Factors Affecting Income

Lesson Content

• Lesson Plan Template:

  CTE Lesson Plan

• CTE Course Info and Benchmark Notes

  
  

  Program Title (as applicable): N/A

  Course Title: Personal Financial Literacy

  Course Number: 8500120

  Career Cluster: Finance

  CIP Number: 09200104PA

  Course Type: Non-Career Preparatory

  CTE Standard(s) or benchmarks:

  • 03.02 – Analyze how career choice affects income
  • 03.03 – Analyze how education and technical skills affect income

• Unit Outline

  
  

  This lesson is the 3rd in a series of lessons focused on investigating strategies for managing personal and family income. The unit will start by identifying sources of income and then expand on that knowledge to explore how career choices, education, and skills affect income, consider tradeoffs when making financial decisions, and investigate how purchasing power changes over time due to inflation. In totality, the lessons addressing this standard will support students’ understanding of how income, personal goals, and economic factors are things to consider when making short and long-term financial decisions.

• Career Connection

  
  

  Students will apply the career ready practice of attending to personal health and financial well-being, in this lesson plan. By exploring factors that affect income, students will use critical thinking and collaboration skills while remaining flexible to consider how multiple factors can influence future earning potential, and short- and long-term financial goals.

• Learning Objectives

  
  

  Students will be able to:

  • Conduct research to determine the incomes of different careers
  • Explore how education and technical skill requirements differ based on career choice
  • Consider variations in income for a career based on education and technical skills
  • Explain how factors affecting income can influence a person’s career choice

• Prior Knowledge

  
  

  Students should be able to:

  • Identify at least 2 different careers of interest
  • Use technology to conduct informal research

• Guiding Questions

  
  
  • Why do some careers have a higher average income than others?
  • How does education, or lack thereof, affect income in this career field?
  • How do technical skills, or lack thereof, affect income in this career field?
  • How does this information help you make decisions about your future career choice?
  • Did any of the information surprise you? Why or why not?

• Procedure

  
  

  1. To introduce the lesson, display the Fastest Growing Occupations image (see attachments). Allow students to make observations about the top 5 fastest growing occupations before facilitating discussion.

  • Possible questions to ask include: What do you notice about these occupations? Do the occupations, growth rates, or median pay surprise you? Why or why not? Why do you think these occupations are the top 5 fastest growing occupations? Why is the median pay different for each occupation? What might justify a higher median pay for certain occupations compared to others? How might education and technical skills influence the median pay? How might education and technical skills influence the growth rate?
  • Explain to students that they will be exploring two different careers of their choice including the education and technical skill requirements to attempt to explain how these factors can influence income.

  2. Pass out a copy of the Career Exploration handout (see attachment) to each student. Ensure students have a computer with internet access to find the necessary information.

  • Briefly review the handout and each component students are responsible for completing. Share the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website with students and model how to use the website for students who may not be familiar with it. Allow students time to complete the handout for two different career choices.

  3. Use a think-pair-share strategy and have students compare and contrast the information collected with their peers.

  • Students should reflect on their two career choices, including similarities and differences, pair up with a peer to compare and contrast career choices, then share out to gather additional information, as needed.
  • The teacher can use the guiding questions to facilitate discussion.

  4. To bring the lesson to a close, students will complete a journal prompt. The teacher can choose from one of the prompts below, have students complete only 1 of the prompts, or have students choose which prompt they want to respond to.

  • Journal Prompt 1: Write a letter to your future self explaining why you should or why you should not choose one of the careers you explored today. Use the information you found to help strengthen your reasoning for choosing or not choosing the career.
  • Journal Prompt 2: Compare one of your career choices to the other careers shared by your peers. What are some defining job requirements that could explain the differences in income? How do those requirements attract or deter your interest in the career?
  • Journal Prompt 3: Compare one of your career choices to another career within the same career cluster/group. How are the two careers the same? How are they different? How do the incomes of each career compare? Do the income differences surprise you? Why or why not?

• Teacher Notes

  
  
  • To ensure consistency in information, have students use the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics website to find the necessary information. Students can access the site using the web address https://www.bls.gov/ooh/home.htm.
  • To prepare students to respond to the journal prompts, consider strategically pairing or grouping students for step 3 of the procedure so that they can compare their information with a peer who chose a career in the same career cluster as well as with a peer who chose a career in a different career cluster.

• Optional

  
  

  Differentiation Ideas:

  • Instead of using technology, students could use the handout as a template to interview different people currently employed in the career field.

  Formative Assessment Ideas:

  • The teacher can use the discussions to informally assess student understanding of two different career choices, their education requirements, and necessary technical skills.
  • The Career Exploration handout can be assessed for completion and/or student understanding of their chosen career choice.
  • Students’ responses to the journal prompt could be used to assess their ability to synthesize the information they researched.

  Extension Ideas

  • The teacher can group students by career clusters (i.e. education and training, business and finance, architecture and design, etc.). Students will have to choose 1 of their careers if both of them are not within the same career group. Each career group will compare and contrast their information and outline possible careers within the career cluster, the median income of the different careers each student researched, typical education requirements, and typical technical skills. Students can create a poster or digital presentation of their career group’s information to be shared with peers.