Final Essay

Here's the link to my final portfolio essay on google docs.

Blog Entry for Week 7

For this week, I did my third lesson as an intern on Thursday on Conclusion Paragraphs. It was the week to the last one, and it was very pleasurable, indeed.

On Tuesday, we had another presentation by a lady named Ariana from the financial aid office who handed out a brochure to everybody and explained in detail the way to get it and how to be qualified and etc. She also took any questions that students had. The information was very helpful, even for me, because I never really had anybody explain these things in such detail. Or perhaps I did in high school but at that time I didn't know much to be able to understand the importance of it all as I do now. For these adult students, money is a real issue and so they can understand and pay more attention to the financial aid process and how it works.

At 7 pm, Ariana was done with the presentation and left. So then Linda started the 'Teacher Man' by Frank McCourt that the students had to read over the weekend. She first began by talking to the class about the book itself like the publication, the reviews on the back, and the author. Linda even took it further to ask the students what they usually look at when they want to buy a book and some students commented the summary or the first page or just the back of the book. She also asked me what I look at to be able to critically judge a book and I told her I look at the introduction and the contents page.

Afterwards, Linda asked students to take out their 'Triple Entry' assignment to read the quotes they have chosen along with their comments. A lot of people raised their hands to participate in this portion of the activity. Most students were able to make a personal connection with the author. She also asked me what my opinion was as soon as she gave her own opinion of choosing the quote that McCourt gave about not sitting behind a desk as a teacher in a class. Interestingly enough as soon as she mentioned that, I was amused that it got my attention too as I was reading. I so told this to the class about how when I read that I remembered Linda and reasoned why she always moves away the desk and does not sit behind the desk in the class.

For the next activity, students were taught how to write descriptive paragraphs by looking at a sample and learning about "RENNS" (reason, example, number, name, senses). They were then asked to write two descriptive paragraphs about somebody they admire right there in class. This was done at 8:40 pm and she gave students the rest of the class time to do it. As they were writing their descriptive paragraphs, Linda warned them that they will be exchanging their works with classmates on Thursday. At about 8:55, she let the class know to do the rest for home work and took the last 5 minutes to ask students what they wrote about and basically go over the home works they have to do. Although she wanted to originally do some Math in the end since there was no time, she changed her mind to do that on Thursday instead.

On Thursday, August 19, the class started with Linda reminding the class of the descriptive paragraphs they had to finish up for home work. Students took the paragraphs out and went right into the first activity of exchanging it with classmates to read it and to take notes on it about 'RENNS' and see if that was applied in the essay. Since there was a bigger amount of people this day than on Tuesday, she asked one of the students to please explain what they did last time to those who weren't here.

Once that was over, from 6:30 to about 7:45, I taught my 3rd lesson, which I have already made a blog of.

Right after my lesson, Linda reminded the students about what I did and how some extra things to remember about conclusion paragraphs and let them know that for home work, they must do a conclusion paragraph (based on what I did) for their two descriptive paragraphs. So then they took a 10-minute break until 8 pm.

From 8 to 8:30, Linda did a "mini-lesson" on Pythagorean Theorem [PT] (a squared + b squared = c squared), a formula used to find the missing side of a right triangle. She explained it in such an easy way that I was amazed. I was able to see where the "squared" came from based on the diagram she did on the board. For me, I learned the theorem when in high school but I only learned to memorize the formula not really understand where it came from. For the next 30 minutes of the class, students worked on the PT packet and Linda and I went around to see how they were doing.

I have to say, I'm very sad to be seeing the class coming to an end, or should I say my role as an intern in the class. I've grown very close with all the students and I will be sad to let go.

Lesson 3

For my third lesson at the GED class, I taught 'conclusion' paragraphs.

Although I made a 3rd lesson plan, I have started to truly believe in improvising. I think I have definitely improved myself as a teacher in the past couple of lessons. The first lesson was something I was very comfortable with and have done before many times so it came naturally to me. However, the second lesson was a topic that took a lot of effort, because I was trying to find something to do with the class that is not just boring run-on sentence exercises and something interactive that will make students interested. Also, I tried to fit in too much into one lesson and of course I went over an hour. However, for this lesson, I did a lot of research to try to find something to do. I taught how to do conclusions, and again, I wasn't sure how I can teach that to the class in a simplified way.

The first hand out I gave to the students was after I put the introduction on the projector and tried to get out of the students, the points and suggestions needed for a conclusion to this introduction. Followed by the first one, I also gave out the second hand out that had the model introduction and conclusion paragraphs.

In the second portion of the class, I first just handed out the introductions of two paragraphs and the conclusions but cut up in strips that they had to put together (as mentioned in lesson plan). Once they finished putting it together on the big papers, I then handed out the answer key to them in Hand Out 3.

I only went about 10-15 minutes over but I overall I was very happy with the lesson and I know that the students were as well. It was very interactive, and it made the students get out of their seats to work together and they had to defend their cases as a group so a lot of team work was involved. Also, when explaining how to do the conclusion at all, I again used a lot of personal experiences as a tutor in the writing center to explain it.

The evaluation that I got from the students of lesson 2 showed that the ones that were there in class did remember and understand the topic; however, only one student mentioned that I did not clarify the topic in a way that I did not make it simple enough. I like and congratulate her honesty in this because I did feel that this is the case as well. The truth is, grammar is a very hard topic to touch upon and at times it is hard to think of a way to simplify it because in today's world, there's never a definite answer since language is changing so much.

I have learned so much from all of my lessons at the GED class and I will definitely be able to use these experiences for my teaching career. I must say though, I will be very sad to leave the internship next week around the same time...

Blog Entry for Week 6

For this week, I unfortunately missed Tuesday's session. However, on Thursday I went and really enjoyed the presentation in the beginning of the class, indeed.

Erika Carrera and Josue Clement came from the academic advising section of Continuing Education to give a presentation on going off to college and about the programs in LaGuardia Community College in particular to the class.

Erika had prepared a power point presentation but she also incorporated many activities that made the students get up and move around. The first thing she did was to go around the room and have the students introduce themselves, which is exactly how it is done in college. She asked them to give their future plans 'when' they passed the GED. However, some students said "if" I pass the GED I'll do this or that but Erika corrected each one and told them to always say "when" believing that they will definitely (eventually) pass the GED exam.

After the introductions, she started her activities. The first hand-out was a 'quiz' that the students had to take that were "Myths of College". However, instead of giving out the second hand-out, which had several points about preparing for college, she divided up the students into groups and asked them to come up with several. Meanwhile Linda along with Erika and Josue went around the room and checked to see how each team was doing.

