The Personal Orientation Project (POP) gives students the opportunity to dive deep into their interests and aptitudes and start seriously considering their career options. POP is self-directed with teachers there to help the students along their individual journey of discovery. Teacher resources are plentiful, as you will find under the links below.

Teaching and Learning Tools includes the material created by LEARN, the CREATE sub-committee, and the Career Development teaching community. It includes the Graphic Organizers and Activities, Getting Started, brief videos which will walk you through the KPOP process, and a placemat that lays out the KPOP process on a single page. Professional Learning includes material from webinars, workshops, and conferences, as well as information about upcoming PD events. Curated Resources consists of links (with brief descriptions) to useful, vetted external resources. Finally, the MEQ Resources section includes links to the program documents, the frameworks for the evaluation of learning, and other related resources co-created by the Ministry.

Career Community News

Career Community News* highlights school and community activities, events, and projects related to the Career Development subject area, as well as information, resources, tips, and tools for teachers of POP, Explo, and EN.

Please report any broken links immediately to the website coordinator.
For information about the POP please contact Marsha Gouett.

*Career Community News is published by DEEN-CREATE in collaboration with Ministère de l'Éducation du Québec (MEQ) Direction du soutien au réseau éducatif anglophone (DSREA), and is funded by MEQ, through contributions from the Canada-Québec Agreement on Minority Language Education and Second-Language Instruction. coming soon . . .

Teaching and Learning Tools

Numerous resources have been developed for teaching POP, especially Graphic Organizer templates, Activities templates, a "placemat" that captures the KPOP highlights on a single page, Getting Started (What am I supposed to teach and evaluate?,  What does POP student work look like?, and How do I put these pieces into a term plan?), POP-ePearl which is a digital portfolio option, and a 5-minute video that guides you through the KPOP process.

Graphic Organizers

A graphic organizer (GO) is a visual learning tool that helps students organize their thoughts, either alone or in a group. A graphic organizer visually chunks a task into manageable segments or steps, guiding a student to think through each step in the process. In terms of artifacts, GOs make visible the invisible thinking processes a student uses at various points in a career exploration. Completed graphic organizers become evidence, artifacts, of student learning as they are engaged in their various tasks. These artifacts represent the learning processes students engage in. The graphic organizer resources are available in two formats:

PDF - Intended to be printed and completed by hand

Word - Intended to be downloaded to be completed in Word

*Please note that these documents are copyright protected and cannot be altered. The purpose of the Microsoft Word version is to allow the user to type directly into the text boxes of the document and save an electronic copy.

Activities

Activities are targeted, purposeful teaching and learning moments. They usually lead into, or are timely, to where students are in an exploration process or in a project. Activities can be completed in a short period of time. They should not stand alone; the activity completed should be put into the context of student work. They target specific key features, and program content. Activities target one phase of the learning and evaluation process, but may touch on other phases. Activities are context independent; context is provided by student explorations and/or projects. They often leave traces of learning, or student work, which facilitates the evaluation process. Activities build competency.

Know Yourself

  • Graphic Organizers

  • Activities

    • Know Yourself Collage - Class brainstorm, Collage - PDF 
    • Top 20 Careers - Know Yourself and Plan, Career Matchmaker - PDF

    • Starting a Personal Career Profile  - Know Yourself: Areas of Interest  - PDF

Plan

  • Graphic Organizers

  • Activities

    • Breaking It Down - Class brainstorm, 2 Graphic Organizers - PDF
    • Establishing Good Criteria for Planning - Information for planning - PDF

On-Task

Ponder

  • Graphic Organizers

  • Activities

    • Evaluation of a Career Exploration Process - PDF
    • Taking Stock of Career Exploration Progress - PDF
    • Newspaper Saturday - PDFDownload
    • Q. 1 What am I supposed to teach and evaluate?

      • There are 2 competencies in POP
        Competency 1 | The student...carries out a process of career exploration.
        Competency 2 | The student...contemplates his/her learning and work possibilities.
        Graphic Organizers and Activities build KPOP competencies.

