By Nancy Coffey and Dulany Alexander, Operation Bootstrap, Lynn

Summary

This year, for the second year in a row, Operation Bootstrap received a curriculum framework grant from the Massachusetts Department of Education. For our first year's curriculum framework project, we had developed a center-wide teaching unit about the city of Lynn where the agency is located and where many of the students and staff live. In using such a broad topic- the city of Lynn, and employing as many teaching approaches as we could to teach the topic, we had been able to match each lesson's objectives to the various curriculum frameworks that the given lesson reflected. This process allowed us become familiar with the whole of the curriculum frameworks and to learn how much of it could be applied to our teaching overall. Although we had enjoyed the collaboration with our fellow teachers and the increased interaction between students from various classes, we knew that for the second year, our next step in applying the curriculum frameworks was to actually implement an entire strand. As a program, we decided on the ESOL Navigating Systems Strand as our focus. For a complete description of the ESOL Curriculum Frameworks see the Massachusetts' Department of Education Adult and Community Learning Services Cluster's Web Site at http://www.doe.mass.edu/acls/ESOLFrameworks1098.html

Because some of our students had previously chosen homebuying as a topic that they wanted to study, we decided to participate in the ALRI's 1999 Homebuying Readiness Curriculum Project which made use of the FannieMae Foundation's work book How to Buy a Home in the United States. Our two classes, ESOL 2 and ESOL 3 started the project in late Winter.

Overview & Objectives

The ESOL 2 class studied the curriculum over a period of four months and covered the topics in the first three units of the curriculum: deciding to buy a home, finding one's dream house and getting a mortgage. The ESOL 3 class spent a shorter period of time with the curriculum, but covered the same topics. Although we taught our classes separately, we shared ideas and materials and collaborated on several joint activities. Since our teaching goal was to help students learn to navigate a system, or in this case, a number of inter-dependent mini-systems, we tried to incorporate real life activities outside of the classroom and to use students as experts and guides. We hoped to help students learn new vocabulary, strengthen their understanding of homebuying concepts and the basic process of homebuying in America, and to become more familiar with the special programs that exist for first time homebuyers both in Lynn and in the surrounding towns. We also hoped that students would be able to transfer the skills they had learned from studying the homebuying system to other systems that they would have to negotiate. In other words, as well as learning how to navigate the complex and multi-faceted process of homebuying in the U.S., we also wanted to provide an opportunity for our students to explore the coping methods they rely on when they are confronted with a new problem or situation, especially when they must do so in a new language.

ESOL 2 (NANCY'S CLASS)

The Students

The level 2 class was made up of students from the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, El Salvador, Brazil, Haiti, Vietnam, Russia, and Cambodia. Students ranged in age from 18 to 60. They had a broad range of literacy skills and a wide spectrum of experience in banking and in home ownership. For instance, one student had purchased a three-family house in Lynn a year ago. Several students had purchased and still own homes in their native countries. All but one student (a 60 year old grandmother) hoped to one day buy a home in the United States.

A SELECTION OF SUCCESSFUL HOMEBUYING LESSONS:

 Home in my Own Country; Guided Imagery, Writing, and Discussion.

In order to encourage students English-based thought processes, we started the class with guided imagery. I lowered the lights while students put their heads down and closed their eyes in order to visualize their childhood homes. Following the guided imagery exercise, I conducted a guided writing activity.

For the next class, students drew pictures or brought photographs of their houses in their own countries to share with other students in small groups. This activity was very successful and provided good practice in conversation.

 Find Someone Who.........Survey

The purpose of this activity was to get a feel for the students’ experiences and desires around home buying and finance. It was very enjoyable and gave all of us an idea of who the classes "experts" were on various topics. The format can be adapted to fit any topic. It also provides practice in asking yes-no questions (see ADDENDUM 4).

 Dramas, Dictations & Crossword Puzzles; Building Vocabulary and Spelling Skills

Since the terms "borrow" and "lend" were very difficult for students to comprehend, we developed guided classroom dramas to illustrate the different uses of the words.

