READING AND WRITING CONTENT CONTENT STANDARDS PERFORMANCE STANDARDS LEARNING COMPETENCIES SPECIFIC LEARNING OUTCOMES TIME ALLOTMENT
Purposefu l Writing in the Disciplines and for Professions The learner understands the requirements of composing academic writing and professional correspondence. The learner produces each type of academic writing and professional correspondence following the properties The learner produces each type of academic writing and professional correspondence following following the properties of well-written texts and process approach to writing. (EN11/12RWS-IVhj-13) At the en d of the le sson, the learners are a ble to: 1. Identify the unique features features and requirements requirements in composing composing a professional resume. resume. (EN11/12RWS-IVhj-13.1) 90 minutes
LESSON OUTLINE: During the lesson, the learners will: 1. Introduction/Review: Give their thoughts about the Learning Competency (10 minutes) 2. Motivation: Relate the importance of the Resume to their chosen exit point from Senior High School (15 minutes) 3. Instruction/Delivery: Understand why resumes are important, and what the qualities are that make it outstanding (30 minutes) 4. Practice: Critiquing Practice: Critiquing of sample Resumes and identifying qualities qualities which make the resumes either good or bad (35 minutes) 5. Enrichment: Encoding of a resume on the computer following a recommended format (Take home activity) 6. Evaluation: Critiquing Critiquing of a poorly constructed Resume and editing it, as necessary
MATERIALS
1. Projector and downloade d video clip 2. Copies of the the two two resumes resumes for critiquing critiquing 3. Copy of the list of action action verbs in describing describing accomplishments accomplishments (See Appendix Appendix A) Spencer, Linda. How to Write a Great Resume and Cover Letter . September 21, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAthQKLhBTs atch?v=PAthQKLhBTs.. Accessed January 6, 2016. Harvard Law School, Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA) website. Action website. Action Verb s. http://hls.harvard.edu/dep http://hls.harvard.edu/dept/opia/job-s t/opia/job-search-toolk earch-toolkit/actionit/action-verbs/. verbs/. Accessed January 6, 2016.
RESOURCES
What Is the Best Resume Font, Size and Format? http://theundercoverrecruiter http://theundercoverrecruiter.com/what-i .com/what-is-the-best s-the-best-font-for-your-resume-infographic/. Accessed January 6, 2016. Writing a Good Resume: Student Critique and Practice Exercise. http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/writing-good-resume-career-readiness.shtml Accessed January 6, 2016.
READING AND WRITING PROCEDURE INTRODUCTION (10 minutes) 1. Relay the learning competency to the learners and have them copy it in their notebooks: I will identify the unique features and requirements in composing a professional resume. 2. Ask the students the following questions: a. Why do we need to write a resume? b. What do you think makes a good resume? MOTIVATION (15 minutes) 1. Inform the students that resumes are, and why they are important: A resume is a summary of background, skills and qualifications, which is sent to employers for review. Consider it to be your personal marketing brochure with the goal of gaining the employer’s attention and to giving them the information they need to bring you to the next step in the hiring process, an interview. Your resume is often the first document that an employer would typically look at, so it serves as your first impression in the employment process. A well-written and formatted resume tells the employer a lot about your professionalism, and improves the chances for receiving an interview. Consider that employers compare resumes to decide who to interview. 2. Remind them that the exit points of Senior High School are to prepare them either for employment, entrepreneurship, skills development, or higher education. In selecting which of these exit points they are most likely to consider after Grade 12, they need to make a powerful resume since each of these exit point would definitely need a resume. INSTRUCTION/DELIVERY (30 minutes) 1. Tell the students as to how good resumes are written: a. The best way to begin writing your resume is do a self-assessment. Think of past successes and achievements that you have experienced and write them down. These could be related to academics, volunteer activities or work experience and can even include things like travel, hobbies or any life experience where you learned and grew. Once you have finished brainstorming, narrow down the points that you want to focus on and prioritize them based on their applicability to qualities an employer may find important. You don’t have to include every single point on your resume; quality is always better than quantity.
