ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Transitioning students with disabilities into the community after high school graduation was defined in IDEA of 1997. The primary reason for including transition in an IEP was to reduce the dropout rate of students with disabilities. The dropout rate for students in Belcourt, ND in 2000 was 18.1% compared to the 2.2% dropout rate statewide. The unemployment rate in Belcourt is currently 34.1%. Throughout the process, one of the components of transitioning, is teaching students skills that will enable them to successfully seek and secure employment. When students understand where their education will lead them, they are more likely to engage in the process of learning. This unit will be focused on teaching those skills.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding:
I would like the students I work with to understand that regardless of their disability, they can be taught strategies to enhance their prospects for employment.Goal(s):
Students will learn the steps taken to apply for and secure a job.

Questions Answered

Essential questions:
1. What are my strengths?
2. What do I need to learn next?
3. Is there another way to accomplish this?Objectives:
Students will participate in a vocational interest inventory. Students will search for a job utilizing newspapers and the internet.Students will complete applications on-line and on paper, as well as inquire about jobs via the phone. Students will create a resume’. Students will participate in mock interviews with staff.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
  The interest inventory will be presented individually. Students will print internet job opportunities and cut help wanted ads from newspapers. Students will complete job applications and register with ND Job Service on line. Students will create resume’s on-line and hard copy. During the interview process, I will ask students to include strategies they have learned to compensate for their disabilities.

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?
  These will be individualized, dependent on the student’s disability, and their strengths.

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?
  Job searches, applications on’line and hard copy, mock interviews

What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
  Self assessment could be completed by digital recording of the mock interviews with follow-up of personal critique. Areas to consider would include, but not be limited to: Greeting, preparedness, eye contact, posture, exiting.

Instructional Strategies

Initially, the results of the interest inventory will be discussed with the student leading to a querry of jobs that would be appealing and somewhat realistic. (I will always want them to shoot for the stars, but I can’t honestly say I’d promote a student with a severe central auditory processing deficit into a career as an air traffic controller.) I’ve found during my initial interviews with students, most can’t explain why they are on an IEP. Each student’s disability will be privately discussed with him/her, which will lead to discussion of strategies they have already learned to compensate for them and others they can still learn. These strategies can be applied in the workforce, also.