 Also, each week I gave the students a list of 10 new vocabulary words to study for a sentence dictation the following week. We often played warm-up word games to strengthen vocabulary retention. One such favorite was a game we called Guess The Category. To play, one student leaves the room while the teacher writes a category on the board. An example might be "Banking Terms." The student returns and sits with his/her back facing the board. The other students in the class shout out phrases like checking account, customer service representative, canceled check, teller or ATM machine. The student in the chair must come up with the category.

 As we developed a larger homebuying vocabulary base to work with, I made crossword puzzles on the computer software crossword puzzle-maker, Wordcross. The use of crossword puzzles in the ESOL classroom is a very versatile and creative method of reinforcing vocabulary; students love it. And as in many other instances, they worked together in pairs to complete it. (Wordcross HI TECH of Santa Cruz 202 Pelton Avenue, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 408-425-5654 $44.95)

 Money & Banking

Independently of the homebuying project, a center-wide Student Health Action Health Team program on stress was being held at Operation Bootstrap. During the course of the health team's project, it became clear that many ESOL students experienced one of their highest levels of stress when having to negotiate banking situations.

 Since one of my own teaching goals was to help students navigate financial systems more easily, and because now it had been articulated as one of the most stressful experiences of ESOL students, I decided that for homework, I would send everyone to a bank for practice. I also asked students to collect printed information about different checking and savings accounts at that bank. Those who were feeling really brave were encouraged to discuss accounts with the customer service representative. In preparation for the task, we had an in-class discussion about anxiety and how to cope with it. Students were encouraged to go in pairs to support one another, though surprisingly none did.

 In fact, the homework activity was not terribly successful, though it did lead to a wonderful discussion about why most people hadn’t done the assignment and how the few that had successfully entered a bank had coped with the anxiety. One student got inside the bank and then left without getting anything. Another talked to the customer service representative and opened a checking account on the spot.

 We then printed up information from one bank’s brochure so that students could compare that bank’s offerings with those of their own banks. Several students proved to be very savvy consumers. Some had even discovered the no-cost banking offered by a very reputable local credit union. This led to sophisticated discussion about the differences between credit unions and banks. Currently, several students are in the process of changing their accounts as a result of the discussion.

 Our Dream Houses: Writing, Cutting, Pasting, and Guessing

Following the housing vocabulary activities, students wrote about their dream houses as a homework assignment. And for the following class, I brought in copies of a real estate magazine called Homes of New England that I had picked up at the local supermarket. Although the houses were located all over New England, only a few were affordable. However, the enticing color photos did provide a jumping off point for students to think about their dream houses.

 First we browsed through the magazines to find our individual dream houses. Students cut out their pictures and pasted them on lined paper for a homework project in which they were to describe the houses they had chosen and explain why they had chosen them. At the beginning of the next class I hung up the homework pictures and descriptions and asked students to match their classmates to their dream houses.

For a final product, we used pictures from the magazine to make our own picture dictionaries of various house styles--Victorians, Colonials, Town Houses, etc.

 Playing With the Real Estate Ads

During three lessons, we used a regular weekly real estate flyer. In the first lesson student teams were assigned a fictionalized individual or family with particular housing needs and charged with finding them a house that met their requirements and was in their price range.

 As a follow up, we translated real estate abbreviations and euphemisms such as, "needs a little TLC" and "handyman special." Students asked about the term "de-leaded" which led to a discussion about the hazards of lead paint. We discussed the reasons why one Lynn Realtor lists his Lynn properties as being, "near Salem," "near Peabody," or "close to the water, near Swampscott" rather than in Lynn bringing a critical awareness into the reading of housing advertisements.

 Getting a Mortgage

Using the flyers one last time, I asked each student to choose a house for himself/herself that was not necessarily a dream house, but a realistic option for the first house he/she might buy. Students pasted the pictures and information about these houses on worksheets. We then used calculators to figure out the cost of 5% and 3% down payments. A few students said they couldn’t afford a house now anyway, so they would go for a dream house. Others scaled down their choices after they calculated down payment costs.

