In Search of Someone Special
Career Discovery in the third grade
In search of Someone Special is a series of 5 classroom guidance lessons developed at the Waterville-Elysian-Morristown school district by Karen Krause to increase the students career awareness. Karen developed this curriculum in 1998. Some adaptations have been this year to incorporate graduation standards. Each lesson is designed to be delivered in a 30-45 minute time period.
A typical lesson is as follows:
The counselor would arrange a forty-five minute time slot with the teacher. The counselor would have already made the copies of the career packets. (The packet has the main lessons of the curriculum). The packet consists of seven pages. All of these pages will not be able to be completed in one session. The first question that is asked to open the topic is "What are some jobs that you think you might want to learn more about?" This question opens up many areas for discussion. From that discussion, the counselor would lead to how each job is special and how each of the workers is special. The first worksheet has five boxes where the students can put their fingerprints down. Then they would compare their prints with their neighbor and see how each one of them is special. On the bottom of the page is a word find that has words that make them one of a kind. A few examples are sports, talent, friends, pets...
After the introduction, we discuss how people get jobs. The interview is the main area to focus on. After defining what an interview is, the teacher and counselor would role-play an interview. The students would them brainstorm questions that could be asked if they were interviewing a farmer. The counselor records them on an overhead/chalkboard. The counselor then explains that they will have the chance to interview a farmer in class. (Our school has a farmer who has gives the students a tour of his farm and then comes to the classroom to talk about being a farmer. The career could be what you choose.) The counselor then has the students take notes and record the list of questions that can be asked. On the day of the classroom visit the children will record the answers to their questions! The next sessions focus on writing a report about being a farmer and completing the last few pages of the packet.
