NPR "This I Believe": Careers - "Do What you Love"

Distribute to students the following on a handout.  Explain the task and model.

Choosing a Career

Number in order the five most important factors for you in choosing a career (1 = most important, 2 = second, etc.)

______ good salary

______ challenge / always different / excitement

______ use technology (computers)

______ recognition / be well-known for my work

______ use the skills/abilities I have

______  chance to learn new things

______  opportunities for travel

______  routine / always the same

______  possibility for advancement (promotion, higher position)

______  good hours/ flexible schedule

______  independence (autonomy)

______  personal satisfaction

______  respected career/status/prestige

Now tell your classmates your top three factors and explain.

Optional:   Students can also be assigned to survey other students in the school or a given number of people, including native English speakers, outside of class for homework. Record all students’ top responses and have students create a chart, table, or infographic. 

Tell students that to prepare for a listening exercise about choosing a career, they will have some conversation on the topic of work, jobs, and careers.

Conversation:

1. Tell about a job you have had that you liked.  Why did you like it?
2. Tell about a job that you have had that you didn’t like.  Why didn’t you like it?
3. Is it important to have a job that you like?  Why or why not?
4. What is the best job you can think of?  Why?
5. What is the worst job?  Why?
6. What is the hardest job?  Why?
7. What are some jobs that are not really “work”?  Explain.
8. What job would you like to have in the future?
9. What is your ideal job and why?
10. What is more important:  having a job you like or making a lot of money?  Explain.

1. Ask students to name some professional athletes.  Ask them if they know any professional athletes who have become famous for less traditional sports like basketball, soccer, or baseball.  Tell students that they are going to hear a talk about a professional athlete who became famous for skateboarding and later video games.
2. Share this information with students, showing an online image or short video clip of Tony Hawk:
3.  Tony Hawk got his first skateboard when he was 9 years old. Five years later, he turned pro. Hawk's autobiography and video games have been best sellers, while his foundation has funded skate-park construction in low-income communities across America.
4. Front-load the vocabulary.  Prepare anecdotes, examples, or visuals to help students understand the following vocabulary words, which they will hear in Tony Hawk’s Talk:

• Brush aside = disregard, ignore, not pay attention
• End up = finish
• Endorsement = approval
• Entrepreneur = businessperson
• Fad = trend, fashion
• Keep at (something) = persist with, continue to do something, persevere
• Land a maneuver = to do a trick, stunt successfully
• Make a living = do a job and get paid for it
• Master = become skilled at something
• PTA meeting = school meeting of teachers and parents (Parent-Teachers Association)
• Pursuit = the effort made to try to achieve or obtain something over a period of time
• Raise eyebrows = to question or ridicule something because you don’t accept it
• Scrape together money = gather what little money you have
• Stereotype = an oversimplified standardized image of a person or group
• Tagged = labeled

1. Tell students that they will listen to Tony Hawk talk about his career and answer some questions about his message.  Ask students to preview the questions before listening so that they can focus on the main ideas.

Listen for main ideas.  Put a check √ in front of sentences that express the major ideas.  Put an X in front of sentences that are not major ideas.

___ 1.  Skateboarding can make you famous.

___ 2.  Being well-known and getting paid well are not as important as having a career you like.

___ 3.  He has been a professional skateboarder for a long time.

___ 4.  Skateboarding is a passion he turned into a career.

___ 5.  He is proud of his career even though other people may not respect or support his career choice.

___ 6.  It’s easy to be a professional skater.

Have students compare their answers with a classmate or in small groups.  Allow students to listen again, as needed, to confirm their answers.

2.  Tell students to look over the following questions, which are details provided in the talk.  Have them try to answer questions that they can before listening again.

Listen for details.  Write short answers to the following questions,

1. For how long has Tony Hawke been a professional skateboarder?

2. At what age did he become a professional skateboarder?

3. Did he get support for his career choice?

4. Do all people accept professional skateboarding as a career?  Why or why not?

5. How old is Tony now (at the time of this recording)?

6. What is his family life like?

7. What other jobs has he had?

8. What did Tony’s son tell his class about his father’s job?

9. What is the lesson he wants to pass on to his children?

10. Why is there a lot of pressure on Tony’s son?

Have students compare their answers with a classmate or in small groups and/or check the answers together as a whole class.