 Using LOTUS 1-2-3 To Figure Monthly Mortgage Payments

A staff member brought in her Lotus 1-2-3 program so that students could figure out monthly mortgage payments for the houses they had chosen. We used a fixed 30 year mortgage program at a 7 1/4% interest rate. Using the Lotus software, students were also able to determine the total cost of the house over the 30 year period. Those who had time, figured payments and overall costs for a 20 year mortgage as well.

Every student loved this activity. The computer program worked like magic. Using it gave students a real feeling of power. For all students, this was an excellent opportunity to practice reading large numbers in English, and to learn a new computer skill.

 The Hard Reality of the "28% Rule"

We followed up the monthly mortgage payment calculation activity with a yet another financial literacy lesson. Using a local bank’s suggestion that one should not spend more than 28% of gross monthly income on mortgage payments, students figured out what their gross monthly income would have to be in order for them to make the mortgage payments on the houses they had chosen. This was a potent reality check for students who held out the hope of buying single family houses in the near future.

ESOL 3 (DULANY'S CLASS)

 Homebuying Unit Outline

As a starting point for our exploration, my classes used parts of the FannieMae Foundation's ESOL curriculum, How to Buy a Home in the United States. We started with a broad discussion about housing considerations, based loosely on Unit 2, Lesson 1 "Deciding What You Want." By the time we were ready to move on, the student work books had arrived and we were ready to work with all four lessons in Unit 1 and Unit 3, Lesson 1 "What You Should Know about Mortgage Loans."

 Though we were able to complete the above lessons we have not yet had a chance to finish the evaluative component of the curriculum. Before we finish the unit, I hope to conduct an in-class discussion and survey that assesses students' understanding of housing choices, banking and credit considerations, and the mortgage process.

CROSSCUTTING THEMES

 As previously mentioned, the staff at Operation Bootstrap chose to implement the standards of the Navigating Systems strand, and the students voted to study the homebuying curriculum as a way to fulfill that strand of the ESOL curriculum frameworks. After a few classes with the project, Nancy and I realized with horror what an immense project we had agreed to tackle. As we considered how much time it would take for the students to meet their goal of learning enough about homebuying to be of more than passing interest, we each questioned the wisdom of dedicating so much class time to a topic that was, for at least some of the students too dense, to intricate and perhaps, too premature. My response to this dilemma was to weave other standards from the ESOL frameworks into the homebuying curriculum unit. Parts of the two Language Strands of the Curriculum Frameworks, "Language Structure and Mechanics" and "Oral and Written Communications," were already touched on by activities that we used from the FannieMae curriculum, such as conversation with classmates, reading and writing activities, vocabulary building, and grammar review. I decided to incorporate several other areas of concentration as well: intercultural comparisons, technology, using others inside and outside of class as resources for learning, risk taking, and using authentic materials wherever possible. Below are some of the highlights of these crosscutting themes.

 Culture

Before the class dived into the topic of homebuying, I decided that the students and I should discuss the general content and intention of the overall curriculum framework. I briefly outlined the five strands, and then announced that the teachers had decided to teach a Navigating Systems unit. I drew a "mind map" with the words "Navigating Systems" in the center of the blackboard. We started with the word "navigating." Using it's cognate, students examined the idea behind the word. Was it the same as driving? Could a passenger navigate? Did a vehicle have to be involved? In the end, we decided that the core idea behind the word "navigating" was the ability to give directions for how to get somewhere. Next, we moved on to the word "systems." We compared various systems that were different here in the United States than in the students' countries of origin. The list was much broader than what I had imagined - everything from how to cope with snow, school closings, winter clothing, to the unfathomable ways of the Immigration and Naturalization Service. We decided that the homebuying curriculum touched on two of the systems: housing considerations and finances in America.

 After the students identified these two important systems within the larger one of homebuying, we agreed that the financial system touched everyone and was, therefore, useful even to those who had no interest in homebuying.

 More than half of the class had lived in either their parents' or their own homes before coming to the United States, and most hoped, someday, to own a home. But none had ever encountered a home buying system like ours. To begin with, buying a home for cash was the only homebuying system that they were familiar with, and consequently, they were very eager to understand the American banking/credit/mortgage process. Learning about housing issues per se was less of a concern to the students.

