Career Comparative Essay Approximate Time Needed: Multiple day lesson Lesson Summary: Students will research various aspects of two careers and compose a comparative essay evaluating specific characteristics of the two careers. Lesson Objective: Students will use the writing process and improve their comparative writing skills while learning about career paths that interest them. Materials and Resources: Career Directory, Career Search, or Career Strategy. ECOS Career List Career Shopping List Helpful Hints: If using the essay lesson plans from ECOS in sequence, first use "When I Grow Up" Narrative Essay to build a strong foundation for the students. The Comparative lesson could be a natural extension of the narrative lesson. Students can use one of the same occupations from the Narrative lesson. Grouping students into research pairs may alleviate computer resource issues. Students may save the careers to their Locker for later use. Activities: Students select four to five careers that interest them. These careers may be taken from the ECOS Career List in class or already may be part of the students' Lockers if they have used ECOS before. Students research the careers on ECOS. Students may choose to revise their list of careers after making an initial run through. Notes may be taken on the Career Shopping List to give students a well-defined structure for their notes. To accommodate time schedules, ask students to reduce career list to two before beginning the note-taking process. After finishing their research, students create an outline of their arguments by category. Review the writing process and the parts of an essay. Assign the rough draft for homework. Continue revision and peer editing as needed. Evaluation: The final essay with brainstorm and free writes attached. Possible Adaptations: Depending on the ability level of the students, the lesson may be expanded into a longer process with rough drafts and a final paper.