Fifth Grade Career Cluster Portfolio
Task: After researching websites and informational articles on a career area of choice,
write an essay that describes a selected career. The description should include the
training and education needed, work environment, potential salary and growth
opportunities, and job outlook. In addition, you will present a Power Point (or other
digital presentation) about your career choice and the information you have gathered.
You should document the sources of information.
Daily Instructional Activities
Lesson 1: Activating Prior Knowledge (20 minutes)
Discuss the task with students. Generate a class web about interesting careers students
know about. Make sure you ask questions such as: What kind of training do you think
you would need? What type of education would you need? What would your work
environment be like? What kind of salary do you think you would make? What kind of
growth opportunities would you have in this career? Compile a list of responses on the
web (you may want to make this an anchor chart to refer to in future lessons). Make sure
students are clear about the language of the task (work environment, growth
opportunities, etc). Open up the Fifth Grade Career Cluster LiveBinder (located on
desktop). Show students the Welcome and the Getting Started tabs. Model for students
how to access the video clips on a couple of the websites and how to use the notes page
for gathering information and how to document sources. Make sure you clarify the
school plan for when they will gather information, designing their presentation, and how
to get support. Note to teacher: Students may want to begin to explore career choice
videos (Getting Started) as they do technology rotation. Technology labs should have
note taking sheets available for students to use as they watch the videos. Remember
students will need to narrow choices down to 3 before gathering more detailed
information
Lesson 2: Understanding the Essay (25 minutes)
Remind students of the task from lesson 1. Have students work with a partner (or
cooperative group) to develop a bulleted list of features that would be important for
creating an essay. Revisit the anchor chart generated in lesson 1 of the responses from
questions. Discuss how these questions can help guide them as they generate the list.
After a few minutes, ask groups to discuss how to locate and organize the information for
the essay. What kinds of information should they gather, how should they cite their
sources, what have they learned about informational writing that could be useful for this
essay? Bring class back together to share ideas for the important features of an essay as
well as ways to organize their writing. Put ideas on an anchor chart. Open up the Fifth
Grade Career Cluster Livebinder and click on the Essay tab. Discuss with students the
outline for the essay. Show students the tabs and model how step by step guidance is
given for how to write the essay.
Lesson 3: Understanding the Rubric (20 Minutes)
Open the LiveBinder to the Essay tab. Remind students of the different components for
their essay. Give each student the rubric (see resources) that will be used to assess their
essay. Discuss with students each of the elements and the criteria for each score. Have
students keep a copy of the rubric with them as they begin to gather information for their
essay as well as writing the essay.
Lesson 4: Note Taking (25 minutes)
Say to students, “Now that you have narrowed your career choices to your top 3, it is
time to decide which one career you want to gather more information about. You will
need to gather information about three careers so that you can narrow your choice to one.
You will only write your essay on your top career choice. Your essay will be used to
develop your presentation. It will be important for you to take notes about your career
choices and to cite your sources as you read.” Here are several websites (many of these
you may have already taught since they are included on the resource section of your
curriculum map) to help provide direct instruction on how students can keep organized
notes. Make sure you model for students how to cite their sources.
Two Column Note Taking organizer
Notes, Quotes, and Fact Fragments
Education World Note Taking Lessons
Revisit the LiveBinder to remind students the components of the essay (you may want to
make an anchor chart of the components of the essay for future reference). As students
begin note taking they should use the outline of the essay as a guide. Keep in mind that
these beginning note cards do not have to contain lots of information since students will
only be choosing one to write their essay and develop their presentation about.
Lesson 5: How to select relevant information, summarize, and paraphrase
(25 minutes)
Using the 100 Best Jobs link on LiveBinder, (see Getting Started, first tab), model for
students how you should collect information for an essay. Select one of the jobs listed
and begin by reading aloud to students. For instance, when reading the information about
being a dentist (the #1 job!), discuss with students how the article begins in a catchy way
to introduce the career (A trip to the dentist can be a harrowing experience. The prospect
of sharp instruments poking our gums or prodding our teeth can wreak havoc on the
psyche.) Since students are gathering information about three careers at this point, they
may want to record some of the different ways the careers are introduced and record them
on their note cards. Model for students how these catchy beginnings should not be
copied directly but should be paraphrased in their own unique style. Continue to model
for students how to gather relevant information needed for the remaining components of
the essay (refer to anchor chart) and how to record the information in a note taking
format. Continually refer to the outline for the essay as a guide to gathering information
from the article, how to take the information and jot down notes, and how to correctly
cite the source so that you can return to the information if needed when writing the essay
on the one career choice. Note to teachers: Students should be given time in technology
rotation to gather information about three career choices. One final career choice
should be decided on by the end of their rotation.
*** Once students have made a decision on the one career choice they would like to write
an essay about, students may need their next technology rotation day to gather additional
information. Students may want to collect information from several sources (making
sure to cite additional sites) to include in their essay.
Lesson 6: Writing Your Essay
Open the Fifth Grade Career Cluster LiveBinder. Click on the Essay tab and each subtab. Walk students through the components of the essay- making sure they understand
each section. Students should already have experience in writing a research paper.
