| Course Type : | Open |
| Credit Value : | 0.5 |
| Prerequisite : | None |
Course Description
This course teaches students how to develop and achieve personal goals for future learning, work and community involvement. Students will assess their interests, skills and characteristics and investigate current economic and workplace trends, work opportunities, and ways to search for work. The course explores post-secondary learning and career options, prepares students for managing work and life transitions, and helps students focus on their goals through the development of a career plan.
Outline of Course Content
Unit
Titles and Descriptions
Time and Sequence
Unit 1
What in the world.
In this unit, students will explore current economic and societal trends and opportunities in order to assist them in making more informed career/life choices. By examining concepts of success, students will develop an understanding and examine it in the context of their own lives. Students will begin to articulate how their special interests direct their career/life decisions. The unit sets the stage for students to navigate a changing world and to recognize that a career is not just an occupational destination but a lifelong journey. Students will demonstrate effective research, communication and teamwork skills.
10 hours
Unit 2
What about me
Students will develop an awareness of the positive impact that young people have on their own development, their school, their community and the world. Through a variety of experiences, they will profile their learning styles, strategies, interests, abilities, characteristics and competencies. This process will empower them to construct their present and future career paths as they explore their world. They will gain an understanding of the variety of volunteer, part-time work, summer, educational and leadership opportunities and exchanges which will further develop and clarify their transferable skills. Students will demonstrate self-promotion strategies for their current goal and will recognize the value of the strategies in career planning in a changing world
18 hours
Unit 3
What about future
Students will relate what they have learned about themselves, the world of work, and community involvement to options for present and future opportunities. They will hypothesize how societal and economic trends may affect them and influence their choices. They will begin to construct a road map – goal setting for their own personal “success” destination. Through the application of the decision-making model they will develop action plans. Students will synthesize their learning of the career/life journey and articulate the key questions they will use as tools for future planning, transition and change. This includes the final evaluation tasks.
18 hours
Unit 4
Portfolio development
The portfolio can be as simple as contents in a file folder. The portfolio process causes students to focus on what they have learned, “prove it” with evidence, and determine where and how they might use this learning again. The process therefore, rather than the container, is the critical piece in a Career Studies course and the key to the synthesis of the students’ own Personal Profile. The portfolio process will assist students in developing the skills, habits, and characteristics which contribute to effective decision making and action in all aspects of their lives.
7 hours
Final Evaluation
Complete a culminating activity -15%The final assessment task is a two hour exam worth 15% of the student’s final mark.
2 hours
Total
55 hours
Career Studies: Helping students become self-directed, lifelong learners is a fundamental aim of the guidance and career education curriculum. When students are engaged in active and experiential learning strategies, they tend to retain knowledge for longer periods and develop meaningful skills. Active and experiential learning strategies also enable students to apply their knowledge and skills to real-life issues and situations.
Some of the teaching and learning strategies that are suitable to material taught in guidance and career education include cooperative small-group learning, one-on-one teaching, guided learning, personal reflection, role playing, simulations, case-study analysis, presentations, and tasks involving real workplace materials, experiential learning, and independent study. Teachers must provide a wide range of activities and assignments that promote mastery of basic concepts and development of inquiry/research skills.
Assessment and evaluation will follow the Ministry of Education’s Growing Success document. Assessment is a systematic process of collecting information or evidence about a student’s progress towards meeting the learning expectations. Assessment is embedded in the instructional activities throughout a unit. The expectations for the assessment tasks are clearly articulated and the learning activity is planned to make that demonstration possible. This process of beginning with the end in mind helps to keep focus on the expectations of the course. The purpose of assessment is to gather the data or evidence and to provide meaningful feedback to the student about how to improve or sustain the performance in the course. Scaled criteria designed as rubrics are often used to help the student to recognize their level of achievement and to provide guidance on how to achieve the next level. Although assessment information can be gathered from a number of sources (the student himself, the student’s course mates, the teacher), evaluation is the responsibility of only the teacher. For evaluation is the process of making a judgment about the assessment information and determining the percentage grade or level.
The assessment will be based on the following processes that take place in the classroom:
| Assessment FOR Learning | Assessment AS Learning | Assessment OF Learning |
|---|---|---|
|
During this process the teacher seeks information from the students in order to decide where the learners are and where they need to go. |
During this process the teacher fosters the capacity of the students and establishes individual goals for success with each one of them. |
During this process the teacher reports student’s results in accordance to established criteria to inform how well students are learning. |
| Conversation | Conversation | Conversation |
|
Classroom discussion Self-evaluation Peer assessment |
Classroom discussion Small group discussion Post-lab conferences | Presentations of research Debates |
| Observation | Observation | Observation |
| Drama workshops (taking direction) Steps in problem solving | Group discussions | Presentations Group Presentations |
| Student Products | Student Products | Student Products |
| Reflection journals (to be kept throughout the duration of the course) Check Lists Success Criteria |
Practice sheets Socrative quizzes |
Projects Poster presentations Tests In Class Presentations |
Career Studies: The evaluation of this course is based on the four Ministry of Education achievement categories of knowledge and understanding (25%), thinking (25%), communication (25%), and application (25%). . The evaluation for this course is based on the student’s achievement of curriculum expectations and the demonstrated skills required for effective learning.
The percentage grade represents the quality of the student’s overall achievement of the expectations for the course and reflects the corresponding level of achievement as described in the achievement chart for the discipline.
A credit is granted and recorded for this course if the student’s grade is 50% or higher. The final grade for this course will be determined as follows:
- 70% of the grade will be based upon evaluations conducted throughout the course. This portion of the grade will reflect the student’s most consistent level of achievement throughout the course, although special consideration will be given to more recent evidence of
- 30% of the grade will be based on a final exam administered at the end of the The exam will contain a summary of information from the course and will consist of well-formulated multiple choice questions. These will be evaluated using a checklist.
Textbook
various, plus media resources.
Potential Resources
- Teacher Supplied Resources: Various Internet sites, source readings and DVD