Unpublished

Designing the Careers Show
  1. Strand PHIL.III Philanthropy and the Individual
    1. Standard PI 02. Careers In The Nonprofit Sector
      1. Benchmark E.2 Describe a job in the civil-society and for-profit sectors.

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: 
PrintThree 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.
Materials: 

A short recorded example of a folk song about working.

Instructions: 
Print
  1. Anticipatory Set: Play a folk song for the class about working, such as "If I Had a Hammer." Have the students sing along and make movements appropriate to the occupation.

  2. 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.

  3. 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.

  4. Once the song has been written, have the group create a dance and/or simple dramatic piece to accompany the song.

  5. As each group feels they have a presentable idea, they perform it for the class to get peer suggestions for improvement.

  6. 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