National Programs in the Classroom

By Cathe Felz, National Consultant Team

Integrating National Programs into the curriculum is a great way to add an interesting twist to regular classroom activities. Every classroom is different and the interests of students vary from year to year. The secret to successfully integrating National Programs into the classroom is to make the project relevant to the students in the classroom. Survey students about what they are interested in, students then conduct a community needs assessment, the class selects a topic they will focus on for the semester. Then the students work as a group to plan a project to address the issue.

Larger classes may be divided into sub groups and each group of 5-10 students may design a project around a community need or each sub group may plan a component of one larger project. For example if the students select cancer awareness as their topic one group may work on the education component for a particular type of cancer while another group raises funds for the American Cancer Society. The class may decide to sponsor a cancer awareness event and invite various groups to present screening methods, awareness information, fundraising opportunities or other information preventing cancer.

In our school we use the planning process or service learning model to develop classroom projects. Students investigate, complete planning and preparation, take action on their selected issue and demonstrate what they have learned through classroom presentations. We use a tool for brainstorming called a planning tree. All the ideas for addressing a community need are written on sticky notes and place on a larger piece of paper with several branches, each branch has a separate topic. Topics of the planning tree include: public relations, resources, people who can help and activities. The trunk of the tree is our overall goal for the project. We also include skills we have and what we will need to learn on the illustration. Following the brainstorming portion of project development we “prune” the tree and remove those activities that may not be as beneficial to our project but we save them just in case they can be used for another project.

The class develops a time line complete with assigned tasks for each group member. Students work on the project during class, they may also complete tasks on their own in order to meet the deadlines of the time line. One person in the class or group is assigned the job of chairperson and accepts the responsibility for making sure everyone completes their assigned tasks. If students do not complete their duties their grade is adversely affected.

Students use a variety of skills to carry out projects including parliamentary procedure, problem solving, creative and critical thinking, interpersonal communication and time management. We use the national programs as the frame work for the projects and students learn about the planning process and FCCLA even if they are not affiliated members. Integrating National Programs into the classroom has increased our chapter membership by including students in the program of work who are not generally active members of extra-curricular organizations.