LaGuardia Community College Interevaluation Questionnaire

Blog 11

The Fourth Lesson

For the fourth lesson I continued using the text Pros and Cons: Increasing minimum wages.  Since in lesson 2 and lesson 3 we had written summaries about the 2 articles and the students were familiar with the text, I decided to work towards a persuasive writing assignment.  The text was invaluable because it made the students excited about the topic.  When in lesson 3 they read about the cons of raising minimum wage, I think that they were impressed with the arguments made in this article.  So in order to find out if the students had been swayed one way or another, I went for a persuasive piece that allowed them to express themselves. 

When Jason and I met Monday before class, Jason helped me to construct a stellar visual organizer through redoing my evidence collection handout.  He created a box at the top which allowed for entering the main claim.  This was followed by 3 more boxes that were asking for evidence and explanation.  Jason’s reconstructed handout made a huge difference.  It really provided a tool that broke down the writing so that it was almost automatic once the information for the handout had been collected.

While I was giving the lesson, Jason did something different than he had done before.  He jumped in at appropriate times guiding me about things that I was not getting.  What I understood very well after giving the lesson is that the concept of claim, evidence and explanation had to be explained many, many times.  Jason recommended that I start with an I do, you do, we do approach.  I went to the board and entered in an example of a main claim which was followed by my example of evidence and explanation.  We then broke the class down in groups so that they could fill out this handout together.  I was surprised about how challenging this was for them.  But as I thought about it, I have just taken a writing class in the fall semester with Mark McBeth.  I remember being similarly confused while writing my first academic paper in his class.  Jason and I both went around to the different groups helping to clarify the claim, evidence and explanations we were asking from them.  I then asked them to post their work on chart paper.  We continued to go over these concepts while reading each other’s work.  Jason pointed out to me while they were posting their work on chart paper that in many cases there was a hazy line between evidence and explanation.  I tried to hone in on this confusion while we were discussing each other charts.

To finish off the lesson, I asked the students to keep this handout as we would be using it next week to complete the lesson with the persuasive writing.  I had them observe that the handout was a map for how they were going to write the persuasive piece next week.

Although I am teaching a fifth lesson next week, Jason brought me deep into the teaching process.  I was really able to understand how a lesson needed to be scaffolded and how by observing how I and the students were doing during the lesson, I was able to understand when I could move on to the next step.  This observation process is hard for a neophyte educator to put into their teaching because you have to veer your attention away from what you as a teacher have planned.  You have to jump from your plan and really try to see what is going on with the students.  What I loved about teaching this lesson is that Jason forced me to do this.

In our class discussions about what had been posted on the chart paper it became clear that many of them had been swayed by the cons argument.  I cannot wait to see next week’s persuasive writing pieces.

My Second Teaching Experience

My Second Teaching Experience

Thankfully Wynne provided me with the text last week that I used for this week’s lesson.  The text was obtained from the site Newslea.com which allows one to adapt the text level to the student being taught.  The article that Wynne selected is PRO/CON:  Should workers in fast food restaurants make more money?  I decided to split the lesson into 2, one week I would do the pros and the next week I am going to do the cons.  I provided 2 handouts, one that allowed the student to gather evidence for the next handout which was a summary of what they read.  I also used Barbara Gleason’s suggestion of creating a timed lesson plan.  The lesson was timed as follows:  5 minutes explanation of task, 10 minutes reading and marking up the text, 15 minutes establishing the evidence, 15 minutes for each group to pick a piece of evidence and post it on the board for their group and discuss, and 15 minutes to write the summary. 

The text, although it used easy words, was rather shallow on the evidence.  The evidence consisted mostly of author claims that were largely unsupported.  I think that this was a difficult text, because as a writer, you had to latch onto the flimsiest statements to use as a basis for a summary.  I think that this was a fantastic challenge to the class, because it allowed for confidence building.  Even with the flimsiest statements, the class succeeded in finding the evidence.  I was impressed.

I realized the flimsiness of the text while I was teaching.  The whole time I was putting it together it looked great in terms of it being an appropriate level of text for the class.  Being able to find materials to teach with is the hard part of lesson planning.   I realize that teaching is similar to writing in that as you are engaged in the process, unpredictable learning occurs.

I collected the essays and I have read through them.  Jason coached me to read through them, write one good thing that I observe and then to make a list of these observations to that I could use this as a basis for a class discussion before we move onto the Cons. 

