Ask:  Have you ever written a letter/sent an e-mail?  Who did you send it to?  What 
did you write? Where and when did you write it?  What did it look like?

Post on the board: a letter/correspondence, a memo, a copy of an  e-mail, a list of 
names with addresses and phone numbers

Then write on the board:  Doctor's Office, School, Mayor's office, Business/Store

Then elicit answers about: 1) whether these kinds of records would be produced in 
these places (; 2) What kind of letters, or what information, would be in letters, 
memos, e-mails name lists created in these places ; 3)  (to discuss important elements 
in correspondence) How do we know who it's from, where was it sent from, when 
was it sent? etc.

Alternatively, you can target 'their school' and get students to determine what kinds of 
important records might be generated, and the different people generating them, the 
different forms they take, who receives the records created, where they are kept, etc.

Catherine Yasui, M.A.
School of Library, Archival and Information Studies
University of British Columbia

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