College Access Corps

Lesson Plans

2015-2016 Academic Year

Grades 6-10

For the upcoming CAC 2015-2016 year, I have developed a curriculum and activities that will assist programs in fulfilling the required 15 plus hours of college interventions.As the CAC Team Leaderfor the 2014-2015 program year, I have a unique perspective of the needs of programs working with K-12 students. Below are several activities that will supplement some of the projects that you might have already developed on your own. Some of the activities might be required because students will need the information to answer their post –program surveys at the end of the program.

For the College Access Corps program to be successful, programs need to develop partnerships before the beginning of the academic year; the Principals, Teachers, CAC Supervisors, and CAC Members need to understand the program requirements and expectations. Doing this will alleviate problems and ambiguity that programs might suffer during the year.

This packet of activities and curriculum is for all age groups, giving members the freedom to select activities that are age appropriate for the participants in their programs.

  1. Presentation & Introduction (1-2 hours)

Nothing is more important than making a great first impression. It’s important to establish your credibility and reasons why you’re making a commitment to your students and the program. You should try to address these issues during your first day of class. In the last 20 minutes, you should try to administer the pre-program survey. Remember the younger and bigger the group, the more time it will take to cover the information in the survey.

Introducing yourself:

  • Who are you?
  • Your educational experiences and background
  • Your personal story
  • Activity & Survey

Program Design:

  • What is AmeriCorps and what are the goals of CAC
  • Why you’re participating in the program?
  • Program Expectations: what you plan to cover?
  • What are you asking of the students?
  • Get input from students and find out what they are interestedin and their concerns.
  • If you have any additional time, introduce your coaches.
  1. Guest Speakers (1-3 hours) Professional (Option 1)

No one is an expert in everything. Using community members and experts in particular fields can enhance and expose students to subjects and fields that they might be interested in, but you might not have the current skill set to explain. For several years schools have been stressing STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). Getting speakers from organizations like Women in Science and engineers from local tech companies can enrich your program. I would recommend that if you get a public speaker, that it should be an interactive experience, which should include an experiment or hands-on activity.

For younger students, having the fire department or an organization that might have a WOW factor would be great. Just make sure that the speakers spend at least 10 minutes connecting how education got them to their current position.

Questions they should cover?

  1. What do they do?
  2. Why they chose the field they currently are in?
  3. What in their education background led them to investigate this field?
  4. How long they had to go to school and any special training they had?
  5. How they make a difference in the community?
  6. What they want students to know about their field?

Guest Speakers (1-3 hours) Student/ Student Groups(Option 2)

In many cases students are the best people to address the concerns of other and younger students. Even though college students in some circumstances are working professionals, their closeness in age helps them to relate to K-12 students in a way other adults might not be able to. Most programs recruit their college coach from their own academic institution, so gathering coaches with unique experiences shouldn’t be a problem. In many cases the coaches are from the local area, so they will have a personal connection. Students are normally more relaxed around college students, because they have family members that are similar in age to the college students.

Questions they should cover?

  1. Who they are
  2. Why they chose the college they attend
  3. What they are studying and learning
  4. Their transition from being a k-12 student to a college student
  5. What clubs, organizations, sports they participate in
  6. Challenges of being a student athlete or a working student
  7. Housing and living on campus
  8. What they want students to know about the college experience
  9. What they wish they know when they were a younger student.

Guest Speaker (1-3 hours) Student/ Student Groups(Option 3)

The final suggestion that I have for including a guest speaker is trying to develop activities for the students to work with the guest speaker.

  • Sports Day, recruit some of the schools athletes to come to your school. (At least one male and female) They can answer some of the questions from the Option Two Section, and then go outside and have a sports day playing with the students. You can do this with you school’s Athletic department and your K-12 P.E. department. If you have an After-school program this could be a two hour project.
  • Arts and Culture Day, recruit college students from the arts, theater, film, and design department and have them talk out their experiences and fields. After their introduction, have them create an art project with the students. Something that can be shared between the college campus and your program. They will help to build a connection between the campus, the school, and the students.

