Career & College Readiness Lesson Plan

What’s Next?
Career Planning
Grade Level 12
Overview
Students create an actionable postsecondary plan for pursuing career goals.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
 Understand and use a structured planning process
 Understand the pros and cons of using a structured planning process
 Use their completed Career Action Plan

Language Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to:
 Verbally explain their Action Steps and what they need to do to complete each
one

 Write clear, concise descriptions of the content in each section of their Career
Action Plan

 Reflective writing assignment adhering to grade-level standards

Standards Alignment
 California Career Technical Education Model Curriculum Standards:
o 3
 California Standards for Career Ready Practice:
o 1, 3
 National Career Development Guidelines:
o CM 1, 2, 3, 4; PS 3, 4
 International Society for Technology in Education Standards for Students:
o 1, 3
 English Language Development Standards:
o Part I: B 6
o Part II: A 1
 American School Counselor Association Mindsets & Behaviors:

California Career Resource Network, California Department of Education

What’s Next? Career Planning

o BS-LS 7; BS-SMS 10

Materials
1. Instructor Resources
 Computer with internet access and projection capability for instructor
 Projector and screen
 Computers with internet access for students
 Career Action Plan Rubric (p. 7)
 Webpages

 California Career Resource Network Lesson Plan Handout E-copies

https://californiacareers.info/#?Lesson%20Plans

 What’s Next? Start-Up Video [01:07]

https://youtu.be/ISsCF5eKcJo
 California Career Center My Stuff Student Account
https://californiacareers.info/#?Lesson%20Plans

 Career and College Readiness Lesson Plan, “What Occupation Interests

Me?”

2. Student Handouts
 Vocabulary (p. 8)
 California Career Center My Stuff Student Account Set Up (p. 9)
 Career Action Plan Outline (p. 10)
 Reflective Writing (p. 11)
 Lesson Resources (p. 12)

3. Online Resources
 California Career Center Sign in or Create Account
https://www.calcareercenter.org/Portfolio/Login
Important: Students must be logged into a California Career Center
My Stuff Student Account to access the Career Action Plan.

4. Additional Resources
 Creating A Career Action Plan
https://www.calcareercenter.org/Home/Content?contentID=149
 California CareerZone
https://www.cacareerzone.org/
 Occupational Outlook Handbook

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What’s Next? Career Planning

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
 CareerOneStop
https://www.careeronestop.org/

Activity
Students will complete a Career Action Plan and complete a reflective writing
assignment.

Lesson Prep
 Review the lesson plan procedures, handouts, online resources, and start-up
video. This information will help prepare you to lead discussions about using a
career planning process to achieve goals.

 Set up your California Career Center’s My Stuff Student account. Detailed

instructions are in the student handout, My Stuff Student Account Set Up.
 Walk through the Career Action Plan:
o Log into your California Career Center’s My Stuff Student account (link in
Materials section).
o On your student account homepage, select Career Action Plan.

o Review the directions for each section. View some, or all, of the short
instructional videos. Be prepared to demonstrate this process to your
students.

Before class begins, have your projector and computer on and the California Career
Center account sign-in page open in your web browser (links in the Materials section).

 Copy student handouts or send your students e-copies. The handouts are also
posted individually with the lesson plan on the California Career Resource
Network Lesson Plans webpage (link in Materials section).

 About Hyperlinks. All hyperlinks (URLs) used in this lesson are listed in the
Lesson Resources student handout.

Lesson Procedures
1. Introduce the lesson by describing the topic and activity. For a quick introduction,
show the start-up video (link in Materials section). Confirm students understand what
to expect.
2. Distribute and review the Vocabulary handout (p. 8).

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What’s Next? Career Planning

3. If any student does not have a California Career Center My Stuff student account,
distribute the California Career Center My Stuff Student Account Set Up handout (p.
10) and instruct students to create an account (link to the website is in the Materials
section).
4. Distribute the Career Action Plan Outline handout (p. 10) and have students follow
along as you demonstrate accessing the Career Action Plan:
(1) Go to the California Career Center website (link in Materials section).

(2) Log into your student account.

(3) From your My Stuff homepage, select Career Action Plan.

(4) Show students each section in the Career Action Plan.

(5) In the sections’ directions, open the written directions then show one of the
short videos. Walk students through one section’s directions.

Check to see if students have already created a Career Action Plan and, if they have,
where they are in the process. If students:

(1) Have no plan: Have them start with the first section, Explore Occupations I.
(2) Have a partially-completed plan: Have them finish sections they have not
completed. And then focus on creating actionable steps.
(3) Have a completed plan: Have them fine tune their information and then focus
on writing clear, detailed, actionable Action Steps.

