However, a recent unit on letter writing, and a connection with members of the North Olmsted Senior Center, has inspired some of the students to try their hands at the original social medium: writing to a pen pal.
Teachers Mary Jo Gruhn and Anne Carney said more than 30 students at Chestnut have been learning about letter writing since January. In March, the students began exchanging letters with several Senior Center members.
The lesson culminated May 25 when the students and seniors got together at the North Olmsted Community Cabin for meet-and-greet reception to finally put a face with the name behind the pen.
Gruhn said the idea behind the lesson was that for some children, writing is more effective if it can be an authentic experience, actually writing for an audience.
“Our reluctant writers took off,” Gruhn said. “We have kids who wouldn’t even write three sentences and they were writing whole page letters.”
Carney said the lesson incorporated an intergenerational concept. Seniors wrote beautiful letters about their experiences in school, and the children replied with stories about their families and pets.
“Their faces just lit up today, on both sides,” Carney said. “It’s so moving.”
Grace English, 12, said the pen pal program was exciting because she got something back that was very personal.
“I don’t get a lot of letters now,” English said. “It’s usually just texting and emails.”
Gruhn said that was another point of the lesson, to make sure the students were not “plugged in.”
“They’re not texting. They’re not saying ‘LOL.’ They’re actually writing out words and sentences and paragraphs,” Gruhn said. “And now, when they meet face-to-face, we’re getting the speaking and listening part.”
Senior Center member Peggy Lenkaitis enjoyed sharing pictures and book reviews with Maura Lang, 11.
“Getting together like this is nice because it brings a sort of closure to it,” Lenkaitis said.
Meanwhile, Senior Center organizers said the hard work of North Olmsted High School senior Sandy Youssef was evident in the success of the program. Youssef was completing her senior service project for graduation.
“There were a lot of lessons to be learned here on all sides,” said senior center Administrator Jackie Chavez-Anderson.
Chavez-Anderson said one of the biggest lessons to be learned was that students did not know how to read cursive writing.
At one point during the letter exchange, teachers and staff had to help the students decipher letters from the seniors, whose penmanship was perfect, but seemed like hieroglyphics to the unknowing students.
“I think we broke some stereotypes here,” Chavez-Anderson said. “There were surprises on both sides.”