Self Expression:
How Do My Interests Help Me
Choose a Job?
How do My Clothes, My
Attitude, and Communication
Styles Affect How Others See
Me?
Exploring Abilities and Interests
Sarah Hodgson and Ginny Dodo
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Unit Rationale
This unit will help students understand how they express attitude in
their life including dress, music tastes, job opportunities, and friends.
We will specifically focus on how our personality, interests, and
abilities play a part in choosing a job or career.
The students will use a career interests website:
http://www.careerkey.org/english/ . This website offers materials for
choosing a career based on interests. It has
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an interest inventory test
occupations listed under each “interest” type
Students will take the inventory and add these to a “job inventory”.
They will link their job inventory to the occupational handbook for
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amount of schooling required,
earnings,
job outlook, and
job description.
Students will review how picking a job that fits your personality is one
of the different ways of expressing oneself.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Unit Organization
Reading: Read about an
occupation related to your
career interests, use
skimming vs. detailed
reading.
Social Studies: Study dress
and music and job
opportunities of other
countries and how self
expression maybe different
(laws, customs, etc.)
Math: Develop a graph for
each job in oral presentation:
amount of schooling on the xaxis, average pay on the yaxis.
Writing: Write a narrative
description about ONE area
that describes you as a
person, and how that
influences your life decisions.
Self-Expression
and Attitude:
How Do I Express
Myself?
Technology: Use a search
engine to look up one job for
your presentation, to find out
more information. Use
Microsoft Word and
Powerpoint.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Language Arts:
Give a presentation in class
on jobs that interest you; use
job data and include why pay
vs. interest influences choice.
Description of
Learning Group
This unit was developed for two classes of
D/HH high school students with a mix of ASL
students and oral/Signed English students.
The students all are between the ages of 14
and 18. They attend an urban high school
and are in self-contained deaf education
classrooms with block periods of 80 minutes
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Fall 2002
One class was an English reading class with 6
students.
The other was a World of Work class with 2
students.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Class Goals
The overall goal of the classes was for the students to learn life
skills that would enable them to pursue a career of their choice
and earn competitive wages. The English class allowed
students to read, write, and present about this important
transition topic. The World of Work class utilized the English
focus to reinforce work-related communication skills.
There were three main academic-content objectives:
 Utilize a variety of reading strategies (including skimming) to
facilitate reading comprehension and identification of key
and/or relevant information.
 Use keyboarding and software skills to present work-related
interests and job-related information to others.
 Improve oral speaking/presentation skills to adjust to varying
audience needs for background and related information
about a topic
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Student Characteristics
Urban Issues:
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The first class, English, tends to have only 1-3 of the 6 students.
Attendance is sporadic making it necessary for unit flexibility and
allowing “catch up” for students. They all have the maturity to
work alone or in partners
World Knowledge:
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Student experiences are limited and many have never been
outside of the city. They don’t have many positive experiences
with work and positive career choice. Several have had
experiences with gangs and drugs. Finding teaching materials
they can related to and can get more involved with is
challenging.
Reading:
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Fall 2002
Students range from 2nd to 6th grade. They often don’t ask
questions if they don’t understand and don’t read in meaningful
units (they use Signed English when reading, but don’t
comprehend). With high interest, low readability texts, the
majority can read at a 3rd or 4th grade level .
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Student Characteristics
Writing:
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Some students write in ASL-type structures with little
English word order, and some students have rigid
sentence patterns that do not vary. A few are comfortable
with English word order and a variety of sentence
structures and can vary to meet audience needs.
Through-The-Air Skills:
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Fall 2002
Students can carry on conversations but are not skilled in
