When you're writing historical fiction, the past really can become the present — especially if you're writing in the present continuous tense! Cover World War I, verb tenses, censorship, and letter writing with one informative instructional activity and presentation.

Concepts

world war i, the present continuous tense, the present progressive tense, censorship, formatting a letter, friendly letters, parts of a letter, letter writing, personal letters

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Have class members respond to each other's letters in character 
• Connect to a lesson on wartime censorship

Classroom Considerations

• Teaches the present continuous tense, which is also known as the present progressive tense
• Refer to the attached materials for student resources
• Provide learners with prior information on World War I
• Designed for high schoolers, but applicable for middle schoolers learning about World War I as well

Pros

• Provides a presentation with images from the war
• An ideal cross-curricular assignment between social studies and language arts

Cons

• None

Common Core

W.9-10.3.a W.9-10.4 W.9-10.10 W.11-12.3.a W.11-12.4 W.11-12.10 SL.9-10.1.a SL.11-12.1.a RH.9-10.1 RH.11-12.1