The Celebrity Black Book
FOR TEACHERS
CAC Member Dominic Bartalino writes:
If getting your students to write is like putting the cat in the bath, here is a fun exercise that will trick them into doing a writing assignment.
Have your class write letters to celebrities that they are interested in. This way, when and if the celebrity responds, your class will feel like their writing is actually producing results.
Plus, if the celebrity gives them a heartfelt or informative reply, your students can use this as motivation to do well in their studies. They will practically beg you to write more letters to more celebrities. At which point, you will just have to allow this!
Here are some tips to make the activity as productive as possible:
Involve topical celebrities. Try to contact celebrities that you can have a meaningful discussion about in class. You could write to former Presidents and discuss their accomplishments with the class. You could contact Olympic athletes and ask them how they stay focused. You can then read their answers in class and start a lively discussion about athletics. You can write to movie stars and talk about how their latest movie affected society’s view on certain issues. You want to avoid contacting celebrities that are only famous for their looks, or that are famous for being famous.
It’s a numbers game. You have a small army of students at your disposal. You can write to hundreds of celebrities. And you should. You will probably only hear back from a quarter of the celebrities that you send letters do. Don’t expect to get a response from all of them or you will be sorely disappointed. Make it your goal to send out 50 letters and get 10 responses. That will be high enough to keep your students interested in the activity.
Let your students write the letter. You will have a higher success rate if the agent of the celebrity you are contacting can tell that it was a child that hand-wrote the letter. While it may be tempting to make sure that the letter has proper spelling and grammar, you might tug on more heartstrings if you go with the kiddie approach. Help them format the letter correctly, so it’s readable, but don’t micromanage and definitely don’t write it for them and just have them sign.
Get good contact information. Search online for Contact Any Celebrity and you will be taken to a pretty reliable website that has tons of contact information for most famous people. You can elect to sign up for a Membership and grab as many addresses as you can in one month and then discontinue the service.
Have your school pay for postage. Don’t feel like you should have to foot the bill for this activity. It’s a student project and your school probably pays a reduced postage rate. Plus if you can put the school’s label for the return address it will look more authentic.
- Dominic Bartalino
