Creativity and the GED
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The discussion below was held on the National Institute for Literacy Assessment discussion list in October, 2007. for more information, go to http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/assessment/07creativityGED.html or to the discussion archive at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/assessment/2007/date.html
Discussion Summary
The discussion opened with emails pointing to the need to connect the GED material to real-life contexts. Many examples of how this happens in the classroom were shared. One subscriber discussed the use of a values-based approach for incorporating creativity into GED curriculum in her program.
The use and limits of standard texts were raised, and it was noted that these types of standard materials, if used without other resources, usually indicate that the program offers the "fast-track GED". The theme of fast-track versus creativity (or going beyond teaching to the test) prevailed throughout the discussion. One person noted that students may come to programs with a variety of opinions regarding either fast-track or going beyond teaching to the test, suggesting that both these approaches have merit depending on the needs/desires of the students.
The theme-based approach was described and discussed at length. Many merits were brought up, but subscribers also raised questions about the challenges inherent in balancing creativity with time constraints and pressures from both students and funders to take and pass the tests. The question of creativity as a 'distraction' garnered many replies, most of which indicated that creativity should not be exchanged for a much narrower result: learning to the test and earning the GED itself.
Most posters noted that they felt creativity was fundamental, even crucial, in helping GED students study, learn, and advance. Many responses included rationales for not excluding creativity. Rich examples of how to fold creative teaching and learning into lessons were shared.
Subscribers raised numerous challenges to avoiding a strict teach to the test GED approach. These included: how to incorporate the GED text itself into thematic approaches; balancing the development of new curricula with time constraints; pressures from both students and others to "hurry up and get the test over with"; a lack of support for creativity on the part of programs and funders; and developing a theme-based approach with multi-level classes and classes/programs with heavy turn-over of students.
The issue of how best to assess learning in GED programs raised questions around whether the test results were sufficient for judging if learning was effective, or if other types of measures were needed, including certain types of formative assessment as well as student-stated goals.
Full Discussion
Good morning, afternoon, and evening to you all. I hope this email finds you well.
Today we begin our discussion on the GED and Creativity. You can access the full announcement and accompanying guest bios and suggested resources at: http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/assessment/07creativityGED.html
I would like to acknowledge that today is Columbus Day and there are many folks who observe this holiday. Please join us as you are able. As a reminder, all emails are automatically archived at: http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/assessment - click on Read Current Posted Messages at the top.
To get us started, I would like to ask our guests to tell us how/why they ended up involved in these projects connected with the GED.
Also, I would like to ask subscribers to share any work that they do with GED preparation and study that is also more creative than drilling in the practice books.
And! Please post any questions you have for our guests now!
Thanks! Looking forward to our discussion!
Marie Cora
Assessment Discussion List Moderator
My name is Gail Bundy, I ran the night school at the Native American Multi-Cultural Education School (NAMES), a community-based GED school in Denver, CO. While our school is the only adult education school in metro Denver that targets Native Americans, we are open to all who wish to learn. We serve about 150 students a year with our student base being about 25% Native American, 75% Latino, and about 10% divided among people with Asian and African tribal heritage and people of European heritage. About 90% of our students are youth, ages 17 to 23, and the remainder are older adults. Our average student dropped out of public school in the ninth grade and pretests on the TABE at about 5th Grade. About thirty students a year earn their GED - and around 60% progress at least two grade levels in core subjects.
I am a semi-retired corporate strategic planner and writer. I was volunteering as a tutor, grant and report writer when the night teacher had to leave on family emergency. The director asked me pinch hit for a few weeks. I have now been teaching the night classes for almost 4 years. My corporate planning background helps me provide night students (who work during the day) with real life context for the GED. For example, when we work with graphs and charts, I ask them to ask to develop statistics from their work lives, so they learn the language for decision-making within their own industry. A cashier from an auto reports store brought in a daily chart of sales figures vs. inventory, and we developed a trend analysis. We used the knowledge of a clerk in a supermarket floral shop along with the other student's experience with flowers to examine the seasonal peaks and valleys of the flower business as the basis for understanding economic supply and demand theory. Another student who is a housekeeper in a large hospital, begin charting her supervisor's daily production orders, and developed her own solution for improving the work flow and presented it to her supervisor, who with some surprise, implemented the change.
My director specifically asked me to join this listserv to learn from other teachers about how they add special thematic instruction to their programs. Like most GED programs, we use the standard texts from Contemporary, Steck-Vaughn and others to help our students move towards attaining their goals of getting to the GED as soon as possible, and then moving on to college or some other higher education. However, we all know that the GED education texts are limited in what they actually teach.
