ࡱ> 5@ Qbjbj22 (XXI       ^***8+:+^3V*,*,@,@,@,@,@,@,F3H3H3H3H3H3H3$5Ro7l3 @,@,@,@,@,l3  @,@,3000@, @, @,F30@,F30j0j0  j0@,, Pi7b*<.Rj00303j08.r8j0|    8 j0H@,@,0@,@,@,@,@,l3l3^^D'*D0^^*Running Head: CAREER RELATED LITERATURE MAKES A DIFFERENCE Career Related Literature Makes a Difference Amy Beth Gregory Appalachian State University: RE 5140 Career Related Literature Makes a Difference What do you want to be when you grow up? This question has been asked of children since the beginning of careers. By asking this question, adults communicate that children should have a life dream or goal. As a teacher, this is a question I often ask of my 4th grade students. When I was in 4th grade I could readily answer the question with various jobs I felt I would be interested in. I wanted to do it all: fight fires, heal animals, take care of babies, teach children, and own a book business. I did not achieve all my childhood goals, but it was crucial as a child that I had aspirations. Having these dreams motivated me to do well in school and develop a work ethic which would carry me into the work force. My career education research is in response to my 4th grade students and their lack of career oriented goals. My students fantasize about what they want to have when they grow up: a nice car, a pool, and a mansion, but they do not dream about what they want to spend their time doing. Why is this a problem? This is a problem, because my students lack goals for the future, and motivation to do well in school. They do not recognize that their performance in 4th grade is related to their success in upper grades, high school, and eventually the work force. I feel that the purpose of education is to prepare students for the future, specifically a career, and yet this preparation or awareness is not evident in my own classroom. So I directed my research toward this question: how will career oriented literature raise occupational awareness and academic motivation in my fourth grade class? In order to raise awareness of career options I designed a career unit to deliver to the 18 students in my 4th grade class. A basket of career related books were collected and placed in an area of easy access. The students were encouraged to keep track of each career book they read. To conclude the unit, I conducted a 45 minute book pass with a new set of career books, followed by a short writing prompt about career books. The result of this career unit accomplished my goal. For the first part of my goal: to raise career awareness in my students, students responded to the career books with appropriate enthusiasm and curiosity, which caused them to think further about career goals. In addition, for the second part of my goal: to raise academic motivation in my students reading habits increased during our career unit. Review of Literature While conducting my research, I sought out opinions, theories and ideas of other researchers who have studied career education. The bulk of the research I found declares that career education is important and should be integrated into elementary classrooms. Career exploration is vital for any elementary child (Ediger, 1999). One research team feels that our responsibility as adults in the lives of children and young adults is to provide many and varied developmentally appropriate opportunities for career awareness, career exploration and the development of life career planning skills (Magnuson & Starr, 2000). Such activities ought to begin in the primary grades (Harkins, 2001). Some even agree that it is never too early to begin teaching children about occupations (Magnuson & Starr, 2000). For example, Gottfredson (1981) theorizes that career awareness comes in four orientation stages. In the first stage (ages 3-5) children think concretely about jobs, focusing mostly on the size and power of the adults around them. Ages 6 to 8 comprise the second stage in which children are preoccupied with gender role differences in a career. Gottfredsons (1981) third stage states that children in the age range of 9 to 13 years begin to explore the social value and status differences in jobs. Finally, the fourth stage occurring in children age 14 and older shows children choosing occupations which match their individual personalities, keeping in mind their interests, talents and needs (Gottfredson, 1981). The shift of thinking revolving around careers is also described as such: How children describe occupations may also change over time, with elementary school chileren more likely to describe occupations in terms of their activities and behaviors, and older children more likely to focus on interestes, aptitudes and abilities. (Borgen & Young, as cited in McMahon & Watson, 2005). With this knowledge, a teacher must then create an appropriate curriculum in the classroom to foster career awareness. One study discovered that children have a need to know about life/career implications and life/career management tasks and a lesser need to know about interests and personal characteristics and the nature of work (McMahon & Watson, 2005). In other words, a teacher must develop a plan to inform students about how a career will affect their lives and how to maintain a career. I focused my curriculum on allowing students to gather information. I chose a medium through which my class could gather this information about careers: literature. Researchers agree that literature is an appropriate way to drive home important skills. Magnuson and Starr (2000) suggest making career literature readily available to induce student interest during free time. In addition, literature provides multiple opportunities for career education, including energizing learning, enhancing comprehension, answering occupational questions, stimulating interest, growing ideas and more (Harkins, 2001). Ediger (1999) cites five reasons why literature in schools should be quality, and one of these reasons is the fact that literature can give students insight into the work force. In light of all these findings, my personal goal was to see how career oriented literature would work to raise occupational awareness and academic motivation in my fourth grade class? Methods Participants I began the career unit on November 7, 2005 in my 4th grade class. This study includes data from 18 students who range in age from 8 to 10. The group is comprised of 4 African American, 7 Hispanic, 1 Vietnamese, and 6 White students. The majority of these students come from low SES backgrounds. Data The data I collected for this study include the record of books read during a seven day period. Also, a response to the writing prompt: I like reading career books because The last set of data I collected were personal notes about students actions an comments during the reading. Procedures I introduced the students to career books, explaining that these books would be a good tool to use to find out information about various jobs. I placed 33 career-related books in a basket on the shelf beside my classroom library. I also gave each student a copy of the 33 book titles (see Appendix A). The class instructions were write your initials beside the title of the books you choose to read. Other managerial instructions were given as well, including: only two students at a time may check out a book, only check out one book at a time, do not take the books home. No specifications were made as to how long students may keep books, or how many books students may read. After my introduction on November 7 I did not mention career books again until November 14. On November 14, I counted the career books left in the basket and asked students to raise their hand if they still had a career book at their desk. The purpose of this was twofold. First, to make sure none of the books were missing and second, to remind students that the career books were still available in the library. I repeated this process on November 21. My final day of career related research was November 28. On this day I collected all career books that remained in student desks. I also took up the book title sheets with student initials. Then, I gave each student a career book from a set of books they had not seen before. These books were checked out from the Patrick Beaver Memorial Library and included careers not previously addressed in the original set of career books (for a list of titles see Appendix B.) The students were given 45 minutes to read as many career books as they desired. When a student finished with book 1, he/she placed it on a table and chose another, making book 1 available to other students. At then end of this reading time, students were given a blank sheet of paper and instructed to finish the following prompt: I like to read career books because These papers were collected after 10 minutes. Analyzing the data After collecting the data, I tallied up the number of career books read by my students between November 14 and November 28 (due to Thanksgiving break this was only a 7-day period.) I analyzed this to see which books were most popular. In addition, I used the responses to the I like to read career books prompt to find common themes. I also looked at my observational notes of student comments and actions throughout the unit for additional information. Results Data was not collected from all 18 students who participated in the study. Two