Negative attitudes of college students toward older adults can be a barrier for universities that are attempting to prepare students for future career trends to meet the needs of an aging society. A growing number of college graduates will be needed to provide health and educational services for this population. Providing intergenerational opportunities through a variety of face-to-face interactions has demonstrated some success at improving attitudes of college students toward older adults. It is believed that improving the attitudes of college students through intergenerational experiences will expand their consideration of careers that provide support to this growing population. This study explored an intergenerational project that paired undergraduate college students with older adults through a series of e-mail communications rather than face-to-face interactions. With the increase in the use of e-mail by persons of all ages, this virtual meeting place provides a convenient communication tool for exploring ways to build relationships online.It was hypothesized that an intergenerational experience between undergraduate college students (18-28 years of age) and older adults (65 years old or older) through e-mail communication would have a positive effect on student attitudes toward older adults as measured by Polizzi's revised version of the Aging Semantic Differential (ASD) survey. Two classes of the same undergraduate course at a midwestern university participated in the project. Both groups were pre-tested using the ASD and then one group was randomly chosen to be the intervention group. Each student in the intervention group was paired with an older adult pen pal to complete six weeks of assigned e-mail exchanges designed to increase in depth of topic. Both groups were then post-tested using the ASD.Results: Although not significantly different at pretest, the attitude of the students in the intervention group was significantly more positive at posttest than the control group. There was a significant difference in the attitudes of the intervention group compared to the control group when post-tested. The students who participated in the intergenerational e-mail pen pal project had a more positive attitude toward older adults following the six-weeks of sharing stories and thoughts with the older generation. / Department of Educational Studies

The purpose of this article is make connections between two content areas, reading and writing, which have traditionally been separated and consider the relationship between their theoretical underpinnings. Based on their reciprocal nature, the authors posit that students could greatly benefit by reading and writing being taught simultaneously. Relying on this premise, this article provides the reader with three practical strategies that could be applied in the literacy classroom to intertwine reading and writing. These practical strategies include: classroom blogs, graphic depictions, and pen pal responses to literature.

The purpose of this article is make connections between two content areas, reading and writing, which have traditionally been separated and consider the relationship between their theoretical underpinnings. Based on their reciprocal nature, the authors posit that students could greatly benefit by reading and writing being taught simultaneously. Relying on this premise, this article provides the reader with three practical strategies that could be applied in the literacy classroom to intertwine reading and writing. These practical strategies include: classroom blogs, graphic depictions, and pen pal responses to literature.

The aim of this essay is to examine how boys and girls between 9–14 years old are portrayed in pen pal ads from the latter part of the 20th century. The source material consists of pen pal ads published in the newspaper Expressen during the years 1976–1977 and 1986–1987. With a qualitative content analysisas selected method, and an intersectional perspective with focus on gender and age, the content of the pen pal ads has been studied and analysed. The result shows that themes like sports, music, idols, and animals are a part of the descriptions in almost all the ads. Based on the content of the ads, the themes and other descriptions, different ideals have emerged for boys and girls. The ideals shift between the different periods. For example, the boys’descriptions during 1976–1977 shows that sports are an interest that belongs to an ideal for boys. Not only do they mention sports more often than girls, they also, to some degree, mention different sports than girls. During 1986–1987 the result shows that the girls have increased their interest in sports, and the boys have developed a greater interest for music and idols. The girls also start to mention sportactivities that previously almost only were mentioned by boys. During both periods there are both girls and boys who go against the ideals of their own sex and mentions interests that belong to the ideal of the opposite sex. Age may have had an impact on who within the different sexes that breaks the ideal. There are also some areas within the different themes that are of more interest to a boy or a girl of a certain age. However, gender is the strongest factor, which create the biggest differences between how boys and girls are portrayed in their pen pal ads.