Lesson 4: Creating online exercises

WHAT WILL YOU DO 

    TO GET A JOB?

Class: ESL for Work low intermediate students


I. WARM-UP: class discussion/small group 


Ask students the following questions:


What did you like about the job you had in your own country?  or about the job you had in Minnesota? or about the on-the-job training you attended? What didn't you like?


Teacher starts to make a list on the board with 3-4 examples in each column:
LIKES                                                         DISLIKES
worked only in the afternoons                 had to walk a lot


Can you make a list of 5 likes and 5 dislikes to add to this list?
Students then talk in small groups about their work experience and add their group lists to the one on the blackboard.


Class discussion: Is there any job that only has things you like to do? Why not?
Explain to students that the next activity will be about different kinds of work. 


II. ASSESSMENT ACTIVITY 


Read directions with students. Ask students what the following vocabulary words mean: commission, pressure, chemicals. Then write them on the board with the definitions.


Students work on assessment individually, but are encouraged to ask their neighbors questions - or the teacher, if none of them know the answer.



[Note to Group 1: I apologize for the bad formatting. I am using other people's computers, while my files are being transferred from my dead hard drive to a new one. This friend did not feel comfortable with my downloading Google.docs on her computer. If you want a copy formatted I can email you a word doc.]


WHAT WILL YOU DO TO GET A JOB?


Directions: Circle one answer for each question.  


1. Will you start work at 5:00 am?                                                                     YES NO


2. Will you work 10-hour shifts 4days per week?                                              YES NO


3. Will you work for minimum wage?                                                                 YES NO


4. Will you work outside in the summer?                                                          YES NO


5. Will you work the night shift?                                                                         YES NO


6. Will you work with a supervisor who is younger than you?                           YES NO


7. Will you work on your feet for an 8-hour shift?                                                YES NO


8. Will you work alone with no one to talk to all day?                                         YES NO


9. Will you do a lot of driving?                                                                             YES NO


10. Will you work fast under pressure?                                                               YES NO


11. Will you work on commission?                                                                      YES NO


12. Will you drive 20 miles to get to work?                                                          YES NO


13. Will you work on the weekend?                                                                     YES NO

14. Will you work with all women co-workers?                                                   YES NO


15. Will you do dirty jobs?                                                                                    YES NO


16. Will you work with chemicals that have a strong smell?                                YES NO


17. Will you get your hands dirty?                                                                        YES NO


18. Will you wear a uniform?                                                                                 YES NO


19. Will you work with all men co-workers?                                                         YES NO


20. Will you be trained by a man who is younger than you?                                 YES NO


21. Will you work in a noisy factory?                                                                      YES NO


22. Will you lift heavy objects?                                                                               YES NO


23. Will you answer the telephone and take messages?                                       YES NO


24. Will you take care of elderly people in a nursing home?                                  YES NO


25. Will you clean up after other people?                                                               YES NO


26. Will you be trained by a woman who is younger than you?                              YES NO


27. Will you work with very large machines?                                                          YES NO


28. Will you pick up and collect dirty laundry? YES NO


29. Will you work overtime on short notice? YES NO


30. Will you work with very sick people? YES NO




III. READING THE ANSWER KEY AND CLASS DISCUSSION


As students finish, pass out the answer key and let them count up their answers.
Note: flexible is a word they already know from flash cards describing workers (dependable, flexible, punctual, etc.).



ANSWER KEY


Look at the totals. How many times did you answer YES? ____________
How many times did you answer NO? ___________


If you have 25-30 YES answers:
You are very flexible. You are ready to do almost any kind of job. You do not have many personal barriers to finding work. Employers usually like people like you because you are ready to try new things, you are willing to make a big effort and you are not afraid to do things that are difficult or unpleasant. You have a great attitude!


If you have 15-25 YES answers:
You are quite flexible. You have some personal barriers which will stop you from taking some jobs. Maybe you have a certain job goal and you do not want to think about other possibilities. It is good to have a goal, but be careful! Sometimes it is not possible to go straight to your goal. You may have to take a temporary position that you do not like very much. If you are not flexible enough, it may take a long time for you to reach your final goal. You have quite a good attitude.


