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Texas Adult Education Standards and Benchmarks
for ABE ASE and ESL Learners

Lesson Plan Bank

ABE/ASE LESSON PLANS

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Texas Adult Education Standards
Lesson Plan

Before you begin

Title: To Complain or Not to Complain: A Lesson on Professional Letter Writing

Setting: ABE/ASE

NRS Level(s): Level 3: Low Intermediate Basic Education

Open entry/exit: Yes

Context: Workplace

Standard(s): ABE/ASE Convey Ideas in Writing

Benchmark(s): 1.3, 2.3, 3,3, 4.3, 5.3

Objective: To improve writing skills by writing a professional letter to a service provider.

Materials: Sample letters, paper, pencils, computer, and printer

Estimated time needed to prepare for this lesson plan: 15 minutes to locate sample letters

Estimated time needed to complete this lesson plan: 12 hours (3 hours once a week for 4 weeks)

The Lesson Plan

Introduce the lesson:
Begin by having the students brainstorm experiences they have had with something they have paid for recently. Have them consider how they might voice their dissatisfaction. Suggest that an effective means might be to write a letter of complaint.

Teach the lesson:
Distribute sample letters of a complaint letter for students to use as an example. Indicate the main points that their letters should contain.

Practice the lesson:
Students should begin drafting a letter of complaint based on their own experiences. Students might share their completed letters with another member of the class for better understanding and clarity. Students with computer skills should be encouraged to type their letters on the computer.

Assess the lesson:
The teacher should review each student’s letter and offer suggestions for revisions and improvement to grammar, sentence structure, subject/verb usage, and mechanics. Students should rewrite their letters as needed.

Apply the lesson to the real world:
In some cases, students might be able to apply this lesson to a recent situation which will give them the resource needed to seek resolution to an existing problem.

Submitted by: Tiffany Johnson

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