Submitted by Kathy Lowe
Brevard County's Exceptional Student Education and Adult Education began classes this year for adults with mild disabilities called "Project Success." I highly recommend this project.
What has been most successful for our students and what is being endorsed as a model for ABE classes in adult education are simple classroom procedures followed every day. The class room procedures are posted in the room on a poster along with a Lifeskills poster and a Lifelong Guidelines poster from the Susan Kovolik model, an integrated thematic instruction model. (The source for these posters is listed below and a sample follows this article.) Besides these posters, a daily quote is posted which students read as they enter the room each day and respond to by writing in journals and by writing affirmations, such as "I can…" and "I will…" The daily quote is discussed in small group discussion.
The teacher in one of our Project Success classes said that this quote of the day activity has been the number one attitude changer in her class. She also said that the posted procedures are good for her and for the students, making procedures clear, stable and objective instead of murky, changing and subjective.
I highly recommend trying this model in your classroom. It is easy to implement and all the lifeskills and lifelong guidelines are really employability skills, too.