20 Questions About Careers

Young people are curious about everything. Whether they ask a million questions or sit quietly in your class, they’re all curious about something. Our hope is that they’re really curious about what they might do beyond high school. You can help develop the attitude of an eager learner by creating a spin on the game “20 Questions” with your students. Here’s how:
1. Go to www.bls.gov. Click on Occupational Outlook Handbook. Click the link for A-Z Index. Click on a letter to find careers or do a search for careers. It contains pertinent data and information about many careers that currently exist. Print off one different career summary for each student in your classroom. Select careers that vary in educational requirements, salary range, working conditions, etcetera. And of course, promote your specialty by printing a few careers that have some connection to what you teach.
2. Instruct students to select a career summary and allow them two minutes to review the information. Instruct them not to share the paper with anyone.
3. Announce, “In a moment, you’ll be asking questions about a career another person in the room holds. The catch is, you may only ask 20 questions and they must be able to be answered with “yes” or “no”. When I say “go”, you have one minute to jot down a few questions you might ask. GO! (You might provide a couple sample questions to get your students started.)
4. Say, “When I say, ‘career,’ find a partner, select one person to ask questions first and begin. The object is to see if you can identify the career your partner is holding. You have three minutes for each person to get through their 20 questions.”
When both students have completed their 20 questions, ask how many students were able to guess their new career. Depending on the time available, have students share their career with the entire class or in small groups and state how that career uses the content from your classroom.
Enjoy providing relevance around the questions that your students ask!


Career Development Tip for July 10, 2008