 Later, when we were well into the money and financing part of the unit, the students responded to a reading/writing assignment about the myth that all Americans are wealthy. The excerpt reminds students that they learn about America through media images. The question asks students to reflect about whether or not this country is in fact as wealthy as it is portrayed and whether the student feels like he or she is "richer or poorer in the United States" than he/she was in his/her country. The assignment was taken from a textbook entitled Face to Face: Communication, Culture, and Collaboration (Sanger, Virgina Vogel, Heinle & Heinle, 1993):

Their writings contained insightful reflections on what they had come to realize about the value of money in both the United States and in their own countries. Their paragraphs also revealed so much about the role that money does, or doesn't play, in each of their personal value system.

 As a class, we also looked at images of housing and wealth in the United States. This activity was inspired by the viewing of the movie El Norte and it prompted reflection and discussion about how American culture and its economy was portrayed in the mass media.

 Students cut out pictures of house interiors from magazines and answered the following question: What did you think houses in the United States were like before you actually came here? Students captioned the pictures with the generalizations that might be drawn from them. The following are examples of their summaries: "It looks like all the houses are beautiful and have a big garden." "It looks like all the kitchens are big and neat." "There are fresh breads and a big refrigerator."

 Technology

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.

 One student duo's spreadsheet looked like this:
 
 

NEIGHBORHOOD	ROOMS	OUTSIDE	FURNITURE	SYSTEMS	FINANCIAL
friendly	kitchen	yard	chair	heat	credit history
children	dining	hallway	table	gas	good job
love	bedroom	garage	bed	electric	down payment
dogs	living	pool	mirrors	oil	reference
cars	computer	playground	television	water	savings
hospitals	bathroom	flowers	sofa	plumbing	account
schools	library	trees	love seat	insulation	lawyer
shopping	area	garden	lamp	sink	interest
bank	mailbox		V.C.R.	shower	payments
video store		park	clocks	toilet	inspector
bus station		tennis	night table	air	insurance
post office		slide	fans	windows	taxes
		toy box	carpet	alarm
		toys	cabinets	telephone
		dresser	piano	fireplace
			microwave	chimney
			dishwasher	stove
			fridge
			tables
			shelves

 

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:
 

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.

Although we have not yet used the homebuying resources available on the World Wide Web, I'm hoping that we will have time enough to explore some of them. I've reviewed the following Web sites and believe they each provide a good jumping off point to beginning Internet users who are interested in learning more about homebuying:

http://www.fanniemae.com(Among other things the FannieMae site includes calculators and text explaining the homebuying process)

http://www.homepath.com/hsp1.html

http://www.freddiemac.com/homebuyers (This includes a great 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.)

Taking Risks & Using Others as Learning Resources

This approach to learning is one that Nancy and I returned to again and again during the course of the homebuying curriculum unit. It is based in the notion that as teachers, we are not the authorities on a given topic, but rather facilitators meant to help students learn how to engage in the process of formulating, researching, answering and then revising their questions.

The following two activities utilized students as resources. At the same time it asked students to take risks in either one of two roles, either by sharing their experiences and expertise or by having to ask questions of their peers. In preparing to teach the "Navigating Systems" unit, we had many questions about the topic and what it would mean to teach it. Because we had earlier shared our processes and methods of inquiry with the students, we modeled how we might begin to tackle a new problem. For most of us, talking to family and friends is a good starting point. So, before we began the first of the lessons that dealt with the complexity of financing a home, I wanted to validate the wealth of knowledge already gained by the students' experiences and to emphasize the value of sharing those experiences. I divided the class into small groups to discuss these three questions:

1. What do you already know about buying a house in the United States?

2. What questions do you have already?

3. Who do you already know that you could go to for more information?

Each group wrote their responses on a sheet of newsprint, which they posted on the classroom wall. As part of our final assessment, we will return to these posters to see how the students' questions and answers have changed, and hopefully, reflect new homebuying information that they have gained.

