Integrating Career Awareness Lesson Plans
Level: Low/High Intermediate ELL
Time: 2.0 hours
The Influence of Family and Friends on Career Choice
Learning Objectives:
Students will identify and explore the many influences that may have contributed
to their previous job/career choices and will consider the many influences that
may contribute to their choices in the future.
Materials needed:
1. Handout 1: My Family Job Tree
2. Handout 2: Grammar: “WH” Question Words
Vocabulary:
advise, advice, guide, guidance, educate, education, influence, mentor, train,
supervise, supervisor, boss, colleague, co-worker, expect, follow, tradition,
generation, and names of family members (father, mother, brother, sister, aunt,
uncle, godfather, godmother, cousin, in-laws, etc.)
Grammar:
Students will orally practice answering questions that use the “WH” question
words in past tense questions, e.g.
 Who, what, where, why, when, which, how
 They will complete the grammar worksheet to review this concept.
CASAS Competencies:
NV Content Standards:
Lesson Introduction:
 Share a brief history with the students of jobs you have held in the past –
and explain that many people, including family members, influenced those
job choices.


Draw your “Family Job Tree” on the whiteboard to further illustrate this,
and look for any job patterns that can be seen.
Explain to the students that they are going to explore their own job trees.
Lesson Procedure:
 Review the listed vocabulary with the students.
 Distribute Handout 1: My Family Job Tree
 Ask the students to complete the handout with their families’ information.
 When completed, share the results with the class and explore any job
patterns that can be seen, e.g. Did a grandfather, father, and son all have
the same job?
 Lead a discussion using examples of “WH” questions:
 Where did you live as a teenager?
 What did your father do?
 Why did your brother have the same job as your father?
 When did your mother decide to work outside the home? Etc.
 Move the discussion towards thinking about the future and how the job
tree might change for the students’ children.
 Can education have an impact on their career choices?
 Are there more job opportunities in this country compared to their
home countries?
 Can a parent have an influence on a child’s career choice?
 Ask the students to write a few paragraphs:
 “ Influences That Led Me to My Career Choice”
Extension Activities:
1. If possible, ask the students to talk to some of their relatives in their home
country, and ask them what they would have really wanted to do with their lives if
they had had the opportunity to do so.
2. Have the students prepare a PowerPoint presentation that shows the influences
family and friends have had on their career choices.
Lesson Assessment:
1. Informal questioning on the lesson.
2. After an explanation, ask the students to complete the grammar handout.
Handout 1: My Family Job Tree
In the parentheses below each family member write the name of a job that person
has / has had.
Don’t worry if you are not able to write a job for each person!
grandfather
(
grandmother
)
(
grandfather
)
(
)
father
(
)
(
(
aunt # 1
(
(
)
)
(
(
)
ME
(
(
)
sister # 3
)
(
)
brother # 3
sister # 2
)
)
aunt # 3
brother # 2
sister # 1
(
)
(
brother # 1
(
uncle # 3
aunt # 2
)
)
)
uncle # 2
)
(
mother
uncle # 1
(
grandmother
(
)
)
“WH” Question Words
We are going to identify and explore the influence of family and friends on our career choices.
Please answer the following questions:
1. What are the major jobs that members of your family have had?
______________________________________________________________
2. Which jobs did most of the men in your family have?
______________________________________________________________
3. Which jobs did most of the women in your family have?
______________________________________________________________
4. Who has influenced your job choices in the past?
______________________________________________________________
5. How did your family’s jobs shape their lifestyles?
______________________________________________________________
6. When you were a child, did you know want you wanted to be when you grew up?
______________________________________________________________
7. Do you think it is important to enjoy your job? Why or why not?
______________________________________________________________
8. Who or what do you think will influence your job choices in the future?
______________________________________________________________