A Busy Teacher's Guide to EFF Lesson Planning
Part 1: About the Guide
A Busy Teacher's Guide to EFF Lesson Planning gives ESL adult educators a starting point to exploring the National Institute for Literacy's (NIFL) Equipped for the Future Content Standards: What Adults Need to Know and Be Able to Do in the 21st Century. This Guide aims to simplify the process of incorporating the Standards into everyday practices.
The Standards (16 in all), are now in the hands of programs and teachers around the country who are in the process of incorporating them into everyday practices. They are the result of extensive and ongoing research into the needs of the adult population in the U.S. Using the Standards gives teachers confidence about the content and substance of their lessons and answers the question "am I giving students what they need to know?" 
To translate the EFF Content Standards into a lesson plan takes a certain amount of perseverance and thoughtfulness. The Guide provides teachers with a starting point of summaries, brief explanations and definitions. As you study the Guide, remember the critical piece is the big picture: you are using the Standards and designing lessons to intentionally give adults what they have told us they need to know, number one. Second, you are instructing them within the context of their real lives as adults with multiple roles and responsibilities--responsibilities to themselves, their communities, their families and their work. Try not to get bogged down with understanding EFF terminology--this will come in time.
A supplement to the Guide is an example of a series of lessons that focuses on one of the 16 EFF Standards: Using Information and Communications Technology. Included is the unit of instruction, intended for student use, and a piece for teachers to show the thought-process involved in ensuring that a lesson achieves the goals of one or more Standards.
After teachers study this document they will be able to:
  • summarize the goals of the Equipped for the Future ContentStandards;
  • understand the parts and the whole of a fully integrated EFF lesson;
  • decide if their current lessons really focus on what adults have told us they need to know;
  • begin to incorporate the EFF Standards into their daily lessons and units. 
An example of an EFF Unit is also included as part of the Guide. When students complete the unit, they will be able to:
  • understand and use vocabulary related to the Internet;
  • talk about the Internet - its uses now and in the future, and what they want to learn;
  • find information on the Internet relevant to their lives as community members; parents and/or workers.
  • cooperate with others in order to complete a project related to the Internet;
  • understand the importance of what they've learned and how it relates to their future.
Part 2    Cover