Another set of activities encouraged the students to talk with Americans. The students were given the assignment of going to a bank and asking for printed information on personal banking services and their fees. We role played possible scenarios in class, but even so, not all of the students followed through with the assignment.

Given how difficult it felt for students to practice their English conversation skills in a real bank, with real bankers, I asked students to ask friends and family who are homeowners about the pros and cons of home owning. Not all of the students did this either, but those who did brought back their findings and presented them to the class.

Throughout the whole homebuying unit, I encouraged students to converse with Americans by incorporating a standing feature to their homework assignments that I called 'mystery words'. Each homework assignment included a mysterious English word or phrase that students hadn't yet heard of. The students would then ask an American to define that word or phrase. Then the students would bring their now-defined words and phrases back to class. For one of these assignments I pointed to an electrical outlet on a wall and asked: "What do you call this?" They were to mimic me and come back with the answer. For rain gutters and downspouts, I drew a sketch of a rain gutter. For this assignment, students could either point to an actual gutter on a house or use my sketch. For the following assignment, I gave them the words: "fire hydrant" and asked them to find out what it meant. One of the most successful mystery word assignments was when I showed the students a photograph of a house under construction and pointed to some exposed studs. They were then asked to describe studs to an American and come back with its correct name. These mystery word assignments were very popular, and the students never let me conclude a class without sharing the results of their findings and making sure that we all truly understood the new word.

Using Authentic Materials

Because I wanted this unit to be as realistic an exposure to what students would experience outside of class, I used a variety of "real materials."

During one class, after collecting credit card applications from various banks and from my own collection of junk mail, the students worked in small groups to compare the applications. I wanted them to understand the questions that a potential credit card holder was being asked to provide, and I wanted them to critically analyze why the creditor might want this information. The students responses were sharp and on the mark. For instance, one student knew that by sharing a social security number with the creditor, they could have access to the applicant's credit history. Another student noted that the company would want to know where to send the bill, and that was the simple reason for asking for your address.

 Later, the students and I collected bank brochures describing the personal banking services offered by different banks and we compared the costs of checking and savings accounts. Many of the students were surprised to see that bank fees varied, not only from bank to bank, but also from one checking account to another within the same bank. We talked about the factors to consider in choosing which account is best suited to one's personal financial habits.

During the next lesson, the students used a copy of the Suburban Real Estate News to familiarize themselves with listed house prices and the kinds of down payments that a given selling price would require. And for one of our final lessons, we viewed a videotape of the Lynn real estate cable channel. The students watched the video clip listening for selling features of the houses. They rewound the tape and listened, repeatedly to catch words and phrases. They helped each other interpret "real estate-ese" into English and they analyzed misleading and coded advertising.

 One of the most significant lessons was the eye-opening "28% rule" that Nancy's class also confronted during these lessons. As students looked over two pamphlets from the lobby of a local bank about the mortgage process and mortgage financing options, we were all struck by the bank's assertion that one's mortgage payment should not exceed 28% of one's gross annual income. We hypothesized what that would mean for a person working full time at $10/hour. We calculated the maximum mortgage payment allowable under the "28% rule," and having already completed the amortization table exercise in which the class looked up the monthly payments at current interest rates for houses on the market locally, students' "dream houses" seemed even more like dreams. We were grounded in the reality of the limits of the affordable housing market. This was an important step in learning about the value of one's money and the cost of homebuying.
 

COMBINED CLASS HOMEBUYING READINESS ACTIVITIES

Panel of Student Homebuying Experts

In our efforts to employ the expertise of our students, we set up a panel of home owning students to answer their classmates’ questions about home buying. A former student who had bought a 3 family house, a level two student who had bought a 3 family house, and a level three student who had bought a condominium made up our panel.

Prior to the panel, students generated questions on three topics on large pieces of newsprint: 1) Deciding what kind of house to buy and finding the house 2)Financing the house from mortgage to closing costs 3) The problems, pleasures and surprises of home ownership.

Our distinguished panel sat behind a table with a little bouquet of flowers and glasses of water. The students were on the edges of their chairs vying with each other to get their questions answered. It quickly became clear that we had not left enough time. The financial questions were left for our planned session at a bank with a mortgage lender. The panel was reconvened at our next class meeting.