      • Watch the KPOP video for an overview of the KPOP Learning and Education Process.

      • Use the Framework for Evaluation of Student Learning. Go to site
        New Orientations in Evaluation and Reporting, 2011 (PPT) Download

      • Checklists: Checklists contain evaluation criteria that describe the expectations for a task or a collection of artifacts. The expectations are those of the program and guided by the teacher’s knowledge of the development of the two competencies as well as the evaluation criteria from the Evaluation Frameworks document. The teacher uses questioning to guide students in identifying criteria. Criteria are stated in simple language so that students and teachers are clear on the expectations and share a common language.

        The criteria in the checklists below are for example purposes only. Please download the files, and change the criteria to those established with your students. The document Building criteria | Brainstorm Criteria as a class will help you do this. Download

      • Reflection Questions: Reflection, in its simplest form can be defined as the act of seeing one’s own work or of making visible the invisible internal processes used when engaged in competency development.

      • Table of Competency Development: The developmental table provides a place to document student competency development in a more global fashion. Download

    • Q. 2 What does POP student work look like?
      • Introduction to Mati's Learning and Evaluation File. Download
      • Mati's Term One Work Sample (Artifact) Collection. Download
    • Q. 3 How do I put these pieces into a term plan?
      • Step 1: Count the dates when you will see your students in term 1 before marks are due.
      • Step 2: Identify your evaluation criteria, methods of evaluation and evaluation moments.
      • Step 3: Select activities across KPOP
      • Step 4: Fill in other resources or information that students will require

    POP-ePearl

    POP-ePearl (Electronic Portfolio Encouraging Active Reflective Learning) is a digital portfolio tool designed specifically for POP. It is a component of the ePearl digital portfolio tool developed by Concordia University’s Centre for the Study of Learning and Performance (CSLP) in partnership with LEARN, MEQ and others. POP-ePearl leverages the technology angle of the POP course. See POP goes the Portfolio: Digital portfolio in the POP Classroom, Rob Costain, April 3, 2014. Download

    Teacher Guide Download

    Watch this five-minute video on POP essentials.

Professional Learning

This section includes relevant workshops, webinars, conferences, newsletters, and other resources for learning to teach Career Development.

CERIC Cannexus22, January 24-26, 2022 and reflection on February 4, 2022

Click the image to go to the CERIC site

The Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC) annual conference is now fully virtual. Go to site  

LCEEQ 13th Annual Conference, February 7-8, 2022

Click the image to go to the LCEEQ conference site.

LCEEQ Conference 2022, "The Reflective Practioner" will provide the opportunity for reflection and collegial exchange on a number of issues including: a deeper understanding of learning, how the curriculum should enhance such, the role of assessment, equity, and diversity, optimizing technology, and the importance of health and well-being for all. Go to site 

 

QPAT October 14 & 15, 2021:

Click the image to go to the QPAT website

An evening with Margaret Atwood
Preliminary list of confirmed workshops available. Check the QPAT site for further details. Go to site 

LCEEQ 12th Annual Conference, February 2021 – Online

If there was one thing we learned, it was that we need to be more sensitive to what is happening around the world and that our students at all levels need to develop a world view. LCEEQ had decided prior to the Covid-19 shutdown to focus on the theme, “Global Commitment Through Local Action” given that many of our members were moving in that direction.

Click the image

Workshop on the Frameworks for Evaluating Student Learning

New Orientations in Evaluation and Reporting (effective July 1, 2011) PPT. Download

Career Development Newsletter Archives

The Career Development and Work-Oriented Training Program Info newsletter (2009-2014) targeted educators in POP, Explo, EN and WOTP. A great deal of the information regarding classroom pedagogy, technology, and resources continues to be relevant. See also Curated Resources below for up-to-date links.

MELS Information Bulletin Archives

Info POP-EXPLO-EN bulletins (2009-2012) targeted teachers, consultants, and administrators in the English education community and shared news and information from the Career Development program and evaluation teams.

