Valid Sources with My Seniors

Earlier this week my seniors began a project that we will be working on for the rest of this semester and will continue next semester. It is a career exploration project in which they will basically research their future career from every possible angle. The items listed in the table of contents are as follows:

Part I—Semester 1
1. Introduction—What is a basic description of career; why do you want to go into this field?
2. Qualifications—What skills, knowledge, and training are needed for this career?
3. Employment Package—What can you expect in terms of salary, benefits, and retirement?
4. Organizations—What are the groups associated with your career? What is their purpose?
5. Employment Opportunities—What are the growth rates and employment rates?
6. Works Cited—List of sources used in your research for Part I.

Part II—Semester 2
7. Advancements—How has your profession advanced and where is going in the future?
8. Famous Person—Research a famous person in that field, how were they influential?
9. Upcoming Election—How will the Presidential election affect your career
10. Economy—What influence is the economy having on your career?
11. In the News—What are major happenings in your career that put it in the news?
12. Pros & Cons—What are the benefits and drawbacks of entering into this career?
13. Resume & Cover Letter—Provide these items tailored to fit your career.
14. Conclusion—Final thoughts and reflection after extensive exploration of career.
15. Class Skills—How will you use reading, writing, speaking, and group work in your career?
16. Updated Works Cited—List of sources used in your research for Parts I & II.

The basic format for working through this unit will be to to work through each of the items on the table of contents one at a time. For each item I will introduce the students to the topic and have them brainstorm what they know related to their career. They will then conduct research related to that topic, then return to the class and draft their formal write-up (some of these will require charts, time lines, etc.), then they will peer review, and then return to the lab to type it up and put it in their Career Exploration Portfolio.

At the beginning of this week I went over the topic of sources and citations. Specifically related to sources, I really reinforced the concepts of reliable and valid sources. We discussed what it means if a source is not reliable and what it means if a source is not valid. I walked them through examples of both, and then the most fun part was when I opened up the Internet and we started searching a topic together. For example, with one hour we decided to search the average salary of garbage men. Then, once we were on the Internet, I would open sites and have the students determine if they thought it was a reliable and valid website. Most helpful was that the students really began to understand why blogs and wikipedia are not good sources to use in research. When we discussed how the last three letters of a URL can be helpful in determining the validness of a website (ex. .gov, .edu., .org). They saw this as a little "trick" that they now knew the secret to, like these sites had been trying to keep this a secret this whole time.

I noticed that when the students were researching that they seemed to be using valid sources and as a result they were finding much better information. I am curious to see how this turns out in class today when they start drafting #2 on the ToC.