This week our teaching tip is from Toni Aguirre, another Master Trainer based out of Austin, Texas! Read her teaching tips on integrating job skills into the classroom below!
At the beginning of the program year, the students are excited about picking their topics for the year using the Interest Inventory cards. It isn’t a surprise that Job Occupations are always right on top of that list.
I want to share with you two activities that I’ve done in the classroom in regards to learning job skills. The first activity was done in my Advance ESL night class and it floored me that most of the occupations were almost all the same- housekeeping, construction, restaurant, and taking care of children. I knew I had to make the students aware of skills they already possessed from their everyday activities that could potentially lead them to better opportunities.
ACTIVITY 1:
After learning and talking about job occupation vocabulary, the skills and tools required in those occupations, and where those occupations could be found, I decided to create a hands-on learning environment for some of the occupations. I picked the occupations of florist, assembler, carpenter, cook, doctor and cashier. I set up stations where each occupation had a table with the materials of that occupation. I picked 3 students for each occupation and told them to keep these questions in mind as they worked on the tasks required for their occupation assigned:
- What skills do I need and use to complete the task.
- Are there any tools or materials that I need to use to help complete the tasks?
- What language am I using in this particular work environment?
- What kind of conversations did I have with the potential buyer?
- Do I already possess skills that could help me in this particular occupation?
They were given 45 minutes to work. (Our class time is only 2 hours). After time was up, students could purchase tickets from the cashier to buy the wares of certain work stations like the florist, assembler, carpenter and cook stations.
The end of class discussion was very energetic as each team reported their observations.
ACTIVITY 2: Job Skill of the Month
This idea came out as an extension of what I had done with the night class. With Beginners, you have to do more foundation. You have to challenge them to step out of their comfort zone by giving them opportunities to practice job skills in the safety of their classroom.
The first step was to get the students involved in the job skills, so I surveyed the students to see what occupations they would be most interested in and their response was something they could do at home. There suggestions were nails, gift wrapping, floral arrangements, computer, cake decorating and hair/makeup.
Students learned the vocabulary through flash cards and practiced dialogues based on their experiences with these businesses. Community leaders were also invited to come into the classroom and give demonstrations of their professions. One woman come in and explained all the tools for a manicure and their usage, and then students practiced on each other. Two former students assisted with the hair styling. One student already did actual hair styling while the other was enrolled in a beauty college for hair styling so there were two different perspectives.
The students really appreciated the close up exploration and the opportunity to get right into the occupations without any reservations.
The best part of this activity is that the review for the students is constant because when they use the businesses, their learning is renewed, thus helping to cement the information for the student.