Building Career & Educational
Pathways through Goal
Setting
by Melissa Sadler-Nitu
mnitu_abe@yahoo.com
Overview
How do adult education programs promote
academic and workplace pathways for all adult
ESL learners? This webinar will look at how
programs can tailor a solution that starts with
clear student goals that are dynamic, obtainable
and measureable.
“Nobody can go back and start a new
beginning, but anyone can start today and
make a new ending.”
Maria Robinson quotes
New Accountability
Leadership at both State and National levels are
calling for another type of accountability for adult
educators that includes partnering more with
workforce and higher education. In addition,
accountability will include measurement of
student outcomes.
In other words, have students set work goals
and are they reaching them?
Goal Setting for Learning & Persistence
1. Student Centered Approach
2. Dewey and Progressive Movement
3. 21st Century Skills
4. Transitions in Adult Education
Student Centered Approach
Dewey and Progressive Movement
21st Century Skills
Transitions in Adult Education
Professional Portfolios
• Professional Portfolios are not typical classroom
portfolios, they are exhibits of student work
intended for job interviews, they include:
– Resume’s
– Personal Narratives
– Job Observations
– Career Inventories
• Professional Portfolios are goal setting and
transitional tools
Begins on the first day of class and must continue throughout the
curriculum
SETTING GOALS FOR
STUDENTS
Career Inventory
• Always begin with a career inventory even if a
student cannot read
• Using a career inventory is a means for looking
at the students larger goal in life
• Working backwards, it becomes easier to break
the larger goal into smaller goals
• Consider using Ventures Unit 8 when
approaching this activity
• Imagine that our imaginary student Maria would
like to become a Registered Nurse
Career Inventory NRS Level 1
• With the assumption that most students at this
level cannot read or write in English it is
appropriate to use a pictorial career inventory
• You can make one using simple animations to
demonstrate different types of work and have
students circle what they like
• Find visual career inventories online or from
local workforces
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
Career Inventory NRS Level 2
• Paper version of a career inventory
• Inventory uses a combination of simple
sentences and pictures
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
Career Inventory NRS Level 3
• Blended version of a career inventory
• Student uses a set of career inventory
vocabulary learned in class
• Simple career inventory on the computer
requiring mainly vocabulary and clicking skills
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
Career Inventory NRS Level 4
• Computer based inventory that requires
students to have an email account
• Students receive a full explanation of career
interests based on responses to the inventory
• Explanation of the career inventory should be
printable for further analysis
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
Career Inventory NRS Level 5
• Using the Career inventory (student may take a
new inventory or use the previous inventory)
Students begin to explore career pathways
• Career pathways should be explored via the
internet
• Career pathways may also be explored through
the counseling department at the community
college
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
Career Inventory NRS Level 6
• Using the results of a complex career inventory
analysis (often found through workforce)
students will put together results in polished
format for their professional portfolio
• Included in the portfolio, will be a printable
career pathway that students have analyzed for
long-term goal setting.
Career Inventories
• Students will not grow tired of completing career
inventories since the subject is always
themselves, thus student centered
• By continually revisiting the concept of a career
inventory the student has begun to set goals
whether conscious or unconscious
• Through teacher led discussions, each lesson
offered in Ventures becomes a tie to the career
goal
The Autobiography
• Professional portfolios work backwards with
skills much in the same way that Ventures does
with all chapter topics
• Writing in the first person is a skill that is
required for college readiness
• Writing an autobiography is a student-centered
approach to writing
The Autobiography NRS Level 1
• With the assumption that most students at this
level cannot read or write in English it is
appropriate to have students use pictures to
describe their lives orally
• A complex example for students is The Arrival,
by Shaun Tan
• Students learn to describe their pictures of their
lives to others
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
The Autobiography NRS Level 2
• At this level students can begin to apply short
written sentences to their pictures
• Students should become comfortable presenting
their autobiography to others in the class
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
The Autobiography NRS Level 3
• Using the pictures and writing skills they have
gained for this level, students will begin to write
a paragraph (or more) about their lives
• Written paragraph should be error free and in
the first person, thus revisions and peer editing
have occurred before the final product
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
The Autobiography NRS Level 4
• Students will begin the basics of the computer
for the purposes of writing a draft of their short
autobiography
• Students learn the basic formatting skills for
writing essays
• Students produce a typed version of their
autobiography 1-2 paragraphs
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
The Autobiography NRS Level 5
• Using MS Word, students produce a 3
paragraph autobiography
• Written work is in 1st person and is error free in
essay format
• Work is saved onto a computer storage device
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
The Autobiography NRS Level 6
• Using the previous work as a basis, student will
produce a college ready autobiographical essay
• Work is completed in MS Word, correctly
formatted and error free
• Work is saved onto a computer storage device
• Final product is placed in the student portfolio
Help students persist in your class
HAVING TANGIBLE ITEMS
FOR REFLECTION
Secrets of the Professional Portfolio
• Let students know that upon completion, the
professional portfolio is something that they can
take with them to a job interview
• Collect copies of documents that help prove
student success (i.e. certificates)
• Consider only putting polished work that would
impress an employer into the portfolio
• Use 3 ring binders with plastic sheet protectors
for everything that goes into the portfolio
There are a variety of paths for ESL students that their instructors
must begin to understand to help them make the right transition
UNDERSTANDING TRANSITIONAL
CHALLENGES FOR ESL
STUDENTS
Portfolio’s in the Classroom
• Professional Portfolio’s are not intended to be
the curriculum, they are intended to enhance
existing curriculums such as Ventures.
• Consider Professional Portfolio’s to be the
thread that connects curriculum throughout the
NRS levels
Thank you for Attending
QUESTION & ANSWER
SESSION