(FLOC welcomes new staff each summer. In this miniseries, we are recognizing our summer associates and interns by publishing blog posts about their experiences. Regan Rundio is the ACT/SAT Test Prep Instructor.)
This summer, our Scholars have had the opportunity to engage in fun and helpful workshops. FLOC is providing 36 students with a 6-week long workshop focused on readiness for the SAT and the ACT. Regan Rundio, a VISTA summer associate, is the ACT/SAT Test Prep Instructor.
Regan’s principal duty this summer has been to design the curriculum for these workshops to involve activities, strategies to beat the tests, and reviewing basic concepts covered in the both the SAT and ACT.
“These classes aren’t really places of monumental change, but a lot of small shifts in thinking and the appearance of a lot of little eureka moments,” he said.
The 9th/10th grade program stresses learning various testing strategies and reviewing basic concepts that appear on the exams. 11th and 12th graders also focus on testing strategies, but the academic concepts are more advanced than what the younger students are reviewing. Both groups spend an hour with a dedicated volunteer focusing on math concepts and one hour with Regan reviewing English skills.
The Ohio native has learned so much about education in urban areas. Though Regan mentioned that it was difficult “trying to balance engaging students and teaching them something,” he liked being able to connect with the students on a variety of subjects, including one of his favorites, rapper Waka Flocka Flame.
Last week, the 11th and 12th graders competed against their classmates Jeopardy-style to review English concepts and engaged in other math focused activities. The game of Jeopardy included categories like “Semi-Pronouns”, “Apostrophe Catastrophe”, “Mod-Squad”, “Hip Hop”, and “Testing Strategies”.
“All participants competed nobly as they identified dangling modifiers, matched pronouns with their antecedents, and applied apostrophes to plural possessive nouns, but they were tripped up by the difficult hip hop questions,” Regan said.