If students get stuck, remind them to view the section’s video and read the instructions.
Confirm students understand what is required to complete each section.

Emphasize the importance of writing clear, detailed, actionable Action Steps. Remind
students Action Steps have three parts:
(1) Specific: What will be done and who will help?
(2) Time bound: When will the step done?
(3) Resources: What resources are needed to complete the step?

5. Distribute the Lesson Resources handout (p. 12). Send students to the California
Career Center website and have them work independently to complete their Career
Action Plans.
 Check with students as they work to confirm they are on track and understand
how to get the information they need.
6. Allow students time to complete their plans during class or assign as homework.
 If assigned as homework, ensure all students have access to the internet and
a computer.

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What’s Next? Career Planning

8. Distribute the Reflective Writing handout (p. 11) and assign the writing as homework.
Tell students you expect quality writing that meets or surpasses grade-level
standards.

9. Wrap Up. Review with students the knowledge they gained and employability skills
they practiced in this lesson:

 Career Literacy Skills: Engaged in the process of career planning.

 Critical Thinking Skills and Creativity: Drawn on when using multiple

assessment results to search for and evaluate occupations that might best
meet their needs.

 Information Literacy Skills: Practiced by accessing and evaluating information,

finding reliable, relevant, and accurate career information.

 Life Skills: Learned about the interconnectedness of lifestyle, income, and

career choice.

 Personal Values: Learned that personal values are important criterion when
choosing a career.

 Self-directional Skills: Exercised by completing tasks without direct oversight.

 Self-development Skills: Practiced when using assessments to gain personal

insight and applied their insights to career exploration and planning.

 Technology Skills: Developed by navigating and using a variety of websites

and online applications to research, organize, and evaluate information.

Estimated Time
The number of class sessions depends on whether or not you have students complete
the Career Action Plan in class or as homework.

Learning Assessment
To complete this lesson, students need to:
 Complete and save their Career Action Plan in their My Stuff Student Accounts.

 Submit a copy of their Career Action Plans and meet the minimum requirements
shown in the Career Action Plan rubric.

 Complete and submit the Reflective Writing assignment.

Adaptations
1. Have students create a multimedia presentation of their Career Action Plan.

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What’s Next? Career Planning

 You may want to use the multimedia presentation handout and rubric from the
Grade 11 lesson plan, “What Occupation Interests Me?” (link in the Materials
Section).
2. Have students complete their first Action Step then report back to the class their
experience and what they learned. Sample prompt questions:

 Was completing your first step easy? Hard? Neither? Elaborate.

 What resources did you use?
 Did completing your first step make you change your next step?

Other lessons and materials are on the

California Career Resource Network.

California Career Resource Network, California Department of Education p. 6

What’s Next? Career Planning

Instructor Resource
Career Action Plan Rubric
Student Name_________________________ Date_________________

Required
Evidence Completed
Components
Content  All sections completed Yes No
Explore  Identified 3–5 occupations using Yes No
Occupations I the Interest Profiler
Explore  Additional occupations identified
Yes No
Occupations II using Make Money Choices

Occupation to  Chose one occupation to Yes No

Research research
 Identified skills, training,
Degree/Certification education and/or required No
Yes
s Required licensing using the Occupational
Outlook Handbook

Education/Training
 Identified potential colleges
and/or training programs using Yes No
Programs
California CareerZone
 Courses completed
 Extracurricular activities
No
Related Experiences Yes
 Awards earned
 Certifications earned
 Jobs, internships
 Community organizations,
Future Experiences Yes No
volunteering
 Classes, training

 Identified two or three people

Supporters  Identified two or three Yes No
organizations
 Identified specific steps
Action Steps  Created completion deadlines Yes No
 Identified needed resources
Plan B  Identified a Plan B option Yes No
Resources  Identified at least two resources Yes No

__________Requirements met

__________Requirements not met

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What’s Next? Career Planning
Student Handout

Vocabulary
Career: a sequence of occupations and other roles that you play in your life, the
settings in which they occur, and the major events of your life; the total series of roles
and work experiences a person occupies throughout life.

Each person has one, lifelong career that may include many occupations and jobs. A
career also includes education activities and decisions, and the way a person’s work life
is integrated with other life roles such as family, community, and leisure.

Career Action Plan: a dynamic plan used to reach short-term and long-term career
goals; it’s a roadmap identifying the steps to take and the requirements to get you from
point A—choosing an occupation—to Point B—becoming employed in that occupation.