influencing/persuading opinions, attitudes, or actions.
They rarely provide background information before
beginning a story with a stranger, to include explaining
name signs and context.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
“Understanding by
Design” Process
Stage One: Identify authentic and life-long
outcomes
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Identify preferences and skills that can be applied
to career information and requirements
Develop skills for presenting self and related
materials (resume, cover letter)
Incorporate Ohio curriculum standards
Stage Two: Identify Assessment activities
across the six facets of understanding
Stage Three: Identify teaching activities to
achieve overall unit objectives and
demonstrate learning across the six facets.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Stage One:
External Benchmarks
and Standards
Taken from the Ohio Department of Education
http://www.ode.state.oh.us/academic_content
_standards/
Incorporated into Stage One student needs
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Language Arts (8th-10th)
Communicate findings, reporting on the
substance and processes orally,
visually, and in writing or through
multimedia
Give informational presentations that
present ideas in a logical sequence,
include relevant facts and details from
multiple sources and use a consistent
organizational structure
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Reading (8th-10th)
Use appropriate self-monitoring
strategies for comprehension
Apply reading comprehension strategies
to understand grade-appropriate text.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Writing (8th-10th)
Formulate writing ideas and identify a topic
appropriate to the purpose and audience
Edit to improve sentence fluency, grammar
and usage
Compose Narratives that establish a specific
setting, plot and a consistent point of view,
and develop characters by using sensory
details and concrete language
Use correct spelling conventions
Use correct punctuation and capitalization
Demonstrate understanding of grammatical
conventions of the English Language
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Math (8th-10th)
Apply mathematical knowledge and
skills routinely in other content areas
and practical situations
Construct convincing arguments based
on analysis of data and interpretation of
graphs
Create, interpret and use graphical
displays and statistical measures to
describe data
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Social Studies (9th-10th)
Analyze the influence of different
cultural perspectives on the actions of
groups
Explain how individual rights are
relative, not absolute, and describe the
balance between individual rights, the
rights of others, and the common good
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Technology (9th-12th)
Recognize the patent, trademark, and
copyright law technological ideas and
intellectual property
Avoids plagiarism, cites sources properly,
makes copies and incorporates text and
images only with appropriate clearance when
creating informational products
Modify a search through the use of different
key words and other techniques specific to a
database or search engine
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Unit Goals and Objectives
Students will be able to write about one important characteristic and
how it expresses important aspects of themselves.
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The students will, in class, chose from a list of topics: Music, friends, clothes,
or job and write about how it describes them as individuals with at least one
paragraph with 3-4 sentences.
In class, the students will then discuss their paper with the teacher or
practicum student and clarify any misunderstandings in English word order or
punctuation and then edit their work accordingly.
Using the edited paragraph, the students will utilize the computer access in the
room to type their paper in Microsoft Word and use the spell check, grammar,
and font functions to edit the paper one last time with 90% accuracy.
Students will be able to describe a career that they are interested in,
in a detailed manner to the other students in class.
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Fall 2002
The students will be able to utilize an Occupational Handbook in order to learn
about a career interest looking for key factors of: education level, salary range,
and job opportunity, and highlighting these factors by themselves 4 out of 5
times.
After ranking different careers of interest, the students will individually pick one
and look up an additional resource from the internet about that career using a
skimming technique to find an interesting and informative site related to their
career.
The students will then give an oral presentation to the class using the
information from the Occupational Handbook and their additional resource with
the presentation being at least 5 minutes long and including the four major
points from the Handbook and one fact from their website.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Key Unit Activities
to focus multiple standards
Reading