For several years, NAMES has been working on what we call the Morning Star Medicine Wheel of Learning©, a values-based approach to the GED curriculum, which blends traditional Native American philosophy and story-telling techniques with the GED subjects: reading, writing, math, social studies, and science. The eight-pointed Morning Star is often seen on the beautiful star quilts made by Native American women. It is the first star seen in the morning, and represents that first light of hope and possibility that students have in reaching out to achieve their education dreams. The eight pointed star also represents a compass with each point related to values that provide students with a moral compass. We look for and share with students' traditional stories from many cultures related to the values of respect, truth, honesty, humility, humor, compassion, wisdom, and love. We also challenge students to write their own stories exploring these values. In this way we provide students with creative, practical, and humorous applications of knowledge gained by many cultures from around the world. We believe that this is particularly important for our younger students who struggle with growing up in these urban environments. Values discussions also provide our older students with a way to help teach the younger students.
Let me give you one example of how we include these values.
We ask each student upon entry (after taking the TABE) to write an essay on the topic of Respect. We give them some guides for potential topics, and an outline that guides them in developing three points, introduction, and conclusion. We let them take their own time with it. After they handwrite a rough draft, we sit them at the computer, and have them type it and work with them on one or two simple versions. If the student is a low level writer, we will let them dictate their ideas to us, which we will transcribe. But they will still have to type it and revise on their own. By the end of their second or third day with us, they have a typewritten five paragraph essay, signed and dated that describes their own beliefs and experience about Respect. We have a good idea of the student's level in writing -- but even more importantly, one of the teachers has had a discussion with the student about their perception of the value of respect. We learn a little about their families, their elders, and their lives. They learn a little about us as teachers. The questions that I have for the listserve are:
- We wonder if anyone else is developing thematic work based on values -- and would like to understand the frameworks that are being used.
- I am also curious how teachers incorporate the standard GED texts into their thematic work. In actuality we have so little time with our students - that it is necessary to rely on the books for consistency and coverage. I am curious about how other teachers balance the creativity of developing new curriculum with student's time constraints.
I look forward to the discussion.
Gail Bundy
Hi, Gail,
I was really interested to hear about the work you are doing with Native Americans. As diverse as our student body is here in New York City, Native Americans are one group of students that we rarely see. I love the way you start off with students--asking them to write about a value. I think this can be such a great way to get to know students, and to show them that their education can be a way for them to reflect on their own ideas and experiences in the light of new information that they are learning in school.
GED classes at CUNY are thematically based. Values are not the center of any of the theme-based curricula we've produced, but I do think that the kinds of questions that would be raised in a curriculum centered around values would be similar to the kinds of questions that are at the heart of any good theme-based course. What's vital to a good theme-based course is that there is a broad, open-ended question at the center of it; a question such as (very broadly) "what makes a good relationship?" or (a bit more narrowly) "How is child development influenced by culture?" The texts that students read, the questions they discuss, the graphs they create or examine, can all provide information that students use to make up their own minds about the central question that guides the theme. If I were to develop a theme-based curriculum around values, I think I would probably focus on a series of short stories and/or essays that offered different perspectives on a central guiding question related to values. To bring in history, I might have students read some biographies of people who embodied some of the values under examination through the theme. This could be the opening to a short unit on the history of the time/place of the person whose biography we were reading in class.
But to comment on your second question. With this question, I think you raise important issues about creativity and theme-based approaches in the GED classroom. While I think creativity is important, I think it's also important that the course a teacher creates is developed with the GED test in mind. Experienced teachers generally have a pretty good sense of the subject matter most likely to come up on the test. The idea behind theme-based teaching is that you will not be able to cover all of the topics that could come up on the test. Rather, you will be able to target one or two areas within, say, the discipline of social studies, and address these in depth. Let's say you choose Colonialism, knowing that this is an important concept to understanding world history in general, and also knowing that there are bound to be questions on the GED test that will relate to it. My colleague Gayle Cooper and I created such a curriculum for GED students. We had a number of learning goals in mind when we did so. One goal was simply to engage students in a lot of reading and writing for a purpose. We've found it's easier for students to remember material if it related to a central concept. Another goal we had in mind was to introduce students to some broad concepts that come up again and again in the area of social studies. So, in the Colonialism curriculum, students were asked to examine three cultures--European, Native American and African--in some depth, and to compare these cultures to their own culture using a set of guiding questions that remained the same from culture to culture. Organizing students' learning in this way allowed us to bring in material on different ways of organizing societies, on social class, and on different types of economies, to name a few areas. The actual reading that students did came from a variety of texts that included excerpts from young adult historical fiction, textbooks, trade books and poetry. Each lesson had a number of GED practice questions attached that were clearly related to what students had been studying in class that day. So what the thematic approach allowed us to do was to teach with the test in mind, but to try to give students a deeper understanding by using richer texts (and more text--we think students need this) and teaching in a way that would highlight certain broad concepts that we thought were central to the discipline of history/social studies.