After Erika went through each point and checked off the "common points" for each team, she gave the power point presentation that had all the different LaGuardia programs. She took all questions that the class had. I think this is so useful because as I took the evaluation and from what the students commented themselves several times, it seems that going to college is part of their plan. However, many students at times do not understand the steps they must take to go to college. So, Erika's presentation was very successful and it really did get everyone's attention. Now, the students know that "when" they pass the GED, they can always turn back to this same program to take the next steps necessary to go on to college.

After Josue and Erika left, Linda also had prepared a powerpoint presentation about the different "certification programs". She then handed out one of the pages of the power point presentation, which included all the certification-related websites that the students go into to research about their fields. After the presentation, she asked the students if anybody had questions and also told them that if they ever want to to some research they can always refer back to her because she is willing to go and "discover" with them just as a friend if even.

At 7:27, she gave a 13-min break to the students. It was a break well-taken since they were so concentrated on the presentations and had to get their attention back to class-work. At 7:40, as expected, students got back into the class. Linda started by having me collect home work and asking students to work on the "Volume" packet that she handed out to them. Students were given 30 minutes to work on the problems. Although there were only three problems, they had to do a lot of calculating and converting to get the solutions so alotted time was needed.

Once the students were done, at 8:15, the students who knew exactly what they were doing went to the board to do the solution and explain their work to the class. I have to say, even I had some trouble doing these questions because I did not recall some of the formulas and I had to really work on them to be able to come up with the right answer and this is why I couldn't go around much and help the students since I had trouble myself.

At 8:38, as the next subject, Linda asked students to take out their GED sample questions that was also handed out on Tuesday and asked of the students to do for home work. Finally, the subject of the questions and the reading text was Social Studies. It also included some political cartoons that the students had to interpret to answer questions. As always, Linda went through the problems in a way to make the students discuss the reading and share with the class what their opinions were. The questions sort of reminded me of DBQ questions (Document-Based Questions) from high school for the Global History and American History regents. This knowledge of course made sense to me that the board of Education would want the GED to have some similarities with the High School exams so that they can have about the same level of knowledge when entering college.

Since there was barely time, unfortunately Linda went only 5 minutes over, and at 9 when the questions were done, she handed out the "Teacher Man" books and told the students that as part of the program, the books are theirs to have. She just talked for 2 minutes about the book and asked students to read the necessary pages and also had me hand out the "Triple Entry" forms that required the students to find a quote, paraphrase it this time, and have them give their opinions about it. She went over one of the examples to make sure everybody knew what he/she must do.

I was very excited about this portion and happy that students will finally be starting this novel. I have not yet finished reading it but I find it very interesting. McFadden's writing is very similar to Mike Rose's and the writing is almost interactive that engages readers of any kind I'm sure.

Lesson 2

For my second lesson at LAGCC Internship, I taught Run-ons, which was a very difficult subject to do. Instead of one hour, it took about an hour and a half. The lesson plan itself showed that it would take an hour however it did not take into consideration, the difficulty level of it, the question-answering of the students, and the overall preparation for it. The teacher's toolkit that I designed shows the skills and rationale of the lesson.

Before beginning the lesson, I handed out an evaluation of Lesson 1 to the students. I took this idea from the previous intern at LaGCC who took it from another theorist. The point of this evaluation was to see if the students who were in class last time and are here today, possibly remember what we discussed last time and be comfortable to share with me what they did or didn't like about the lesson. The responses that I got from the students showed that most students in the class remembered exactly what happened last time. The last question I asked them was what they did not find helpful or that I did not clarify for them in my lesson. Most students wrote that they understood everything and a "thank you" as well but only one or two students actually wrote what they did not find helpful. One student wrote that she was still confused about doing conclusions, which was not the focus of my lesson of course.

For this lesson, I prepared three hand-outs. The first hand-out includes 10 examples of run-on sentences. I went over the first three questions and asked the class to work on the rest in groups of 2-3 as I mentioned in my lesson plan. I found these examples from different sources from the LaGCC Writing Center. The second hand-out I gave to the students is a chart that describes the four ways of "fixing" run-on sentences. I took this out of a grammar website and cited it on the page itself.

The third hand-out , I must admit was the hardest one for me to figure out. As I discussed it with the teacher beforehand, I was trying to find two paragraphs from a sample essay and have run-on errors in it to demonstrate to the class how they can fix run-ons in their own essays by learning how to proofread by reading out loud to themselves. As I mentioned in my lesson plan, I asked the students to pay attention to what I do and then presented the hand-out on the board and read it out loud. Of course I exaggerated my process of fixing the run-on errors in the first paragraph but the point of it was so that students can understand how they can do this on their own. After working on the first paragraph, I asked the students to do the same on their own, working individually, on the second paragraph. The difficulty for me was finding the two paragraphs itself. At first I found something online literature-related and Linda told me that it would be too difficult for the students to understand in the first place. The content instead, has to be on a very simple topic so that students don't get stuck on the content when the concentration is really about fixing the run-ons. Thus, after much research, I found a sample essay online about rock bands, which I thought would be so much more interesting for the students and not at all hard.

My overall reaction to doing the lesson was as I expected; it took a lot out of me! I was worried about my time while doing the work and also worried that I was giving the students too much information at a small amount of time. For this reason, I asked everybody if they had questions virtually every time I finished one activity or finished going over each concept and aspect of run-ons.

I was intrigued when I received some of the students' questions as I taught. One student who was paying very close attention to my explanation of fixing run-ons, asked me what the difference between putting comma before "because" and before "and" was. I tried to explain it as best as I could but Linda jumped in to save me and said to the student that in fact, English is just a very difficult and growing language. Rules in the English language seem to always change. For this reason, one does not have absolute answers to grammar in this language knowing that there are many exceptions to many rules.

Blog Entry for Week 5

I would like to try to summarize my blog entries more carefully for the next few remaining weeks for it seems that my fellow readers have had trouble taking them all in at once. In fact, I will have no difficulty doing so because for this week of class, I taught my second lesson on Thursday. The lesson took over half of the class time, which I will go in details for in a separate blog entry.

On Tuesday August 3rd, the class worked on more Angles for Math, answering the questions of the students, the pie charts that they had to do from the annual or weekly salary data that the students find from the "Nickels & Dime" newspaper article. For the pie charts activity, which the class worked on in the first half an hour of the class, was very interesting because there was Math and a great reading comprehension discussion going on. As always, Linda did a great job of incorporating both subjects (Math and Writing/Reading Comprehension) in one activity. The article was very interesting and it even got students that don't usually participate, raise their hands to make comments. The article follows the life of a very poor woman who is a single mother with 6 children trying to make enough money for rent and support the children with a part-time tutoring job that only pays $10/h.

