A letter from the trenches

 

A letter from the trenches

Project: The project is to put yourself in a World War 1 soldier’s shoes and to write a letter explaining what you are living, in English.

Deadline: I will be set in Google Classroom.

Grouping: You are going to do this project individually.

Creativity and accuracy will be highly valued. On the other hand, plagiarism will be punished.

Instructions for the letter

1. PERSONAL INFORMATION.

1.1. Name and surname of the soldier. Invented or real. Remember, women were not recruited for fighting in first line.

1.2. Hometown. Although it can be clear in the first point, you must reflect the city and the side the soldier belongs to, which is going to be Great Britain.

2. HISTORICAL KNOWLEDGE.

2.1. The battle: Any of the World War 1. Place and date. The soldier must be in a front and fight in a battle. You can use the most known ones (First or Second Battle of the Marne, Battle of Tannenberg, Battle of Verdun, Battle of Somme, anyone in the colonies...) or search for another one. The letter must have in the upper part on the right the place, name of the battle and the date (day, month and year).

2.2. Life in trenches. In the letter you must write about the poor conditions that soldiers are living in: poor diet, weather conditions, etc.

2.3. The new weapons. You must write about the new weapons used in the war, like planes, tanks, machine guns, grenades, shells, gas, and also, the use of anti-gas masks.

3. FEELINGS.

3.1. The addressee. The student must clarify who is he or she writing to, usually a relative (mother, father –or both-, sisters, wife and children), his girlfriend or friends. The letter must be believable and feelings of sadness and happiness must be present.

3.2. New communication or response to other letters. The letter can be a new communication or a reply to another letter.

3.3. Mood. According to the date and battle you have chosen, you must show the mood of the troop: excitement, patriotism, hate for the enemy, desperation, disappointment, mutinies, desire for peace, etc.

NOTE: All these aspects don’t need to be presented in this order, but they must appear in your letter. Please, avoid any kind of incoherence. For example, don’t date the letter with a different date than that from the battle you are writing about or don’t speak about a soldier who fights against another of his own alliance.

4. PRESENTATION AND FORMAL ASPECTS.

4.1. Cardboard or A4 paper, envelop and maybe plastic. The presentation of the document can be done in a cardboard with an adequate colour or in a A4 paper to which you will give a lightly brown color or sepia –not as dark as you cannot read the letter - you can get this colour with a bit of coffee. Sometimes, other students burn some parts of the paper or cut it. The letter must be handed in an envelope with a stamp, even with strings, where you have to write the name and surname of the addressee and the sender at the back.

4.2. Legible handwriting and appropriate for the time. The handwriting must be legible, with distinctions of the paragraphs by topic and, when possible, a bit leaning to the right. You must avoid spelling and orthographic mistakes.

4.3. Length. The recommended length goes from one to both sides of a paper sheet.

4.4. Identification of the student. The student must write his/her name, surname and course on the back of the paper, in a corner. Next to this information you will be graded.

5. READING.

5.1. Reading in class in front of your classmates if you are confident to do so. Before that we will display them in a public space of the high school building.