Another option to the Culture Day is inviting a student group to work with your students in create a project that will benefit your program and the campus.

Reflection

Remember it is always important to have a period after every activity to reflect about what the students learned and answer any questions they might have.

  1. College Visit ( 4-8 hours)

At the August orientation training, Admission Representative David Morrin mentioned the concept of making college visits count. Your program can schedule two college visits, and through this you might be able to accumulate about 6-8 hours from college visits.

For High school students, I would recommend that they do the standard college tour; meet with the financial aid, admissions, student support services, and student groups/clubs. It’s important to utilize student groups because they are the population that is the closest in age to the students, plus they can show a different aspect of student life.

For Elementary and Middle School students, I would recommend a tour and meeting with student groups. Make sure that the student groups have a project that the students might be able to work on. In the past I have found that students in this age group have some great artistic expression when given the opportunity. Your students can help in a service projects, or make banners and flyers for activities on campus or national service days. Remember to make projects age appropriate and non-controversial. Because younger students have a shorter attention span, limit the amount of time people spend speaking to them and have more interactive programming.

Lesson Plan:

  1. The two weeks before the student have they campus visit, have them research the college or colleges they will visit. Have every student come up with two questions they would like people at the college to answer during the tour. The week before the visit, compile all the questions and send them to the college tour representatives. Also, have the students research which departments or student groups they would like to meet with during their visit. Have the students make a group or personal rating scale that they can rank and compare the colleges they visit.
  2. Set up a college student panel or meeting with a student group , so your student’s can ask college student about any subjects they still might have questions about.
  3. Have the students work in groups and take notes about the things they found interesting, or have additional questions about.
  4. Have a department or student group do an activity or presentation for the students.
  5. College Tour Feedback

Have the students write about or present information that they learned from their college visits. Also see if they still have additional questions that might need to be answered.

  1. College Discussions (1-2 hours)

Developing a College Academic Mindset, requires educators to spark the classroom conversation at their partner schools. Try to talk about your personal academic journey, listen to their questions and concerns, and finally give them information about post-graduation options.

Lesson Plan

  1. What are some of the post-secondary options available to students after graduation, and how are they different? (Examples: military, technical schools, junior college, professional schools, art colleges, universities, colleges, and apprenticeships)
  2. What majors are available at each level of college?
  3. What is the minimal college entry requirements for Washington State Colleges and Universities?
  4. Provide financial and personal benefits of post-secondary education? How much does a high school drop-out, high school grad, junior college grade, college grad, and graduate degree holder make?
  1. College Planning (3-5 hours)

It’s never too early to start planning for college, and the earlier the better. Since, we are a program that serves K-12 students, CAC tries to address the different needs and concerns of students in an age appropriate manner. In this section, we have provided college planning activities and worksheets for Elementary, Middle, and High School program and students.

Working Backwards

All colleges have their suggested academic requirements for admission on their website. You can have students look at the requirements and see what classes they need to take to reach those requirements. Remember that most colleges will allow anywhere between 2-3 academic deficiencies. The more selective the college, the less deficiencies you will be able to have. The project can also be done with both middle and high school students.

Lesson Plan: After students have done their research, have them write a short paragraph answering these questions. This can be an in-class or homework assignment.

  1. Are you on track to meet or exceed the minimal requirements for a four year college?
  2. How many deficiencies do I have, and how will I address these issues?
  3. Will you need to take extra classes or use your electives to make up classes?
  4. What are the ACT or SAT requirements?

Additional classroom assignments can be found on the WACC CAC Resource Tab under CAC 2014-2015 Curriculum section, between pages 19-24.

  1. College Search (2-4 hours)

Searching for colleges can be a fun activity, this is a time when students can start to explore their dream colleges and get the opportunity to learn more about the institutions of higher education around them. This activity will provide students with a more developed picture of their career and academic paths.

