9th grade Career Day Preparation Lesson Plan
*Please use this lesson plan with all 9th graders a few days before your
students attend the Career Day! You can use all or parts of this lesson,
whatever fits into your schedule the best. (Approximately 50-60 minutes)
1. Objective: To help students understand why they are attending the Career Day
and to help them discover new career options to consider including gender nontraditional careers.
2. Anticipatory Set:
(4 minutes) Show clip of Ashton Kutcher from the Teen Choice Awards giving
career advice to teens. http://youtu.be/FNXwKGZHmDc?t=43s
3. Activity #1 (10 minutes) Have four Matchbox cars such as a tow truck, bus,
semi, or snow plow (or use the attached pictures of cars) displayed at the front
of the room. Ask for 4 volunteers to come up and each chooses one car/truck
that they like or would prefer to drive if they had the chance. After each
student has chosen a car, ask him/her if he/she is satisfied with the car he/she
has chosen or would like to trade it in on another one.
At this point, bring out the other cool cars from which the students can choose.
The students will see immediately that the choices are more varied and have
more personality. Have the student’s trade in their first cars for the newerchoice models. Ask the students who upgraded to more preferred models why
they chose the cars they did and why they liked them better than the firstchoice cars. Hopefully the students will bring out the ideas of more choice and a
better match to their interests. Now ask the other students who were satisfied
with their first choices why they chose the cars they did. Did they match
closely with what they really would like? Why or why not?
Now ask the class if anyone who was out shopping for his/her first new car
would want to choose from just 4 different cars? Why not? At this point you
can introduce the idea that when making decisions that have a lasting effect,
we want to make good choices. We want to make choices that are good for us
and make us happy. We want to choose from all the possibilities and options. If
we limit ourselves to just a few options, we might miss the things that would
make us most happy and content.
Tell the students that one of the biggest decisions you will make affecting all
aspects of your life is your decision about an occupation. Think how happy your
life would be if you could wake up each day eager to go to work thinking, “I get
to go to work today! They pay me to do the things I would be doing anyway.” Or
“I do this for fun and get a paycheck too!”
4. (1:27 minutes) Show students the CTE Pathways—Get a Career Plan
http://youtu.be/wCIj7wRv-4c
Tell students that on April 28, they will have the opportunity to go to Richfield
to the Sevier Valley Center and participate in a Career Day. There will be over
50 different career options available to learn about and participate in small
activities where they can experience different careers.
5. Activity #2 (15 minutes) Define nontraditional career (definition sheet
below). A nontraditional career is any occupation in which women or men
comprise 25 percent or less of its total employment.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Have a student who likes chocolate volunteer and come to the front of the
room. Offer the student a mini Hershey chocolate bar or a regular size
Hershey chocolate bar. Ask: “Why did you choose this size candy bar?”
The larger bar is the more common choice. Relate that to career choices.
Would you rather have more enjoyment in a job? Would you rather have
higher pay in a job? Would you rather have more opportunities for growth,
etc.? If he/she chooses the smaller bar, perhaps because he/she is not
hungry right now; in that case, ask whether he/she would make a different
choice at another time. How could that relate to a choice of a career in the
future?
Pull out the extra-large size Hershey bar. Now ask the student if he/she is
happy with the choice he/she made. The student will usually say that he/she
did not know there was another choice. Relate this to career choices. If
students do not explore and look at all career options they may miss an
opportunity for a career they would have enjoyed because they did not know
it was an option for them.
Now show a display of various mini Hershey bars such as Special Dark
Chocolate, Mr. Goodbar, Krackel, etc. Discuss how one person might have a
preference over another person for a particular kind of candy bar. Careers
are the same in that some have similarities, but the little differences can
make them more appealing to some people.
Ask: Why would students want to pursue a nontraditional career?
 Higher wages, for women in particular. As more men enter careers
that are predominantly female, the wages for those careers increase.
 More opportunities for employment.
 More opportunities for advancement.
 More job satisfaction, because a person is doing what he/she enjoys,
rather than just working where he/she can make a livable wage.



The individual may prefer a more physically demanding career, or a
less physically demanding career.
Better benefits.
Other ideas?
6. Explain that through partnerships with post-secondary institutions, school
districts, business, and industry, CTE Pathways have been identified. These
Pathways group courses within Career and Technical Education (CTE) areas of
study and offer students a depth of knowledge and skill, linked with specific
post-secondary programs, culminating in degrees or certificates. Pathways
make it easier for students to understand the relevance of required courses
and select elective courses more wisely. With the help of the school counselor,
students can plan and explore options for the future.
7. (9:42 minutes) Show Nontraditional Careers—Break Free of the Barriers That
Limit Your Career Choices. http://youtu.be/bHXnM_RS_qM
Ask students for their feelings and ideas as they watched the DVD.
8. Show students the bag they will receive when they attend the Career Day on
April 28 at the Sevier Valley Center. Explain that they will be required to
complete a worksheet by asking questions at different booths. Students will
then present their completed worksheet to a lunch helper in order to receive a
sack lunch. Students will need to visit booths in the Arena as well as in the
Washburn Building and Outside to get all of the questions answered. Students
will have 2 hours to visit all the booths. Plenty of time to talk to every booth if
they choose too. Remind students to attend the career day with an open mind
and be willing to consider new career options that they have not previously
considered.
Remember Ashton Kutcher’s advice “Build a life, don’t live one. Find your
opportunities. And always be sexy (smart).”
A Non-traditional
Career is any
occupation
in which women
or men comprise
25 percent or less
of its total
employment.
Cut out each vehicle image for activity #1