# Slides 2.20: Employability: Soft Skills Superpower

Lesson 2.20, Unit 2. One period. Eleven slides. The trading window (Step 1) runs on the ClassroomStreet screen, not on these slides; switch to the deck after the reset cue.

## Slide 1: Do now

- Think of the best worker you know. A relative, a coach, someone at a store or a restaurant.
- Write two things they do that make them good at their job.
- One sentence each.
- Three minutes.

Notes: Board is already up when they walk in. Collect four answers and write them in two unlabeled columns: what they can do (task) and how they work (people, problems, showing up).

## Slide 2: Trading window

- ClassroomStreet is open. Ten minutes.
- Read today's dispatch. Decide: buy, sell, or hold, now that you know what every venture really is.
- Write the Round 2, Day 1 line in your Investor Journal.
- The window closes at the reset cue.

Notes: Round 2, windows 41 to 47. Same board, same account, same rules. Answer only "how do I place a trade" questions. Note one trade decision to use as evidence in Step 3.

## Slide 3: Two columns

- Column one: what they can do. The task.
- Column two: how they work. Shows up. Explains. Helps. Fixes. Tells the truth.
- Column one is called hard skills.
- Column two is called soft skills.

Notes: Label the two columns from the do now now that the students have named them. "Everything in column two, employers say they cannot teach."

## Slide 4: The six employers name most

- Reliability
- Communication
- Teamwork
- Problem solving
- Adaptability
- Honesty

Image: six small icons in a row: a clock, two speech bubbles, a team huddle, a puzzle piece, a road with a detour arrow, a handshake.

Notes: One line each. Reliable: shows up every shift. Communication: says the order is wrong before it goes out. Teamwork: helps a coworker finish. Problem solving: finds a fix when the register freezes. Adaptability: takes a schedule change without a complaint. Honesty: reports the broken plate.

## Slide 5: What the employer actually wrote

- Job ad 1: [Sal: paste a local ad with the soft skill words highlighted]
- Job ad 2: [Sal: paste a second ad]
- Count the soft skill words in each.
- "Companies hire for hard skills and fire for soft skills."

Image: two real job postings side by side with four or five words highlighted in each.

Notes: Students believe the employer's own words more than a slide. Pick employers they recognize.

## Slide 6: The evidence rule

- A rating with no evidence does not count.
- Evidence is something you did this year in this room.
- A lab role (name it). The Silent Measurement Challenge. The $40 project. The Investor Challenge. A class job.
- Leave a row blank rather than make it up.

Notes: Say the rule twice. Model one row on Slide 7.

## Slide 7: Model row

- Skill: Teamwork
- Rating: 3
- Evidence: "As Prep Cook in Lab 2, I had the toppings ready before the Head Cook asked."
- Sentence starter: "In ___ (lab, game, or project), I ___."

Notes: Then eight minutes of silent rating. Circulate with the clipboard.

## Slide 8: The scale

- 1 = Not yet. I do not do this much.
- 2 = Sometimes.
- 3 = Most of the time.
- 4 = Every time, even when it is hard.

Image: four faces from neutral to confident under the four numbers.

Notes: Leave this up during Step 3 next to Slide 7 if two screens are available; otherwise flip between them once.

## Slide 9: One skill to grow

- Pick one skill. Not your highest.
- Where I will practice it this year (the next lab, Unit 3 babysitting, Unit 5 sewing team, a class job).
- What I will do differently (something a person could see).
- How I will know it worked.

Notes: The next lab rotates roles. A student who was Prep Cook can ask to be Station Manager. Push for a place this year, not "in high school."

## Slide 10: Pair share

- Read your plan to your partner.
- Partner asks one question: "How will you know it worked?"
- Fix your last line if the question exposed a gap.
- Finished early? Act out one of the six skills in a 30-second scene. Your table names it.
- Three minutes.

## Slide 11: Exit card

- The skill I rated highest and my evidence.
- The skill I am growing and where I will practice it.
- One soft skill I saw a classmate use today (the skill, not the name).
- Three people read line three aloud.

Notes: Sort the cards: "got it" has an event behind every rating; "needs more" has a rating with no event. Tomorrow the "needs more" students get one minute at the desk during the do now.