April Returns as Financial Literacy Month

After doing some research on Financial Literacy Month, I’ve concluded that this post may be a week late but it is still quite necessary. There simply isn’t much information out there other than the standard April-is-Financial-Literacy-Month article. That’s a good first step, but often these articles don’t provide any sort of information to improve a reader’s money management skills- just short bits to ‘increase awareness’. If this was a discussion on social media strategies, I’d say that this type of article doesn’t do enough to make the reader get to that next level of involvement; I digress. Without any further advocacy ado, I assure you April is Financial Literacy Month.

Sadly, a majority of us have not been taught how to manage our finances responsibly, which can lead to dangerous financial decisions. It was reported that in 2012, only 13 states required students to take a course on personal finance. Teaching the basics of financial literacy is vital to give low-income adults the opportunity to break the cycle of poverty, especially considering that most of our adult learners have had less schooling than their credentialed counterparts, who themselves most likely have not received formal financial education lessons. That’s why financial literacy has been given its own month, because more needs to be done.

When it comes to being involved with a literacy-based organization, we all learn to work with what we’re given, and we learn to make it work. Naturally, the same can be said for incorporating financial literacy lessons for adult learners. As mentioned earlier, although you may have heard about Financial Literacy Month before, chances are you weren’t given any resources to help improve your money management skills. It becomes evident when searching for financial literacy resources targeted towards adult learners or ESOL students that this can be an even more challenging endeavor than searching for information accessible to the native speaker. So, to help you in your quest for financial literacy resources, I leave you with some resources for your perusal.

• Financial Literacy Month by Money Management International Geared towards the apple pie loving American, this site provides daily steps towards becoming financially responsible complete with tons of resources from which to choose.
• Financial Literacy Lesson Plans Want to know what to consider as you’re making a lesson plan for financial education? Check out this article for some insights.
• Financial Literacy Lessons for ESL Students Here are some already created lessons for you to use with your adult learners, brought to you by San Diego Centers for Education & Technology.
• Financial Literacy Video Games for Adult Learners Want to mix up your financial literacy lesson? Choose from “Taking a Bite Out of Debt and Spending” or “Rooting Out the Killer Bunnies” which your students can learn while they play a video game!

  *Warning- If you are a Vampire enthusiast, frustration may ensue from the former of the two games due to the flawed logic that Vampires would safely be able to transport to a “Day Club” without dying from the sunlight.*

• Alley Wallet Wise The financial literacy program affiliated with Alley Bank offers free online courses which cover banking, budgeting, credit scores, and more.

Incorporating Easter and Passover traditions with Your Adult Learners

Cultural differences are just another barrier which adult learners must learn to overcome. Even the ways in which sects of the same religion, or for that matter same sects of the same religion in different locations, celebrate holidays differ in some way or another. That’s why this week you should take advantage of the Jewish holiday of Passover and the Christian holiday of Easter to teach your adult learners about the traditions, origins, and significance, of these respective religions.

This can be quite difficult to do without coming across as proselytizing a religious view, but it can be done successfully. The best method to ensure that what you teach will not be misconstrued as attempting to convert your students is to state the facts about each holiday in a fun, nonthreatening way. It’s more important to use these holidays as a means of connecting adult learners with unfamiliar language and cultural traditions than it is to use them as a tipping point for spiritual realization.

With that said, tutors might want to look into these websites which cover the traditions of Easter and Passover, taken from Larry Ferlazzo’s EduBlog.

• History Channel’s Passover Page
• Infographic on the Passover Holiday
• History Channel’s History of Easter
• Easter Overview, Customs, and Symbols
• Time Magazine’s Semana Santa Photo Essay (great for a discussion on how different cultures celebrate the same holiday)

If you’re searching for lessons for ESOL or ELLs, check out the resources on these sites:

• Easter Lesson Plan
• Easter Quiz
•  ESL Free Press’s Holiday Weekend

Sneak Peek at the Financial Literacy Track!

It’s surprising, sometimes frightening even, how little we really know about personal finance and money management, since most of us know close to nothing about sound practices beyond the basics.  In fact, most of what we do know is information that our friends and families have given us or that we have learned through our own research. Rarely does it come from any sort of formal education. When we consider how we can all benefit a bit more from a few lessons on financial literacy, it becomes clear just how important financial literacy is vital to an adult learners stability and progress.

The 29^th Annual Florida Literacy Conference will hold over 60 sessions within 14 distinct tracks, including a first of its kind financial literacy track! For those interested in learning more about personal finance and sound money management, here’s a look at what the track has to offer so that you can set your conference schedule proactively.