In your second question you also raised the issue of how much time teachers give to making their classes creative and how they balance this with the constraints of their own time. Of course, this is an important issue. At CUNY, we've been lucky to have a team of staff developers and a modest amount of funding to run curriculum development seminars that give teachers the chance to create their own courses. Also, there are a large number of teacher-created curricula that all CUNY teachers can now choose from when they plan courses. Interestingly, a lot of teachers opt to plan their own courses even though the curricula are available. I think that, for many of our teachers, this is one of the payoffs of the job--that they can be creative in their teaching.
That said, I do think that it is a very tall order--to create a curriculum that is both creative and will meet the needs of students. What I've found as a teacher is that I make a lot of mistakes the first time I teach a certain theme, but by the second time I've corrected a lot of those mistakes and by the third time it runs pretty smoothly. So while it's a lot of effort to create a theme-based course the first time around, it gets easier and the investment of time pays off as I go along.
I'll look forward to hearing others' responses on this
Kate Brandt
Hello All,
I believe that teaching is the most effective change agent in a person's life and my teaching career is diverse, ranging from the traditional K-12 classroom to summer programs for at-risk youth and job readiness skills. Additionally, I have been able to work with Adult Basic Education learners in the Illinois Department of Corrections. I found a passion for the adult education and was able to transition into the role as a professional development trainer. This opportunity helped me connect with adult education teachers throughout Illinois, building relationships with administrators, instructors, and adult learners.
In response to Marie's question, the Illinois Community College Board was taking a very proactive step in the support and development of an online learning curriculum for GED preparation. My role as an experienced classroom teacher and professional development trainer for the Center for the Application of Information Technologies (http://www.cait.org) at Western Illinois University made participating in the GED-i project a natural fit. Leading a team of GED instructors, web developers, and content experts through the curricular development to create an engaging opportunity was a phenomenal opportunity. The goal was to have dynamic lessons that met the instructional needs of the students and went beyond just drill and practice. The resulting project is GED-i (http://ged-i.org) and the environment allows for learners to prepare for their GED with interactive lessons, facilitated instruction, and peer communication. This goes beyond the scope of the traditional pen and paper practice.
Remember you can check the GED-i's online orientation at the following URL:
http://ged-i.org/orientation/introduction/introduction-p1.jsp
Let me know what questions you have any questions about this information or beyond this.
Crystal Hack
GED-i Coordinator
Colleagues,
I am a proponent of creativity in adult literacy education -- indeed in all education. As Marc Tucker, President of the National Center for Education and the Economy, has said in a presentation recently to the National Commission on Adult Literacy, http://www.caalusa.org/video/choices.html, the U.S. education system -- and he includes adult education, cannot be competitive without high academic standards AND creativity.
But many GED teachers and administrators believe that their students will not pass the GED unless they focus on skills and knowledge needed to pass the test, that creativity is a "distraction" and a time-waster. (Many K-12 teachers, administrators or policy makers also believe creativity distracts from passing high stakes tests.) I hate to be the one to raise this issue, but it's the key question on the minds of many GED teachers and administrators, so I invite the panelists to address it.
Is creativity a distraction or is it essential for success? Why?
David J. Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net
I must respond to this question. I do not believe that creativity is a distraction. Creativity is the flesh on the bones of skills and knowledge. Although our students want to pass the GED, we have to ask ourselves what our job as educators is. If we simply believe that pushing our students to the level of the GED is all we have to do, then perhaps we can pass on the creative side of things. However, if our goal is create life long learners, who will pass the GED on then continue learning and contributing in more and more positive ways, then I think the answer is clear. Creativity is a must. It is what will hook a person into learning.
However, there is another issue. Not only do the students pressure GED teachers into teaching to the test. The pressure is on from above also. Students who pass the GED are counted and those numbers help the DOE decide if a program is doing its job.
I am not against accountability. But I do think that without considering all the long-term effects of the current method of "counting" students is revised, then some creativity will be squashed as teachers work to satisfy a numbers requirement.
