ED3601 CTS Module Plan Assignment

Component 1: Description and Rationale

Student Teacher: Michael Krokosh

CTS Module MAM 3130 Agricultural Marketing
CTS Cluster Business, Administration, Finance & Technology
Occupational Management & Marketing
Area
Level Advanced

Description: (address what your module plan design is all about)

Program:
o Vision, Philosophy and Rationale of CTS:
The vision of CTS is to help students identify future career paths and provide them
the learning opportunities to gain skills needed to excel in these fields. This is
accomplished by engaging students in learning opportunities through which they
discover their interests in practical and purposeful ways. Through the CTS program,
students are provided with opportunities to identify and explore their interests, and
build partnerships with community members while developing basic competencies.
CTS courses enable students to make reasoned and effective career decisions and
target efforts to meet their goals. Students will have opportunities to expand their
knowledge about careers, occupations and job opportunities. Competencies
achieved by mastering CTS course outcomes, will allow students to make relevant
connections with work and/or post-secondary training.
o Relationship between CTS Module, Cluster, Occupational Area, Level, and Pathway:
There are over 1,400 modules of potential study in the CTS program of study. Each
of these can be offered to high school students as they desire to attain certain
knowledge and understanding. They are bundled in 28 occupational areas which all
have common learning themes. These occupational areas are contained within 5
generalized clusters of study. As students begin to gain an understanding of what
they want to study they can expand their pathways in the CTS program selecting
courses of interest for them.
The previously addressed MAM 3130 is a module course offered in the Management
and Marketing occupational area, within the BIT Cluster. Its aim is to provide
students the opportunity to gain knowledge in the agriculture marketing field.
o Prerequisite Courses, Supporting Courses, Project Courses:
Prerequisite courses are those offered in earlier levels of course pathways. These
courses would be needed before a student can enroll in a later course. If a course
has a prerequisite, a student would need to complete it before enrolling in the
course that follows. Supporting courses are those that can be offered together with
another course. These courses have aligning learning outcomes and can be offered
at the same time. Project courses are like supporting courses as they are offered at
the same time. However, they do not have the same quantity of learning outcomes.
Instead they allow students to experience a project in the same occupational area
as they course they are currently taking. Project courses connect multiple modules
and show students the interrelatedness between them.
MAM 3130 has no prerequisite courses. It does have a potential supporting course;
MAM 1010: Marketing and Management. An example of a project course that could
be taken together would be MAM 3910: MAM Project D.
o Program Intent / Big Ideas / Enduring Understanding(s):
20 years from now, students should know or be able to
The big idea that should be an understanding through taking this course is that
Agricultural Marketing is big business, and has an employment demand. There
seems to be a bias in the province towards oil and gas employment for many young
people. They believe that agriculture is too small of a business, or that they know
nothing about it. I want students to understand that just because they did not grow
up on a farm, they can still find many employment opportunities in this industry.
Much like the many people who work in the oil and gas industry did not grow up in
the oil patch and still found themselves employed in that industry. Agricultural
Marketing is a skill that can be learned and honed over a lifetime.
 Also, I would like students to understand some of the impacts that their purchasing
decisions can have. They are the future demand in the agriculture industry and they
need to understand their place in agricultural marketing. Their buying options,
whether local or not, will impact the supply side of the industry. This understanding
will come as they analyze open and closed market structures and identify their
benefits and costs.
o Essential Question(s):
What are the strengths and weaknesses for the producers, and society, of an open
and closed marketplace?
What are the impacts of an open vs. closed marketplace for agricultural marketing,
what are the opportunities and threats?
What impacts can effective agricultural marketing have for an ag-business and a
community?
School:
o High School Completion, Inclusion, Literacy/Numeracy:
In many schools, especially rural schools, there are students who are interested in
the agricultural industry. These students may not see school as a place they want to
be and would rather be out working with their hands. In many schools, there are
opportunities for students to kinesthetically learn. Those same students many find
interest in learning more academically, about agricultural marketing. These students
may find interest in the agricultural twist this course offers on traditional marketing
theory. This may intrigue them and generate increased engagement. They will then
learn some of the literacy and numeracy skills associated with management and
marketing, while being intrigued to do so from an agricultural entry point.
o Safety:
Safety could become a concern for this course if a producer audience trip was
planned while conducting interview. During the interview process, any students who
planned to visit their business operation would be given specific guidelines to follow
that complied with school and district policies.
Also, technology stewardship will need to be practiced while conducting online
research. Monitoring of students online presence would occur daily in the form of
teacher observation. If any issues arrived regarding abuse of student privileges,
appropriate consequence would occur.
o Student Engagement:
Choice:
Students have the choice to study a subject topic of interest. This course will be
taken by students who have an interest in it. Students who do not know a great
deal about this content area before entering the course will gain knowledge and
understanding in the first assignment. They will then have the chance to
research and build a marketing plan for an agricultural operator of their choice.
This authentic consultation process will build a great deal of choice into this
module plan and increase student engagement.
Flexibility:
Flexibility will be provided as students experience the project component of this
assignment. During the creation of their marketing plan they will get to select
an agri-business of their choice. This could include a service or commodity
production operation. Students will then have to act flexibly while obtaining
information for their business. They can either simply conduct their interview
over the phone or email. Or, they could invite their producer to the school for an
in-person meeting. The students will need to show flexibility and maturity
during this process as they learn the service skills associated with consulting.
Although these skills are not directly assessed, they will be reflected in the
summative assessment of the marketing plan rubric.
Authenticity:
Any agri-business operating in a modern open or closed marketplace will need
to develop and adhere to a marketing plan. As students work through the
process of creating a plan, this is a skill that has real world application. Having
developed the skills to conduct an authentic agricultural marketing plan is a
 skill set transferrable to creating marketing plans in other industry outside of
agriculture, including; services, industries, commodities, and products.
Experiential:
Students will get to experiment with the variables included within a marketing
plan. Including production levels and spot prices.
Culture and Community Integration:
Agriculture is a major business driver in many communities across the province.
Integrating this knowledge into their local communities is very applicable.
Technology-infused:
The creation of the ag marketing plan could be complete using word processing.
Also, much of the research for pricing will be conducted online to increase the
validity of the data.