Sessions include:

• Financial Aid for the Nontraditional Student
  Did you know the Florida Bright Futures Scholarship can be awarded to GED students? This session covers avenues for funding higher education through federal, state, institutional, and local resources.
• Money $ense
  How do you make sense out of money?  One of the ways is to look at your behavior, habits and past to determine why you use money in a certain way. This workshop explains how to educate your clients to understand and change their behavior.
• Financial Literacy Resources for Adult Education
  There are many free resources for providing financial literacy in the Adult Education classroom. Receive sample brochures, website information  and the latest research/statistics for financial literacy.
• Making Money Work for You
  This brief intro to financial literacy and consumer education is designed for teachers and tutors of ESOL and ABE students.  (Participants can also access this module via Florida TechNet’s “Moodle” trainings.)
• Opening Doors to Home Ownership
  In this interactive session, we will share the Opening Doors to Home Ownership website designed for high school and adult learners.  The focus of this commercial-free website is to develop financial literacy through topics such as credit, budgeting, preparing for home ownership, and understanding mortgages.

Trying to imagine how adult learners manage financially, or rather how they don’t, can explain why learning even the most basic money management skills can greatly benefit the lives of our adult learners. Attend this track and bring back skills and practices your students that will immediately have an impact on their lives!

Paul Rogers- Digital ESOL with PUMAROSA.COM

PUMAROSA is a free ESOL website for Spanish speaking students. It is bilingual and phonetic, with voice. Currently it is divided into five levels: Beginner, Intermediate, American Civics, U. S. History and the 100 Questions that is part of the Citizenship test. It has been online for 9 years now, and will expand soon with additional lessons to be available for a small fee.

PUMAROSA has proven to be an effective Teacher’s Aid in the transition to an English Only classroom setting. It is also very helpful in a Blended class with “live” instruction combined with study on the computer. For example, I taught a blended class with a group of 10 and 11 year old children during the summer of 2012 in Tijuana, Mexico: The class met in a small computer lab 4 times a week for 90 minutes.

During the initial week, the students explored PUMAROSA, PRINCIPIANTE, focusing on the alphabet and numbers. We also read, studied and sang out loud nursery rhymes from one of my texts. I was a big hit, especially with my Hokey Pokey!

After a few weeks, we began to study verbs and sentences – adjectives, articles, pronouns and the verb TO BE.
 The students studied independently, repeating the exercises out loud copying my voice, which they could hear on the computer.

At a certain point I walked around and gave each student a “quiz”. 
I would ask them in Spanish to tell me how to translate a sentence from Spanish to English. 
They had to listen carefully and repeat in English and then listen – repeat again to improve their pronunciation. After a while, each student improved very well.

I also introduced texts I had written which included Grammar tests and a few Guided Readers (stories written in a second or third grade vocabulary with lots of cognates). I was pleased with the success I had with this group of students, primarily because it is usually difficult to keep the attention of children this age.

Currently, I use SKYPE with several students and have included more advanced lessons. There are many ESOL programs online for free or at a low cost. Grammar lessons can easily be found which include worksheets. In addition there are online course to teach English literacy to English speakers, Spanish literacy to Spanish speakers, GED, English to children, plus…. math and science, etc.

With online lessons, email, SKYPE, YouTube, FACEBOOK and cell phones, it has become very easy to set up a Digital Learning ESOL course that can be centrally located in any computer lab. Also, Computers For Families is the name of a program that can provide used, re-furbished computers to low-income families free or at a low cost. There is also a growing interest in providing this kind of approach with grant money.

Please contact me for more information.

Paul Rogers

Email: pumarosa21@yahoo.com

Facebook: PUMAROSA APRENDIENDO INGLES

New Year’s Resolution Lesson Plans for Adult Learners

New Year’s Eve, for many, doesn’t mark the end of a year as much as it celebrates the beginning of another. I forget who said that. Regardless, entering the year 2013 is sure to inspire and motivate the 45% of Americans that usually make New Year’s Resolutions.

As the holiday season comes to an end, it’s time to return to our daily routines. This can be a challenge after having some time off, but looking towards the New Year can help both students and teachers. Creating a lesson based on New Year’s Resolutions can result in improving upon your students writing skills from their well intended yet likely-to-fail attempt to better themselves. Let’s stick to being optimistic though.

Looking towards the future is a great time to introduce the verb tense to beginning English language learners. There are plenty of templates available online for future tense practice, which specifically deal with New Year’s Resolutions. This approach can also be geared towards higher skill levels. Whether it’s constructing simple sentences or writing a plan to accomplish one’s resolution, New Year’s Resolutions are perfect for writing activities.

For future tense lesson plans: http://www.eslflow.com/futuretenselessonplans.html

You may want to include a brief explanation as to Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail (and How to Do Them the Right Way) to better equip your students with the tools and resources they’ll need to accomplish their goals. Since New Year’s Resolutions can be anything from eating healthier to quitting smoking, if your class size is small enough, it’s possible to even include Financial Literacy, Health Literacy, and even Digital Literacy!

