One thing that I struggle with, and that our textbook struggles with, is teaching students real world writing. Resumes and cover letters should be taught in high school. Perhaps your school has a class that teaches life skills and resumes with it, but my school does not.
I work in a rural school where I am the English department. I teach all high school English classes. That makes it a challenge because I am the one who must prepare the students for life beyond high school.
My first year, I followed the book as closely as I could. I never even thought about resumes and cover letters until a student sent me an email a few months after graduation asking if I could help her write a resume and cover letter. I was so mad at myself for not thinking of it. For every student who teaches out for help, there are five more who won’t. It is hard to teach everything but this year I am trying something new.
I have decided to teach resume and cover letter formatting with Beowulf. I love reading Beowulf (The short version in out textbook) and so as an assessment of the text, I decided the student would write his resume and cover letter. They will be graded on the textual evidence used as well as the structure of the resume and cover letter.
Read, Write, Teach: North Dakota 