W   =

This lesson begins with the book "Career Day."  Subsequent discussions develop a common understanding of community helpers and the jobs that they do.  Students will be introduced to the expectations for the lesson including how they will be assessed.

H   =

The mystery items activity will serve as a hook for this lesson.  By capitalizing on student's natural curiosity, this activity will serve as a motivating strategy for subsequent portions of the lesson.

E   =

The third activity in this lesson draws upon what students know about jobs in their community and people who hold those jobs.  They will complete an introductory questionnaire entitled "Community Helpers Are in Your Town".  The results of this survey will allow the teacher to identify which jobs students are familiar with and which jobs about which they need additional information.  The student summative activity will be the development of a poster.

R   =

Both formative and summative assessments will hep students to reflect upon what they know regarding community helpers.  The product students will complete for this activity will be a poster about a community helper of their choice.

E   =

Students and teachers will both assess the student poster using a teacher designed rubric.

T   =

Rubrics will be adapted and students will be paired in the manner that allows all students meaningful participation in the activitiy.  All directions will be provided in both a written format and read aloud.

O   =

The underpinnings of this series of activities provide a foundation and the lessons are delivered in a traditional manner.   Culminating activities provide students with the opportunity to express what they need to know in a tactile/kinesthetic way.

Strategy

Outline

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Performance Standard 1

Recognize that we live in a community where people can hold a wide range of jobs with 85% accuracy on the introductory questionnaire.

Introduction

Read the book Career Day to the students.  Following this interactive read aloud, have a class discussion about what a community is and who makes up a community.  Using chart paper, the teacher and children can brainstorm a list of jobs/careers that the students are already familiar with and ones they learned about in the book.  This list should be posted and later edited over the next week’s lessons.

Next, present to the students the planned activities for the upcoming week:

a)      Identify jobs in the local community with an introductory questionnaire.

b)      Determine jobs being represented by mystery items.

c)      Create a poster illustrating a local career.

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Discussion/ Activity

Read Shhhhh!  Everybody’s Sleeping.  Have a discussion about different kinds of work (jobs vs. careers) in the book and others that the children know of.  Next, lead a discussion on which jobs mentioned are available in your own local community.  Talk about people they know and what jobs they have.  Make sure you add to or delete from the list that was started the previous day.

Next, provide the students with a copy of the introductory questionnaire on “Community Helpers Are In Your Town’.  Put an enlarged version in the front of the room.  Give the students a few minutes to finish the sheet on their own.  Remind them of the “word bank” at the bottom.  Tell them the beginning sound will help them choose the correct word.  Collect this sheet to grade later.  This sheet will help you determine which careers/jobs the children are already familiar with.

Next, complete the large version as a group.  Discuss the answers.  Talk about anything the children may have had trouble with.

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Performance Standard 2

Given clues, determine which community helper is being described by items in a mystery box without any errors as determined by teacher observation.

Introduction/ Discussion

Explain to the students that we live in a community.  Tell them a community must have a variety of different jobs to work/function.  Talk about why each town needs such things as schools, hospitals, stores, etc.  Talk to the students about different jobs being better for different people.  Explain that it is ok to like/want any job in your community.  Have a discussion about why it is important for people to have jobs/careers.

Following your class discussion, you can read the book Whose Hat Is This? to the children.  There are other books in the series: Whose Tools Are These? and/or Whose Boots Are These? etc.  Any book from this series is fine.  The book goes through community helpers by giving clues.  The children have to guess which helper is being represented.  The book will help prepare the children for the activity the next day!  You can excite them by telling them they will be using real clues to guess community helpers on the next school day!

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Activity

If you have time and want a read aloud to start your lesson, you could pick another book from the series mentioned above.  I will choose Whose Tools Are These? for this guide.  Remind the students that they will soon be guessing careers/jobs and that these books will get them ready!

After the story, get out your mystery box or bags.  If you have one large box, you could fill it with all the items.  If you have bags, you could put one item in each bag.  This activity will work either way!  For this guide, I will use a mystery box as an example.

Before the lesson, put about 10 items in a box that each represent a different job (see Suggested Materials for Mystery Bags).  These items could be real things or just pictures.  Do not let the students see in the box.  Call a student up to the front.  Have them reach in and pull out one thing.  Let’s say that the first student will pull out a book.  Have the other students raise their hand and guess what community helper needs a book.  When someone guesses librarian, tell them they are correct and they can come up and pull the next item out!  The second child might pull out a picture card with a garbage can on it.  Hopefully, the children will guess a trash collector.  Talk about why each answer is correct.  Also, talk about if there are any other jobs/careers that use/have that particular item.  Continue this pattern until all items have been pulled out of the box.  Make sure to observe which students are actively engaged and which students seem to be struggling.

Related SCANS/Soft Skills:  Information A, C

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Performance Standard 3

Given supplies, create a poster with writing and illustrations on an assigned community helper with 80% accuracy on the product rubric.

Introduction/ Demonstration

First, review the list of community helpers that you have been creating as a class.  Tell the students that they will be creating an informational poster on a community helper.  The poster will have facts.  The students will work in pairs.  (Show them/explain to them the product rubric so that they know what to expect.)

Next, you will need to demonstrate the informational poster.  Using a pre-bought set of community helpers, get the ‘teacher’ community helper out in front of the children.  Tell them this is the community helper you will be writing facts about as a group today.  Hang it up next to a blank white piece of construction paper on your easel.  This will be your example for the activity.

Tell the students that every poster will follow the pattern in this example because we are working on the fast words, ‘look’ and ‘here’.  Start your poster in front of them.  Write…”Look!  Here is a teacher.  She helps us learn.”  Explain to the children that every poster begins with the word “Look!”  The next sentence should start…”Here is a …”  The last sentence should be…”He/She…”  After writing the facts, the pair should illustrate their poster.  The community helper must be on the poster.  Talk about how illustrators make their work match what the author wrote.

If need be, you can verbally give the students more examples by using different community helpers.  Also, hang up this example where students can see it as they create their own poster the next day.

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Activity/ Assignment

Review your factual poster about a ‘teacher’ with the students.  Show them where the poster is in the room.  Remind them of their task and of the pattern they are to use.  Next, assign pairs.  Give each pair a pre-bought community helper, a white piece of construction paper, markers, and crayons.  They can now begin their work.

They should write their facts first and then illustrate with a picture.  These posters and pre-bought cutouts can be shared among their peers and then hung around the room.  Once hanging, you can walk around and assess each poster using the product rubric.

I have attached a picture of an example of the informational posters that I created in my classroom.  Your posters can look like this or however works best for you!

Related Academic Skills:  1.5.3B

Related SCANS/Soft Skills:  Information A, B, C; Interpersonal A

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