Assessment
Teacher Evaluation RubricSelf Evaluation RubricPeer Evaluation Rubric
Learning Context/ Introduction
In this Learning Experience, students work at a local business, the "Pier 57 Restaurant," developing their job-readiness skills and exploring a variety of careers.
Through this collaborative partnership, students visit and carry out job-related tasks at a local business. A partnership is established between the school and the business, giving students the opportunity to experience the world of work. This partnership was with Pier 57 Family Restaurant because the owners were parents of one of the fourth graders. Every learning experience at Pier 57 was tailored to academic and developmental levels of the students. The learning experience covers job preparation, developing contacts, collaborative teams, student activities at a job site, employment skill building, and public relations.
The Collaborative School/Business Partnership Guidelines give an outline that guides teachers on how to do a collaborative school/business partnership with any business.
In this Learning Experience, students will learn:
- To apply various subject matter they are studying in the classroom to specific occupations being explored in a particular career field.
- Skills that are required in specific occupations that students are exploring.
- Job-readiness skills which are essential to:
- Enter the workforce
- Succeed in an occupation
- Advance within a career
- Change careers
This Collaborative School/Business Partnership is one of several programs, and the format for all of them is generic. All have the same objectives. The only difference in those is that the K-4 grade levels have a prerequisite that a parent must be employed at the business and is willing to serve on the collaborative IF it's the first collaborative school/business partnership the elementary teacher has done. This requirement has allowed maximum efficiency of the program through school-home connections.
The classroom teacher relates application of subject matter in the classroom to the occupational and workforce preparation skills being learned at the worksite. For example, if the students are exploring career options, they evaluate the careers involved in the partnership.
Prior Knowledge
- Background information on collaborative partnerships (e.g., vocabulary—collaborative, partnership, skill, workforce, job-readiness, occupation, job, task, worksite, application, resume, interview, memo, etc.)
- If possible, students who have completed a collaborative school/business partnership should be invited to the class to describe their experiences, what they learned, and what students should do to make the most of the partnership.
School-Business Partnership Guidelines
Procedure
What Teachers Do
Note: See the Collaborative School/Business Partnership Guidelines for detailed information.
- Determine who may be interested in a collaborative school/business partnership for a specific timeframe (usually 3-4 month period, i.e. October-January or February-May).
- Consult career education coordinator, principal, and other administrators to describe the project and gain approval.
- Identify one or more parents of students in the class who have the potential to be a business partner.
- Open house registration
- Parent conference sign up
- Written parent survey
- Student information cards housed at the main/health office
- Meet with career coordinator and/or principal to determine finances available to conduct partnership. Sources of funds in addition to your school/district funds might be:
- School-To-Work Consortium Grant Monies
- Business Contributions
- Chamber of Commerce Funds
- Civic Group Contributions
- Student Council/Government Contributions
- PTG Funds
- District Teacher Monies (i.e. DAC)
- Once business possibilities surface, contact the parent to see what procedure should be followed to pursue the business:
- Contact owner and/or business manager
- Contact human resources manager
- Contact department head and/or supervisor
- Write letters to appropriate businesses requesting a possible partnership, outlining the process and responsibilities of the business (employee time and talent, no $$) and explaining how liability is handled.
- Schedule a ½ day teacher JOB SHADOW at the place of business to:
- Learn the organizational structure of the business, the variety of occupations available, and the necessary job skills.
- Share class curriculum.
- Describe class composition and characteristics of age group and/or learning styles.
- Establish the Collaborative Planning Team
- Identify a student and parent to serve on the collaborative and give both students' and parents' names, addresses, and phone numbers to coordinator, or a collaborative listing. Explain in detail everyone's responsibility. (See support materials: Partnership Agreement, Partnership Schedule, Letter to Parents, Letter to Business Mentors, Mentor Guidelines )
- Contact collaborative members to schedule first collaborative meeting at the business.
- Hold the first collaborative meeting at place of business. (If it's after school and teacher needs to drive student, be sure the teacher has volunteer driver authorization.)
- Determine the agenda for the class visit, including activities, resources such as gloves and uniforms, jobs, training, and student behavioral guidelines.
- Based on collaborative schedule/timeline set at the collaborative meeting, follow the district procedure to request transportation to worksite visits (must stay within budget) and begin preparing students.
- Create permission forms to send home with students for parents to sign prior to first worksite visit. Permission forms include medical information and photograph release.
