5
Career Exploration Lessons for Sixth and Seventh Grades
Introduction
Exploring endeavors to develop citizens who are physically, mentally, and emotionally fit;
have a high degree of self-reliance, evidenced in such qualities as initiative, courage, and
resourcefulness; have positive personal character; have the desire and skills to help others;
understand the principles of global social, economic, and government systems; are knowl-
edgeable about and take pride in their American heritage and understand our nation’s role
in the world; have a keen respect for the basic rights of all people; and are prepared to par-
ticipate in and provide leadership for a global society.
Exploring has been developed to help fulfill this commitment to teaching all young people
the importance of character development, social skills, life skills, good citizenship, and
physical fitness. This is a classroom-based program to help students begin an in-depth
assessment of their character and personal career search. It supplements and enriches the
standard curricula and the student’s career awareness.
The program takes the students through a step-by-step, developmental, decision-making
process, helping each student become aware of their own strengths and uniqueness.
Exploring provides the student with caring mentors and role models from the community,
and gives each student an opportunity to learn the relevance of education and the neces-
sity of staying in school. It enhances the students’ awareness of what they need to learn in
order to become productive members of society and why that is important to them. It also
provides the students with examples of moral and ethical choices in the working world.
Program Methods
The sixth and seventh grade program features age-appropriate, theme-oriented lesson plans
to be used in the classroom to guide students through career exploration. There are 36 les-
son plans and five revised lesson plans in this teacher’s guide. They may be conducted by
an Exploring representative, community role model, business leader, or classroom teacher.
Exploring incorporates an action-learning process and uses techniques such as role- playing,
small group discussions, and scenario analysis. During the career exploration lesson plans, the
students engage in critical thinking as they delve into such topics as workplace communica-
tion, job searches, and professional behavior analysis.
Lessons are designed to reinforce career education skills in various areas, such as critical
thinking, behavior analysis, conflict resolution, problem solving, workplace expectations,
and communication skills.
We suggest that at least one lesson be used each week. The discussion topics and activities
in each lesson relate to one or more curricula subjects and should be helpful in meeting
your school district’s educational and developmental subjects.
In some instances, a lesson plan will offer more activities than time allows. It is at the dis-
cretion of the teacher to select which activities to conduct during the time allotted, or to
decide to continue the lesson at another time.
Lesson plan topics are greatly enhanced by inviting community role models to share their
expertise with the class.