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Day 5: Hour of Code (Day 2) + Pathway Fit + IT Favorites

Lesson Overview
Time 50 minutes
Objectives Finish the Hour of Code tutorial; complete the H&L Pathway Fit Assessment for IT; favorite 2 programming careers in the Climber Profile; complete Xello Favorite Clusters
TEKS d(1)(A), d(1)(C)
Deliverable Hour of Code certificate + 2 IT careers favorited in H&L + Xello Favorite Clusters complete
Materials Chromebooks, Code.org, H&L accounts, Xello accounts, projector

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: Yesterday you started a Code.org tutorial. On a scale of 1-10, how much did you enjoy it? What does that tell you about whether IT is a good fit for you?

Quick share. Students who scored 8-10 are the ones to watch; they may be future programmers. Students who scored 1-3 may have found the tutorial frustrating. Bridge by reminding them that programming is one of MANY IT careers, and Wks 3-5 explore others.

Activity 1: Finish the Hour of Code Tutorial (20 min)

Students return to Code.org and continue from where they left off yesterday. Goal: finish the tutorial and earn the completion certificate.

Walk the room. Same active monitoring as Day 4: progress check, concept check, frustration check.

For students who finish early:

  • Print or screenshot their Code.org completion certificate
  • Try a SECOND Hour of Code tutorial with a different theme
  • Help a struggling classmate (without doing the work for them)

For students who are still stuck:

  • Sit with them and ask leading questions: "What did you just try? What did you expect to happen? What actually happened?"
  • Allow them to switch tutorials ONCE if they are completely stuck and not learning anything

DOK 4: Based on your Hour of Code experience, what argument would you make for or against a 7th grader pursuing programming as a future career? Use specific evidence from the tutorial (something that was easy / hard / fun / boring).

Activity 2: H&L Pathway Fit Assessment + IT Favorites (15 min)

[H&L PLATFORM] Direct students back to the H&L Climber Profile. The H&L app has a Pathway Fit feature that asks students about their preferences and rates how well IT pathways align with their personality and interests. Students complete the assessment and review their results. The assessment uses Wk0's RIASEC and Work Values data to generate the recommendation, so students who completed those carefully will see meaningful results.

After the Pathway Fit assessment, students must:

  1. Favorite at least 2 IT careers in their Climber Profile using the Hat Finder. They should choose Hats from the programming pathway they explored this week (or a different IT pathway if they prefer).
  2. Re-check their initial cluster recommendations from Wk0. Has the IT cluster moved up the ranking now that they have data? Why or why not?

Sentence stem for the favorites reflection (use the word banks):

RIASEC types (from Wk0): Doer, Analyzer, Creator, Helper, Persuader, Organizer Work Values (from Wk0): Achievement, Independence, Recognition, Relationships, Support, Working Conditions

"I favorited ____________

because it matches my ______ personality type

and my ______ Work Value."

Facilitation Tip

Students who hated the Hour of Code may be hesitant to favorite an IT career. Tell them: "You don't have to favorite an IT career. Favorite the careers that ACTUALLY interest you. If IT isn't your thing after this week, that's a valuable thing to know."

Activity 3: Xello Favorite Clusters (8 min)

Source: Scope and sequence. Xello 7th-grade activity: Favorite Clusters

Students log into Xello and complete the Favorite Clusters activity. They mark which clusters from the Xello cluster list they are most interested in. This is a quick task. Xello will use these favorites to refine its career recommendations later in the year.

Tell students: "This is the Xello version of what you did in H&L. Both platforms are tracking your interests. By 6SW Wk6 (the Final Career Plan), both platforms will have a deep picture of who you are."

Exit Ticket (2 min)

EXIT TICKET (Concept Map / Connection Diagram) · Printable PDF:

An IT career I favorited this week: _____

Connect this career to THREE things:

1. My H&L Pathway Fit result for IT (the pathway the app recommended today)

The H&L-recommended pathway: _____. Does this line up with the career I favorited? Circle YES / NO. In one sentence, why: _____________

2. My Wk0 RIASEC type (Doer, Analyzer, Creator, Helper, Persuader, or Organizer)

My RIASEC type: _____. Why does this career match (or not match) my type? One sentence:

3. My Hour of Code experience (enjoyed / struggled / surprised by something)

My experience in ONE word: _____. Does my experience strengthen or weaken my interest in this career? One sentence why:

(d(1)(A), d(1)(C))

Differentiation

  • Support: Allow students who are still stuck on Hour of Code to write a 3-sentence reflection about what they tried, what failed, and what they would do differently next time. This earns the deliverable credit even without finishing the tutorial.
  • Extension: Advanced students complete the H&L "Job Applications" activity (Ch 12, p. 196) where they fill out a practice application for the fictional Future Work, Inc. This is an optional extension that previews the Wk3 lesson.
  • ELL: Bilingual reflection sentence stems for the Pathway Fit reflection. Pair ELL students with bilingual peers for the Xello Favorite Clusters activity.