- Assist students in organizing a portfolio of the project activities, including worksheets, press releases, letters, etc. Distribute the Pre-Evaluation Questions. Review with the students Teacher Evaluation Rubric.
- Meet with business personnel to discuss how workforce preparation and job readiness skills will be infused in classroom. Teachers are encouraged to use SKANSKILLS as a frame of reference. See the chart below.
SKILLS
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WORKFORCE PREPARATION
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JOB-READINESS
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Application Completion
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Punctuality
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Report Writing
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Dependable Attendance
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Critical Thinking
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Communication
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Thank You Letters
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Ability to read direction
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Ability to write basic memos, do simple reports
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Relate information to team members
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Listen and interpret directions
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Knowledge transfer
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Decision-making
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Teamwork
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- Set dates for business personnel to visit the classroom and do applied learning in these areas.
- If necessary, schedule a visit to the business to provide orientation and any needed staff development of business personnel and/or collaborative members prior to worksite visits.
- Do follow-up staff development with all parties, as needed. Emphasis should be on application of workforce preparation skills.
Procedure (Cont.)
8. Develop curriculum integration activities in math, language arts, health/science, social studies, etc.
- Examples of math activities:
- 3 word problems worksheets
- computing customer checks from orders taken from Pier 57 menu.
- computing travel time and distance to worksite.
- computing inventory.
- Examples of language arts activities
- Short-answer questions worksheet
- Addresses, spelling and grammar, references, health and science subject, connect subject matter content to workforce preparation, skills, i.e. communication skills, interpersonal relationship skills and teamwork.
9. Arrange for class visits (in small groups) to the worksite, with opportunities for students to actually carry out job-related tasks.
- Conduct training and simulations before the visit.
- Discuss employability skills such as paying attention, customer service, problem solving, and teamwork.
- Take photographs of students working at each visit.
- Help students prepare presentations that demonstrate what they learned from the partnership, which will be given at the celebration.
- Plan a celebration (hosted by the business) with students and business personnel (some teachers may prefer to hold another collaborative meeting):
- Assign room at business.
- Discuss refreshments
- Outline program
- Determine who's going to design and send invitations to parents/staff.)
- Organize program and decide who is going to print it. Have students do invitation and send home with students or mail to parents and school and business staff.
- Have students do program for celebration and are printed prior to celebration.
- Complete certificates of participation for students, business personnel, and collaborative members to present at celebration.
- Complete a Teacher Evaluation Rubric for each student.
- Meet with class to select appropriate inexpensive thank you gift for business personnel:
- booklets
- tee shirts
- photo album
- hats
- plaques
- pins
- mugs
- corsages
- videos
- plants
- floral arrangements
- Write articles and provide photos to companies for their in-house publications.
- Distribute the Post-Evaluation Questions
- Write release and contact media to cover celebration. (Sample release in appendix.)
- Coordinate and hold celebration.
- Hold a final collaborative meeting to evaluate partnership and make suggestions for future partnerships.
What Students Do
- Two students serve on collaborative with their parents to plan, conduct, and evaluate partnership. These students will serve as the liaison between classmates and the collaborative, to suggest and react to ideas that surface during the brainstorming sessions throughout the partnership. They will host business speakers and collaborative members whenever they interface with the class.
- Discuss vocabulary associated with worksite learning (i.e. collaboration, partnership, skill, workforce, job-readiness, occupation, job, task, worksite, application, resume, interview, memo, etc.) by using words as often as possible throughout partnership activities.
- Learn at least one set of occupational skills by shadowing a mentor for a minimum of a two-hour period.
- Learn workforce preparation skills by visiting and participating in business activities, and by observing business personnel on-the-job, doing, subject matter assignments and role playing situations that demonstrate the following skills:
- application preparation
- punctuality
- dependable attendance
- critical thinking
- communication
- ability to read directions
- ability to write basic memos, do simple reports
- relate information to team members
- listen and interpret directions
- decision-making
- teamwork
- career awareness
- knowledge transfer
- career awareness
- Learn how school subject matter relates to worksite skills by completing assignments on mathematics, writing, and problem solving.
- Work as a team member to present specific workforce preparation skills to visitors and to parents at the "Celebration of Learning" at the end of the partnership.
- Customer service
- Customer checks/sales receipts completion
- Problem solving
- Food safety (procedures)
- Advertising/marketing (techniques)
- Develop a workforce preparation portfolio including one or more of the following:
- completed application
- media releases
- subject matter worksheets
- thank you letters
- partnership certificate
- worksite photographs
- other
- Complete a Self-Evaluation Rubric and discuss it with the teacher.