MEETING THE LEARNERS’ NEEDS Teacher Tip: You may add more questions to the related guide questions, focusing but not limited to the following: a. Format (Font, number of pages, presence of a picture) b. Purpose c. Parts Teacher Tip: It is best if the students could immediately pinpoint their most possible SHS exit point. Likewise, different types of resumes could then be fit for each type of class. For example, if the student chooses higher education, the students may be given a resume that focuses on preparing a resume for college application. On the other hand, if the student chooses employment, the students may be given a resume that focuses on preparing for a job. The classified ads will come most handy in this activity. Teacher Tip: Encourage the students to also ask some questions about the resume. Their questions might not necessarily be answered on the spot, although it would be good if the questions would be answered with a thought or so. If their questions could not be immediately answered, note these
READING AND WRITING b.
2. 3. 4. 5. 6.
Quantify your accomplishments and help the reader to understand what you are capable of. It is not just what you are able to do, but how well you can do the job being pursued. By presenting specifics, the reader will gain a much better picture of your skill set and add to your credibility. Ask yourself questions like: How did I improve something? What did I learn and how did I grow? W hat skill did I demonstrate? How did my employer benefit from my work? c. Position your resume by considering the qualifications and requirements for the job being pursued and addressing those in the resume. For example, if you are seeking a position that requires strong analytical skills, you will need to write about your analytical skills and how you use them to resolve problems. One technique for doing this is called C.A.R., which stands for Challenge, Action and Result. Write about a challenge you had, the action you took to meet that challenge and what the result was. d. Resume writing is an ongoing process and will likely continue throughou t your career. Gain feedback from employment professionals, peers, industry insiders, friends and family and always keep your resume up to date. Show a sample of a good resume. Inform the learners that they will be watching video, and that they will only view it once. Play the video once. (Spencer, Linda. How to Write a Great Resume and Cover Letter. Sep 21, 2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAthQKLhBTs. Accessed January 6, 2016.) After playing the video, ask the students to write down important points they got. Allow them to jot down th ese point s in their no tebooks. G ive them a minute to do this. Call three to five students to share their insights to the class.
PRACTICE (35 minutes) 1. Provide two sample resumes for students to review. One comes from a high school graduate with little motivation, job experience or sense of professionalism. The other is from a sharp student who graduated from a state university and has been active acquiring several skill sets. 2. Go over both resumes as a class. First, have students spend a few minutes writing down errors and needed improvements in the first resume. 3. Next, go over the second resume. Compare and contrast the two resumes, explaining why the second student’s is better and writing these aspects and reasons on the board or chart paper. Students also can suggest improvements the second student could have made. 4. You may want to note that there is no single best way to structure a resume. Additional sections that could have been included in the samples are Computer Skills, Honors and Awards, and School Activities. Ultimately, the resume should be tailored to the specific job for which one is applying.
questions on the board – and have the students, and you yourself, research answers to these questions. These questions may fall under tips to writing a good resume, or why a singlepage resume is better than a three-page one, or the best format in writing a good resume.
Teacher Tip: Students may seek existing copies of actual resumes, either from friends or their family members, and have them gloss over these copies. They may then use these versions for Practice.
READING AND WRITING Here are some points to cover when reviewing the sample resumes. Sample missteps in the first resume: a. Unprofessional, cutesy email address. b. The Statement of Objective and Summary are unprofessional and not workplace-relevant. Photography might be a skill for her, but she has not emphasized how she has used this skill professionally. c. Time availability should not be included on a resume. d. There are several typos. e. Uses unprofessio nal wording (e.g., "awesome," "cool," "cute," "pics"), as well as inappropriate clipart and exclamation points, which have no place in a resume. f. No date is listed for her high school diploma; there is no description of coursework that might be relevant to the workplace. g. Her work history isn’t in order (jobs should be listed in reverse chronolog ical order), and she included a questionable volunteer experience (cupcake tester) under Work Experience. h. Her descriptions of past job duties fail to emphasize skills gained (e.g., "flip burgers and fill condiment containers"), and also reflect negatively on her customer service skills (e.g., "deal with annoying customer requests"). i. Includes information that doesn’t pertain to job skills (hobbies should only be listed if they are highly related to the job for which one is applying) (ex. Eye color, height, religion) Sample good qualities in the second resume: a. Based on the professiona lly stated objective, there are listed skills that are relevant to his chosen career field. b. Had no spelling errors or inappropriate/unprofessional wording. c. Arranged his work history in reverse chronological order. d. Described past job duties in a way that emphasize s his skills and leadership qualities. ENRICHMENT (Take home activity) Teacher Tip: It would be great to have the students create their own resume and encode it directly on a computer. If Students may cite a specific job or ever the students would have access to a computer, remind them of the following format in creating a university they want to apply for from an good resume: announcement in the Classified Resume fonts & sizes: Advertiseme nt section of the a. The most common font to use is Times New Roman, in black and size 12 points. newspaper. You may want to have them b. Other serif fonts (with tails) to consider that are easy to read include: Georgie, Bell MT, do a simulation where students create Goudy Old Style, Garamond. their own resumes, given the c. Popular sans serif (no tails) fonts include: Arial, Tahoma, Century Gothic and Lucida advertisement as a prospective Sans. opportunity.
