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[Assessment 1764] Re: GED Espanol
pbalsamo at luzerne.edu
pbalsamo at luzerne.eduSat Feb 7 17:28:11 EST 2009
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We have received some private funds to develop and deliver Spanish GED
preparation sessions since the State of PA Adult Ed program will not fund
such prep classes. The pass rate for the three test sessions we have
conducted so far is less than 50%. The program director always makes
clear to the participants that it's a great achievement to obtain the GED
in Spanish, but they must continue their studies for competency in English
language reading, writing, speaking and listening.
I essentially see obtaining the GED in Spanish as a way to demonstrate a
significant achievement and instill some motivation and excitement for
postsecondary education; also, it's useful for job purposes and it's
important to show if the individual has the goal of entering
college....especially if they don't already have a high school diploma
from their native country.
In a special grant program I direct focusing on a comprehensive college
prep program (called Project Success) for GED completers, I admitted three
young adults (from the Dominican Republic) who had obtained the Spanish
GED. They were also graduates of high school in their country; they have
been in the US for less than two years. They still need lots of help to
enhance their academic and everyday English language skills, so they are
currently enrolled in credit ESL developmental courses.
I realize now it was probably a waste of their time to obtain the Spanish
GED since the college would have admitted them with proof of their native
country's high school graduation, and they probably would have done OK on
the Accuplacer using the "Ability to Benefit" option to obtain their
financial aid. (The financial aid folks tell me a high school diploma from
a foreign country is not recognized for an individual to received federal
and/or state financial aid). All community college folks need to be
familiar with the "Ability to Benefit" option. Unfortunately, it's not
heavily promoted.
For similar situations in the future I would focus on helping these folks
to aggressively prepare for the Accuplacer placement test using such tools
as A+dvancer (notably the diagnostic function), tutoring, and other
effective instructional approaches.
I am pleased to report that all three of the Latino students earned 12
credit hours in Spanish by taking the College Board's CLEP test. It was a
great motivator for them to earn these credits as they begin their pathway
to college. We need to encourage as many motivated Latino folks as
possible to consider taking the CLEP Spanish test. It's a great way to
help them get on a successful path for college studies.
Peter P. Balsamo, Ph.D.
Chief GED Examiner and Director
of Community Outreach; Director of
Project Success Grant
Luzerne County Community College
Corporate Learning Center
2 Public Square
Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701-1992
Phone: 570-822-3728
FAX: 570-822-6171
E-mail: pbalsamo at luzerne.edu
www.luzerne.edu
"Helton, B.J. (KYAE)" <BJ.Helton at ky.gov>
Sent by: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov
02/07/09 02:54 PM
Please respond to
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Subject
[Assessment 1763] Re: GED Espanol
A student may take the test in Spanish and then if English is required for
postsecondary or employment, the student may take test in English. Not
so, in the reverse unless they are going to another country and have to
prove Spanish comprehension.
________________________________
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Ted Klein
Sent: Fri 2/6/2009 8:03 PM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: [Assessment 1758] Re: GED Espanol
Jim,
I asked my Spanish-speaking ESL students recently, who were talking about
the GED in Spanish, what they would do if they were managers of a local
retail store in Austin, Texas and they had a choice between two native
speakers of Spanish to hire to be salespersons. One had taken the GED test
in English and the other in Spanish. They talked about this and all
decided, after some discussion, that they would rather hire the person who
had taken the GED in English to prove that they were truly bilingual and
could comfortably deal with both English and Spanish-speaking customers,
as well as handle the paperwork. In the long run, our ESL students'
successes will be based on their abilities to deal with two languages in
our environment. It is possible to live here and not learn much English,
but the best jobs will be for the persons who show the most linguistic
flexibility. The same thing goes for English speakers here who are
functional in Spanish. In some cases, they get extra pay for that ability.
Ted
www.tedklein-ESL.com <http://www.tedklein-esl.com/>
----- Original Message -----
From: Schneider, Jim <mailto:jschneider at eicc.edu>
To: The Assessment Discussion List <
mailto:assessment at nifl.gov>
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 2:14 PM
Subject: [Assessment 1749] GED Espanol
We have some experience with it. Wisdom might best be
sought elsewhere
Jim Schneider
Scott Community College
Career Assistance Center
627 W. 2nd Street
Davenport, IA 52801
563-326-5319
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Barber, Jennifer
Sent: Thursday, February 05, 2009 8:43 PM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: RE: [Assessment 1690] Re: Transitions Discussion
begins today!