Note to Teachers: Students should use Microsoft Word to type their essay. Make sure
students know how to save their information in Word. You will need to have a plan for
saving these documents so they can be uploaded to Edmodo. Students should save
their essay file with their name and career choice. For example, John Turner Dentist.
If you do not have an Edmodo class account, you will need to make sure you have a way
of saving the essays for documentation for the state. There are step by step directions on
the LiveBinder for students to help guide them through their essay writing. Talk to your
Technology Assistant so that he/she can provide the time and support for students to type
their essay.
Lesson 6: Making Your Presentation
Open the Fifth Grade Career Cluster LiveBinder. Click on the Presentation tab and each
sub-tab. Walk students through the components of the presentation- making sure they
understand each section. The LiveBinder has step by step directions showing students
how to make a Power Point presentation. Students are not required to use Power Point
but may choose a different presentation format. All students must have a presentation
and present their career to their classmates. These presentations may be organized any
way you choose. Make sure students save their presentations so they can be uploaded to
Edmodo. Students should save their presentation with their name and career choice.
Again, if you do not have an Edmodo class account, you will need to have a way of
saving the presentations for documentation for the state. Talk to your Technology
Assistant so that he/she can provide the time and support for students to design their
presentation.
Note to Teacher: Make sure there are extra copies of the note cards and the rubric
in the computer lab. Students will need these as they write their essay and design
their presentations.
Resources
Essay Rubric
Scoring
Elements
Not Yet
Approaches
Expectations
2
2.5
Meets
Expectations
3
3.5
Advanced
Attempts to
address
prompt, but
lacks focus or
is off task
Addresses
prompt
appropriately,
but with a weak
or uneven focus
Addresses
prompt
appropriately
and maintains a
clear, steady
focus
Attempts to
establish a
controlling
idea, but
lacks a clear
purpose.
Establishes a
controlling idea
with a general
purpose.
Establishes a
controlling idea
with a clear
purpose
maintained
throughout the
response.
Addresses all
aspects of
prompt
appropriately
and maintains a
stronglydeveloped focus
Establishes a
strong
controlling idea
with a clear
purpose
maintained
throughout the
response.
Reading/
Research
Attempts to
present
information in
response to
the prompt,
but lacks
connections
or relevance
to the
purpose of
the prompt.
Presents
information from
reading
materials
relevant to the
purpose of the
prompt with
minor lapses in
accuracy or
completeness.
Presents
information from
reading
materials
relevant to the
prompt with
accuracy and
sufficient detail.
Accurately
presents
information
relevant to all
parts of the
prompt with
effective
selection of
sources and
details from
reading
materials.
Development
Attempts to
provide
details in
response to
the prompt,
including
retelling, but
lacks sufficient
development
or relevancy.
Implication is
missing,
irrelevant, or
illogical.
Presents
appropriate
details to
support the
focus and
controlling idea.
Briefly notes a
relevant
implication or a
relevant
gap/unanswere
d question.
Presents
appropriate and
sufficient details
to support the
focus and
controlling idea.
Explains relevant
and plausible
implications and
a relevant gap/
unanswered
question.
Presents thorough
and detailed
information to
strongly support
the focus and
controlling idea.
Thoroughly
discusses relevant
and salient
implications or
consequences
and one or more
significant gaps/
unanswered
questions.
1
Focus
Controlling
Idea
1.5
4
Attempts to
organize
ideas, but
lacks control
of structure.
Uses an
appropriate
organizational
structure to
address the
specific
requirements of
the prompt, with
some lapses in
coherence or
awkward use of
the
organizational
structure
Maintains an
appropriate
organizational
structure to
address the
specific
requirements of
the prompt
Maintains an
organizational
structure that
intentionally and
effectively
enhances the
presentation of
information as
required by the
specific prompt.
Attempts to
demonstrate
standard
English
conventions,
but lacks
cohesion and
control of
grammar,
usage, and
mechanics.
Sources are
used without
citation.
Demonstrates
an uneven
command of
standard English
conventions
and cohesion.
Uses language
and tone with
some
inaccurate,
inappropriate,
or uneven
features.
Inconsistently
cites sources.
Demonstrates a
command of
standard English
conventions
and cohesion,
with few errors.
Response
includes
language and
tone
appropriate to
the audience,
purpose, and
specific
requirements of
the prompt.
Cites sources
using an
appropriate
format with only
minor errors.
Demonstrates
and maintains a
well-developed
command of
standard English
conventions and
cohesion, with
few errors.
Response
includes
language and
tone consistently
appropriate to
the audience,
purpose, and
specific
requirements of
the prompt.
Consistently cites
sources using an
appropriate
format.
Attempts to
include
disciplinary
content in
explanations,
but understanding of
content is
weak; content
is irrelevant,
inappropriate
or inaccurate.
Briefly notes
disciplinary
content relevant
to the prompt;
shows basic or
uneven
understanding of
content; minor
errors in
explanation.
Accurately
presents
disciplinary
content relevant
to the prompt
with sufficient
explanations that
demonstrate
understanding.
Integrates
relevant and
accurate
disciplinary
content with
thorough
explanations that
demonstrate indepth
understanding.
Organization
Conventions
Content
Understanding