lesson plan in writing an application letter

877-542-5504 877-542-5504

/ Lessons Plans / Vocational Education Lesson Plans / Preparation of an Application Letter and Resume Lesson Plan

Preparation of an Application Letter and Resume Lesson Plan

Want to help fellow teachers.

Please help us grow this free resource by submitting your favorite lesson plans.

Lesson Plan #:AELP-CAE000 Author – School or Affiliation: Krysti Conlin – Whitley County High School, Williamsburg, Kentucky Tammy Matney – Whitley County High School, Williamsburg, Kentucky Mark Taylor – Cumberland College, Williamsburg, Kentucky Jesse Wilder – Cumberland College, Williamsburg, Kentucky Endorsed By: K. Dei Ofori-Attah, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Cumberland College, Williamsburg, Kentucky

Date: October 7, 1996

Grade Level(s): 10, 11, 12

Subject(s):

• Vocational Education/Careers

Overview: In today’s job market you are in serious competition. For every position that is available in any chosen field, there are numerous job candidates that are equally qualified. This means that you are going to have to sell yourself in a big way in a matter of just seconds. How, you may ask? On your application letter and resume, that’s how! Now is the time to get started preparing your application letter and resume. Be sure it is both accurate and appealing to the eye. It is the first impression that a prospective employer will have of you. Therefore, it must be perfect!

Purpose: To be able to write and format an application letter and resume in preparation for a successful job search.

Objectives:

• The students will be able to describe what should be included in an application letter and resume.
• The students will complete the Resume Worksheet
• The students will organize and format their application letter and resume.
• The Job Hunting Handbook, Fourth Edition Published by Dahlstrom and Company, Inc. Copyright 1993
• Any Other Sources of Career Exploration Information

Students will be introduced to the job market. Students will explore and discuss occupations that are available and current trends in our job market.

After the career exploration exercise is completed, students will then decide on a career that they are interested in. Each student will then complete the resume worksheet utilizing their personal information and applying it to their chosen career.

When the worksheet is completed, students should then review several different formats for application letters and resumes. After deciding which one is appropriate for them, they should then write and format their application letter and resume. Be sure students proofread! There should be absolutely no mistakes!

When the application letters and resumes are completed, the students should turn them in. At this point you would want to review them and make suggestions and corrections as needed. You should have the students make necessary corrections until they have an accurate and grammatically correct application letter and resume.

Tying It All Together:

At this point you would want to emphasize for a final time the necessity of having an application letter and resume that is not only accurate and correct, but that is also pleasing to the eye. This would also provide you with the opportunity to expand on the career exploration topic and begin discussing the interviewing process.

Table of Contents

Search form

A cover letter.

Look at the cover letter and do the exercises to improve your writing skills. 

Instructions

Do the preparation exercise first. Then read the text and do the other exercises.

Preparation

Check your understanding: true, false or not given

Check your writing: gap fill, check your writing: multiple selection, worksheets and downloads.

Do students at your school do work experience? What company or organisation would you like to do work experience in? What do you think are the main advantages of work experience?

Sign up to our newsletter for LearnEnglish Teens

We will process your data to send you our newsletter and updates based on your consent. You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the "unsubscribe" link at the bottom of every email. Read our privacy policy for more information.

Jump to navigation

• Inside Writing
• Teacher's Guides
• Student Models
• Writing Topics
• Minilessons
• Shopping Cart
• Inside Grammar
• Grammar Adventures
• CCSS Correlations
• Infographics

Sign up or login to use the bookmarking feature.

Reading an Application Letter

Before writing your application letter, you should read an effective sample. In this lesson, you'll first read a sample announcement. Then you'll read one applicant's response. As you read the sample application letter, consider how the writer put ideas together and how you might use some of the strategies in your own writing.

Reading an Announcement

Read a sample announcement..

Read the following announcement about a summer camp. The writer of the sample letter that follows it responds to the opportunity presented in the announcement.

Sample Announcement

An application letter follows the structure of a traditional business letter. It includes six main parts:

• The heading: the writer's complete address, plus the date the letter was written">heading identifies the writer's return address and date of writing.
• The inside address: the name, title, and address of the person or organization you are writing to">inside address gives the reader's name and mailing address.
• The salutation: the greeting followed by a colon">salutation is the greeting given to the reader.
• The body: the main part of the letter">body is the main part of the letter. It contains three parts: (1) the opening part states why you are writing, (2) the middle part gives readers the details they need, and (3) the closing part focuses on what should happen next.
• The closing: a word or phrase that ends the letter politely">closing is a polite word or phrase to end the message.
• The signature: the writer's handwritten and typed name; makes the letter official">signature includes a handwritten signature followed by the typed name.

In the sample letter that follows, the writer expresses his interest in a summer camp that is described in the announcement. Note the six parts.

