Job Demand in Costa Rica

Unit 4 Lesson Plans

Job Demand in Costa Rica

Unit 4 Lesson 1 & 2 : Comparison of Global Job Demand
SESSION OBJECTIVES / ALLOTED TIME
Students will be able to compare Global Job Demand in Costa Rica to job demand in English-speaking countries. / 40-80
min
TIME / STAGE / INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE / MATERIALS
5-10 min / I.
Warm-up / Class Discussion: Begin class with a discussion about the job market in Costa Rica. Students should provide answers based previous or personal knowledge.
Prompting questions;
Is unemployment a problem in your town or province? What about Costa Rica in general?
What are some common occupations in your town or province? How do these jobs differ from those in other towns or provinces?
Write their responses on the whiteboard. / ·  Classroom Whiteboard
20-30 min / II. Presentation / Job Hunt: Bring in Classified ads or job announcements in English (from a newspaper or the internet). Assign each student an occupation. Spread out the different Job announcements around the classroom. Tell the students that they will need to find the job announcement that matches their occupation (check their matches throughout the activity).
When the students find their job announcement they need to search for vocabulary pertaining to their occupation and/or job search.
Give students 20 minutes to complete the task and then ask the students to present their occupation and the vocabulary they found and write it on the classroom whiteboard. Start a list and make sure that you don’t repeat any words.
Write two columns on the board
Common in Costa Rica and the common around the world have students use the occupations they have a write or tape their occupation on the board under the appropriate column. / •  Job Ads in English
•  Classroom White Board
10-30 min / III.
Practice / Introduce the vocabulary words duties, qualifications, salary, and wage, benefits, job title if the they were not listed in the previous activity. Discuss the meaning of these words and any other vocabulary from the previous activity when necessary.
Group work: Divide the students into groups of 3 or 4 students. Give each group 2 copies of the "job announcement handout." Assign each group 2 different (one Costa Rican and one from abroad) common occupations and have them complete the handout for each occupation. / •  Job announcement hand out (Unit 4, material 1)
5-10 min / IV.
Production / Students must produce a sentence about something they learned in class pertaining to job Demand. It can be a comparison between Costa Rica and a different country, a statement about the kinds of skills needed for certain markets or occupations, which jobs are popular where, etc. Students must create their own sentences individually and cannot repeat others sentences. / ·  Pencil and paper
Unit 4 Lesson 3 & 4: Laws and Protections in the Workplace
SESSION OBJECTIVES / ALLOTED TIME
Students will be able to evaluate content and norms related to jobs. / 40-80
min
TIME / STAGE / INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE / MATERIALS
5-10 min / I.
Warm-up / Is that legal?
Pass out the handout "workplace Diaries." Write two columns on the board with the headings "legal" and "illegal." Have students read each of the "Workplace Diaries" handouts. Read one at a time and discuss with students. Ask students if they think that what occurred in the text was "legal" or "illegal." Do this for each text.
*Explain the terms legal and illegal if your students are not familiar with them. / •  “Workplace Diaries” handouts (4 total) (Unit 4, Material 2)
10-20 min / II. Presentation / Group Work: Break class into 4 groups and give each group information on laws in Costa Rica Pertaining to Jobs, safety, sexual harassment, human rights, discrimination, etc. Each group must learn about their law(s) and then teach the class about them. Students need to present what the law(s) is, examples of how people violate it and why the law(s) is important. Groups should write the information on a sheet of paper and each student in the should participate during the presentation. / •  Labor Laws Information (Unit 4, Material 3) TEFL for MEP Resources Folder
•  Paper and pen or pencil
20-40 min / III.
Practice / Labor Laws Jeopardy
Divide students into 4 groups. Use the Labor Laws Jeopardy PowerPoint with a projector to play.
How to play
1. Divide students into groups
3. Pick a category and a point value
4. Students must give an answer in the form of a question before you click the slide. The teacher may want to set a time limit.
5. To see if a student or group is correct, click again for the answer
6. Click again to go to the Main board.
7.If the group is correct they are awarded the point value of the question. The teacher should record the accumulation of points for each group.
8. The point value disappears after you click it,
9. Double Jeopardy: The group that chooses the square can wager from 5 up to a maximum of their total score on the given question/clue and only that groups can answer. If they’re right they win the amount of points wagered.
10. After choosing all square click final jeopardy. The group with the most points at the end wins. / ·  Projector
·  Labor Laws Jeopardy Power Point (Unit 4, Material 4 TEFL for MEP Folder Google Drive)
5-10 min / IV.
Production / As an exit ticket, each student must name one labor law and also say what it is related to, Safety, sexual harassment, human rights etc.
Unit 4 Lesson 5: Working in Tourism
SESSION OBJECTIVES / ALLOTED TIME
Students will learn about the tourism industry in Costa Rica. / 40-80
min
TIME / STAGE / INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE / MATERIALS
5-10 min / I.
Warm-up / Play Tourism Video Clip. / •  Discover Costa Rica Video Clip (Unit 4, Material, 6)
•  Projector
•  Speakers
10-20 min / II. Presentation / Print out information found online regarding tourism jobs.
Discuss with class which skills and qualifications are needed for tourism jobs. Explain what the wages and benefits are like. Ask students if they think that tourism jobs are important and sustainable job?
*Highlight job related vocabulary. / •  Information regarding tourism jobs (Unit 4, Material 7 resource in TEFL for MEP Folder Google Drive)
20-40 min / III.
Practice / Write the names of different tourism jobs on a strip of paper and put them inside of a hat.
Students will draw a tourism occupation out of a hat. Using pen and paper students will then write a job announcement or ad. The ad must include the job title, duties and skills required for the occupation as well as information pertaining to wages and benefits. Students should use vocabulary from previous lessons. / ·  Tourism occupations paper strips
·  Hat
5-10 min / IV.
Production / Exit Ticket: Students will write a sentence exhibiting their knowledge of a tourism occupation and its function. For example, a student could say, “I am a lawn mower. I keep the grass short and neat so the hotel looks beautiful.” / ·  Paper and a pencil or pen

