Would You Choose
the Suburbs or the City?
Spring 1998
by Susan Nylen Quesada
Community Learning Center
Cambridge, MA
Getting Started
I began by asking the class if they were interested
in participating in a project to study homebuying, but I was not overwhelmed
by their response. As a result, I was a bit unsure as to how to start off
with the curriculum. The students' first real introduction was Cathy's
lesson on remembering childhood homes that helped set a very personal tone
to the topic by beginning with the most basic element: students' memories
of their own experiences. The guided writing activity Cathy used helped
students to generate essays describing their houses in their countries
of origin. Students read their essays aloud at the end of class. The class
really enjoyed this lesson and it definitely helped spark an interest among
the group in pursuing the topic of home ownership.
Moving into the Curriculum
From there we began the curriculum, starting with
Lesson One, "This Apartment is Too Small!" We first discussed
the idea of homebuying and then wrote on the board the students' list of
the advantages and disadvantages of owning a home. We didn't complete all
of the exercises included in the lesson because the level of English was
too low for the class. The lesson did, however, tie in well with a separate
unit we had just done on prefixes, including "ad-" and "dis-",
and with one we were currently doing on the perfect tenses. Students developed
into full sentences the ideas that we had brainstormed as a group. From
this brainstorm list and completed sentences emerged their letters to Rosa
and Manuel Castillo.*
From Class Conversation to In-Depth
Writing
The curriculum served as the framework for leading
students to think and discuss homebuying in a more in-depth manner than
they would in casual conversation. As an example, the lesson based on Unit
Two, "Finding Your Dream Home" led to a discussion about recent
crimes in and around Cambridge. Students were keen to talk about the events
and their related feelings, so it seemed a natural springboard for discussing
whether or not they would consider buying a home in the city. I asked students
to write about living in the suburbs versus the
city. We had a lengthy discussion about the meaning of the word "suburbs,"
as many students whose native language is a Romance language confuse the
English word with its false cognate in their language. We then talked about
the advantages as well as the disadvantages of living in each location.
Interestingly enough, most students, though alarmed by crime, came up with
a lengthy list of reasons in favor of staying in the city (access to public
transportation; job availability; distance to stores, schools and hospitals).
Using Resources
I made use of several resources mentioned in the
A.L.R.I. workshops, principally the free publications available through
the FannieMae Foundation (202-274-8087 or 202-274-8095). I sent away for
their brochures on homebuying and mortgage selection and they gladly sent
me enough copies for the entire ESOL program! One thing I did find out
that might be of interest to other teachers is that the FannieMae Foundation
has a toll free number separate from the one listed at the back of the
curriculum which is specifically for ordering multiple copies of their
publications: *1-800-665-0012. I spent a long time on hold the first time
I called and would have saved time if I had had this number.)
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