Writing
Learn to skim and use
detailed reading

Technology
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Fall 2002
Use one search engine
to research careers on
the web.
Utilize Microsoft Word
and PowerPoint
formatting.
Write a description of a key
personal characteristic and
use editing techniques to
revise.
Presentation Skills

Giving informal presentation
to classmates about careers
of interest including key
information and
background.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Stage Two: Six Facets
of Understanding
Taken from Understanding by Design
*to thoroughly assess the students’
understanding
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Facets
Facet 1: Explanation
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Oral Presentation: Will explain and summarize their career interests
using interest inventory results and other data or experiences.
Facet 2: Interpretation
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Will Interpret salary and requirements data in terms of impacting
which job is preferred and why.
Facet 3: Application
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Use personal and career knowledge to choose a career path for
their ITP meeting.
Facet 4 Perspective
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Will explain why people sometimes choose jobs they don’t like. Will
give feedback on classmates’ presentations for form and content.
Facet 5: Empathy
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Will give empathetic and effective feedback on presentations.
Facet 6: Self-Knowledge
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Fall 2002
Will explain why they would like a specific career according to their
own interests, strengths, and needs.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Summary of Key
Learning Activities
Reading

Writing
Learn to skim and use
detailed reading

Technology


Fall 2002
Use one search engine
to research careers on
the web.
Utilize Microsoft Word
and PowerPoint
formatting.
Write a description of a key
personal characteristic and
use editing techniques to
revise.
Presentation Skills

Giving informal presentation
to classmates about careers
of interest including key
information and
background.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 1: Writing Lesson
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Fall 2002
Theme-Self-Expression: In this lesson the students will choose one thing about themselves that describes
them and write a paragraph about it. They can choose something that they feel is important to them and that
defines them as a person.
Behavioral objective:
In class, the students will write and then edit a paragraph for semantics and English word order; they will edit
individually correcting 4 out of 5 errors appropriately, and review each with the group.
Materials and Key Vocabulary:
Pictures of people in different dress cut out of magazines:
Magazines, chalk, chalkboard, paper, pencils.
Key teaching strategies and conceptual links:
Nondirect teaching to explore and probe how they “reveal” and express themselves.
Direct teaching to explain writing assignment, review editing skills and rules for collaboration within a group.
Prerequisite Skills, knowledge, and experiences:
Ability to write a paragraph to convey a main idea or topic; ability to reflect on and identify one’s critical
personality characteristics.
Teaching Procedure
A. Steps to motivate, engage their thinking, review past learnings
Begin the lesson by writing on the board “What Describes Me?” As students enter class, ask them the question
that is on the board and have them give some ideas.
Use nondirect teaching to expand the characteristics included. Show the prepared pictures of people in
magazines. Show them people from other regions (rural, farming) and other countries and ask them “Who is
s/he?”. What do you think s/he’s like? Why or why not? Ask them to look for clues in posture, eye contact
(clothes and customs can fool us).
Show other pictures and have the students take turn describing the person they see in the picture, going
beyond physical characteristics. Probe to develop depth of responses.
Ask students to describe what they are wearing and how it matches their personality.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 1: Writing Lesson cont.
Write “Friends”, “Job”, “Music”, “Clothes” on the board (and any other “hot” characteristics for the group). Play a
game where each student pretends they are a “new” student in school—they describe another student using
using only those categories, and “guess” what they are like. Start off by example, ie. a nicely dressed student in
your class “I would guess that you are a well-behaved student,…” Or you can pick yourself or a student with a
“gangsta” look “I would guess that you’re tough, have lots of friends….” Summarize the characteristics and
description.
Examine those that seemed to “fit” the real person and those that didn’t. Probe for characteristics that lead
people to make positive, or negative “guesses” about the person. Move from obvious examples of drug
dealers/heavy users dressed like a “thug”, vs. those dressed like a business person; to less obvious. Emphasize
the point of self-expression and making impressions on others.
B. Instructional Strategies/steps to develop target behaviors/skills
Do a mini-lesson/demonstration using yourself as an example. Model choosing a key characteristic, how you
express that (clothes, friends, etc) and write a paragraph that describes you.
Have the students do the same and remind them that sentences must be at least 3 sentences long. Probing them
to tell you more as needed; ask others to read and give feedback on the information.
Review the editing process and then how to work effectively in a group. Begin with self-editing for semantic
content--to see if it makes sense. Strategies: signing their paragraph aloud to each of them individually and make
corrections. Ask they them to choose 1-3 persons and sign the story to them the way they have it written, with
feedback to clarify the semantics.
Ask students to examine for English word order and tense, signing to themselves if helpful. After making
corrections, have students sign/show the 1-3 others for their feedback, and make corrections.
C. Instructional prompts to summarize, review, end the activity, and put it in long-term context
Ask students if they know what a resume is and how it is useful. Ask about what they think a Career Portfolio
might be and how it might be useful. Link to those who have had or know of the job interview process. Probe
and link to using descriptions of oneself to include in a Career Portfolio and in a letter of introduction to an
employer. Review the importance of making a good impression and one’s self expression options for this.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Summary of Key
Learning Activities
Reading