3.  Students will listen again one more time to practice discreet listening skills, or listening for specific words.  This activity may best be conducted in a computer lab with headsets or on individual mobile devices so that students can pause or rewind the audio as needed.

Listen to fill in the missing words.  

I believe that people _____________________ take pride in what they do, even if it is scorned or misunderstood by the public at large.

I have been a professional skateboarder for 24 years. For much of that time, the activity that paid my rent and gave me my __________________ joy was tagged with many labels, most of which were ugly. It was a kids' fad, a waste of time, a dangerous pursuit, a ____________________.

When I was about 17, three years after I turned pro, my high school "careers" teacher scolded me in front of the _________________ class about jumping ahead in my workbook. He told me that I would never make it in the

____________________ if I didn't follow directions explicitly. He said I'd never make a living as a skateboarder, so it seemed to him that my ______________ was bleak.

Even during those dark years, I never stopped riding my skateboard and never stopped _____________________ as a skater. There have been many, many times when I've been ______________________ because I can't land a maneuver. I've come to realize that the only way to master something is to keep it at -- despite the bloody knees, despite the twisted ankles, despite the mocking ___________________.

Skateboarding has gained mainstream recognition in recent years, but it still has

____________________ stereotypes. The pro skaters I know are responsible __________________ of society. Many of them are fathers, homeowners, world travelers and successful entrepreneurs. Their hairdos and tattoos are simply part of our__________________, even when they raise eyebrows during PTA meetings.

So here I am, 38 years old, a husband and father of three, with a lengthy list of _________________________ and obligations. And although I have many job titles -- CEO, Executive Producer, Senior Consultant, Foundation Chairman, Bad

Actor -- the one I am _________________ proud of is "Professional

Skateboarder." It's the one I write on surveys and customs forms, even though I often end up in a secondary __________________ checkpoint.

My ____________________ son's pre-school class was recently asked what their dads do for work. The ____________________ were things like, "My dad sells money" and "My dad figures stuff out." My son said, "I've never seen my dad do work."

It's ____________. Skateboarding doesn't seem like real work, but I'm proud of what I do. My parents never once questioned the practicality behind my _________________, even when I had to scrape together gas money and regarded dinner at Taco Bell as a big night out.

I hope to pass on the same _____________________ to my children someday.

Find the thing you love. My oldest son is an avid skater and he's really gifted for a 13-year-old, but there's a lot of __________________ on him. He used to skate for endorsements, but now he brushes all that stuff aside. He just skates for ________ and that's good enough for me. 

You might not make it to the ___________, but if you are doing what you love, there is much more happiness there than being ___________ or famous. 

Check the answers for this listening cloze exercise together as a whole class or have students check their own work by looking at the transcript online.

4. Vocabulary in Context.

Vocabulary.  Choose the word that is a synonym (means the same).

Have students compare their answers with a classmate or in small groups and/or check the answers together as a whole class.

5. Post-listening discussion: Give students a 10-15 minutes to free-write their answers to the following questions:

Discuss:  What is Tony’s advice?  Do you think it is good advice?  Why or why not?

Have students read or discuss their answers with a classmate or in small groups.

6. Brainstorm in small groups or as a whole class reasons to support each of the following. This can be documented on a Google Doc, Jamboard, or Padlet (shelf).

a. It is better to have a job that pays a lot a lot of money but requires long hours 

b. It is better to have a job that you really enjoy and that offers flexibility but pays little?

Have students write an argument paragraph giving at least three reasons supporting their opinion. Alternatives are to assign a paragraph about a dream job and give reasons why it would be the ideal occupation or to describe the best job and why it would be “what they love.”

A rubric for the paragraph, depending on the type (argumentative/opinion or description, or narrative) using Rubistar, Quick Rubric, or Rubric Maker. 

Another alternative or addition is to have students make a presentation on any of these paragraph prompts.

Students will be able to express job preferences and reasons.

[ABE]: Use the Occupational Outlook Handbook to begin examining their job preferences.