Module Plan:
o Assessment Priorities:
1) Marketing Knowledge
This assignment is planned first, so that all students can explore and learn basic
level competencies which they can then build on. First, students will be assigned
a set of outcomes. They will then be tasked with building a presentation of any
media to explain these outcomes. The actual presentation is a formative
assignment, and will not be delivered. It will be used as an informational activity
for the students. After working through this process students will be prepared to
write a quiz that covers the same outcomes. This quiz will be blueprinted to
cover the same outcomes in the same cognitive level that the students learnt
the outcomes. This understanding of these outcomes will allow students to find
success on later sequenced assignments.
2) Applicability of open and closed market structures
This assignment is designed to develop evaluate level thinking in the student
about reasons for different market structures. This level of cognitive thinking is
based on the related outcomes, and will help students later when developing
their marketing plans. Students will be assigned a specific commodity or service
in the agriculture industry, and be tasked with identifying appropriate market
structures. Then as all students get the opportunity to present their positions
they will have a chance to hear research on many commodity types. This
assignment will help students assess industry segments, and utilize the evaluate
cognitive level which is appropriate for the aligned outcomes.
3) Producer consultation process
Students will be given the opportunity to identify and ask questions of a local
producer or service provider to then build their marketing plan for. This
assignment will take place after students have been shown an overview of their
marketing plan assignment, this will help them identify what information they
will need. They will create a list of questions to gain insight in production
numbers, currently marketing strategies, market structure, and organizational
structure. This information will then help then build an authentic marketing plan
for an operating business. Also, the opportunity to work and discuss with a
business member in the community is an experience that a student can learn a
great deal from.
4) Agriculture Marketing plan creation
There have been multiple resources identified that students can use to build
their marketing plan. They will also be provided with a performance assessment
task lesson that outlines components they need to include. They will then have a
chance to format and create a plan based on their creation decisions. This will
align with the create level cognitive thinking that the aligned outcomes are
designed to hit. Students will work on this project and have the choice in
formatting a structure of their plan. They will be made aware early on that they
will be sharing their plan with the producers whose organization they built it for.
Knowing that their work will be shared will induce accountability, and increase
engagement as they work on the project.
o Learning Sequence:
 1) Welcome/ Career Connection/ Student Background Mini-Poster
2) Marketing Understanding Presentation Creation
3) Knowledge Level Quiz
4) Marketing Structure Factors Presentation Creation
5) Presentation Peer Review
6) Presentation Delivered
7) Marketing Plan Overview
8) Audience Consultation
9) Marketing Plan Creation
10) Marketing Plan Presentation