Writing
Learn to skim and use
detailed reading

Technology


Fall 2002
Use one search engine
to research careers on
the web.
Utilize Microsoft Word
and PowerPoint
formatting.
Write a description of a key
personal characteristic and
use editing techniques to
revise.
Presentation Skills

Giving informal presentation
to classmates about careers
of interest including key
information and
background.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 2: Technology Lesson Plan
Theme-Self-Expression: Using technology change a paragraph and make it more unique.
Behavioral objectives:
In class, the students will utilize spell and grammar checking functions of Microsoft Word correcting 4 out of 5
errors correctly. Students will use at least 3 different formatting commands correctly with their paragraph.
Materials and Key Vocabulary:
Vocabulary: Mouse, Shift, Tab, Format, Font, Paragraph, Right Click, Correct.
Materials: A computer for each student in the room that has Microsoft Office installed and portfolio folders.
Key teaching strategies and conceptual links:
Direct Teaching strategies on how to open and save a document, use formatting features, and spell/grammar
checkers.
Nondirect teaching to explore “solving” formatting problems and making a unique document. Prerequisite Skills,
knowledge, and experiences:
Ability to work individually without constant supervision, basic knowledge of computer features, mouse and
keyboard functions (“right click”)—or include in a short mini-lesson.
Teaching Procedure
A. Teaching steps to motivate, engage their thinking, review past learnings
Begin by handing out previously written paragraphs. Ask “What would make these better to use in an interview or
to show other people?” Probe for : type on the computer, change format/layout.
B. Instructional Strategies/steps to develop target behaviors/skills
Review how to open files and documents, how to save, and how to enter/keyboard text. Model with a
demonstration computer. With computers on, go through the steps to start a new office document. Then ask
students to stop. (Allow students to leave “typos” which will be edited later.)
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 2: Technology Lesson
Show your model paragraph and ask if there are other ways to “improve” its appearance.
Probe for indented sentences paragraph (and how this is done). Discuss possibly adding
a title and center it.
Probe for other ways to “improve” appearance. Show other effectively formatted cover
letters or Portfolio pages. Demonstrate Format functions and choices: font (color, size,
bold, italics), line spacing, bullets, etc.
Model/show your paragraph with formatting changes but including several errors.
Demonstrate use of spell check (all text, single word, and making choices for correct
spelling). Demonstrate when no options are presented (very wrong spelling or unknown
word)—suggest that students “guess again”.
Probe for what to do about grammar errors, then show grammar check. Review choice
issue for spell check and its importance for grammar checking. Have them try to fix and
decide as best they can—how they can become independent at work and in school.
C. Instructional prompts to summarize, review, end the activity, and put it in long-term
context
At the end of the lesson, have the students print out their final copies. Ask they to review
everyone’s and describe what they like. Focus on being positive but identify glaring errors
or formatting “craziness”—in terms of self-expression and making an impression. Ask
them to explain how they could use this to help them with jobs in the future. Have them
put it in their career portfolio folders.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Summary of Key
Learning Activities
Reading

Writing
Learn to skim and use
detailed reading

Technology


Fall 2002
Use one search engine
to research careers on
the web.
Utilize Microsoft Word
and PowerPoint
formatting.
Write a description of a key
personal characteristic and
use editing techniques to
revise.
Presentation Skills