When I was being told about what is required from me to complete this class, the 4 lesson plans equated in my head to 4 essays.  Nothing could have been further form the truth.  Lesson plans may not look complex, but they are very complex in terms of implementation.  The idea of the lesson plan is to put together a strategy to teach something.  The effectiveness of the lesson has to be based on the student understanding what you initially set out to teach them and this perhaps should be measured after you have tried to teach the point in several ways.

I have spent so many years observing teaching, and yet I am such a beginner teacher.  I am thankful to Wynne and Jason for their excellent coaching.  I feel that I took a leap in the 2^nd lesson.

Why Do We Not Know Who Our Heroes Are?

Why Do We Not Know Who Our Heroes Are?

I interviewed Dana yesterday before class to find out what a student had to do to be lucky enough to be accepted into the LaGuardia Community College GED Bridge to Business and Health Program.  She explained that when they receive a call from a potential student, they steer applicants to an online registration from which they get about 600 applications.  They ask these students to come in for 3 days prior to entering the program, and if the student can be present for the 3 days before admittance, then they are in.  The first day the students are given a TABE, which is a reading assessment and writing exercise.  The test is constructed in such a way that the student first takes a TABE pre test, from which the instructor discerns whether they should get either one of the 3 booklets marked E, M or D (Dana thought this might stand for Easy, Medium or Difficult).  From there the results indicate whether the student is eligible for the Bridge program, which requires a 5^th grade reading level and above.  If they are below this level, then they are invited to join the BE2 (Basic Adult 2) program, which can get the student up to the level of the Bridge program.  Of the 600 applicants, about 200 students make it to the 3 day registration.  I noticed about 36 students at the beginning of the class that I participate in, of which there are about 26 students left.  Of the people that initially join the class, 63% percent receive their GED and about 65% of these students go onto college.  Although the students are admitted tuition free, Wynne states that the cost per student is probably around $3000.

Our culture seems to think that it is ok to worship glitterati, or people that have come to national and international attention that do not merit, or barely merit, the accolades bestowed on them.  And yet the designers, implementers and users of the LaGuardia Bridge program go unnoticed outside of the academic community.  It is programs like these that make America awesome and they are world demographic shifters, giving people reasons to come to the United States.  The Bridge program allows unlimited chances for an adult to receive an education, and this kind of opportunity is internationally rare.  It was the adult schooling opportunities that my French mother took advantage of when she first got here 54 years ago.  She earned her PhD. in neuropsychology and I watched her go to classes throughout my teen years.  I know what a LaGuardia Bridge student has to go through to earn their academic successes, and the students that take advantage of an incredible product offering are incredible themselves for knowing what they need to do and making it happen.  It is the designers, the implementers and the students of this and other like programs that are our real national and international heroes. 

One Thousand Words





One Thousand Words

 

The collage below was taken Monday, March 24, 2014, during a class of the GED Business Bridge Program at LaGuardia Community College (CUNY).  The collage gives a sense of how the three hour class works. The instructor helps to coordinate the lesson with an assignment. The classroom is structured to accommodate groups of three people who gather together to arrive at solutions.  Once the group is confident with their work, usually one student designated by the group posts their findings on chart paper.  Some of the students spend 45 minutes detailing the charts and when all of these documents are seen together they create a memorable gallery of the art of learning.



 

Essay Introduction and Institutional Context

Introduction

The Language and Literacy Masters Program at City College of New York is an excellent educational venue for those people that have accumulated a lifetimes worth of experience and are looking for a way to channel back their hard won expertise to others.  Part of the education that City College is offering me is a class that is an independent study at LaGuardia Community College’s GED Bridge to Health and Business Program.  The program differentiates itself from other high school equivalency programs in that it offers the student a pathway directly to a college program or career training. For many of us, schooling is not an option, and if the opportunity ever presents itself, then it is most likely outside of the traditional student experience.  As a result, those students are, more often than not, packaging their own academic experience, and crafting their own career path with limited success.  LaGuardia Community College has observed an educational market niche in which students are under served.  As a result, the college has combined a GED program that entails three times the normal time spent in other programs along with career counseling, built in tutors and nuts and bolts type of support, such as helping students fill out college applications.  In other words, the college has created a program that has addressed flaws of similar less comprehensive programs to enhance the success rates of nontraditional students in their quest for a better life.

