TITLE: Job Seeking - Interviewing
TASK DEVELOPER: Kathy Gaines
GRADE AND CONTENT AREA: Grade 12, Workplace Skills
SCHOOL: Harbor City High School - East
STANDARDS:

Maryland Core Learning Goals, Expectations, and Indicators
Skills for Success - Grades 9-12

Goal 3 Communication Skills: The student will plan, participate in, monitor, and evaluate communication experiences in a variety of situations.

Expectation 3.1: The student will plan for successful communication experiences.

Indicator 3.1.3: The student will construct spoken and other messages in forms appropriate to purposes, audiences, and situations.

Indicator 3.1.5: The student will practice, when possible, before attempting to communicate.

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PERFORMANCES:
  1. The students will write a questionaire comprised of 5 questions to ask at a job interview.
  2. The students will write a list of 5 questions to ask a potential employee.
  3. The students will role play a potential employer and jobseeker during an interview.

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SETTING:

Real World Setting: Job Searching

You are going to assume the role of an employer and a job seeker. You are faced with designing the interview process. You must design 5 questions that an interviewer might ask a job seeker and 5 questions that the job seeker might ask a potential employer. Once you have completed your questions, you will role play each of these positions with your classmates.

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INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES:

Activity 1: Setting High Expectations
Estimated time for this activity:15-20 minutes

  • Step 1. Ask students why job interviews are important. List their answers on the board.
  • Step 2. View a short video of interviews and have students list the wrong things that occurred in each situation.
  • Step 3. Explain to students that their grade for today's activities will be based on how well they compose their interview questions and perform during a mock interview. Reference the Rubric for Preparing for a Successful Interview

Technology for this activity: VCR
Materials for this activity: Video, Winning The Employment Game
Student product or performance for this activity: Oral discussion
Scoring tool for this activity: Rubric for Preparing for a Successful Interview

Activity 2: Activating Prior Knowledge
Estimated time for this activity:5 minutes

  • Step 1. Students will name situations other than jobs where they may have an interview. List them on the board.
  • Step 2. Students will state why they think interviews are important.

Technology for this activity: Overhead projector
Materials for this activity: Transparency
Student product or performance for this activity: Recall of life situations involving interviews

Activity 3: Acquiring Data
Estimated time for this activity:10 minutes

  • Step 1. Students will look at 2 cartoons with inappropriate actions during interviews. They will then discuss everything that they see the interviewee doing wrong.
  • Step 2. Students will look at a series of statements and pictures regarding interviews and match the them after discussing them with their group members.
  • Step 3. Students will brainstorm about things to remember in preparation and during an interview. List them on the overhead projector.

Technology for this activity: Overhead projector
Materials for this activity: Worksheets, transparency
Student product or performance for this activity: Understanding inappropriate behavior during interviews

Activity 4: Applying Knowledge
Estimated time for this activity:45 minutes

  • Step 1. Students will create 5 questions a job applicant might ask during an interview and 5 questions an interviewer might ask during an interview.
  • Step 2. Teacher will monitor students' work on the task. Terminology had to be adjusted for a clearer understanding of the assignment (job seeker to be switched to job applicant).
  • Step 3. Working in pairs,students will volunteer to play the role of an interviewer and a job applicant. Other class members will use a scale to rate the performance.

Materials for this activity: Notebook paper, pens, score sheets
Student product or performance for this activity: Proper questions for an interview
Scoring tool for this activity: Rubric for Preparing for a Successful Interview

Activity 5: Reporting Results
Estimated time for this activity:

  • Step 1. Students will participate in mock interviews by assuming the roles of an interviewer or a job applicant. Other members of the class will score their performance.
  • Step 2. Questions will be graded based on a rubric.
  • Step 3. Students now have knowledge about preparing for an interview including grooming, questioning and proper behavior. Next, students will participate in activities for the "Second Interview."

Materials for this activity: Worksheets
Student product or performance for this activity: Questions for interviews
Scoring tool for this activity: Rubric for Preparing for a Successful Interview

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SCORING:
RUBRIC FOR PREPARING FOR A SUCCESSFUL INTERVIEW
LEVELS
DESCRIPTION OF PERFORMANCE
EXPERT
  • The student completes all 10 questions for the interview and
    communicates ideas clearly in the role play interview.

  • The student demonstrates in-depth understanding of the relevant
    concepts and/or process.

  • Where appropriate, the student offers insightful interpretations or
    extensions (generalizations, applications, and analogies).
PROFICIENT
  • The student completes 8 questions for the interview and
    communicates ideas clearly in the role play interview.

  • The student demonstrates understanding of major concepts even
    though she/he overlooks or misunderstands some less important ideas
    or details.
APPRENTICE
  • The student completes 6 questions for the interview and
    communicates ideas clearly in the role play interview.

  • The student demonstrates that there are gaps in his/her conceptual
    understanding.
NOVICE
  • The student shows minimal understanding.

  • The student is unable to generate strategy; answers may display only
    recall effect, lack clear communication and/or be totally incorrect or
    irrelevant.

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RESULTS:

Organize: I developed a chart to show the results of male, female, and all students in this lesson according to my rubric performance levels.

Analyze: I examined the data in the chart to look for trends, contributing factors, and implications of student performance over a series of assessments of the same learning standard. Here are my observations.

  • Trends: The boys (80% proficient and expert) and girls (81% proficient and expert) performed about the same level. The entire class performed 87% or better.

Reflect: My reflections include these observations:

  1. I noticed that the majority of students had prior knowledge on the topic.
  2. I can't understand why the majority of the students included the same specific question.
  3. I was impressed by the students requesting resumes and portfolios during the role playing activity.

Act: I will continue to improve my new standards-based task as a new teaching standard in my classroom in order to move the majority of my students toward the expert level.