Skip to Main Content

O-NET - Oh the Places You Will Go!

Lesson Plan

O-NET - Oh the Places You Will Go!

Grade Levels

8th Grade

Course, Subject

Career Awareness & Preparation
  • Big Ideas
    Comprehension requires and enhances critical thinking and is constructed through the intentional interaction between reader and text
    Information to gain or expand knowledge can be acquired through a variety of sources.
    Career choice and preparation are lifelong processes based on many influences and using many strategies.
    Change impacts career options and choices.
    There is a definitive relationship between education and career planning and choice.
    Critical thinkers actively and skillfully interpret, analyze, evaluate, and synthesize information.
    Effective readers use appropriate strategies to construct meaning
    Effective readers use appropriate strategies to construct meaning.
  • Concepts
    Essential content of text, including literary elements and devices, inform meaning
    Essential content, literary elements and devices inform meaning
    Informational sources have unique purposes.
    Components of a career plan.
    Economic factors impact employment opportunities.
    Effect of school subjects, extracurricular activities and community experiences on career preparation.
    Factors that impact career choices.
    The relationship of career interests to career choice.
    Diverse Media
    Range of Reading
  • Competencies
    Distinguish between essential and non-essential information within and among texts, describing the use of persuasive techniques, stereotypes and bias where present
    Identify characteristics of primary and secondary source materials.
    Question, reflect on, and interpret essential content across texts
    Summarize relevant information from source material to achieve a research goal.
    Use and cite evidence from texts to make assertions, inferences, generalizations, and to draw conclusions
    Describe the influences that impact personal career choices.
    Draw on information from multiple print or digital sources, demonstrating the ability to locate an answer to a question quickly or to solve a problem efficiently.
    Read and comprehend literary non-fiction and informational text on grade level, reading independently and proficiently.

Rationale

RATIONALE: This lesson is designed to strengthen student awareness of the variety of career training programs that exist in relation to potential career interests. Students will analyze results of individual interest inventories and then use those results to explore the variety of careers and training opportunities that exist for those careers. Students will become familiar with the use of O-NET through the completion of these activities.

SUGGESTIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION: This lesson goes hand in hand with a lesson designed by Abby Flick, entitled “Zoning in on a Career.” It follows a similar process but utilizes different free on-line resources, has students complete a different type of interest inventory, and provides for a more sophisticated analysis of the range of training opportunities that are available for students. The graphic organizers that will be completed are also designed to complement another CEW lesson developed by Jamie Ettinger entitled “The Necessities for Success.” That lesson assists students in developing an on-line portfolio, and the graphic organizers completed for this activity would be excellent additions to that portfolio.

Vocabulary

  • O-NET - An on-line resource that has detailed descriptions of the world of work for use by job seekers, workforce development and HR professionals, students, and researchers.
  • Interest Profiler - A tool used by individuals to identify their interests and potential careers associated with those interests.
  • Realistic - People with realistic interests like work that includes practical, hands-on problems and answers. Often people with realistic interests do not like careers that involve paperwork or working closely with others.
  • Investigative - People with investigative interests like work that has to do with ideas and thinking rather than physical activity or leading people.
  • Artistic - People with artistic interests like work that deals with the artistic side of things, such as acting, music, art, and design.
  • Social - People with social interests like working with others to help them learn and grow. They like working with people more than working with objects, machines, or information.
  • Enterprising - People with enterprising interests like work that has to do with starting up and carrying out business projects. These people like taking action rather than thinking about things.
  • Conventional - People with conventional interests like work that follows set procedures and routines. They prefer working with information and paying attention to details rather than working with ideas.
  • Job-Zone - Identifies the amount of preparation needed for a particular career.

Objectives

 

Objectives

Method of Summative Evaluation

1.      Students will complete an interest inventory accurately identifying their interest traits, defining those traits, and describing what people who have those traits like with 100% accuracy as determined by the teacher.

Written Evaluation – Teacher observation of Part A of graphic organizer

2.       Students will utilize interest inventory results to analyze three or more potential training paths related to a career “area” of their choice, accurately completing Part B of the graphic organizer with 75% accuracy as determined by the teacher.

Written Evaluation – Teacher observation of Part B of graphic organizer

 

Lesson Essential Question(s)

How do strategic readers create meaning from informational and literary text?
How does a readers’ purpose influence how text should be read?
How does interaction with text provoke thinking and response?
How does what readers’ read influence how they should read it?
What is this text really about?
What is this text really about? How do readers know what to believe?

What are your interests, what are some careers that match your interests, and what training options exist for you to prepare you for a career in those fields?