We also worked on Quadrilaterals in the last hour and a half of the class. This time, Linda first did a 20-minute lecture on perimeters and areas of quadrilaterals and explained the packet that she handed out to the class. She then gave a chance to the students to work on the packet at first individually and then in groups just like last time with the Angles. This was a lot more successful and she and I went around and checked people's works u

On Thursday August 5th, the first hour and a half or so, I taught my second lesson: "Run-ons". There will be a separate blog on it where I describe extensively. On the second half of the class time, after students took a break, the class went over their "double entry" assignment where they had to pick out quotes from the Introduction of "Nickel & Dimed" book and write their opinions on it.

Students were very inspired by what they have read and it was obvious that they have all taken the time to at least read part of the assigned reading because everyone handed something in. In addition, most students raised their hands to share the quotations they found with the class, which was very impressive.

At about 8:30 pm, Linda collected students' works and moved on to do Math. Although most of the time of the class was spent doing English grammar and the reading comprehension and discussion, the teacher made sure to also incorporate ate some Math in. In fact, they had to take out their Quadrilaterals packet that they had to do for home work. I think it is very important to go over home work because students feel the necessity to do their assigned work outside of class.

Although at first it was planned to have the students write the answers on the big papers with markers, since there was not enough time, Linda used the overhead projector to get the images on the board and ask the students to come up to the board and explain their answers to the class.

One thing that was important was that although there wasn't much time, Linda did not rush through the problems just so that she could say she went over the whole thing before class finished. No. She made sure everybody comprehended every question and its solution and answered students' misunderstandings as well. Then at 8:57, even though there were only 3 minutes left to the end of class, she asked the students if it were alright to do one more problem with them and they replied: yes, for sure. The way students answered her showed their enthusiasm for learning and comfort of being in the same page with the teacher and with the class.

The last problem was pretty straight forward but the students needed to have used decimals to answer the question correctly. The teacher told the students to not be afraid of decimals and use it if necessary in GED Math. It was funny that she mentioned this to the class because I have always been "afraid" of decimals ever since I learned them, since Elementary school! But she is definitely right, because dealing with decimals in the world of Math and in our world even, is inevitable!

Google doc of Essay 1

Here is the first part of my essay (Parts A & B) along with the GED questionnaire (in google docs) that I gave to the class to do my report.

Blog Entry for Week 4

This week at LaGCC, students at the GED Bridge class had many laughs, moments of concentration, at times frustration, and overall, a good educational time.

On Tuesday July 26th, the first activity was to hand out the pH scale sheet and over the definition of pH and how to find it. On the board, she wrote "fifteen across" acid + bases indicating that acid is less than 7 and bases is more than 7. She gave some time to students to do a scale of the information given to them like the pH of coffee is a certain amount and pH of lemon juice is another so they had to make a scale based on that data.

Linda went around and checked people's works and then asked one of the students who did the scale correctly to go on the board to do it and explain it to the class. After the student explained her work beautifully, Linda made sure no body had any questions and that they understood the method. She also explained that typically in the GED this type of question comes in the Science section of the test.

At 6:30, she moved on to Math, a subject like next week, called 'Angles'. She gave the students a hand out and a couple of minutes to work on it on their own. These sheets went into detail about the terms of each angle like "complementary, supplementary, congruent, and adjacent angles". The purpose of working on these sheets was to work on the definition and familiarity with these terms. Once Linda was done giving the lecture, she went on to the exercises and that's when students started having a lot of trouble. Linda did apologize for perhaps "lecturing too much" but explained that it was necessary to teach these certain terms because they might come up in the GED examination.

Even though this was a very difficult topic for the students I realized, there was still a light mood. Every once in a while when students were very concentrated on a certain question and trying to figure out the solution, for instance [Kate] would make a joke or make it known that she did not understand in an amusing way so the class would laugh despite the frustration they were having.

The way that Linda did each of these questions was that she tried to logically explain the solution and even asked students who came up with the right answers to explain why this is so and try to explain it in their own words what the logic of it was. Although the GED may not ask such questions, it helps students to think about what they are acquiring as they are doing it.

At 7 pm, she handed out the fourth sheet of Math for the night to work on four of the questions in class and the rest for home work. After about 6-8 minutes, she asked the student who had a good grasp on numbers 11 & 12 to come and explain it on the board for everyone. Although a student did come up she did not do it entirely correct so Linda had to step in and explain it more.

After going through the questions a bit more, at around 7:23 she gave the students a 17 minute break until 7:40 since she saw that students were beginning to become very frustrated with the work and almost burned out. While most students went out for a break a few stayed back to do more Math and two of them Linda worked with on what they were having difficulties in.

At 7:40 when all students got back to the class, the class resumed and Linda finally moved on to Writing. She asked students to clear their desk of Math and take out their essays (draft 1, draft 2, side shadowing exercise, and basically the whole package of the 'professional goal' essay).

She then, as planned, handed out the fifth sheet of the night for questions on how to do a decent introduction and questions that one has to ask oneself when writing it. The sheet included two samples of an introduction and students had to work in groups to read the two versions and figure out which is better. For this exercise, students had to get out of their seats and rearrange their desks to be able to communicate with each other. From all that Math frustration to this, I believe that it was a good shift and the atmosphere of the class immediately changed and students once again began to talk to each other, laugh, and interact more. I went around and checked on students' progress at this point.

At 8:03, she brought the class together by turning the light on and off to get their attention of course, since she preferred not to scream. She wrote the answers to the questions on the sheet on the board, summarizing the students' responses in the process. She asked me to also give the class my explanation of what makes a good introduction and I did so, explaining that an Introduction is basically a "preview" of the rest of the essay. I tried to answer students' questions as best as I could.

She then handed out sheet #6, which was "What is a Thesis?" originally prepared by the previous intern (Victoriia) so students had to choose the "best thesis" in the exercises. She also asked me to give my own two cents and explain as best as I could what a good "thesis" is and I made the comparison between a "hypothesis" in a science project and a "thesis" in a paper.

For the rest of the class time, she gave the seventh sheet to the students and asked students to rewrite their introduction to the professional goal essay right there in class after learning what a thesis is and what a decent introduction entails.

On Thursday July 29th, I surprisingly met my co-worker at the writing center, Jenny, in the class at 6 pm who apparently has started teaching GED Spanish classes and has come to Linda's class to observe her work for her own good. So Linda started the class with telling the students that just like students who learn from each other, teachers also do the same. Thus, Jenny is here today to observe her class and asked Jenny to introduce herself to the class and she did as told and explained that she, too works in the writing center on campus.

As for the first activity of the evening, Linda put the Math Angles exercises from Tuesday on the overhead projector so that the whole class could see what she was doing and she can write on it with the marker on the board. She invited students to ask any questions they may have about the exercises. She mentioned that she won't go over every single question but only the ones that students had the most difficulty doing.

