|
The Charboneau Adult Learning Center A Program of The
Literacy Project 15 Bank Row,
Suite D Greenfield, MA
01302 413-774-3935 www.literacyproject.org/charboneau.html January 2007 |
Our College Mentoring
Program is up and running!
Amber has a small, but
solid core of GED graduates (now attending GCC) planning and developing the
activities for
this
program. So far the preparation has
consisted of several meetings and a Leadership Training (given by
Margaret Anderson) under the auspices of
SABES at Holyoke Community College.
Pioneer Valley Regional
High School Retention Conference
Amber brought two
students, a mother and daughter, from our morning class. It was a good experience for them,
and Amber felt like they told it straight
without creating a "recruitment" situation for the Literacy Project.
Amber did some research,
phone calls, outreach, and negotiation to secure Demand Response Services for
one of
our regular attendees.
This is a service available only to residents over 60 years of age, but
extremely valuable to
our learner since the bus routes and
schedules have changed.
We are all VERY pleased that Marguerite no
longer has to wait in the cold for a bus or pay cab fares, but she's
determined to resume walking to her
daughter's after class once the warm weather returns.
Now we're working on getting Marguerite a
picture id so that she can get a full "scholarship" for this service.
Derick Campbell
graduated from the GCC HHA/CNA Training
This graduation marked
the point where this program has graduated 100 trainees. (Derick claims to be the 100th).
It
was a very nice graduation, and Derick took the opportunity to give a
thoughtful speech and present his
classmates and teachers with tokens of
appreciation.
Tyrone Squiers Passed
The GED!
Ty is now part of the
Next Step Up program at GCC. When last
we heard he was running for Student Senate while also
volunteering with Mass PIRG and an
organization for "Fair Textbook Prices." . . .
and . . .
Achievements by
Learners
|
2 learners
Applied for a Job 8 learners
Completed 3 Reading Journal Entries 1 learner
Completed a Resume 1 learner
Completed Additional Math Units 1 learner
Completed Additional Revised Writing Project 2 learners
Completed Additional Vocabulary/Sentence Structure Work 10 learners
Completed Assessed Math Unit 15 learners
Completed Monthly Word Bank Exercises 22 learners
Completed Essay/Significant writing project 1 learner Created Curriculum Materials 4 learners
Documented Partial Math Unit with Self Assessment 1 learner
Earned an Industry Related Certificate 1 learner
Enlisted Supportive/Safety Services 5 learners
Enrolled-academic/post-secondary education |
1 learner Got a job 1 learner Got a learner's permit to
drive 1 learner
Got a library card 1 learner
Has greater involvement in children's schooling 1 learner
Improved Health of Children 2 learners
Improved personal health 2 learners
Interviewed for job 1 learner
Learned about HIV/AIDS 6 learners
Participated in Community Activities 1 learner
Passed GED 1 learner
Quit Smoking 14 learners
Read a book 5 learners
Read Additional Book(s) 2 learners
Registered at/Visited Career Center 5 learners
Retained post-secondary education for 6 months |
Challenges
Transitions
Program/Grants Management
We are extremely grateful that the Career
Center trusts us to handle this endeavor.
This is unmistakably the only way to
preserve our Transitions Program, and we
will do whatever is necessary for it to be a success.
The biggest challenge is certain to be the
logistics of supporting 16 paid internships in the community. There is going to
be a need for a great deal of attention to
all kinds details and fiscal matters.
At the same time there will strong outcome
accountability requirements in a
time-frame that is much more compressed and pressured than we are accustomed to
in our usual obligations to the Department
of Education.
We know we will have to shuffle some responsibilities
within the site while also working more closely with our fiscal
administrator. But demonstrating we have this capacity while our Transitions
Worker is confined to very limited hours will
be
the test of our commitment to Transitions as a vital component of our present
and future programming.
Class Activities
Louise's morning
ABE class completed a unit in science on weather and weather patterns.
Grammar work
focused on contractions, synonyms homonyms, prefixes and suffixes. Fraction
work and vocabulary exercises are
ongoing. So are the writing
projects! These are
becoming centered
on "Book Reports" with an eye toward aligning curriculum activities
for
smoother
transitions into the GED levels. Louise's aim is to gradually increase the
amount of
revision required
before a book report can be considered "finished". Relatively stable
attendance makes
it possible think differently about curriculum development and integration.
