Katrina, I wanted to reply briefly to your message because I think you 
bring up some important points.  It's certainly true that not only 
administrators but students as well tend to be very focussed on the test.  
I've been teaching for ten years and invariably the students who enter my 
pre-GED class ask when they can take the test on the very first day of 
class.  When I look at their reading and writing, I know that they have a 
road to travel, yet they just want to "get it over with." 

My feeling about this is that when students have such a long road to 
travel to reach their goal, they are going to have to learn to like 
learning, to embrace it somehow, or they're just not going to get there. 
This is where I feel what we're calling "creativity" is important. 
Students deserve the chance to have good educational experiences--to enjoy 
talking about a book that they've read with a fellow student; to look at 
pictures from a particular historical era and imagine life in that time.  
This is a second chance for them to become, as you put it, lifelong 
learners.

I also think you made a good point about thematic education.  I think it 
is very difficult to use a thematic approach if you have constant turnover 
in your classes and a wide range of levels.  One of the decisions made at 
CUNY (City University of New York), where I teach, was not to let students 
into a class past a certain point in the semester.  I really think that's 
an essential decision to make if you want to teach content, because when 
you are learning content, it's necessary for new information to build upon 
previously learned.   I do think that "creativity" has to be supported by 
a program or it will have to be limited.  Even within limits, it's 
possible to do some "creative" things.  For instance, I think, when 
teaching a particular content area--let's say photosynthesis-- it's 
possible to go out and look for other texts besides those in the GED book. 
 Students need to review information more than once to really "get" 
it--also reading multiple texts helps students get a sense of what's most 
important about a topic and gives them additional reading practice.  It's 
a lot of work to do this in the beginning, but you can re-use texts once 
you've found good ones.  There are many other ways to draw students in by 
doing something that is more active than traditiona learning.  I like to 
use these methods to "trick" students in to liking school.

Kate Brandt
City University of New York




"Katrina Hinson" <khinson at almanid.com> 
Sent by: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov
10/10/2007 09:32 AM
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[Assessment 950] Re: GED Discussion - what you need to  know!






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


>>> <djrosen at comcast.net> 10/09/07 4:29 PM >>>

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 presention 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 at comcast.net

 -------------- Original message ----------------------
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> 

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> Marie Cora

> Assessment Discussion List Moderator

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> Marie Cora

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