Rationale: (address why your design is important and your reasoning for specific
design choices)
Students:
o Alignment with student goals and needs:
Students taking this course will be generally be interested in agriculture but may
not have a firm understanding of employing marketing strategies and techniques.
There may also be students entering the course from an opposite mindset, having
taken many MAM modules, but not having a firm understanding of agriculture as a
business. Designing this course to accommodate for both types of student will be
important for the design of an effective module.
o Inclusive elements:
It is important to design the course to engage both students who come from a
management background, and from an agricultural background. Being an
agricultural business course it is designed to attract both groups of students. To
make it an inclusive course both perspectives need to be considered.
Also, students entering this course may have different political and social
perspectives. They may have a philosophical bias for either open or closed
marketplaces. These discussions will therefore need to be accommodative of all
perspectives.
I will also promote the principal of equality rather than sameness in my class. This
means providing students with what they need to succeed individually, rather than
providing every student with the same supports. Early in the module, I would
explain that everyone coming into this course will have a different background.
Therefore, every student will need a different level of instruction to challenge
themselves in their respective learning process. This instruction level will be
reflective of response provided in the exit slips. This will allow both assessment and
instructional accommodations to be perceived as fair by all students.
Also, students will then feel the freedom to take risks because of the emotional and
intellectual safety they will feel. Much of the learning will occur in a social
environment. Although, the projects will be primarily completed individually, the
enabling tasks that lead up to the calmative tasks will be completed in whole group.
For example, In the first formative assignment where students develop a media to
learn outcomes for the quiz, classroom collaboration will be promoted. When it
comes to the final marketing plan students will be made aware early on that this will
be eventually be shared with the producer they have consulted with. Knowing that
their project work will be shared will increase engagement and create a sense of
audience for the students. The final project is a very authentic learning process
dealing directly with an operating business. Being so authentic is another way that
this project will increase student engagement.
o Career awareness, skill development, successful transitions:
 Career awareness will be developed during this course as students will see potential
career paths they could follow. Showing different career paths that agricultural
marketing could branch into.
The skills developed during this module will be transferable to other MAM programs
of study. Marketing, is a form of communication that could help students in many
career paths. Developing skills of product branding could help with many other
industry marketing plans.
Successful transitions would be built into this course through showing students how
this work is applicable to many career paths. Individuals who specialize in both
marketing and agriculture are in high demand. Students will understand that if this
is an area of work that they enjoy there are areas of employment for them to pursue
after high school. This will help facilitate a successful transition for students moving
from this advanced level module to career pathways after high school.
Teacher:
o Fair and Balanced Assessment:
To promote fair and balanced assessment for all students, the assessment plan for
MAM 3130: Agriculture Marketing was developed with Universal Design for Learning
in mind. All outcomes from the agriculture marketing program of study were
analyzed per their content, context, and condition along with their respective
intended level of cognition. During analysis, they were grouped into clusters that
could be assessed using the same cognitive levels. The six cognitive levels used
during analysis were Knowledge, Understand, Apply, Analyze, Evaluate, Create.
Outcomes were then categorized to allow for integrated assessment planning to be
effective.

o Explain Outcome Cluster Decisions:

