ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Needs Assessment/Rational

Most young people worry about their future careers. How can they connect to a career that will offer them both happiness and financial security? “Career Safari” will help young people link options and skills to become successful in careers, families, and communities. Students will complete projects that guide them to discover strengths, target career goals, and create a plan for achieving the lifestyle they desire.

In determining the need for a career development unit, I considered the following:

21st Century Jobs Require Skills and Training
· In 1950, 60% of jobs required no special training. Today about 36% of jobs require only short-term training on the job. The people who hold these jobs make about half of what people with an associate’s degree make and about 40% of what those with a bachelor’s degree make.
· Skilled jobs don’t always require a four-year college degree. In fact, about 22% of all jobs will require a four-year degree or more by 2010. Associate’s degrees or postsecondary vocational certificates will be required in 8.7% of jobs. The remaining skilled jobs may be filled by people with moderate- or long-term training on the job and/or work experience in a related occupation.
· Among the 19 high-paying occupations with the fastest growth by 2010, 13 require bachelor’s degrees and 5 require an associate’s degree or postsecondary vocational certificate. The remaining occupation (dental assistant) requires moderate-term on-the-job training.
· Economists predict that by 2010, the number of jobs requiring an associate’s degree will grow by 32%—much faster than the growth rate of 14.4% for jobs that require only short-term on-the-job training.

Source: Statistics from Monthly Labor Review, November 2001, Vol. 124, No. 11. (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor).

Average Annual Earnings by Educational Attainment
High school dropout/nongraduate $ 19,205
High school degree $ 26,795
Associate’s degree $ 34,744
Bachelor’s degree $ 50,623
Master’s degree $ 63,592
Doctoral degree $ 85,675
Professional degree (law, medicine, etc.) $101,375

Source: “Educational Attainment—People 18 Years Old and Over, by Total Money Earnings in 2001,” Current Population Survey, March 2002, U.S. Census Bureau.

School Mission Statement
Family and Consumer Sciences Education programs prepare students for family life, work life, and careers in family and consumer sciences by providing opportunities to develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and behaviors needed (in part) for successful life management, employment, and career development. This part of the Family and Consumer Sciences vision statement, goes hand in hand with the Rolla School mission statement, “Learning Today to Prepare for Tomorrow.” My job is to prepare students for life within their family, career, and community.

School Improvement Target Areas
Areas that were identified in our school improvement plan include Writing Across the Curriculum, Spelling, Critical Thinking Skills, and Problem Solving. Through this unit, I will be able to incorporate all target areas of the school improvement plan. I hope to teach the students the value of writing and spelling in a course area outside of English, showing the students that effective writing skills are necessary in their daily life. They will also use critical thinking skills and problem solving when searching for careers and the training that accompany them.

North Dakota State Assessments
The 2003-04 North Dakota State Assessment reports showed that Mt. Pleasant’s eighth grade class (currently freshmen), scored below the state average percent correct in one Language Arts area that will be incorporated into this unit.

North Dakota Standard/Benchmark (State % Correct/District % Correct)

Standard 5: Write for a variety of purposes
1. Write for various specific audiences (66%/59%)

This unit will have the students writing for a specific audience, employers, by including resume writing and completing job applications.

Career Safari will help students discover their options and skills for success in careers, families, and communities. Through individual and cooperative activities, students will discover their strengths, target career goals, and initiate a plan for achieving the lifestyle they desire.

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understanding:
I want the students to understand how to discover their personal strengths, set career goals, and create a plan for achieving the lifestyle they desire. I want students to link their personal skills and goals to careers. I want students to prepare for their future education, leadership, and work experiences. I want students to be able to manage roles in careers, families, and communities.
Goal(s):
Students will identify and prepare for careers. Students will also understand how to integrate a career and family roles.

Questions Answered

Essential questions:
1. What are your strengths? Your interests? Your skills? Your goals?
2. What lifestyle would you like to achieve?
3. What education, leadership, and work experiences do you need to achieve your goals?
Objectives:
Students will complete the career scan questionnaire online. Students will research career options. Students will identify strengths, abilities, skills, interests and aptitudes. Students will explore resources such as education, community service, and work experience that will enable them to reach career goals. Students will prepare a resume. Students will practice interview skills through mock interviews. Students will be able to identify work ethic and transferable job skills. Students will be able to identify family-friendly work policies.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?
  I will use a unit test to check for understanding.

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?
  I will have a conference with each student to review the first draft of the resumes and make suggestions for improvement. I will conduct a mock interview with each student.

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?
  Students will participate in situations and discussions on work attitude and ethic, transferable job skills, and family-friendly work policies. Students will prepare an oral presentation for the class that includes information on a career that interests them.

What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
  Students will complete the career scan. I will observe daily work, collect samples of student work, self-assessment rubrics and teacher assessment rubric to review projects.

Instructional Strategies

Students will use a combination of inquiry-based, problem-based, and project-based learning to complete this project.

Inquiry-based: Through cooperative activities, class discussions, and research students will examine job skills, workplace ethics, and career options.

Problem-based: Students will participate in mock interviews and role play situations which include realistic job interview questions and work place situations.

Project-based: Students will explore personal strengths and career interests to create a career investigation portfolio which will include a job application, resume, letter of application, and career research.