Teacher's guide for Preparing for Careers WebQuest

by Janet Bowman

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Introduction

Use this WebQuest to help students in grades 6 through 8 to learn about Preparing for Careers. The goal is to get students engaged in critical thinking.

Overview

Main Topic:	Preparing for Careers
Subtopics:	Career Clusters, SCANS skills, Future Trends,
Grade Level:	7 - 9
Subject(s):	Vocational Ed
Learning Goal:	engaging in critical thinking

Vision and Reality

If the learning goal were achieved in the most ideal of perfect worlds it would look something like:

Students will have a clear vision of skills needed for future careers.

However, what I anticipate probably looks more like:

Based on the Vision set for this activity, the actual reality is more likely to be some students will be able to identify some skills needed for future careers.

The What - If Inventory

To give the activity its best chance at helping students learn, I assembled this list of possible resources:

Students will be using web sites with information about societal trends. Students will also use the Occupational Outlook Handbook website.

Students will learn how to access the Occupational Outlook Handbook to find information on Career Clusters as well as specific Careers.

Students will write letters to resource supervisors of local businesses in the local area to have them list skills they think employees should have. Results will be reported to the school population in a newsletter which will highlight the results of the WebQuest. This newsletter will be published the month before students in the eighth grade begin their 4-year educational plan.

Students will prepare a web page as the culminating activity explaining the five most important skills needed for future careers as reported by human resource supervisors of local businesses.

Conclusion

Students should be able to compile a list of skills needed for all careers based on individual research and group consensus.

created by Janet Bowman email: BowmanJH@Spartanburg6.k12.sc.us http://www.web-and-flow.com/members/jbowman2/careerwebquest/webquest.htm