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St. Maries High School in Idaho offers an Applied English class that gives students an opportunity to explore various career options while preparing to face reading and writing challenges in college and the workforce.
From Shakespeare to Studs TerkelWhat began in 1991 as a five-month study of the connections between the study of literature and career exploration is now a popular senior English course at St. Maries High School. This rural school is located on the shores of Lake Coeur d’Alene in northern Idaho.
The team-taught course encompasses the basics of traditional English programs (grammar, writing, and literature) and word-processing applications while presenting course content in the context of career development. Designed to offer the widest possible latitude to seniors as they plan their futures, the English component draws upon novels, short stories, and poems that reflect on aspects or attitudes surrounding the workforce, the job market, specific jobs, and national trends. Students analyze work-related challenges, both in their texts and in their lives. Literary offerings range from Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman to the poetry of Robert Frost. Related writing topics call for a synthesis of literary criticism and self-analysis.
Depending upon the focus—literary analysis or career exploration—students rotate between two teachers. Students explore and develop future goals using career information software and composing autobiographies. Since its implementation in 1992, the course has continued to hone students’ oral and written communication skills so that they are ready for college, trade school, or the workforce.
The school-to-work coordinator sets up and monitors work-based learning for students enrolled in this class. All students have the option of participating in a work experience, job training, or workplace mentoring program and are expected to master general workplace competencies. The adopted textbook, Effective Communication for Today, links oral and written communication to workforce skills. Throughout their career explorations, students use Idaho’s Career Information System software.
Business leaders actively participate in this course by serving as guest speakers. They also monitor year-end simulated job interviews during which students verbalize their career plans and present career portfolios. Throughout the year, these partners provide work sites for student job shadows and internships. In order to create a computer writing lab, community partners—the University of Idaho and the Potlatch Corporation— donated computers and printers.
CONTACT: Martha Darter and Miriam Foster, St. Maries High School, HC 03 Box 33-B, St. Maries, Idaho 83861; (208) 245-2142.
"Realizing that they need both academic preparation and workforce training, I found myself teaching more Applied English to my Honors English class and more Honors English to my Applied English students."
—Martha Darter, English Department Chair
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