The Bridge program uses a contextualized approach to teaching lessons.  The readings tie into what the student wants to know about, business or health, and they are used as a basis for developing academic skills, such as how to mark up a text to be able to find the important points in a narrative, how to summarize, and the difference between subjective and objective statements.  The initial readings used provided a basis for the discussion about the value of school.  So while students were learning to mark up, they are also being informed and developing opinions about the process they are going through as well as developing realistic expectations about what life will be like with achieved academic certificates in hand.  The style of the class is a combination of formal and informal school settings.  The instructor may spend time teaching a point as you would find in a traditional classroom, but it is a brief lesson, and from there the class style is to move into groups of three or four people, where the students use each other to fight for understanding of the subject matter.  The instructor moves from group to group and provides support by noticing where he is needed to help move a group forward.  The process always culminates by the groups posting their work on the classroom walls with each group taking turns and explaining to the class their findings.  After 7 to 10 groups have presented their results, a lesson has taken place.

The Bridge program designers have based their teaching approach on characteristics of adult learners.  Andragogy, an adult learning theory developed by Malcolm S, Knowles, is based on the premise that there are significant differences between adult and children learners (Knowles 34-35).  There has been much academic discussion regarding the adult learner and this dialogue has led to establishing teaching guidelines that are oriented to the success of the adult student.  The adult learner characteristics are covered more fully in the section below on Adult Learning Theories, but the idea is to adapt teaching styles to effectively reach the targeted student.  Elements of the Bridge Program style of teaching that are easily identifiable as adult student oriented are the use of peer learning groups, learning contracts, and providing learner support after the initial training in the form of coaching, study teams, and opportunities to learn by watching colleagues perform (Cercone 154-155).

The LaGuardia Community College GED Bridge to Heath and Business program is a study in how to best move forward the striving adult student.  Being included in the classroom as an observer has been a privilege offered to this adult student and the experience has changed my view and deepened my respect for adult teaching and adult learners.

LaGuardia Community College’s GED Bridge to Health and Business Program

MDRC and LaGuardia Community College of the City of New York (CUNY) have partnered to create a program for adult students that have yet to obtain high school graduation credentials.  The program is much wider in scope than other GED programs because it has as a goal of not only obtaining the high school certificate for the student, but to also help them to successfully navigate their way into a college and training programs (Martin 1).   ”MDRC is an organization that attempts to inform social policy, find solutions for reducing poverty, bolsters economic self sufficiency, and improves public education and graduation rates.  They design promising new interventions, evaluate existing programs using the highest research standards, and provide technical assistance to build better programs and deliver effective interventions. They work as an intermediary, bringing together public and private funders to test new policy-relevant ideas, and communicate what is learned to policymakers and practitioners — all with the goal of improving the lives of low-income individuals, families, and children”  (MDRC.org). 

This dove tails well with what LaGuardia Community College is known for:  “A nationally recognized expert at pioneering innovative programs and initiatives that are rebuilding the middle class. The faculty and staff dare to do more every day – so that students can write their own futures, immigrants can achieve their dreams, and small businesses learn how to grow and thrive” (laguardia.cuny.edu/home/).  These two organizations formed an alliance with financial support from the Robin Hood Foundation and the MetLife Foundation to launch a small but rigorous study of the GED Bridge to Health and Business program, which focuses specifically on GED curriculum, program design and efforts to forge a stronger link to college and career training (Martin 1).  One year after enrolling in the program, Bridge students are far more likely to have completed the course, passed the GED exam, and enrolled in college than students in more traditional programs (Martin 2).  The Bridge program requires students to attend more hours in class and receive intensive advising from a full time Bridge staff (Martin 2).  The full time Bridge staff members at LaGuardia are, Wynne Ferdinand, the Assistant Director, Jason Guzman, the instructor, Christina Stang, the Transitional Counselor, and Dana Kitzes, the Coordinator.  Wynne Administrates the program, Jason teaches the program and Christine and Dana help the Bridge students target colleges, find loans and fill out college applications.

 The GED Bridge curriculum differs from other programs through their use of a contextualized curriculum with two broad goals:  To build skills that are tested on the GED exam through the use of content specific to a field of interest in health care or business, and to develop general academic habits that prepare students to succeed in college and training programs (Martin 2). 