READING AND WRITING d. Any of the above fonts would be reasonable for a resume as long as you consistently use one font only. e. Make your headings and name stand out, think of your resume like a blog post or newspaper article. f. Make headlines bold, Italicize, capitalize or underline. And feel free to increase the font size to 14-16 points. g. Try and keep your resume to one page, leave the reader wanting to know more. Resume formats: Resume formats are a bit more debatable than resume font or size. But, obviously you want the most important information first. a. Contact information. List your full name, address and contact information at the top of the page. You should center the information and be sure to bold and capitalize your name. b. Value statement. State the role you are applying for and what values you bring to the job. Objectives state what you are trying to accomplish, value statements explain why you should be hired. c. Core strength. List industry keywords and specific skill-sets that pertain to your job and industry. This is a high level overview of your qualifications and industry knowledge. d. Experience. However, if education is not the strongest component of your resume, go ahead and list your experience first, starting with your most current job and all your responsibilities. e. Education. Clearly state your schooling from the most recent institution you’ve attended, with all dates, locations and certification received. f. Honors & awards. After education and experience, you can list your professional skills and any relevant awards or certifications. EVALUATION Provide the students with a sample of a resume for critique. They are needed to highlight the areas for improvement and the strong points of the resume. They will then rewrite the sample resume in a separate sheet of paper. (See Appendix B at the end of this lesson.)
Teacher Tip: It is better to have quantitative comments than qualitative grades for this evaluation. Students might have different takes on editing the resumes (they might not be able to see all strong points and areas for improvement). The important thing is that they start to recognize the importance of the resume, and how it can be improved.
READING AND WRITING APPENDIX A: From Harvard Law School Bernard Koteen Office of Public Interest Advising (OPIA) Below is a list of action verbs to assist you in describing your experiences and accomplishments: accelerated accomplished achieved acquired activated adapted adjusted administered advised allocated analyzed annotated anticipated applied appraised arranged articulated assembled assessed assigned authored balanced briefed budgeted built catalogued categorized chaired clarified cleared coded collaborated
compared compiled completed composed computed conducted consolidated constructed contacted continued contracted convened conveyed coordinated corresponded counseled created critiqued decided defined delegated delivered demonstrated derived designed detected determined developed devised directed distributed drafted
edited educated effected elicited encouraged established evaluated examined executed exhibited expanded expedited experienced experimented explained explored facilitated figured financed focused forecasted formed formulated fostered founded functioned generated governed grouped guided helped identified
illustrated immunized implemented improved increased informed initiated instituted instructed interpreted interviewed introduced invented investigated judged led listened maintained managed marketed mastered measured mediated modeled modified molded monitored motivated named negotiated observed obtained wrote
operated ordered organized originated outlined oversaw perceived performed persuaded planned planted presented presided printed produced protected provided publicized questioned raised recommended recorded recruited reduced rendered repaired reported represented reproduced researched resolved responded verified
restored retained retrieved reviewed revised rewrote routed scheduled searched selected served shaped shared showed simplified solicited solved specified spoke stimulated structured studied supervised supported synthesized targeted taught tested trained translated tutored updated utilized
READING AND WRITING APPENDIX B: Sample Resume for Evaluation