Fedencia P. Fitch
PSY 9085 Practicum in School Counseling
24 April 2012
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:
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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:B1.1 Demonstrate the motivation to achieve individual potential
A:B2.2 Use assessment results in educational planning
C:A1.1 Develop skills to locate, evaluate and interpret career information
C:A1.2 Learn about the variety of traditional and nontraditional occupations
C:A1.3 Develop 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
Lesson: Intro to Career Cruising
MA Curriculum Frameworks
ELA:
STE:
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)
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.
o Attitude- to be independent and take responsibility for future
employment and education
o Skill- to be familiar with computer program
o 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:
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Cognitive: By the end of the lesson, the students will
o 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.
o know study skills and techniques that will enhance their learning
style. How will you know they know? Need to be measurable. Checkin 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.
Lesson: Intro to Career Cruising
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Affective: By the end of the lesson, the students will
o understand how 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.
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Behavioral/Performance: By the end of the lesson, the students will
o access Career Cruising from home. Counselor will monitor log-in
history data through the Career Advisor Management Systems.
o navigate through 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 ASSESSMENT See 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:
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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.
Lesson: Intro to Career Cruising
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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:
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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.
Lesson: Intro to Career Cruising
I highly recommend follow-on activities to the Career Matchmaker results. Career
Cruising offers the following activities for future lessons:
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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.
Lesson: Intro to Career Cruising
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:
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www.careercruising.com
Lesson: Intro to Career Cruising
PRE-LESSON QUESTIONNAIRE
1. List all career exploration website or programs you are know about or used?
2. What job are you interested in?
3. What characteristics are needed to be successful in the career or job?
4. What are the daily duties or responsibilities of the career or job?
5. What is your learning style preference?
POST-LESSON QUESTIONNAIRE
1. Do you have a Career Cruising profile?
2. What is the best career field or job matches your interests?
3. What characteristics do you have that will help you be successful in the
career field or job?
4. How can you improve your learning habits?
Lesson: Intro to Career Cruising
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:
www.careercruising.com
USERNAME:
monty
PASSWORD:
tech
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Click on START CAREER CRUISING
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On left side locate PORTFOLIO LOGIN
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Click on CREATE A NEW PORTFOLIO
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Fill in your information (from above)