Week 6: The Grand Finale — My Career Plan Capstone

6th Six Weeks | Cross-Cluster Capstone | 5 class periods (50 min each)

Lesson Objective

Students finalize their H&L Career Plan, select a top career pathway based on a year of exploration, document the high school courses and postsecondary requirements needed to reach that career, deliver a capstone career plan presentation to the class, complete an optional RIASEC retake to compare growth, and reflect on a full year of career exploration.

Adapt to your end-of-year schedule

The original scope-and-sequence left this week blank for a reason: it is the last week of school, and end-of-year events (yearbook, field day, awards, early release) reshape it unpredictably. Nothing here is critical to year-end TEKS coverage. Every standard 6SW Wk6 claims is already covered upstream:

d(4)(C) oral presentation → 6SW Wk4 Sales/Presentations
d(8)(A) select pathway → 4SW Wk1 Career Planning
d(8)(B) courses + postsecondary → 4SW Wk1 and 4SW Wk2
d(8)(C) write individual plan → 4SW Wk2 Course Mapping

Adapt using these verbs: cut (RIASEC retake, celebration), compress (Days 3-4 into one day with 90-sec slots), substitute (written reflection instead of celebration), skip entirely (let students finish at home). Any subset is fine. Zero days is fine.

Demonstration of Learning

"I can present my finalized career plan including my selected pathway, the Irving ISD high school that offers it, my four-year course plan, my postsecondary goal, and explain how my career interests have evolved across 36 weeks of CCE."

TEKS Alignment

d(8)(A): Select a career pathway related to personal interests.
d(8)(B): Document high school courses, postsecondary education, and training requirements.
d(8)(C): Write an individual plan to start a career.
d(4)(C): Prepare and deliver an oral presentation (career plan presentation).

This is the capstone pass, not the artifact week. The official d(8) and d(4)(C) artifacts are locked upstream in 4SW Wk1 / 4SW Wk2 / 6SW Wk4 per the admonition above. Students who complete this week polish their Career Plan and bring the download to their 9th-grade counselor.

Materials Needed

Chromebooks with internet access (1 per student)
Hats & Ladders student accounts (Career Planner + District Course Planner)
H&L Workbook (Ch 16: My Next Steps, pp. 263-271, "My Career and Course Plan," "Lifestyle Snapshot," "Being a Career Thinker," "Iceberg Cartoon")
Texas OnCourse: texasoncourse.org
Irving ISD CTE Pathways guide (PATHWAYS.md printed)
Printed Career Plan Presentation Rubric (1 per student)
Printed End-of-Year Reflection handout (1 per student)
Optional: Certificates of Completion
Projector for modeling

Career Connection

Over 36 weeks students have explored every CTE cluster: Manufacturing, IT, Law & Public Service, Health Science, Agriculture, Hospitality, Human Services, Business / Marketing / Finance, Aviation, Automotive, Skilled Trades, Architecture, Civil Engineering, Construction, Real Estate, Education, Arts & A/V, and Sales. By this week they have a resume, a cover letter, a thank-you letter, a mock interview, references identified, a personal budget, and dozens of researched career profiles. If you run this week, students pull it all into a polished Career Plan they take home for 9th-grade counselor meetings.

What is Happening at Irving ISD? Students select and present the SPECIFIC Irving ISD CTE pathway they want to begin in 9th grade. Any pathway from any Irving ISD high school explored during the year is valid.

Vocabulary

Career Plan: A comprehensive document including career goal, selected pathway, high school course sequence, postsecondary requirements, transferable skills, and concrete action steps.
Capstone: A culminating project demonstrating everything learned throughout a course.
District Course Planner: The H&L tool showing Irving ISD-specific course offerings mapped to pathways.
Postsecondary Goal: Plan for after high school: 4-year university, 2-year community college, trade school, military service, apprenticeship, or direct employment with certification.
RIASEC Growth: The change in a student's career interest profile over time, reflecting new experiences and self-awareness.
Action Step: A specific, time-bound thing the student will do in the next 30, 90, or 365 days to move toward their career goal.

Bridge to Theory (Hats & Ladders)

The H&L Career Planner and District Course Planner are the primary platform tools this week. The H&L workbook (Ch 16: My Next Steps, pp. 263-271) provides the written templates that align directly with the app:

Iceberg Cartoon (Ch 16, pp. 264-266): Students reflect on the "tip vs. underwater" metaphor of career exploration: what people see (the goal) vs. what people don't see (the years of work).
My Career and Course Plan (Ch 16, p. 267): The structured template aligning with the H&L app's Career Plan tool. The workbook explicitly says: "Go to the Hats & Ladders app and begin your Career and Course Plan."
Lifestyle Snapshot (Ch 16, pp. 268-269): Already covered in 5SW Wk 5; reinforced this week as part of the Career Plan
Being a Career Thinker (Ch 16, pp. 270-271): Students identify their support system: 3 people who can help them reach their goals, plus a 4-panel comic about their ideal future

The Career Plan students download from H&L this week is the polished version of the d(8) artifact already produced in 4SW Wk1-Wk2. It is shareable with families and Irving ISD high school counselors during the 8th-to-9th grade transition.

