1. Literacy Activities for the Win!
with Lucinda Ulrich
Senior Youth Advisor/GED Instructor
Community Services Consortium,
Lincoln and Tillamook Counties

2. Reading, Reasoning, Problem Solving and Critical Thinking! Oh my!
Today, I will introduce you to some tools that have helped my students build skills mastery over the past 20 years:
Collective Stories
Film as Literature
Hypothetical Scenarios
Quote of the Day

3. Collective Stories
As a theater artist and educator, I have seen first hand how theater games (they don’t call it “play” for nothing) can act as sneaky assessments, identifying literacy gaps. Collective Stories can also be used as warm ups to deeper learning, learning breaks with purpose, and ice breakers.

4. Now we are going to make our own collective story.

5. How did it go?

6. Film as Literature
Media permeates our every day lives. Part of being a literate person in the 21st Century is knowing how to analyze media messages. The skills required to analyze films are the same skills used to analyze written texts. Movies can be a fun way to reach GED Students and provide opportunities to practice higher level thinking skills. When learners are shown how to analyze and discuss cinematic moments critically, they can develop the ability to transfer these skills towards the analysis of written texts in both Reasoning Through Language Arts and Social Studies.

7. Mise en Scene in the Breakfast Club
Mise en Scene is a French film term for “the placement of objects in the scene.” We are going to watch a scene from The Breakfast Club. While you watch the scene pay close attention to the personal objects (in this case, the lunches) and what they tell us about the characters. Be prepared to discuss the scene with your table.
The Breakfast Club
Mise en Scene in the Breakfast Club

8. How did it go?

9. Mix it up!
Encourage students to build relationships with each other and engage in meaningful discussions that build critical thinking. Provide opportunities for participants to bond with each other, while practicing higher level thinking at the same time. So now we are going to mix it up and get in a little stretch at the same time. In front of you is a dot. Each table has a different colored dot on it. On the count of three, everyone get up and move to the table with the same color dot.

10. Hypothetical Scenarios
Hypothetical Scenarios is an activity I came up with when I was teaching struggling high school students in New Mexico. Basically, students break into groups and are tasked with attempting to gain a consensus about a controversial question. This activity helps students extend, build and analyze arguments while practicing critical thinking and reasoning skills.

11. What do you do?
Scenario: You are walking down the street and find Steven Spielberg’s Wallet. What do you do? Try to come to a consensus/agreement. Go!

12. How did it go? Were you able to reach a consensus?

13. Quote of the Day

14. Using the Quote of the Day to teach current events…
Quote of the Day: “Meet Lulu, the black Labrador retriever and free spirit who bucked expectations and flunked out of the C.I.A.’s explosive detection ‘puppy class.’ Maybe it was her shiny coat that made Lulu’s story ricochet around the internet. Maybe it was her soft brown eyes. Or maybe her story just sounds familiar to any American who has experienced workplace ennui: She underwent rigorous training for a daily grind job and decided that sniffing out bombs was not her calling. (And who actually wants that job, anyway?)” --Katie Rogers, “Lulu the Dog Did Not Want to Join the C.I.A., and That’s Totally Fine,” 10/19/17, NYT

15. Writing Practice Options
Choose one of the following options and write a response to today’s quote in your journals (questions range from difficult to easy): Option 1: Would you want to join the C.I.A.? Why or why not? Use specific details in your answer. Option 2: Being in the C.I.A. was not Lulu’s calling. What is yours? Option 3:Tell me a story about Lulu, the dog. Finish the starter then keep going. “Lulu the dog…”

16. How did it go?

17. Link to Lulu the dog
I maintain an official Facebook Page for our GED and youth program and post the Quote of the Day with the writing options on the page. Sometimes I post links to the articles that I am quoting. I have also started a meme album on the page with memes that come out about the current events we write, think about and discuss in class.

18. Questions/Discussion
Thank you for participating. The packet you received contains all the activities we did here today including some extension activities. I hope that you have found this workshop beneficial and that you will be able to use some of these ideas with your GED Students.