Works Cited

Knowles, Malcolm, and Madison, WI. American Society for Training and Development. The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. n.p.: 1973. ERIC. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.

Cercone, Kathleen. "Characteristics Of Adult Learners With Implications For Online Learning Design." AACE Journal 16.2 (2008): 137-159. ERIC. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.

Martin, Vanessa and Broadus, George.  MDRC. Enhancing GED Instruction to Prepare Students for College and Careers. New York City: MDRC, 2013. Print. 

"Mdrc | Building Knowledge to Improve Social Policy." MDRC. MDRC, n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014.  (http://www.mdrc.org)

"LaGuardia Community College." LaGuardia Community College. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Mar. 2014. (http://www.laguardia.cuny.edu/About/Welcome-Message/)

Learning to Learn

I met with Wynne and Jason yesterday at 5PM.  We discussed the lesson plans.  I am not able to spend 30 hours spinning my wheels accomplishing nothing and I believed that is where I was at as I received Wynne’s comments on my third lesson plan.  I believed that I was allowed to go forward and create meaningless or flawed lesson plans and that I was getting direction way too late in the game.  This caused me a great deal of anxiety, as I was planning on using the lesson plans as material that I could present in a job interview.  I believed yesterday that although I had spent the time, I did not have the goods. 

The questions that I had for both Wynne and Jason were, why don’t I have 1000’s of examples of lesson plans?  There must be droves of books about this topic and why am I working with one lesson plan sample from Jason that apparently does not reflect the type of content LaGuardia CC would like to see in a lesson plan.  Maybe this is all a person with an Education background needs as they have had multiple exposures to lesson plans.  Also, I was wondering why I never got the class curriculum as to what is planned for teaching everyday of the class.  It is difficult for me to tie into the class now or at a later date with ideas for lessons or lesson plans if I don’t know what everybody is going to be doing.  Also, I asked why I had not seen a copy of the test that the students would eventually take.  My idea there is to take the test and work into a lesson plan backwards.  This seems to me to be a very efficient way to get students to know the material that they will have to know for the test. Wynne was holding the sample test document in her hand, but she did not share it with me.  I am supposing that the document was meant to be seen by limited eyes only, but I was not told this, I assumed.  I understood from the meeting that my reaction was unexpected and perhaps surprising.  From this I took away that I had overreacted and that I should calm down.  Wynne suggested that we did not need to stick with the lesson plan schedule that we had initially agreed upon and for the next week I would concentrate on the half of a paper due.  I resolved to stay in the class on faith.

For the evening class I tried something new.  I sat in a different part of class. When I taught my lesson last week, there were the standard 2-3 participators that would raise their hand for every invitation to do so.  So I sat next to 2 of these students and I managed to get into a group with both of them.  Jordan, Stacy and Said were gracious enough to let me chime in.  I noticed that not all groups would allow me in necessarily per my other class visits.   The latter half of the class, they were working with a graphic organizer to help them learn the difference between objective and subjective writing.  They were using the Bricklayers’ Boy as their text and they were asked to write about what the father, and then what the son thought about education.  All of them went through the text and painstakingly wrote down all of the sentences that gave some indication of what the father and the son thought.  Although this was a slow process, the group was systematic and combed the text for all that applied.  Then it came to the subjective part and I noticed a real slow down in output.  For Jordan, he would put down an interpretation of the text and not be able to expand on it.  I understood this, because this is a problem that I have in writing.  It is a very tight feeling inside and you are wondering why you need to write anything more, isn’t what I wrote explanation enough.  So I shared with him that I understood how he felt because I believe that I have to overcome the same hurdle when I write.  And so I tried to help him get to the supporting explanation of his top sentence.  He would look like he understood, then he would move forward to write something and then retract without writing anything.  This went on for 10 minutes.   At one point he looked like he knew what he wanted to say and then started writing something that was off the mark.  The whole time, I was trying to prompt him to move forward in a soft way with appropriate questions about the text.  The other two, Said and Stacy, also took their time but they were better able to plod through.  The three of them used each other for the objective part and they used each other for the subjective part and Said and Stacy kept of writing, but not Jordan.  This could have meant a couple of different things.  Maybe Jordan was too kind to say to me that I was not helping him and I should just let him get it out on his own.  Or maybe he really could not get it out and the little that I offered him may have helped.  Without my prompting, he stated that it had been helpful when I left.  Again, this was either because he is kind or maybe I did help.