Following the
unusually high level of stability in December we were not surprised by the
increase in
turbulence in January. The Morning GED class was no exception here. This month
that class's reading in the Industrial
Revolution Unit got even more intense.
After finishing
the text book coverage
of Eleanor Roosevelt's career, they read a chapter from Jonathan
Alter's The
Defining Moment: FDR's Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope. Alter's
journalistic
style avoids complex sentence structures but is not sparing when it comes to
difficult
vocabulary. After that, they deserved
the respite of watching the HBO mini series
"Eleanor and
Franklin" which allowed more review and discussion on issues such as the
Great
Depression, Liberalism, Conservatism, and the
role of government in the economy and
society.
All the GED level
classes began grappling with a new monthly expectation/requirement:
Reading
Journals. These do not require any
revisions, but the Monthly Writing Projects at this
level are all about revisions
(and then more revision.) The Monthly
Word Bank activities now
incorporate
sentence structure analysis so that each sentence using the featured vocabulary
word is
categorized as "Simple", "Compound", "Complex",
or the dreaded "Compound
Complex" .
The Afternoon GED
class is filling up with young men who (mostly) seem to thrive with the
independence and
choice within the monthly planned structure.
The Evening GED class has a
steady cadre of older working people (mostly)
who also seem to be doing fine with this
structure while
also persistently asking for more Group Time activities. Louise is responding
with more History
and Social Studies while Joe is responding with more Science activities. It's
a lot to pack into a class that only meets
for 6 hours per week, but they are an exceptionally
motivated class.
Continuous Improvement Plan and Next
Steps:
Despite our best intentions and efforts to
rigorously enforce our attendance policy, we have found ourselves making
certain exceptions for people with
"exceptional" circumstances (often very poor health - or rough job
schedules). However
careful attention and follow up have clearly demonstrated that
this has not been helpful to anyone.
Hopefully, we will learn
from documented experience.
With the addition of the "Reading
Journal" component to the monthly expectation structure, the GED level
classes probably
have a good basis for establishing
benchmarks for minimum effort. We are
hoping to monitor and calibrate this system for
a
few more months. Ideally, its very existence will affect the culture of our
classrooms and hence our word of mouth
referrals in the way we are expecting, but
if need be it will give objective information
about who is best able to benefit from
our programming. Just as importantly, these minimum expectations may provide the
basis to program for individuals who
choose to work at a more accelerated level
with higher standards.
Additional Information:
14
days of classes Class Contact Hours: 851.50 60.8
hours per day (about 25 learners in classes
per day)
Turbulence Measures Stability and Persistence Measures
Students below 12 hrs OR 55%: 8 Students with 12 hrs AND 70%: 24
Attending below 50%
of ALL classes: 15 Attending 75% of All Classes: 18
(Includes mid-month starts and stops) (Includes
mid-month starts and stops)
Students with 24
hrs AND 70%: 10
Inquiries and
Others Served: 14
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ATTENDANCE |
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12+ hours |
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30 |
71% |
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2-11 hours |
|
9 |
21% |
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<2 hours |
|
3 |
7% |
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42 |
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ETHNICITY |
Intakes |
Enrolled |
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REFERRALS |
Intakes |
Enrolled |
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AmerInd/Alaskan |
0 |
0 |
0% |
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Career Center |
0 |
3 |
7% |
|
Asian |
0 |
1 |
2% |
|
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Community College |
0 |
5 |
12% |
|
Black |
0 |
2 |
5% |
|
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Employer |
0 |
2 |
5% |
|
Cape Verdean |
0 |
0 |
0% |
|
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Flyers/Publicity |
0 |
2 |
5% |
|
Haitian |
0 |
1 |
2% |
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|
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Library |
0 |
0 |
0% |
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Hawaiian/PI |
0 |
0 |
0% |
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Court/Probation |
0 |
3 |
7% |
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Hispanic |
0 |
4 |
10% |
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Public School |
0 |
1 |
2% |
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IndianSub |