Lesions Plan:This can be an in-class or homework assignment.

  1. Have students research one public, private, and community college (preferably within the state).

Questions to answer

  • Does the college have any of the majors that the students might be interested in pursuing?
  • What is the cost, demographic, population, and housing options?
  • What is the average classroom size?
  • Majors and certifications offered?
  • Percent of undergraduates receiving financial aid?
  • College entrance exams required for admissions?
  • Average GPA of admitted students?
  • Extracurricular activities offered?
  • Top two reasons for attending this college?
  • Are you interested in attending this college? Why/or Why not?

Additional classroom assignments can be found on the WACC CAC Resource Tab under CAC 2014-2015 Curriculum section, between pages 66-74.

Below is a list of free college search engines that will be useful for students, parents, and administrators.

Helpful Links:

  • College Search – Big Future – The College Board
  • College Search – Petersen’s
  • College Search Tool & University Selection Guide
  • College Search – CollegeXpress
  • College Navigator – National Center for Education Statistics
  • Best College Search – US News
  1. Career and Major Search (2-4 hours)

Many times when you ask a student what they want to do when they get older they either don’t know, tell you the answer they think you want to hear, or give you an answer that might change a week later. This is understandable because most working professionals will change their field several times during their careers. These exercises are designed to get students to consider what they like doing, what the career entails, and how much training and additional education that will be required. Some fields might require post-graduate education, while others might only require two years or less. If students change their mind about a particular career during the process, find out why they changed their minds and what else they might be interested in as an alternative.

Once they have their career or major in mind, they can move on to the next step of finding a Higher-Ed institution that has programs in their field.

Questions:

  • What kind of post-secondary education is needed?
  • How many years will it take to complete the program or major?
  • Are there technical, 2-year programs, or universities in the state that offer the major they are interested in?
  • What is the job growth of their career focus?
  • Is there someone in my community or at a local college I can ask about this career?
  • Can I volunteer or intern at a company, organization, or department that focuses on this field?
  • How much does professionals in this field make?
  1. Admissions (4-5 hours)

The admission progress can be a very stressful but rewarding process. For many first generation students, applying to college might be a lifelong dream or aspiration. A lot of our College Access Corps students will not have additional outside resources to help them with their applications. We at College Access Corps will highly recommend that programs try to recruit one of their College Admissions Representatives to give a presentation on how to apply to college, and what colleges look for during the application process.

Most colleges will require or recommend these items

  1. Completed Application
  2. Application Fees (fee deferral)
  3. Standardize Test Scores ACT/SAT
  4. Official Academic Transcripts
  5. Letters of Recommendation
  6. Essay or Personal Statements

Several of these such as completing the application and writing the personal statement (Essay) can be given as a homework assignment. You can use your class time as an opportunity to discuss potential essay topics and for editing their writing assignments. You can also use class time to make sure students have completey fill-out their applications and developed a list of candidates they can ask for their letters of recommendations.

Additional Topic you could cover :

  1. Common Application Mistakes
  2. Importance of Deadlines
  3. Planning out your application process, not waiting until the last minute
  4. Completing the application
  5. Stressing optional does not mean optional
  6. How to Interact with the admissions department representative
  7. Being yourself, and not trying to be what you think the college wants to hear
  8. Holistic Review; what college look for during the application process.

(Creativity, Community Involvement, Test Scores, Academic Record, Essay, Personal Circumstances, Special Talent, G.P.A., Diverse Experiences, Leadership, Grade Trends, Course Rigor, Activities)

  1. Make a list of your entire extracurricular and academic life.
  2. Prioritize your list of activities and accomplishments.
  3. Rank leadership before membership.
  4. Highlight your contribution and the impact that you made.
  5. Honors and awards are important, too.
  6. Include an explanation for every activity or honor.
  7. Avoid leaving anything blank.
  8. When applying online, don't treat the application like email.