KAPOW CURRICULUM for grades 1-6
   Lesson 1 What is Work? Job and Career Awareness
   Lesson 2 What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up? Self-Awareness
   Lesson 3 Your Attitude is Showing - Positive Work Habits and Attitudes
   Lesson 4 Go Team Go! Teamwork and Interdependence
   Lesson 5 On the Job - Worksite Visit
   Lesson 6 Open Minds - Overcoming Bias and Stereotype
   Lesson  7 Say What You Mean - Communication
   Lesson 8 Putting It All Together - Decision Making
   KAPOW in the Classroom

A FEW WORDS ABOUT OUR CURRICULUM

The curriculum has eight lessons, each of which features a work-related concept. The lessons are interactive, educational, hands-on and FUN! This curriculum has been developed by professional writers, with teachers and program volunteers as consultants. You can be assured that the material is age-appropriate as well as educationally sound and up-to-date.

Career awareness can be built into every aspect of students’ lives -home, school, hobbies, and community activities. The Bibliography and Cross- curriculum Connections in each lesson give suggestions for connecting career themes to other subject areas and for expanding career awareness. Between lessons and the volunteer’s visits to the classroom, teachers can reinforce the KAPOW work themes.


KAPOW LESSONS

Lesson 1 What is Work?
          - Job and Career Awareness

Students begin to understand the concepts, themes and goals of the KAPOW curriculum by asking questions and participating in hands-on activities to relate their experiences to what they are learning.

Goals
- To understand that work fills needs for people and the community

- To learn that people can do many different kinds of work

- To show that being good at a job means using skills learned in school as well as one’s special talents

- To see that learning helps prepare people for work

Lesson Objectives
- At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

- identify various jobs within the community

- identify some basic skills that one job entails

- give specific examples of how work fills needs

- explain the main reasons that people work

- recognize connections between what people learn in school and the work they do



Lesson 2 What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up
         Self-Awareness

In this lesson students will focus on the preferences, interests, and abilities that make them special. They will learn how these attributes relate to different jobs and begin to see a place for themselves in the world of work.


Goals
- To make the world of work personal and specific

- To understand how talents, interests, and abilities can lead to meaningful work

Lesson Objectives
- At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

- identify their own talents and interests

- match their talents and interests with some kind of work



Lesson 3 Your Attitude is Showing
          Positive Work Habits and Attitudes

Here students learn that respect for themselves and others and a willingness to cooperate are the main ingredients of a positive attitude.  They will also learn that successful work habits are the direct results of a positive attitude.

Goals
- To understand that respect, cooperation, and doing your best are key elements of a positive attitude

- To identify positive work habits and attitudes

- To recognize their importance for success in school and future work

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

- give examples of positive work habits and attitudes

- explain how positive work habits and attitudes help them do well in school

- give examples of how positive work habits and attitudes contribute to success in the workplace


Lesson 4 Go Team Go!
          Teamwork and Interdependence

Lesson 4 builds on the sense of self that was taught in Lesson 2 and on the positive work habits and attitudes that students learned in Lesson 3. Now, students explore their roles as member of a team. They will ask important questions like: What’s my role on a Team? Why is my team important?

Goals
- To increase students’ awareness of the importance of teamwork

- To help students recognize and appreciate each individual’s contribution to a team effort

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

- identify interdependent relationships in their schools, homes, communities, and in the workplace

- recognize the importance of each individual’s role within these relationships


Lesson 5 On the Job
          Worksite Visit

During the worksite visit, students will see the workplace in action. This visit should be a hands-on opportunity for students to bring together the major concepts about work that they have been learning in the four previous lessons. In small groups, each with a chaperone, students will visit and be engaged in a number of workstations at the host company. 