IISD Instructional Strategies

Modeling: Teacher delivers a sample 5-minute career plan presentation as a model: career goal, RIASEC connection, pathway, courses, postsecondary, and growth reflection.
Celebration: Final presentations should feel like a CELEBRATION, not just an assessment. Consider inviting an administrator, parent, or counselor to attend. Decorate the room. Create certificates. Students have worked HARD for 36 weeks.
Two Stars and a Wish: Class feedback after each presentation uses the same constructive format as Wk 4-5.
Active Monitoring: Teacher tracks Career Plan completion in the H&L app dashboard before presentations begin.

Pre-Capstone Teacher Checklist (only if you can run this week)

H&L access: Test login with 2–3 student accounts. Confirm SSO, account refresh, and Climber Profile access on at least one Chromebook.
RIASEC retake: Confirm whether "Discover My Core" supports a retake with side-by-side comparison to Week 0 results. If not, prepare a fresh workbook p. 12 as the paper backup.
Career Plan PDF export: Walk through the download workflow yourself. If direct PDF export is unavailable, confirm Print → Save as PDF works from the Chromebook browser. Document the exact steps to project on Day 4.
Chromebook fleet: Coordinate with your tech team to avoid OS updates during presentation days. Spot-check 5 devices for battery/keyboard/touchpad.
Wk0 reflection folder: Retrieve the class folder of Week 0 My Career Journey reflections you saved per the 1SW Wk0 Day 5 Persistent Portfolio admonition. These are the Week 0 baseline students reference all week.
Presentation math: Review the Day 3/4 timing admonition (24 students × 5 min does not fit 50 min). Pick your compression approach before Day 3.

Addressing these early prevents 24-student simultaneous failures mid-week.

Week at a Glance

Day	Focus	Key Activities	Deliverable
1	Iceberg Reflection + Finalize Career Plan	H&L Iceberg activity (Ch 16) + finalize H&L Career Plan + optional RIASEC retake	Iceberg reflection + H&L Career Plan finalized
2	Written Plan + Presentation Outline	H&L "My Career and Course Plan" written template + presentation outline	Written Career Plan + presentation outline
3	Capstone Presentations Day 1	First half of class presents 5-min career plan presentations	Career plan presentation delivered + scored
4	Capstone Presentations Day 2 + Plan Download	Second half presents + download H&L Career Plan + Being a Career Thinker reflection	Presentation + downloaded Plan + support system
5	End-of-Year Reflection + Celebration	Comprehensive 36-week reflection + celebration + 8th grade preview	End-of-Year Reflection complete

Formative Assessment

H&L Iceberg reflection (Day 1): d(8)(A)
H&L Career Plan completeness in app (Day 1): d(8)(A), d(8)(B)
Written Career Plan quality (Day 2): d(8)(C)
Career plan presentation delivery (Days 3-4): d(4)(C)
Career Plan download (Day 4): d(8)(B)
End-of-Year Reflection (Day 5): d(8)(A), d(8)(C)

Summative Assessment

Three-Part Capstone Assessment:

Written Career Plan with all sections complete (d(8)(A), d(8)(B), d(8)(C)): submitted Day 2
Oral Career Plan Presentation scored on content, organization, delivery, and growth reflection (d(4)(C)): delivered Days 3-4
End-of-Year Reflection demonstrating self-awareness growth across 36 weeks, submitted Day 5

The H&L downloadable Career Plan is the capstone-week polish of an artifact already produced in 4SW Wk1-Wk2. Students who complete this week take home the polished download for 9th-grade course registration; students whose end-of-year week is disrupted still have the 4SW Career Plan on file.

Differentiation

Scaffolded Learning

Career Plan template with sentence starters for every section
Allow note cards (or a printed slide deck) during the capstone presentation
Option to present 1-on-1 to the teacher instead of the whole class for very anxious students
Simplified End-of-Year Reflection with guided questions instead of open prompts
Pre-built Iceberg template with example items in each zone

Extensions

Create a visual career roadmap poster from 8th grade to age 25 with milestones marked
Write a letter to your future self (to open in 12th grade)
Create a digital portfolio of the year's best work in Google Sites or Canva
Present TWO career plans (Plan A and a backup Plan B) and explain why having a backup matters

ELL Language Support

Bilingual End-of-Year Reflection with Spanish prompts
Career plan presentation can be delivered in English, Spanish, or bilingual format
Bilingual Career Plan template with Spanish section headers
Bilingual Certificates of Completion
Bilingual ESL students should explicitly mention bilingual capability as a Career Plan strength — it is one of the most marketable skills in DFW