ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

The purpose of this unit is to assist students with their career and college decision-making. According to the results on the 2003 PLAN Profile Summary Report for Bismarck High School, 75% of students request additional assistance with in making postsecondary plans.  Also, 60% request additional support with selecting a career and/or job. I also conducted a class survey for additional information on the specific needs of my students with learning disabilities. The concerns of students were overwhelming. Seventy-nine percent of students are unsure or do not have a definite career plan for after graduation from high school. In addition, 43% do not know if they plan to attend a post-secondary school or not, and of those that do plan to attend a post-secondary school, 79% are unsure of where they plan to attend. None of my students have completed a career / college planning portfolio. This unit will be designed to address these critical needs of 11th and 12th grade students with learning disabilities at Bismarck High School. Many students have had few experiences with career development and of course those decisions are much more complicated when a student must also consider the impact of a learning disability.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding: I want students to be able to independently make career decisions. Students need to be able access acceptable information and analyze the information for application to their own lives and skills and abilities. These decisions for my students are complicated by their learning disabilities. Therefore, it becomes imperative that students are able to analyze information appropriately.
Goal(s): Students will independently research a career of their choice and evaluate the information for relevance and appropriateness in their own lives. Students will determine their further educational needs.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: 1. What are your career plans? 2. How do you plan to make college or vocational school a part of your future?  3. How do you plan to implement your career decisions?
Objectives: 1. After research, 100% of the time, students must choose a career to explore. 2. Students will independently research and journal their personal career choice with 90% accuracy. 3. Students will analyze and journal their personal career research to match the career choice with their personal goals with 90% accuracy. 4. Students will research and journal post-secondary schools that match their personal career goals with 90% accuracy. 5. Using their research, students will create a career portfolio with 90% accuracy.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
Quizzes and tests will not be an acceptable way to assess this unit.
What academic prompts e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding?
1.  What is your individual career pathway?  2. Is post-secondary training necessary for your chosen career pathway? 3. If so, which schools offer the training necessary? 
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding? 
1. Rubrics, journal entries, various writing assignments, and a student-produced career portfolio will be used. 2. I will use two rubrics. One will be a daily grade on participation, effort, and quality of journal entry. The other rubric will reflect their completion of the career / college portfolio at the end of this unit. 3. Because this is an authentic experience for students, all students will be participate individually in the program and career and college information will differ greatly. 4. The career and college portfolio will assist students with long-term planning. It will be a great asset when students are talking to their parents, school counselors, as well as vocational rehabilitation and the transition coordinator. The hope is that this will help students organize their ideas as they plan for their transition out of high school.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
1.  Interest and skill surveys. 2. Teacher and individual student questioning dialogues. 3. Constant observation of individual progress through the process will be important to assure success for all students

Instructional Strategies

The students will be involved in project-based learning when determining their career pathway and then implementing their career decisions. The students will use the Internet program called Choices to investigate possible career pathways and the educational or training support needed to obtain their desired career. The students will be developing a career portfolio as they proceed through the Choices program. This portfolio will be key to their organizing and planning for after high school. For example, students can use the portfolio when discussing transition issues at their IEP meetings and less formally with their parents as they plan for their future. Also, this portfolio will be useful as students meet with their transition coordinator and vocational rehabilitation.