Week 1: Build Your Mid-Year Career Blueprint

4th Six Weeks | Career planning | 5 class periods (50 minutes each)

Lesson Objective

Students pause at mid-year to examine how their interests have changed, investigate the work behind one career, and identify an Irving ISD pathway that deserves a closer look. The week ends with a private Mid-Year Career Blueprint that students can revise when they learn more.

Learning Target: I can use evidence about myself, a career, and a local pathway to explain my current plan.

Success Criteria:

• I compare an earlier assessment or profile result with evidence from this year.
• I explain the visible and hidden work behind one career.
• I record a career's work, preparation, pay, and outlook with source labels.
• I compare current Irving ISD pathways and explain one CTSO benefit.
• I name a current direction, a backup, and a next action without treating the plan as permanent.

TEKS Alignment

• d(1)(A): Analyze and discuss earlier career-assessment results using current evidence (Days 1, 2, and 5).
• d(3)(F): Explain how a career and technical student organization can support career preparation (Day 4).
• d(8)(A): Select a current career direction or pathway related to personal interests (Days 2, 4, and 5).
• d(8)(B): Document preparation requirements for a career and use that evidence in a plan (Days 3 and 5).

This week does not claim d(5)(D). Students label salary evidence, but they do not prepare a personal budget.

Materials

• Chromebooks or tablets
• Student copies of Find Your Future for the default Day 2 and Day 3 work
• Find Your Future Career Iceberg and Capstone Rungs 1-3 excerpts in authenticated Canvas for modeling and absence support
• Mid-Year Profile Audit
• Career Iceberg and Goal support packet when the workbook is unavailable
• Career Deep Dive support packet when the workbook is unavailable
• Private Canvas Pathway and CTSO Decision, with a paper or enlarged route
• Mid-Year Career Blueprint and student-visible rubric
• Current Irving ISD High School CTE hub and 2026-27 course-description page
• Optional H&L or Xello profile evidence already available to the student

Source Boundaries

• Use H&L and Xello as evidence sources when they are available, not as single points of failure.
• Do not require screenshots of a student's private profile. Students record only the result or evidence they choose to use.
• Use one salary figure with its place, year, and measure. A national median is not a DFW starting salary.
• Start with the FYF, H&L, and Xello evidence students are using. Use the current Irving ISD CTE hub and course descriptions to confirm or extend exact campus, course, application, and access details. If a source conflicts with the curriculum, record the conflict for teacher follow-up instead of asking students to reconcile competing claims during the lesson.
• The current TEA page lists multiple state-recognized CTSOs, including the nine organizations used as the guide's career-area examples. Local chapter availability must be confirmed before telling students a chapter exists on a specific campus.

Week at a Glance

Assessment Plan

Days 1-4 are formative checkpoints. The Day 5 Mid-Year Career Blueprint is the recommended 16-point major artifact:

1. self-evidence and change analysis;
2. career evidence and source accuracy;
3. local pathway reasoning; and
4. a specific, realistic next action.

Use the district bands printed on the rubric: Masters 90-100, Meets 80-89, Approaches 70-79, and Needs Improvement 60-69. Below 60 follows campus gradebook policy. Score reasoning and evidence, not English mechanics unless meaning is unclear.

Canvas Design

• Each day has a paired Teacher Facilitator Guide and Student Guide.
• Day 2 uses FYF pp. 6-8 and 283-284 by default. Student Annotation and the enlarged CCE packet are alternate routes, not extra work.
• Day 3 uses FYF pp. 285-286 by default. Students add source, date, place, and measure beside the workbook field or in a notebook. The CCE guide is the no-workbook route.
• Day 4 uses a private, grade-neutral Canvas Assignment by default. The four-page packet is the paper, enlarged, and independent route.
• Day 5 uses a private Canvas Assignment with file, text, or media submission and a visible rubric.
• Required directions remain visible. Optional models and vocabulary may use disclosures.
• Every student page includes an absence route and a platform-unavailable route.

Supports

• Read directions aloud or use text-to-speech.
• Allow speech-to-text, typed responses, labeled sketches, or oral responses where the standard does not require a particular mode.
• Provide bilingual labels and a short glossary rather than replacing the core task with a full translation.
• The printable artifacts include writing space proportional to each prompt. Students are not asked for a paragraph inside a one-line table cell.
• Students without earlier profile evidence use a short current self-evidence inventory and label it as their baseline.

Teacher Readiness Check

Before Day 1:

• test the current Irving ISD links on the student network;
• open the locked workbook excerpts in Canvas;
• choose one dated career example for modeling source labels;
• confirm whether any named CTSO is actually available locally before presenting it as a campus option; and
• keep the optional support packets and a no-login career-data route ready.

No teacher should have to recreate a worksheet, invent an answer key, or retrieve every student's old platform history to teach this week.