Day 1: IT Cluster Tour — Four Irving Programs of Study

Daily Learning Contract

• Topic: IT Career Cluster
• Objective: Students will explore and describe the CTE career clusters and identify career opportunities within one or more career clusters using workbook and H&L evidence.
• TEKS: d(1)(B), d(1)(C)
• Demonstration of Learning: Stop-and-Jot notes, one IT program selected for further exploration, and the Programming/Cybersecurity Venn diagram.

Lesson Overview

Before Students Arrive

• Test the H&L Information Technology tour, Game Time, and Hat profiles once from a student-filtered Chromebook.
• Plan for 1 Chromebook and 1 workbook per student. Students work individually, then use one assigned elbow partner for the two timed turns.
• Print 1 exit ticket per enrolled student plus 2 spares. Print the programs/Stop-and-Jot scaffold only for students who need enlarged or structured notes.
• If time slips, take one whole-group share instead of two. Keep the H&L rating evidence, Venn DOL, and 3-minute close.

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: Every app on your phone was built by someone. Pick ONE app you use every day and guess: How many people do you think it took to build it from scratch?

Quick share. Most students will guess "5 to 20." The actual number for a major app is hundreds: designers, developers, testers, security engineers, project managers. Bridge: "Today we meet the entire IT cluster. Every one of those roles is here."

Activity 1: Exploring the World of Information Technology (12 min)

Source: (FYF p. 23: "Exploring the World of INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY")

Open the workbook to page 23. Read the chapter opener together: a career in IT keeps the digital world running, safe, and moving forward. The page names ethical hackers, data specialists, video game designers, and tech support specialists as examples, and it splits the cluster into people who protect systems from attackers, people who find meaning in mountains of data, and people who build the experiences users cannot put down.

Three Hats appear on the opener page. Read each one aloud and ask students which of the three groups above it sits closest to, and why. Accept more than one placement when the student can connect it to a job task:

• DevOps Engineer
• Information Security Analyst
• Robot Personality Designer

Be the Decision Maker (FYF p. 23): You just discovered a serious security problem in a major app that could expose millions of people's personal information. Do you shut the app down immediately or quietly fix it first? Do you tell the public what happened or keep it internal? And who is responsible for making sure it never happens again?

Think-Pair-Share: 30 seconds of silent Think, then Partner A talks for 30 seconds, then Partner B for 30 seconds. Two pairs share with the whole class. Listen for students who name a cost to the app's users, not only a cost to the company. Close with the page's own closing question: what do you think it takes to work in a field like technology that is constantly changing?

Keep the language support beside the decision: user, company, privacy, risk, shut down, repair. A complete response frame is: "I would _ because leaving the app open could , while shutting it down could __."

Then map the cluster the way Irving ISD maps it. The district pages (FYF p. 36: "What is Happening at My District?") list four IT programs of study:

1. Computer Science: software development and problem solving, built on coding, algorithms, and data processing.
2. Programming & Software Development: application and software design, built on coding languages, program structure, debugging, and software testing.
3. Technology Support: IT support and services, built on computer hardware, systems, troubleshooting, and software installation.
4. Cybersecurity: information security and risk management, built on network security, data protection, and safeguarding systems.

Each of the next four weeks takes one of them. This week is Programming & Software Development. Wk3 is Computer Science, Wk4 is Technology Support, and Wk5 is Cybersecurity.

Activity 2: H&L IT Cluster App Exploration with Stop and Jot (23 min)

Source: (FYF p. 38: "App Exploration"), Steps 1-3 and the Hat rating step

[H&L PLATFORM] Students open the Hats & Ladders app, go to Clusters, and click the Information Technology Cluster. They watch the "Cluster Tour" video, click "Game Time" and play the game, then write on the workbook page what one thing they learned. Next they find 1 Hat that matches their personality or interests and 1 Hat that feels like it is NOT a fit, writing why for each. They finish by rating at least 3 Hats and jotting their thoughts on the cluster with emojis, pictures, or words. The Pathway Possibilities step on the same page is saved for Day 5.

Stop and Jot procedure: While watching the IT cluster tour video, students pause TWICE in their workbook margin to write:

• Stop 1: One IT career you learned about that you had never heard of before
• Stop 2: One question you have about IT careers

For each Hat they open, students check education requirements, DFW salary, and demand level before rating it. The fit Hat and the not-a-fit Hat both need a written reason, not just a name.

Walk the room and stop students who are scrolling without reading. Ask them to read one Hat profile aloud to you.

CFU and pivot: As each program is named, students hold up 1-4 fingers and explain one program in a phrase. During the app block, the first lap checks the career/question jot and the second checks both fit reasons. If more than one quarter of the class cannot distinguish programming from cybersecurity, reproject FYF p. 36 and sort two job tasks together before the Venn diagram.

DOK 2: How would you compare the education requirements for a Software Developer (4-year degree typical) versus a Web Developer (sometimes degree, sometimes certification, sometimes self-taught)?

Exit Ticket (7 min)

EXIT TICKET (Venn Diagram Comparison) · Printable PDF:

The two Irving ISD programs of study I want to compare: (1) Programming & Software Development and (2) Cybersecurity.

Fill in the Venn Diagram using the workbook page and the Hats you opened in the app today.

• Unique to Programming & Software Development (2 things only this program is about):

  1. ---

  2. ---

• Unique to Cybersecurity (2 things only this program is about):

  1. ---

  2. ---

• Shared by BOTH programs (2 things they both do):

  1. ---

  2. ---

Bottom line: A student who wants to spend the day writing and testing code should pick which program of study, and why? (d(1)(B), d(1)(C))

Keep these words visible beside the comparison: coding, debugging, testing, network, data, protection, both, unlike. A complete comparison frame is: "Both programs use _, but Programming & Software Development focuses on while Cybersecurity focuses on __."

Save and Close (3 min)

Students submit the exit ticket, close H&L, and return the workbook to its class location. Record any platform failure for the next supervised catch-up block.

Differentiation

• Support: Pre-print the four Irving ISD programs of study with one example Hat per program so students can match instead of generate, plus a Stop and Jot template with sentence stems: "One IT career I had never heard of is _. One question I still have about IT careers is ___." Both are on one sheet: Printable PDF.
• Extension: Students who finish early dig into the H&L app's "From the Field" interview videos for IT and watch one. They write the name of the professional and one piece of advice they gave.
• ELL: Pre-teach: Information Technology = Tecnología de la Información, Software = Software, Network = Red, Programming = Programación, Cybersecurity = Ciberseguridad. Use H&L browser translation.