By Veronica Gouvea, Roxbury Community College, ESOL Department
Summary
In the spring of 1999 my students and I participated in the Eastern Massachusetts Homebuying Readiness Project. The students are all new immigrants studying full-time in a high Intermediate ESOL Reading and Writing course at Roxbury Community College. The focus of this course is to provide students with reading and writing skills which will enable them to continue their academic work. The text we used is Quest, Reading and Writing in the Academic World (Pamela Hartmann, McGraw Hill). This text supports an academic approach to ESOL, and since it is content-based, divided into the three content areas of Business, Science and History, it also supports my personal teaching methods and philosophy. Overall, the course is designed to provide the students with a liberal arts foundation so as to better prepare them for the college courses that lay ahead.
The text book was not available for purchase during the first two weeks of class, so it was convenient to begin the course using the FannieMae Foundation's ESOL Curriculum, How to Buy a Home In the United States. I was glad the students had a book to refer to, and since the first unit in the course was "Business," it was appropriate to begin with the "Business of Homebuying."
Of the 15 students, none is a homeowner, 4 are somewhat interested in the topic, and one is now seriously considering buying a home. Several, however, are interested in learning about borrowing money to continue their education and/or start a business. Hence, the chapters from the curriculum that I chose to present to the class concentrated on the financial aspects of homebuying. Unit 1/Lesson 2, "Getting money to buy a home," and Unit 3/Lesson 2, "How to shop for a loan," were chosen because they present skills and problem solving from which students could benefit regardless of whether or not they articulated homebuying as an immediate goal.
Unit One: Getting Money to Buy a Home; Reasons to Borrow Money & Sources of Money
We began the unit by brainstorming reasons people need money above and beyond food and clothing, and possible sources from which to borrow money. The class came up with the following reasons people need money: medical emergencies, buying a car, education, vacations, renting or buying property, and starting a business; most were especially interested in the latter. When we brainstormed possible sources for borrowing money the students listed friends, family and banks. After this, the books were distributed.
We did some scanning to familiarize the students with the text and inform them that, although we would not use the entire text, it could be used as a reference for future questions. This notion of the book as a resource reinforced the importance of finding information independent of teachers, friends and family, and the benefits of "being resourceful" as an important part of learning.
We continued with a general discussion of the idea of being a home owner as opposed to being a tenant. Students wrote outlines listing the advantages and disadvantages of being homeowners. Later they wrote compare and contrast compositions based on their outlines. We then went on to discuss borrowing money and the differences between the terms "bank" and "lender," agreeing to the more general term "lender." I felt it was important to make it clear that whatever the reason for borrowing money, much of language is the same.
Unit Two: How to Buy a House
Later in the week, the coordinator of the homebuying readiness project, Deborah Schwartz, visited our class and spoke about her experience as a recent home buyer.
The students interviewed her, took notes, and for homework wrote a summary. Her visit was a highlight; she is a warm and lively presenter, and provided authenticity to the homebuying process- "real" answers to "real" questions. In addition, because she is employed part-time by a number of different agencies, in order to qualify for her loan, she had to be convincing about her employment- a good and inspiring model for non-traditional loan application.
Unit Three: How to Shop for a Loan
We looked briefly at Unit Three/Lesson Two, "How to shop for a loan," which described credit reports and traditional and non-traditional credit histories. We also discussed the meaning, importance and danger of credit. We talked at great length about establishing alternative credit and the value of maintaining records of bills paid for utilities, telephone, day-care, rent, etc., as well as the importance of a consistent job history. After reading Bunlap's job history on page 7 of lesson two, the students broke into small groups and discussed Bunlap's qualifications based on his job history. Following that, we discussed sources of mortgage loans with special attention to local programs and opportunities for first time homebuyers, immigrant and low-income families. Much of this vocabulary was new. References to homebuying classes and certificate programs in this were provided.
From this point, we moved directly into the course text, though we continued with the topic of Business with which we made frequent connection between home/business ownership and the lending process.
Homebuying on the World Wide Web
During the last week of the semester, Deborah came back, along with Sam Bernstein another teacher involved in the project, to present a workshop about using the World Wide Web to learn more about homebuying. Most of the students had never used the Internet; prior to the presentation, they were told to provide five questions about using the Internet for the presenters. The workshop began by introducing students to one of the projects generated by the Adult Literacy Resource Institute- the E-Square/E-Square Two (http://www2.wgbh.org/mbcweis/esquare/esq2.html) web sites which have links to many other valuable sites. A few we visited include:
Reflections
On May 5th, 1999, the Boston Globe published an article about a community meeting where a panel of speakers met with the community to talk about the housing "crisis" in Boston. A copy of the article, with 10 questions was given to the students as part of their final exam for the course. The assignment was to scan the article for the information and answer the questions by writing complete sentences. Use of context clues was necessary to find the answers. Besides the obvious reading and writing practice, this article brought a new awareness to the housing situation in Boston, introduced the students to community leaders and activists, and the local agencies with whom they work. Of equal importance, this particular learning activity, as part of the larger homebuying readiness curriculum unit, left the students with hope, in spite of what is being termed a "housing crisis"- hope in the community leaders that are looking for solutions, and hope in the real possibility of home ownership.
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