Giving informal presentation
to classmates about careers
of interest including key
information and
background.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Days 3 & 4: Reading Lesson
Theme-Self-Expression: Students will complete an interest inventory and match the different
job suggestions with their unique interests and abilities. Students will read through different job
descriptions using skimming techniques to find pertinent information. Plan may take several
days.
Behavioral objectives:
In class, the students will work individually using skimming techniques to find 4 criteria, and use
detailed reading to verify and then highlight the correct information on 5 different documents,
with 3 out of 4 criteria correctly identified per document.
Materials and Key Vocabulary:
Vocabulary: detailed reading vs. skimming; “practical, values, precise, trustworthy, ambitious”.
Materials: Concept Diagram (skimming vs. detailed reading), Test, Test Scores, and Print out of
5 jobs chosen. Computer, highlighters, chalkboard and chalk.
Key teaching strategies and conceptual links:
Direct Teaching for the difference between skimming and detailed reading and description of
the job criteria. Modeling for how to find the criteria on the paper and Guided Practice to aid
them as they find the criteria.
Prerequisite Skills, knowledge, and experiences:
Able to decide what they enjoy doing meaning they can communicate their likes and dislikes.
Able to read and recognize words that match the criteria given.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Days 3 & 4: Reading Lesson cont.
Teaching Procedure
A. Teaching steps to motivate, engage their thinking, review past learnings
Begin class with a discussion about jobs that their parents, guardians, friends have.
Ask them “Do you think they enjoy their job?” “Why do they stay there?” Try to probe
for things such as: needs the money, can’t get another job, loves their job because
they are doing what they want. Ask them how important it is to find a job you want
and why is that important, why not? What do they look for in a job? How can you
find a job that you might like?
Have the students fill out the test, hand-outs have been printed, or if the computers are available,
the can use the website http://www.careerkey.org/english/ and take the whole test online. Print
outs would be best for including in the students’ portfolios as a record of their apitudes and
interests they have (determined by themselves).
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If using print outs, student information must be entered at the website above for the results. Either the
students, the teacher, or a teacher’s aide can do this part. The results, separated into six categories,
should be printed out. Depending upon their scores, print out either two or three categories. A list of
possible jobs should pop up under each category, print this list out.
The students will then be given the lists of jobs to choose from. Have them choose 5 different
jobs that they show a great interest in. If they can’t decide on only five, then allow them to pick a
few more depending on time and your own flexibility.
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Fall 2002
These five jobs can be found from the http://www.careerkey.org/english/ website using the Occupational
Handbook or go straight to the Occupational Handbook from the US Dept. of Labor website at
http://stats.bls.gov/oco/home.htm. Do a print out of each of the different jobs. NOTE- Any print outs will
be saved for the students portfolio.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Days 3 & 4: Reading Lesson cont.
Use the concept diagram information (follows lesson) to help students identify different types of
reading. Explain through direct teaching the difference between skimming and detailed reading.
Give examples and have students add additional examples, also additional reading strategies
they may have used at times.
List the job description criteria on the board: Salary (earnings), Education (least amount of school
needed), Employment (how many jobs are there?), Significant Points section.
Use an example print-out for a different job (ie, Deaf Education) then model how to skim (thinking
aloud). Then model using detailed reading to verify that the information meetings the criteria—if
it does, then HIGHLIGHT the section..
Hand out the print-outs from the Occupational Handbook to the students for their chosen jobs.
Then use Guided Practice with one job with self- talk for using the skimming, detailed reading,
and then highlighting tasks. By the 3rd – 4th selection they should be performing this
independently.
C. Instructional prompts to summarize, review, end the activity, and put it in long-term context
Now have students use critical thinking and synthesis/evaluation skills. Ask students to evaluate
which jobs they like best and synthesize the five criteria or categories of information to explain
why, in conjunction with their own personal preferences. Discuss the pay of the different jobs,
especially the job they liked best and the amount of education it required. Ask them to evaluate
and reflect on whether they could meet the requirements and if they need more training or
education, how they might be able to arrange for that. Link this to their thinking about which job
best suits them for their oral presentation.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Reading Lesson
Concept Diagram Form
1. Concept name and definition: Skimming vs. detailed reading. Skimming= looking for specific information
quickly or trying to get only the main idea of the text. (Nonexample is Detailed reading= reading to understand,
to analyze by focusing on thoughtful comprehension.)
2a. Examples:
2b. Nonexamples:
Looking for bold printed words in text
Reading a short story for pleasure
Reading only the first paragraph of every section
Reading every word
3a. Always:
Very Quick
Looking for main idea
Reading for important/
Specific information
3b. Sometimes:
Looking for keywords
Reading only bold words
Helps to judge important from
nonimportant information
3c. Never:
Memorizing text
Reading for details
Time-consuming
4. Teaching procedures:
Direct teaching and modeling of how to use bold printed text such as headings and keywords to guide the
students on how to skim. Think aloud when reading a sample text: first read “in-depth” aloud for the students to
see/hear. Then skim the information, reading only the bold printed text and the first line or two from each
section. Allow the students to “see” your thought process. Discuss the purposes for each type of reading.
Have students try through guided practice and practice doing each..
5. Finer discriminations (extending/expanding the concept)
Give examples how these two often are used in sequence—we skin to find something important and then read
in more detail (more thoughtfully) to learn the information-- AFTER it is first found through skimming.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Summary of Key
Learning Activities
Reading

