The following is the sample letter we wrote together in class. Use it to guide you when writing your letter to me each week. Remember there should be a new papragraph of 4-8 sentences to answer each of the questions. That makes a total of five paragraphs. September 23, 2009 Dear Mrs. Forte, I am reading a book named Flying Solo by Ralph Fletcher. This book is about a sixth grade class who has a teacher that they really love. His name is Mr. Fabiano. One day he is absent and the substitute did not show up. The book tells hour by hour what the class does as it is run by the students. We meet all the different children, and learn about all their different personalities and backgrounds. The book goes through an entire day and it’s amazing that the children do not get caught and are doing their work. In class we learned about choosing a ‘just right’ book, and I think Flying Solo is perfect for me. I can read it smoothly and understand every word. Since I am a student in a class I am interested in seeing how kids handle themselves when no adult is there. I wonder what my class would do if we didn’t have a substitute for the day. I think my class could get wild and not do any work.. The book interested me in this way and I am enjoying it a lot. Some parts in the book puzzled me. The kids were not fooling around. They were surprisingly working. They also went to lunch and no teacher knew about the missing sub. That could never happen in Memorial School. I am also surprised that the secretaries did not know that there was no sub in the room. Even other students didn’t tell and that was surprising as well. Most shocking was how Bastian just walked out of the school and NO ONE STOPPED HIM!!! The author wrote this book in an interesting way. He broke up the chapters by the hours in the school day. He also gave each student a chapter of their very own. This was a very effective way of telling the story. Rachel is one of the characters in the book. She stopped talking when a boy in the class suddenly died. His name was Tommy Feathers and he died in his sleep. She might feel guilty because she wasn’t very nice to him before he passed away. I wonder if she will start talking again at the end of the book. Mrs. Forte, this is a great book and it would be fun to read it aloud to the class. Your favorite student, Susan Jones