Career Clusters Collages
Career Clusters Collages
Grade Levels
3rd Grade, 4th Grade, 5th Grade, 6th Grade, 7th Grade
Course, Subject
Career Education and Work, Career Awareness & Preparation
Rationale
Careers are divided into Career Clusters or focus areas of a group of occupations that are similar. The purpose of this activity is to introduce the student to a variety of Career Clusters and expose them to career areas that they might not have considered previously.
Vocabulary
Career Cluster: provide students with a context for studying traditional academics and learning the skills specific to a career.
Agriculture Food and Natural Resources: The production, processing, marketing, distribution, financing, and development of agricultural commodities and resources including food, fiber, wood products, natural resources, horticulture, and other plant and animal products/resources.
Architecture & Construction: Careers in designing, planning, managing, building and maintaining the built environment.
Arts, A/V Technology & Communication: Designing, producing, exhibiting, performing, writing, and publishing multimedia content including visual and performing arts and design, journalism, and entertainment services.
Business Management & Administration: Careers in planning, organizing, directing and evaluating business functions essential to efficient and productive business operations.
Education & Training: Planning, managing and providing education and training services, and related learning support services such as administration, teaching/training, administrative support, and professional support services.
Finance: Planning and related services for financial and investment planning, banking, insurance, and business financial management
Government & Public Administration: Planning and executing government functions at the local, state and federal levels, including governance, national security, foreign service, planning, revenue and taxation, and regulations.
Health Science: Planning, managing, and providing therapeutic services, diagnostic services, health informatics, support services, and biotechnology research and development.
Hospitality & Tourism: Preparing individuals for employment in career pathways that relate to families and human needs such as restaurant and food/beverage services, lodging, travel and tourism, recreation, amusement and attractions.
Human Services: Preparing individuals for employment in career pathways that relate to families and human needs such as counseling and mental health services, family and community services, personal care, and consumer services.
Information Technology: Building linkages in IT occupations for entry level, technical, and professional careers related to the design, development, support and management of hardware, software, multimedia and systems integration services.
Law, Public Safety, Corrections & Security: Planning, managing, and providing legal, public safety, protective services and homeland security, including professional and technical support services.
Manufacturing: Planning, managing and performing the processing of materials into intermediate or final products and related professional and technical support activities such as production planning and control, maintenance and manufacturing/process engineering.
Marketing: Planning, managing, and performing marketing activities to reach organizational objectives such as brand management, professional sales, merchandising, marketing communications and market research.
Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics: Planning, managing, and providing scientific research and professional and technical services (e.g., physical science, social science, engineering) including laboratory and testing services, and research and development services.
Transportation, Distribution & Logistics: The planning, management, and movement of people, materials, and goods by road, pipeline, air, rail and water and related professional and technical support services such as transportation infrastructure planning and management, logistics services, mobile equipment and facility maintenance.
Objectives
1. Students will be assigned a career cluster which they will research: what services the career cluster provides, and jobs that are available in that career cluster.
2. Students will work in teams of two and complete a Career Cluster collage based on the Career Cluster that was assigned to them. Each collage must include a definition of that Career Cluster, as well as, jobs that are associated with that Career Cluster.
3. Once complete, the students will be able to review the Career Cluster Collages that the other students have assembled, and identify a potential Career Cluster that might be of interest to them.
Lesson Essential Question(s)
1. What is the purpose of the Career Cluster system and how does it help me identify my potential career of choice?
2. After reseraching my Career Cluster assigned, what duties and functions do my Career Cluster perform?
3. What are three occupations that would fit into my Career Cluster?
4. In review, what is a potential Career Cluster I might be interested in working in, or what Career Cluster would my ideal job fit into?
Duration
Two class periods of 50 minutes.
Materials
Computers, Internet, and Printer with Paper
Scissors, Glue, Construction Paper, Markers, Crayons, Colored Pencils
A list of Potential Career Clusters that the Teacher can Assign.
Suggested Instructional Strategies
| W: | The teacher should give an introduction about Career Clusters and their purpose. The teacher can explain that careers are divided into larger categories for classification. When choosing a career, if a student has a general idea of what Career Custer they might like to work in, they might choose a Career Cluster and then eliminate careers that are not interesting to them for various reasons. |
| H: | Students typically get excited about this activity because it is something different then they typically do day to day. Students will be initially enthused about the activity, and because it is done over a very limited time, the goal is to complete the activity before the students lose interest. |
| E: | The experience of assembling the Career Cluster Collage will allow the students to gain an understanding about how Careers are grouped, and when they begin to research a career of interest, they can explore a Career Cluster and look at a variety of careers that might be related, but perform different job duties. |
| R: | Students will reflect on their Career Choice as they assemble the Collages because they might find a Career Cluster that they are interested in, but maybe the specific career that they thought they might enjoy, they might rule out for various reasons. The student can then look within that Career Cluster to find a new potential career related to that general area instead of starting over. |
| E: | Students will show their understanding of their Career Cluster by the completion of the Collage and the choices that are made in what to include in the Collage. Students will be continuously self-evaluating what should go in the Collage and what shouldn't as it applies to their Career Cluster. |
| T: | Students will work in teams of two, so that if a student does not have a particular strength that is tied with this activity, they can assign it to a peer. At times, if a student has a particular strength in assembling a collage, or artistic ability, they will often take a leadership role, and assign duties to a peer that is not particularly strong in artistic areas. |
| O: | The goal of the lesson is for students to be given a Career Cluster and limited expectations, and for the students to work independently, gain an understanding of the Career Cluster of Interest and assemble the Collage independently with limited supervision of the instructor. |
Instructional Procedures
1. The teacher will give a brief explanation to what a Career Cluster is and their purpose. The teacher will then assign a Career Cluster to a team of two students. (A preferred way to assign Career Clusters is to print them on a sheet of paper, and cut them into strips. The students can then pick a strip of paper with their assigned Career Cluster on it.)
2. Students will be asked to go online and research information and pictures about their Career Cluster. Students are required to fill a 8 1/2 by 14 sheet of construction paper with information and pictures. Information needed includes: a label identifying their Career Cluster, a definition about what their Career Cluster does, and three examples of jobs that might fall under that Career Cluster.
3. Students should be instructed on appropriate paper usage, how to print pictures etc. (Students may need to be told that it is not appropriate to print a small picture on one sheet of paper, wasting 75% of the paper, and that they can print more than one picture on a sheet of paper and then cut it out.)
4. Students will work in their teams of two completing the collage, and meeting the assigned requirements. Once the collage is developed to the teacher's satisfaction, they can be collected, laminated, and hung up on the wall for their peers to look at.
5. Once hung, the peers can look at the Career Clusters and identify which Cluster their personal job of intererst might fall under.
Formative Assessment
Students summative assessment will be evaluated based on the compeltion of the project, and whether the information on the Collage correctly represents the Career Cluster that was assigned. The teacher should look at the components of the College to see if students demonstrated understanding at least twice.
Related Materials & Resources
Examples:
A Free Career Clusters Interest Assessment is located at:
http://www.fldoe.org/workforce/pdf/cruiser-2003.pdf
Careers
Career Clusters
Career Organization
Career Research
Author
Michael Simmons
General McLane School District
James W. Parker Middle School
Date Published
March 15, 2013