Writing
Learn to skim and use
detailed reading

Technology


Fall 2002
Use one search engine
to research careers on
the web.
Utilize Microsoft Word
and PowerPoint
formatting.
Write a description of a key
personal characteristic and
use editing techniques to
revise.
Presentation Skills

Giving informal presentation
to classmates about careers
of interest including key
information and
background.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 5: Reading and Technology
Theme-Self-Expression: Students will use a search engine and the internet to find more
information about a career of their interest that fits their personality and abilities.
Behavioral objectives:
In class, the students will each be given individual computer time to locate, using a search
engine, with at least one website containing relevant information about the job they chose
correctly.
Materials and Key Vocabulary:
Computer with internet access& printer, print out of job chosen.; “keywords, search engine.”
Key teaching strategies and conceptual links:
Use of Direct Teaching and Modeling of how to find Key Words, Review for skimming
techniques and Guided Practice with Searching on the Internet.
Prerequisite Skills, knowledge, and experiences:
A basic understanding of weblinks and the purpose of search engines, ability to decide if one
thing relates to another and is relevant.
Teaching Procedure
A. Teaching steps to motivate, engage their thinking, review past learnings
Hand out the print outs from the last lesson and have the students pick one job to begin with.
Ask them “Do you understand what you must do in this job?” “Is there anything else you want
to know about this kind of job?” “How can we find new information about these jobs?”
Introduce the idea of searching for more and interesting information on the internet. Ask if they
have done internet searches before (have them describe).
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 5: Reading and Technology cont.
B. Instructional Strategies/steps to develop target behaviors/skills
Use your “job” as a model to do guided group practice/review—ask how, what “key words”
should be used to find interesting and relevant information about this type of job (ie, Deaf
Education Teacher Description).
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Students can use the job titles from their job descriptions. (internet postings may also be easier to
understand, more brief and to the point, but similar to the Outlook Handbook. Here is an example of
that http://www.state.mi.us/mdcs/asp/vacancyweb/VacancyInq2.asp?ID=4620 .
Students might be able to find websites about a person with that career, and that would be ideal. Here
is an example of that for Deaf Education Teacher http://www.pecfla.org/hebbeler.htm .
When a website appears, review from yesterday: probe by asking “Do you want to read
everything on every website?” “But, then after you find a website that looks good, what kind of
reading should you use then to check?”

Help students work as a group with ideas for keywords. Have the students write down different sets
of keywords on a separate sheet of paper to use for later searches. Two search engines are
recommended, but the students may have their own that they like: www.google.com and
www.altavista.com.
When the students have found a webpage, ask them how it relates to their job and the focus of
their search. If it is relevant, have them print it out.
C. Instructional prompts to summarize, review, end the activity, and put it in long-term context
Have the students summarize some of the key unit concepts: ask them why the job they
choose is important and what does that say about them (why did they choose it). Ask them
how and when finding additional information about a job could be important. Ask how they
could use what they have done during an IEP meeting. Lead into tomorrow’s lesson where
they will prepare then give an oral presentation about their job.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Summary of Key
Learning Activities
Reading

Writing
Learn to skim and use
detailed reading

Technology


Fall 2002
Use one search engine
to research careers on
the web.
Utilize Microsoft Word
and PowerPoint
formatting.
Write a description of a key
personal characteristic and
use editing techniques to
revise.
Presentation Skills

Giving informal presentation
to classmates about careers
of interest including key
information and
background.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Summary of Key
Learning Activities
Reading

