Readings, Quizzes, and More

We often post ‘The First Rung’ ancillary activities on our website, such as a new informative story and reinforcing online quiz, so we can continue to be the soft but persistent voice for education and workforce readiness. As appropriate, we ask school leadership to communicate these opportunities to their students in a variety of ways (morning announcements, emails to students/parents, website notifications).

Occasionally, we distribute small prizes to students who have taken advantage of these learning opportunities.

Our G.R.I.T. Curriculum
Step Up to The First Rung

To ensure that eighth graders ‘get’ our message, we have developed proprietary curriculum that helps students understand what employers will expect from them and how knowing about those demands now can ensure that students can be really ready and have a much longer time to get ready.

‘The First Rung’ curriculum emphasizes what students need to do — and should not do — in preparation for high school and the rest of their lives.

We need only five classroom periods to get our message across to the students — modules target different academic classes. Each is 45 minutes long and aimed at Mathematics class (2), English class (2), and History (1).

Now Is Not Too Early Video Commercial

To ensure that the critical messages delivered in our The First Rung curriculum are reinforced and repeated as often as possible, we encourage our participating grade eight students to work in small teams to produce and film a ‘commercial’ that summarizes the important points that all students need to embed in their approach to all things necessary for success.

Students plan, develop, and film a three-minute video commercial and the best commercials (as designated by teacher-driven processes) are submitted to a panel of judges (volunteer business people) who will select the best videos. The top three will be featured in a student assembly during which the producers of the videos will receive small prizes.