Have you been searching for ways to help your students achieve the literacy goals and objectives you set for them? Have you also been exploring activities that will help your students become more culturally sensitive and aware? If so, Sincerely Yours will definitely be of interest to you!

Sincerely Yours is a safe and friendly non-profit organization through which students, under your direct supervision in the classroom, become pen pals with children all over the world while simultaneously developing literacy skills and cultural awareness.

As classroom teachers, we understand the need to utilize all curriculum components to strengthen the literacy program and prospectus utilized by our respective school districts. Through Sincerely Yours, children will tap into many disciplines because they are required to write across different areas of the curriculum. Their interest will be sustained because they will be writing about topics that are relevant, real, and near and dear to them. They will also become adept at soliciting information from their pen pals by learning to formulate effective, intriguing and all-encompassing questions. Students will learn to articulate themselves in a manner that will enable them to generate interest in their lives, captivate their reader and lead to fascinating and engaging responses.

Sincerely Yours differs from other pen pal programs because it was specifically formulated with children’s safety, educational and cultural needs in mind. Our members communicate with one another through “snail-mail” (pen and paper) further enabling them to learn to read, write, spell and communicate well.

At Sincerely Yours, we work with teachers and classrooms. Our program does not link individual-to-individual, child-to-child. However, we make accommodations to link children who are being home schooled to other children in similar situations should they have a desire to participate in our program. Our decision, however, to work with teachers permits us to ensure optimal safety for our members, both students and teachers. What makes the program even better, in fact great, is that it has been designed to fit the needs of children in grades K-12, with each grade writing at its own level. Kindergartners can utilize invented spelling with pictures and accompanying teacher translations to communicate, while high school seniors can draft more sophisticated pieces implementing the writing process and other writing strategies learned throughout the years including the incorporation of foreign language study if pen palling with a classroom abroad! This program can truly be adapted to fit any learning environment and a vast array of educational needs.

Teachers have the flexibility to pick or assign specific topics or to give students the option to write about what is near and dear to them. As the teacher, you and your respective buddy teacher (the one with which you are paired) determine how often your classrooms correspond with one another. You even have the option of linking with your collaborative classroom’s teacher and co-designing exercises for your students. The opportunities are virtually endless!