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Topic: Need GED be taught in compartments according to the 5 GED tests
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Charles Roll

Posts: 18
From: Amador County, California
Registered: 6/8/09
Need GED be taught in compartments according to the 5 GED tests
Posted: Jul 23, 2009 5:36 PM

Should GED content necessarily be taught in compartments aligned with the 5 GED tests? Why not integrate the content? I'm speaking as a math teacher or tutor, and I have always accepted the idea that math is a separate subject. But is it? Doesn't our basic numeracy concept of teaching RELEVANT math contradict the idea that math must be taught separately?

I think it could be like this: Social Studies with Science with Math AND all of it with Reading Comprehension for one class, and, Writing AND Reading Comprehension for another class. Reading Comprehension in both? YES -- because, e.g., more problems are missed on the Math test by reason of reading comprehension (or slowness in reading comprehension resulting in the total breakdown of test anxiety) than are missed due to computational deficiencies.

That's it: two classes or class sections. Now, it may be objected that students pass the parts of the GED at different times, so how could you expect a student who has passed Social Studies to be in the class with those who have passed no tests at all? In my experience, most GED students LOVE to teach (although they wouldn't probably call it 'teaching') in co-operational learning groups. It increases everyone's self-confidence (or "self-efficacy"). If she can do it, so can I! How did you see that? How did you figure that out? Oh, yeah, I get it!

Of course, there is no one teaching strategy or program organization that fits all circumstances. Also, instruction must always be individualized. Some students habitually work peripherally around the edges of the group, and most students sometimes work that way. Almost all students like to be part of a social setting, a group learning experience.

Some students -- at least for a time -- just absolutely need individual tutoring. That's for sure, and in my experience, there's no way around that reality, except that it's generally possible for one tutor to handle two or three at once as is done at Sylvan Learning Centers.

A few prefer and do well working entirely on their own, and these do best with CBI (I think of CAI as what happens when a teacher leads a group, where each student has a computer, through learning focused on a CAI application, while CBI is where each student, after being set up with a CBI application and given basic start-up knowledge, works completely independently.)

EXAMPLE: see my post at



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