Over and over again, our panelists were realistic and articulate in their responses to their classmates questions. "Why did you decide to buy a house?" brought interesting answers.

A 56 year old Azerbaijani woman and her husband had bought an inexpensive one bedroom condominium because they wanted something they could own outright by the time they reached retirement age. They also wanted something that would require little maintenance on their part.

A young Dominican family had bought a three-family house requiring no rehabilitation as a business venture. They wanted to be able to live in the house rent-free and build up equity so that they would have something saved up should they choose to return to their own country and buy a house there.

A 40 year old Guatemalan woman had bought a three- family house so that she and her husband could build up equity. She hoped to one day sell the three-family house and purchase a single family home.

The panelists also shared their experiences with real estate agents and their methods of financing their homes. All had used real estate agents. One Spanish speaker had started with a Spanish speaking Realtor but switched to an English speaker who she found to be more helpful. The two people who had purchased three-family houses financed them through a mortgage company suggested by the Realtor.

The Azerbaijani couple had borrowed money from friends so they had no mortgage. Later we learned that many people from the former Soviet Union choose not to use banks and are willing to lend money to friends for such purposes.

When asked to share their experiences as homeowners, the panelists were very frank about the necessity of being prepared for unexpected expenses. The funniest surprise of home ownership was the condo owner’s horrified discovery that the man downstairs snored so loudly that her husband could not sleep in their bed, but camped out on the living room sofa. The good news was that the day before our panel discussion the snorer had moved out!

The panel provided excellent preparation for our next joint lesson, a trip to a local bank to learn more about the mortgage process in general and special programs for the first time homebuyer.

Visiting a Bank

Locally owned Eastern Bank was most accommodating in arranging for their mortgage originator to hold a special program for us at the bank during our evening class time. Prior to the visit, we sent him a copy of the student generated questions about financing a house, further topics that I hoped he would cover, and some guidelines for presenting to ESOL students.

When we arrived in the empty bank and saw chairs set up and a lovely spread of soft drinks, coffee and bakery cookies, one of the students said," We are special!"

Both the mortgage officer and the branch manager were present. During an initial presentation and later during the question and answer period, the mortgage lender told the students about special federal and state programs for first time home buyers. The mortgage officer and branch manager fielded student questions for an hour and a half. Our students' questions covered a broad range: "What documents do you need to buy a house?", "Can someone without a Social Security number open a bank account?", and "How much will you lend a person for a house?". When a student asked, "If I pay bills late, but I always pay, is it O.K., or is a problem?", the students were all a little taken aback when the mortgage officer said very clearly, "Not paying your bills on time is one of the BIGGEST problems of all! If you can’t pay the electric bill on time, how will you pay the mortgage on time?"

In fact, much of the information that had been presented in the homebuying curriculum surfaced again, as well as information about specific loan packages geared for low income and first time homebuyers. Everyone felt good about having been taken seriously by the bank officer, and we were thrilled by the students' level of engagement as they formed their questions and followed the speaker's answers.

In particular, the mortgage officer emphasized the importance of good credit, the importance of good record keeping, and the importance of a stable job history. For instance, when another student asked, "Is it better to go to the bank first or the real estate agent first?", the mortgage officer gave several good arguments for going to a bank first so as to better understand one's financial situation before beginning the process of house hunting. In short, the mortgage officer told the students that a free pre-qualifying discussion at a bank can help a potential buyer know if he/she has credit problems, how much he/she can reasonably expect to borrow, and the types of mortgage options available. When one is ready to seriously begin looking for a house, a pre-approved mortgage gives the buyer a strong bargaining chip. Also, the mortgage officer shared cautionary tales; the big real estate companies often own mortgage companies and will steer buyers directly to those companies rather than to banks. For first time homebuyers, this can mean losing out on government funded programs that offer lower and more stable interest rates.

At the end of the presentation, the mortgage lender distributed packets about the mortgage process that he had created especially for our students. The packets were written in large print and relatively simple language. Our students also received his and the branch manager’s business cards, and the homebuying guide of Massachusetts Housing Finance Agency (MHFA). The bank manager told us that she could offer seminars on many banking topics including establishing credit, and that such seminars could always be held at the bank.

