Career Exploration Classroom Lessons

Ashley Dunican
Kiersten VanSteele
Meagan McEachron
Noel Blair
Grade Level: 5th grade students
Length: 6 weeks
Length of Sessions: 30 minutes
Number of Members: Classroom/Large Group Lessons
Gender of Members: Mixed
Group Rationale: To introduce students to different careers that they can pursue later
on in life.
Goals: Students will develop an increased understanding of various aspects that go
along with pursuing different careers.
ASCA Standards:
Career Development- Standard A: Students will acquire the skills to investigate the
world of work in relation to knowledge of self and to make informed career decisions
(ASCA Career Development).
Career Development- Standard B: Students will employ strategies to achieve future
career goals with success and satisfaction (ASCA Career Development).
ASCA Competencies:
C:A1 Develop Career Awareness
C:B1 Acquire Career Information
C:B2 Identify Career Goals
Target Population: 5th grade students who are in general education classrooms.
Pre-Screening: Students are chosen by being in their fifth grade classrooms. Students
will then be asked about what they know about careers.

Leadership Style The counselor will lead in a Modified Democratic style throughout
the large group, and small group discussions. The counselor will keep the group on

task, and will be firm but fair when it comes to discipline. It is important to protect the
group members and encourage participation from members, as the group is lead.

Evaluation - The group will be evaluated with a pre and post-test regarding their
knowledge of careers. The effectiveness of the group lessons can be seen based on the
answers on the posttest; have answers changed based on what was taught in the
lessons? Student attendance will be taken into consideration with the group evaluation
as well; 90% of the students will have attended 5/6 of the group lessons.

Synopsis of Lessons
Week 1:

Discuss the overall goals and ground rules of the group, and confidentiality.
Students complete Pretest.
Icebreaker activity.
Defining the word smart and students complete the How are you smart? and
What does it mean? worksheets.
Discussion of the different intelligences and where students fit in each area.
Explain how knowing this information can be beneficial when viewing and
choosing careers. Students discuss different careers for each intelligence area.
Discussion of what students learned during the session.

Week 2:
Discussion of already thought-of careers, and the importance of choosing a
career based on personalities and interests.
Discussion and completion of The Career Mall worksheet.
Divide students into groups and let them discuss with one another their top
career choices based on the worksheet.
Completion of the Thinking about Careers worksheet based on two career
choices.
Group discussion about what was learned throughout the session.
Week 3:
Have the students think about being at their class reunion when they are 30
years old, and what their lives would be like; specifically, what career what they
have?
Discuss how it is important to know strengths and interests when choosing
careers.
Discussion of 6 career clusters and subcategories.
Play Career Cluster video and have students write down what they think their
career of choice would fall under. Have students discuss as a class.
Week 4:
Review previous session, ground rules, and confidentiality.
Discussion of careers known based on gender.
Play video and have group discussion about video.
Students choose a career and take turn acting the career out while have peers
guess what it is.
Remind students about only two sessions left.
Week 5:
Prepare career paper bags before the group session.
Review previous session.

Discussion of whether students have ever asked themselves Why do I need to

learn this? and about the importance of learning things in school to be prepared
for future careers.
Divide students into groups and have them fill out two copies of Who uses this
stuff? worksheet for two different careers in the career prop bags.
Discussion of activity and what was learned.

Week 6:
Review of previous session and ground rules.
Discussion of goals and how to achieve them for the future.
Students complete Give Your Dreams Wings worksheet and how they are going
to achieve a specific goal they have.
Students complete the Dream Wings worksheet.
Students complete the Posttest.
Discussion of likes/dislikes and what was learned throughout the last six weeks.

Week Four- Charades w/ video

Objective/Outcome
--Students will be able to
identify at least one career
and indicate what the career
entails through actions.

Strategy/
Activity
--Watch video
about
careers. Then
act out a
chosen career
during a
game of
charades.

Materials
--Computer
and large
screen for
showing
video.

Evaluation/
Assessment
--Assessment=
Observation of
how each student
acts out their
chosen career.
--Evaluation=
100% of students
will be able to
identify at least
one career and
indicate what the
career entails.

Objectives:
Students will be able to identify at least one career and indicate what the career entails
through actions.

1.
2.
3.

4.
5.
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
6.

Procedure:
Review: Have students share how their strengths and weaknesses relate to their career
choice(s).
Remind students about group rules, including confidentiality.
Ask the students what careers they think of when they hear male and female. Write
their answers on the board, and ask them why they think the way they do for each
career.
Students will watch video about different career descriptions:
http://wpc.2a70.edgecastcdn.net/002A70/CareerVideos/60-0006.00.mp4
The counselor will then lead a discussion after the video about the different careers, and
ask if there are any questions the students have. Sample questions may include:
What did you like/dislike about this video?
What did you notice about this video?
What careers did you recognize?
What are some non-traditional jobs?
What are some ways you can find out a certain job?
Are there any terms you did not understand? If so, which ones?
The counselor will then introduce the career charades game and go over rules,
including no talking while acting out the career and students will guess career one at a
time, in order of their seats.

7. Each student will then act out a career while the remainder of the students take turns
guessing which career is being performed. If students cannot think of a career to act out
on their own, help them.
8. After the game is over and everyone has had a turn to act out a career, a discussion will
be lead about what the students learned regarding different career fields.
Closing:
1. Thank the students for participating in this weeks group lesson.
2. Remind the students that there are only two sessions left after this week.
3. Encourage students to look up different videos on their own, regarding specific career
fields they are interested in.

References:
http://wpc.2a70.edgecastcdn.net/002A70/CareerVideos/60-0006.00.mp4