Anne Arundel County Literacy Council

Carol Tacket Retires as Board President

The Literacy Council’s Board of Directors, its staff, volunteers, and students extend much gratitude to Dr. Carol Tacket, who retired from our Board this month. Carol gave more than ten years of service to the Literacy Council as a tutor, volunteer, Board member and leader, supporter, and advocate. We are thankful for Carol’s leadership, dedication, and kindness.

Catie Comer Elected Board President

Board Member and devoted AACLC volunteer Catie Comer was elected Board President on November 8. Catie recently served as Vice President of Development of The Arc Central Chesapeake Region. She has over ten years of experience in fundraising and communications. Catie is passionate about nonprofits and supporting the community.

Catie is an Annapolis native and a graduate of the University of Maryland with degrees in Journalism and the Russian Language. She formerly taught English as a Second Language in Russia and volunteered as an AACLC ESL tutor. Catie is a 2022 graduate of Leadership Anne Arundel’s Flagship program.

Tutor Deborah Bennett Joins the AACLC Board of Directors

Tutor Deborah Bennett was confirmed as Board Recording Secretary at the November meeting of the Literacy Council’s Board of Directors.

Deborah recently retired as a Risk Manager for Live! Casino & Hotel in Anne Arundel County after working there for ten years. She started as a Human Resource Business Partner, a position she held for four years. From 1993 to 2012, Deborah worked for The Baltimore Sun Media Group in advertising sales management. From 2004 to 2012, she was the Director of Sales Development and Training. Deborah was responsible for training programs, developing new revenue initiatives, and supporting sales staff development. Prior to moving to Maryland in 1992, she was General Manager and Media Director for L.F. O’Connell Associates, an advertising agency in New York.

Deborah has served on marketing committees and boards for the Columbia Foundation, Columbia Festival of the Arts, the MDDC Press Association, the American Heart Association, United Way, and the Willowood Homeowners Association. She was a volunteer for the Baltimore Sun’s Reading By 9 Program.

by Dan Milleville, AACLC Tutor & Database Engineer

In the ever-evolving landscape of education, technology continues to reshape the way we teach and learn. One such transformative tool that is gaining attention is ChatGPT, a powerful language model developed by OpenAI. Designed to engage in natural language conversations, ChatGPT holds great potential for educators, especially reading, GED, and ESL tutors.

ChatGPT can be a valuable asset in fostering reading comprehension and language skills. Tutors can use ChatGPT to create interactive and dynamic reading experiences where students engage with text-based conversations to discuss and analyze passages. By posing open-ended questions or requesting summaries, tutors can encourage critical thinking and ensure students grasp key concepts. Additionally, the model’s ability to provide explanations and clarifications can enhance students’ understanding, making complex subjects more accessible.

For GED preparation, ChatGPT offers personalized assistance that complements traditional tutoring methods. Tutors can simulate GED exam scenarios, enabling students to practice answering questions across subjects. Moreover, the model’s adaptability allows tutors to customize learning paths, tailoring the experience to individual student needs.

As ESL tutors, utilizing ChatGPT can provide a platform for language practice in an immersive environment. Through conversations with the model, students can refine their language skills, practice grammar and vocabulary, and gain confidence in real-world language usage.

While ChatGPT is a powerful tool, its effectiveness lies in the thoughtful integration with tutoring methods. As tutors, we can harness its capabilities to create engaging, interactive, and adaptive learning experiences that empower our students on their educational journey.

Using ChatGPT for my Students

I do GED tutoring on Wednesday evenings at the Jennifer Road Detention Center (JRDC). I started in 2017 with “Reasoning Through Language Arts” (RLA) tutoring, transitioned to Social Studies, and, along the way, also did some math tutoring.

Our tutors at JRDC need to be very flexible because our students (typically 12 per evening with 4-5 tutors, including Shirley Theimer, also from AACLC) have a wide variety of reading skills. Some evenings, I fill in to help with RLA. We have some students at very low reading levels.

A few weeks ago, my assignment was to work with a student who we thought read at a 6th-grade or lower level. AACLC’s Janet LaBella goes to JRDC every Tuesday evening to assess students, so we have a pretty good indication of their levels. The recommendation for the student was to skip the Social Studies chapter and use the Weekly News Readers that we have available. I was kind of stuck because the Social Studies chapter seemed too much of a stretch for the student, and the Weekly News Reader was too basic.

