writing a cover letter
intermediate level
Materials
Main Aims
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By the end of the lesson, students will be better able to write a formal cover letter in the context of dream job.
Subsidiary Aims
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students will have been introduced to lay out and vocabulary related to writing cover letter and differentiate between formal and informal language in the context of dream job.
Procedure (33-45 minutes)
-Tell the students about my dream job in the past and now. -Project the following question on the board : what's your dream job? -Students discuss in pairs. - Elicit the feedback.
-Display pictures of the challenging words for them. -Ask ss. to describe the pictures and guess the word behind each picture. -Elicit the target words and their parts of speech. -Model and drill the new words (an employment agency- a vacancy- qualified - an advertisement - bilingual ). -Set the context of the writing task by introducing Louisa Barry. -Ask ss. what does Louisa want and why is she confused? -Elicit the answers and introduce Louisa to them. -Display 2 pictures for a CV and a cover letter to let ss. differentiate between the meaning and usage of a CV and a cover letter. -Ask ss. : What do you think Louisa might write in her cover letter ? and elicit the answers. -Ask ss. individually 1 minute to match the date and addresses to their right positions using HO 1 . -Ask ICQs to check their understanding . ICQS are : Are you going to fill the gaps with information about you? Are you going to match individually in 1 minute? -Ss. check their peers and correct their answers through the answer key on the board. -Ss. in groups arrange the cover letter parts and check their peers within 2 minutes using HO 1. -Ask ICQs to check their understanding. ICQS are : Are you going to reorder the sentences or put true & false in the boxes? How many sentences are you going to reorder? -Ss. correct their answers through the answer key on the board.
-Display the cover letter sample and ask ss. to analyze it using HO 2. -Highlight the steps of writing a cover letter. (address /date /greetings /introduction/ closing / signature... etc. -Let ss. guess the language used n writing a formal cover letter by asking : Is Louisa going to write the cover letter in a formal or an informal way ? -Elicit the differences between formal and informal language. -In groups, ask ss. in a minute and half to divide extracted sentences from Louisa's letter into formal and informal by using letters (F) for formal and (I) for informal using HO 3. - Check ss. understanding by asking ICQs. ICQs are : Are you going to use T or F ? Are you trying to finish 1st? -Ss do the task and check their answers through an answer-key.
-Project the writing task on the smart board. -Set 8 minutes to ss. to write a formal cover letter using HO 4 from the perspective of an employee in the context of dream job by using Louisa’s letter as a model. -Ask ICQs to check their understanding. ICQs are :Are you pretending like an employee or an employer? Are you writing your cover letter about your dream last night? Are you using Louisa's letter as a model? -Ask Ss. to change their roles to employers and read their colleagues cover letters and decide whether they are accepted or not.
-Ask ss. whether they would accept his/her colleague as an employee or not. -Get the content feed back from all the ss. -Highlight the good sentences from their writings and praise them. -Ask ss. to correct the faulty sentences on the board.