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Designing the Careers Show

Lesson 3:

From Unit Exploring Nonprofit Careers

Lesson

Handouts

Academic Standards

Philanthropy Framework

3rd-5th Grade

Subjects:

Arts, Language Arts, Library / Technology, Philanthropy and Social Studies

Key Words/Concepts click to view

ART-D:	Dance: Create/Communicate; Dance: Perform
ART-M:	Music: Create/Communicate
ART-T:	Theater: Create/Communicate; Theater: Perform
ELA:	Presentations
PHIL:	Career Opportunities; For-Profit; Nonprofit
SOC:	Goods and Services

Purpose:

To use the information the students have collected to create a song about their career of interest and design an accompanying dance and/or drama.

Duration:

Three Forty-Five Minute Class Periods

Objectives:

The learner will:

form a group of students with similar career interests.
select a familiar melody that can be “piggy-backed” to create a song that tells about his/her chosen career and write the parody.
design a dance and/or dramatic vignette that will illustrate the song.
perform the vignette for the class.
as part of a group, decide on a logical order to present the vignettes to create a complete production to be presented to a student, parent, and/or community audience.

Service Experience:

Although this lesson contains a service project example, decisions about service plans and implementation should be made by students, as age appropriate.

The students will work as a whole group, using a decision-making process, to put the segments together as a coordinated production to be presented to an audience.

Materials:

A short recorded example of a folk song about working.

Instructional Procedure(s):

Anticipatory Set:
Play a folk song for the class about working. Have the students sing along and make movements appropriate to the occupation.

Have students with the same occupational interests sit together as a team. They will brainstorm a list of familiar songs and choose one song to use for the melody of the song they will write together. Then they should compile a group list of interesting information about the career they researched in the last class period. Give the students a list of facts that must be included in their songs. See Assessment below.
The students will work with a team to write the career facts to the chosen melody. They will create a “piggy-back” song (a familiar song with altered lyrics) about their chosen career.
Once the song has been written, have the group create a dance and/or simple dramatic piece to accompany the song.
As each group feels they have a presentable idea, they perform it for the class to get peer suggestions for improvement.
Once the vignettes are to a level of group satisfaction, the class should work together to decide the logical order to put the pieces together for a complete production to be performed for students, parents, and community.

Assessment:

The teacher should observe the students’ level of participation in the team effort and cooperation. Observe the student’s ability to write about the career as well as choose meaningful words to fit the melody. The following facts must be included in each song:

Name and description of the occupation
Profit or nonprofit status and how that affects the job or work environment
Interests or skills needed to enter this field
History of the occupation
Whether the occupation is viable locally in regards to available resources
Resources required to produce the good or service

Lesson Developed and Piloted by:

Nancy Wolff
Watervliet Public Schools
North Elementary School
Watervliet, MI 49098

Handouts:

Academic Standards:

State:

Philanthropy Framework:

Unit Contents:

Overview:Exploring Nonprofit Careers Summary

Lessons:

1.: Nonprofit and Profit Careers
2.: Researching Careers
3.: Designing the Careers Show
4.: In Production
5.: Showtime! Profit or Non