The People's Share
GED · Reasoning Through Language Arts · 150 minutes

Language Arts

Reading, writing skills, and the essay.

Flyover

An introduction and overview

The Language Arts FlyoverWhat the test asks, on one page. Read it once, first. The Map of the TerrainEvery topic, in teaching order, with the ones that have a quiz marked. diagnosticLanguage Arts DiagnosticWhat you already know, and what to work on first: four reading passages, two documents to correct, and one extended response, 43 questions in all. It checks itself, and a results table tells you where to go next. Do it in two or three sittings.

Reading

Three quarters of the test is nonfiction

Nonfiction

Articles, with questionsTrue stories from different subjects, each the length of a test passage, with questions like the test’s, questions for talking it over, and writing. First: A Party on Sedgwick Avenue, how hip hop began in the Bronx in 1973. Rights on PaperTwelve readings with the Constitution’s own words beside them, four test questions each.
The reading trailEleven quizzes. Each teaches the skill first, then asks.

Fiction and poetry

Two interludesA poem each, read slowly, between the quizzes.
poemsTwo at a timeAn older poem you can keep, beside the living poet it leads to — Williams and Creeley, Sandburg and Daniels, Crane and Edson, Ridge and Cervantes — with questions. Six more poets on the shelf, no questions asked.
Stories, with questionsThe test’s literary passages are nearly always stories. Each page has the story, printed in full or a click away, questions like the test’s, questions for talking it over, and something to write. Start here, with how the pages work.

Writing Skills

Sentences, punctuation, and the editing questions

start hereSentences: Start HereWhat a sentence needs, how to join two ideas, fragments, run-ons and comma splices, modifiers, and parallel structure, in plain words with practice. It follows your Kaplan book, Unit 1, Chapter 4, Lessons 1 to 6. Begin here, before the quizzes. start hereGrammar: Start HereSubject-verb agreement, verb forms and tenses, pronouns, words that are often confused, and word choice, in plain words with practice. It follows your Kaplan book, Unit 1, Chapter 8. Read it after Sentences: Start Here. start herePunctuation: Start HereCommas, semicolons and colons, apostrophes, capital letters, and transition words, in plain words with practice. It follows your Kaplan book, Unit 1, Chapter 9. Read it after Grammar: Start Here. drillsLanguage Arts DrillsShort sets of questions, one skill each, in the same order as Sentences: Start Here. Many look like the GED’s own drop-down questions. Short drills for each part of the three Start Here pages (sentences, grammar, and punctuation), with mixed passages at the end of each family.
The language trailEighteen quizzes, from the clause to the transition. Each teaches first, then asks, once plainly and once inside a real document.
Sparkle English · English Writing EssentialsFifty-seven short videos that follow the Kaplan book’s writing chapters.
Also for this section
Next on the trailHow a whole piece is built. Coming.

Essay Writing / Extended Response

Two articles that disagree · which is better supported, and why · 45 minutes

The Weighing · ten practice setsThe prompt in the test’s words, a clock, and a place to write that saves as you go. The teaching is folded away below the line.
✎ Your writingEverything you write here, saved under your code. Come back on any device; send it to Myles when it is ready. Say It BackThe first-night writing: interview a partner, then write about them.
Typing practiceThe essay is typed, and so is the whole test. Two free courses, from the home row up.
before you write anythingChocolate or vanilla?A warm-up for the first night, or for any night the page stays blank. Easy picks, then harder ones, then four minutes of writing without stopping — and at the end, the four parts you just used, with their names. They are the essay’s parts. practice from outsideFourteen moreNine from the people who write the GED, five from adult educators in Florida. Free, no account. The readings stay on their sites; the clock and the writing box are here. Scoring the essayThe three traits in plain words, a task to write under the clock, then two responses to it — one that earns a 6 and one that earns about a 2 — with what separates them. Quoting and paraphrasingHow to use a writer’s exact words, and how to put a writer’s idea in your own words, with practice. Check this before you send an essay.

Also

What we use at home

Practice tests. Ours are coming; the free practice test on GED.com is there now.

Light & Salt Learning. Free GED classes online, with YouTube playlists by subject.

GED.com. What the test covers, in the test maker’s own words.

All the quizzes on one page: the Talking Hands list.

Homework and Bulletins!

Assignments and notices for every class are posted out front, on the GED page.