Jackie Coelho
On this question, I'd have to weigh in on the "creativity is essential" side. I'd argue that the "creative" lessons I've seen aim for a much higher standard than many of the more "traditional" lessons I've seen, because they ask more of students in terms of critical thinking, reading, and writing. Many of the theme and content-based curricula we've developed at CUNY (City University of New York) pose open-ended questions that require students to think, learn new information and then apply that information to the questions that have been posed. This approach to instruction also asks more from students in terms of reading and writing. A typical "course" would expose students to a range of texts--poetry, excerpts from textbooks and tradebooks, novels, short stories, graphs, newspaper articles, etc.--and a variety of different writing assignments, so that students learn to read widely and write for different purposes. Theme and content-based courses at CUNY also aim to expose students to the typical ways of thinking of each discipline. In developing our courses, we're thinking not only of students' need to pass the GED, but also of the academic skills students will need when they go on to college.
In New York City, the diversity and educational needs of the students we encounter varies enormously. Some of the adult students in our programs may need just a "brush up," but many others have large gaps in their academic knowledge. Recent research in reading instruction, such as that presented in an article entitled "Learning From Text" by Patricia Alexander and Tamara Jetton, point to the enormous importance of background knowledge in reading comprehension. Without a frame of reference, students are likely to forget what they have read and studied. Theme- and content-based instruction, when designed well, helps students build a frame of reference for the academic content that they are learning so that they are more likely to remember it and "make it their own."
In this discussion, I've had the feeling that "creativity" is being used to describe any approach to GED instruction that is not based almost entirely on the test-prep book. It's odd to hear "creativity" described as a "distraction" because the word I would use for the theme and content based approach I've been describing is "rigorous." While this approach is creative in the sense that we strive to engage students' interest by designing activities that require students to be active participants in their own learning, I have a hard time thinking of it as a "distraction." In addition to doing a better job of preparing students academically, it's based on respect for students' intelligence--the belief that they are capable of actively acquiring knowledge.
Kate Brandt
In our GED classes for Migrants, we teach creative writing. Our students publish books. See: http://bordersenses.com/memorias
The books are in Spanish, but some of the stories and poems are translated into English.
Andres Muro
Hi everyone,
We like to add creative elements for DL students such as GED Connection videos and Web sites such as Purplemath.com or Coolmath.com to help students grasp content they struggle with in the main software program. Even inside the MHC Online software program there are several great materials in the World and US Timelines, areas to take practice GED tests, and other supports.
We also like to have students write essays and mail them to us for comments from time to time. Our challenge in offering creativity in these respects as compared to just studying the curriculum in the software is that none of these elements can be used for NRS Reporting in our state at this time. This issue is another one wherein we need to realize that creativity and meeting student needs must take first place.
Thanks,
Tina Luffman
David and All,
I believe that most of the problem we face in our AE programs is that we are entrenched in "GED classes" that making the minimum (just passing the test) is the predominant objective. Why are we not teaching to standards of learning that are required for a more generic purpose that can build a strong foundation for learning? It is very hard to break away from the GED focus when classes are called GED classes and teachers are called GED teachers. MA practitioners are encouraged to use the terms ABE and ASE to get away from the GED mindset. Most GED teachers, as you pointed out, feel the pressure to teach to the GED test rather than to facilitate learning that would encourage critical thinking skills that go beyond simply passing the GED.
If we are truly to be standards based, we must focus on what skills need to be taught and consider how we will assess the skills so we know when they are learned, before moving on. This should be part of our everyday practice and is not forced by following page by page in a GED workbook. Creativity and innovation should always drive instruction in order to motivate the learner to learn reading, writing, and math skills that can be applied in any situation, not just to pass the GED. Research gives us a lot of information today on how people learn, but do we consider these components of learning in our instruction? Yes, we should be creative in how we apply various methods of teaching and learning to our AE classrooms, especially knowing that for many the more traditional approach is not effective.
In RI the K12 has moved to a proficiency based system. This allows the focus on teaching and learning to be driven by standards that must be learned before moving on. My work allows me to look closely at what the K12 teachers are doing to allow various opportunities for the students to learn. Teachers have brought creative strategies into the classroom so that all children learn. I see no reason why these strategies would not work with adults as well, but it will require change, not just in the classroom and with the teachers, but with the administration and policy makers as well. Building academic and learning skills takes time and patience. Teachers must feel comfortable trying alternative ways to instruct and not feel the pressure of outcomes. Is it important that our students pass the GED or is it more important that exceed expectations when taking the GED because they have a strong learning base? If we all stop and think about what we really want for our students, it is not to achieve the goal to pass the GED. It is to build a strong foundation of academic skills and learning techniques that will benefit the student throughout life. And guess what? They will pass the GED along the way.