Writing
Learn to skim and use
detailed reading

Technology


Fall 2002
Use one search engine
to research careers on
the web.
Utilize Microsoft Word
and PowerPoint
formatting.
Write a description of a key
personal characteristic and
use editing techniques to
revise.
Presentation Skills

Giving informal presentation
to classmates about careers
of interest including key
information and
background.
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 6: Oral Presentation
Theme-Self-Expressio:. The students will express themselves and describe to their
classmates about their job, why they chose it,and what that has to do with them as a person.
Behavioral objective:
In class, the students will individually give an oral presentation about their job interest using
seven criteria which are: an introduction, the four highlighted sections of their OH printout, one
thing they learned from their internet site, why they would like that career with points given for
each of the criteria met and up to four points given for clear signing/speech and explanation of
why, passing would be getting 7 of the 10 points.
Materials and Key Vocabulary:
Vocabulary: Dependent upon the words needed for the career chosen, can vary.
Materials: Paper, print-outs from Occupational Handbook (OH), and web resource, can also
use original paper about themselves or anything in their portfolio, checklist for evaluation of
presentation.
Key teaching strategies and conceptual links:
Use of Direct Teaching for organizing oral presentation and explaining the criteria.
Prerequisite Skills, knowledge, and experiences:
Ability to stand in front of a group of people to explain a topic with clear signing and/or voice.
Teaching Procedure
A. Teaching steps to motivate, engage their thinking, review past learnings
Set up a scenario about interviewing with an employer, or asking a worker about a particular
job. Ask “What are some things you need to do when talking to someone you don’t know?”
Probe to help students identify the need for giving enough information to a “stranger”. Ask for
instances when they didn’t understand, or give instances when you didn’t understand because
of missing information.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 6: Oral Presentation cont.
Hand out their portfolios, ask them if they were going to tell a friend about this class and the job
they had chosen, what would they start with? What information would they tell them? Probe
and help the class develop a list of criteria that they think is important to include. Ask about
presenting their job at an IEP meeting—would they add anything else?
Tell them that they will be practicing making a presentation about job information. They will
make a presentation to tell the rest of the group about their job, and why their job is good
(interesting facts), and why they decided they wanted to do it.
B. Instructional Strategies/steps to develop target behaviors/skills
Show the rubric for what is required for the presentation—add student-suggested criteria as
desired and write it up on the board (or where it can be displayed for later critique).
Have the students copy the rubric and use it as an outline for their presentation. Have them
write brief descriptions of what they are going to say.
Review the importance of background knowledge: have students review each of the criteria
and how enough background information should be included—use good and bad examples to
illustrate the point. Probe that the introduction is a good place to start, but that other sections
can leave out critical background information as well.
When finished writing, ask students to review for criteria and background. Have them share
the written versions with another student to check again.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Day 6: Oral Presentation cont.
Ask the students to practice introducing their topic to one another. Review with the “listener(s)”
that they should pretend that they don’t know anything about the topic and try to evaluate as
well as ask questions. If there seems to be a misunderstanding about this step, then role-play
with the students to model what you want them to do.
C. Instructional prompts to summarize, review, end the activity, and put it in long-term context
If there is enough time and if students have had experience with PowerPoint before, have them
use formatting features and colors for the text of their presentation.
After the students are finished preparing their information and practicing with one another, they
can give their presentation. Use the rubric to grade them and write comments as they talk.
Ask other students (as desired) to evaluate (positive & negative aspects) of the presentation.
Have a one-on-one conference to discuss strengths and weaknesses in their presentation.
Focus on strengths (work on only one or two weaknesses if you wish to have them practice for
an IEP or other meeting/interview). Have students put their final printed presentation with the
grading rubric in their career portfolio.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Oral Presentation Rubric
Introduction: title of job,
basic job description
Occupational
Handbook: include four
/1
/4
important facts on worksheet
Website: one interesting fact
from web resource
Presentation:
Clear
sign/speech, posture, eye gaze, and indepth explanations
Total Points
Fall 2002
/1
/4
/10
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig
Unit Outcomes
All students were able to make a
presentation about their preferred job.
Those with absentee issues were
allowed to catch up and complete this
on later days.
Fall 2002
Transition Services Preparation & Trainig