LITERACY-with-PURPOSE

A TEACHING FRAMEWORK AND LESSON-PLANNING TEMPLATE FOR ESOL ADULT LITERACY

INTRO

PRINCIPLES

OBSTACLES

SUPPORT

REFERENCES

SUPPORT

The great waste in the school comes from his [the learner’s] inability to utilize the experience he gets outside the school in any complete and free way within the school itself; while on the other hand he is unable to apply in daily life what he has learned at school. That is the isolation of the school—its isolation from life.

-John Dewey

Within the field of adult ESOL literacy, there have been efforts to, in the words of Heide Spruck Wrigley, “bring in the outside”; that is, to use authentic activities and materials in the classroom rather than activities and materials created exclusively for reading and writing in school settings [24]. A study conducted by Victoria Purcell-Gates and others (2000) found that adult literacy learners using real-life texts and activities read and write more often in their lives outside of the classroom. Literacy-with-Purpose aims to take this authentic approach one step further by not only bringing the world into the classroom but by extending the classroom into the world. Every Literacy-with-Purpose lesson plan includes an out-of-class practice component where learners apply literacy skills learned in school to a real-life literacy practice at home.

Teachers have three primary means at their disposal to affect marked improvements in learning and the acquisition of skills—they are: providing the learner with 1. high-quality instruction 2. opportunities to practice and 3. targeted support [10]. To gain maximum leverage in the classroom, Literacy-with-Purpose systematically includes all three of

these methods.

TEMPLATE

TEACHING SUGGESTIONS: SKILLS & CONTEXTS

The acronym for the Literacy-with-Purpose lesson-planning template is SUPPORT (Skill; Understanding Purpose; Practice-in-class; Out-of-class practice; Reflection and Talking). At the core of a SUPPORT lesson is a skill-in-context (e.g. writing a grocery list); a lesson’s trajectory spreads out like a ripple from this center of a skill-in-context. A SUPPORT lesson takes place over the course of two classroom periods with an activity to be completed at home in between the two classes. Given the range of possible skills to teach with SUPPORT, SUPPORT is more of a rough guide to creating lesson plans than a rigid itinerary. As the acronym would suggest, there are five distinct facets to a SUPPORT lesson. Although each SUPPORT lesson is self-contained, SUPPORT is designed to create a suite of lessons that center around a single skill (such as reading labels) practiced across many contexts (e.g. reading food labels/mailing labels/warning labels/etc.). Please see the multicolored figure below for a SUPPORT schematic.

DOWNLOAD A BLANK TEMPLATE AS WELL AS TWO SAMPLE LESSON PLANS IN PDF FORMAT:

What appears below is a description of the principal features of each SUPPORT facet. Because examples are often more enlightening than explanations, a sample lesson plan (on reading food labels) is embedded in the text.

Skill

GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

• Literacy is a means to a variety of ends, not an end in itself.

• A skill is a capacity to act in an organized way in a specific context.

OUTLINE:

Teacher identifies the main lesson objective in terms of what-skill-in-what-context-for-what-purpose she or he wants to teach.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT:

Deciding what literacy skills to teach of course depends on your particular population of learners. Finding out as much as you can about your learners’ lives outside-of-school is a good place to start: where do your learners live/work/shop/etc.? In what life contexts do they require literacy skills? In what contexts would literacy skills be helpful?

Understanding

GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

• Literacy is a means to a variety of ends, not an end in itself.

• An oral metalanguage for talking and thinking about texts’ structures and meanings is a necessary condition for literacy to flourish.

Purpose

OUTLINE:

The crux of this facet of SUPPORT is a model presented by the teacher. Learners familiarize themselves with the essential features of a particular literacy skill. Most importantly, learners gain insight into the purpose of a skill.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT:

Creating a clear and vivid model is vital for learners to grasp the purpose of an unfamiliar literacy skill. A model can be a text—a grocery list, a postcard, a note, etc.; a model can also be an activity—how to read a food label, how to look up a phone number in the yellow pages, etc. The model is meant to be both a guide and a talking point for learners (ask questions about the model that provoke learners to think about how and why a skill is used). Tailoring the model to the needs of your learners will help facilitate comprehension and discussion. Additionally, a careful consideration of the vocabulary associated with the literacy skill is an important aspect of Understanding Purpose.

Practice in-class

GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

• Learners need to be presented with multiple opportunities to practice a skill (with feedback) across multiple contexts.

• Effective teaching needs to incorporate thoughtful and targeted support from peers and teachers.

OUTLINE:

Learners practice the skill (working individually, in pairs or small groups) in a structured and supportive environment.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT:

Clear directions are a must. Again, personalize the practice to the needs and interests of your learners as much as possible. Check in with learners as they are working to gauge progress, ask and answer questions, etc. Give pointed feedback to learners going widely astray. Make notes on any consistent patterns of errors as well as notes on any exemplary student work. When students are finished working, highlight and discuss the common mistakes as well as the areas in which learners excelled. Talk about the different strategies learners used to accomplish the same goal.

Out-of-class

GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

• Literacy is a means to a variety of ends, not an end in itself.

• Learners need to be presented with multiple opportunities to practice a skill (with feedback) across multiple contexts.

practice

OUTLINE:

Learners are given a clear and relevant take-home assignment in order to practice the skill on their own outside of the classroom.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT:

Depending on learners’ English-language and literacy levels as well as their familiarity with the skill, the degree of transfer for the assignment may vary significantly. For example, learners with extremely limited English who are unfamiliar with the skill may need to complete a similar (if not identical) activity to the model presented in class; learners with better English-language comprehension or more familiarity with the skill may want to practice the skill in a slightly different or a completely novel context.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES:

• An oral metalanguage for talking and thinking about texts’ structures and meanings is a necessary condition for literacy to flourish.

• Effective teaching needs to incorporate thoughtful and targeted support from peers and teachers.

Reflection and

Talking

OUTLINE:

First, learners work in pairs/small groups to share their completed assignments and to talk through the steps they went through to complete the assignment. Next, learners engage in a whole class discussion to reflect on the skill’s most important features and ask clarification questions.

WHAT TO THINK ABOUT:

Encourage learners to make use of the vocabulary introduced in the Understanding Purpose section. Discuss with learners how the skill might be transferred to other settings; always personalize the discussion: where can you use this skill? How can it help you? In order to shape future lessons, make notes of learners’ comments, especially their ideas concerning how a skill might be applicable in other contexts.

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© jeffrey a. snyder spring 2004 snyderje@gse.harvard.edu

HGSE: COGNITIVE DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION, AND THE BRAIN