Health Careers Adopt-a-School Curriculum

English Curriculum

On this page: Mentoring | Write an Essay | Writing Your Resume & Cover Letters

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Goals: To pursue drop-out prevention and to pursue health career education.

Objectives:

• To develop an awareness of career opportunities in the health professions and the health care industry as a whole, while building (the public’s) confidence in the health care system; and
• To create individual responsibility by educating students to the possibilities and entrance requirements needed to become a health care professional, and how decisions students make now will influence their ability to enter into these fields later.

What will the students do?
Students will research a specific health care career. They will draw a pictogram of the career. This will be either: 1) the initial program for students in a mentoring program; or 2) the basis for selecting a mentor.

What will the educators do?
Educators will enable the students to obtain information on health careers, so that they can choose one to focus on. Once selected, students will develop a pictogram in this health career.

The pictogram should include, at a minimum, information about: the stages of this career development, from entry level through professional status, and a description of credentialing process and requirements. The students will present their pictograms to the class.

The educators will assist the students in their research, creating their pictograms, and presenting them to the class.

The educators will have the opportunity to work with the mentors on the development of this pictogram. If there are no mentors, the educators can guide the students in selecting a mentor from the health career that they research.

What information is available to educators?

• Health Care Support Occupations Occupational Outlook Handbook and Health Diagnosing and Treating Professions Occupational Outlook Handbook (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics) Detailed information about 43 different health careers, including nature of the work, working conditions, employment, training requirements and advancement potential, earnings outlook, and sources of additional information.
• LifeWorks: Explore Health and Medical Science Careers (National Institutes of Health)
• 270 Ways to Put Your Talent to Work in the Health Field (paper book only) Educational requirements, salaries, future job prospects, and work settings. Index of more than 120 health associations that can provide additional information such as job listings, training programs, sources of financial aid, programs for minorities, and internships. Request a free copy by e-mail. Please be sure to include your complete mailing address.
• National Mentoring Partnership (not a U.S. Government Web site) For educators whose classes are in a mentoring program or would like to join one. Elements of effective mentoring practices, including a 10-point checklist.
• Mentor Program Handbook (not a U.S. Government Web site) Defines a mentor program, including goals, how it works, roles and responsibilities, how the relationship can be mutually beneficial, and a year’s worth of programming.
• The Nuts and Bolts of College Writing (not a U.S. Government Web site) Basic blueprints for essays, scientific papers and lab reports.
• On-Line Writing Lab (not a U.S. Government Web site) Grammar, punctuation and spelling help.

What are the activities of Business/Adopters?
Cultural enrichment: sponsor visits by health professionals; and community involvement: link projects to a health profession.

A mentor from the health profession selected by the student could provide the information necessary for the student to complete the pictogram. As a supplement to the secondary research obtained from published sources, the mentor could tell his or her own story in enabling the student to define the following parameters for a health profession: responsibilities; job outlook; training; qualifications; advancements; and related jobs.

The mentor could be located through contacts in the health care industry; State associations; professional organizations; libraries; career centers; and Internet search engines.

This activity could be the initial contact between a student or a mentor. Or if there is already an existing relationship, the mentor and student can work together on this pictogram as a joint activity.

They could use the materials provided to the educator, as well as their own resources.

What methods should the educator use to assess the effectiveness of this activity?
First, as described, each student will create a health career pictogram. This is the basis for their presentations to the class.

From the field of education, three methods of assessment are recommended, in order of effectiveness for this activity. They are oral and written expression; performance-based assessment; and pictograms and graphic organizers.

Using techniques which are frequently described as mind-mapping, pictograms are a right-brained method of organizing the answers to the questions: what I know; what I want to find out; and what I learned. This technique avoids the left-brained structure of lists, sequences, and outlines; therefore, it is a better way to enable students to effectively answer these questions. The next step in the process, which is how to structure the information, is not required in this method.

This activity meets the National Standards for English Language Arts in problem definition, research, data collection and analysis, and oral and written communication. This activity meets National Health Care (Core) Skill Standards for academic foundation, communication, and employability skills.

Goal: To pursue academic achievement; drop-out prevention; and health career education.

Objectives:

• To develop an awareness of career opportunities in the health professions and the health care industry as a whole, while building (the public’s) confidence in the health care system
• To create individual responsibility by educating students to the possibilities and entrance requirements needed to become a health care professional, and how decisions students make now will influence their ability to enter into these fields later.

What will the students do?
Students will write an essay describing a specific health field and why they are interested in this field as a possible career. Students will perform research about this specific health care as part of the preparation for writing the essay. They will also describe their motivation for this choice. The students will present their essays to the class.