After having just gone through a major learning frustration myself, I was marveling at Jordan’s composure.

I was also able to look at their math workbook in which they were working on negatives and positives.  Said, really had a handle on the division and multiplication.  I was looking at his addition and subtraction and found an error.  They told me that they found the addition and subtraction harder than the multiplication and division.

Some of the students are saying hello to me when I walk in.  They seem to be easier with me after I gave my lesson.  I think they are aware that I am in the same boat they are.

My First Lesson

I met with Jason and Wynne at 5PM yesterday.  We met to look over my lesson plan to see if I could bring some class text into the lesson.  We came up with a way to use the Bricklayer’s Boy text and we decided that I could go ahead and teach my first class.

Wynne helped me with the copies of my work sheets and handouts. I went up to the class to post my lesson on the board as I have seen Jason do.  I posted under Grammar: Find Verb and Subjects. Start Subject Verb Agreement, Handouts: Worksheet, take home quiz, grammar in a nutshell.  And then the final activity was to work in groups and pick a sentence in Bricklayer’s Boy and find subject and verbs.

Jason posted on the board: Homework, Math workbook up to page 16, Bricklayer’s Boy for Wednesday, hand in math workbooks, grammar lesson and quiz.

Jason started the class with my lesson, and then Jason stopped me before I was finished with the first lesson as he needed time to give his quiz.  Jason thought that I threw too much information at the class.  Upon reviewing my 2 lesson plans, I realized that I probably had about a month of lessons in the 2 lessons.  We resolved that lesson 2 would be lesson 3 and that I would write another lesson plan for next week that would be about groups using the Bricklayer’s Boy as the text from which we perform grammar exercises that I have talked about in the first lesson.  I am worried about this, because we are in a level of grammar that I am uncomfortable teaching.

I thought I had created a lesson plan that was clear and easy to follow.  It was easy to follow, but grammar is not a clear process.  I was trying to stay as basic and simple with the subject matter to explain grammar rules.  The amount of rules that I discussed was too much and negated any simplicity that I might have brought to the process.  Also, I would not say that grammar is my area of expertise and this added to any confusion.  I did not feel confident in the subject matter.

I did feel comfortable teaching.  I will be great at this once I iron out the teaching kinks, such as lesson pacing, and find a subject matter that I am comfortable with.  I realize that practicing teaching is important and that good teachers are understated in their product delivery; the product being the information conveyed on a topic to a group of people so that they are able perform using this new knowledge.  Good teachers seem to softly coax understanding.  I see Jason do this over and over again.

After I finished my lesson, Jason had the class take a break and then handed out the open note quiz which took the rest of the class.  The quiz was no joke.  It focused on their new summarization skills and their math skills including division.  Jason gently brought the knowledge in the class and yet there was nothing gentle about the quiz. 

I spent the rest of the class redesigning my 2^nd lesson.

Blog 3 Class March 3, 2014

Blog 3

I met with Jason and Wynne before class started.  They both had taken a look at the draft I submitted regarding Lesson Plan 1 and 2.  I had decided to approach 2 lesson plans at the same time because the subject of how to find verbs and subjects and subject verb agreement worked very well with each other.  One had too little for one lesson, the other had too much for one lesson.  They both seemed to think that I needed to tie the lesson plans more closely to the class by contextualizing into the lesson plan some of the reading that had been done in class.  Jason suggested that I use the Bricklayer’s Boy text and that is what I am going to try to work with.

The class started at 6PM.  Posted on the Board was Homework:  Math workbook p 9-16 and Read and markup Bricklayer’s Boy.  Warm up:  Division and Math workbook.  Summary: Review, finish and present. Division Project: Note and begin. 

Jason started the class with math division.    He posted on the board:

·         Checking your answer – see if your answer is reasonable and it is what the question is asking for.

·         Estimating

·         Chart/table/organizing info – Benchmark percents

·         Understand the Question – scale problem

·         He passed out division warm up

Jason passed out the attendance sheet.  I noticed that a lot of people were trickling in the first half hour. 