Does anyone have information/words of wisdom about the
GED in Spanish?
Jennifer Barber
English as a Second Language
Grays Harbor College
1620 Edward P. Smith Drive
Office: 2214
Aberdeen, WA 98520
360-538-2516
jbarber at ghc.edu
www.ghc.edu/faculty/barber
________________________________
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Sinnes,
Elizabeth (CCPS)
Sent: Thu 2/5/2009 7:06 AM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: [Assessment 1690] Re: Transitions Discussion
begins today!
In response to several requests to share the syllabus we
developed for the ESL Transition to ABE class, I am sending some details.
Although we have had a transition class for 3 years, this is the first
year we have treated it as a 16 week class with a syllabus. It was
developed by two current teachers with 25 years of combined experience in
ABE and ESL.
The class meets 3 hours, twice per week for for 16
weeks. Most students move to an ABE class after one semester, but some
have been enrolled in the Transition class for a second semester. The
class focuses on both math and reading/writing, but with less emphasis on
speaking than the lower level ESL classes. Students must score between
215 and 225 on the CASAS Reading 185 or GE 4-8 on the TABE for class
placement, in math they take the CASAS 33 but are not required to have a
specific score. CASAS is used for all pre/post testing. Students also
write a sample paragraph from a prompt.
The texts currently used are:
Weaving It Together Book 2 (Heinle) and
Pre-GED Mathematics Skill Workbook (New Readers Press).
Computer software is used to enhance the curriculum and
used weekly by all enrolled students during class time. The computer lab
is also available before or after class, if students wish to stay.
Software programs used are Aztec, Skills Tutor and Web Quests.
Math skills include but are not limited to:
Place value, whole number operations, reading graphs,
rounding, introductory fractions, basic measurement, math word problems,
identifying operations, calculating miles per gallon, shopping/finding
percent
Language Skills Include but are not limited to:
Compound sentences, inference, scanning for details,
topic sentences, map skills, subject/verb agreement, punctuation, writing
complete sentences, supporting sentences, plurals, reading graphs and
charts, plural possessives, reading labels, homonyms, reading for details,
commas, parts of speech, using a dictionary/thesaurus, writing a
narrative, sequencing,
I hope this is helpful. By the end of this semester we
will refine the existing syllabus and would be happy to share it with
those who are interested.
Elizabeth B. Sinnes
Adult Education Programs Coordinator
Charles County Maryland Public Schools
esinnes at ccboe.com
301-753-1774
________________________________
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Rhonda Booker
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 9:46 AM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: RE: [Assessment 1568] Re: Transitions Discussion
begins today!
Hello, we have the same problem....the ESOL class is too
high to make gains, but the students either don't want a GED or aren't
ready....would you share your syllabus? What is your class size and how
many of your students yearly obtain skills to earn a GED? I am the
Supervisor of AE in Williamson County TN. We are trying to help our
students advance to the GED.
Thanks,
Rhonda
Rhonda Booker Long
________________________________
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Sinnes,
Elizabeth (CCPS)
Sent: Tue 2/3/2009 7:29 AM
To: barbara.jacala at guamcc.edu; The Assessment Discussion
List
Subject: [Assessment 1568] Re: Transitions Discussion
begins today!
We have an ESL to ABE Transition class for those exact
learners. High ESL learners were often not ready for an ABE or GED class
so we developed the Transition Class. Most students are in the ESL to ABE
Transition class for one or two semesters. We developed a set syllabus,
but certainly exercise some flexibility.
Elizabeth B. Sinnes
Adult Education Programs Coordinator
Charles County Maryland Public Schools
301-753-1774
________________________________
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Barbara Jacala
Sent: Monday, February 02, 2009 9:16 PM
To: 'The Assessment Discussion List'
Subject: [Assessment 1567] Re: Transitions Discussion
begins today!
