West Virginia State University

College of Professional Studies: Department of Education

LESSON PLAN FORMAT GUIDE (Updated 1/13)
Teacher Candidate Jenna Criner
School Winfield High School
Lesson Topic Writing a Business Letter

Date April 8, 2014

Grade/Subject 9-12 Special Education English

INSTRUCTIONAL OBJECTIVES/ STUDENT OUTCOMES

At the end of this lesson, students will be able to demonstrate how to write a formal business letter that has
standard English grammar usage and includes a header, a greeting, and a closing.
WV CSOs
EEW .9-10.4
Produce writing that is appropriate to a particular task, purpose and audience.
EESL.9-10.4
Present information logically with an organization that is appropriate to the purpose, audience, and task.
present information logically
EEL.9-10.1
Demonstrate knowledge of the conventions of standard English Grammar and usage when writing or
speaking.
NATIONAL STANDARDS
NCTE Standard 4
Students adjust their use of spoken, written, and visual language (e.g., conventions, style, vocabulary) to
communicate effectively with a variety of audiences and for different purposes.
MANAGEMENT FRAMEWORK
Overall Time - 90 minute lesson
Time Frame 5 min. teacher intro
15 min. students write first business letter
5 min. review
10 min. parts of a letter foldable
10 min. correct bad business letter
10 min. compare and contrast personal and business letters
30 min. Write second business letter
5 min. Review/Cleanup
STRATEGIES
Teacher led discussion, guided instruction, parts of a letter foldable, independent practice, compare and contrast
DIFFERENTIATED INSTRUCTION/ ADAPTATIONS/ INTERVENTIONS

Differentiating Instruction for Students with Special Needs

Please describe all that apply: Needs-Based Planning
Learning Differences
Assist students one-on-one who have learning
differences.
Attention Differences
I will remind students who have attention differences
to stay on task, and I will instruct them on what they
need to do next if they get stuck. Students can be
given an outline that tells them what task they need to
do next so they can stay on task more easily.
Motivational Differences
Students can choose which issue they want to write
about for their final letter, so they will be more
motivated since they can write about something that
interests or concerns them.

Sensory Differences
Students can wear headphones to block out
background noise while working.
Behavioral Differences
Remind students about proper behavior and
expectations. Give students extra duties such as
handing out papers/supplies, helping other students,
etc. to reinforce positive behavior. Praise the student
when he or she behaves well.
Ability Differences
For students who do not have the skill set to complete
the assignment, I will make modifications so that they
only have to correctly label the parts of a letter and
answer questions about a letter that is given to them.

Physical Differences
Students with a deficit in fine motor skills can have a
scribe write down what they say.

Cultural Differences
If there are students from another country, and they
are not familiar with current issues in our country, then
they can write a letter to the leader in their native
country discussing an issue in their native country.
Enrichment
Students with more advanced abilities can help their
peers.

Communication Differences
Rephrase directions for students with communication
differences.
Multiple intelligence addressed (check all that apply):
Verbal/linguistic X
Spatial
X
Logical/mathematical
Bodily-kinesthetic
Musical

Naturalist X
Interpersonal
Intrapersonal
Existential X
Others (explain)

PROCEDURES
Introduction/ Lesson Set
I will introduce the lesson by telling the students of a scenario in which their teacher, who they will pretend is a
saleswoman, sold them shoes that were torn apart, dirty, and smelly. The students will then write a letter of
complaint to their teacher stating the condition their shoes are in and that they would either like a new set of
shoes sent to them or their money back.
Body & Transitions

Move amongst students as they work and assist students who need one-on-one assistance.
Ask students what parts there are of a letter. Explain the different parts (header, greeting, body, closing,
and signature) and draw an example of a letter on the board, labeling the parts.

Hand out foldable for the students to fill in.

Walk around room and assist students who need help.
Review answers.
Hand out bad business letter example. Have a student read the letter out loud.
Students independently work on making corrections to the bad business letter (grammar/spelling, what
the person could have said instead in the letter).
Call on students to explain what corrections needed to be made to the letter.
Hand out personal and business letter examples. Call on a student to read the personal letter, and call on
another student to read the business letter.
Ask students to explain the differences in tone and language usage between personal letters and business
letters.
Assign the students to write a letter to the president, discussing and persuading him to fix an important
issue.
Walk amongst and help students.

Closure
Ask the students what the parts of a letter are. If there is time, allow a couple of students to read their letters out
loud. Have students turn their papers in and clean the desks.
ASSESSMENT
Diagnostic:
The students will pretend that the cooperating teacher is a saleswoman who sold them shoes that were torn, dirty,
and smelled bad. The students have to write a short business letter to Mrs. Polen explaining the condition they
found the shoes in, and that they would like either new shoes or their money back. (Objectives 1,2)
Formative:
Walk around amongst students to check on their work as they work on the foldable and as they work on correcting
the bad business letter. Assess students about knowledge of objectives during discussion of the bad business
letter, as well as the difference between personal letters and business letters. (Objectives 1,2, and 3)
Summative:
The students will write a letter to the president about an important issue, telling him why the issue is important
and persuading him to fix it. The letter is assessed based on whether it has an appropriate header, a greeting, and
a closing, it must be formal, and it must be at least half a page long. (Objectives 1, 2, and 3)
MATERIALS
Paper/Pencil
Bad Business letter example handout
Parts of a Letter Foldable handout
Personal and business letter handouts
EXTENDED ACTIVITIES
If Student Finishes Early
If a student finishes early, then they can play learning games on the computer.
If Lesson Finishes Early

