Skills Developed Through VWE

Summary

• Students are introduced to the concept of transferable skills.
• Students will identify skills that can be developed through specific types of volunteer, work, and extracurricular experiences.

Setting the Stage

Students are often immersed in a mixture of VWE - volunteer, work, and extracurricular experiences throughout their time in school. In the moment, many students see these experiences as ways to keep busy, socialize, make some extra money and have fun. They may not realize that these opportunities are also helping them develop skills that shape who they are as human beings. It is important for students to understand what type of skills they have in relation to their experiences, and what type of skills they can develop through future experiences too. Collectively, these skills are what can help students understand what they enjoy doing, what they are good at, and what they can offer to a future employer.

Materials & Preparation

• Device with with Internet access to play a video from YouTube
• 3 post-it notes per student
• 6 to 7 pieces of poster or chart paper, depending on the class size and how big the teacher would like each group to be. Example: A class of 28 would need 7 pieces of poster paper to make groups of 4 students each.
• Prior to starting the lesson, the teacher will need to record one statement at the top of each poster paper.

Examples of Statements:

• Write or Draw: Skills learned from volunteering at an animal shelter.
• Write or Draw: Skills learned from working at a fast food restaurant.
• Write or Draw: Skills learned from playing on a basketball team.
• Write or Draw: Skills learned from volunteering at a canteen.
• Write or Draw: Skills learned from working as a babysitter.
• Write or Draw: Skills learned from being a part of the school play.
• Download the Rotational Graffiti Photos Reproducible [Google doc] [Word doc] [PDF]. These could be printed and glued to the respective poster paper to help EAL learners understand the prompt.
• Download the Skills Developed Through VWE Reproducible [Google doc] [Word doc] [PDF], 1 per student. Note: There are two exit slips per page

What To Do

• Teachers could start this lesson by showing students the following video, titled “Why Soft Skills?” on YouTube.
• Teachers could ask students to record on 3 separate post-it notes, 3 skills mentioned in the video that they believe they have.
• After the video, teachers could ask students why they believe they have those skills, and could encourage students to think about the experiences that they have had. Students could also be encouraged to provide an example that demonstrates they have the specific skill(s).
• Teachers could ask students to share a skill they believe they have, that would be useful to an employer, and an experience that they believe helped them develop that skill.
• Teachers could then explain to students how experiences help people develop many different skills that can help them reach their career goals. Teachers could include in this discussion that experiences also help people discover their interests, which are important to consider when determining career goals.
• Teachers could introduce the rotational graffiti activity by either asking students to form groups of 4 to 5 on their own, or by placing students into groups. Teachers could encourage students to sit around a table, and to each take out a marker. Next, teachers could explain that they will place one piece of poster paper face-down on each table that students are sitting around. Teachers could explain that when they say “Go!” students will flip the poster paper over to reveal the statement at the top of their poster paper. Students will have 2 minutes to record as many skills as they can that address the statement. Once 2 minutes have passed, teachers could say “Switch!” and have 1 student from each group pass their poster paper clockwise to the next group. It may take a couple minutes for all the poster papers to be switched. Once each group has a piece of poster with a new statement, teachers could say “Go!” and give each group an additional 2 minutes to record their responses. Again, once this 2 minutes has passed, teachers could say “Switch!” and have each group pass their poster paper clockwise. Teachers could continue this process until each group ends up with the statement that they started with.
• To conclude the activity, teachers could ask each group to look through all the responses on the poster paper in front of them, and to identify the various skills recorded. Teachers could then ask each group to give a brief presentation to the class either from their table or at the front of the class, to explain to their peers the skills learned through the experience identified in the statement at the top of their poster paper.
• After each group presents their poster paper, teachers could provide each student with a copy of the Skills Developed Through VWE Reproducible (available in Downloads below). Teachers could ask each student to hand in their exit slip once they finish.
• This lesson can be used as an activator prior to the BYO Career Development Timeline lesson.

Let’s Talk Science appreciates the work and contributions of Nadia Hagman from Pembina Trails School Division in the development of this lesson.