A Letter to the Future

A Letter to the Future is one of those activities that I have been thinking about for a while without actually trying it yet. It sits in that category of ideas that feel right, not just as a grammar task, but as something genuinely meaningful for students.

Why A Letter to the Future Works

This activity works particularly well at the beginning or end of an academic year, or around New Year, any moment when students are naturally thinking about where they are and where they want to be. It is designed for teenage learners in high school or university preparation programmes, at B2 level and above.

The grammar focus is relative clauses, but the real aim goes further than that. Students practise talking about experiences, hopes, and dreams. They revise a range of tenses. And they engage in critical thinking and personal reflection, which is rare in a grammar lesson.

Activity: A Letter to My Future Self

Objective: To practice relative clauses by writing a reflective and imaginative letter.

1. Explain to students that they will be writing a letter to their future selves, imagining who they will be and what they will have achieved five or ten years from now.
2. Instruct them to include:
   • Hopes and dreams for their personal and professional life.
   • Descriptions of experiences they wish to have (e.g., places that they will have traveled to).
   • People they hope to meet and books or movies they plan to explore (e.g., books that will shape their views).

Model Example:

Dear future self, I hope you have found a career that makes you excited to wake up every morning. I hope you’ve visited countries that left you breathless, and met friends who became your second family; friends who were always there when you needed them. I hope you have read books that changed the way you see the world and watched movies which sparked ideas and conversations.

Tips for Teachers:

The Letter to the Future activity works best when you follow these steps:

• Before starting, review relative clauses with examples.
• Read your model answer to the class.
• Encourage students to include at least four or five sentences that use relative clauses.
• Allow students to share their letters in small groups for a collaborative learning experience.
• Or ask them to post their letters on Padlet walls and once they finish their letters, encourage them to read and comment on at least 3 more letters.

One important note: this is a very personal activity. Not every student will want to share what they have written, and that is absolutely fine. Unlike many writing tasks, there is no gallery walk suggested here. Students can choose to share with a partner, with the class, or with you, or they can keep the letter entirely for themselves.

In fact, one of the nicest suggestions is to encourage students to put the letter somewhere safe and read it when the time comes. A letter written at the start of secondary school, opened at graduation. That kind of thing stays with a student long after the lesson ends.

You can also use this activity alongside a reading text or a short video about someone reflecting on their past or imagining their future. This gives students a model and a context before they start writing, and it takes the pressure off the blank page.

Give A Letter to the Future a try and please share your thoughts when you use the activity with your students. I’d like to hear how it went.

If you enjoy reflective writing activities, you might also like Looking Back Before Looking Forward and Giving Effective Feedback in Writing Classes.

For more on using letter writing in the EFL classroom, British Council’s guide to creative writing activities is worth a look.