For our initial class, I performed a very informal assessment. Sam explained that she had only very limited knowledge of and background in American government based on her first three years of high school. I distributed a set of flashcards with government terms and concepts and asked Sam to separate them into three columns: what she knew, what she had never heard of, and, in the middle , cards with terms she thought she may know or with terms she may recognize. With respect to the terms Sam knew(just one or two) and the ones she thought she perhaps recognized, I then asked Sam to define or explain the concept. We then flipped those cards over to review the accuracy of her understanding. Based on the flashcard exercise, I chose and distributed the government and economics textbook we will use. I also provided a notebook which Sam will use each class to take class notes. To get Sam started,however, for today I gave Sam a study guide for the early chapters of the textbook so that we can more quickly reach the substantive material. From the study guide, we discussed the purpose and functions of government .Sam was very cooperative and responsive.For homework, I assigned reading pages 13-15 of the study guide and answering questions 1 -8 of the study guide. We will move from the guide to the actual textbook on Wednesday .