Action Steps: steps you take to achieve your goal. Action Steps essentially create a
checklist from things that’ll take you from high school graduation to starting the career
you want. Each Action Step has three parts:

1. Specific: What will be done and by whom?

2. Time bound: When will the step will be done?

3. Resources: What resources are needed to complete the step?

 Resources include people who are needed to complete the step,
forms, information, etc. A resource is whatever’s needed to the
complete the step.

Career Self-management Skills: behaviors and competencies needed to succeed in

the dynamic, global employment market. Competencies include managing work-family-
life conflicts; active network development; making strategic choices of mobility
opportunities; revising and stabilizing occupational and career goals and plans.

Career Planning: decision‐making process by which you identify the alternatives open to
you in occupational, educational, and leisure areas of your life.

Job: paid position with specific duties, tasks, and responsibilities in a particular place of
work (e.g., photographer at Best Pictures).

Occupation: a cluster of jobs with common characteristics that require similar skills
(e.g., engineering).

California Career Resource Network, California Department of Education

What’s Next? Career Planning
Student Handout

California Career Center

My Stuff Student Account Set Up
You can set up your account on either the web or mobile version of the app. The two
versions are synced IF you use the same account to access both.

Web
1. Go to the California Career Center (link in Lesson Resources handout).
2. Select “My Stuff” in the top navigation bar.
3. From the My Stuff homepage, select “Manage Account”.
4. Fill in the form.
5. Select “Submit”.

Mobile
1. Download the app from your app store.
 The app’s name is My Stuff CAP
2. When the app opens, select Create Account.
3. Fill in the form.
4. Select “Submit”.

It doesn’t matter where you set up your account—your account works for both web and
mobile apps.

If at some point you want to delete your account, go to your Manage Account page and
select “Delete My Account.”

WARNING
Deleting your account from one app deletes it from
all Career Center web and mobile apps.

California Career Resource Network, California Department of Education

What’s Next? Career Planning
Student Handout

California Career Center

Career Action Plan Outline
Explore Occupations I
Identify occupations that match your interests.

Explore Occupations II
Identify occupations that match your lifestyle goals.

Occupation to Research
Choose an occupation to research.

Degree and/or Certification Required

Identify this occupation's requirements.

Education and/or Training Programs

Find programs you can complete to prepare you for this occupation.

Related Experiences
List things you've done in the past that prepare you for this occupation.

Future Experiences
Identify things you can do in the future to prepare you for this occupation.

Supporters
Identify people and organizations that can help you.

Action Steps
Describe the steps you'll take—starting now—to enter this occupation.

Plan B
Select an alternate occupational goal.

Resources
Track your resources.

California Career Resource Network, California Department of Education

What’s Next? Career Planning
Student Handout

Reflective Writing
This is a processing assignment where you’ll think about and analyze what you’ve
learned, make connections between your observations, thoughts, feelings, and the
information you learned as you explored a future occupation and ways to enter that
occupation.
Use the following information to get started. This information is just to help you start
your assignment and understand what reflective writing is and isn’t. These are NOT
instructions you have to follow.

Reflective Writing Is
 Documenting your response to experiences, opinions, or new information
 Communicating your response to thoughts and feelings
 Gaining self-knowledge
 Achieving clarity and better understanding of what you’re learning

Reflective Writing Is Not

 Just conveying information or argument
 Pure description
 Straightforward decision or judgement
 A summary of notes

Get Started Questions

These questions are examples of what to ask yourself to get started: they’re not
prescriptive:
 What are your thoughts and feelings about the occupation you chose? What did
you learn about yourself?
 What do you think about having a plan to help you decide the best classes to
take and activities to do in high school?
 What was your experience with creating a plan?
 What steps can take right away to begin implementing your plan? How do you
feel about that?
 What can you do after high school to prepare to enter your occupation? What
does this course of action tell you about yourself?
 What was the most useful or meaningful thing you learned? Explain.

Evaluation
 Use writing conventions befitting your grade level (ask your instructor for details).
 Use academic and assignment-specific language.
 Ensure your content flows logically—it has a beginning, middle, and end.
 Include examples to support your assertions.

California Career Resource Network, California Department of Education

What’s Next? Career Planning
Student Handout

Lesson Resources
What’s Next? Start-Up Video [01:07]
https://youtu.be/ISsCF5eKcJo

California Career Center

https://www.calcareercenter.org/

California Career Center My Stuff Student Account

https://www.calcareercenter.org/Portfolio/Login

California CareerZone
https://www.cacareerzone.org/

Occupational Outlook Handbook

https://www.bls.gov/ooh/

Additional Resources
Creating A Career Action Plan
https://www.calcareercenter.org/Home/Content?contentID=149

CareerOneStop
https://www.careeronestop.org/

California Career Resource Network, California Department of Education