Nontraditional Careers
Nontraditional Careers
Grade Levels
8th Grade, 9th Grade
Course, Subject
Career Awareness & Preparation
Related Academic Standards
Rationale
The purpose of this lesson is to encourage students to think about career options that have traditionally been associated with nontraditional gender.
Vocabulary
gender bias
nontraditional careers
interests
aptitudes
abilities
Objectives
The student will be able to identify a variety of possible career options that have been traditionally associated with the opposite genderfrom theselves and provide evidence as to why these careers should be considered regardless of gender.
Lesson Essential Question(s)
SAS EQ: What careers would fit my unique interests, aptitudes, and abilities?
LEQ: What are some careers typically associated with the gender opposite from your own, that you should be considering as you explore potential career choices and why should you be considering those careers?
Duration
This lesson can be completed in a 40-50 minute class period.
Materials
Individual Computers and/or computer attached to a projector.
Pencils
Suggested Instructional Strategies
| W: | Students will be introduced to the lesson by watching a video highlighting an individual with a nontraditional career choice. |
| H: | Students will be given periodic opportunity to share their own personal experiences, opinions regarding gender-bias and nontraditional careers. |
| E: | By having students utilize their own career interest inventory results to identify nontraditional career choices, their research will be closely linked to their own personal aspirations. |
| R: | The culminating activity for this lesson will ask students to metacognatively assess how their own perceptions regarding nontraditional careers has changed by sharing the formal definition of nontraditional fields and statistics of women employed in nontraditional occupations using the United States Department of Labor website. |
| E: | A graphic organizer will serve as a formative and summative assessment regarding what students have learned. |
| T: | Adaptations to the graphic organizer will be made based on specially designed instruction sections of students individual IEP's. These adaptations may include things like reducing the number of careers students must research, providing students with careers and limiting the number of questions, etc. |
| O: | The lesson will begin with direct instruction but the majority of the activity is student-directed as they make individual choices regarding what careers to research. |
Instructional Procedures
Non-Traditional Careers and Gender Bias
Suggested Learning Sequence
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Strategy |
Outline |
Resources/Equipment |
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Performance Standard 1 |
Students will identify 3 careers that are compatible with their career interests that would typically have been associated with gender opposite from theirs with 100% accuracy. |
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Introduction |
Ask students to define “nontraditional” and explain that today they will be exploring Nontraditional Careers. Share with students the formal definition of nontraditional fields as defined by the 2006 Perkins Act: The term nontraditional fields means occupations or fields of work, including careers in computer science, technology, and other current and emerging high skill occupations, for which individuals from one gender comprise less than 25% of the individuals employed in each such occupation of field of work and sharing the statistics located on the United States Department of Labor of Women in nontraditional occupations. http://www.dol.gov/wb/stats/NontraJobs_2010.htm
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Activity |
Students will watch Nontraditional Careers –Break Free of the Barriers that Limit Your Career Choices: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHXnM_RS_qM
Ask students to review their 3 top COPS clusters. Have them utilize their career lists in the pamphlet to identify one career in each cluster that would traditionally have been associated with the gender opposite from their own.
Explain to students that they will be spending the remainder of the period researching those careers. Provide them with the graphic organizer for the activity and review the expectations.
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Computer/Projector Internet access |
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Performance Standard 2 |
Students will research 3 nontraditional careers and thoroughly answer 3 questions about each with 100% accuracy. |
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Activity |
Review the table on the graphic organizer and refer students to O-Net for their research.
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Graphic Organizer Computer
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Individual/ Small Group Activity |
When students have finished, ask them to get together in groups of 4 and share the three nontraditional careers they researched and what they learned with their group-mates. |
Graphic Organizer |
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Performance Standard 3 |
Students will complete a 4 sentence summary stating how their perceptions toward non-traditional careers has changed and will include at least 2 pieces of information from their completed chart in their statement. 30 pts. 5 points for each complete sentence and 5 points each for including 2 pieces of information from their chart. |
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Activity |
Ask students if they would consider a nontraditional career choice? Have students who say yes, share why they would consider that choice. After several students have shared, assign them the essay above, reviewing expectations and grading and then ask them to complete the essay that evening and submit it the next day.
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Graphic Organizer |
Formative Assessment
The graphic organizer for this activity will serve as the formative assessment. Teachers should circulate as students complete the organizer providing necessary feedback. The summative assessment for the activity will be the 4 sentence summary statement that will be worth 30 pts.
Students will receive 5 points for each sentence (20 pts total)
Students will receive 5 points for each of 2 pieces of information included from the completed table.
Related Materials & Resources
Nontraditional Careers Graphic Organizer.docx
Computer
Internet Access
COPS results and pamphlet
pencils
nontraditional careers
interests
aptitudes
abilities
Author
Alice Justice
Chris Herman
Date Published
August 29, 2012
