Career Exploration ESL Lesson Plan: Engaging Activities for Students
I often have the chance to teach senior students at my university, and every time I have that chance, I jump at it. These often are my favorite classes to teach because students are in such a transitional time. For perhaps the first time, they’re actually considering how the things they learn in the classroom will be used outside of the classroom.
I have an entire course on how to prepare for entering the job market, but this semester, although I’m not teaching that class, I wanted to still boil down ideas into one lesson that helps students consider their futures.
This lesson would work great as a bonus lesson or these activities could be taken apart and included one by one into other lessons over the span of a few weeks.
Without further ado, here are some activities I use to help students start thinking about their dream lives and careers:
What Type of Work Satisfies You?
Often, students get asked questions like, “What do you want to do in the future?” or “What industry do you want to go into?” While it’s necessary to think about jobs, often students can get stuck. Let’s face it, most of the world doesn’t have jobs that are found in kindergarten picture books or are so cut-and-dry. We think about teachers, doctors, salespeople, and lawyers. But what about paralegals? HR reps in tech companies? The necessary assistants who clean tools after surgery? Special projects manager at universities?
Instead of asking students yet again what job title they want and being met with blank stares, ask them what work they find satisfying.
I tell them to write down 5 descriptions of the type of work they find satisfying and show them my examples:
Short-term projects
Working independently
Repeated systems, but varied content
Communicating with a lot of different people
Sharing information
Feeling that the work is practical or useful
After they’ve written their own list, I then encourage them to compare this list next to jobs they’ve considered in the past. When I compare mine, I find out that actually, being a teacher is really satisfying for me because each week, I plan new lessons (short-term projects), and feel that rush of satisfaction when I finish planning each week. I almost never collaborate with other teachers in planning (working independently). Each week, I go through the same system for planning and teaching a lesson, but the content varies each week (repeated systems, but varied content). Every time the bell rings, I have a new group of students to teach (communicating with a lot of different people). Obviously, as a teacher, I share information (sharing information). And most days, I do feel that students benefited and learned from the class (feeling that the work is practical or useful).
Now, according to the same list, I could also be satisfied as a real estate agent. They have short-term projects in selling houses; they work independently; they go through the same process for selling a house, but the houses are always different. They communicate with tons of different people; they share information about the house and the buying process; and they could feel that their work is practical and useful as they help people find their forever homes.
If you had asked me my dream job, I probably would never have said real estate agent, but after seeing how well it corresponds with the work that satisfies me, I might be more interested in it. This is just an exercise to help open students minds and consider options they may not have thought about before.
Bonus Activity: Ask students to write down a list of characteristics they want to have in a job. For example, a competitive salary, room for promotion, etc.
2. What Do You Not Want?
If you ask students to write a list of jobs they want to have (which is something else you could do), students can generally think of a few options. Flipping the question sometimes helps identify other characteristics though.
For example, when I think about what I don’t want in a job, my answer would be:
A commission-based salary
Unclear clock-in/clock-out times
Days off during the week rather than on Saturday and Sunday
Usually when I do this, students think of a more options than they had originally considered when they just wrote down what they want to have in a job.
If you want, you can also ask students to compare this to the jobs they have considered in the past. Although being a real estate agent fits my idea of a satisfying job, I would be unhappy with the commission-based salary, unclear clock-out times, and working on the weekend.
3. What Skills Do You Want to Acquire?
My students specifically are heading into their internships, but this could work for students who are planning to get part-time jobs during the summer vacation or even students who are thinking about the skills they want to acquire by the time they graduate.
Ask students to write down a list of skills they don’t currently have, but wish to have or skills they wish to improve. These could be technical like learning Photoshop or learning another language. They could also be personal like improving communication skills, being able to talk about strengths during an interview, or just being more confident.
Asking student to identify what they want to acquire can help them be more intentional when choosing a job or when they interact with others or complete tasks at their job.
4. Interview Practice
When students are thinking about their future careers, they should know that interviews are a crucial part of that. I love giving students a chance to practice their interview answers. At the beginning, they always seems so easy to answer, but as students move through the questions, they often find it hard to come up with the words. Doing it in class gives them the excuse to practice, and many students pepper me with questions regarding how they specifically should answer a particular question.
Teaching things that feel practical and useful not only make me feel satisfied at work, but I know that my students are also benefiting from this as well. Hopefully these activities will produce great discussions and revelations in your classroom!