At a Glance
Greene County Career & Technology Center (GCCTC) students complete math and literacy journal entries to reinforce technical content and improve performance on the written portion of the NOCTI exam.
Description
GCCTC instructors face two challenges. One challenge is that students from sending high schools have different arrival and dismissal times, which makes it difficult for instructors to maximize available instructional time. A second challenge is providing academic integration within their programs. To address both challenges, GCCTC instructors and coaches create monthly academic journals.
These journals align academic content to the technical content covered each month. Students complete journal entries which include both math and literacy tasks. Teachers may utilize journals as supplemental skill practice, remediation, or reteaching.
To create journals, each CTE instructor collaborates with the literacy and math coaches. Entries incorporate vocabulary and technical skills students are likely to encounter in the written portion of the NOCTI exam. As needed, journals are revised to meet the needs of students.
GCCTC identifies two problems in integrating academic journals: identifying specific student needs and finding time to develop journals. To pinpoint specific student weaknesses, coaches generate program task matrices based on NOCTI written pretest results. These task matrices are then used in the development of journal entries.
Impact
GCCTC plans to continue using academic journals given the benefits to students and instructors. Journaling can provide students with targeted practice in academic and technical content. CTE instructors can use journals as one method to improve the written portion on the NOCTI exam.
Contact
Greene County Career & Technology Center
http://www.greenectc.org/
Mary Staun, Literacy Coach
staunm@greenectc.org
Heidi Gottron, Math Coach
gottronh@greenectc.org