Sample Application Letter

23100 Altoona Street Apartment #415 Houston, TX 77001 March 14, 2017

Ms. Benita Mendez-Curry New Adventures Wilderness Camp 1500 Highway 2900, Suite B Austin, TX 78745

Dear Ms. Mendez-Curry:

I would like to apply for a place at the New Adventures Wilderness Camp this summer. I read in your brochure that your camp is for city kids from Texas who would like to learn about nature.

I meet the requirements for your camp. I am in the eighth grade at Memorial Middle School. I have lived in Houston all my life with my mother and three sisters. I love the city, but I have never spent time in the country. I also am doing well in school. My favorite subject is science. I won third place in the science fair at our school this winter.

I think that summer camp would really be a great experience for me. I think my interest in science would help me. I know that I would learn a lot and make new friends.

Please consider me for your camp. Thank you for reading this letter. I hope to hear from you soon.

Micah Jones

Respond to the application letter.

Answer these questions about the letter. Make a copy of this Google doc or download a Word template .

The writer is Micah Jones. The receiver is Ms. Benita Mendez-Curry.

The writer wants to go to summer camp to learn more about nature.

He explains that he is a city kid who has never spent time in the country. He is interested in science. He won third place in a science fair and gets good grades.

(Answers will vary.) Yes, I would consider the writer for the camp. He meets the qualifications and sounds very interested.

Polite and serious

(Answers will vary.) I would like to apply for a place at the New Adventures Wilderness Camp this summer. Please consider me for your camp. Thank you for reading this letter.

© 2024 Thoughtful Learning. Copying is permitted.

k12.thoughtfullearning.com

1. Lesson Introduction-

2. Lesson Progression-

3. Guided Practice-

4. Student Practice-

5. Learner Accommodations -

6. Assessment-

7. Lesson Closure-

This Lesson Plan is available at (www.teacherjet.com)

• Professional development
• Planning lessons and courses

Planning a writing lesson

Writing, unlike speaking, is not an ability we acquire naturally, even in our first language - it has to be taught. Unless L2 learners are explicitly taught how to write in the new language, their writing skills are likely to get left behind as their speaking progresses.

But teaching writing is not just about grammar, spelling, or the mechanics of the Roman alphabet. Learners also need to be aware of and use the conventions of the genre in the new language.

What is genre?

Generating ideas

Focusing ideas

Focus on a model text

Organising ideas

• Peer evaluation

A genre can be anything from a menu to a wedding invitation, from a newspaper article to an estate agent's description of a house. Pieces of writing of the same genre share some features, in terms of layout, level of formality, and language. These features are more fixed in formal genre, for example letters of complaint and essays, than in more 'creative' writing, such as poems or descriptions. The more formal genre often feature in exams, and may also be relevant to learners' present or future 'real-world' needs, such as university study or business. However, genre vary considerably between cultures, and even adult learners familiar with a range of genre in their L1 need to learn to use the conventions of those genre in English.

Stages of a writing lesson

I don't necessarily include all these stages in every writing lesson, and the emphasis given to each stage may differ according to the genre of the writing and / or the time available. Learners work in pairs or groups as much as possible, to share ideas and knowledge, and because this provides a good opportunity for practising the speaking, listening and reading skills.

This is often the first stage of a process approach to writing. Even when producing a piece of writing of a highly conventional genre, such as a letter of complaint, using learners' own ideas can make the writing more memorable and meaningful.

• Before writing a letter of complaint, learners think about a situation when they have complained about faulty goods or bad service (or have felt like complaining), and tell a partner.
• As the first stage of preparing to write an essay, I give learners the essay title and pieces of scrap paper. They have 3 minutes to work alone, writing one idea on each piece of paper, before comparing in groups. Each group can then present their 3 best ideas to the class. It doesn't matter if the ideas aren't used in the final piece of writing, the important thing is to break through the barrier of ' I can't think of anything to write.'

This is another stage taken from a process approach, and it involves thinking about which of the many ideas generated are the most important or relevant, and perhaps taking a particular point of view.

• As part of the essay-writing process, students in groups put the ideas generated in the previous stage onto a 'mind map'. The teacher then draws a mind-map on the board, using ideas from the different groups. At this stage he / she can also feed in some useful collocations - this gives the learners the tools to better express their own ideas.
• I tell my students to write individually for about 10 minutes, without stopping and without worrying about grammar or punctuation. If they don't know a particular word, they write it in their L1. This often helps learners to further develop some of the ideas used during the 'Generating ideas' stage. Learners then compare together what they have written, and use a dictionary, the teacher or each other to find in English any words or phrases they wrote in their L1.

Once the students have generated their own ideas, and thought about which are the most important or relevant, I try to give them the tools to express those ideas in the most appropriate way. The examination of model texts is often prominent in product or genre approaches to writing, and will help raise learners' awareness of the conventions of typical texts of different genres in English.

