Rockin' Out

When I think about all the things I know, I'd guess they've come from a number of different sources: things I've read, classes I've taken, podcasts I've heard, interesting people I've talked to. I'm thinking about this because Miguel hasn't really had any of those experiences. He doesn't read much, because for much of his life he really couldn't; he was stuck in special ed classes that didn't teach him anything; he doesn't listen to podcasts because I don't think he knows how to download them; and he doesn't leave the house much, so his interactions with people outside his family are very . But he knows a lot about history, politics, etc. How? Answer: the guy's a TV junkie. He loves movies and cartoons, but he watches the news, the History Channel, and the Discovery Channel, too.

Clearly television has been a good conduit for him, a window to the world to use a worn-out cliche. Something about the sound combined with the images must be making the information stick. I decided to combine this brainchild with my until-now clandestine love of Schoolhouse Rock cartoons. There's one on nouns, one on verbs, on one subject and predicate, adverbs, interjections, etc. I was taking a bit of a risk - I didn't want him to be offended that I was showing him a cartoon - but I'm getting a feel for his sense of humor and thought there was a good chance he'd love it.

He loved it. We watched the noun one yesterday as a review of the crash course I gave him on nouns during Monday's session. He said he might even go home and watch it again on YouTube! Of course, while I'm glad he enjoyed it, I'm hoping that the repeating chorus defining nouns ("Well every place that you can go/And every person you can know/And every think that you can show/You know they're nouns...I find it quite interesting/A noun's a person, place or thing." - who can resist?) will stick in his head and help to anchor the concept. Knowing nouns help him on grammar segment of the GED and in his writing, as it will enable him to check his sentences to be sure they're correct.

On Monday's agenda is the video on verbs. Rock on!