What is College? Why is it important? What is the best choice for me?

Introduction

Congratulations!  You have graduated from Toro Canyon and are off to Desert Mirage in the fall.  You are officially a Freshman in high school.  Only 4 more years and you are an adult and ready to launch as an adult in life.  But what is your path?  What do you want to do after high school?    Perhaps you will go straight into the workforce and get a job.  Maybe you will go to College of the Desert or California State University San Bernardino?  How do you know what the right choice is for you?

Task

In this assignment you will view a variety of websites, videos and read articles to learn more about your post-secondary options; college, university, or technical school.  You will learn about the pros and cons of each of these choices.  You will think about your own life and your own goals and decide what path you would want to take.

Process

You will be grouped with 3-4 students.  As you read through the websites and watch the videos to familiarize yourself with post-secondary education take 3 column notes for the group.    Think of the following questions:

 

What is college?

What is an Associate Degree?

What is a University?

What is the Bachelor’s Degree?

What is a Technical College?

What career would you like in the future?

 

When you are done with your research you are going to make a poster for a fictional person and create a post-secondary path.  Choose a career for your fictional student.  Decide what kind of college they are going to attend and explain how that will benefit the fictional student.

 

Example:

Student: Sebastian Garcia

Career: Nurse

College:  College of the Desert

Explain: Sebastian has always liked helping people.  He wants to continue to live near his family in Mecca.  If he gets a job as a nurse he can work at a local hospital and go to college for free.  College of the Desert has remote classes and classes in Indio so he can stay nearby while in college which will make it less expensive.  



 

Example:

Student: Rosalynn Santiago

Career: Engineer  

College:  College of the Desert, then transfer to University of Riverside

Explain:  Rosalynn has been building things with Legos and tinkering since she was a little girl.  She loves doing math.  She wants to design roads and buildings.  She has decided to start her college career at College of the Desert, then transfer to University of Riverside.  This will allow her to save money on college. 

Evaluation

Assessed as a group.

 

Exceeds Standard

4

Meet Standard

3

Almost Meets Standard   2

Does not meet Standard   1

Three Column Notes

Three column notes are fully developed stating pros and cons of college, university and technical college.  Using complete sentences and proper capitalization.

Three column notes are mostly developed stating pros and cons of college, university and technical college.

Three column notes are partially developed stating pros and cons of college, university and technical college.

Three column notes are not developed stating pros and cons of college, university and technical college.

Poster

Fictional student has a fully developed educational path that aligns with their career goals

Fictional student has a mostly developed educational path that aligns with their career goals

Fictional student has the beginnings of a developed educational path that aligns with their career goals

Fictional student poster is missing several parts of the expectation.  

         
Conclusion

In Summation, students will be able to front load contextual knowledge about post-secondary education to enrich their field trip that will be held later in the year.  By using a variety of articles and videos the students, who are ELL, will be able to access the information in their preferred method and language.  This will benefit students by allowing them general knowledge about college and university as they move into Middle school and High School.

Credits

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbvFpd2XoAE

Video comparing and contrasting college vs university

 

https://www.bestcolleges.com/blog/difference-between-college-and-university/#:~:text=Colleges%20and%20universities%20primarily%20differ,schools%2C%20and%20liberal%20arts%20colleges.

Compare and Contrast College and Universities and Technical Colleges

 

https://www.cccco.edu/Students

Overview of California Community College.  Including information about 



 

https://icangotocollege.com/

California community colleges can help you achieve your goals and become the hero of your story. You can do great things with a college education.

 

https://www.educationcorner.com/types-of-college-degrees.html

Guide to different certifications, degrees, and how much each cost.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaDpfalKSxQ&list=PL8dPuuaLjXtNxrUcgYGmPneX1PTStLDQx&index=3

“How to College”  What even is college?  Should I go?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJgqKIUenWY

What is a Technical College?

 

https://learn.org/articles/What_is_a_Technical_Institute.html

Technical Institute including requirements to attend

Teacher Page

Optional ideas:

Have students created a google slides with their fictional student. This can also serve as a resource once all the slides are compiled.  This would work well with Google Classroom.

The culmination of this activity is a field trip to a university  Have students reflect after the field trip and decide if the University they visited would be an appropriate choice their career path.