Donna Chambers
Hello again assessment group,
Over the course of the last seven years, our instructional design process has grown as we have learned how to integrate multiple methods of assessment in the online design process. When working with the content experts, I instructed them to imagine the possibilities of assessment practices that go beyond the tools in the traditional classroom. Also, they are provided with ideas, examples, and templates to use as a building block. As with any quality instruction, it is critical that the assessment is aligned with the objectives of the lesson. Some methods of assessment appeared 'content light' and we worked together to create relevant and meaningful assessment activities. I have found that by reminding instructors of the key elements in the development process (to have procedures in place such as creating objectives, establishing assessment, designing the instruction, and reflecting on the completed process) they tend to have a much more effective instructional approach in the content they develop. Even more importantly as it relates to this discussion, they can do this and be creative.
We also take a group approach to developing lessons. This gets the minds of 3-4 instructors focused on the lesson topic, the objectives, the learning activities and content. The more feedback we get on the quality and creativity the better the end result for our student users. The process sounds like it would take a long time, but really we have streamlined the development process getting that amount of feedback probably takes only a little more time than developing a lesson without the input from others.
I guess my points are 1) the development process is the foundation of a creative meaningful lesson 2) lesson can be meaningful and creative and 3) don't create in a vacuum, involve others and tap into their creativity.
Crystal Hack
I'm going to have to weigh in on the side of creativity is essential as well. I definitely don't see it as a distraction - that being said, what I don't really see is creativity being supported. I liked how Jackie Coelho stated that creativity if sometimes stifled from above because the focus is on completion rates. I heartily echo that. When I am sent new students the first word out of everyone's mouth is "when can I test?" No matter how much I try to explain that attending class isn't solely about the "test" that is definitely where everyone's attention rest. When I first started teaching in adult ed 10 years ago, I remember being told that the idea was to teach differently than what the traditional school system had done - to provide an alternative learning environment in hopes that those students who had now returned to school would find a safe, student centered learning environment - yet over those 10 years, I've seen the creativity squelched as focus shifted more and m ore away from life-long learning to learning for the 'now', the 'test', program 'performance measures...' For some, not all, programs, the focus is on how quickly can you get them ready to test...not on how well the student might actually be retaining what they're being exposed to. Coming in to a class for 12 hours and just to test, doesn't allow much room for anyone to be creative.
I loved the ideas of a thematic approach - but I want to know how you do that in a program where every class is multi-level, open entry (daily - new students can arrive) and where administration is focused on bodies in a seat, quick turn around time and bottom line results?
How do you find a workable venue for creativity? I do some different things in my class that others in my area don't do and I hate relying on the "workbooks" and often come up with my own tools to use - but beyond that, I feel very limited in my ability to be creative.
Regards
Katrina Hinson
Hi. I'd like to add my two-cents to the discussion about the need to help students get their GED quickly.
I'm on a local shellfish committee looking for wardens to check out the clam flats. When I asked what the requirements were for being a warden, I was told they needed to have a GED or high school diploma. This struck me so I asked why. I was told that the warden would have to send in periodic reports based on his/her findings so s/he needed "at least a GED."
I worry about the disconnect between our teaching just to the test (in writing, for example, the test requires students to write an "essay") and what the broader community and business people are expecting our adult learners to be able to do once they have a GED (such as write short reports, but rarely an "essay").
Are we explicit in the skills that we're teaching so that students can actually use what they've learned after they pass their GED?? Do we give them opportunities to transfer their learning from the workbook (or computer) to real-life situations so they know how to use different skills in different situations?
Donna Curry
Assessment Colleagues,
Several obstacles to GED program creativity have been mentioned, and there are others. I would be interested in hearing how creative GED practitioners have overcome each of these challenges. I hope those who have solutions will pick one or more of these challenges and address them in this discussion. How have you pushed back the pressure for GED programs to be primarily test preparation, not substantive learning? How have you successfully addressed these constraints?
- Students' determination to pass the test in the shortest time possible
- Students' holding the goal "getting the GED" as an unexamined act of faith that this is what they need that "having the certificate or diploma" will meet their needs
- Students' belief that "real school" looks just like the often failed) schools they have attended, traditional models of schooling
- Teachers' lack of experience (and therefore discomfort) with creative teaching such as theme-based or project-based learning
- Accountability for "GED outcomes" within a short time period from funders at the national, state and/or local level.
- Other obstacles or constraints, especially those that are unique to GED Preparation programs or, Adult Secondary Education.
David J. Rosen
djrosen@comcast.net
Discussion Continued at GED and Creativity 2