The evening seemed to be a great success. During an hour and half of listening to unfamiliar speakers answer questions, everyone was alert and appeared interested. The mortgage officer and the bank manager did everything possible to make the students feel comfortable and competent. They reassured students that their English was fine, but that if they needed translating services, the bank could provide such help in any language.

REFLECTIONS

Nancy

Now that I have finished the unit, how do I feel about it? Was it worth four months of concentration in my ESOL class? Was it of enough interest and importance to my students? Did we make any headway in the area of Navigating Systems, let alone navigating the complex system of homebuying and home ownership? What got shortchanged as a result of this concentration? Would I do it again?

I often use thematic, content based units in my classes, but never with so much new and sophisticated content nor do I usually teach the unit over such an extended period of time. If we truly learn vocabulary through contextual presentation and repeated use, the unit provided an excellent vehicle for vocabulary building. The classes included so much information that we were able to build vocabulary in many areas: housing and real estate, job history, general banking and credit, and home mortgages. Doing the math involved in figuring down payments and mortgages gave us an opportunity to work with reading big numbers in English. Overall, there were many chances to learn new words and new concepts and to practice using what was presented. The navigating the homebuying system's unit provided opportunities for reading comprehension using real life materials, informal discussions, dramas, writing, and listening.

Another positive feature of the homebuying curriculum was the availability of materials and workbooks. The students truly appreciated having their own textbooks to make reference to and to work in. Rarely did anyone forget to bring the book to class. Finally, the unit encouraged our students to experiment with more sophisticated computer software, one with real life application. Using the Lotus program was a real treat for them. For many it was probably their favorite activity.

Did we achieve our purpose in giving our students the tools for the real life experience of navigating the banking-mortgage system? We certainly built a reasonable vocabulary and conceptual framework. Our class discussion about comparison shopping for a bank, our panel discussion, and our mortgage seminar at the bank all helped to demystify the banking-mortgage process. Our students have a much clearer idea of how ready or unready they are for homebuying and what steps they need to take before they can actually buy a house. All of them now have personal acquaintance with people who can help them through the process: classmates who have gone before them and friendly and accessible people at a local bank. We came away realizing that homebuying is a process that requires navigating a lot of systems. We scratched the surface.

What got left out? I didn’t plan well enough for the integration of grammar into the curriculum. The grammar in the text was sometimes useful, but seemed disjointed and was not always appropriate to the students' learning level. Next time through I will work beforehand at developing appropriate grammar threads for each unit.

Would I teach the course again? Probably, but not as one continuous course. In the future I might spread several units out over the year: the banking process, establishing good credit, job histories, and homebuying.

Overall I am very happy that my class participated in the project. I feel that my students truly are much better able to navigate the banking/homebuying systems. My guess is that, through them, a lot of important information about banking and homebuying will filter into the broader immigrant community as well.

Dulany

It's true that the homebuying unit took a lot of class time. One of my classes involved in the unit spent most of the semester's last three months on the topic of homebuying. In many ways, as teachers, we were not prepared for the amount of time that the unit would need. Perhaps this was a chance to really consider our students' needs and interests, even above and beyond our individual curriculum priorities. We had to constantly remind ourselves that the students were engaged and learning, even if we were ready to move on to something new.

In the final analysis, even the students who are still far away from buying a home have learned a tremendous amount of pertinent financial information. Of equal importance is that the learning of this kind of information has boosted students' skills of navigating a multi-faceted, American financial and social system.

For me, the most significant lesson learned from our Navigating the Homebuying System is how difficult it is to implement a content-based curriculum that succeeds in using students' emerging language skills to learn new information. This level of teaching English is much more challenging then using students' emerging language skills to discuss already familiar topics such as family relationships or shopping. In other words, when I taught this unit on homebuying I cared about how my students retained and applied information that they learned from one class to the next. Teaching the unit on homebuying, in the context of navigating systems, has really extended me as a teacher.

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