ND Curriculum Initiative

Subject & Standards

Understandings & Goals

Enduring Understandings: 1. After the students leave the classroom I want them to understand the “how” and the “why” of the many factors that can affect their career choices.  2. Also, I want them to understand that their choices impact many, many facets of their life/lifestyle for the future.
Goal(s): 1. Students will be able to identify and use a variety of resources to look at career information.  2. Students will be able to analyze and interpret the relationship of work and learning.  3. Students will self-assess their own interests, values, etc. to find a career path appropriate for them.  4. Students will analyze and interpret information to find a path to lead that career plan.

Questions Answered

Essential questions: The questions that will guide and focus the teaching and learning on this unit are:  1. What will help the students understand the affects of their career selection? 2. What can you (the student) do to prepare yourself for the career(s) appropriate for your success? 3. How will (the student) determine success?
Objectives: 1. Students should be able to use at least 3 resources to gather information pertaining to career options.  2. Students should be able to identify their interests, values, and skills and relate them to career planning.  3. Students will demonstrate an awareness of education and training needed to attain their career goals.  4. Students will be able to explain and demonstrate an understanding of how their career goals are relevant to achieving personal success and satisfaction.

Assessment

What quiz and test items (e.g. simple content-focused questions that require a single, best answer) will provide evidence of understanding?  In a unit such as this situation I wouldn’t have a regular test-type questions, but rather surveys, summaries, etc.
What academic prompts (e.g. open-ended questions or problems that require students to think critically and then to prepare a response / product / performance) will provide evidence of understanding? 
The following academic prompts would provide evidence of understanding:
1. How do you know what you want to do after graduation?  2. What could help you make that decision?  3. Where could you go for reliable/relevant information?  4. How are you going to decide what school/training you will need to achieve that?
What performance tasks and projects (e.g. complex challenges that are authentic, mirror the real world and require a performance or product) will you include that will provide evidence of student understanding?
Performance tasks and projects that will provide evidence of student understanding:  1. The student’s surveys and data they acquire, along with their interpretation of the data and information they generate from their own searches.
What other evidence (e.g. observations, work samples, dialogues, student self-assessment) of understanding will you collect?
Other evidence of understanding that I would collect would be classroom observation, class discussion, interest inventory, work values inventory, comparison of schools/occupations from the “Choices” program, and a written summation of their findings.