Jason opens the class asking if there were any problems with page 8 out of the math workbook.  He wanted people to share the problems that they had with the class.  Students started posting their homework problems on the board and the class started discussing problem solving approaches.  At about 6:32 Jason started the lesson on division and long division.  One of the strategies he showed the class, was to take an abstract situation and represent it with pictures.  He showed how to do long division.  He came up with a strategy to divide, multiply, subtract and bring down.  He showed how to deal with remainders and remainders that had no end.  He showed how to do long division with decimal points.

At 7:10 math ended and he had the class re-form into groups to continue the lesson on summarization.  The article the class has been reading, “Worth the Investment,” was the text that would be used for the summarization exercise.  At 7:22 Jason recaps the lessons the students have already learned and creates a graphic organizer on the board titled Summarizing.  The topic sentence was the first box followed by a series of boxes that were focusing on the major points.  After he drew the graphic organizer, Jason pointed out to the class that the topic sentence might be done last as it represented the main idea.  He also talked about the use of transitional devices that acted like mortar between the bricks, which were the main ideas.  He asked the class to use mark-ups to help students establish the major points.  Jason initially asked to have this within 10 minutes and then he wanted the groups to start to post their group findings on chart paper.  However, the process of marking up took a lot longer for the groups to accomplish and the process of posting on chart paper and then going over all the posts took the rest of class time.  He wanted the students to highlight in other peoples work, by using post its, transitional devices used, topic sentences and similarities or differences between the various summaries.  The students did a great job in establishing the main points and main topic of the reading.  Jason pushed the students hard to take the initiative in speaking up and critiquing their classmates work.  He used prompts to give them ideas as possible points of discussion.  The class was having a hard time weaning themselves from Jason’s prompts.  Jason pushed through by starting to say things like, I know you guys must be tired of listening to me, or I’m not going to say anything, you guys take over.  Then there would be silence and Jason would kick start the process again.  As people were gathering their things to leave Jason talked about the homework due for the next class.

Lagurdia GED Bridge Class January 24, 2014

 

Before class I met with Jason to discuss topics for my 4 lesson plans.  We have tentatively set the topics as Grammar, identifying arguments and supports, writing development (developing a paragraph, looking at organizational structure, compare and contrast), and the fourth to be determined.  Jason stated that the lesson plan should include a project, lesson, worksheet and a summative assessment.  While we were talking he was looking at the website corestandards.org.  I will take a look at this site as I go about developing a lesson plan on grammar.  My thoughts were that I would tie in my lesson plan with his class, but things are not working that way.  The syllabus does not indicate any due dates and I am not sure what Jason is using as a class plan.  It seemed fine for me to take a topic and just go for it.  Also, while watching Jason in class and the methods he uses to get through a topic, I realized that Jason is breaking down the topic to a level of simplicity that I am going to have to work to get to.

For the grammar lesson plan I think that I am going to work in “Grammar in a Nutshell,” as a part of the lesson.  Maybe it will be an offering at the end of the class.

Wynne came in while Jason and I were talking and handed me a packet about the Bridge Program.  The packet that she handed to me will make me an expert on the Bridge program.

The class started at 6PM.  Before we entered Jason got a note that one of the students could not attend.   The Bridge team has asked students to communicate their situations. 

Jason starts the class by handing out a worksheet on percentages.  He invited the class to fill out the sheet and for volunteers to go up to the board and write up one part of the sheet.  It appears that the students had a homework packet.  The class plan was to hand in something for the “Rising Costs of College.”  There was a warm up (which was the homework on the board), a lesson on summarizing which included a 6 word memoir, notes and a project.  The class was going to end with writing a summary and explaining how it was done.

When people wrote up their answers on the board, I realized that this class was as basic as it could get.  Jason was teaching percentages in a way that I thought was different.  For instance in order to figure out 75% of something, you could add 50% + 25% and get the answer.  I tried to think of how I do percentages.  I definitely go straight to ¾ of?  But perhaps this method does not work well for these students or there is a new way of teaching percentages.  Anyhow, Jason went through each problem on the board.  He taught how to come up with the answer to a problem by using the process of elimination and doing the percentage more or less.  He showed the class how some answers can be distracters.  A distracter is when a multiple choice answer has been provided to half of the word problem leading you to answer the wrong way.  He showed the class how to estimate your way to an answer if the numbers being used looked complex.    The class seemed to understand the work.