If the lesson finishes early, then I can review with the students what they learned about writing a business letter. I
can also have students volunteer to read their letters out loud to the class.
POST-TEACHING
Reflections
Based on the pre-test scores, students A and B needed to learn how to write a business letter. Student A
struggled because she does not know how to write a paper based on her own opinions instead of concrete facts (she
is a literal thinker), so I gave her ideas of what she should write, but she still struggled significantly. The
cooperating teacher said that she usually gives her an outline when she writes, but she copies the outline word-forword. I think she would have learned more if her assignment requirements were modified so that she only had to
label the parts of a letter and answer questions based on reading a business letter. The questions could ask: Who is
writing the letter? What is the writer complaining about? Why does the writer want a refund on her dress? An
assignment such as this is more appropriate for Student As abilities based on the data, as well as my observations.
Student B needed to have clear instructions laid out in front of her because she did not seem to follow the
instructions when she wrote her first letter. All of the students spent more time on the post-test than they did the
pre-test, but that was because I told them that their post-test had to be at least half of a page. I should have made the
guidelines for the pre-test the same for the post-test so that I could look at them on the same level. I made the pretest shorter so that more time could be spent on going over the parts of the business letter and the tone of the letter.
It may have also helped if I had given the students a list of questions that they could have looked at when writing
their letters, such as Have I used a formal tone? or Have I told the president about issues that concerned me and
presented solutions for those issues? The teacher that I worked with also suggested that I could have made a game
for the students to play so that they remember the parts of a letter better. This could be a break from all of the
writing that they had to do, and it would get them to think better about letter writing.
Data Based Decision Making
Below are the results of the first and second letter.
Student
A
B
C
D
E
F
Overall

Pre test score

10%
50%
100%
75%
80%
95%
74%

The scores when graphed look like this:

Post test score

10%
95%
100%
85%
95%
98%
88%

Letter-Writing Assessment Scores

120%
Percentage Grade

100%
80%
60%

Pre-test

40%

Post-test

20%
0%
A

Overall

Student

Letter-Writing Assessment Scores

Percentage Score

100%
80%
60%
40%

Pre-test

20%

Post-test

0%

Student

Girls' Data
100%
80%
60%

Pre-test
Post-test

40%
20%
0%
A

Overall

Boys' Data
100%
80%
60%

Pre-test

40%

Post-test

20%
0%
C

Overall

As the data shows, Students C and F have already mastered the material, and when they wrote their second
letter, they improved their letter writing skills by elaborating more on the issues that they wanted to be taken care of.
A teachers aide was a scribe for Student C. She said that he came up with all of the ideas in the letter himself, but
Im still wondering whether or not she helped him a bit because the letter had perfect grammar, it stayed on topic,
and it had a highly professional tone. I think next time I would closely observe the student and the aide to make sure
that it really is his thoughts that are going into the paper. If it really is all work that was done completely by him,
then I think he should be challenged more. Student F also wrote a good letter for his skill level. Although there was
one part where he went off-topic, I think he did well for his skill-level, he addressed important issues, and he really
elaborated on these issues, so I think he deserved an A as well. I think that for him, he should be challenged more,
and he should also be given opportunities to help his peers because I observed that he often gets done early, and

whenever someone else needs help, he usually helps them. He has some behavioral difficulties in the classroom, but
I think that he does better when he is given more to do. Student A really needed one-on-one instruction, so I tried
to give her some ideas on what she could write, but she still struggled because she is a concrete thinker. As I said
before, based on the data and my own observations, I think that Student A should have been given a modified
assignment for this lesson because her skill level is below that of her peers for reading and writing, and she still
struggled significantly, even with one-on-one assistance during both the pre-test and post-test. A modified
assignment, which could involve her labeling the parts of a letter and answering questions about a business letter
(see reflections) could introduce her to letter-writing. She could also be given opportunities during assignments to
practice writing about her opinions, such as saying what her favorite food, color, etc. is. In the future, when she
makes enough progress, she could write a letter. Student B did poorly on the pre-test because when she wrote to the
company, complaining about the damaged shoes, she did not use a respectful\ tone the way that we discussed during
the warm-up activity, which was to make corrections to a bad business letter. She improved her scores dramatically
on the post-test because she used a proper tone. Students D and E slightly improved because they elaborated a little
bit more in the second letter. In the first letter, they included the basic information, but it could have been organized
and elaborated upon more.
Disaggregated Data
If I disaggregate the data so that I can compare the students who needed the most help (A and B) from the
students who had already mastered the concepts (C, D, E, and F), then I can tell that the percentage gain for one of
the students who really needed help is higher than the students who had already mastered the material. This is
because the students who needed the most help had more room to grow than the students who did not need as much
help. The percentage gain for Student A didnt change at all though, and she scored much lower than her peers did
because she didnt have the skills to complete this assignment. The boys scored much higher than the girls did.
Student A is at a lower skill level than the other students, and she is also of Indian descent, so any cultural
differences that exist may also affect her performance. Student B complains about the assignments a lot, so her
motivation/confidence most likely plays a role in how well she does, although she really improved during the posttest. This was probably because she wrote about a topic that she picked herself, so she was more motivated to work
harder.