1) On-Line Student Manual by Sam Bernstein & Deborah Schwartz, Adult Literacy Resource Institute

This on-line student manual is the product of a series of introductions to homebuying resources in World Wide Web workshops. Students and teachers from the W.A.I.T.T. House, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, ABCD's SouthSide Head Start, Roxbury Community College and Bunker Hill Community College participated in the initial round of work shops. After collecting teacher feedback and student-generated questions about homebuying, the manual was created.
 
 

2) Using the World Wide Web to Research Homebuying by Sam Bernstein, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center

 Anther route to finding answers to student-generated questions was via the Internet. Because we have a 12-piece Pentium Lab at the school, and because we now have our own homebuying web site as part of a FannieMae Foundation/ALRI mini-grant, I imagined that we would be able to answer much of the students' questions using technology. Eight students and I had worked pretty hard on this special project for two months in the Fall of '98. We had made three visits to a Realtor, a mortgage broker and a student's condo. The web site includes work-ups of all three visits, interviews with the Realtor and mortgage broker, students compositions about what they learned and how, a set of key questions and answers in Chinese and English and links to some large industry sties with a great deal of information about housing (i.e. http://www.realtor.com).

I demonstrated how to type in the site address and hit "Enter" using our one 17- inch monitor. Students picked up the idea quickly, but typed very slowly. They all made mistakes in typing in the address too. So I had to move around to every machine myself and type it in for them. This was very time consuming. Many of the students found that the English level on any given visit- description page was too high. And of course, the specialized real estate jargon intimidated them. A good deal of patience was required for our 2a students to stick with the program.

On top of that, some of our students wanted to print out student interviews with a banker and broker, but our printer was only grudgingly cooperative. Finally, a group of students started looking at some of the current ads on one of the large industry site with lots of information including the listing of particular houses in particular neighborhoods complete with maps and photographs of houses. Four or five students thought this was fascinating. Other students were beginning to get interested too, but time was running out and not one person had answered any of the six questions. In fact, the students had stopped looking for the answers, and instead were looking around at whatever seemed of interest to them. They were learning to use the Web site, but specific answers to specific questions would have to wait.

In early March, Dekahn Wong, a Realtor who is based in Chinatown, came to the class to meet students, make a presentation and answer the questions they had generated earlier in the semester. Dekahn knows our student population well because he's been a substitute and part-time teacher at our school for many years. He speaks fluent Cantonese and some Mandarin. Dekahn spoke mostly in Cantonese. He had excellent bilingual materials. He compared the advantages and disadvantages of renting and owning, highlighting the tax advantages to owning a home. He showed pictures of different kinds of homes so students could compare them. He explained in detail how a broker functions. And he presented a monthly payment chart based on a 30 year fixed rate mortgage. All of this was very much what students were ready for and with this new information they asked even more questions. Also, during the presentation, I angled around taking pictures for our newest web page.

In our final week with the homebuying project. I asked students to try to remember something they had learned form Dekhahn, the Realtor. I wrote down their comments and translated some of them into English. I also asked them to review their initial set of six questions and try to see if they now had some answers. Students told me they had learned a lot, but that the most useful aspect of the unit was meeting Dekhahn in person and knowing that he was a resource for them. Now they know they have someone who will help them when they decide to buy a home.

For their final assignment, students wrote up a report of the visit from Dekhahn based on the in-class notes that I had taken for them. This exercise lent itself to learning about what/if constructions: "If I have enough money, I'll buy a house; If I make a lot of money, I'll buy my dream house." For the final touch, I set up some photographs of Dekhahn's visit in a table on web page editor and asked a group of student to try and write their final reports into the HTML document. They partially completed it, and later I filled-in with excerpts from the reflective writing of individual students.
 
 

3) Introducing Students to Homebuying Materials on the World Wide Web by Victoria Natalie, Bunker Hill Community College

Deborah Schwartz conducted most of the class in the campus' computer lab. Before she brought students to the computers, she introduced herself and the homebuying project and answered questions. She then asked students to talk about their experiences using computers and the World Wide Web. Because only about 1/3 of the class had ever used computers and only one or two students had ever been on the World Wide Web, she asked the students who had used the WWW to explain what they did and how they used it to the others. She also provided a spider web graphic to explain how the WWW could connect you to many different points. Basic Internet terminology was introduced throughout the presentation.

Students then completed a pre-computer use student survey that asked them to record how often, in what capacities and under what circumstances they had used computers (Addendum 1/Computer Worksheet 1).

 At the computer lab, students were guided through the E-Square homebuying sites. Unfortunately, we experienced some technical difficulties; not only were there problems connecting to the E-Square Website, but there were also problems with some of the computers. For the students who could not connect to the E-Square Web site, they surfed and searched the Web looking for information and sites of interest-- baptized by fire. Amazingly a number of students found Websites that peaked their interest until we could bring up E-Square. About half-way through the class, students were scrolling through Portuguese news site and translating the world news to their non-Portuguese speaking classmates, viewing the weather conditions in the Caribbean, reviewing soccer matches and comparing rates for travel back to their home countries! The few students who were perusing the E-Square homebuying readiness Web sites were so excited to have found it, that they were calling over other students and together reading through the information. Although this class served as only a partial introduction to the homebuying learning resources available through the E-Square Web site and its links, it did serve to introduce students to the limitless resources offered to them once they enter the world of the World Wide Web.