students lost the paper on which they were to record the titles they read and two students failed to record titles even though they read. In addition, two students did not complete the final prompt, one was due to absence, and the other student chose not to participate in that aspect of the study. The results of the childrens literature portion of my research show that during 7 days of reading career books, the students in my class read 79 of these books. Table 1 shows the break down of which books and categories of books were most popular. As for responses to the prompt: I like reading career books because... My students fit into three common themes: Career books are interesting, Career books will help me find a job, and Career books tell about a specific job I wanted to know about. In addition, I my observational notes reveal that during this unit, several students asked the school librarian for more career related literature. Students approached me to ask for career books on specific occupations. At the end of the unit when I returned the books to the library several students check the books out again. Discussion I began my research asking how will career oriented books raise occupational awareness and academic motivation in my fourth grade class? I did not have a baseline figure for how much occupational awareness or academic motivation my students had to begin with, except that when asked at the beginning of the year, most students could not tell me what they want to be when they grow up. Both occupational awareness and academic motivation are fluid ideas, but in this study, I used career oriented books to direct student attention to such issues. The childrens literature data not only shows a heightened occupational awareness, but also an increase in academic motivation. The fact that within 7 days my students read 79 books shows their drive for occupational awareness. It also shows that they were academically motivated to read for this awareness. Table 1 Career Books the 4th Graders Read Book/Category TitleBook TotalCategory TotalFire Fighter books9Im going to be a fire fighter: Edith Kunhardt Community Helpers: Fire Fighters Dee Ready A day in the life of a fire fighter: Linda Hayward A day in the Life of a Fire Fighter: Heather Adamson Fighting Fires: Seymour Simon 1 0 2 4 2Police Officer Books16Im going to be a police officer: Edith Kunhardt A day in the life of a police officer: Heather Adamson A Day in the Life of a Police Officer: Linda Hayward Keeping you Safe: A book about police officers Ann Owen1 2 5 8Jobs with Animals2Im going to be a Vet: Edith Kunhardt Im going to be a farmer: Edith Kunhardt2 0Jobs with the News4Newspapers: A new True book I can be a reporter: Christine Maloney A day in the life of a reporter: Linda Hayward Deadline! From News to Newspaper Risky Business: Photojournalist: Keith Greenberg0 1 1 1 1Garbage Collector Books2A day in the life of a Garbage Collector: Nate LeBoutiller Community Helpers: Garbage Collectors: Tami Deedrick1 1Jobs at a School11Community Helpers: Teachers Tami Deedrick A day in the Life of a Teacher: Heather Adamson A Day in the Life of a Teacher: Linda Hayward A day in the life of a Librarian: Judy Monroe1 3 3 4Jobs with Health24A day in the life of a Doctor: Heather Adamson Keeping you Healthy: A book about Doctors: Ann Owen Helping you Heal: A book about Nurses: Sarah Wohirabe A day in the life of a Dentist: Heather Adamson4 9 8 3Astronaut Jobs1Astronauts at work: Deborah A. Shearer Community Helpers: Astronauts: Tami Deedrick1 0Different Jobs10Where does the Mail Go? Daniel Shepard A Day in the life of a Construction Worker: Heather Adamson Risky Business: Window Washer: Keith Greenberg Community Helpers: Bakers: Tami Deedrick A Day in the Life of a Musician: Linda Hayward1 3 2 1 3Overall Total:7979 The student responses to the writing prompt show that students are interested in learning more about specific jobs. In addition, the fact that students continued checking out career literature after the unit was completed shows that the unit was successful in its goal to raise career awareness. Conclusion In conclusion, my action research on career awareness and academic motivation was a success in that both the goals I set were achieved. My fourth grade students have a greater academic motivation and occupational awareness now than before we began the unit. This information has shaped my teaching practices in that I will not limit the career unit to the three-week period I originally marked. Instead, I will continue to seek out quality career literature to add to my class library, and I will encourage students to share with the class any career