- Complete a Peer Evaluation Rubric.
Instructional/Environment Modifications
Students at all academic levels can participate in this project.
Students will work cooperatively to help one another with subject matter integration worksheets.
For students with special needs, stress the vocabulary and employability skills.
Duration
- Partnership will run 3 months (October to January) or (February to May).
- Worksite visits will be 2 ½ hours in length.
- There will be three worksite visits with 8 students and 1 staff member per group.
- At least one math, science, language arts, and social studies class per week will be devoted to integrating subject matter and worksite skills.
- There will be a one-hour Celebration of Learning for students, parents, and mentors hosted by the business at the end of the partnership.
Resources
Students:
- Permission Forms
- Portfolios
- Company applications
- Math Problem Worksheets—Math Word Problem Tests (20-30 min. each)
- Science Worksheets
- Language Arts Worksheets—Language Arts short-answer questions (20-30 min each)
- Social Studies Worksheets
- Other subject worksheets, as appropriate
For coordination of partnership:
- Camera, film developing
- Camcorder and video tape
- Tri-fold display board
- Photo album
- Portfolios
- Computer
For simulating the work of business:
Materials to simulate the work of the business.
- Imitation food
- Play money
- Menus
- Tablecloths
- Plasticware
- Paper plates
- Trays
Word problems:
- 3 math worksheets
- 1 language arts worksheet
- Workforce Preparation Skills Rubric
The following additional materials may be needed:
- Liability Insurance Coverage statement from district office
- Transportation Permission forms
- Student Permission Forms for Medical and Photo Release
- Sample job applications, resumes, and interview questions
- Sample certificates, invitations, and programs from past years
- Press Release
Support Materials:
Assessment
Students will complete a workforce preparation portfolio which will include graded work and several of the following:
- Attendance record
- Certificate of partnership completion
- Completed application
- Graded work
- Language arts essays (20-30 mins. to complete)
- Math word problem tests (20-30 mins. to complete)
- Report card
- Thank you letter
- Youth placemat designed for use in restaurant (work on 15-20 minute intervals during free time throughout the day)
Students complete the Workforce Preparation Skills Self Evaluation Rubric and the Peer Evaluation Rubric and discuss them with the teacher, using the Teacher Evaluation Rubric.
Student Work
Samples of student work are submitted immediately at the conclusion of this collaborative school/business partnership and will include:
A sample student workforce preparation portfolio including:
- Completed business application
- Math and word problem worksheets
- Language arts essays
- Placemat designer for use with children customers
- Thank you letters
Author
Ellie Peavey, North Syracuse Central School District
Reflection
The collaborative school/business partnership addresses many of the CDOS Standards, as well as one or more of the standards in all of the other curricular areas. It is an effective applied experiential learning technique that involves many stakeholders in life-long learning.
Depending on the grade level and subject matter involved, activities are abbreviated or expanded based on ages and stages of development and academic ability. At the elementary school level, partnerships are based on a business where a parent of a student enrolled in the class is employed in the business. From middle school through high school, the partnership is based on making a match between the subject matter being studied and the focus of the business.
The three rubrics included were NOT used with this collaborative school/business partnership, but are now being used with them at all grade levels, as are the attached pre and post evaluations.
Testimonials are included in the model which reflect the affirmations of the partnerships form a variety of perspectives:
"There is not a better way for my son to learn what a real work setting is like than to be here. I feel very fortunate he has a teacher who is willing to do this."
Jeff Kasprzak, Parent
"The Partnership Program is an outstanding way to ‘reach’ students of all ages. By working in a business environment, they realize how the basic classroom skills they’re learning are needed and utilized in the working world. This innovative approach is long overdue."
William Ennis
Ennis Restaurants, Inc.
D.B.A. Pier 57 Restaurant
"My daughter’s experience as a participant in the Collaborative School/Business Partnership with Pier 57 Restaurant was wonderful. She learned a lot about the business as well as gaining an appreciation of what the world of work is all about.
Cindy Van Giesen, Parent
"I wish we had the resources to allow all our teachers in the building to do collaborative school/business partnerships. It not only motivates students, but it reenergizes teachers and gives new life to their curriculum."
Annette Speach, Principal
Cicero Elementary School
"I liked the invoices and being a host. Now I know how hard it is to work in a business."
Kevin, 4th grade student