 For the final learning activities, students were asked to draw a picture of what was sitting in front of them- the hardware of the computer and the screen that they happened to be looking at (see Addendum 2/Computer Worksheet 2) . And once students were back in class, they completed a post-computer use survey that asked them to reflect on what they learned and what next questions they might have (see Addendum 3/Computer Worksheet 3nd).
 
 

4) Using Computer Programs to Create Spread Sheets & Calculate Mortgage Payments by Dulany Alexander, Operation Bootstrap

Several of our activities were performed on computers. Although these activities represent an exposure to a couple of computer applications rather than mastery of any one application, the activities were rewarding experiences for the students.

To begin with, the students used a spreadsheet to make a chart of housing-related words. As headings, all of the students used categories that we brainstormed as a class. Then, working in pairs, the students entered words under each heading. Before closing their files, they wandered around the computer lab and looked at each others' work for more ideas. The students returned to their spreadsheets the next week during their computer time-slot to add to their lists before spell-checking and printing them out.

When this part of the activity was finished, the students used a word processor to write a letter to a credit bureau requesting a copy of their credit history. They followed a format suggested by a local TV channel: Full Name, Date of Birth, Social Security Number, Spouse's Name, Spouse's Social Security Number, Five Years of Previous Addresses, Current Employer, Day Phone Number, and Evening Phone Number. They then used the cut-and-paste tool on the computer to revise their letters.

Students who had a credit history actually made copies of a utility bill or driver's license to establish their identity, and then mailed the letters, but even those who had no credit history chose to go through the entire process.

They sent their requests for credit histories to the following companies:
 
 

Equifax

P.O. Box 740241

Atlanta, GA 30374-0241
 
 

Experian (formerly TRW)

P.O. Box 2104

Allen, TX 75013-0949
 
 

Trans Union Corp.

760 W. Sproul Road

Springfield, PA 19064-0390
 
 

After they sent their letters, the students used Lotus' amortization calculators to generate figures that were then plugged into a spreadsheet that I built (i.e. the spreadsheet contained cells that I had already defined with numeric functions). The purpose of this activity was to explore the effect of the variables of term and interest rate on the monthly payments and total "lifetime" interest of a particular mortgage.

For the final step, the students used both hand-held and computer-resident calculators to calculate down payments as actual percentages of the selling price.
 
 

6) On-line Homebuying Resources for Teachers compiled by Dulany Alexander, Veronica Gouvea, Sybil Schlesinger & Deborah Schwartz
 
 

 HOMEBUYING:

 http://www.fanniemae.com

Among other things this site includes calculators and text explaining the homebuying process

 http://www.fanniemaefoundation.org

This site provides all homebuying explanations of all homebuying programs and initiatives sponsored by the FannieMae Foundation including materials about obtaining mortgages, methods of ordering materials in different languages and access to research about homebuying trends.

http://home.digitalcity.com/boston/realestate

This is a listing of available Boston real estate.

 http://www.freddiemac.com/homebuyers

This site includes a great, although wordy, home inspection kit.

 http://www.bankrate.com

If you go to the sidebar category RATES, and select HOME, you can learn

about various mortgage rates and programs

 http://www.realtor.com

After punching in financial and geographic criteria, this site displays actual

houses that are on the market that meet those criteria.

 http://www.homebuyingguide.org

This is a commercial on-line listing of homes.
 
 

HOMEBUYING INSTRUCTIONAL SITES/CONTENT BASED INSTRUCTION:

 http://sabes.org

The Massachusetts Department of Education's System for Adult Basic Education (SABES) home page.

 http://www2.wgbh.org/mbcweis/esquare/esq2.html

What happens when students and teachers research, visit and document places of interest as they engage in project-based learning? This site, Esquare2, along with its sister site E-square, is the result of such projects, nicknamed "Virtual Visits." Included in these pages are many first-time homebuying instructional projects. The concept of "Virtual Visits" was developed by Akira Kamiya, Tom MacDonald and David Rosen.

 http://www2.wgbh.org/mbcweis/ltc/Housing/HousingHome.html

Accessible through a link from E-square 2, this site walks you through a visit to a banker and broker. Created by Sam Bernstein and his class of ESOL learners at the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Centers, it's complete with bilingual student-generated questions and answers, interviews with bankers and brokers, and examples of housing ads.

 http://www2.wgbh.org/MBCWEIS/LTC/ALRI/alri.html

The Adult Literacy Resource Institute's home page. Look for the brand new 1999 Homebuying Readiness Curriculum Project!

 http://www2.wgbh.org/mbcweis/ltc/fnma2/fnma2.html

The 1998 homebuying readiness project links to the first years project, the Adult Literacy Resource Institute's home pages, and many other homebuying and instructional resources.

 http://www.eslcafe.com

A great source for ESOL learners and teachers- everything from a graffiti wall to email lists for students, from on-line quizzes to help centers.

 http://www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc

This international e-mail connection provides free service to teachers who want to share information and request help with specific classroom projects that involve email.

The Educator's Reference Desk

Until December, 2003, the Educational Resource Information Center (ERIC), a clearinghouse of publications, grant resources, and classroom activities provided one of the most extensive adult education bibliographic and publication-abstract listings in the country. These resources are now located at the Educator's Reference Desk.

Updated 12/23/03 by David J. Rosen <david@alri.org>