this project possible.

As of Friday, March 14th, Captain Ryan Kramer, the commander of the 600th Transportation Company, told us through e-mail that the company will be returning in May. Previously, we had been informed they would not be home until July. We are excited about the possibility that some of the soldiers will be in attendance for our program on May 20th. We will send letters to our sixth grade families letting them know the date of our soldiers’ arrival in Lincoln.

In many ways this project has become larger than we first expected. Our students have certainly improved how they express themselves by writing letters, but more than that, they’ve begun to have conversations at home and school about the patriotism we have for our country. They understand the kind of hero it takes to be dedicated to fight for something so important-- freedom and democracy.

 “I feel that we are very lucky to be able to have a pen pal who is a soldier. It is a great experience to learn what our soldiers do and what they think about serving our country.” –Amanda, 6th grade student

“I like the pen pal project with the soldiers because we get to talk to heroes and people that want to serve out country.” –Xavier, 6th grade student