At about 6:26, she went over the whole sheet, answered all the students' questions, and collected their home works. She then moved on to the drafts that the students had done and gave back what she had looked over with comments. She asked students what they may have noticed about the new comments. Students mentioned that the comments are now more focused on grammar, which was indeed the case. Linda told the students that generally when teachers and/or tutors look over essays, they first look for organization and development and then they check for grammar.

She then asked students that if they were the ones reviewing the essays as GED test graders, how would they critique the work? What would be the areas they concentrate on? In response, students suggested several things like organization, introduction, conclusion, paragraph development, etc and Linda wrote everything down on the board. Then, she handed out a sheet that was basically an "evaluative rubric for GED essays" and went over each point with the class, answering any questions the students had in the process.

Afterwards, she handed out the home work that students must do for over the weekend. This time, they have to work on the third and final draft of the 'professional goals' essay with concentration on the rubric given to them. Now and then, Jenny would make a comment and give her intake of the subject to the students. For instance, she told the students how in college, professors generally ask students to do 2-3 drafts for paper assignments.

By 7 pm, she moved on to the Wall Street Journal article and the reading comprehension questions of it. This was what the students have worked on for home work so she just asked them to share their answers with each other and then went over it as a class. When doing so, she asked each student to tell the class where he/she got the answer from and from which paragraph in the article. In this way, she went over all key points of the article without actually re-reading it in class. There was a great discussion going on in class that reminded me of a regular college-level class.

Once the discussion of the article was over and all students gave their inputs and opinions of it, the instructor even took it further and asked the class what it made them think of after reading this? In response, students said that they think they may need more training and education perhaps in their fields.

At 7:18, Linda gave them a 12-minute break until 7:30. When they got back, Linda switched the class for about 15 minutes or so to me to give them a survey. In this survey, that I include in my first essay of the internship portfolio, I am basically getting the demographics of the students like their ages, genders, ethnicities, their motivations for taking the GED class, and if the class have matched their expectations of it.

While students took some time to answer the seven questions, Linda spoke to [Joseph] saying he should learn to prioritize and at least try to start the first draft of the professional goal essay since he has not been handing in the work apparently. I liked that Linda went over to him to say this in his ear and not let the whole class know about this and it was in a very respective way that there is no way that the student could have felt embarrassed or anything.

At about 7:50, after I have collected all the completed surveys, Linda took over and went over all the home work that the students have to do over the weekend to make sure everybody is on the same page. She then handed out the new article that the students would be working on in class and over the weekend: "Nickels & Dime" along with the usual Reading Comprehension questions.

As usual, she first asked students to 'predict' what the article would be about based on the title. Some students responded in a literal way saying it might be about "nickels and dime", some said that it may be symbolic and others thought it may have a social or political meaning.

Although, as I have mentioned before, the students have a lot of fun and laughs in the class, at times they can really disrupt the class for their behaviors. For this reason, Linda had to actually make the comment about this class being the 'rowdiest' among all her other classes and that since we're all adults, we should really try not to disrupt each other and especially not the lesson. Of course, Linda said this in the most respectful and kind way so no body took it the wrong way and they actually listened to her.

After guessing what the article could be about, at around 8 pm, Linda did a demonstration on the board with the help of the projector of reading the article to herself loudly and taking notes. She did this for about 5 minutes and I noticed that as she went on, students began to understand what was going on and really concentrated on what she was doing. Afterwards, Linda asked the students what she just did. She wrote down everything the students suggested on the board. She then asked the students how this could help them saying: "Now that you know what I do, how does this apply to you?"

A student [Joseph again] spoke about his experience of reading something once and not understanding much since there was so much detail so he had to go back and highlight the key points in order to remember them. However, after seeing Linda do the demonstration, he knows now that he can also take notes right then and there on the article and said that this can actually help him a lot better. And as usual, she asked students whether this was at all helpful or not. I really like the way she does her teaching strategies because it truly concentrates on the students and counts them as equals. I don't think I have ever felt like an "equal" as a teacher in any of my high school or undergraduate classes. In this way, the students are so much more motivated to do well and do what is expected of them, realizing that it is not just 'home work' but actually practice to do better and for their own good more than anything else.

She then went over some of the questions as much as she could based on what she read with the class. Then, she read the rest of the questions making sure the students understood what they have to for over the weekend. She also went over the Math section of this reading assignment of finding out the salaries and doing a pie chart by first giving some time to the students to work individually on the note-taking skills of the article to find the percentages. Then she broke them up in groups to start working on the task. Then she went over it with the class but basically they have to do the rest for home work

As usual, I left the class at 8 pm. I know that next Thursday, I will be teaching my second lesson, which will be on grammar. A whole month has now finished and I have got to say, I've learned so much. I'm actually sad that it will end in another month because I've built a very nice relationship with the students though I was not expecting it. I was not sure how much I would be interacting with the students indeed. This has definitely been a great learning experience for me basically, I am very glad that I did it or am doing it...

Blog Entry for Week 3

On Tuesday July 20th, before the class started I arrived a bit earlier in class with Linda to help the students who had trouble with the homework. In fact, one of the students (let's call her Claudia) came up to me to talk a bit. She is also Muslim, which is why I think she felt comfortable talking to me. She told me a bit about her hard situation now in her life and how she has had a hard time trying to find the time to do the homework, and how she quit her job just so that she could keep her GED class as priority. I mean, it is for these reasons, seeing the dedication of these amazing group of people that I'm drawn more and more to the field of Adult Language & Literacy.

A few minutes before class started, Linda asked students to come up to the board and write and solve the problems that they had from the Math Assessment that most students had trouble with. Meanwhile, she was also helping out by doing a couple of problems herself.

At 6 pm, when class started, she asked each student to explain their work to the rest of the class. What I noticed from the questions as Linda had said previously in the first week of classes was that there were real-life situations in most of the word-problems. Also, to be able to comprehend something, students used examples from real-life to better understand each topic. For instance, for the definition of area and perimeter Linda showed how the measurement around the room would be the perimeter and the squares used to make up the floor of the room would be the area.

After 30 minutes of this, she asked students how this exercise helped them and students said that the visuals definitely helped them to better understand the work. Linda made sure all students understood all Math problems before moving on to the next topic.

Then at 6:40, she handed out another sheet of Math Problems for homework to do for Thursday. Then, she handed out another exercise that students completed in the course of the class on Tuesday, at home, and finished on Thursday. For this exercise, students had to calculate the salary and wages of the occupations of their categories. After figuring out the monthly and weekly salaries of at least three of the occupations, they were to make a bar graph of the data found.

