CHAMPION, Ohio – A Trumbull Career & Technical Center program helps elementary students learn literacy skills and gain career exposure and provides high school students with work-based learning.
Meghan Mock, a TCTC English teacher and co-chair of the school’s literacy committee, and Kris Doran, the school’s interactive multimedia instructor, developed TCTC Tales, a literacy initiative that combines videos and hands-on classroom activities based on children’s books. Each book focuses on a career field for which TCTC offers a program.
“The books aren’t just any book, but it’s a specific link to the programs that we serve, that we want to promote,” Mock said.
The first seven installments of TCTC Tales – fire and EMS; cosmetology; exercise science and sports medicine; biotechnology; construction technology; welding; and dental assisting – were delivered to elementary schools in member districts in November. More episodes are in the works, with plans for a video for each TCTC program.
TCTC received a state grant a few years ago that funded the program’s development, and Mock said the lessons were designed around the Science of Reading, the literacy curriculum required in Ohio.
In each video, Sam Stephens, a TCTC computer technician, visits the school’s program, meets its students and asks questions about the profession. Young viewers then learn vocabulary words associated with the featured career and introduced by TCTC students. Lesson plans and extension activities accompany each video.
Mock, working with TCTC’s literacy team, found books to align with every program at TCTC except Doran’s. But the interactive multimedia instructor has a solution.
“In the spring, we’re going to attempt to write our own book and get it published,” he said.
Students in Doran’s class read the children’s books, visited each program, talked to the students and instructors, wrote the video scripts and determined what to videorecord to include in each episode.
Seniors Jaxson Bell and Kierstin Richoz are working on videos highlighting more TCTC programs.
“I’m doing more of a behind the scenes aspect, where I’m kind of showcasing the students and the teachers and everyone who’s putting the effort and the work to put it together,” Richoz said.
It’s a documentary-style video, separate from those that feature each TCTC program, and will be added to the TCTC Tales website, informing viewers about the work involved in the series.
Bell is working on the next round of TCTC Tales.
“I’m doing the production of the episodes themselves, what they show to kids and stuff of that sort, as well as the editing and general production,” he said. “I have to manage my crew, get all the shots that I need and then, after the fact, go and edit it together and make a fully fledged episode.”
Senior Shaun Sudol is a student in TCTC’s app and web development program.
“I’m developing the games that are going to be played by the elementary students,” he said.
Games that align with the featured TCTC programs will be added to the website and reinforce what the children learn in the videos. Sudol has completed five games. They’re a later TCTC Tales addition.
And gamification is an effective learning tool, Doran explained.
While the work the TCTC students are doing amounts to lessons for first through third graders, they’re learning too.
“The best way to execute everything is to make sure everyone knows what they’re doing and make sure everyone has a timeline of when things need to be done,” Richoz said.
Doran models the assignments on work-based learning so students learn what it’s like working as part of a professional crew.
After graduation, Bell plans to study film and media arts at Cleveland State University. He wants to pursue a career in film, television or marketing.
“It’s definitely more hands-on than most other jobs out there, as well as it simulates a part of my brain that doesn’t necessarily get used in other conventional jobs, like a nine-to-five,” he said.
Richoz plans to major in multimedia communications at Youngstown State University and wants to work in film or television, ideally as a producer or director.
“But I want to work with stop-motion animation and stuff like that,” she said. “I want to make things, and I want to kind of do what I’m doing now, where I’m making sure everyone has their own space and we can put things together and create projects.”
Sudol intends to enroll in computer design or software engineering school.
Bell and Richoz will present TCTC Tales on Feb. 4 in a student showcase at the Ohio Career Technical Education Legislative Conference in Columbus.
The program has fans closer to home too.
Carla Collins, a second grade teacher at Blott Guy PK-6 School in Liberty, started the books with her students before the holiday break as part of social studies instruction.
“These lessons were really, really well-planned-out,” Collins said. “They directly follow what we’ve learned. We’ve had a lot of professional development on the Science of Reading, and so they directly align with what we’ve learned.”
Collins takes her students to TCTC annually, allowing them to learn about careers with which they may be unfamiliar.
While Collins piloted TCTC Tales with her students, other second grade teachers at the school will roll it out to their classes. She recommends it. Collins invited parents and community members in the career fields highlighted by the lessons to visit her class.
Her students watched the video at the beginning of each lesson, which introduced each career field before they read the books.
Second graders Esme Ludwig, Violet Higley, Micah Bond, Lorenzo Gonzalez, Braden Hamerik and Camille Rhoden gave the lessons high marks.
Esme pointed to something she recalled from the biotechnology lesson: “That germs can help you and make you sick,” she said.
Camille liked learning about germs too.
Micah enjoyed the lessons on biotechnology, firefighting and construction technology. And Violet learned how to be safe in the firefighting lesson and how to take care of herself in exercise science and sports medicine.
Braden enjoyed the construction technology and welding lessons in particular, while Lorenzo liked exercise science because he plays a lot of sports.
The TCTC teachers hope other career technical centers can learn from TCTC Tales and design similar programs. Doran said the lessons are designed so elementary school teachers can use whatever best suits their classes.
“I think the beauty of it is, it’s all there and it’s completely up to them,” Doran said. “… There’s eventually going to be 30 different programs to pick from 30 different books.”
Pictured at top: Meghan Mock and Kris Doran of Trumbull Career & Technical Center.