• I give learners in groups several examples of a genre, and they use a genre analysis form to identify the features and language they have in common. This raises their awareness of the features of the genre and gives them some language 'chunks' they can use in their own writing. Genre analysis form 54k
• reason for writing
• how I found out about the job
• relevant experience, skills and abilities
• closing paragraph asking for an interview
• Learners are given an essay with the topic sentences taken out, and put them back in the right place. This raises their awareness of the organisation of the essay and the importance of topic sentences.

Once learners have seen how the ideas are organised in typical examples of the genre, they can go about organising their own ideas in a similar way.

• Students in groups draft a plan of their work, including how many paragraphs and the main points of each paragraph. These can then be pinned up around the room for comment and comparison.
• When preparing to write an essay, students group some of the ideas produced earlier into main and supporting statements.

In a pure process approach, the writer goes through several drafts before producing a final version. In practical terms, and as part of a general English course, this is not always possible. Nevertheless, it may be helpful to let students know beforehand if you are going to ask them to write a second draft. Those with access to a word processor can then use it, to facilitate the redrafting process. The writing itself can be done alone, at home or in class, or collaboratively in pairs or groups. Peer evaluation

Peer evaluation of writing helps learners to become aware of an audience other then the teacher. If students are to write a second draft, I ask other learners to comment on what they liked / didn't like about the piece of work, or what they found unclear, so that these comments can be incorporated into the second draft. The teacher can also respond at this stage by commenting on the content and the organisation of ideas, without yet giving a grade or correcting details of grammar and spelling.

When writing a final draft, students should be encouraged to check the details of grammar and spelling, which may have taken a back seat to ideas and organisation in the previous stages. Instead of correcting writing myself, I use codes to help students correct their own writing and learn from their mistakes. Error correction code 43k

By going through some or all of these stages, learners use their own ideas to produce a piece of writing that uses the conventions of a genre appropriately and in so doing, they are asked to think about the audience's expectations of a piece of writing of a particular genre, and the impact of their writing on the reader.

If you have any ideas that you feel have successfully helped your students to develop their writing why not add them as a comment below and share them.

Further reading

A process genre approach to teaching writing by Badger, Richards and White. ELT Journal Volume 54(2), pp. 153-160 Writing by T Hedge. Oxford University Press. Writing by C Tribble. Oxford University Press Process writing by R White and V Arndt. Longman

Really innovative

• Log in or register to post comments

It was very informative and…

It was very informative and helpful

Interesting article.

Useful information

This is a very nice and…

This is a very nice and informative article.

Thanks for this amazing article

Planning a Writing Lesson Plan

I believe this will make the lesson not only productive but also interesting. Thank you.

Thanks for a very interesting

Thanks for a very interesting and useful article.

Ideas first, then language

 Thanks for sharing the plan~

I found in my class that it is always 'Ideas firt, then language follows', similar to L1 writing.

Dear Catherine,

I found your article very useful and I love the advice you give. When I ask my students to write an essay, I tend to correct their mistakes for them and after reading the article I realized that I should be doing it the way you suggested. I learned from my mistakes by finding them out and correcting them not having them corrected for me. 

Thank you for a wonderful article.

I am grateful for you for this great article

Research and insight

Browse fascinating case studies, research papers, publications and books by researchers and ELT experts from around the world.

See our publications, research and insight

Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Welcome to the Purdue Online Writing Lab

Welcome to the Purdue OWL

This page is brought to you by the OWL at Purdue University. When printing this page, you must include the entire legal notice.

Copyright ©1995-2018 by The Writing Lab & The OWL at Purdue and Purdue University. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, reproduced, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed without permission. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our terms and conditions of fair use.

The Online Writing Lab at Purdue University houses writing resources and instructional material, and we provide these as a free service of the Writing Lab at Purdue. Students, members of the community, and users worldwide will find information to assist with many writing projects. Teachers and trainers may use this material for in-class and out-of-class instruction.

The Purdue On-Campus Writing Lab and Purdue Online Writing Lab assist clients in their development as writers—no matter what their skill level—with on-campus consultations, online participation, and community engagement. The Purdue Writing Lab serves the Purdue, West Lafayette, campus and coordinates with local literacy initiatives. The Purdue OWL offers global support through online reference materials and services.

A Message From the Assistant Director of Content Development 

The Purdue OWL® is committed to supporting  students, instructors, and writers by offering a wide range of resources that are developed and revised with them in mind. To do this, the OWL team is always exploring possibilties for a better design, allowing accessibility and user experience to guide our process. As the OWL undergoes some changes, we welcome your feedback and suggestions by email at any time.

Please don't hesitate to contact us via our contact page  if you have any questions or comments.

All the best,

Social Media

Facebook twitter.