In order for students to participate in this collaborative project, they will need access to computers and internet on a weekly basis. While it is not necessary to have all students working on this assignment at the same time, for instructional goals and purposes it is certainly beneficial to have all students working through the writing process simultaneously--even if they are in different stages of the general writing process.
Students will also need to have ePal user names and passwords--which can be easily created by the teacher and distributed to students.
Written permission from administration, teachers, parents, and students would be necessary in order to participate in a program which involves online internet communication.
Students would need to have instruction on digital citizenship (which is a part of our instruction during the first weeks of school).
Students will need to understand the importance of being sensitive to cultural differences and language barriers.
There will be weekly writing assignments in which students will be required to log in to send and respond to emails from their ePal. Emails will include writing topics such as:
narrative writing topics describing personal experiences
informative writing describing their environment and traditions
researched information from classroom topics and discussions