What will the educators do?
Educators will teach their students how to write an essay. This skill is very important, in guiding a student to learn presentation skills. Presentation skills are important to health professionals, in recording and communicating information that can be, at times, literally a matter of life and death. Presenting the right information can lead to a timely and accurate diagnosis and treatment.

Essay writing is of increasing importance to high school students since the inclusion of Writing Exam as a third part of the SAT. This writing section is equal in value to the math and verbal sections.

Educators will enable the students to obtain information on health careers, so that they can choose one to focus on. Once selected, students will develop a pictogram in this health career.

Like the pictogram described in the mentoring activity, the essay should also include, at a minimum, information about the stages of career development, from entry level through professional status and a description of the credentialing process and requirements.

In addition to this factual information, the essay should describe the motivation for this career choice. Motivation can be based on several factors, including: someone the student admires, who they know or have read about; someone or a topic the student finds interesting; a subject area or activity that the student finds fun and enjoyable; an activity that the student finds meaningful, whether requiring the student to push themselves to be creative, leaders, etc.; or an activity that will help the student progress toward where he or she wants to be 10 years from now.

The educators will assist the students in their research, writing their essays, and presenting them to the class.

This essay can be written whether or not the students have mentors. In fact, if a student does not have a mentor, this essay could be beneficial in determining where a student should look for one.

So the educator should invite local health professionals, in the fields the students have written about, to come to school to listen to and to discuss the essays with the students.

What information is available to educators?

• On-Line Writing Lab at Purdue University (not a U.S. Government Web site)

What are the activities of Business/Adopters?
Academic Enrichment/Career Awareness by serving as a resource speaker or panel to listen to the essays; and Cultural enrichment: sponsor visits by health professionals.

Local health professionals, working in the fields the students have written about, will listen to and to discuss the essays with the students. The health professionals could create a dialogue, by responding to the students with guidance and feedback about the essays. In addition, it would be interesting to hear the health professionals share their own stories about what motivated them to pursue their health careers. This dialogue can provide guidance and encouragement to the students, and validation to the health professional for his or her career choice.

What methods should the educator use to assess the effectiveness of this activity?
First, as described, each student will create an essay describing a specific health field and why they are interested in this field as a possible career. This is the basis for their presentations to the class.

From the field of education, four methods of assessment are recommended, in order of effectiveness for this activity. They are oral and written expression; performance-based assessment; rubrics; and plan of study.

This activity meets the National Standards for English Language Arts in research, data collection and analysis, oral and written communication, using language structure and conventions to create texts, using informational resources for to create and communicate; and using language to accomplish their own purposes. This activity meets National Health Care (Core) Skill Standards for academic foundation, communication, and employability skills.

Goal: To pursue academic achievement; drop-out prevention; and health career education.

Objective: To create individual responsibility by educating students to the possibilities and entrance requirements needed to become a health care professional, and how decisions students make now will influence their ability to enter into these fields later.

What will the students do?
Students will write their resumes that will enable them to begin the process of obtaining a job, preferably in the health field. Students will prepare a general resume and one specifically designed to obtain a job with the federal government. These resumes and a cover letter will be the first documents in their portfolios.

What will the educators do?
Educators will teach their students how to write a resume. For students, this will probably be their first. By creating a good template, each student can expand on this first resume as they go to college and gain work experience.

Educators will arrange for a human resource staffer from a local hospital, health facility, or federal agency to come to the class. Educators will provide their information sources to these business/adopters before their appearances.

What information is available to educators?

• Resume Tutor at the University of Minnesota (not a U.S. Government Web site) Designed to help university employees, but many of the principles and guidelines for writing a first resume will apply to high school students too. Remember, you are using this material to educate the students as to how to create a template or foundation for their future education and employment.
• Create a Resume for the U.S. government Since 2000, approximately half the Federal workforce has become eligible for retirement. The Federal government will need bright, talented, young people to replace all of those retirees — potential job opportunities for your students.

What are the activities of Business/Adopters?
Academic Enrichment/Career Awareness by serving as a resource speaker or panel to listen to the essays; and Cultural enrichment: sponsor visits by health professionals.

Business/Adopters should perform recruiting for human resource or personnel offices at a local hospital, health facility, or Federal agency to come to the class. They will review the resumes of the students. In the course of their review, they should provide specific feedback and guidance; and general guidelines about what they are looking for in a resume. Ideally, their message in person will validate the principles that the educators taught.

What methods should the educator use to assess the effectiveness of this activity?
First, as described, each student will create private sector and Federal government resumes for seeking employment in a health field, and a cover letter.

From the field of education, two methods of assessment are recommended, in order of effectiveness for this activity. They are oral and written expression; and performance-based assessment.

This activity meets the National Standards for English Language Arts in oral and written communication; using language structure and conventions to create texts; and using language to accomplish their own purposes. This activity meets National Health Care (Core) Skill Standards for academic foundation, communication, and employability skills.