Hi everyone,
Write a letter
to James McBride. This is a formal letter, and it should be typed. Please use the format below. I will mail the letters to him and maybe he
will write us back! In your letter,
please do the following:
Begin with a
formal greeting, “Dear Mr. McBride”
Paragraph 1: Introduce yourself, name, country of origin,
grade in school, how long you’ve been in the US, and why you’re writing to him
(in my ESL class, we just finished your memoir, The Color of Water)
Paragraph 2: Tell him what the book meant to you. Tell him
what you enjoyed about it and why, how it made you feel and why, and any text
to self connections you made as you read. Be specific. Refer to actual quotes from the memoir (go back
to your reading logs to do this, and look at your double entry journals).
Paragraph 3: Ask him questions you have about the book.
Make sure you are respectful and only ask appropriate questions.
Then thank him
for reading your letter and writing the memoir.
Close with “Sincerely” and then print your name and sign the letter.
Layout for a formal letter:
Your
name
Street
Address
City,
State Zip Code
Today’s date
Dear Mr. McBride,
My name is…(see above for all details from Paragraph 1).
Your memoir The Color Water meant so much to me… (see
above for all details from Paragraph 2).
I have some questions about the memoir…(see above for
Paragraph 3).
Thank you for your time reading my letter and for writing
the memoir.
Sincerely,
Sign your name
Print your name
See my letter
below for an example of what it looks like:
James McBride
PO BOX 829
NEW YORK, NY 10108
January 7, 2013
Dear Mr. McBride,
My students and I wanted to write and thank you for your
incredible memoir, The Color of Water.
We thoroughly enjoyed reading it together, experiencing your history and
your mother’s history, as told by you with such humor, warmth and love.
My students are all new
immigrants, from over 50 different countries, and they too have had no easy
childhood. They easily identify with the pain you experienced as you learned
about your mother’s past. Many of them
were separated from their parents at a young age, and are only now meeting
them, here in a new country, as if for the first time. Also, many of them experience great
discrimination due to their document status, race, language abilities, accents,
cultural differences, and xenophobia.
I have taught your memoir many times over the years, and
every time, it’s as if I’m reading it for the first time. My daughter, who is
now eight, is also from parents of different races and religions (I’m Jewish
and my husband is West Indian). I easily identify with your story, and can’t
wait for the day when she is old enough to read it.
Please enjoy my students’ letters and thank you again for
your work.
With warm sincerity,
Julie Mann, ESL teacher, Newcomers High School
Hi everyone,