The next thing Jason went on to is summarizing.  He hands out a sheet of examples of 6 word memoirs.  On the flip side of the sheet there was a box for the student’s to write their 6 word memoir followed by 2 questions:  What did you have to do to write the 6 word memoir and what is difficult about writing a 6 word memoir?  Writing the 6 word memoir was difficult for a lot of the students.  Jason walked around the class encouraging people, coaxing them to keep going.  With one student he encouraged him to just start writing to get through writers block.  Frankly, I would have difficulty writing in the class as well.  I write best all by myself with no distractions.  So I was marveling at the focus that the students had.  At 6:43 he asked people to share their results.  Jason took time and let everybody share their writing and Jason coaxed them to talk about the difficulty they had in writing it.  Jason posted a definition of summarizing on the board and started the process of writing a diagram of the process of summarizing.  The diagram included Summarizing in the center with bubble off shoots that said (what to leave out, what to leave in), (important points), (re-read or look back), (use words economically), and (structure and organize).  He broke down the parts of a summary: topic sentence, most important info, concluding sentence. He posted on the board how to write a summary which came off his work sheet.

Finally Jason passes out the worksheet “Introduction to the Rising Costs of College,” and asks the class to get into groups of 3-4, write up their summary to the article, talk about their findings and then as a group get together and post their result on a huge sheet, which was hung on the walls of the class.  Then the room went around explaining how they came up with their final result.  This was a really difficult lesson to teach and to learn.  The group that I was closest to looked to me for advice.  I felt a little shy to offer assistance because I felt that my methods were more old-school.  One of the students was having difficulty discerning the difference between a summary and persuasive piece.  I felt this young man’s pain, because this was high level performing.  There was a lot to be confused about and not a lot of time to figure it out.  The groups helped each other with this.  The group I was observing had one young man woosh through the summary and the other 2 struggling to write their piece.  So the finished piece got posted while the other 2 struggled to finalize their work.  The young man who easily completed his summary was shy to post his work because there was a case of where a verb did not agree. He asked me about this and I tried to help, but I did not know how to teach that lesson.  The word was rised versus risen.  The right word was risen, but I didn’t know how to explain to him why this was the right answer.  Anyhow, I was amazed that he really only had one example of verb non agreement, and his speech included a heavy Spanish accent.  This young man was impressive.  The other young man struggled all the way through the writing and took the whole class to do it.  He was impressive as well. 

Jason went over 9PM to let every group have a chance to read their summary.  Jason commented thoughtfully on each presentation.  He used an approach that heavily complemented what was done well and also had some interesting critiques.  I was trying to imagine myself in Jason’s position right then, and I am not sure that I could have done what he was doing.  He was keeping things so clear and simple.

 

 

Hi Regan, Thank you for inviting me to your blog. I look forward to reading your weekly comments and to communicating with you here.
Warm wishes, Barbara Gleason

Class Orientation 2-19-2014

The instructor for the course that meets from 6-9PM Monday, Wednesday and Friday is Jason Guzman, the program Director is Wynne Ferdinand and the Program Coordinator is Dana. I am to attend Monday class. I started the evening by meeting with Wynne. We went over the Program and signed the contract. I set my dates for the nights I will teach: 3/17, 3/31, 4/4, and 4/28. Since the lesson plans need to be reviewed 10 days in advance, my lesson plan submit dates are 3/7, 3/21, 4/4, 4/18.

Wynne Ferdinand and Dana (Program Coordinator) introduced themselves to the students in the beginning of class time.

Jason handed out a questionnaire to people entering the class. The questionnaire had 3 questions asking the students to share their personal, academic and career goals, a proud achievement, and a personal interest. He then asked the students to share with a partner what they had written and then introduce their partner to the class. Jason followed this by listing on the smart board the itinerary for the class which was: Introductions, Marshmallow Challenge, Reflection, Syllabus and Homework: How to mark up a book, and then he wrapped up the evening schedule with questions. He then announced that Christina is a counselor that leads workshops, maps out plans for next steps after high school equivalency exams are taken. I got the impression that Dana and Christina did the same thing.

There are 36 students in the class. Most of them are in their 20's. Jason had everybody sign in and then he asked that everybody write and sport a name tag. The demeanor of the class was happy and eager.

