The Planets Choose 3 of the activities below.
Do any by yourself, with a partner, or in a group.
Read handouts: size, geography, distance of the planets.
Look at mobile and press on pictures. Look at books about planets.

1. List the distance of each planet to the sun in scientific notation.
2. Describe the planets musically - use keyboard, song, song titles, etc.
3. Using the paper roll, compare the distance from the planets to each other and the sun.
4. Compare the size and look of each planet using Play-Doh, paper, or balloons.
5. Using mime, dance, or a play, show what would happen to you if you were standing on each planet.
6. Write a description or create a poem that compares yourself to the planets you think you are most like and most different from.
7. Design two different aliens: One who looks like s/he could live on a planet closest to the sun and another who looks like s/he could live on a planet the farthest away from the sun. Use any materials to make each alien.
8. Make a list comparing the size, colors, distance from the sun, moons, and temperature of each planet.

This is what a class looked like: Students came in and started reading the Choose 3 for that day. Play-Doh, markers, a keyboard, rulers, Legos, pen or pencil, paper, and maybe a partner or a group would be collected to do the chosen activities. Lots of discussion, movement, concentration, debate, questions, and answers filled the room. Learners who finished before the others did related workbook activities. When everyone completed their three activities, the whole group gathered. Ev­ eryone identified their choices. Anyone who wanted to, which was usually everyone, shared what they did. I distributed a GED worksheet on the subject, which students read and answered silently. Then they shared, debated, and checked their answers. The remainder of the class and the next class included some writing exercises and lots of workbook practice.

My records showed that students with LD and ADD had excellent attendance. They not only attended more regularly than in other years, but they also were actively participating in the activi­ ties while in class. Because they attended more regularly and were doing the workbook reviews more willingly, they made progress toward individual GED tests. This, of course, was also true of all the GED students that year.

Positive Outcomes

By the year's end I had learned much about how MI-informed lessons affect the attendance and progress of adult learners with LD or ADD. In interviews with these students, one student said, "To know something is one thing. To know something and do it is another." He continued, "I prefer hands-on because it clarifies everything. If it was all workbook, I wouldn't do well cause I'd lose interest. I wouldn't stay long cause I'd lose interest. If you make work fun, it wouldn't be work." Another student who had just passed her GED math said about working only in the workbook: "I'd probably still be on the math in the beginning. I concentrate more on those [points to Choose 3 lessons]. My mind drifts if I just do the workbook." She said of the Choose 3, "These give you a different way of looking at problems.You go through the problems more this way. In the workbook you just do the problems, that's it, and with this you can work together."

The words and reactions of students in my MI-informed classes have stayed with me. I believe that choices should always be a part of the learning experience. I know that allowing students to learn through their strengths is successful. I'm beginning to think about how MI will help learners with the GED 2001. It's a never-ending quest.