Letter Writing To Lawmakers
Using Mail Merges and Mass Mail Campaigns
Social Studies Eight Grade
Objectives:
1. The students will learn the importance of maintaining contact with their local, county, state, and federal lawmakers.
2. The students will learn how to build a data base of legislators.
3. The students will learn to do mail merges and mass e-mails.
4. The students will discuss current events and try to reach consensus about what type of letter to send to their lawmakers.
5. The students will set up e-mail address that they use to contact legislators at all levels.
6. The students will demonstrate the ability to find the addresses and e-mail addresses of their lawmakers.
7. The primary goal of this lesson is to instill a desire for any kids’ To contact their lawmakers.
Computer Functions:
1. The students will go to the web and find the State of Texas Legislative Information Office. They will list their current senators and representatives, along with their contact information.
2. The students will see what committees their lawmakers serve on and not it in their information.
3. Students will find the names of their Congressmen at -http://www.visi.com/juan/congress/
4. Students will find information on their Senators at-http://www.senate.gov
5. The class will find contact information for the President at-http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/
6. The students will go to Microsoft Word and pull down Letters and Mailings. They will practice building templates and doing mail merges. They will use the Letter wizard to build a standard boilerplate for the classroom.
1. Teacher must start class with a discussion on the importance of citizen participation in democracy.
2. Teacher will discuss the importance that some lawmakers place on constituent concerns.
3. Class will come to understand how important their voice is in the process/
4. Students will come to see what an inexpensive and effective means of communication a letter and e-mail campaign is.