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Curriculum Design

There are three learning modules: Government, Health, and Consumer Awareness.

The Government module units are:
Unit 1: Taking a Closer Look at Our Community
Unit 2: Making Change Happen
Unit 3: Accessing County Services

The Health module units are:
Unit 1: Preventive Care
Unit 2: A Healthy Community
Unit 3: Understanding Health Insurance
Unit 4: Communicating with Health Care Providers
Unit 5: Examining Health Conditions

The Consumer Awareness module units are:
Unit 1: What does it mean to be an aware consumer?
Unit 2: Managing Personal Finances
Unit 3: Understanding Credit

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Projects: Each learning module has an introductory page that specifies an important component to this curriculum: learner-generated projects. It is in these negotiated final exercises that the learners take complete control of their learning and pursue a particularly useful, personally relevant issue. The autonomy and creativity they experience in designing and implementing the projects will help increase their confidence to apply language and life skills beyond the classroom. Roles they assume in the process can serve as valuable practice for roles they might wish to take on elsewhere. The instructor should act as facilitator rather than director in project work.

Introductory Activities: The lessons begin with introductory activities designed to open the learners' thinking and elicit what they already know about the unit's topic. Subsequent activities have been designed to further explore that topic.

Script format: The lessons are written like scripts that the instructor may use to present a lesson.  There are background notes marked by  in the script.  These provide the instructor with lesson variation ideas, background information or other resources. The lessons were prepared in this style so that newer instructors who may feel less confident with the curriculum's approach will have some language with which to approach the lessons and appropriate information to present a topic. Of course, the scripts are suggestions only; instructors are encouraged to adapt them to their learners' needs and their personal teaching styles.

Word Banks: Word banks presented in the beginning of each lesson suggest potentially new vocabulary that an instructor might want to pre-teach or emphasize during the lesson. Their use is at the instructor's discretion. There is no single "best way" to use them.

Interaction: This curriculum encourages interaction among the learners. Empowering and enabling the learners to express themselves within the classroom and beyond are basic premises of this curriculum; however, at no time should the instructor pressure learners to share or to engage in activities that may be uncomfortable or threatening to them. The instructor needs to have frequent interactions with the learners to ensure the comfort, effectiveness, and safety of the learning environment, and to ascertain learner needs.

Reflection: While one curriculum cannot meet all the diverse needs of the learners, with encouragement and modeling learners can become accustomed to personalizing the learning and questioning their own actions as new and challenging issues arise. One way that the instructors can help the learners personalize the learning is by allowing and encouraging the learners to take class time to reflect on their learning and prepare personal action plans based on what they have learned. Self-evaluation and planning are also gaining use in the U.S. working world, so practicing them in class has an added benefit of preparing learners for something that might be expected of them beyond the classroom. A handout for a formal reflection activity is found in Appendix A. It may be used at the end of a lesson or unit; it is perhaps best implemented near the beginning of the subsequent class session so that learners are fresh and not in a hurry to leave for other commitments. Students may share reflections and plans with the class if they wish, with the potential gain of receiving feedback from others. However, if students are uncomfortable about sharing they may refrain from doing so.

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Role of Technology

• In order to help learners increase their access to continued learning and greater participation in their communities, technology plays a major role in the curriculum. Most of the lessons and units involve some aspect of the Internet. Some lessons are designed to use the Internet as an information source; other lessons ask the learners to evaluate what information they read on various types of published websites. Suggested websites and access instructions are provided in the lessons for instructors and learners. Also, Appendix C contains additional websites for 1) instructors and learners to learn more about computers, 2) instructors to learn more about computer-assisted instruction and lesson content, and 3) learners to study independently.
  
  
• While the Internet and other forms of technology are important components to this curriculum, the curriculum does not provide in-depth instruction on the fundamentals of using the computer. The writers feel that, as class time is limited, such instruction would detract from other topics of greater importance in our programs. Therefore, only basic information on using the Internet is provided in the Internet Premodule. Other lessons focus on helping the learner navigate specific sites and make sense of their content. Sites have been selected in the hope that they demonstrate the variety of useful information available on the Internet which may ultimately be useful to the learner beyond the classroom.
  
  
• These lessons consistently integrate technology. To some learners they may seem complex, while to others they may seem very basic in approach. The curriculum writers' expectation is that more experienced learners be encouraged to help other learners in the class. Use of volunteer instructional aides is also encouraged. The instructor should also be flexible to allow and encourage learners who are experienced computer users with challenging activities such as those found in Appendix C, and projects that enable them to further their own Internet navigation and study skills.

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Adapting the lessons
As all classes and levels have different life and language skills needs, the writers intend that instructors adapt the curriculum lessons as necessary to best meet their particular learners' needs. Suggestions for methods of adapting lessons could include:

• shortening lessons;
  
• adding more writing, such as a letter or a class journal entry;
  
• increasing sharing of stories,
  
• decreasing reading;
  
• increasing interaction by adding interviews or information grids;
  
• adding listening activities like dictation, or audiotapes;
  
• supplementing with videotapes like the Crossroads Café series, which deals with many relevant life topics;
  
• adding role plays;
  
• changing grouping arrangements;
  
• using the same activity format for a different topic;
  
• interspersing grammar development activities that coincide with the language needed in a lesson;
  
• simplifying a handout for your level;
  
• adding or omitting discussion questions;
  
• creating additional activities to practice vocabulary from the Word Banks, such as clozes, matching, dictations, scrambles or puzzles (the last two of which can be made at various websites online);
  
• adding a research task and/or presentation;
  
• using more pictorial prompts; and
  
• adding songs or poems that coincide with the lesson topic.