Grade: 8

Subject: Language Arts

Unit: Functional Letter Writing- Intro. Heading & Inside Addresses
Lesson Duration: 96 min. (P. 2 & 7)
Date Taught: Friday November 1
OUTCOMES FROM 2013 MINISTERIAL ORDER: Cross-curricular Competencies
Outcomes (a to j from M.O.):
h) demonstrate good communication skills and the ability to work cooperatively with others
j) identify and apply career and life skills through personal growth and well-being.
OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES
General Learning Outcomes: Students will listen, speak, read, write, view, and represent to…
Grade 8
3…manage ideas and information.
4… enhance the clarity and artistry of communication.
Specific Learning Outcomes:
 3.3 Organize, Record and Evaluate: Organize information
o organize ideas and information to establish an overall impression or point of view in oral, print, and
other media texts
4.1 Enhance and Improve: Revise and edit
 revise to enhance sentence variety, word choice, and appropriate tone
 4.3 Present and Share: Enhance presentation
o present information to achieve a particular purpose and to appeal to interest and background knowledge
of reader or audience
OUTCOMES stated in learner friendly language
I can:
● Brainstorm the pros and cons of a subject.
● Write in both a formal and casual tone.
● Identify the different parts of a functional letter.
● Explain tone including how it is affected by word choice, spelling, and grammar.
ASSESSMENTS
Pre-assessment (prior Formative: Summative (if applicable):
knowledge) (if applicable): Exit slip, group discussion, N/A
functional letter writing
booklets.

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Resource #1: Alberta Education English Language Arts K-9 Program of Studies
Resource #2: Alberta Education ELA Grade 9 Examples of the Standards for Students’ Writing 2015
Functional Writing Document https://education.alberta.ca/media/563608/03-ela9-eosw-functional-
2015_20151028.pdf

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

● Functional Letter Writing Booklet
● Slides
● Sticky notes (exit slips)
 PROCEDURE
Student Differentiation:

Introduction (time: 10 min )

Hook/Attention Grabber:
“In today’s largely technology based society, is letter writing still an important skill to have?”
**While students’ first reaction will be to argue against letter writing as a skill, encourage them to
analyze both sides of the issue. Students will have one minute to consider the question on their own
before sharing with a partner. Each partnership will be asked to share with the class as we create a T-
chart for the pros and cons of letter writing.
Possible T-chart responses:
Pros Cons
Increased communication skill. Snail-mail is a notoriously slow mode of
communication.
Increased audience awareness (we know exactly Writing a letter can be time consuming.
who will be receiving out letter-most times-b.c.
we need to address our letter to someone)
Business letter format is generally the same as a
formal/business email/cover letter/complaint/etc.

Have each student choose one of the “pros” to focus on as a personal goal as we go through the unit.
For example: if a student chooses “increased audience awareness”, their goal may be written as
“Throughout this unit, I would like to gain the skills necessary to communicate with professionals in a
business setting (be it through traditional letters or e-mails).”
While students are considering which pro they would like to focus on for their personal goal, hand-out
their booklets and ask students to write their goal on the front of their booklets.

Transition to Body:
Have students write their personal goals on the front of their letter writing booklets.
Body
Going Through Heading, Inside Address, and Salutation in Booklet (15 min): Go through the first
three points in the student’s booklets. Emphasize the organization of the different components, the
spaces that are in between each section, and the colon after the salutation.

Have students label the various components on both the diagram, as well as the fully-written letter that
are in their booklet.

Descrambling Problems (20 min): Go through heading and inside address descrambling problems.
Show different scrambled addresses on the smart board and have students descramble each one. Go
through the first one together before having students try on their own.

-----------CLASS 2-----------
Continue Descrambling Problems (15 min): Continue working through descrambling inside addresses
and headings. Have students come up to the smart board to correctly rewrite each problem. Circulate to
ensure that students are also correcting their mistakes. Be sure to clarify what goes where when we
have a P.O. Box rather than a street address.

Formal vs. Informal Writing Review (20 min): Go through the notes/slides on informal vs. formal
writing with the students. Begin the discussion by asking students how we use tone in our day-to-day
interactions with each other. Connect the concept of tone to tone of voice. Emphasize that we would use
a different tone of voice (and be aware of our word choice) when talking to our best friend versus our
parents or teachers.
Stress the importance of using formal writing when writing a business letter. Begin working through
examples on the board having students rewrite sentences in a formal or casual tone (whichever the
problem requires).

If time allows, begin letter rewrite (in a formal tone) in booklet.

Closure (time: 8 min )

Feedback From Students on Learning: Visual evidence, booklet work, small group and class
discussion, exit slip.
Exit Slip: Something I learned today/something I am still wondering about is…

Transition To Next Lesson(s): Today we have learned the basics that would allow us to send a physical
letter if needed. Tomorrow we will move on to learning/reviewing the format of a letter that could be
used to write either a physical paper letter, or a formal e-mail and talking more about tone.

Reflection on lesson: