Lesson: Intro to Career Cruising

LESSON PLAN: Introduction to Career Cruising

Grade Level: 9

Topic of the Lesson:

Introduction to internet-based career exploration and planning tool to explore career and college options and develop a career plan.

Focus Questions:

Are students thinking about careers and college options? Do students have access to career exploration software programs?

Materials Needed:

  • Computer with internet access
  • Pre-questionnaire (attached)
  • Instructions to create profile (attached)
  • Pen/ Pencil
  • Stapler
  • Extra paper

Time Needed: 1 hour

National ASCA Standards:

A:B1.1Demonstrate the motivation to achieve individual potential

A:B2.2Use assessment results in educational planning

C:A1.1Develop skills to locate, evaluate and interpret career information

C:A1.2Learn about the variety of traditional and nontraditional occupations

C:A1.3Develop an awareness of personal abilities, skills, interests and motivations

MA CDE Benchmarks:

A3-1 Skills in researching and evaluating economic and societal information for career planning and career management

W1-4: Skills in evaluating career plans and decisions in relation to aptitudes, values, and interests.

W2-2: Knowledge of how and where to access career and labor market information

MA Curriculum Frameworks

ELA:

CCR: Anchor Standards for Reading: 7, 8, 9

CCR: Anchor Standards for Writing: 2, 4, 7

CCR: Anchor Standards for Speaking and Listening (2,4)

STE:

SIS2: Make observations, raise questions, and formulate hypotheses

DISTRICT/SCHOOL LINKS:

School Philosophy:

The challenging career/technical and academic programs encourage individual excellence and foster the work ethics and life skills necessary to be successful at Monty Tech, post-secondary institutions, and in today’s workplace.

PLANNING REFLECTION:

  • Attitude, skills and knowledge are being taught in this lesson.
  • Attitude- to be independent and take responsibility for future employment and education
  • Skill- to be familiar with computer program
  • Knowledge- to know resources available for career and labor market information
  • Basic knowledge of the internet is needed.

TEACHER PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES: During the lesson the teacher will assist students create a profile in Career Cruising which they will use throughout their four years at Monty Tech.

STUDENT PERFORMANCE OBJECTIVES:

  • Cognitive: By the end of the lesson, the students will
  • know how to access Career Cruising to aid in researching possible career fields and universities by demonstrating to counselor how to access the program before the end of class.
  • knowstudy skills and techniques that will enhance their learning style. How will you know they know? Need to be measurable. Check-in with students after publication of progress reports and academic report cards will provide data to determine if study skills and techniques identified have been used.
  • Affective: By the end of the lesson, the students will
  • understandhow their interests relate to possible career fields by reviewing their answers to the Career Matchmaker questionnaire about their likes and dislikes with a student partner.
  • Behavioral/Performance: By the end of the lesson, the students will
  • accessCareer Cruising from home. Counselor will monitor log-in history data through the Career Advisor Management Systems.
  • navigatethrough career and school search tabs by demonstrating to counselor or student partner.

MODIFICATIONS FOR DIFFERENTLY ABLED STUDENTS:

Differently able students will sit in designated area where counselor and aide can easily assist them. Students can who complete assessments early will be partnered with students who are struggling.

PRE ASSESSMENTSee attached pre-lesson questionnaire.

DESCRIPTION OF THE ACTIVITY/STRUCTURE OF THE LESSON

Teacher will:

  • Hand out worksheet with directions about log-in, username, password, and profile creation.
  • Walk students through creating a profile using information they wrote previously.
  • Counselor and aide will observe students in order to assess knowledge, understanding and performance.

Students will:

  • answer pre-lesson questionnaire.
  • create a username and password by having them write it down on their worksheet first.
  • log-in to website.
  • answer a series of interest questions.
  • scan career recommendations,after first iteration,
  • complete remainder of interest questions.
  • scan career recommendations. Note any changes.
  • print two copies of report. One to take home to begin dialogue with parents about career choices. One will remain with their career folder that counselors maintain.
  • complete the learning styles inventory.
  • have opportunity to read about their preferred learning styles and recommendations to improve study habits,Upon completion of inventory
  • will print two copies of report. One to take home to begin dialogue with parents about career choices. One will remain with their career folder that counselors maintain.

