A Year in Learning at Elk Grove: Intro to Health Careers - Teacher Part I

By Krista Glosson and Mark Heintz

This is part of a blog series intended to document and define learning at Elk Grove High School throughout the 2018-2019 school year in order to increase student learning, give professionals autonomy, increase trust in our learning community, and foster a sense of personal-intellectual collegiality within the building across departments.  You can read all of the previous posts here. 

Words matter.  As much as they matter, a shared understanding of them matters more.  In the medical profession, not having a shared understanding can lead to life-changing results. That important foundational understanding of key vocabulary in the medical profession starts somewhere.  At Elk Grove, that foundational understanding can start their freshmen year.  Students have the amazing opportunity to become a Certified Nursing Assitant before they graduate.  They can leave high school with the ability to get a job in a hospital and directly care for patients.

In Krista Glosson's Intro to Health Careers class, the students spent the first few weeks doing that crucial work of developing that shared understanding of words that can lead to life-changing care for people.  The students self-assessed, reflected, shared with each, and continued to strengthen their understanding of a common vocabulary.  Read how the students begin to learn as they start on their journey into a possible life-long career.

Krista Glosson

What did learning look like in the lesson?

The first two units in Introduction to Health Careers are important to student success for the entire year.  These units ensure that all of our students have an equal chance of being successful in the course.  Many students come with the knowledge and have a working vocabulary that allows them to be successful rapidly, while other students need to have some knowledge gaps filled before they can move forward easily.

In this lesson, students received feedback on a recent quiz that they had taken.  After receiving the feedback students evaluated their errors and then took a survey to evaluate their personal satisfaction and progress in the course.  Students were asked questions about their grade satisfaction, personal progress, and organization tools.

After the survey, students created a foldable for their interactive notebooks and reviewed five new vocabulary words.  The students were engaged with their notebooks to work on the new material.