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Classroom Activities: Beginner

Use MyMnCareers in the classroom to encourage completion of the print guide My Career Plan and to insure understanding. Role plays offer an excellent opportunity to develop appropriate vocabulary for job search, and to practice networking and interviewing skills.

These activities are designed to use with the "English Language Learner" section of MyMnCareers. They can be used in a classroom, workshop, or other group setting.

I want to explore careers ...

  1. What we value is key to who we are, and therefore what we want to contribute through our work. Use Who Am I? as a start for classroom discussion. Ask students about their personal values and how they relate to career choice. Also discuss how their values might affect workplace behavior.
  2. Review options from the Assessment Resources page to determine appropriate tools for your audience. Administer interest and skill assessments to build students' awareness and vocabulary to describe themselves in a work context. One option is to present one assessment for the group to complete together. This will help to introduce the terms and concepts used in the assessment. Individual assessments can be done is a separate session or given to students to take on their own and bring in the results to discuss with an instructor.
  3. Use tools from the My Career Plan to help students match their assessment results with an occupational choice.
  4. Demonstrate career research and ask them to record occupational description, wages, outlook, training, and education needed to enter an occupation.

I want to set goals ...

  1. Review material and examples on What is a Short-term Goal? and What is a Long-term Goal? in class to insure understanding.
  2. Use the page Learn How to Set Goals in class to give students an idea of goals that will help them move forward.
  3. The Career Timeline illustrates how setting long-term goals directly and quickly impacts earnings and success. Show the table highlighting two different people's work and skill development experience, and show the graph. Give students reflection and sharing time, re: what decisions they see each person making.
  4. Continue use of My Career Plan for student goal setting based on career interest.

I want to get training ...

  1. Based on their identified career path, discuss students' education options within ABE programs and beyond. Use the MyMnCareers information in the Get Training section and have students record it in My Career Plan.

I want to learn more ...

  1. Invite the class to think about a challenge they have faced in the workplace (examples: not fitting in with coworkers, not understanding a manager's instructions, etc.). Ask them to share it and how they handled it, or how they could have handled it better. Their responses can help then answer the common interview question "Tell me about a time when you had a difficult situation at work. How did you handle it?")
  2. Use Learn About the Workplace to highlight successful work behaviors in U.S. work culture. Discuss differences with students' native cultures.
  3. View and discuss the video How to Fill Out a Job Application. Then have students create a personal data sheet or complete a blank application during class for use in preparing job applications.
  4. Show two of the videos about job interviews. Provide students with a list of standard interview questions. Pair students to interview each other, or invite other teachers or professionals from outside the classroom to do mock interviews. Discuss what students learned about interviewing.
  5. Use Overcoming Obstacles to identify potential hurdles to students' successful goal achievement. Brainstorm in small groups how to cope with common hurdles.