This CareerKit lesson set for pre-HSE, HSE and high level ESL students, written by Kate Brandt and Melissa Valerie of New York City, provides a model for integrating CareerKit readings and activities with reading skills practice and social studies content.

Students begin by exploring career interests on the Career Cruising website.  Those who do not have access to Career Cruising through a subscription can substitute Mynextmove or the Occupational Outlook Handbook. If they are interested in exploring a particular career, they can search by key words. If they have a general idea of the kind of work they would like to do, they can search by industry, or if they do not have a clear direction, they can do an interest assessment and receive a computer-generated list of careers based on responses to questions about their preferences.

Later, selected readings from the CareerKits are paired with complementary texts selected to spark student interest and promote an awareness of the importance of reading a lot in order to increase speed and comprehension.  Students work with maps, graphs, pictures and timelines, building their skills in each of these text types.  A major focus is on summarizing as a key foundational skill.

Finally, students are asked to think about the importance of work in the context of early humans and ancient civilizations, a key content area on the social studies test.  Multiple choice questions embedded in the lessons give students a chance to work on test-taking skills.

Here’s an excerpt:

Activity Two:  Mapwork in preparation for reading “How the Nile River Led to Civilization in Ancient Egypt.”

• Continents and countries: Teacher explains why we are doing map work:  to prepare for the HSE test and because it is important to be able to read maps.  Students are given a blank outline map of the continents and atlases, and asked to label the continents as best they can, with students who know helping those who don’t.  Students are asked to list the continents and the names of the continents are written on the board.  If students cannot guess or guess incorrectly, they are asked to look in the student atlas.

When all students have labeled the continents, ask students: what is the difference between a continent and a country?  Ask for examples.  Create a T-chart on the board.  List the characteristics of continents on one side of the chart, and the characteristics of countries on the other.

• Physical maps: Explain to students that when they look at a map that shows the boundaries of countries, they are looking at a political map.  Why is it called a political map…well, can the boundaries of the countries change?  What if there is a war?  Will the way the countries look on the map change?  That is why it is called a political map.  But there is another kind of map that does not change very much.  It’s called a physical map.  Give out the physical map of New York state and ask students to 1) Notice: discuss what they see and 2) Wonder:  Discuss what they wonder about.  Allow students time to do this in class, then bring the class together and ask what they noticed.  Here, you will want to make sure students understand how to use the map key, and that someone points out rivers, mountains and valleys, as well as oceans/bays, etc.  Ask students:  Looking at the physical map, where would be some places that you might want to settle if you were an early human?  Students will call out locations.  Ask them to look at the physical features.  What would be advantages/disadvantages of living here?  Tell students to take a look at the location of New York City.  Both Native Americans and the Europeans who came later settled there.  What would people want to settle here?  Establish some reasons:  food sources both from the water and the forest; rivers and a sea for travel and transporting things.  Tell students that this is an important point to remember for the HSE exam.

To see the lesson plans, click on Lesson-plans-pre-HSE-Career-Kit

To access the materials for the lesson plans, click on Materials-for-Career-Kit-Social-Studies-ELA-pre-HSE-Lessons.