CAREER PREPAREDNESS

UNIT TOPIC: ACADEMIC PLANNING AND CAREER DEVELOPMENTLESSON PLAN #:1/3

Title of Lesson:
Exploring the Employment Process—Creating a Resume / Total Time on Task: 100 minutes
Content Standard:
  1. Examine the employment process, including searching for a job, filling out a job application, writing a resume, developing and practicing interview skills, and completing required employment forms.
  2. Utilize word processing software to demonstrate professional writing skills by producing and editing business and personal correspondence documents

Lab Access:Required for Students☒
Optional for Students☐
Not Needed for Students☐
Overview/Annotation:
The students will create a personal resume to be saved and printed for future use and editing.
Essential Question(s):
What is the employment process?
How do you write a resume?
Learning Objective(s): The students will:
  1. Examine the employment process.
  2. Create a personal resume.

Conceptual Outline:
  1. Personal Resume
  1. Heading
  2. Objective
  3. Education
  4. Experience
  5. Activities
  6. Summary of skills
  7. References

Materials, Equipment, and Technology Resources:
Materials:
  1. Teacher Information #1: Creating the Effective Resume
  2. Teacher Information #2: Action Verbs to Strengthen Your Resume
  3. Assignment #1: Resume Worksheet
  4. Handout #1: Sample High School Resumes and Cover Letters
Equipment:
  1. Individual student computer access
  2. Microsoft Word or other word processing program
  3. Printer
  4. Flash drive or other means of saving files
Technology Resources:

Procedures/Activities:
  1. Teacher Preparation: Read and study Teacher Information #1 and Teacher Information #2.
  2. Class Discussion and Student Activity: Instruct students to complete Assignment #1. It will be important to complete it together as a class so you can answer questions and explain the different areas.
Ask the students if they know what a resume is and how one is used. If some students know what a resume is, follow-up by seeing what they think should and should not be included on a good resume.
Discuss resume content with the students. Walk students through the guidelines, even provide them copies of any of the Teacher Information documents if needed. You can have them highlight important points.
At this point students should be able to start transferring their information from Assignment#1 to a Microsoft Word document. Stress that content and the accuracy of the content are more important than formatting right now. Formatting can come later.
You may want to give them a copy of your Teacher Information #2to help them begin describing their work experiences on the resume. This is typically the most difficult part of the resume. Ask them why they think action words are good for a resume. It would be helpful for you to suggest descriptions utilizing strong action verbs reflecting your job as a teacher. Possibilities include:
  • Developed and taught activity-based, cooperative learning units
  • Participated in team teaching lessons with other faculty
  • Evaluated school progress toward meeting learning goals
Point out that students have developed many skills from coursework, extracurricular activities, and their total life experiences that can be applicable when completing a resume.
Distribute Handout #1. Discuss and compare examples to assist students in formatting, or use templates in MS Word.
Have students save their work if possible on a flash drive or the computer and print it out.
  1. Discussion: Lead a discussion on the importance of creating a cover letter to be attached to the resume. Discuss the information that should be included in a cover letter. Provide students with Handout #2: Samples of Cover Letters.

Assessment:
  1. Assignment #1
  2. Saved file and hard copy of student resume