ASSESSMENT:

All currently enrolled ninth grade students were required to Introduction to Career Cruising class during the fifth week of the Exploratory Program. By the end of the week all ninth grade students accomplished the following:

  • Created a Career Cruising Profile (username and password following standard protocol for easy retrieval)
  • Completed Career Matchmaker Assessment and Learning Styles Inventory
  • Identified and researched at least three jobs that matched their interest
  • Identified learning preference
  • Identified at least two study techniques or methods to help student learn better.
  • Learned to navigate through Career Cruising program
  • Identified and researched at least two post secondary institutions
  • Log-in history through the Career Advisor Management System will be monitored to determine the number of times the student logged-in.

As a result of the lesson, ninth grade students have a better understanding of careers and jobs, duties and responsibilities, salary compensation, and educational requirements for a given career/job.

The figure below indicates that at the end of the lesson, 100% of the ninth grade students (red bar) received the lesson. One ninth grade student (blue bar) had a Career Cruising profile before the start of the lesson. Nonetheless, he was still required to take the Career Matchmaker assessment.

The next step is to identify the newly enrolled 9th graded students as well as transfer students (green bar) to receive this lesson. In order to minimize interrupting students’ academic courses, this lesson will be offered during the students’ vocational trade week.

I highly recommend follow-on activities to the Career Matchmaker results. Career Cruising offers the following activities for future lessons:

  • High School Education Plan
  • Career Preparation
  • Career Interview
  • Career Cluster Research Project

REFLECTION:

High school students only have a vague idea of the relationship between current academic status and their future employment opportunities. The challenge is to help students understand the link between the courses they choose in high school and their future career plans. This lesson provides ninth grade students the opportunity to begin career exploration and post secondary planning. Further lessons are needed in order for students to fully comprehend and evaluate their high school performance in relation to future goals and opportunities.

During the Career Matchmaker assessment students answered 116 questions about their likes and dislikes. At the end of the assessment students’ received a list of suggested careers and career cluster to further explore. This assessment is valuable because it provided a venue for students to begin exploring the hundreds of jobs available to them. Many students did not know the duties and responsibilities of a particular job, what characteristics best matched a job, or the educational requirement of a job. The Career Matchmaker assessment result is a catalyst for the student to explore future job opportunities.

Many 9th grade students at Monty Tech assume they are tactile learners and discounted the visual and auditory learning styles. Therefore, the Learning Styles Inventory is a valuable assessment for the students. At the end of the inventory students receive results indicating their preferred learning style: auditory, visual, tactile or combination of each. The profile explains the preferred learning style(s), to include ways to help the student learn. School guidance counselors can use the learning styles profile during academic counseling sessions to recommend study techniques to improve performance.

CITE RESOURCES:

PRE-LESSON QUESTIONNAIRE

  1. List all career exploration website or programs you are know about or used?
  1. What job are you interested in?
  1. What characteristics are needed to be successful in the career or job?
  1. What are the daily duties or responsibilities of the career or job?
  1. What is your learning style preference?

POST-LESSON QUESTIONNAIRE

  1. Do you have a Career Cruising profile?
  1. What is the best career field or job matches your interests?
  1. What characteristics do you have that will help you be successful in the career field or job?
  1. How can you improve your learning habits?

CAREER CRUISING: Creating a Profile

PART 1: The following information is required to create a Profile on Career Cruising.

EMAIL ADDRESS: USE YOUR MONTY TECH EMAIL ADDRESS

last initial, first initial and ID #

Example: Mary Jones 112870 would be: jm112870

Your email address: ______

USERNAME:Last name First name Middle initial (all lower case)

(Profile)Example: Mary Ann Jones would be: jonesmarya

Your profile username: ______

PASSWORD:Date of Birth

Use 8 characters

Example: September 8, 1997 would be: 09081997

November 2, 1997 would be: 11021997

Your date of birth: ______

PART 2: Log into Career Cruising website.

HOME PAGE:

USERNAME:monty

PASSWORD:tech

  • Click onSTART CAREER CRUISING
  • On left side locate PORTFOLIO LOGIN
  • Click on CREATE A NEW PORTFOLIO
  • Fill in your information (from above)