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Online Classified Ads: Relocation Project

Details

Author:
Kristi Reyes, ESL, MiraCosta College
Tech Product/Equipment:
Computer and projector, Mobile devices for students

Activity Description

 

In this activity, students will use online classified ads to investigate job openings and find housing where they live for someone they know who is hypothetically relocating to their city. Students create a PowerPoint slideshow about the job and salary, the housing and cost, and create a monthly budget.

Preparation

  1. Choose which classified ad sites you will have students use and make sure that they are not blocked at your school. Ideally, have students use the local newspaper's classified ad site.
  2. Prepare a list of sites with Web addresses (URLs) for students to use. If you do this in a Word document with embedded hyper-links and e-mail it to them, your students can just open the document and select the links to visit the Web site needed. Another idea would be to include the links to the job and classified ads on your class Web site.
  3. Prepare a handout describing the assignment on which students can take notes.
  4. Prepare a sample presentation or use the Example Documents.

How-To

  1. Tell students that they are going to imagine that a friend or family member is moving to the city where the student currently lives and that they are going to help that person find a job, a place to live, and calculate how much money he or she will need to have each month. Ask students where they can look to find a job and housing for this person.
  2. Explain and demonstrate how students will use online classified ads to find this person a job and a place to live.
  3. Go over commonly-used abbreviations used in classified ads for employment and housing (e.g., FT, PT, pd., 1BR, 1BA, sec. dep. req'd., etc.).
  4. Give students time in the computer lab to find the information required of the project, circulating to assist students, as needed. Web sites that can be used for the project, in addition to the local newspaper classified ads, include the following:
  5. Then, once students have located and taken notes on the information required, show them how to use MS PowerPoint or other presentation software to prepare an oral presentation.

Teacher Tips

  • It is helpful to demonstrate first as students follow along, an employment classified ad site, and then later (perhaps even in a different class period) how to find housing with an online classified ad site. Alternatively, students can copy and paste information into a Word or other word-processing document.

Program Areas

  • ESL: English as a Second Language
  • ABE: Adult Basic Education
  • ASE: High School Diploma

Levels

  • Intermediate High
  • Advanced
  • Intermediate
  • High
  • All Levels

Lesson Plan

Warm-up
Engagement

Tell students that your friend got laid off from her job. Ask them if they know anyone who has ever gotten laid off. Tell them that your friend lives in another city (or another state or country) and is going to stay with you for a while but plans is move to live permanently in your city beause there is a better economy and more job opportunities there. Give some details about your friend, such as where she lives now and her most recent job, educational level, work experience, family situation. You may use a real or fictatious person and may wish to put the details on a slide to project with an image. 

Ask students what your friend is going to need to get settled in this city. Brainstorm and record a list.

Tell students that you want to help her find a job and and a place to live. Ask students where to look for such information. List web sites and other sources students list for finding job openings and rentals.

Introduction
Engagement

Distribute the project prompt (Relocation project document) and tell students that in the U.S., many people relocate, or move, for better jobs each year.  Sometimes the move is to the next city, and other times it is across the country.

For this project, you will imagine that a friend living in your country (or here in the U.S.) is going to move to your city and has never been here before.  Your friend needs your help!  Help your friend find a job and a place to live. 

Note: You could also have students conduct this project looking for a job and apartment for a classmate after interviewing that classmate, for a family member, for themselves, or even for a fictitious person you create and provide details on.

 

 

 

Presentation
Enhancement

First, you will use the Internet to gather information and choose an appropriate job and housing.  Then you will put the information you gathered on PowerPoint slides or Google Slides for a presentation.  You may work on this project alone or with a classmate.

Demonstrate how to use the classified ads from local newspapers and local online sources, any of the following, and others:

Model how you would find a job for your friend and take notes on the job (or enter it into your PowerPoint or Google Slide) that would be the best fit: If pay rates are not provided, show students how to use Salary.com to find an approximate salary.

  • Job/position
  • Company
  • Location (with map and pictures, if possible)
  • Pay/salary
  • How to apply
  • Other information (benefits, etc.)

Note: Because this is a complex project, you may want to break it up into three distinct parts, modeling each section and having students do one part at a time - job, apartment, budget - and then revising at the end, as needed.

Next, demonstrate how to use online tools for finding housing including local resources and any of the following:

As you model, show students how to check the distance from the job you have selected to apartments by using Google Maps or other mapping tools. Also, show students how to take a screenshot or snip off any map to include in their slideshow and how to copy images of the apartment into their slides. Demonstrate how to enter the information on the apartment you choose on your slideshow.

Finally, using information about the salary for the job and rent, demonstrate how to create a simple inflow/outflow budget. Enter this information in your slides:

  • Monthly income
  • Rent
  • Amount remaining (if the amount is negative, find another job or additional part-time job or a new apartment)

Show your final slideshow (PowerPoint sample or Google Slides) for students to understand expectations.

Practice
Enhancement

Have students complete each step of the project as you give ongoing feedback, both written and verbal. 

Note: Students can use a Google Slides Template for the project by making a copy of this link.

Evaluation
Enhancement

Have students present their slideshows to class. Use a checklist or rubric to provide summative feedback.

Application
Extension

Students will be able to use the internet to find jobs and places to live that meet their situational needs.

Documents

Subjects

  • Language Arts - Reading
    • Analysis
    • Comprehension
  • Language Arts - Writing
    • Language Facility
    • Organization of Ideas
    • Writing Conventions

Standards

  • Reading Foundational Skills
    • RF.4 - Read with sufficient accuracy and fluency to support comprehension. (Fluency)
  • Reading
    • CCR Anchor 1 - Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
  • Writing
    • CCR Anchor 6 - Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and to interact and collaborate with others.
    • CCR Anchor 7 - Conduct short as well as more sustained research projects based on focused questions, demonstrating understanding of the subject under investigation.
  • Speaking and Listening
    • CCR Anchor 2 - Integrate and evaluate information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually, quantitatively, and orally.
    • CCR Anchor 5 - Make strategic use of digital media and visual displays of data to express information and enhance understanding of presentations.
    • CCR Anchor 6 - Adapt speech to a variety of contexts and communicative tasks, demonstrating command of formal English when indicated or appropriate.
  • Language
    • CCR Anchor 1 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English grammar and usage when writing or speaking.
    • CCR Anchor 2 - Demonstrate command of the conventions of English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.
    • CCR Anchor 3 - Apply knowledge of language to understand how language functions in different contexts, to make effective choices for meaning or style, and to comprehend more fully when reading or listening.
    • CCR Anchor 4 - Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials, as appropriate.

Tags

reading, speaking, Writing, job hunting, jobs, moving, note-taking, presentation, relocation, advanced, apartment hunting, budget, classified ads, employment, housing, intermediate

Tools

Online claissified ads
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OTAN activities are funded by contract CN220124 from the Adult Education Office, in the Career & College Transition Division, California Department of Education, with funds provided through Federal P.L., 105-220, Section 223. However, OTAN content does not necessarily reflect the position of that department or the U.S. Department of Education.