As always she modeled it on the board and made sure every single person in the class knows what is expected of him or her. She also modeled a bar graph along with how to do the calculations on the board so everyone can also get the visuals in his/her mind.

At 7:05, she moved on from Math to Writing and asked students to put away their Math and not get confused with what is to be done next. She handed out 'sample papers' and basically did a lesson on peer review. These sample papers were from the 'Lesson Learned' essay that she asked the students to do on the first day of class. However these were actual papers that students from previous classes did. She asked students to come up with constructive suggestions and not just 'trash' the paper. In a way, they were asked to monitor the work in front of them, as a teacher perhaps. Linda told the students that once they have mastered monitoring each others' works, then they can monitor their own. For the exercise, she gave students 7 minutes to work in groups of 3 for monitoring the sample essays.

I thought this to be very successful to actually first work on students' papers but students that they did not know because at first when such a task is given to someone, they might feel like they cannot be completely honest out of shyness or respect of classmates. In this way, they first got to practice monitoring a students' work that they have never seen and then worked on classmates' works and then themselves. This is very successful in my opinion.

At 7:37, she asked the students to 'bring it together' and she started writing on the board the answers to the 'monitoring questions' based on what the class suggested to write. Part of the reason why it was such a successful activity was that all students were participating and volunteering about what to write for each question's answer.

As she was doing this activity, she asked students to practice penmanship and mentioned that in the GED test, if the test-taker has a bad writing, it might really make the person fail because the test evaluators do not take the time to try to figure out what the writing says. And if they cannot read it, they mark it down. I think it is very important to put that fact out there for the students because where else would they have found out about this? It's not like GED preparatory books would include such tips and pointers.

At 8 pm, she moved on to having students monitor the 'professional goals' essays that they had to do for over the weekend.

On Thursday, July 22nd, Linda started the class by doing a demonstration of one body paragraph in two versions though. This was such a spontaneous activity that it caught me by surprise. One of the reasons she did that was that I was working on grading the three professional goal essays that Linda gave to me to do.

The grading process went very smoothly for me because I have seen these types of papers and with a few pointers from Linda, I was able to write tips for the students' drafts. So the reason Linda wrote down the two versions of the one body paragraph was to show the students that when they are writing their body paragraphs, they should learn to develop them and not just list every thing. Linda of course did not mention this and had the students volunteer to say what is wrong with each version of the paragraph and basically walked through the steps with the students to come to that conclusion.

Then, she handed back all the essays to the students with mine and her criticism. She also handed out the 'second draft of the professional goal essay'. Once the students saw the problem about listing the details and actually developing it on the board, then they were able to see it in their own papers as well. She then explained how over the weekend, students were expected to do the second draft of the essay, paying attention to the criticisms they received from their first draft. After she asked students if they understood the assignment or if they had any questions, she moved on to the same topic.

At 6:22, she asked students to take out the Math word problems and asked if they did okay on it. Then she asked them (the ones who can) to come up to the board and do each problem by showing their work. So just like Tuesday, she asked the students who came to the board to do the problems to also explain their work to the rest of the class.

As the class worked on each problem, Linda tried to show the different ways each problem could be solved and other things that could be taught with each section like one problem was to do the average/mean and then also described mode and median that is something that is usually asked with mean of a group of numbers.

At 6:46, when she completely answered everyone's questions and cleared all confusion, she moved on to the next homework that they had to do (still Math). She then asked students to get into their career sectors to go over the homework which was the bar graphs of the salaries of different occupations. Students were divided into groups of two or three to make one huge bar graph on the big posters using the markers provided to them by the teacher. Each group had to either do annual salary or weekly salary. Meanwhile, she went around the room to see how each group was doing and I did the same.

At 7:33, she gave students a 7-minute break especially since some students were done with their work and others were almost done. After the break, she put all the graphs and asked each group to present their work. As she went through each graph, she gave facts here and there and checked everyone's calculations.

She also asked them if or how this activity helped them. I really like the way that Linda actually asks the students to evaluate each activity because it makes the students think about what they did and not just do it because it is required of them.

For the last hour of the class, she switched to the next topic: Angles, so she handed out a packet on that along with the questions of finding the missing angles in each shape. Linda and I walked around to see how each group was doing. As I went around and worked on each problem, the Math came back to me because I was worried I had forgotten everything from high school!

Lesson 1

For my first one-hour lesson that I taught at the GED PCAP class on Thursday July 15 at 7 pm:

After introducing what I will be teaching them today (brainstorming and making an essay map), in the first 7 minutes, I asked students to do an "outline/brainstorming" activity about the 'Professional Goal Essay' that they have to do over the weekend, however they prefer to do it and what they are used to already.

Next, after giving them time to do so, I asked them to take 3 to 5 minutes to share their work with each other. Afterwards, I asked them to volunteer and share their work with me and with the class. The primary reason why I did it in this way was that Linda always implements this learning strategy and I wanted to do something they are already doing so that they get used to one strategy throughout the class.

While asking students what they thought of the process of outlining and what their idea of what an outline should look like, I began my lesson by emphasizing the importance of doing an outline, especially for timed-essay exams like the GED. I then handed out the 'essay map' and modeled the introduction and first body paragraph on the board based on that. Meanwhile, I explained what I was doing by comparing doing an essay to doing a science experiment: to be able to prove a hypothesis (thesis in the case of an essay), one has to come up with evidence (supporting details, which is in the body paragraphs, in an essay). I asked for students' inputs on what to put in each section like the thesis, each supporting detail, etc. I tried to help them with trying to use the words of the question to answer it like: "what is your professional goal? My professional goal is.... (as the thesis) and then for the supporting details, answering the rest of the questions like: "what are the tasks and skills needed? what are your reasons for choosing this? what should you do to achieve this? and for each question, using each body paragraph to answer that particular question." I used one of the 'New York State Department of Labor' job descriptions for physical therapist that I had from before when Linda gave it to me since everybody had at least one of that. The tasks and skills needed for each profession was listed in this sheet and I taught them how they should prioritize and not choose every single one of the tasks or skills but go into detail about the ones they do choose.

I tried to implement my own personal experiences and the ways that I learned each writing skill to teach. In fact, I have found this to be effective. In my own case, I always found that the teachers who used their own personal skills to teach always got my attention the most. In a way, it made the lesson more tangible.

When I finished the modeling process, I asked them to compare what I have on the board with their own outlines and list the things a 'good outline' contains and I wrote it as they volunteered to give the tips. Next, I handed out the 'How to Plan Your Essay' that I have prepared for the class, which basically begins by giving an overview of why and how outlining is very important. Then it gives the basic tips of what an outline should and should not have. For instance, an outline should have as few words as possible and some abbreviated even and not in full sentences or that it may have grammatical errors since the plan is not for anybody else to see but the writer.