The clustering of outcomes from this course occurred in 4 distinct groupings. They
were clustered based on their identity as a group. Rather, then on their individual
merits.
- The first group consists of outcomes that pertain to marketing concepts. The
assessment that correlates with them is based around marketing philosophy and
definition knowledge. These are primarily assessed using the quiz. They are learnt
using the student constructed presentations and are knowledge level. These
outcome understandings are required for students to pursue the marketing plan
that is created later in the module. Students entering this course may have different
levels of outcome understanding depending on their background. The way in which
these are learnt and assessed will allow for all students to gain the understandings
of these outcomes required to find success in the module.
- The second group of outcomes are evaluate level cognitive thinking. They will
require students to utilize the Evaluate level as they assess a specific segment of
the agriculture industry. This will occur as they judge benefits and costs of
open/closed market systems, and recommend structures based on commodity
production and service type. The enabling and cumulative activity related to these
outcomes will have students evaluate and recommended appropriate market
structures. They will also be presenting and defending their positions.
- The third group of outcomes pertain to the creation of the marketing plan. For
these, students will be tasked with the authentic creation of an agricultural
marketing plan. Overall in the lesson sequence, students spend the most time
working towards the learning of these outcomes. This is appropriate however,
because the intent of this module is to provide students the skills and attributes
required to identify potential career connections and foster transitions. Being able to
create an agricultural marketing plan is a skill set that employers are actively
seeking in the marketplace.
- The fourth grouping of competencies are those that are contained in every CTS
module. They are specifically addressed in this integrated assessment plan when
students participate in the consultation process with the agriculture producer or
service provider. In this process, students are seeking out and demonstrating
fundamental skills of professional management. Students who transition into a
 marketing career will need to have skills working with a client. Getting the
opportunity to communicate and procure information from a client is a very
beneficial experience. They are addressed in four different tasks during this module.
Each time they are addressed it is at the cognitive level that is associated with the
assignment. This is appropriate because these outcomes are intended to be
understand at multiple levels for students. These are the outcomes that will help
them move forward in their career transitions. To do that, they need to understand
them at multiple levels.
o Specific SLO Cluster Choices:
For the most part the program of study was written in an order to accommodate this
four-level grouping of outcomes. There were however some specific decisions made:
SLO 1.1 and 1.2 were taken from the first grouping and added to the second cluster.
This occurred because the illustration of supply and demand fits better with the
evaluate applicability factors presentation. Also, the outcome addresses factors that
contribute to changes. This aligns more closely with evaluating; as appraising,
deciding, and critiquing.
SLO 2.3 and 2.5 were also taken from the first grouping and added to the second
cluster. This occurred because both outcomes deal with evaluating macro-economic
factors, such as, societal impacts on marketing considerations in SLO 2.3. Also, SLO
2.5 is about evaluating trade and transportation policies. These considerations
impact market structure considerations, which is a main evaluation component of
the assignment aligned with this cluster of outcomes.
SLO 3.1 was another exception. This outcome has more to do with marketing
concepts then it does analysis of market structure. Therefore, it aligns more closely
with the assessment that is knowledge cognitive level. This outcome will be better
assessed using the knowledge quiz then with the evaluation presentation.
o Explain how your specialized knowledge enriches student learning within this
module:
I grew up on a family farm and was involved from an early age in conversations
involving agricultural marketing. I also have a bachelor of management degree
where I specialized in financial management. In finance, the focus is on trading
equities among other facets. During my study of equity trading I studied derivative
trading, where much option trading occurs in the agricultural industry.
After graduation from University, I worked for two years at an agricultural
management consulting firm. During that time, I consulted on many matters
pertaining to agricultural finance. Including; ag-marketing, ag-valuations, ag-asset
management, ag-transition planning.
My life and education experiences position me well to add value to this class for my
students, as they experience ag-marketing. As students work through this module, I
will be able to help them learn objectives in a way that will create a meaningful and
authentic experience for them.

Resource List
http://www.agmrc.org/

http://www.mplans.com/agriculture_produce_farm_marketing_plan/executive_
summary_fc.php

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/sorec/sites/default/files/documents/Marketi
ngPlan.pdf