11th Grade College Knowledge 1

Review What is Ramp-Up to Readiness? What are the 5 pillars of readiness? Why should you start preparing for college now? What are some of the things we’ll do this year to help you prepare?

All students meet Ramp-Up Standards Today’s Focus Plan Foundation: Belief that all students need to be prepared for postsecondary education Goal: All students meet Ramp-Up Standards Academic Admissions Career Financial Personal/Social Pillars of Readiness Today we’ll talk more about academic readiness and personal/social readiness

Objectives Today’s objectives are to: Learn about the academic college knowledge required for success in college Understand Soft Skills Understand the connection between the Readiness Rubric and College Knowledge

Pre-test How many years of Math and English courses should you take in high school? What is one measure of academic readiness (or entrance exam) that you may have to take before starting college? What is one soft skill you need to be successful in college?

Watch Tube Girl Video Watch the Tube Girl video Click on the Tube Girl link to play the video You can stop the video after 2 minutes and 15 seconds because the rest of the video is mostly for high school students

Video Discussion What did Lindsay find out about her readiness for college? Does graduating from high school guarantee that you’re ready for college level classes? What can you do now and in high school to help you get ready? Make sure students understand that they have to take entrance exams for college and that those determine the courses they take. Some places like community colleges offer remedial courses to help you get caught up, but these cost money and are not worth credit High school graduation does not ensure college readiness, but there are ways to get ready in middle and high school Example answers to the last question: Take 4 years of math and English Develop soft skills Prepare for entrance exams Let’s talk more about how you can prepare now!

What You Can Do: Take the required core courses to help you gain the academic knowledge and skills you need Prepare for entrance exams Know your level of academic readiness and set goals to close readiness gaps Develop Soft Skills Here are some things students can do to prepare for college. We’ll discuss each of these separately

1. Take Core Courses To graduate from high school you may be required to take fewer years of core courses than you need for college. Don’t quit now! Take these courses this year and in your senior year: English Math Science Social Studies Colleges also want you to have at least 2 years of a world language, so start now if you haven’t! By preparing now, you save yourself time and money. If you graduate without the skills you need, you’ll have to take remedial courses and learn the same material again in college (like Lindsay). Take them for free in high school! And take them seriously!

2. Prep for Entrance Exams Before you enroll in college, you need to take entrance exams that test your academic knowledge and skills. For four-year colleges: ACT SAT For two-year colleges: ACCUPLACER

ACT Common entrance exam for Midwest colleges Taken in 11th and/or 12th grade English, Math, Reading, Science, and Writing 215 questions Scores range from 1-36 You get a score for each test and a composite (average score) ACT benchmarks: English = 18, Math = 22, Reading = 21, Science = 24 MN Average composite = 22.9 You’ve already begun preparing by taking the EXPLORE and PLAN tests In a few lessons we’ll discuss how to prepare for the ACT

SAT Video about the SAT Required by many 4 year colleges outside of the Midwest Tests reading, math, writing Scores range from 0-2400 MN average = 1778 You can take the PSAT in high school to practice. SAT Practice: http://sat.collegeboard.org/practice Click on link to watch video

PSAT Provides practice for the SAT Taken in 10th or 11th grade May qualify you for National Merit Scholarship in 11th gr. Measures: Critical reading skills Math problem-solving skills Writing skills Scores range from 20 to 80 The 2011 average was 48 in reading, 49 in math, and 46 in writing See the following website for test prep. information: http://www.collegeboard.com/student/testing/psat/prep.html

ACCUPLACER Required by most 2-year colleges Tests academic skills in math, English, and reading 89 multiple choice questions and an essay Tells you if you are ready for college-level courses or if you need to take remedial coursework (classes to learn the skills that you need to be ready for college-level work) Practice tests are available

3. Know Your Level of Readiness How do you find out how academically ready you are? Take the EXPLORE test and pay attention to your results! Try your best on MCA tests and see how you do. If you are meeting standards, you are likely on track to be college ready. Check how you’re doing in your core courses. You should be passing all of your core courses with at least a C. Complete the Readiness Rubric!

Readiness Rubric: Academic Readiness The academic readiness sections of the Readiness Rubric encourage you to look at your grades, MCA/GRAD test results, and PLAN and ACT (12th gr. rubric) test results After completing the rubric, you set goals for yourself to improve your academic readiness We’ll talk more about goal setting next class.

4. Develop Soft Skills Just because you have the academic knowledge and skills (“hard skills”) doesn’t mean you’ll succeed. Being successful in high school, college, and in your future career requires “soft skills” Provide the following example: You could have all the math formulas in the world memorized, but if you don’t go to class, don’t participate in class, or don’t do your homework, you won’t be successful in math class.

Soft Skills Soft Skills = Personal and social skills and habits that help individuals to be successful What are the soft skills they discussed in the video?

Soft Skills for College Examples from the video: Class attendance Punctuality Participation Developing good study habits Doing quality assignments Turning in homework on time Discuss: Which of these are important for success in high school? What are some other soft skills you need for success in high school? Probe for examples: What people skills do you need? What is on the PREP that we’ve talked about? What are some examples of good study habits we’ve talked about?

Readiness Rubric & PREP: Soft Skills The personal/social readiness sections of the Readiness Rubric and the PREP both measure: Academic belief Self-management skills Effort and persistence After completing the rubric and/or PREP, you set goals to improve your “soft skills” They’ll complete the PREP again at the beginning of 12th grade

Activity: Soft vs. Hard Skills Form groups of 2-3 people Each group has been given an envelope with slips of paper inside. The slips each have a different habit, skill, or piece of knowledge needed to succeed in high school, college, and career. Divide the slips into “Soft Skills” and “Hard Skills” Walk around and help groups when they get stuck

Activity Discussion Compare your categorization with the group next to you. Do you have the same categorization? Were there any slips that were difficult to categorize? Which ones? Why? Which slips have skills or knowledge you already know? Which ones were new to you? Which ones were related to science? English? Math? Explain that these are examples of the knowledge and skills they will be expected to have mastered by the end of high school in order to be ready for college-level work

Post-Test How many years of Math and English courses should you take in high school? What is one measure of academic readiness (or entrance exam) that you may have to take before starting college? What is one soft skill you need to be successful in college?

Review We learned about hard skills and soft skills that are important for success in high school, college, and career. What are some of the hard skills you’ll need to learn? What are some of the soft skills? Next class we’ll talk more about academic readiness for college and focus in on college-level writing.

References Microsoft Office Images. (2011). Retrieved from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/images/