Originally I had planned to give students about 10 to 15 minutes to now do a new plan using the 'essay map' sheet and the information they got from what an outline should look like and etc. and then do the same process of going over it first with classmates and then with the class. However, I only had 5-7 minutes of my time for my one-hour lesson so I just gave them 5 minutes to work on the activity. Afterwards, I just thanked them for being patient with me and that I hoped they will use outlines to write their essays from now on starting with this weekend.

Overall, I feel very confidant about my lesson. As I have mentioned before, I was already very comfortable with the topic mentioned because I have worked on it again and again with my students in the Writing Center. This was perhaps my biggest strength. However, I do wish I would have organized and predicted my time in a better fashion i.e. I wouldn't lose time in the end. Linda also suggested in her lesson evaluation for me that it would've been better if I modeled one more body paragraph on the board so that they could see that they can use the introduction as a map for the rest of their essay. Especially after I read some of the students' works and saw that they had the outline right and introduction along with the beginning of their body paragraph but then I saw that they had all the three important supporting ideas all in one paragraph. Also, I saw that they have 'listed' each task or skill and I think that by asking them to just look into that sheet and choose the most important ones, students assumed that they do not even need to use their own words to expand further on each idea.

Both of the sheets that I used I took from the writing center and cited so on the top of the page as it already was cited; the sheets are usually prepared by the tutors on site or other faculty.

Next time when I have more time and patience perhaps I will prepare my lesson plan in a way that I can follow it more closely and predict the time spent for each task and activity more carefully.

Blog Entry for Week 2

This week's GED classes (on Tuesday 07/13 and Thursday 07/15) were a bit more intense and material-packed. For one thing, I taught my first one-hour lesson plan on Thursday, there will be a separate post about my experience. Also, the activities done were very, in my opinion, realistic meaning students did work that they could really take with themselves outside of this class and outside of just the GED exam, and actually use it, unlike most test-prep classes.

On Tuesday, since the computer lab was apparently confirmed last minute, Linda and I only went upstairs to put up the sign to ask students to meet us at the Computer Lab on the 2nd floor (the class is on the 7th floor). After everybody made it to the Computer Lab, Linda asked students to turn off their computer monitors for now because she would like to give them some work to do without the use of computer. This was very helpful I think because students could easily be attracted to just search the web, as soon as they're given a computer no matter where they are. So, the first activity was giving the students a sheet with a chart that was titled "Interests, Skills, Abilities, and Personal Qualities," which are the basic things one would put on a resume. Students were asked to come up with what their own interests, skills, etc are. After going through them with the class and asking some students to volunteer to say what they put down, they went on to do the back of the same sheet. On the back, they had to come up with at least two names of occupation, a description of it, and the reasons for their interest in it.

Afterwards, they were asked to go to this website: www.nycareerzone.org In here, they were asked to go to 'my profile' and make an account of their own. Then, they were to do a sort of 'Interests Test'. As the students were doing this, Linda went around to check their work. I also went around to make sure everybody was on the same page. When we both made sure that everybody is doing the test, I found a computer and took the test myself to see what the NYS Department of Labor will say about what occupation best matches my interests. After doing the test, everyone was asked to print their work, 2 copies, so that they could give one to the teacher and hold on one by themselves. Linda then asked them to take a look at all the definitions of the categories and print out a copy of the job descriptions, of whichever occupation they prefer.

At around 8 pm, the students came back to the class. Although two hours of the class were spent in the computer lab, I liked the fact that Linda still left one hour for class-time. She first started talking about 'plagiarism' and why it is important not to do so and how to avoid it. She then asked the students which sections of the occupation 'job descriptions' did they print out. She then gave them another sheet which had questions about paraphrasing and summarizing the job descriptions that they printed out. This, they were asked to do for home work; however, Linda went through all the questions one by one making sure the students know what to do for as home work.

She then asked me to give back the 'What's your passion' responses, which was basically previous home work. I must admit, I had some difficulty handing back the work because I was not yet familiar with every one's names. There must be a 'system' to memorize everyone's names because I even have trouble with people's names when I'm instructing labs. Even until the very end of the semester, there are certain people's names that I have not yet fully memorized.

While I struggled with this task, she asked the students to pair up and work on the reading comprehension questions of 'Bricklayer's Son'. After 15-20 minutes, she asked students to volunteer to share their answers. I really like the dynamic of the class because most students are very relaxed and also respectful to each other. After all, everyone here is an adult. Also, students are very willing to share their personal experiences and not at all shy about it though some were in the beginning. The question that she asked students to concentrate on mostly was choosing a section and in this way, was able to go over the different parts of the text and which section they found most interesting and why. As for home work, she gave them Mike Rose's 'Mind at Work' to read and answer reading comprehension questions.

On Thursday, 07/15, before I taught my first lesson plan, at 6 pm, Linda started the class by going over the Mike Rose article and students were firstly asked to share with the class what they thought of the text. On the board, she wrote down the main ideas with the help of the class. The text was basically the section where Mike Rose went into details about waitressing and valuing the true intelligence that goes behind it. Students who were already waitresses or have the experience of it, especially would give their own views of it. Afterwards, they were handed out an activity sheet which was basically to be done for home work. For it, they had to write about their own occupations that they have now, and just as Mike Rose did in the text, write the tasks performed, the skills needed and acquired, training, etc.

Since Linda had everyone's names memorized, she just asked a girl randomly who was not completely participating (she knew her name of course, where if it were in my case, I would have to say, yes the girl in the back) she also had the girl's job memorized. So she asked the student to demonstrate. Although at first I thought the student may feel singled out or put on the spot, but she was actually more than willing to share her experiences, and that was kind of surprising to me but a very nice surprise of course.

She then asked them to do the rest of the sheet for home work. At 6:40 pm, she asked students to take out their home work from Tuesday, the Paraphrasing and Summarizing exercise that is. Beforehand, she asked me to write on the board the categories (Medical, Trade & Business, and Human Services) of the career goals that students came up with on the first day. Students were then asked to divide up and sit with the people that were in their own career goal zones. Then within those groups, students were asked to get into groups of 2-3 and discuss their summaries. Somebody asked whether they should just be exchanging papers but Linda said that no, they should actually be talking. This is a more activity-based exercise, and by talking students are collaborating more, which is very positive in my opinion.

At 7:03, after student students talked about their work with each other within their own groups, Linda went over what kinds of skills students had to use to do the summarizing/paraphrasing activity by the help of the class of course.

At 7:10 until 8:10, I taught my lesson, which I will have a separate blog about.

