Kentucky Department of Education

Lesson Topic/Focus:  Researching Careers:  Career Choices

 

Estimated duration of lesson:  five (5) days            

 

Targeted Standards:

Academic Expectations

Program of Studies

Core Content for Assessment

Other:

2.36 Students use strategies for choosing and preparing for a career.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2.33 Students will identify health-related careers.

PL-07-4.1.02 Students will identify and describe how job and career opportunities in each of Kentucky's Fourteen Career Clusters vary within and among communities and regions.

PL-07-4.1.04

Students will describe how informal assessments, work place visits, and guest speakers are used in determining individual traits (e.g., interests, abilities, learning styles) and explain how knowledge of such traits is helpful in developing career goals for an Individual Graduation Plan (IGP). 

Pathway to Careers Program of Studies Career Choices

1.1, 1.6, 2.36  Students will develop an awareness of the broad range of career opportunity and introduce them to the career cluster concept. 

2.36  Students will identify skills that a variety of careers have in common and that are transferable among many careers.

 

Targeted Essential Question(s):                  

 

What is my personality type and compatible careers?

Which career clusters, or groups of related careers interest you?

Where can you get information about careers?

 

                       

Lesson Summary: Brief overview of the lesson

By exploring careers and deciding what is right, students can discover the answers to these critical questions by making clear the powerful link between personality type and career satisfaction.  It is now the norm for people to change jobs at least six times in their lives.  By identifying their personality type and the careers that are compatible with it they greatly increase the likelihood of choosing a career they'll enjoy and be successful at.  By researching careers you'll get to know as much as you can about careers that interest them. There are thousands of different careers from which to choose.  Exploring all kinds of career possibilities now will help them make career choices later.  They can research careers at the library and on the Internet by talking to people, and by working.

 

Instructional Activities/Assessment: Plan strategies and activities that are equitable and reflect best practices

Strategies (check all that apply)

X

Summarizing and note taking

X

Reinforcing effort and providing recognition

X

Cooperative learning

 

Generating and testing hypotheses

X

Questions, cues and advanced organizers

X

Identifying similarities and differences

X

Homework and practice

X

Setting objectives and providing feedback

 

Non-linguistic representations

 

Other

 Procedure

1.      Ask students to brainstorm words that tell how they feel about making choices.  Discuss how making choices is both exciting and intimidating.  Have students start to think about careers where they have many choices.  There are more than 28,800 different careers to choose from.  Questions for discussion:  Do you know what you want to do for a living?  How will you ever be able to decide?  (Power Point Slide 1-4)

 

2.      Teach:  One way to discover different kinds of careers is to try and match what you know about yourself to career interest areas.  Career interest areas are general kinds of activities people do in many different careers and match this to your personality type to the Holland Hexagon profile.  Holland has labeled these personality types:  realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional.  Each is unique combination of interests, abilities, and ways of looking at the world.  To help students remember these six types more easily, the program characteristics them by more vivid, action-oriented labels:  Realistic = Doer, Investigative = Thinker, Artistic = Creator, Social = Helper, Enterprising = Persuader, Conventional = Organizer.  (Power Point Slide 5)

 

3.      Teach:  Many people find a match for themselves in more than one career interest area.  Take some time to review the different career interest areas and match your personality type to Holland's profile.   (Power Point Slide 6-17)

 

4.      Students can fill out the personality type checklist to create their Holland profile.    (Activity 1:  What Personality Type Are You?)

 

5.      Interview two people about their work.  If possible, talk to someone working in a career area that interests you.  Take notes as you ask the following questions.  Then think about what you learned and answer the Critical Thinking questions. (Activity 2:  Career Interest Survey Worksheet.)

