Map Your Career Path

Overview

At John Griffin Middle School, students investigate how interests, skills, education, and workplace needs connect to career pathways. Building on prior self-awareness and career-readiness activities, students conduct a short, collaborative research inquiry using multiple sources and publish a concise digital career-pathway profile.

Essential question: How can research help me make informed choices about future careers and career pathways?

Learning intentions

Students will be able to:

• Identify a career pathway connected to an interest, skill, or personal value.
• Generate a focused research question and related questions about a career.
• Use several reliable sources to gather and organize information.
• Collaborate with peers to produce and share a clear digital career profile.

Success criteria

• I can explain how a career connects to a pathway, interest, or skill.
• I can use at least three sources and record information in my own words.
• I can create a focused research question and one related question.
• I can contribute useful information and feedback to my group’s digital product.

Curriculum links

• North Carolina middle school college-and-career readiness: self-awareness, career exploration, planning, communication, collaboration, and technology use.
• North Carolina CTE career development expectations: connect personal strengths and interests to career options and education or training pathways.
• Short research projects: students answer a focused question using several sources and develop additional questions.
• Technology-supported writing and collaboration: students use digital tools to produce, publish, and discuss information clearly.

Vocabulary

Career pathway, occupation, industry, transferable skill, education or training, credential, source, reliable, research question, workplace demand.

Lesson structure (60 minutes)

1. 0–7 min · Warm-up: Career Connections. Teacher opens with the career hook and essential question and displays three contrasting careers, such as medical assistant, video game designer, and logistics coordinator. Students complete the prompt on the career pathway investigation sheet: “A career I might explore is ___ because ___,” then share with a partner. Emphasize that no career choice is permanent and that exploration is the goal.

2. 7–15 min · Brief instruction: Pathways and research. Teacher uses the pathway mini-lesson and source-check guide to explain that pathways may include high school courses, community college, college, apprenticeships, industry credentials, military training, or on-the-job learning. Model turning “What is a nurse?” into the focused question “What education, skills, and workplace responsibilities are needed to become a registered nurse?” Demonstrate checking a source for author or organization, current information, evidence, and relevance. Students help identify one strong and one weak research question.

3. 15–20 min · Teams and inquiry planning. Teacher forms groups of three or four, assigning roles: facilitator, source finder, recorder, and technology designer; roles rotate when possible. Students select one career from the teacher-provided list or propose an appropriate alternative, then record a main question and one related question on the question-planning section. Grade 6 students may choose from a prepared list; Grade 7 students compare two related occupations; Grade 8 students investigate a pathway and its next-step training options.

4. 20–40 min · Hands-on pathway investigation. Teacher directs groups to use teacher-curated digital sources, career databases, school-approved websites, and available print materials; circulate to conference and ask, “What evidence answers your question?” Students gather information from at least three sources and complete the investigation sheet. They record the career’s typical tasks, needed skills, education or training, related occupations, workplace setting, and one possible future change or challenge. Students must paraphrase rather than copy and label which source supports each fact. Grade 6 groups use provided source excerpts and sentence frames; Grade 7 groups compare source information; Grade 8 groups evaluate reliability and explain how education, credentials, and labor-market needs may affect the pathway.

5. 40–52 min · Digital product and collaboration. Teacher opens the digital profile directions and quality checklist and models a one-slide or one-page digital profile. Students create a collaborative product in an approved presentation or document tool containing the career title, focused question, three evidence-based findings, pathway or training steps, a related question, and a brief “fit” statement. Each student contributes one researched idea and uses the comment or feedback feature to suggest one improvement to another group. Groups may include a relevant icon, diagram, or image with a source note.

6. 52–57 min · Share and formative check. Teacher invites a rapid gallery walk or two-minute group share-outs and uses the discussion prompts: “What pathway step surprised you?” and “What question remains?” Students leave one specific verbal or digital feedback comment using “One strength is…” and “One question is….” Teacher checks investigation sheets for multiple sources, paraphrasing, and a focused inquiry.

7. 57–60 min · Exit ticket and reflection. Teacher distributes the exit ticket section and asks students to respond independently: “What career pathway did you investigate?” “What evidence changed or strengthened your thinking?” and “What is one next question you could research?” Students submit the sheet or digital response before leaving.

Resources

• the complete career exploration slide deck
• the career pathway investigation and exit-ticket worksheet
• Student laptops or tablets with approved digital tools
• Teacher-curated career and training sources
• Career pathway and occupation list
• Projector or interactive display
• Headphones and printed source excerpts
• Digital collaboration platform

Assessment

• During the warm-up and planning, listen for connections between interests, skills, and careers; question groups to refine broad topics into focused questions.
• Review investigation sheets for three sources, paraphrased evidence, source labels, and age-appropriate pathway information. Check each student’s contribution during collaboration.
• Use the exit ticket to assess understanding of career pathways, evidence-based research, and the ability to generate a related question.

Differentiation

• Grade 6: provide a limited career menu, highlighted source excerpts, icons, a completed model, and sentence starters such as “This career requires…” and “A related question is….”
• Grade 7: require comparison of two related occupations and a short explanation of how their skills or training differ.
• Grade 8: require source reliability comments, a training or credential sequence, and a connection to changing workplace needs or entrepreneurship.
• Provide text-to-speech, speech-to-text, enlarged or printed materials, chunked directions, bilingual vocabulary support, flexible grouping, and an option to submit audio alongside the digital profile. Allow students to demonstrate learning through typed, handwritten, visual, or oral responses.

Teacher reflection

After class, note which sources and career choices generated the strongest engagement. Identify students who need additional support with focused questions, paraphrasing, source reliability, or digital collaboration. Record whether the mixed-grade roles promoted meaningful peer support and revise the career menu or source set for the next class.