literature they find. As for other teachers in the elementary school, I encourage the same adoption of a career awareness aspect to teaching. Helwig (2004) suggests that schools can only marginally improve career development in students because until it really counts in high school students may be unwilling to give up daydream careers. However, I believe that using career literature will make a long term impact on students. Students may not give up their daydream careers yet, but educators can plant the seeds of occupational awareness and academic motivation that will yield positive results in the career futures of students. References Careers Can Be Elementary. (1997). Techniques: Making Education and Career Connections. Retrieved from EBSCO Host September 26, 2005. Ediger, M. (1999). Reading and Literature for Children. Retrieved from EBSCO Host December 2, 2005. Gottsfredson, L. (1981). Circumscription and compromise: A developmental theory of occupational aspirations. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 28. 545-580. Retrieved from http://www.udel.edu/educ/gottfredson. November 16, 2005. Harkins, M. (2001). Using literature to establish career concepts in early childhood. The Reading Teacher. 55. 29-32. Retrieved from Education Full Text, November 14, 2005. Helwig, A. (2004). A Ten-Year Longitudinal Study of Career Development of Students: Summary Findings. Journal of Counseling and Development, 82, 49-57. Retrieved from Education Full Text on November 14, 2005. Magnuson, C. and Starr M. (2000). How early is too early to begin life career planning? The importance of the elementary school years. Journal of Career Development. 27. 89-101. Retrieved form EBSCO Host November 27, 2005. McMahon, M. and Watson, M. (2005). Occupational Information: What children want to know. Journal of Career Development. 31, 239-249. Retrieved from EBSCO Host November 13, 2005. Appendix A Fire Fighter books Im going to be a fire fighter: Edith Kunhardt Community Helpers: Fire Fighters Dee Ready A day in the life of a fire fighter: Linda Hayward A day in the Life of a Fire Fighter: Heather Adamson Fighting Fires: Seymour Simon Police Officer Books Im going to be a police officer: Edith Kunhardt A day in the life of a police officer: Heather Adamson A Day in the Life of a Police Officer: Linda Hayward Keeping you Safe: A book about police officers Ann Owen Jobs with Animals Im going to be a Vet: Edith Kunhardt Im going to be a farmer: Edith Kunhardt Jobs with the News Newspapers: A new True book I can be a reporter: Christine Maloney A day in the life of a reporter: Linda Hayward Deadline! From News to Newspaper Risky Business: Photojournalist: Keith Greenberg Garbage Collector Books A day in the life of a Garbage Collector: Nate LeBoutiller Community Helpers: Garbage Collectors: Tami Deedrick Jobs at a School Community Helpers: Teachers Tami Deedrick A day in the Life of a Teacher: Heather Adamson A Day in the Life of a Teacher: Linda Hayward A day in the life of a Librarian: Judy Monroe Jobs with Health A day in the life of a Doctor: Heather Adamson Keeping you Healthy: A book about Doctors: Ann Owen Helping you Heal: A book about Nurses: Sarah Wohirabe A day in the life of a Dentist: Heather Adamson Astronaut Jobs Astronauts at work: Deborah A. Shearer Community Helpers: Astronauts: Tami Deedrick Different Jobs Where does the Mail Go? Daniel Shepard A Day in the life of a Construction Worker: Heather Adamson Risky Business: Window Washer: Keith Greenberg Community Helpers: Bakers: Tami Deedrick A Day in the Life of a Musician: Linda Hayward Appendix B Life as an Army Demolition Expert, by Robert C. Kennedy Life in the Marines, by Robert C. Kennedy Governor, by J. Gorman Mayor, by J. Gorman Life as an Air Force Fighter Pilot, by Robert C. Kennedy A Day in the Life of a Forest Ranger, by David Paige Call Mr. Vasquez, Hell Fix It, by Alice Flanagan Meet Rory Hohenstein, A Professional Dancer, by Jill Duvall A Day in Court with Mrs. Trinh, by Alice Flanagan Ms. Moja Makes Beautiful Clothes, by Jill Duvall A Busy Day at Mr. Kangs Grocery Store, by Alice Flanagan Who Keeps the Water Clean? Ms. Schindler!, by Jill Duvall The Wilsons, a House-Painting Team, by Alice Flanagan Exploring the Parks with Ranger Dockett, by Alice Flanagan Dr. Kanner, Dentist with a Smile, by Alice Flanagan Riding the Ferry with Captain Cruz, by Alice Flanagan Ms. Davison, our Librarian, by Alice Flanagan Life with the Navy Seals, by Robert C. Kennedy Life as a Paratrooper, by Robert C. Kennedy Here comes Mr. Eventoff with the Mail!, Alice Flanagan Life in the Army Special Forces, by Robert C. 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