I decided to push the student a little, and we slowly worked our way through the Social Studies chapter.

Later at home, I fed the Social Studies chapter (two pages on Colonial America) to ChatGPT and asked it to transform the reading into material suitable for an 8th-grade level. It didn’t look too much different so I then asked it for a 6th-grade level. When I asked it to tell me the grade level of the original material, it said 10th grade, not that different from the 8th-grade version.

I also used ChatGPT to develop tests for math and social studies. When I was working with the math students, we ran out of test questions in the workbooks that are available, plus I wanted to focus on quadratic equations, which were proving to be troublesome for the students. So I asked ChatGPT to generate GED-level math questions — and it did. I didn’t ask for an answer key so it didn’t provide that.

For Social Studies, I asked it to generate a test on a chapter with five multiple-choice, five true/false, and five fill-in-the-blank questions, which it did very quickly. The results of these requests should always be reviewed and edited. For example, the answers to the true/false were all true, and one of the fill-in-the-blank questions contained the correct answer in the question.

The next week, my assignment was with the same students: one session on Social Studies and one on RLA. I decided to try to use the Social Studies material for the RLA session as a way of reinforcing the material, so I asked ChatGPT to generate an RLA lesson from the Social Studies chapter, which it did. Unfortunately, it assumed I had more than two students, so I had to ask it to revise the lesson plan for a class with only two students.

I asked ChatGPT to write this article for me, but it couldn’t do it. It did write the four-paragraph introduction. Then I asked it to summarize how it has helped me, and it wrote the following —

Absolutely! Here’s a summary of how I’ve assisted you in generating GED material specifically for math, RLA (Reasoning Through Language Arts), and Social Studies:

In the realm of GED preparation, my AI-powered assistance has focused on three core subjects: math, RLA (Reasoning Through Language Arts), and Social Studies. By collaborating with you, I’ve been able to create tailored and effective study materials for each of these subjects, catering to the unique learning needs of your students.

Math

Through our dynamic conversations, I’ve helped you generate comprehensive math exercises, practice questions, and explanations that mirror the types of problems students will encounter in the GED math exam. These materials not only challenge students’ problem-solving skills but also provide clear insights into mathematical concepts. This aids in building their confidence and familiarity with the GED math content.

RLA (Reasoning Through Language Arts)

In the realm of RLA, I’ve assisted in crafting reading comprehension passages, language usage exercises, and writing prompts that align with the GED RLA exam requirements. By engaging with the content I’ve helped generate, students can improve their reading comprehension, writing proficiency, and critical thinking abilities. This preparation is essential for success in the RLA section of the GED.

Social Studies

For Social Studies, I’ve collaborated with you to develop study guides, historical context explanations, and interactive learning materials that cover a wide range of topics relevant to the GED Social Studies exam. These materials provide students with a deep understanding of historical events, government structures, and societal changes, helping them excel in the Social Studies section of the GED.

By harnessing the power of AI-generated content, you’ve been able to offer your students a comprehensive and engaging GED preparation experience across these subjects. Whether it’s tackling math problems, improving language arts skills, or mastering Social Studies concepts, the AI-assisted materials we’ve created together empower students to approach the GED exam with confidence and knowledge.

I hope this article gives you some insight into how you can potentially use ChatGPT to help your students.

ChatGPT is free to use, just go to https://openai.com/chatgpt and select the “Get Started” button at the upper right-hand side. From there, you’ll create a free account, log in, and then interact with ChatGPT via a text box where you can type or copy/paste your questions and see the results.

Annapolis, Maryland, October 2023 — A Nonprofit Agency Endowment Fund for the Anne Arundel County Literacy Council (AACLC) has been established at the Community Foundation of Anne Arundel County.

This fund was created to further and sustain the mission of the Anne Arundel County Literacy Council. The Council provides free one-on-one tutoring to low-income county adults and out-of-school youth in literacy, math, high school diploma preparation, and English language learning.

“This fund will ensure the Literacy Council’s long-term success and support our mission to provide free tutoring services to low-income adults in our communities,” said Jane Seiss, Executive Director of the Anne Arundel County Literacy Council.

Donors can give to grow the Literacy Council’s Endowed Fund at cfaac.org — use the search bar at the top of the page to find the Anne Arundel County Literacy Council Endowment Fund, or visit cfaac.org/AACLC for more information.