Business Letters

Business Letter Topics

Social Studies Connection
Christopher Columbus writing to get support for his business venture - sailing across the world to find riches in Far Asia!

Disappointed Customer
Write a letter to Apple complaining about the battery life of your iPhone or iPad. Suggest ways to improve the battery and/or power source(s).
Write a letter to a restaurant complaining about your recent trip and the poor service you experienced. Suggest ways to improve their service. 

Disappointed Student
Write a letter to Mr. McFerrin complaining about the late start time of school. Make suggestions about early start times and why it would help with students working after school, playing a sport, etc.
Complain about the dress code


Suggestive Student
Write a letter to the Superintendent of Jefferson City Schools suggesting better lunch options. Perhaps food vendors/food trucks could come to JHS each Friday.
Write to the Jackson County Parks & Recreation Department asking for a community pool/splash pad.

Create a Product
Create a product or service and try to sell it to another company, business, or individual.
For example: Self-lacing tennis shoes. Try to sell your invention/shoe to Nike or Adidas

Business Letter Rubric

Student Name: 

  • Company Logo
  • Company Name
  • Company Address
    • City
    • State
    • Zip code
  • Recipient’s name
  • Recipient’s address
    • City
    • State
  • Zip code
  • Greeting/Salutation
  • Proper punctuation for business card greeting/salutation
  • Use a sentence with a comma
  • Use a sentence with a hyphen
  • Use a sentence with a dash
  • Use a sentence with a semicolon
  • Use a sentence with a colon
  • Use sentence with an ellipsis
  • Closing salutation
  • Closing salutation proper punctuation
  • Your signature line

Color code each sentence showing the specific grammar you are using.

 

 

Job Interview Lesson Plan

Interviewing Skills Lesson Plan

 

Topic: Interviewing Skills

Grade Range: 11th-12th grade resource students

Time Frame: 5-6 class periods

Common Core Standards: (Domain, Standard, Cluster)

Domain: College and Career Readiness Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening

Standard: Comprehension and Collaboration

Cluster Objective: 3. Evaluate a speaker’s point of view, reasoning, and use of

evidence and rhetoric. (Grade 11-12)

Standard: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

Cluster Objective: 4. Present information, findings, and supporting evidence such

that listeners can follow the line of reasoning and the organization,

development, and style are appropriate to task, purpose, and audience.

6. Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks,

demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.

(Grade 11-12)

 

Learning Objective/Outcome: Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to successfully participate in a mock interview.

Key Vocabulary:

Engagement, punctual, mock interview, professional dress, body language, portfolio, resume, personal weakness, word choice, tone, posture

Materials: computer access, smart board, you tube videos, Mock Evaluation Form, 5 part interview, Pretest Interview Skills

 

Higher Order Questions:

What are the different purposes of interviews?

How are you rated during an interview?

What are some possible questions you could be asked for a job or college interview?

 

Lesson Activities:

 

Building Background/Motivation: These students are quickly approaching high school graduation and both need and want to find a job or go to college. Good interview skills will help them to do this. Prior to this lesson, students have practiced filling out job applications as well as created personal resumes to be used. They have also conducted personal surveys to learn more about themselves and what jobs they would enjoy or be successful at.

 

Presentation: (How is the new material being introduced? Strategies? Scaffolding? Steps in lesson…)

 

Day 1-Give the students the attached pretest with interview questions to complete.

Following the completion of the pretest, discuss the students’ answers. Ask the students what they think the purpose of an interview is? (hiring for a new job, promotion, college admission, scholarship, etc.) If students have participated in an interview, ask them to share their experience and the outcome.

 

Day 2-Hand out copies of The 5-Part Interview (attached) and ask the students to read the steps aloud and discuss each step. (This may take an additional day depending on the conversations and time frame allotted for each class).

Step 1: Before the interview – After reading this section, critique the outfits of the day and why or why not people are dressed appropriate. Were they on time to class? Were they prepared for the day’s lesson (HW complete)?

 

Step 2: The Start of the Interview – Did you greet the teacher when you entered? How is your posture? Are you chewing gum? Fidgeting? Use this time to get up and practice your handshake and introduction. Have the students practice with each other and when they are confident they have it, they can introduce themselves to the teacher.

 

Step 3: The Interview (Middle) – Again how is your posture? Are you engaged? (More practice with this section will come later in the unit.)

 

Step 4: The Interview (End) – Are you clear on instructions when leaving the room? Do you know how to contact your teacher if needed? (More practice with this section will come later in the unit.)

 

Step 5: The Follow-up – Do you check with your teacher on grades after you turn in an assignment?

 

Day 3-Brainstorm different questions that employers will ask during an interview for a job. Let the students control this discussion and try to interject as little as possible. After they have agreed on 10 questions to ask, lead a discussion on each question and why it should be asked in an interview. Have the students explain their reasons and give examples of a response that would be ideal. There are many websites that have ideas for interview questions and tips. In the “Resources” section there are two that we found helpful.

 

Day 4-Review by watching the Do’s and Don’ts of interviews from the YouTube video listed below or another similar video if you prefer. Critique the dress of the students to see if they have “Interview” appropriate clothes, make-up, or jewelry. Review the mock interview and evaluation form for the practice round of interviews for the next day. View different interviews and have the students “grade” each interview. Some YouTube videos are listed below but many more can be found on YouTube.

 

Day 5-Have students practice interviewing each other and each student will interview with  

the teacher for a grade. Allow students to reflect on how their interview with the teacher went and what needs to be fixed before the final assessment which will be the culmination of the entire unit.

 

Student Activities: (Meaningful activities, interactions, structures/strategies, practice and application, feedback…)

Pretest and discussion of questions

Viewing and critiquing YouTube videos

Practice interviews in the classroom

 

Review and Assessment: (Review of objectives and vocabulary, assess learning, measurement tools…)

Mock interview evaluation form

 

Interventions/Extensions: (How are you reaching every learner?)

If a video camera is available, students might learn from and enjoy watching a video of their mock interview.

 

If you have students that are mature and can be professional, they can interview each other and decided if they would hire the candidate based on the interview.

 

If needed, any of the above days can be spread out over more days to help the students prepare and be comfortable with the interview process.

 

Resources:

 

5 Part Interview and Mock Interview Evaluation

http://www.ccd.me.edu/careerprep/CareerPrepCurriculum_LP-6.pdf

 

YouTube videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gww2vrIhjeU   pretty good-shows a bad interview and then a good one.  The interviewer does the exact same both times.  7 minutes
 
How to answer the question "Tell me about yourself"   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tDhbLdFJAF4
The interviewee makes the mistakes with suggestions written for improvement.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckHT_omM_R4&feature=grec_index   1 minute
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S1ucmfPOBV8&feature=related  4 minutes  Dos and Don't of interviews: How to dress, proper handshake, Key questions and how to answer them,  Key suggestions   GOOD

 

Interview Question Tips

http://www.denham.net/15-tips.html - Common questions and how to answer them. 

 

http://www.ccd.me.edu/careerprep/CareerPrepCurriculum_LP-6.pdf - List of interview questions often asked and ones that applicants can ask.