Students investigate local Imperial Valley careers to answer which jobs interest them and what makes a career a good fit for a person’s strengths, interests, and goals. Through guest speakers, interview practice, and short research from multiple sources, they build communication, collaboration, and critical thinking skills while learning to ask focused questions, listen closely, and revise their ideas after each visit. The work leads to a career profile, visual display, and short presentation that show what they learned about local jobs, how they prepared for interviews, and how their thinking about future careers changed.

Students will conduct a short research project on a local Imperial Valley career, generate focused interview questions, gather information from several sources and guest speakers, and revise their thinking as they learn more. They will practice collaborative discussion and interview skills by greeting guests, asking clear follow-up questions, listening actively, recording accurate notes, and using exit tickets to reflect on one fact, one strong question, and one revision to make. Students will create and revise a career profile, visual card, and gallery-walk display that explain job duties, tools, education, and the strengths or interests that connect to the career. They will present their findings clearly with organized speaking, multimedia or visuals, and formal English, while reflecting on whether the career fits their own strengths, interests, and goals.

Students will create interview question sets, note-catchers, and brief exit tickets after each guest speaker that capture one fact, one strong question, and one revision they will make next. Throughout the project, they will build and revise a career profile for one Imperial Valley job, including key duties, tools, education, strengths needed, and a reflection on whether the career fits their interests and goals. By the end, each student will produce a short oral presentation with a matching visual card or poster that explains the career, how they prepared for and carried out interviews, and one academic or social skill they used well, supported by images or other simple multimedia. As a class, students will also create a Career Spotlight Gallery Walk and career path display featuring posters, interview notes, simple props, and attached feedback or exit-ticket reflections from visitors.

Open with an Interview Lab where students rotate through quick stations featuring local career clues from healthcare, animal care, public safety, food service, and ICOE jobs, then make first guesses about which careers match their interests and strengths. Model how to greet a guest, ask clear interview questions, listen for key details, and record answers, then have students practice the routine in pairs with role-play cards. End with a short local career panel or video messages from Imperial Valley professionals so students can generate focused research questions and build a class list of guests they want to invite. Students leave with an entry slip naming one career they want to investigate, one question they want to ask, and one reason it might fit their goals.

Host a Career Spotlight Gallery Walk where students display their visual career cards, interview notes, and simple props for a local job, alongside a class-made career path display showing needed strengths, education, and tools. Invite families, staff, and community partners such as ICOE career staff, healthcare workers, Humane Society staff, Sheriff’s Office representatives, and food service workers to visit, ask questions, and leave feedback for each student. Each student gives a short oral presentation explaining the career they researched, how they prepared for and revised their interview questions, what they learned from guest speakers, and one academic or social skill they used well. After each presentation, audience members and students complete a brief exit ticket with one fact learned, one strong question, and one suggestion or reflection.