At 6:50 Jason introduced the class to the next team building activity which he called The Marshmallow Challenge. He created groups of 4; he passed out 20 spaghetti sticks, 1 yard of tape, 1 yard of string and a marshmallow. The challenge was to create the tallest structure within 18 minutes. This was fun. The group that I was closest to, and therefore the group that I observed the most, started to have members stand out by taking control and yet working seamlessly with their team mates. It was interesting to see who started to lead the groups. The level of interpersonal skills was very high within the members of this class. After the activity, Jason had everybody write up their reflections about the activity and share them with each other. The reflection questions probed the process of working together.

The effect of using 2 team building exercises was that while everybody was pretty stiff in their introductions of each other initially, by the second activity the students had lost a lot of the stiffness while focusing on completing their projects.  Also, the ridiculousness of the spaghetti’s being inadequate building supports created laughter and challenge.

We took a break at 7:30 and then at 7:40 Jason started the class up with the syllabus and a syllabus scavenger hunt.  Jason introduced the syllabus as an item that they would need to be familiar with at the college level.  Everybody was given time to read the syllabus and answer the syllabus scavenger hunt.  This was an excellent tool to highlight the important items on the syllabus, especially for people that might not initially understand the importance of this document in a college classroom setting.  Jason’s syllabus is dazzlingly complete and it also included a learning agreement that required student signatures and handing in the document at the end of class.  It is obvious that Jason took great care with this document.  It covers everything the students needed to know about the program as well as the class.  It also included a sheet that allowed the students to get 5 names and contact information from other students.

At 8PM Jason posted the class website on the smart board and showed everybody how to work it.  At this time he started explaining the program as a part of the orientation.  Jason explained that TASC stood for Test Assessing Secondary Completion.  He explained the bridge program was much more than taking the GED/TASC tests.  The purpose of the bridge program was to facilitate college entrance with the short term goal to pass the GED.  The focus of the class will be on problem solving and working in groups.  The program will culminate in helping each student develop a plan to move forward to college applications through the Program Coordinator.  Jason stated that half of the class is on math.  Books with homework worksheets and ID’s will be provided in about 3 weeks.  Many students were eager to take advantage of the college facilities like the dance programs, gym, pool and libraries.  Jason stated that the class is project driven and the class structure would consist of: warm up, group talk, lesson taught, group project to wrap up lesson and reflection.  Attendance was highlighted as very strict and that missing a couple of classes could get a student expelled from the program.  The students will be evaluated by attendance, essays and quizzes.  A portfolio of all a student’s work is due at the end of the semester.  Jason showed an example of a portfolio submission on the smart board and spoke about another student that submitted his portfolio by taking pictures of all the work and submitting the portfolio digitally.

At 8:40 Jason took questions.  He talked about Daniel, the available tutor in room C409 from 1-6 PM, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  He explained the homework which is a reading on how to mark up, and a worksheet that needed to be done by the next day class.  He asked people to make sure that they had exchanged names with at least 5 or 6 people.  He stated that this was new approach he was using to make sure that students had several ways of getting information.  He culminated the class by asking everybody to hand him the signed learning contract.

At the very end, the students asked Jason to sell the Bridge Program to them.  They engaged in post purchase behavior by asking Jason what the success rate was for the program.  Jason responded that the Bridge Program had the best success rates to date in comparison with other GED programs.  I found this very interesting.  These students were fully invested in their success.  They wanted to know they had made the right decision.

Laguardia Community College has differentiated itself with the GED Bridge Program by offering a product with a much higher success rate than similar programs.  They are filling a need with a program that is focused on the ultimate goal of college entry and career and have structured a longer and more intensive learning cycle to help students reach their long range goals.  If I needed a high school equivalency, I would apply to this program.

I am very excited to be included in this experience and I look forward to developing teaching skills in this independent study.  I feel fortunate to be surrounded by the excellent staff charged with the success of this innovative program.

Finally, I have one insight to offer the bridge program coordinators.  I am sure there is a good reason for this, but I think that it would have been helpful to the students to have all of their materials, books and ID’s, at the time of the orientation and not 3 weeks into the semester.   When Jason had people tell a little about themselves as part of the introductions, one factor that leaps out is how little time the students have.  I think that to have all materials before the first class/orientation has started would be important to me if I was one of the students.  At least by the first class, I want to have a very good understanding of the daily school work load in order to better time manage a successful outcome, which would be to pass the high school equivalency and get into college.