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Question 16
I have a question. I am a school board member in a small New England
town. We are supporting the School-to-Work initiative. Our team has proposed
the students that choose to or are "qualified" to, work the last
five weeks of their senior year instead of attending classes. They will
keep a log and write a paper about their experiences and receive credit
for this. I wonder if this course is too intense (five thirty hour weeks)
and whether or not there is enough of the contact needed between school
and work. What do you think?
STW Wizard Strategies
Strategy 1
Past experience in our local STW efforts proved that daily contact with
the school produced better student and workplace success than when students
are "cut loose" for long periods of time without daily school
contact. A definite connection (the "connecting activities" component
of STW) between school and workplace needs to be maintained, otherwise the
student takes on the unfair burden of being "the slender thread that
connects school-based learning and work-based learning."
Ten other items we learned:
- Students are happiest at the worksite when kept busy in a variety of
tasks;
- Establish specific attendance policies and explain to students, parents
and workplace contact;
- Give workplace experience a purpose by have learning objectives in
place prior to starting;
- Try to have only one student per worksite, and have them share or "show
and tell" what they are doing with the other students; 5) Provide
some type of orientation/training about the project and working with students
to the workplace contacts;
- Have school staff visit the worksites on a regular basis to make sure
things are going as planned (once a week is not too often);
- Publicly recognize and thank employers for partnering on the project;
- Start small and build from there;
- Evaluate and gather feedback from everyone involved; and
- Thank the employers again.
Hope this helps. It sounds like an exciting project. Good luck!
Strategy 2
Dear School Board Member:
The senior year internship program sounds like it has the potential to
be a great learning experience--an opportunity for seniors to apply some
of the practical skills they have developed in high school. I think you
need to make a conscientious effort, however, to create the learning part
of the experience so it does not just become "time off" for seniors:
- Begin by having seniors propose an internship location/company in a
career field they have a genuine interest in pursuing. Do you do career
interest inventories and aptitude evaluations during high school to steer
them into areas that are appropriate?
- Have them make a list of things they wish to explore, problems they
wish to solve, goals they wish to accomplish during the internship (pre-planning).
- Have them keep a daily journal of the experience, noting positive and
negative experiences, problems encountered, goals achieved, etc.
- Keep in touch with the employer and have him/her participate in the
student evaluation--give useful feedback to the student.
- Have the student reflect upon the experience by writing a 500-word
essay summarizing what learning took place, how they applied their high
school skills, what areas they feel they need to improve, etc.
You may want to emphasize that five weeks is a long time unless a useful
and challenging experience is identified. Otherwise, I think it is great.
Another idea would be for a month-long service learning activity. Good luck!
Strategy 3
There are a number of things that must be considered in determining an
answer. What is the student's functional level? What is the setting? What
are the job tasks? What training is provided on-site? What level of autonomy
is expected? Is assistive technology utilized? Are job coaches involved?
The more technical the task, the longer the time required to master it.
The lower the cognitive function of the child the more repetition is required
to learn a skill. The more unfamiliar the task the longer the time required
to adapt and learn the new behaviors and task skill. etc.
Strategy 4
This seems awfully late! How about doing the same thing when students
are 16 so they can then take high school courses and plan their future based
on the results of their work based learning experience? I also think that
most seniors nearing the end of their school years want to be together,
not spread out over industries and businesses.
Strategy 5
My concern is that we will not have the opportunity to connect the real
world work experiences with the school-based learning because this model
is the last five weeks before graduation. The retention of knowledge increases
when we connect school-based and work-based learning.
Strategy 6
This sounds like an excellent opportunity! A few suggestions to make
this worthwhile for students:
- Consider offering this over a period of several years - say from 10th
grade through 12th grade. Offer shorter, less intense experiences early
on, with more support, and gradually increase the amount of time and the
independence of the students each year. By 12th grade the students will
have a better idea of what they like and what they want to pursue next.
- Offer a variety of work experience opportunities to choose from. By
their senior year, students have then had a chance to try different work
experiences and may be able to choose a final experience that supports
what they may want to pursue after high school, through further training.
- Ensure that this experience is offered to every learner, regardless
of their "perceived" potential. Setting "qualifications"
may automatically disqualify certain students because of testing, course
requirements, etc. Set a standard that every student who chooses to participate
in this work experience opportunity. Period.
- Ensure that this activity is directly connected to assignments in school,
so that students have support and follow-up related to their work experience
and so that they can see the connection between school and work. This also
would allow them to express concerns, develop their next steps, and share
this experience with other students.
- Consider pairing students with a mentor at their work experience site,
so that they have support and someone to talk with when they have questions,
ideas, or concerns.
Good luck and I hope the school board can encourage further development
and expansion of this opportunity!
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