Additional Activities

1.  Play flyswatter with vocabulary surrounding the job market, jobs in Costa Rica, workplace protections, etc.

2.  Play trivia with facts about Costa Rica’s job demand/market, laws and/or workplace protections/compensations, and Costa Rica’s amazing tourist hotspots and the tourism industry.

3.  Has the job demand in Costa Rica ever been better or worse than it is right now? Do some research on Costa Rica’s history and investigate economic swings and periods of chronic unemployment.

4.  What are some of the most dangerous jobs in Costa Rica? What are some of the safest? Are these jobs vital? What are their functions? This could be used as a class discussions, a small-group research project, or individual writing assignment.

Unit 4 Materials

Unit 4 Material 1:

Job Announcement

Job Title:
Qualifications:
Duties:
Wage: / Salary:
Benefits:

Unit 4 Material 2:

Workplace Diaries

Work Shifts

Kelli works at the supermarket Monday through Friday as a cashier. She usually works from 8:00 in the morning until 5:00 pm in the evening but lately her boss has been making her work later until 7:00 pm. Kelli is often tired and when she returns to work the next day it is difficult for her to perform her job properly.

Christmas Bonus

Santiago Garcia is computer technician for Cisco Dynamics Solutions. It is at the end of the December and Santiago has been planning a January vacation but he is worried because he has not received his Christmas bonus yet. On the last day of work before Christmas eve he goes to talk to his boss about it. His boss tells him that no one will be receiving a Christmas bonus this Year.

Maternity Leave

Maria Estevez has been the Science teacher at Santa Cruz High School for almost 2 years. She is also excited to be expecting her first child, she is 7 months pregnant. Maria and her husband Victor are excited about the new baby but they are also worried. Her husband Victor thinks he will need to get another job to cover their expenses while Maria is not working. Last week Maria received a letter from the school board in the mail that said that she will be paid for the time off work while she is having her baby as well as 3 months after giving birth.

Paid Vacations

Bernard had been working for Del Monte for about a year before he was fired after arriving late to work on several occasions. Bernard had taken many sick days off from work but had never used any of his vacation. Del Monte paid Bernard an extra 500,000 Colones which is the equivalent of 2 weeks of work.