lesson on filling out a college application is great for junior and senior high school students. This basic lesson will make the college application process easier and is especially important for students who come from families where they are first-generation college students. The lesson should focus briefly on the actual application and then focus on writing a strong application essay

List objectives you want students to achieve in the lesson. These may include understanding the application process as well as writing a good essay. It also may include searching and finding several colleges that interest them.

Plan activities for students to complete to demonstrate that they understand the objectives. The final project may be an application essay as well as filling out a practice application form.

Create a PowerPoint presentation that takes students through an actual college application. This should tell them what information they will need to have on hand once they start filling out the application.

Provide students a list of actual college application essay questions. Make the students choose five questions and create an outline for each essay. You also can provide sample essays from previous students as examples.

Review the outlines with students and the parts of the essay they need to include such as thesis statement, introductory paragraph and a conclusion.

Discuss the importance of finding a theme if appropriate.

Assign the students to write an essay from one of their outlines.

Give students the opportunity to workshop the essays with each other. They should look for clarity as well as grammar and punctuation mistakes.

Conclude the lesson unit by reviewing the steps that it takes to create an outstanding essay.

Tips & Warnings

Students can pick one essay topic that is on several of their applications to save time when they apply for college. Be sure to mention this possibility to the students as well.

Because this is an important step for students, you may offer to workshop each essay individually with the students if they want to in after-school sessions or as part of class time.

An additional assignment may be to have students bring a list of colleges they want to apply to, and they can choose which topic to cover based on that list.