Career & Tech Standards Support

Inspired by the Common Career Technical Core Standards1, the reference points that are bolded below can enhance your career and tech instruction.


Listen as authors and illustrators share fieldwork and technical study experiences.

  • Explore career possibilities with younger readers using resources for titles found within this Jobs People Have list.

  • View this Meet-the-Author Movie where David Macaulay reveals the inquiry process behind his research for The Way We Work.

  • Listen to the Meet-the-Author Recording for Life on Surtsey to discover why Loree Griffin Burns wrote about an island where only scientists are allowed to visit.

  • Learn more about research and Patricia Newman’s 6-year process for writing Planet Ocean in this Meet-the-Author Recording.


Empower students to pursue their goals and dreams.

  • Review The Questioneers Series by Andrea Beaty to investigate different career paths.

  • Reflect on this Meet-the-Author Movie with Christopher Paul Curtis sharing how he became a writer.

  • Discover Kwame Alexander’s inspiration for writing by listening to this Meet-the-Author Recording for The Crossover.

  • Consider this Meet-the-Author Recording with Jerry Craft as he describes his inspiration for New Kid and the hurdles he had to overcome to be the artist he is today.


Examine critical thinkers who make sense of problems and persevere to solve them.

  • Ponder the importance of perseverance with Ashley Spires’ Meet-the-Author Recording for The Most Magnificent Thing.

  • Enjoy Chris Barton’s Meet-the-Author Recording and discover his inspiration for writing Whoosh!.

  • Connect Albert Einstein to George Washington Carver as Marilyn Nelson shares the history of Carver in this Meet-the-Author Recording.

  • Use this lesson plan to facilitate discussion about water sources in your community after reading The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind by William Kamkwamba.


Learn from authors who communicate thoughts and ideas with clarity using written, verbal, and/or visual methods.

  • Tune in to this Meet-the-Author Recording for Bomb with Steve Sheinkin as he shares how his research process began with a teenage scientist who became a spy.

  • Watch Kate DiCamillo’s Meet-the-Author Movie to learn how reading aloud helps her writing process.

  • Read this Guest Author Blog Post by Gareth Hinds to discover how “Drawing a graphic novel is a bit like making a film—on your own.”

  • Consider the way Jenny Torres Sanchez adjusted her writing process to tell a story about the journey of unaccompanied minors in her Meet-the-Author Recording for We Are Not from Here.


1. Referenced from "Introduction to the Common Career Technical Core." National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium, https://cte.careertech.org/sites/default/files/CCTC_Standards_Formatted_2014.pdf.