Career Planning Part II - Writing the Career Plan

Activity Lesson: What career path should I consider based on my desired lifestyle? (Part II on College and Career exploration project) Part II - Writing the Career Plan timeframe is 2 class periods and creating the presentation is 1 class period.

Topic: ELA: Writing and Personal Finance

Grade: 9-10

Aim: Students will create a career path document that reflects the actions that the student will take to achieve career path goals. Students will be able to present and articulate steps in the anticipated career path.

Learning Objectives:

Students will:

1. Use an outline to create a timeline document of actions to plan for a chosen career.
2. Create a formal document that answers the question: Considering my strengths, weaknesses, talents, and desires, what steps are needed over the course of my academic career to live the life-style I desire?
3. Create a presentation that reflects the main aspects of the chosen career cluster and highlights of the student’s career plan.

Standards:

• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.7 Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects to answer a question (including a self-generated question) or solve a problem; narrow or broaden the inquiry when appropriate; synthesize multiple sources on the subject, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
• CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WHST.9-10.9 Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.

Common Core Skills:

1. Students obtain information from multiple resources to create a

college and career plan references valid reliable information.

2. Students incorporate narrative elements effectively into arguments         

and informative/explanatory texts.

3. Students write precise step by step procedures backed by synthesis

of research.

Vocabulary: career pathway, associates degree, bachelor's degree,

graduate degree, Career Cluster, Agriculture & Natural Resources

Architecture & Construction, Arts, A/V Technology & Communication, Education & Training, Business, Management & Administration

Materials:

Smartboard or whiteboard, computer and projector. Access to the internet and student Google Apps account, Graphic organizer that was completed in Part I, Career Planning outline, student computers, Career Plan document Rubric.

Motivation:

Students will be asked to take out their graphic organizers from part one of this project and participate in a short whole class discussion about the various career aspects listed on the graphic organizer.  Students will be introduced to inserting graphics and video into their presentations and will have five minutes to practice doing so. Students will draw a partner out of a hat with whom they will share their presentation for comments and peer assessment.

Learning activities:

1. Students participate in an opening whole class discussion to reflect on their research in part I
2. Students watch a demonstration of the functions of inserting graphic and video into a Google presentation.
3. Students come to the front of the room and pick a partner from a hat and review the rubric
4. Students practice inserting graphics and video in Google presentations and practice sharing the presentations and commenting to others.
5. Students create the actual career plan and presentation.
6. Students review and comment on a partners presentation and career plan.
   
   7. Students present the presentation to the class.
   
   
   

   Differentiation:

   Select students will be given extra time to complete the written Career Plan.  The complexity and correlation of the written work shall remain consistent with the rest of the class, but the amount required will vary depending on the level of the student.

   
   
   

   Higher Order Thinking Questions:

   Is my written career plan a culmination of everything that is on the graphic organizer?

   Is my Career Plan written in a way that can be followed, regardless of potential setbacks?

   Does my presentation appeal to all audiences, or does it contain any bias?

   
   
   

   Assessment:

   Assessment of peer assessment and cooperation will occur through teacher observation and interaction on the shared documents (partner work). Continual feedback will be offered via comments on a shared Google document in a relevant timely manner.  The Career Plan will be given a score (evaluated) using a rubric and the presentation will be peer assessed using a rubric as well.

   
   
   

   Closure:

   Teacher will use leading questions to ignite a whole class discussion on career choice and ways to ensure success. Students will be asked to identify one action that they feel is the most important in achieving the goals they identified in the career plan and will write it on the board. Commonalities will be discussed.  As a closing activity, students will reflect on the research they completed in part one, the presentations of their classmates, and their final Career Plan.

   
   
   

   Evaluation of the lesson
   

   A strength of this lesson is that the students have a person interest in the outcome as they are completing research and writing about what they are interested in as a career.  An additional strength is in the engagement with using cloud based computing for creating a sharing presentations that contain video and graphics. A weakness is that students can get caught up in playing around with the functions in Google Presentations and may easily lose sight of the content. Continual feedback should be provided to be sure this does not happen.

   
   
   

   Next:

   Students create a college budget.