Prepared by Maria E. Gonzalez, Adult Literacy Resource Center/SABES
Likely Scenario: Your students have been informed about the cuts to adult basic education in the state budget. They have written letters and postcards, made phone calls to their state reps and senators, even visited the State House. The learners were “pumped-up” doing these activities but they are now a little fatigued and it is hard for them and for you to get back to the usual rhythm of the classroom. Because of the time pressure in doing these tasks, you probably did not do the kind of preparation you usually do when you introduce new content into your lesson plans. Or you may have been given the learners a lot of information about how state government works and how to contact their state reps and senators. Now you would like to follow-up on this information because you know how useful and important it is for any resident and citizen of the United States.
Below are some ideas on how to continue to integrate important lessons about many aspects of civic life including state government, community issues, the rights and responsibilities of being a resident or citizen, and on and on. The possibilities are endless and only bound by the particular needs and interests of the students in your class. It is important that you receive direction from them as to what issues are the most relevant to their lives. There are some suggestions below on how to explore with your students what those issues are.
Newspapers
1)Share with your students the newspaper stories that have been appearing in the press. The most interesting ones are those that focus on individuals, like your students, who are affected by these cuts. Use them as reading material with accompanying activities. You may have to rewrite the article with language that is easier to read. Sandra Darling, the ALRI Librarian, has been collecting newspaper stories from all across the state. You can call her for directions on how to get a copy of stories printed in particular papers. (617-782-8956 or sandra@alri.org). It is often best to search the newspaper’s website for printable copies of past articles but not all websites have the same regulations on how to do this. For example, a few charge money once a couple of days have passed since the publication of a particular story. The price is usually minimal, though.2)Instead of you giving a verbal update in each class about what is happening, ask learners to search for stories and commentaries in the newspaper on their own. Assign a couple of people per day to give reports. Or, bring the newspaper into class and ask learners to search for any story related to budget cuts. This is a timely way to introduce learners to how to get information from newspaper.
3)Following up on the theme above, ask learners to also search for stories in their community newspapers and/or newspapers in their native language. If the issue has not been covered in one of those newspapers, you may want to encourage the student/s to contact them to alert them to this problem. Remind them that these small papers are usually glad to have people contact them with stories to print.
4)After spending time reading different accounts of the budget crisis, ask learners how they would write their own version of events as a newspaper article. For a beginner ESOL or literacy class, you may use the Language Experience Approach where you copy down what the learners dictate. For more advanced students, you can divide them into small groups to work on the story. This works especially well if a computer lab is available so students can make easy corrections and end up with a good looking final product.
5)For other writing ideas, see accompanying lesson on setting-up writing centers in the classroom.
Web/Computers
1)If your class did not get a chance to visit the State House, you can still help them go on a “virtual” visit. Go to www.alri.org
and click on E-Square. In the Civic Center, there are pictures and writings from students who visited the State House on Immigrants Day. There are also links to other information about immigrant rights and state government. It includes a page by teacher Wendy Quinones on “Helping your Students Talk to Policymakers”. Take time to explore E-square which has several projects by ABE/ESOL students. Your class may decide to do something similar.
The Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook published by the New England Literacy Resource Center and edited by Andy Nash, is a wonderful resource for adult educators on the topic. It is full of activities that can easily be adapted to your classroom. The Community Mapping Activity is a good way for your learners to explore the issues that are relevant to them and their families. “Talking to Legislators”by David J. Rosen is a step-by-step guide on how to prepare for a visit to the State House to visit reps and senators.
A companion publication is “Building Civic Participation into the Curriculum” which is a collection of writings by ABE teachers about their experiences using the Civic Participation resource book and how they adapted/adopted some of the ideas in it. One article is a practical and accessible lesson on exploring the phonebook as a way of finding resources in the community. It is also a good activity to find out from your learners what topics and issues are of special interest to them. Both publications are available from World Education or at your regional SABES resource center.
Most SABES Regional Centers have extensive resources on the topic of citizenship and government including lessons prepared by local teachers. “According to the Constitution” by Wendy Quinones is a set of classroom activities for ABE students on the three branches of U.S.government. Check out Deborah Schwartz suggestions in the attached file for integrating history and civic participation into a Social Studies GED class.
The current crisis is also an excellent opportunity to focus on the topics of budgets and taxes. For a lesson on budgets, see the sabes.org website for “Responding to the Budget Cuts: Lessons for the Classroom.” For a curriculum on taxes, see “Let’s Make A Deal – a Guide to teaching about Taxes” which is available at the ALRI library or at you regional SABES resource center.
Contact Us: If you use any of these activities and/or have lesson plans that you would like to share, please contact us at www.alri.org. Or contact me at maria@alri.org.