For Teachers of Orientation Classes

Brief excerpts taken from a longer letter in the book

Academic orientation courses that aim to give students a head-start in beginning a new phase of their education have been around for quite some time. I’ve strongly supported them at both the secondary school and college level because students need “bridges” to help them get from one academic point to another.

A practical perspective
What happens after high school is a matter that every high school freshman should keep in mind. Most do not. I’ve written this book from the perspective of seeing the price that students pay for not looking beyond high school, for not maintaining a sense of what awaits them once they graduate. It’s a national tragedy that so few students enter college with the personal management skills to succeed.
The evidence is telling.

According to the Education Trust 70% of high school graduates attend college within two years of graduation.

For all students
When I wrote Are You Really Ready For College?, I did so with high school orientation courses in mind. This guidebook can be used as a textbook, providing a curriculum that details strategies for successful learning behavior. Or this guide can be assigned reading as a reference book that all students, even those not thinking about college, might use to make high school a better learning experience. Consider this statistic:

40% of high school graduates found that they were not prepared
to meet the expectations that awaited them,
whether they went to college or entered the workforce.
~The National Education Summit

Learning how to learn
Organizing an approach to learning is in itself something to be learned. The skills students need to learn and develop in school are the same ones needed to become productive adults in the workplace! These skills are those that adults would bring to managing a project such as learning:

• setting specific goals
• evaluating progress
• gauging productivity
• managing time
• making use of resources
• recognizing danger signals and adjusting
• marking off milestones that signal accomplishments

This guide can help ALL students

• College-bound students will use their high school years as a kind of dress rehearsal, an opportunity
  to practice managing their courses before they get to college.They will know how to control their coursework
  and learning AND get high grades AND graduate without wasting A LOT of time and money.
  

• Non college-bound students will learn skills that enable them to become life-long learners.
  The strategies will prepare these students to tackle whatever avenues they follow after graduation.

You can build a course around this book.

View my blog at: areyoureallyreadyforcollege.blogspot.com

Back to top