We have advanced ESOL students who keep coming back
because they want to improve. However, their CASAS score is too high that
we are not seeing any more gains and they are therefore showing up in our
reports as failures, i.e. continued in the same level or left the program
before completion. I am thinking that we should try to move them over to
the postsecondary developmental English courses. We are also considering
offering an academic ESL course to transition such students to
postsecondary. What are your thoughts?
Barbara Jacala
Guam Community College
________________________________
From: assessment-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:assessment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Wendy Quinones
Sent: Tuesday, February 03, 2009 2:07 AM
To: The Assessment Discussion List
Subject: [Assessment 1559] Re: Transitions Discussion
begins today!
Hello and welcome everyone,
I'm Wendy Quiñones, an ABE teacher at a community-based
learning center, the Community Learning Center in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. I also taught for two years in our college transition
program while Cynthia Zafft, whom you'll also meet in the course of the
discussion âEUR" was head of NCTN. Recently âEUR" this past Saturday, in
fact âEUR" I also began teaching a high-level ESOL communication class at
a private tw-year college in Boston, Urban College. This class consists
of women who are family day care providers working toward a certificate;
they have had all their content courses in Spanish and are now trying an
academic English course for the first time.
Marie asked me to talk about the "process" at my learning
center for transitioning students from ESOL into ABE. I can name it in a
word: none. Our ABE program aims to move students toward a GED; many of
our ESOL students have no need of or desire for one. We are also
fortunate to receive a number of scholarships to the ESOL program at
Harvard University's extension school, so our advanced students who want
to work hard at improving their English often go there. We tried a
specific transition class one year, but it was the only time we had a
large enough cohort of students who were "stalled" in high-intermediate
ESOL but wanted a GED.
However, when students do move into the ABE program from
our ESOL classes, or they enter the ABE program with skills that are too
high for ESOL but low by ABE standards, they generall go into a
low-intermediate reading and writing class which I taught for two years.
Higher-level students who already have a high school credential (and
sometimes college as well) in their home countries often entered our
transition to college program.
As we all know, these students are very different from
native speakers in the same classes. In his research on low-intermediate
adult learners, John Strucker noted the following distinction between
native speakers and ELLs:
§ Native speakers tended to have relatively
stronger "meaning-based skills" [like comprehension and vocabulary] as
compared to "print-based skills," [for example, word recognition] while
non-native speakers exhibited the opposite pattern. Chall (1991) reported
similar findings.
§ Many second-language speakers in ABE classes had
surprisingly low levels of oral vocabulary in English (GE 2 to GE 4),
despite their fluent levels of conversational English. Similarly low
levels of oral vocabulary occurred among some inner-city young adults who
were native speakers. Strucker, John. "What Silent Reading Tests Alone
Can't Tell You: Two Case Studies in Adult Reading Differences," Focus on
Basics, May 1997. http://www.ncsall.net/?id=456
So the question is, how do we cope with these learners
with different needs? At my center, teachers are mostly left to our own
devices. In the lower-level classes, where student need is universal for
vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension instruction, concentrating on those
is easy. At higher levels, it gets more complicated. In my GED class,
using "The Lord is my shepherd" to demonstrate methaphor, my ELL students
didn't know the word "shepherd"; in my college class, my Spanish-speaking
students didn't know the word "rhyme."
One year in the transitions class, I tried to
differentiate the instruction, having the lower-level ELLs work with an
ESOL teacher for an hour of the 3-hour class. They learned the same
vocabulary words but in contexts they could understand, and their writing
assignments and grammar instruction paid attention to more specific ESOL
issues in which to this day I have not been trained. We learned that
while we could expect these ELLs to learn the words, we couldn't use the
same tests; their tests needed to be much more similar to the examples
they used in class. Native speakers and higher-level ELLs could be
expected to know the words in different contexts. I also gave some
readings at different levels âEUR" either different materials or in many
cases short stories for which I provided both an adapted version and the
original, like O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi." Except for the fact
that all the students were exposed to great American short stories, I
can't say that any of these techniques worked particularly well.
So I'm still hunting for a "process" that will help ELLs
to transition into ABE and college classes. I imagine many of you have
much better ideas than I do. I'm looking forward to hearing about them!
Regards,
Wendy
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