ECE Career Paths Part 2: Career Vision

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  CTE Lesson Plan

• CTE Course Info and Benchmark Notes

  
  

  Course Title: Early Childhood Education 4

  Course Number: 8405140

  Career Cluster: Education and Training

  CIP Number: 0419070913

  Course Type: Career Preparatory

  Standard(s) or benchmarks

  Focus

  41.03 Examine licensing, certification and industry credentialing requirements.

  41.01 Identify and demonstrate positive work behaviors needed to be employable.

  Supporting

  39.02 Develop a professional philosophy as an early childhood education teacher.

• Unit Outline

  
  

  This lesson falls under a unit on effective employability skills and requirements in early childhood education. The unit focuses on identifying a career and planning goals to achieve chosen career path. This lesson is the second in the series in which students will present previous research early childhood education career paths, including identified industry certifications and/or degrees required. Students will develop a career plan in part three and plan for professional development in part four.

• Career Connection

  
  

  This lesson includes the skills of career planning, specifically related to early childhood education. Students will explore a variety of early childhood education career paths and explore training and skill requirements of early childhood professions.

• Learning Objectives

  
  

  Students will be able to:

  • Summarize research on an early childhood education career path
  • Create a presentation displaying research on an early childhood education career path
  • Compile notes on peer presentations

• Prior Knowledge

  
  

  Students should be familiar with:

  • Career paths related to early childhood education
  • Creating presentations to convey information
  • Taking notes

• Guiding Questions

  
  
  • What skills and behaviors are important for various early childhood education careers?
  • What responsibilities do individuals in various early childhood education careers perform?
  • What training (including licensing, degrees, or industry certifications) is required for various early childhood education careers?
  • How do different career paths in early childhood education compare with one another?

• Procedure

  
  

  1. To introduce the lesson, have students review their research handouts from the previous lesson (see Career Paths Part 1). Begin a brief discussion about their research. Start a bubble map on the board or chart paper with “Skills and Behaviors” listed in the middle. Have students share skills and behaviors that they explored in their research. Try connecting those skills and behaviors that are similar (i.e. enthusiasm for teaching and passion for teaching) or specific to different career paths.

  2. Direct students to create a presentation that displays the information they gathered from their research. Presentations can be made in PowerPoint, on poster board, by creating pamphlets with paper, and so forth depending on time and materials available. Student presentations should include information from their research, specifically the following:

  • Clearly stated career path
  • Industry and training requirements, including the timeframes and where to find information about earning industry and training requirements
  • Skills and behaviors specific to that career path, including specialized knowledge
  • Average salary of career path
  • Typical workplace environments for the career path

  3. Set up the presentations in a gallery walk style. Provide students with the Career Paths Notes handout (see attachments). Provide time for students to visit each presentation, read the information and take notes. See Teacher Notes for additional pacing ideas.

  4. To bring the lesson to a close, have students reflect on the career paths in relation to their personal career goals using the Career Path Reflections handout (see attachment). Encourage students to begin developing a profession philosophy about early childhood education. Display or provide students with the ECE Word Bank (see attachment) to aid in the development of their professional philosphy.

• Teacher Notes

  
  
  • Depending on available time, teachers may decide to split these activities into two days or class periods, with the presentation creation on day one and the gallery walk on day two.
  • Depending on time, instead of a gallery walk, have students orally present their presentations and information to small groups or the whole class.
  • Teachers can allow students to use personal electronic devices as available or access school computers for creating presentations using PowerPoint.

• Optional

  
  

  Extension Ideas:

  • Have students conduct additional research on the career paths based on the questions they indicated on the Career Paths Notes handout.
  • Students may have noticed other career paths that weren’t previously discussed. Have students research additional career paths and write a summary of their findings.
  • Encourage students to fully develop a professional philosophy. Brainstorm additional terms and key words that students are familiar with and can use.