Developing an intergenerational pen pal project
Abstract
Volunteers with Northwest Iowa RSVP and students at Spencer Middle School were linked through an intergenerational pen pal project that culminated with each student writing a life story of her/his pen pal. The students presented the stories to their pen pals at an end of the year party. This effective practice was submitted by Mary Steele, director of Northwest Iowa RSVP.
Issue
The eighth grade teaching team at Spencer Middle School, in Spencer, Iowa, wanted a project that was multidisciplinary, would last the whole school year, and incorporated service-learning.
Action
The middle school teachers of Spencer Middle School were looking for a yearlong intergenerational project with a service-learning component. RSVP proposed to pair 60 volunteers with 60 eighth graders to exchange letters over the course of the first semester. The students and volunteers wrote seven letters each, approximately one every other week. They named the project "Letters, Lessons, and Life Stories."
In the second semester the students wrote and published a "life story" of their pen pals based on the letters they had received. The life stories were presented when the pen pals met for the first time at the close of the school year, during a pizza party hosted by RSVP. Several students and RSVP pen pals volunteered to read their life stories to the whole group.
During their correspondence, students structured their letters to get all the necessary information they'd need to write the life stories during the second semester. They came up with questions by researching oral history inqueries they found on the Internet. During the second semester, the students began writing the life stories, which tested their writing and editing skills as well as desktop publishing abilities.
The project actually involved three generations as parents regularly volunteered in the classroom. Parents helped students revise their letters and were particularly helpful in translating the cursive handwriting used by most of the pen pals, a writing style not practiced by many of the students.
Most of the pen pal volunteers were "hand picked" by RSVP staff, although news briefs were posted in the local newspaper and in the local RSVP newsletter. Potential pen pals were invited to a luncheon, at which time the project was described in detail and volunteer responsibilities were outlined. Some self-selection occurred as some potential volunteers decided they would not be able to adhere to the time commitment required.
Pen pal volunteers were chosen for their reliable timeliness to assure that all the students would receive their letters at the same time. Volunteers were also chosen for their ability to relate to middle school students. For this reason, many of the volunteers selected were retired educators. Volunteers needed to be articulate, possessing both good written and verbal skills. It was necessary for some volunteers to be especially understanding of students with special needs.
Once the RSVP pen pals were selected, the RSVP staff and middle school teachers met for an hour-long session, matching the most suitable personalities for each pen pal pairing.
Because it was imperative that the teachers embrace the idea of the project — because of the extra work and responsibility for them — RSVP staff met with teachers prior to starting the project to describe the objectives, get their input, and let them know what their time commitment would be. They then decided whether or not to participate.
The project did involve some significant challenges. Recruiting the right volunteers and reminding them to get their letters written and into the RSVP office on time took a lot of effort. The teachers reported that getting the students to finish letters on time was also a struggle, especially if they were out sick or during weeks when special activities at school preempted letter writing.
Context
Northwest Iowa RSVP is sponsored by Iowa Lakes Community College, with offices in five counties. This project was conducted only in the town of Spencer, a very rural area, with a population of 12,000 people.
Three classes of eighth graders (a total of sixty students) at Spencer Middle School were involved in the pen pal project. They engaged in the project during their non-academic homeroom period, which lasts between twenty and fifty minutes each school day.
Outcome
Students used the Internet to research questions used for recording oral histories and to acquire strategies on how to write biographies. The students improved their letter-writing skills, learned desktop publishing and, most importantly, gained a mentor and friend.
The students recognized that they had recorded someone's history that may have otherwise been lost. While not all students were equally affected by their interactions with a pen pal, many found the project very rewarding and established lasting friendships with members of an older generation.
Another benefit of this project was improving the letter-writing skills of the students. With phones and email, letter writing is becoming a lost art. One teacher shared a story about two students who came to him after addressing their first letters asking, "Where does the stamp go?"
The greatest gain for the RSVP volunteers was getting to know a young person and seeing their struggles and their successes. The volunteers learned that, although growing up was very different for them than for these eighth graders, they had more in common than they thought they might.
The project also benefited RSVP. Additional volunteers were needed for this project and the program was able to attract "younger" retired administrators and teachers who would probably not have signed up with RSVP otherwise.
The local newspaper ran a front-page story with a color picture, which helped raise awareness of RSVP.
A videographer shot footage throughout the project for a promotional video, which will be used to recruit pen pals in the next academic year and to show when speaking to community groups to increase awareness of RSVP's intergenerational activities.
Posted On
July 18, 2001For More Information
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