Jobs by alphabet

Purpose

The purpose of this activity is to share and extend students’ knowledge of jobs by brainstorming job names that begin with a certain letter.

Structure:  pairs or small groups
Duration: 10 minutes, or longer if you have more rounds
Resources: lists of job names to research from (optional).

Instructions

1. Divide the class into groups. Ask them to choose a writer.
2. Choose a letter of the alphabet.
3. Tell the groups to write down all the jobs that begin with the letter that they can think of.
4. Specify a length of time for the round.
5. The group with the most job names reads out their list. Any entry can be challenged by other groups (eg, if it is not a job name).
6. Either keep a tally and declare a winner at the end of all your rounds, or treat the game as cooperative.

Variations

• Instead of jobs, play the game to elicit skills or personal qualities.
• Get students to compile lists of job names as a short homework task and allow them to use these in the game.

Extensions

• Reward spelling, creativity and originality.
• Have 'secret square jobs’ that attract a reward if they come up on a group's list.

Key competencies

• Participating and contributing

Career management competencies

• Locate information and use it effectively

Activity components

• Download the instructions for this activity (doc - 59Kb)
  

Credit: Pat Agnew, Aranui High School, Christchurch