International Penpal (pen and paper) Project

[teacherjim]

Hello cohorts,

I am looking for an EFL teacher to partner with in order to do a penpal project between my students here in China (Sichuan) and your students. I did this project last year and it was a huge success. To be clear, I am talking about the pen and paper kind, not electronic.


Once my students figured out that they were writing to real people in another country (they have had "pretend" penpal exercises for years in their English classes so assumed this was another "fake" penpal project) they were super engaged. It is one of the best projects I have ever done.

I already have the project pretty well organized: spreadsheets to manage the exchange of letters, lesson plans and media to introduce and run each class, etc.

But, don't be mistaken, there is still a lot of work involved. I have 200 English major, Chinese college students and I screen every letter before it is sent, then box everything up and ship it to the teacher in the other country. The logistics is a bit daunting, but the payoff in student engagement was well worth it. It not only helped their English, but it bridged cultural gaps between China and America (where last year's pen pals were from), which may be the biggest pay off.

If you are interested, let me know.

Thanks,
Jim