Goal
- To increase students’ awareness and understanding of a real workplace

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

- describe different jobs they observed in a specific work setting

- explain how the workers contribute to the company

- identify specific examples of good work habits and attitudes, and teamwork they observed during their visit

- describe which job they would be most interested in and why



Lesson 6 Open Minds
          Overcoming Bias and Stereotype

This lesson is designed to increase students’ awareness of racial, cultural, or gender biases and stereotyping with its negative consequences. Once they are aware of how they label other people, students will learn that they can take steps to avoid stereotyping. Through a dramatic, interactive activity, students are encouraged to accept every person with an open mind, recognizing that an employee’s race, sex, religion, or nationality should not limit his or her job opportunity.

Goal
- To create awareness of stereotyping and its negative consequences

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

- recognize bias and stereotype

- dentify behaviors that lead to bias and stereotyping

- discuss the importance of keeping an open mind

- recognize the importance and availability of work and jobs for all people regardless of appearance, race, sex, religion, or nationality


Lesson  7 Say What You Mean
            Communication

In this lesson, students will increase their understanding of communication skills. The activities focus on talking and listening, as well as on writing, body language and gestures, music and art.

Goals
- To increase students’ understanding of communication

- To increase students’ ability to use communication skills

- To increase awareness of the importance of communication skills in school and at work


Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

- identify various forms of communication (talking, listening, writing, body language and gestures, music, art)

- describe situations in school and work in which good communication skills are needed (teamwork on a project, sharing ideas, writing)

- recognize the importance of communication skills in conflict resolution


Lesson 8 Putting It All Together
          Decision Making

Lesson 8 gives students an opportunity to increase their understanding of decision making, beginning with a problem and working toward a solution as a group. This final lesson allows students to practice many of the skills they have been working on in previous lessons, especially those relating to teamwork, positive work habits and attitudes, and communication.

Goals
- To increase students’ understanding of the decision-making process in their everyday lives and in the workplace

- To increase students’ ability to use decision-making skills

- To review the KAPOW curriculum

Lesson Objectives
At the end of this lesson, students will be able to

- identify decisions they make in their everyday lives

- identify steps in the decision-making process

- describe ways in which their decisions have had consequences for themselves or others

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KAPOW IN THE CLASSROOM


Once a partnership is created between an employer and an elementary school, the teachers and volunteers receive training to go along with the easy-to-use materials. Over the school year, using the professionally-designed curriculum, volunteers lead activities and discussion during seven classroom visits and one worksite visit.  Volunteers remain with the same class throughout the entire school year so that they develop a close working relationship with the students and teacher.

Prior to the business volunteer’s visit, using the curriculum materials, the volunteer and teacher carefully discuss the chosen activity (volunteers and teachers choose one of three possible activities for each monthly visit), arranging everything from gathering materials to copying the appropriate worksheets. As you will see in the attached sample lesson, the teacher is given a "Core" activity to do with the class before the volunteer’s visit.

This "Core" activity helps lay a foundation for the volunteers’ visit; the activity then acts to  illustrate and reinforce the given topic. In addition there is always an "Optional" activity that teachers can do if they want to further explore the concept. As the year goes on, teachers are asked to keep a running flip chart of the Lesson Objectives that are part of a  "Lesson Summary" that will be used as review during the final classroom visit.

The hour-long volunteer activities are all hands-on, fun and cover topics from Teamwork and Interdependence to Communication. The curriculum is such that volunteers and teachers can tailor the activities to suit their own strengths as well as the students’ needs. Volunteers spend the first moments of the visit conducting a "Warm-up" in which they review their prior visit and introduce the current one. This way  students can see how  the topics build upon one another.

The bulk of the time is spent actually conducting one of the activity choices. Again, all activities are hands-on and usually require group as well as independent work. The attached lesson on "Teamwork and Interdependence" is a good example of how the three activity choices are slightly different and may appeal to the volunteers’ and students’ various needs and yet each directly addresses the topic. As you will read, a "Wrap-up" section, which follows the actual activity, gives volunteers talking points to help them lead an insightful closing discussion with students and review the goals and objectives of the lesson.

Following each of the eight lessons there are sections entitled "Bibliography" and "Cross-curriculum Connections." These are given for teachers, volunteers or parents who want to extend the lesson topics through reading or integrate the work-related topic to the other  content areas, including Technology.