Running head: MIDDLE SCHOOL GUIDANCE LESSON
Middle School Guidance Lesson
CSP 674
Kathy Wiertsema-Miller
January 2002
ÒYou Do What You Are / You Are What You DoÓ is a 2-day career exploration unit designed for middle school students. Each dayÕs lesson requires approximately 50 minutes for completion. The objectives of this unit are as follows:
—Learners will understand how personal interests, values and strengths are related to career choices.
—Learners will become familiar with Holland codes and their relationships to careers.
—Learners will enhance awareness of self and career choices.
Introduce the subject of careers; discuss perceived differences between careers and jobs. Have students individually complete #1 of the worksheet ÒYou Do What You Are / You Are What You DoÓ (see Appendix A). When finished, share responses in groups of four. Then ask for two or three students to share their responses with the whole class.
Have students work with a partner to complete #2. Allow 5-7 minutes for brainstorming, and then share responses with the whole class.
Choose 2-3 of the student responses to list on the board. Discuss each one individually and have students speculate about the personal traits/strengths/interests that would be important for each career as well as the kinds of high school classes or post- high school training needed for each career.
For closure, have students think about whether or not they possess the appropriate traits/strengths/interests to pursue the possible careers listed in #1. Circle the career from #1 that seems most appropriate.
Review the activities and worksheet items 1-2 from the previous lesson.
Have students complete the short interest assessment based on the Holland Interest Inventory (Minnesota Careers, pages 5-6).
Explain the six different interest codes (realistic, investigative, artistic, social, enterprising, and conventional) and the personal significance of their Holland code. Emphasize that the students are young and still developing, so therefore the code may change over timeÑthe important thing is self-awareness in all stages of life. Have students complete #3 of the worksheet.
Display overhead of suggested careers that correlate with the various Holland codes (see Appendix B). Have students complete #4 of the worksheet. Discuss student examples.
For closure, have students complete #5 of the worksheet. Collect completed worksheets and store in individual student files for future career planning.
The ÒYou Do What You Are / You Are What You DoÓ lessons are reflective of the Personal/Social and Career developmental domains of the Minnesota School CounselorÕs Model of Developmental Guidance and Counseling as well as the Gysbers & Henderson model.
The ÒYou Do What You Are / You Are What You DoÓ lessons are also directly related to the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee Standards for middle/junior high school students. The lessons are directly linked to the following standards within the self-knowledge competency: knowledge of the importance of growth and change. They are also directly linked to the following standards within the Educational and Occupational Exploration competency: knowledge of the benefits of educational achievement to career opportunities, and understanding the relationship between work and learning. Within the Career Planning competency, they are also linked to the following standards: skills to make decisions, knowledge of the interrelationship of life roles, and knowledge of different occupations and changing male/female roles.
Finally, The ÒYou Do What You Are / You Are What You DoÓ lessons also correlate to learning area #8, Physical Education and Lifetime Fitness, of the Minnesota Graduation Standards, particularly the decision making standard as it relates to career exploration and investigation.
Gysbers, N.C., & Henderson, P. (2000). Developing and managing your school guidance program. Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association.
Miller, T. (Ed.) (2001). Minnesota Careers. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Department of Economic Security.
Rief, J.M., & Enestvedt, J.K. (1993). The Minnesota school counselorsÕ model of developmental guidance. Publisher location unlisted: Minnesota School Counselors Association.
Zunker, V.G. (1998). Career counseling: Applied concepts of life planning. (5th Ed.). California: Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.
Kathy Wiertsema-Miller, Counselor
Northfield High School
Northfield, MN 55057
507-663-0636
Fax 507-645-3455
Kathy.Miller@nfld.k12.mn.us
Appendix A:
Student worksheet
Name Date
—Skilled trades such as plumber, electrician, and machine operator; technician skills such as airplane mechanic, photographer, draftsperson, and some service occupations.
—Scientific such as chemist, physicist, and
mathematician; technician such as laboratory technician, computer programmer,
and electronics worker
—Artistic such as sculptor, artist, and designer; musical such as music teacher, orchestra leader, and musician; literary such as editor, writer, and critic
—Educational such as teacher, educational administrator, and college professor; social welfare such as social worker, sociologist, rehabilitation counselor, and professional nurse
—Managerial such as personnel, production, and sales manager; various sales positions, such as life insurance, real estate, and car salesperson
—Office and clerical worker such as timekeeper, file clerk, teller, accountant, keypunch operator, secretary, bookkeeper, receptionist, and credit manager
Adapted from Zunker, Career counseling: Applied concepts of life planning,
1998, page 54.