 

6.      Teach:  Another way to discover different kinds of careers is to think about career clusters.  The Kentucky Department of Education Career and Technical Education has organized careers into fourteen (14) career clusters.  Career clusters are groups of similar occupations and industries.  Career clusters will help you discover your interests and decide where you want your future to take you.  Every career cluster is divided into career pathways.  Each career pathway contains a group of careers requiring similar skills and education.  (PowerPoint Slide 18-32)

 

 

7.      Students should watch the power point and look at the Career Cluster Worksheet and decide which clusters appeal to them?  Then they should select one career cluster that interests them right now and answer the questions found on Activity 3.  (Activity 3:  Career Clusters)

 

8.      Literacy Connection:  Students can read "The Beloved Dearly" by Doug Cooney and use the Compare/Contrast Matrix to compare characters and their career interest area.    (Activity 4:  Compare/Contrast Matrix)

 

9.      Teach:  Once you have identified interesting careers, it's time for some research.  When you do research, you investigate a subject and gather information about it.  The research you do now will pay off in many ways later.  Be sure the students keep their lists of interests, values, skills, and aptitudes handy.  The following is 10 questions that will help students gather information about careers. (Power Point Slides 33-36)

1.      What skills and aptitudes should I have?

2.      What education and training would I need?

3.      What would my work environment, or surroundings, be like?

4.      What hours would I spend on the job?

5.      What kinds of work would I do?

6.      What responsibilities would I have?

7.      Would I be able to move ahead?

8.      What will this career be like when I'm ready to work?

9.      What does this career pay?

10.  What other rewards would this career provide?

 

10.  Teach:  You know what you're looking for.  Now you need to know where to look for it.  Finding out about careers is easier than you might think.  You can gather information in many places and many ways.  The following are where to find information about careers:  library has many publications; search the Internet; talk to people through exploratory interviews, and work in the field by job shadowing, internships, volunteering, service learning, or cooperative programs.  (Power Point Slides 37-41)

 

11.  Students will then research career information in three sources and complete the information on (Activity 5:  Checking Out Sources of Information.)

 

12.  Students can then be assessed using (Activity 6:  Career Choices Review).

 

13.  Students will analyze two career areas to see if they fit their own personal needs.  Students will use the Activity 7 to gather their information. (Activity 7:  Researching Your Career)

 

14.  Students can then gather all their information from all the activities and write an article about career areas and clusters that fit their own personality type. (Feature Article:  Writing Portfolio Piece)

  

Evaluation/Assessment (Formative, Summative, CATS-like)

 

Pre-Assessment

 

Open Response

 

Anecdotal Records

 

On-Demand

X

Checklist

X

Writing Portfolio Tasks

X

Multiple Choice

X

Quiz/Test

X

Open-Ended

X

Self-Assessment/Reflection

X

Questioning Techniques

 

Other

 

Formative Assessment:

Activity 1: What Personality Type Are You?

Activity 2: Career Interest Survey

Activity 3: Career Clusters

Activity 4: Compare/Contrast Matrix

Activity 5: Checking Out Sources of Information

Activity 6: Career Choices Review

Activity 7: Researching Your Career

 

Summative Assessments:

Feature Article (Writing Portfolio Piece)

 

 

Resources/Technology: Think about practical issues and materials needs for lesson implementation.

 

Interactive Power Point Presentation Research career clusters and careers on the Internet (See Exploring Careers: What's Right For You (A Sunburst Title). Sunburst. 1997. unitedstreaming. 15 August 2005 http://www.unitedstreaming.com/) Word-process career article.

 

Additional Notes/Attachments

Attachments:

Exploring Careers Power Point Notes Page

Activity 1: What Personality Type Are You?

Activity 2: Career Interest Survey

Activity 3: Career Clusters

Activity 4: Compare/Contrast Matrix

Activity 5: Checking Out Sources of Information

Activity 6: Career Choices Review

Activity 7: Researching Your Career

Feature Article (Writing Portfolio Piece)

 

Note: If you'd like to use these resources or amend it to suit your needs, please click on the Word icon to open it on your computer, then choose Word's Save As command to save it locally.