  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 5, number 1, Fall 2012 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 4, number 1, Fall 2011 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 3, number 2, Spring 2011 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-En Volume 2, number 3, Spring 2010 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 2, number 2, Winter 2010 Download
  • Info POP-Explo-EN Volume 2, number 1, Fall 2009 Download

 

Updated: January 19, 2022

Curated Resources

This section includes resources external to MEQ and LEARN that have been vetted by teachers and consultants to ensure their relevance.

Xello: This is a bilingual K-12 education software company. Students can "document their journey as they build self-knowledge, explore post-secondary options, create plans, and continually reassess as they take in new knowledge, skills, and experiences." Ask your guidance counsellor whether your school or school board has purchased a licence. Go to site 

myBlueprint: This is a bilingual K-12 education software company. The "Education Planner" covers grades 7-12 post-secondary. myBlueprint is "a comprehensive education and career/life planning program with the tools students need to make the most informed decisions about their future." Ask your guidance counsellor whether your school or school board has purchased a licence. Go to site 

Career Cruising: This education planning software is the forerunner to Xello. Career Cruising is relates to the POP process: Know Yourself, Plan, On-Task and Ponder. Your students can: explore their interests and learning styles; create their own personal career plan; store their assessment results; investigate careers and education; build their own career plan and more. Ask your guidance counsellor whether your school or school board has purchased a licence. Go to site

Career Cruising integration with POP: This one-page (PDF) chart shows the integration of the POP competencies with Career Cruising. Download

The Right Job for You (Heading for Success)(Emploi Québec): This site presents a selection of the best job opportunities across Quebec. Discover opportunities in Health and Social Services, Construction, and Information Technology. "Find the job that suits you:" The database is searchable by RAISEC profiles: realistic, investigative, artisitic, social, enterprising, or conventional. Profile combinations are determined based on skills, fields of interest and certain personality traits. Go to site 

Labour Market Information (LMI) (Information sur le marché du travail – IMT) (Emploi Québec): Here you will "Find a trade or occupation," Find a training program," Find out about a sector or activity," or "Find a business."  Go to site 

Services for Youth (Government of Canada): This comprehensive site for Canadian youth covers education, training, jobs, volunteerig and more. Go to site

Dawson "Career Showcase." Dawson College has prepared MEQ-standardized lesson plans for Quebec high school teachers and education professionals to apply in their own teaching environments. These lesson plans are useful for high school teachers who specialize in career development/POP and high school guidance counselors, among others. Registration required. Go to site

Take Our Kids to Work (TOKW) is a program offered by The Learning Partnership (TLP): Wednesday, November 3, 2021. TLP offers dedicated resources for workplaces, educators, or parents and students. Registration is open now. Go to site 

Career Insight by Alberta Learning and Information Service (ALIS): On this page is a link to "Know Yourself" as a starting point in career planning. Go to site

Pygma.ca Pygma is an innovative educational information system developed by SRAM (Service régional d’admission du Montréal métropolitain). Its purpose is to assist those interested in college studies to explore programs leading to a Diploma of College Studies (DCS), and to explore colleges (public and private) offering those programs in Québec. Go to site 

Éducaloi Teaching Guides: The free teaching guides enable teachers to create their own law-related learning activity. They vary in length and in target audience. Most of them are also available in French, and can be used to teach French as a second language. Refer to the attached table which provides the title of the guide, the level, the applicable subject areas, an adapted introduction, and a link to each guide. Download 

Career Bullseyes by myfuture (Australia’s National Career Information Service, managed by Education Services Australia (ESA)): Careers are placed within a 4-level target. The outer level shows the career options which require the highest level of education, while the innermost level shows those with the least. Sign-in is required to use this tool. Go to site 

Contact us if you have resources to share for POP.

 

Updated: December 15, 2021

MEQ Resources

MEQ Program Documents (PDF on MEQ site) Go to site

Framework for the Evaluation of Learning (PDF on MEQ site) Go to Site

POP Index and POP Links: As of July 2020, the POP Index and POP Links are no longer available, however, research can still be done online. 

POP Toolkits: Please check with you school board's Career Development consultant on availability.