Experiencing the Community
Seldom does a
person go to work and simply do math all day. The same is true for reading and writing and
speaking as well as other subject areas.
When schools separate these subject areas they are only doing half of
their job. The generalization of
information gives education as well as the individual skills developed, meaning
and relevance. What better way to
develop the whole child than to take learning into the community.
Chosen by
students, business and industry can make a valuable lesson not only for the
subject matter involved but for the chance to explore a potential job
situation. So many students fail and are
pushed into the streets because of a lack of passion for their future. With community experiences, the student can
develop that passion by visiting actual job situations allowing them to expand
their minds and interests.
Objectives of a
community experience:
Ø
To
give students the opportunity to learn outside the school building
Ø
To
encourage students to accept learning as a global experience
Ø
To
introduce students to jobs, careers, projects, activities, and news that is
happening in the community
Ø
To
incorporate academics into every day experiences to make it real.
To begin,
students must be fully involved in the planning of the community
experience. It is their interests that
must be explored and their horizons that must be broadened. To arrange for the visit, the student takes
the lead by calling the worksite and making the proper preparations. The student becomes the contact be it a visit
to a local factory or the mayor, governor or president. The students as a group make a decision based
on a consensus.
Next, prepare
the students for the trip by teaching the social skills necessary and
appropriate for the specific visit. How
would they respond in a businesslike manner in a specific company?
To accomplish
this we must teach academic skills pertinent to the experience. If mathematics is used frequently on the job,
make that the fundamental academic area covered with the lessons relating to
the specific jobs students will be seeing.
Have students do
research on the specific jobs they will be visiting. Here we build reading, writing and speaking
into the activity. Research on the
internet is faster and more effective than ever. Each student does her/his own individual
research guided by teacher questions preparing their information for a class
presentation. Students develop their
projects by reading research on the specific business to be visited, writing a
short paper on the subject and making a presentation to the class members. This would then lead to a discussion by class
members and eventually specifics, including specific questions to be ask the
experts at the site.
After questions are
prepared and student interests are explored, the students prepare for the
actual visit. All students will have a
list of questions to ask, will have notebooks to record their responses and
cameras to take pictures, where allowed, of the activities of the variety of
employees working for the company. In
most companies students will be amazed at the wide variety of jobs available
from management to department personnel, to maintenance staff.
Returning from
the job site students continue with their social skills by individually writing
business style thank you letters to the appropriate personnel. They then begin the discussion of their
visit. What was important, what did they
learn what did they gain from their visit are good questions to ask. Back in the classroom, the students work
together to develop a short presentation, utilizing photos or videos to
summarizing their experience. This
presentation, in front of a video camera with all students playing a role, will
allow this activity to be experienced by other classes in the future.
Why a community
experience? Try this out for size. Dissect an activity you do on a daily
basis. This could be your job, a hobby,
managing a budget, making a meal or playing in a concert. Anything worth doing would be valuable. Now take the activity and break it down in
separate parts. Teach it to someone in
parts with them taking notes and give them a multiple choice bubble test after
each part is completed. Not only is the
difficulty factor increased for those learning, their ability to really learn
is hampered. Does this sound drab and
dull to you? Does this lead to the
student igniting their passion for learning?
Does this lead to the student feeling stupid and wanting to give
up? Then why do we do it?
More detailed
information as well as lesson plans for other activities can be found in our book,
“Saving Students From A Shattered System” at www.wholechildreform.com
A little side
note for administrators. So you think
doing this on a regular basis will be an administrative headache? Covering teachers classes as they leave the
building, paying more for teacher coverage?
Think again. Remember block
scheduling? Some say it failed but that
was because teachers were doing the same chalkboard talk within those
parameters. 90 minutes is plenty of time
to get to a job site, visit it and return.
And think how many projects can be done during that time without the
ding dong interrupting.