Duration

One 45-minute class period

Materials

Resources

1.  Book - Oh the Places You Will Go

     ISBN - 9780679805274

2.  Website - O-Net Interest Profiler

     http://www.mynextmove.org/explore/ip

3.  Graphic Organizer - The Places!

      O-NET - Oh the Places You Will Go! - RESOURCE.docx

4.  PowerPoint Interactive Slide - Job Zone and Salary

    http://pacareerstandards.com/curriculum-unit-resources

Equipment/Materials/Software

1.  Computer/Device with Internet Access

Suggested Instructional Strategies

W

The students will know where they are going because the lesson is introduced with an essential question. The teacher will explain that the activities they will be completing will help them to understand the Big Ideas and assist them in answering that question. The teacher will know where the students are coming from because the bellringer for the first activity surveys what they consider important information for career decision making.

H

The hook for this lesson will be Oh The Places You Will Go. Students begin by reading that story and then sharing their thoughts about the future. The interest inventory and interactive nature of the O-NET website also serve as vehicles for engaging students early in this lesson.

E

Several steps are taken throughout the lesson to keep students engaged, including allowing them to periodically share their results. In doing so, students have the opportunity to see who shares similar interests, and may pursue similar careers as well as classmates whose interests and potential careers differ.

R

Reflection occurs throughout this lesson. The graphic organizer asks students to gather their interests, potential careers and then reflect on whether they believe the results accurately identify interest and potential careers. The lesson also asks students to consider how the information they discover about Job Zones might impact decisions such as what career zone they might choose, what college they might choose, etc.

E

The graphic organizer used with the two activities for this lesson will serve as the assessment for this lesson. Student will need to complete all parts of the graphic organizer and provide accurate information. Formative assessment will occur throughout the lesson through activities which systematically require students to share information, allowing the teacher to provide redirection if a section or sections are not completed correctly.

T

The lesson will be delivered to students in accordance with their IEP’s and may include but are not limited to lesson being read to students, answers being scribed, or provided verbally for students, etc.

O

The lesson is organized in the same order that the information is presented in the O-NET Interest Profiler. It begins by a direct focus on student interests, and then moves to provide information about potential careers that are congruent with those interests.

Instructional Procedures

Strategy

Outline

Resources/ Materials

Related Skills

Objective 1 - Students will complete an interest inventory accurately describing their personal profile with 100% accuracy as evaluated by the teacher.

Bellringer:

The teacher will first share the essential question for this lesson with the students:

What are your interests, what are some careers that match your interests and what training options exist for you to prepare you for a career in those fields?

 

Read students Oh The Places You Will Go by Dr. Seuss. When you have finished, ask students what sorts of information they should be thinking about when they begin to make decisions about a career?

Resource 1

 

 

Activity

Students will be introduced to O-NET (Occupational Information Network). The teacher will walk them through the O-NET Interest Profiler that is included on the O-NET website. When they have completed their inventory they will record their results on section A of the O-NET Activity graphic organizer and answer the associated questions. As students are completing their definitions and description of “what they like” the teacher will move around the room to monitor accurate completion of those sections. When all students have finished, ask several of them to share their three codes, what the codes mean, and the definitions and “what they like” sections that were completed. As a student shares, ask students to stand if they have those three traits, first in the same order and then in a different order. Continue to share until everyone has had a chance to share and/or stand. (The teacher will review the information included in the graphic organizer to determine if information is correct. Students can earn a total of 9 points for completing each box of Part A accurately.)

Resource 2

Resource 3

Equipment 1

13.1.8 A

CC.1.2.5.G

CC.1.2.8.L

 

Objective 2 - Students will utilize interest inventory results to analyze three or more potential training paths related to a career “area” of their choice, accurately completing Part B of the graphic organizer with 100% accuracy as evaluated by the teacher.

Activating Strategy

 

Bellringer – Is there a relationship between job-training and salary? Allow students to make predictions about what they might expect to find.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Students will explore careers and the training necessary for those careers that are associated with their interest profile. The teacher will guide them through the second part of the O-NET Interest Profiler where they will learn about the different Job Zones and find out what careers fit their interest profile. Based on the information they find, they will complete Part B of the O-NET activity graphic organizer, identifying three jobs, (one from zone 1 or 2, one from zone 3, and one from zone 4 or 5). They will then record information about the salary they might receive for each career and provide a brief description of the training necessary to secure that job. When students are finished the teacher will have them enter the job zone and salary into an interactive PowerPoint/keynote slide. As students add their information, the teacher will ask them to identify any patterns that are emerging. The teacher will discuss with students the implications of the data and talk about how that information might impact choices such as what type of post-secondary training, what college, etc. (The teacher will review the information included on the graphic organizer to determine if information is correct. Students can earn a total of twelve points for completing each box of Part A accurately.)

Resource 2

Resource 3

Resource 4

Equipment 1

 

13.1.8 A

13.1.8 D

CC.1.2.5.G

CC.1.2.8.L

Formative Assessment

Students will be asked what sorts of information they should be thinking about when they begin to make decisions about a career.

Related Materials & Resources

None

Author

This planning guide was written by Alice Justice, Middle School Counselor, Central Columbia School District, Bloomsburg, PA.

Date Published

July 15, 2014
Loading
Please wait...

Insert Template

Information