Whatever happens in the future, it will be nice to know that your student’s New Year’s Resolutions won’t be for nothing. Finally, unsuccessful New Year’s Resolutions may yield some good after all!

USA.gov’s Popular New Year’s Resolutions Resources List

Mashable’s 5 Apps for Keeping New Year’s Resolutions

Maribeth Buie: How Your Local Pharmacy Can Help

Every day, unintentional poisonings account for nearly 87 deaths and over 2,200 emergency room visits in the United States.  A large proportion of unintentional poisonings may be attributed to low health literacy.  This is such an important topic that an entire chapter in the Staying Healthy curriculum is devoted to ‘Medicines,’ including the difference between over-the-counter and prescription drugs, reading a prescription label, measuring medicines, side effects/warning labels, etc.

Prescription labels and drug information can be confusing for native English speakers at any education level.  Difficulties arise with small print, ambiguous wording, unfamiliar drug names, and inconsistent formats.  Logic follows that it will be even harder for adult learners.  As they make gains in their health literacy, the local pharmacy can help!

Some pharmacies offer prescription labels and drug information in languages other than English, all your students have to do is request it!

I took an informal poll of four major pharmacies in Florida – Walgreens, CVS, Publix, and WalMart.  Walgreens offers the most in terms of language translation.  They offer prescription labels/drug information in thirteen languages (other than English):  Arabic, Chinese, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portugese, Russian, Spanish, Tagalog, and Vietnamese.  Walgreens registers all pharmacists able to speak multiple languages to provide translation services.  So, for example, if a Japanese-speaking customer arrives at the pharmacy, the Walgreens computer system can locate and call a pharmacist that speaks Japanese to provide information or answer questions (if one is on staff anywhere in the United States).  In addition, Walgreens offers large-print labels in English or Spanish upon request.

Other pharmacies also offer translation services.  CVS offers prescription label/drug information in Spanish and French, and Publix offers prescription label/drug information in Spanish.  WalMart does not offer any type of reliable translation service.

It is important to teach your students that a pharmacist is a great resource.  Pharmacists not only help with understanding prescription medicines, but they can also help with understanding over-the-counter medicines – especially which medicine is right for an individual’s particular symptoms.  Another great idea, invite your local pharmacist to speak to your class. Most pharmacies value and encourage community involvement and education.

The ultimate goal is to help adult learners improve their health literacy, including understanding labels and information in English.  However, on the way toward accomplishing that goal, the local pharmacy can be a literal life saver.

Memorial Day Lesson Plans!

When Memorial Day first was proclaimed a U.S. holiday in 1868, it was a solemn day set aside to remember and honor the nation’s war dead. While it is still celebrated for that reason, many people recognize it as a day off, start of pool season, and a reason for sales at different stores. Take the time this Memorial Day to learn more about the holiday and different ways to celebrate it with your students.

If you are looking for writing practice, try watching a video on Memorial Day Across America or look through a slideshow of pictures. Share how you celebrate the holiday with your student and  ask if they are willing to share how they celebrate or a memory from their past. You can then have the student write a journal entry reflecting on their experiences or write down the key words mentioned in the video or your student’s story to go over.

If your student is more advanced or interested in history, start by looking at this graphic interactive slideshow focusing on the history of Memorial Day. You can also use an infographic of the history of Memorial Day to read through together. Once you’re done learning about the history, try a fill in the blank to check reading comprehension.

Memorial Day can be a great opportunity to incorporate civics in an ESL curriculum. Use this Pre-Intermediate English Lesson on Memorial Day to learn about the holiday and then test comprehension with a quiz. The EL Civics for Memorial Day site has a brief passage on traditions of the holiday and then questions you can ask your students to test comprehension and start conversation on the topic (i.e. How are you celebrating this year?). You can also practice a CLOZE exercise to understand verb tense.

Other lesson plan sites

Memorial Day Lessons and Teacher Resources- Lessons Page

Memorial Day Teacher’s Resources- Teacher Vision

Free Memorial Day Lesson Plans- Yahoo

Roberta Reiss- “ESOL Conversation Clubs: Design and Delivery”

Just like any endeavor, successful conversation clubs require some careful thought and planning to meet the needs of the adult learners seeking to improve their listening and speaking skills.

The design should grow from the needs of the participants and your motivation for forming the club:

• Is it a request from existing learners already active in your literacy program?
• Is it an idea coming from tutors who see a need for their learners to get more conversation practice?
• Do you need a way to keep learners on your waiting list connected to the program in a productive setting?

If you are meeting the needs of existing learners, be sure to ask them what they want to practice specifically.  Are they focused on life skills English, current affairs or grammar in use?  The content of your sessions should reflect their preferences.  It will also be feasible to have sessions with a start date and end date that build on one another.

