[NIFL-FOBASICS:1112] Pre GED focuses response to George

From: Michele Craig (shellcraig@ix.netcom.com) ((shellcraig@ix.netcom.com))
Date: Wed Aug 11 2004 - 17:52:17 EDT


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From: "Michele Craig (shellcraig@ix.netcom.com)" <shellcraig@ix.netcom.com>
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Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:1112] Pre GED focuses response to George
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George,

I think the pre-GED class idea is a really good one as an elective for 
those students who are scoring lower on the CASAs at this point. In 
general, I think you would be doing something fantastic to even keep them 
going to school. Many of mine at that level get very discouraged and quit 
because they do have such a long haul ahead of them. Today, I was 
discussing with a colleague that we wanted to include more hands-on kinds 
of activities in our classroom. Our class is set up so that each student 
works individually. They come in, take the GED practice test (after they 
have taken the CASAs) and then I sit down with them and work on 
individualized instruction. This works really well for those students who 
are already passing most subjects, but maybe need catch-up in a few subjects.

But it works a lot less well for those students you're serving in your 
class. I feel like anything that will keep them jazzed about learning and 
keep them coming back would be really helpful. We decided in our class for 
both sets of students that we are going to "set up our environment" more 
carefully with lots of interesting things. For example, our district 
recently took all the FOSS science kits (a hands-on science curriculum for 
K-8) and put them into the storage facility because FOSS didn't meet the 
new California standards. But we came up with the idea of setting up one of 
experiments once a week and letting our students play. I will let you know 
what the results will be.

I really liked the idea that someone had about some kind of certificate or 
something that students earn as they go up the levels. Do others of you do 
this? How do you have it organized.

Once they get jazzed about learning, our job is really easy, but how do we 
create that enthusiasm for learning?

Michele Craig
Woodland Adult School
Woodland, CA



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