Right after I finished my presentation, at 8:12, Linda handed out the actual essay assignment along with other home work for over the weekend to do. She of course went through the work to make sure everyone knows what they had to do (a first draft of the 'professional goal' essay, a side shadowing exercise where they have to write about the process of doing this draft and imagining what an observer would say about their finished work). Then, she gave them a break for 5 minutes.

When they returned, they did Math practice until the end of class time.

Blog Entry for Week 1

On Tuesday, July 6th, 2010, I attended the PCAP GED class at 6:00 pm. A few students have arrived already before the class started and Linda Chin, the (main) teacher of this class, told the class that she will only be starting 5 minutes late today because it's the first day and she wants to give more time for everyone to find the room and etc. However, in general, she starts the class promptly at 6 so that she could use time as efficiently as possible. I should say I immediately liked this idea best because in this way, students will know that this is a serious class and even if things come up and they are late for any reason, the class will start without them. In this way, they will try their best to make it on time.

Before getting into the format of the GED and how it actually looks like, she started with becoming familiarizing herself with the students first and having them relax in a way and becoming acquainted with one another. For this, she had them go around the room and find out the career goals of one another along with their names. Then, they were asked to share it with the class so that all the career goals of the students were on the board. Afterward, she asked me to put up the big papers on the board so that she could, along with the help of the students, categorize the career goals. For instance, in the "Medical Field" category, there was Nursing, Medical Billing, ER Technician, etc. In my opinion, the students were able to see how there was this dynamic going on and how so many people just sitting next to them perhaps that was going through the same thing, coming back to school after such a long time to get their GED. In this way, students feel that they're a part of something, and that to me I think is quiet important.

In this class, students also had to do a short essay about a "Lesson Learner" i.e. a skill they acquired whether in school or elsewhere. They were given 30 minutes for the essay. The reason for this was that Linda wanted to better assess the students to see what level they are at. After the 30 minutes was up, she asked the students to volunteer to share some of their writings which one or two students did.

Interestingly, she introduced herself, the class, and I by giving the syllabus way into the class period after the students got to relax a bit and get to know the teacher and the others around them. I found this, as I mentioned before, very fascinating because most teachers do not do that. In fact, students are always given a syllabus in the very beginning of the class and immediately a 'structure' of the class is formed in their minds, which may do them no good in the long run.

For homework, they were asked to finish the reading "Follow Your Passions" and do the Reading Comprehension questions.

On the second class, on July 8, 2010, more people showed up and more were on time. Indeed, Linda started the class promptly at 6 pm. Although on Tuesday I was starting to lose my voice, on this day, I was in a worse condition because I was coughing a lot in a way. For this reason, Linda let me out a little earlier than usual (at 8 pm).

Linda started the class by giving the students a 'free writing exercise'. For it, they had to select a quote from "Follow Your Passion", paraphrase, and then give their opinion on it. Before starting it though, she asked students if they knew what paraphrasing meant and etc. She had them complete this exercise in 7 minutes. If some were done more quickly than others, she asked would ask them to find another quote that they liked. Next, they were to share it with the person sitting next to them.

Since everybody seemed to be agreeing with this whole theory that one must follow his/her passion no matter what it may be, Linda said that she is actually a bit skeptical about that because one must also be realistic living in this country, especially with the economic situation now. I also mentioned to the class that this is very true because I did my undergraduate study in French but after I received my B.A., I was left without a job. Thus, I had to come back to school to do a degree in something more tangible and 'realistic' that will help me build a career. Interestingly enough, a couple of more students began to agree with this basis that being realistic should also be important and considered when trying to follow one's passions.

After collecting the homework, at 6:40 pm, she moved on to Math. First, she did a 'predictions exercise' and asked students to guess what Math areas the GED test will cover. After getting an idea about what the students think will be in the GED Math section and putting it on the board, she actually distributed a statistic that showed how 95-97% of the Math section will actually contain word problems. Thus, this is a real reading comprehension-based test, and this is why the GED class is structured the way it is.

I was not very surprised about the reaction most students had about the Math portion of the GED. Many started making comments like "I know I will definitely be failing this part" or "I haven't done Math in years so..." and etc. This sounded familiar to me because even I still have a low confidence when it comes to Math. I just really hope the students will soon enough realize just how practical Math could be and how they could indeed use it in their real lives, especially because the word problems used in the GED are very practical situations, so it is easy to imagine the situation.

At around 7:15 pm, she handed out the Math assessment and gave the students about 45 minutes to 1 hour to complete it. I worked on the test as well while everyone else was doing it and had difficulty with the formula-based questions since I have always had the formulas in front of me. The teacher asked the students to NOT use their calculators for this time because she did not want them to get distracted in any way and just focus on the assessment.

At about 8 pm, she collected the work and gave a 5-minute break to everyone. For those who did finish it, they gladly handed it in for those who did not, they took 5-10 more minutes to finish it.

Although I left after students went on their breaks, I know that the students then had another reading given to them "Bricklayer's Son" and just as the previous reading, they had to first make predictions about what the reading will be about and read part of it. Then, however, they were asked to finish the rest of the reading along with the questions at home for the weekend.

Overall, I'm very pleased with my first week at the internship. I'm still learning about the GED test and this program and the class curriculum along with the students of the class. I feel like all the students, each and everyone of them have a very rich background and are extremely intelligent people who have so much courage that are willing to come back to school after so many years and starting all over again.

It is also very exciting to me because I feel like all the work I did last semester in those theory classes in Adult Lanugage & Literacy, I'm seeing it now in the flesh! Now, they are not just simply stories and statistics I learned about in a book somewhere, it's real.

Internship Contract

STUDENT INTERN CONTRACT SUMMER 2010 MA IN LANGUAGE AND LITERACY, CCNY

PRE COLLEGE ACADEMIC PROGRAMMING (PCAP), LAGUARDIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE (LAGCC)

The requirements listed here comprise a contractual agreement for the Summer Term

2010 between the student intern, PCAP instructors and administrators, and the Language

and Literacy Program Director, Prof. Barbara Gleason.

STUDENT NAME:__MAHLA SALAMAT ________CONTACT:______917-889-5293_________________________

CO-TEACHER NAME: __LINDA CHIN_________ CONTACT:____718 482 5469_____________________

CLASS NAME: _TUITION BASED CAREER AND COLLEGE GED__ DATES OF INSTRUCTION: 07/06/2010-

09/16/2010

Internship Schedule

The intern will attend all meetings and classes scheduled on __Tuesdays and Thursdays _

between the hours of _6pm______and ___9pm___ commencing on ___7/6/2010 and ending on

____08/24/2010.

The dates that Mahla will attend class are:

July 6, 8, 13, 15,20, 22,27,29,August 3,5,10,12,17,19 and 24.

