GED Network Meeting Minutes

March 12, 2010

2:00pm – 4:00pm
Catholic Charities

Meeting Minutes

In attendance: Ellie Phillips (Beyond Talent), Celina Chelala (Catholic Charities),

Sally Hermann (Sasha Bruce), Alyssa Ballentine (Catholic Charities), Diane Harris
(Southeast Ministries), Chenniah Randolph (WVSA), Ben Merrion (DCPL), Chris
Thelen (Beyond Talent), Erica Austin (CityGate and Howard University)

Announcements
At every meeting participants take time to update each other with news and
announcements from the field.
• Beyond Talent, in addition to currently offering its College Compass program,
is able to collaborate with individual programs to create customized cycles of
workshops from their Keys to Success program. Keys to Success combines group
activities, one-on-one follow up, and long-term support to empower non-traditional
high school graduates in these organizations to overcome barriers to higher
education or training. Workshops and services can be offered on site and follow-up
services continue throughout the participant student’s first year of college. Supplies
and fees for the workshop(s) depend upon the size of the organization and number
of participants. Beyond Talent staff can provide an overview of what Keys to
Success can offer an organization working with such populations. Contact Ellie
Phillips at 202-265-1717 or ephillips@beyondtalent.org. The website is
www.beyondtalent.org
• Ben Merrion of the Adult Literacy Resource Center at the MLK Library
distributed a sheet outlining online learning resources for the GED. Contact Ben
(benjamin.merrion@dc.gov) if you’d like a copy.

Demonstration: Getting the most out of your textbook pages and handouts
Chenniah Randolph of Washington Very Special Arts (WVSA) shared some
great ideas that she has developed and used to expand upon or supplement
worksheets and activities provided in GED textbooks and prep books. She
offered a number of great ideas and examples of how she makes handouts
do what she wants and needs them to do. Please see the summary of her
suggestions at the end of these notes. Chenniah can be reached at
crandolph@wvsarts.org

Technology Update
Ben Merrion has been keeping us informed of the various online options for
exchanging and storing information that the GED Network Group collects. In
previous meetings and via email, he has shared the pluses and minuses of
 tools such as wikkis, Posterous, and others. Today the group looked at
examples of the two options that have seemed to be the most logical and
decided to go with Posterous, because it offers basically what we said we
need and it’s relatively simple to use. Our online presence can be found at
www.dcgednetwork.info. We can now use this site to post and share
information related to our group and our work. Thanks, Ben!

Discussion of NCEE GED Materials

o In a debriefing from the presentation at the January group meeting by staff
from the National Center for Education and the Economy (NCEE) on their GED
preparation materials and training, group members who had been present for the
training demonstration voiced some concerns about it. Some were still unclear as to
what the workshops would consist of, beyond demonstration of the activities in the
materials and discussion amongst workshop participants on how they would
integrate it. There was also a fairly unanimous agreement that NCEE’s preferred
approach of a series of workshops over time with a cohort of teachers (to facilitate
discussion of use of the activities in classes, adaptations that were made by
individuals, etc.) is problematic for instructors in many of our programs. As the
training would come with a cost, the group wanted to be sure it would provide what
we feel would be useful. Group members were interested in the materials
themselves, regardless, and asked if further information could be provided on
purchasing them. Sally from Sasha Bruce indicated that they have arranged with
NCEE to purchase some of the materials for use at their program (for about $10 a
book), but do not have enough staff to arrange for a training on their own.
o MaryAnn and Ben will follow up with Jackie Kraemer at NCEE to discuss our
concerns and get more concrete information on the cost of materials and trainings,
and if materials could be purchased without committing to training.

GED Testing Service speaker

Recently, MaryAnn Florez shared with everyone an informational Powerpoint
presentation that was given by the new GED Testing Service Director, Nicole
Chestang, at the national meeting of adult education state directors.
MaryAnn indicated that a colleague has indicated that Ms. Chestang is
interested in doing outreach to grassroots groups like ours. The group
agreed that MaryAnn should pursue that possibility and see if Ms. Chestang
would come and speak to the GED Network Group.

Next Meeting
• Our next meeting will be held on April 9, 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm
• Sally Hermann will check with her colleague Lindsay from Sasha Bruce to see
if she will come in and talk about the writing program at their school
• Ben will bring information on Posterous
• Ben will either send out or bring copies of some of the handouts from his
workshop on teaching critical thinking skills for the GED
 Demonstration: Getting the Most Out of Your Textbook Pages and Handouts
Notes
Chenniah Randolph
GED Network Group Meeting
March 12, 2010

1. For readings or reading passages, create your own questions or worksheet

about content, analysis of language in the text (for example, analyze the vocabulary
words listed and write the context cues that helped you understand them; identify the
parts of speech of pre-selected words; etc).
2. Give a pre-reading sheet of vocabulary and ask students to define the words.
Then ask them to read and decide if that’s the way the words are used in the text
(for example, dead usually means “not living”, but in the story the characters left in
the dead of night—what does that mean?)
3. Rather than create new ones, re-use pictures, reading passages, diagrams,
etc. Use them as prompts or to teach other things like grammar, analysis skills and
processes, translating info to different types of charts, prompts for writing.
4. Mix up the types of questions (analysis, application, synthesis, etc.) that you
give students in order to give students practice understanding and answering
different types of questions. Also be sure to vary question structure or format (e.g.,
multiple choice, short answer, etc.) If you don’t like the format of a set of questions,
or if you want to recycle them, try structuring them a different way.
5. Borrow activity or exercise ideas that you like and adapt them to other topics
or situations. This will also be helpful for your students, because they will recognize
and feel comfortable in what is required of them.
6. Use the exercise or activity but change the directions to suit your needs. For
example, give them a word search puzzle, but add that after they find the words,
they have to look them up on the internet to define them. (Combines internet
practice with vocabulary development.)
7. Modify an activity to incorporate manipulations (for example, they must
complete a verb conjugation chart, but students have cards with various verbs and
they can select the verbs that they want to work with).
8. When using picture prompts, don’t just have them discuss or brainstorm
verbally. Have them write or free write about the prompt.
9. Directly link a handout or exercise to the actual questions from the GED
Practice Test to which they relate (for example, on the back of a verb conjugation
chart handout, Xerox actual questions from the GED test that require you to know
verbs and verb tenses in order to answer them).
10. Combine activities from different textbooks and handouts to create your own
sequence of activities that build on each other (allows you to integrate and re-order
activities to suit your needs; you don’t have to just follow the prescribed lay-out in a
text book).