If it is to help your learners on the waiting list start their learning before they are matched with a tutor, you should consider an open-ended, open-enrollment, drop-in model for the club.  This will require the facilitator to create stand-alone sessions with a different topic for every meeting.  It will also require skill in facilitating multi-level sessions with learners of varying skill levels.

Roberta Reiss

For any model, adult learners will appreciate having the chance to master and practice specific skills, whether it is life skill dialogues, grammar in use, or pronunciation.  This can be achieved with learning activities in which there is two-way interaction, time within the session to allow learners to plan what they might say, and a task with a closed solution or end product.

Within the session, the facilitator can rely on a set procedure no matter what the topic:

• Announce the topic
• Present vocabulary and allow for practice
• Model the learning activity
• Create pairs/small groups to do the activity
• Walk through the room to offer help, monitor work flow and clarify the task
• Have learners report back to the whole group

Meeting the needs and expectations of your adult learners is the best way to ensure attendance and gains in skill levels.

If you would like to see the full “Conversation Clubs” webinar hosted January 22, please click here.

Top Stories in Literacy: February 6

Financial Literacy Class Offers Skills Not Taught in School
The program also helps participants, many of whom left school before graduation, with job-readiness training and educational services like preparation for the high school equivalency diploma test. As an incentive to complete the program, participants receive a monthly stipend of $200.

Hundreds protest plan to eliminate L.A .Unified adult classes
About 300 adult education students rallied near downtown Tuesday afternoon, protesting a plan by Los Angeles Unified School District officials to slash the district’s entire adult education budget.

The growing alternative to English-Only Education
Instead of a strict English-only, several programs across the country have developed a two way immersion program of bilingual education. Native English speakers and non-Native speakers go to classes in both English and another language.

Jeb Bush and Bob Wise Release Roadmap for Reform: Digital Learning /Foundation
This is an older article explaining the digital literacy initiative set up by former governor, Jeb Bush, and Bob Wise of West Virginia. This plan is also tracking bills going through state legislature on this issue, including Florida SB 1402, which is currently going through the senate.

Brent Stubbs: Career Pathway to Nowhere- Why technology matters

Recently in Adult Education, the “shot heard round the world” was that the GED test was going the way of the computer. Many held their breath, wringing their hands and pondering how and why it made sense. (Note: Corrections programs have a real legitimate concern as to the logistics of how this is going to work) For decades the test had been paper-based, and we all know that a lot of people don’t know how to use computers or do not type proficiently…

…or so the thought process went.

Recently, my friend pointed out on this blog that more people are on computers than we think. I will set aside my judgment on whether or not everyone is computer savvy for a moment and even grant you that many are not. In fact, this post assumes that too many are computer illiterate. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they don’t know how to use a computer, just like someone who is illiterate can probably still hold a decent conversation. However, the question we should all be asking ourselves is, “What can someone do, today, without computer literacy?” Let’s get a little closer to home:

How good is our literacy program if it does not include digital literacy? If someone learns English but not the ability to navigate the web using that language, what have we given them? How good is our Career Pathways system if we are not empowering every student to gain digital competency that will translate to any career path?

“It’s the Economy, Stupid” -Bill Clinton

I know one thing. Employers (the ones with jobs) are not, on average, behind the times. They understand that technology = speed = efficiency = competitive advantage. Competitive advantage means you survive, thrive, and become a fixture, not a novelty in a community. There was a time that to get work meant you had to have air in your lungs and a pulse. Those days are long gone, especially in the Sunshine State. As we progress deeper into the 21st century, digital competency is the new basic skill. Just like businesses need a competitive advantage that starts with an even playing field, today’s prospective employee needs an even playing field so that their career path is not aborted prematurely.

That means skills: digital skills.

Is this your program?

What’s the Career Pathway’s connection? It’s quite simple. A Career Pathways model–be it via family literacy, GED classes or ESOL at it’s genesis–that leaves out technology is a “pathway to nowhere”.  A pathway to nowhere means a student getting a credential that means nothing. It means a student learning something that does not translate into a feeling of “making it” in life. Why? Because in their case, there is literally a digital divide between what they know and what they can do. Digital literacy (technology) is about closing that gap by giving our students a leg up in the 21st century jobs marketplace. 

Why Change?

What’s at stake is twofold. For one, we are playing catch up with the rest of the world. While we are wringing our hands about computer-based GED tests, somebody is doing this:

Instead of lamenting what we can’t do, we must start preparing for what we will have to do.

Second, it’s about what is best for our students. They come to us, many times, because they want a new chance at life. Because they lack certain basic skills, life is always lived somewhere between understanding and confusion. They come to us to gain those skills, and we ask them to dream again and create a plan for their career path–a path to their success. However, if digital literacy gained through engaging relevant technology is not a part of our process, we do them a great disservice.

We set them up for failure and frustration, again.

I think that answers the “why” question. What do you think?