She will attend the class hours from 6pm to 9pm. She will also attend meetings and provide

tutoring hours for students with the instructor starting at 5 pm everyday that she attends

classes.

Grading: Due to differences in class schedules between CCNY and LAGCC, Mahla will

receive the final grade for her internship on her transcript at the end of fall semester, 2010.

In order to receive a satisfactory grade for the internship, she must complete all assigned

coursework described in this contract by September 1, 2010.

Deadlines

The first two sections of portfolio essay must be posted on the intern blog received by mail

at Prof. Gleason’s home address no later than July 30, 2010.

The three lessons must be taught in class no later than August 19, 2010. The lesson

plans and reflections about the lessons must also be posted on the blog by this date.

The final contents of the portfolio are due by mail no later than September 1, 2010.

All class materials must be submitted by mail, email, and posted on the intern blog by the

dates listed above. No late submissions will be accepted: the materials must arrive by the

date listed above to the following address:

Prof. Barbara Gleason

336 81st. St.

Brooklyn, NY 11209

Grading Policy and Percent Distribution

1. The percent distribution for the final grade includes:

A. Portfolio: 40%

Intern self-assessment: At the end of the internship, the intern must

complete a self assessment to be submitted with the portfolio.

The grade for the portfolio will be based on the submission of the first two

sections of the portfolio essay, the final submission of the complete

portfolio and the submission of the intern self-assessment.

B. Blog: 20%

C. Classroom Presence, Participation and Teaching: 40%

1. Lesson planning and delivery: After each lesson is delivered, the

intern must post a reflection about the lesson on her course blog.

2. Attendance and punctuality

3. Participation

4. Active email communication

2. The faculty advisor, Prof. Barbara Gleason, will assign the final course grade upon

review of the intern portfolio and course blog, and with input about the intern’s classroom

presence, participation and teaching from the co-instructor named above in the PCAP

department at LAGCC. The faculty advisor is additionally welcome to observe class time or

participate in meetings that the intern also attends.

Intern Role and Responsibilities

1.The intern will prepare a final portfolio that will include a reflection essay, a set of at least

three lesson plans developed by the intern, a set of documents used in the class that

supplement the intern’s own work, and a self-assessment. The final portfolio is worth 40%

of the final grade.

2. The intern will engage in active weekly reflection about the classes she attends via a self-

generated blog that is visible to all parties involved in the PCAP internship program. The

blog is worth 20% of the final grade for the internship.

3. The intern will be an active and eager participant in the classroom, and will maintain and

develop a spirit of collaboration with her peers and advisors. Classroom presence,

participation and teaching are worth 40% of the final grade. To meet these requirements:

3a.The intern will prepare three lessons to be administered during regular class

time. She will submit these lessons at least one week in advance for review by the

instructor. The instructor and intern will determine the dates these lessons will be

administered at the beginning of the term.

3b.The intern will attend and be on time to all class meetings. Missing one or more

classes or lack of punctuality will result in the reduction of the course grade by one

letter. Continued absence will result in dismissal from the internship and failure to

earn any graduate credit for the program. Options to make up any missed days will

be discussed on a case to case basis with the instructor.

3c. The intern will submit all work on time, as stipulated in the deadlines above.

Failure to submit the coursework on time will result in dismissal from the

internship and failure to earn credit for the program.

3d. The intern will read and respond to all email communication from instructors,

administrators or advisors regarding the program within 24 hours. All

administrative contact should be conducted via the internship site coordinator.

3d. The intern will complete a set of required readings distributed by PCAP.

Outcomes

Students enrolled in the independent study “team teaching” option in the Language and

Literacy program will earn three credits towards their graduate degree and valuable

experience working in PCAP’s adult education courses.

With the signatures below, all parties involved in this internship agree to uphold the terms

of this contract to the best of their ability, and with the best interests of the students they

serve always in mind.

Intern: ___________________________________________________________ Date:__________________

Instructor:________________________________________________________ Date:_________________

PCAP Director:___________________________________________________ Date:__________________

Faculty Advisor: _________________________________________________ Date:__________________

DOCUMENT CONFIDENTIALITY FORM

The interns participating in PCAP classes and all other program participants, including

faculty advisors, program administrators and other members of the CUNY community

agree by signing below that:

Any and all documents developed by PCAP instructors or administrators and can be

included for the purposes of the final portfolio only with the permission of the

instructors and PCAP department. All these documents are the intellectual property

of the PCAP department of the Division of Adult and Continuing Education at

LaGuardia Community College. None of the course materials collected by any

participant in this program may be published or otherwise distributed or put to

practice without the consent and acknowledgement of all authors and parties

involved.

Name:________________________________________________(please print)

Signature:_____________________________________________

Date:______________________________________________

DOCUMENT RELEASE FORM

I, _________________________________, participated in the PCAP/CCNY Internship Program in

summer 2010. Copies of the materials and writing I compiled and prepared to fulfill the

requirements of the internship may be kept as a record by PCAP staff and Prof. Barbara

Gleason. These documents will be stored in the PCAP offices at LaGuardia Community

College for twenty years. My consent is voluntary and may be canceled at any time during

or after the internship period.

I also give my consent for PCAP or Prof. Gleason to use these materials in future

presentations or papers that explore professional development, teacher training for Adult

Education, graduate study in English, or any other topics that might require

acknowledgement of my work. The use of any materials is with the condition of anonymity:

my name and any other student names will be changed to protect identities and avoid harm

to me or other students.

Two potential benefits of my consent are: 1) the receipt of publications containing my

work and 2)indirect benefits for other intern participants. When publications or

presentations are developed that use my work or cite my experiences in the internship

program, I can receive a copy of the book, a link to online publications, or a copy of the

journal article that contain these citations. In order to receive a copy of any potential

publications, I must keep my contact information current with Prof. Gleason and PCAP staff.

The use of my materials by Prf. Gleason and PCAP staff to evaluate the program may also

reap indirect benefits for future student participants.

I may contact any or all of the individuals named here to resolve any questions or concerns

that arise about signing this form or the use of my work:

Wynne Ferdinand

Pre-College Academic Programming,

LAGCC

C-225 D

29-10 Thomson Ave.

Long Island City, NY 11101

wferdinand@lagcc.cuny.edu

Amy Dalsimer

Pre-College Academic Programming,

LAGCC

C-223 B

29-10 Thomson Ave.

Long Island City, NY 11101

adalsimer@lagcc.cuny.edu

Dr. Barbara Gleason

English Dept. NAC/219

160 Convent Ave.

New York, NY 10031

bgleason@ccny.cuny.edu

Signature________________________________________ Date_______________________________