If you have 0-15 YES answers:
Watch out! Employers do not usually hire people like you. You have many personal barriers to finding work that will make it hard for you to find a job. You are not very flexible. You make it more difficult to reach your goal because you are not ready to do things that are unpleasant or difficult. You need to improve your attitude to work.

IV. DISCUSSION/RE-ASSESSING YOUR FLEXIBILITY
What do you think about this activity?  Why do you think we did it? Why is it important to be flexible?
Teacher asks the students, regardless of how many YES answers you  wrote down, look at your NOs and find 3 or 4 of them (less if you had a high score) that you would consider changing to YES.


V. EXTENSION ACTIVITY
Students will go to mister poll to take the assessment again. This time it will add everyone's votes together and the class will see what are the most liked and least liked job characteristics as a class. Students will be able to reassess their choices.


Directions: click on the link for mister poll. Once the link opens, click on vote to open the poll. To choose an answer, click on only one answer: yes or no, using the mouse. Take your time because when you finish, you will not be able to see the poll again or go back to change your answers. When you are really finished, click on poll results. 


VI. NEXT LESSONS


Use 1 or 2 online employment sites to look for positions you like. 


Reading a short article about polls. Why people take polls and for what purposes.
Ask students if they would like to make a poll (How do students feel about looking for work, cultural differences...). Negotiation of the subject and questions.


REVIEW/ANALYSIS


1. How will you use this resource to meet the needs of your instructional purposes?


Using Eva Eaton's list of resources, I was able to convert a job-readiness assessment into a class poll using mister poll. Flexibility is an issue that some ESL learners understand more readily than others. My motto has always been to show rather than tell, and preferably to model or demonstrate a concept in two or three different ways. The poll will allow learners to compare their individual assessment results with the class poll results. How do they compare - are they more or less flexible?


2. Why is this topic, information or content appropriate for the lesson you plan to create (e.g. level of authenticity, relevance to target language, register, accuracy, interest level, and motivation)?


What will you do to get a job? is a needs assessment and poll that shows me, as the teacher/vocational placement professional, how ready students are to search for a paid position and how they will come across in a job interview. Are they realistic in their expectations?  At the same time, it is a self-assessment that lets them think through different characteristics of jobs; articulate what they like or don't like about a job, and think about which positions they would be willing to consider that they haven't before. The poll reviews target vocabulary used for ads, interviews and job descriptions. Students will work to assess and integrate new ideas about work into their frame of reference (metacognitive skills). They will work on making realistic employment choices that are relevant to their lives and meet their needs as individuals.


This assessment brings together a number of issues facing every job seeker today. There is no perfect job. Every job has plusses and minuses. The fewer jobs available, the more willing jobseekers must be to enlarge the pool of positions they would take. Flexibility in today's job market is key. Both the assessment and poll are good discussion starters that get students both thinking and talking about employment choices.


4. Are the format, organization, design and language level of this resource appropriate for your instructional goals?


I decided to use the poll, because it is presented in a very simple format. Students only need to use the mouse in order to click on their answer. I thought getting a collective poll of what were the most and least liked job characteristics would be fun for the students. I could see the students learning to use this site to create their own poll. 


5. What are the potential problems, either language based or technical, that you may need to troubleshoot or prepare for?


Technical: In the learning center, I will assign partners, so that students with weaker computer skills have partners with stronger skills. Directions will be important, so that students feel comfortable taking the poll on line. We have never done this before! First students click on the link for mister poll and then once the link opens, click on vote to open the poll. To choose an answer, students click on either yes or no, using the mouse. Once they are finished, they click on poll results and can see their results. The poll will only let each student take the poll once.  The total poll results are available only to the maker of the poll. So, the students will only see the entire class results once everyone is finished and the teacher can print out the results or display the results on a classroom overhead projector. 


I don't anticipate many language based problems. The student washback to this assessment has generally been extremely positive. This is a fun activity and the answer key is a bit of a surprise element that they enjoy. Some students even wanted copies, so that they could take them home and give the assessment to a friend or relative. The poll results will be another take on the assessment - showing how the whole class voted on each question.