letter writing · reflections

Updated End-of-Year Letter Guidelines

Stacey Shubitz

Here’s what I’m giving my students to work on over the course of three days this week:

Guide to End of the Year Letters to Ms. S.

NOTE: Your paragraphs do not need to follow this exact structure! It’s merely a guideline to help you if you’re stuck.

• Paragraph 1: What is your greatest accomplishment since March 2009? Tell me why you’re proud of yourself for this accomplishment.
• Paragraph 2: Now that we’re in June, reflect on what’s easy for you (that was challenging for you in September). Elaborate on what made this particular item/area simpler as time passed.
• Paragraph 3: What is still challenging for you? What are you going to do to overcome this challenge?
• Paragraph 4: What was the best part of being a 4-310 student? What was the worst part of being a 4-310 student? (Elaborate on both responses.)
• Paragraph 5: Have you accomplished your Hopes and Dreams this year? If not, then tell me what stood in your way. If you did accomplish them, then have you set new goals for yourself?
• Paragraph 6: What have you learned about cooperative group work/partnerships by being in this class?
• Paragraph 7: What advice can you give me as a teacher?
• Paragraph 8: Anything else you want to tell me.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO:
• Follow a friendly letter format.
• Skip lines if you have swirly handwriting.
• Sign your name in the closing of your letter.

Your letter is due to me on Friday, 6/5/09. I will respond to each of your letters personally the following week. Thank you, in advance, for your time on this project.

Feel free to adapt this for your classroom if you wish to do a similar project.

Published by Stacey Shubitz

I am a literacy consultant who focuses on writing workshop. I've been working with K-6 teachers and students since 2009. Prior to that, I was a fourth and fifth-grade teacher in New York City and Rhode Island. I'm the author of Craft Moves (Stenhouse Publishers, 2016) and the co-author of Jump Into Writing (Zaner-Bloser, 2021), Welcome to Writing Workshop (Stenhouse Publishers, 2019), and Day By Day (Stenhouse, 2010). I live in Central Pennsylvania with my husband and children. In my free time, I enjoy swimming, doing Pilates, cooking, baking, making ice cream, and reading novels.

5 thoughts on “Updated End-of-Year Letter Guidelines”

  1. This is a great idea!

    I revised it a bit for my sixth graders. I can’t wait to see what they say. This will also help me with the commentary in the cards that I plan to give them at the end of the year.

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  4. Ah, that’s my classroom “name.”
    As for their summer reading and writing plans, I have something separate I give them for that since they undertake Independent Reading and Writing Projects at the end of the school year.

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