Mail Merge

Today students finished their mail merge letters. Students had the choice to write a letter in support or against Oregon House Bill 2650 - the removal of junk food in public schools -or- a letter about reducing lunch waste and incorporating a lunch recycling program at schools.

After conducting our own analysis of our school lunches and researching these two topics, students wrote their 1st drafts. Working in partners, the drafts were edited using "track changes" and finalized. Students looked up addresses for Oregon Senate leaders and editors of local newspapers. These addresses were inputed on a Google shared spreadsheet. The spreadsheet was exported for anyone to use.

I demonstrated the format of a full-block business letter. Students began the steps of the mail merge and added the appropriate "fields" in the letter. Using the mail merge helper allowed students to preview their letters before merging. The final letters were printed, signed, envelopes were addressed and mailed.

My goal in doing the letter campaign was to give students an authentic reason for learning how to write a formal business letter and to learn the steps of a mail merge letter. One student summed up his feelings, "I don't know if my letter will make any difference but at least they know how us teenagers feel".