22 Look Out, Email. Handwritten Letters Are Making a Comeback
22 Look Out, Email. Handwritten Letters Are Making a Comeback
Learning Outcomes
- Apply the reading process to “Look Out, Email. Handwritten Letters Are Making a Comeback.”
- Summarize the article.
- Respond to the article.
- Connect the ideas in the article to another text.
- Apply the ideas in the article by sending someone a handwritten note or letter.
Preview the Article
Follow the steps below to preview the article “Look Out, Email. Handwritten Letters Are Making a Comeback.” Ideally, you should print a copy and write your responses in the margins of the printed copy. To read more about previewing, visit the chapter on previewing a reading.
- Read the title and subtitle. What do they make you think about? What do you think the article is about? What questions do you have? Record your predictions and questions on the printed copy of the article near the title.
- This article discusses the LA Pen Pal Club. Visit their website to learn more about the group. You may also want to Google “pen pal clubs” to see what else you can learn prior to reading the article. Record any discoveries you make on the printed copy of the article.
- Read the first four paragraphs, which serve as an introduction to the article. What additional predictions do you now have about the article? What additional questions do you have? Record them on the printed copy of the article.
- Scan the bolded and underlined vocabulary in the article. If there are any words that you do not know well, look them up in a print or online dictionary and write some notes about their meanings on the printed copy of the article. Read the sentence containing each word to understand the word’s usage. Also, pay attention in your reading to words like stationery, which is used throughout the article beginning in paragraph 1. Stationery is commonly confused with stationary; the words have the same pronunciation. Pay attention to other commonly confused words when reading and writing.
- Based on your research about pen pal clubs and your preview of the article, what do you think is the central point of the article? (Don’t worry if you are not sure. This is a prediction or guess – you do not have to be correct as long as you are engaging your brain.) Record your prediction on the printed copy of the article.
- Based on your preview, do you predict that the article is narrative, expository, or argumentative?
Read Interactively
Now, read the article using the guidelines from the chapter on reading interactively. As you read, follow these steps to engage with the text.
- Pause to confirm or revise your predictions and to answer the questions you posed while previewing the article. Write down those revised predictions and responses to the questions as you read. If you cannot find the answers to your questions, save them for further research and discussion.
- Pause at other points to check for understanding of what you just read. Can you explain key ideas in your own words yet? If not, reread to clarify