INTRODUCTION

STANDARDS

OBJECTIVES

ACTIVITIES

ASSESSMENT

RESULTS

RESOURCES

 

INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this lesson is to teach students how to format, write, and arrange full block personal and business letters using personalized stationery.  The students will be given a pre-test in order for me to determine their knowledge of basic letter writing techniques such as spelling, grammar, sentence structure, punctuation, capitalization, and identifying the parts.  During the course of this project, students will use Microsoft Office 97 to create personalized stationery, format personal and business letters, and other tools to design documents for a portfolio such as a logo, table of contents, and parts of a business letter which can be used in a PowerPoint presentation.

STANDARDS

This lesson addresses selected State of California English Language Standards for Introduction To Word Processing for this lesson in the absence of standards for Business Education:

1.0  Use correct and varied sentence types and sentence opening.
1.4  Edit written manuscripts to ensure that correct grammar is used.
1.5  Use correct punctuation and capitalization.
2.5 Write documents related to simple business letters in correct format.
1.2 Produce legible work that shows accurate spelling and correct punctuation, and capitalization.
1.1 Demonstrate control of grammar, diction, paragraph, sentence structure, and an understanding of English usage.

Below is a Business Education Standard selected from Los Angeles Unified School District's Standards:

 20.  Apply information processing skills and concepts (using correct keyboarding techniques
 and including the use of the Internet) to perform the multiple tasks of gathering, creating,
 and analyzing data to produce reports, documents, and presentations.

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

1.  Format, enter, save, revise, edit a full block style letter with open punctuation for printing.
2. Create, format, proofread, and produce a personalized letterhead.
3. Write, using correct grammar, punctuation, technology/business vocabulary, and spelling when writing business and personal letters.
4.  Access information from the Internet using a variety of search engines.

For this activity, you will need a computer with word processing software, overhead projector, illustration of a full block letter with letterhead transparency.

INTRODUCTORY ACTIVITY

Administer a Pre-Test to determine what your students already know about letters. This test will consist of a skeleton of a full block business letter asking students to identify the basic parts of a letter. Ten Questions.

Use illustration of letterhead transparency to identify the basic parts of a letter and review Pre-Test results with students.

Review the contents and format of a block letter.

Discuss, review, and demonstrate the word processing techniques, clip art/word art and correct format. Students should have some basic background in this area.  Distribute copies illustrating the layout of business and personal letters format for future reference.

Use any available projection system to show students how to format a letter.

Identify the different search engines used to access information from the Internet.

ENABLING  ACTIVITIES (Students will be able to complete all activities in ample time if your school has a block schedule).

Day 1     Students will take a Pre-test identifying the basic parts of a letter.  15 minutes.  Students and teacher will review the results of the Pre-Test.  Students will be provided rough draft and hand written business and personal letters for practice in entering, formatting, editing, revising, saving and printing. Students will type information for personal and business letters using correct full block format.  Have students print out completed copies for grading.

Day 2   Students will create and produce personalized letterhead using word art and clip art. Students will print out a copy for teacher to review. Students will write and type a letter to a college or university requesting information about the institution using  personalized letterhead.  Homework/Class work: Students will continue to work on letter assigned for Day 1.  Search the Internet for information regarding colleges and universities and print a copy of the college profile from the Internet to include in the portfolio.  Students are required to mail the letter to the college or university.  When students receive the information, they should put the information and the post-marked envelope in the portfolio.  If students receive information from  a college or university, this is an indication that the students have learned how to write business letters effectively and correctly. Students will be required to proofread work and make all corrections before saving and printing a hard copy for grading.

Day 3   Homework/Class work:  Students will be required to write a letter to a selected local, state, or federal representative discussing briefly an issue or concern happening in their city. In this letter, students will offer constructive suggestions and solutions for selected issues or concerns.  Students are required to e-mail this letter to selected Legislators and mail a hard copy. If students receive responses from representatives through e-mail, students should print out a hard copy and place in portfolios. Students should print out a profile with photo of  representatives to include in portfolio. Students may use a favorite search engine to find information. All students are required to go online to http://www.ala.org/washoff/letter.html.  This web site will provide information showing students how to write a letter to an elected official. Use personalized stationery and full block format.  Students must proofread work and make all corrections before saving a hard copy for grading.  All correspondence must be put in portfolio.

Day 4    Students will create and designs using bullets, word art,  clip art and  other graphics for logo, cover page, table of contents, and an illustrustration of a full block letter identifying the basic parts of a letter.  If you have students who are advanced and who would like extra credit, you can have them create slides for items listed above using PowerPoint for a presentation. Homework:  Prepare portfolios for submission.

Day 5  Students will submit completed portfolios.

CULMINATING ACTIVITY

Students will submit a portfolio which will include personalized stationery created by them.  Students' letters composed and written to a selected college and university requesting information, and letters written to local, state, and federal officials identifying problems and solutions for his or her community. The student will e-mail the letter to a selected college or university.  Students will download a profile of one elected official and a selected college/university. Students will be required to write all letters using personalized stationery.

Teacher evaluates the final product, considering format, content, creativity, and overall appearance.  The portfolio should consist of  cover sheet with design, table of contents, illustration of a full block letter identifying basic parts of a letter, copy of personalized stationery, letter to college or university, letter to legal representative, copy of profile of college and university downloaded from web site, information received from college or university from U.S. Mail, copy of profile of legal representative, and copies of responses from e-mail. The personal letters students submit in portfolio will be scored using a Scoring Rubric Scale for Writing

Pre-Test :   Administered written test with questions regarding basic letter parts.  Distributed unarranged letter instructing them to type it using full block format.  Post-Test:  Distributed students a copy of an unarranged letter instructing students to type information using full block format.  Students submitted portfolios.  The results for the pre-test indicate that students did not have the degree of knowledge of letter writing and  Computer Literacy skills that I expected.  The post-test indicated that the students showed some improvement in the area of formatting and writing block letters.  I was very pleased with the students' portfolios because a  large percentage  of students  demonostrated  that they improved their writing and computer skills.  I had a total of 27 students, and I received 24 portfolios from students.  Using a scale of 100%, the lowest score was 70% and the highest was  98%.

Word Processing Instructional Course Outline for Grades 11-12
Los Angeles Unified School District-Publication No. SC-938

Career Preparation Standards/Superintendent's Challenge Initiative
1995 California Department of Education

DDC-Learning Microsoft Office 2000  Cat. No. Z35
ISBN-1-56243-638-4

http://ctap295 ctaponline.org/~Idenyer
http://www.cde.ca.gov/board
http://www.ddcpub.com
http://www.ala.org/washoff/letter.html.
http://www.dreamagic.com/congress/states.html

Reflections

Gardena High School
1301 West 182nd Street
Gardena, CA  90248
Sadie J. Kimbrew
SAD459730@aol.com
Last revision:  July  1, 2001