Mini-Unit: Business Writing

In advisory prior to this mini-unit students have completed the following: an interest inventory and a job application.  Just in case they have procrastinated and not done these when they were instructed to in advisory, I give a day (with reminders and brief instructions - as they have already had both of these repeatedly) for them to complete and upload these in class.  These two elements are pre-requisites for the unit in my class, as they provide excellent building blocks for the resume and cover letter that are required components of the unit.  Here are links to the KR instructions for completion of both of these elements:

Interest Inventory:  http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/cms/lib/WA01001454/Centricity/domain/154/culminating%20project/documents/Interest%20Inventory%20Instructions%202015.pdf

Job Application: http://www.kent.k12.wa.us/Page/1184

During this unit, I use a lot of infographics to teach - because in our next unit, the students will be required to create their own infographic and this gives them some good exposure.  We start by reviewing the following infographics:

I just found this interesting infographic as well that I am planning to add in today:

Here is the link: http://dailyinfographic.com/spice-up-your-resume-infographic (so that you can see if full size).

Next, students are broken into groups of four - each member reads one of the following articles and then (when they have all finished reading) they reconvene and they each share out the tips/ideas that they learned.

Site 1: http://www.careerealism.com/5-surefire-resume-writing-tips/
Site 2: http://www.careerchoiceguide.com/good-resume-writing.html
Site 3: http://www.simplyhired.com/blog/jobsearch/resumes/top-20-resume-writing-mistakes/
Site 4: http://thehairpin.com/2012/03/how-to-write-a-resume-part-one-practices-to-avoid#more

We look at some sample resumes:

I quickly show the students how to create a resume using the wizard in Word and they have work time.
The next day we edit, revise and then publish on Efolio.

Here is my edit:

The next day we review the cover letter.  We use the following infographics:

Then, students work in groups of four and each of them read an on-line article and report back to the group with details about the article.  Here are the links to those articles:

Article 1: https://www.themuse.com/advice/5-steps-to-crafting-a-killer-cover-letter
Article 2: http://careergirlnetwork.com/4-cover-letter-openers-that-score-the-interview/
Article 3: http://www.craigkunce.com/job-search.cover-letter.html
Article 4: http://jobsearch.about.com/od/coverlettertips/tp/coverlettertips.htm

Finally, we look at examples, see below, and the students have some time for writing.

 The next day students do a peer edit, revise and then submit via their online portfolios.