World War 1 Close Reading for

100 years ago this year, the United States entered World War 1 forever changing the course of American history. What better way to have your students remember this momentous time than by reading the words of those who were there. Eugene Tower was an older soldier from Massachusetts and wrote a letter to his wife before he unit was shipped to Europe. In the letter, Eugene mentions that the handwriting is messy due to writing the letter on his knee, and he sure was right! This letter is in my personal collection, and there are a few words that I (or anyone else) could not make out. Those words are marked with ***. Make sure to let your students know this before they read the letter. When writing the letter, Eugene used very little punctuation, and I did not correct anything he wrote. Students will have a source written by an American soldier, 5 close reading questions, re-writing/paraphrasing activity, and writing a letter back. If you purchase this and would like me to email you a photocopy of the original source, shoot me a message!