Since Jen Bange became the eighth-grade language arts teacher in the 2015-2016 school year, eighth-grade language arts students at Benton Community Schools have written letters. While this may not seem like an out-of-the-ordinary task, it’s the letter recipients that make it interesting: Eighth graders write these letters to themselves.
“I realized we had an opportunity for 8th graders, who are at the point of a significant transition, to write to their senior selves who get to read these letters on the cusp of another important transition period of their lives… this allows students to see how much they have changed and grown,” says Jen Bange, who now teaches juniors and seniors and gets to see the other end of the letter-writing cycle.
Aside from a chance to work on personal voice and writing skills, the letters give students an opportunity to reflect on their middle school experiences. Eighth-grader Evan Patterson explains the value of this process. “This is a really good chance to explore ourselves as a person and how we hope to change.” Students take the letters very seriously, putting in extensive effort, even spending time on them outside of class. “I enjoyed it because you get to be creative and put your personality into it. I am so excited to read what my eighth-grade self said in senior year,” Janessa Bries states.
In their senior year, students receive their letters before graduation. It’s a chance to remember their time at Benton and to see how they’ve changed in their four years of high school. Hearing from their fourteen-year-old selves is often entertaining, even emotional. “I honestly kind of teared up a little bit because it was just very encouraging from my eighth-grade self. I can’t believe at that time I already knew how I’d be feeling right now with the stress of college…it was the kind of encouragement I needed from myself at the time,” says senior Sadie Blomberg.
Now in its seventh year, this is a tradition that will carry on at Benton for years to come because students see the value of the time capsules. Layla Dietze, a current eighth grader, puts it simply: “It will be a really awesome thing to look back at in four years.”