Lesson Planning for Adult ESOL Learners

Orange Campus Community Collaborative Training

January 2007

Why lesson plan?

Provides a clear goal and a focus for the meeting.

Guides the tutor and the learner – minimizing “surprises” can make a learner more comfortable.

Allows the tutor and the learner to assess progress (strengths and weaknesses).

Legitimizes the role of the tutor: you come prepared to help your learner.

Offers opportunity for

guided practice of independent

skill goals.

Begins with a review and ends

with a summary.

Relates to the learner’s interests and

builds on the learner’s

strengths.Organizes

the information,

materials and goals.

Varies the content.

Integrates listening, reading,

writing, and speaking.

Builds on existing

knowledge and skills.

Starts with the familiar.

Articulates learning

goals.

Effective Lesson Planning

Adapted from resources prepared for the UNC America Reads! program and developed by Priscilla Wood.

Adult Learners:

Are different from children in experience and lifestyle: Use materials appropriate for adults. Target themes, language and vocabulary for an adult audience.

Have valuable life experiences: Let the learning environment tap into their creativity. Create lessons that respect and capitalize on their experiences.

Desire to be successful: Use success as a motivator. Use materials that prepare adults for success (ie: job

applications, GED test samples, writing resumes).

Are busy people: Lessons and materials should be meaningful. Be efficient. Be direct and expect your learner to do the same.

Can have specific learning goals or may need suggestions and help with goal setting. Help set short and long term goals. Use short term goal accomplishment to help adults stay

motivated.

Can learn differently because of age and experiences: Take into account issues of health (i.e: eyesight) that can

influence how quickly a learner succeeds. Adapted from resources prepared for the UNC America Reads! program and developed by Priscilla Wood.

Goal Setting (Assessment)

Goal setting can be an informal assessment mechanism to use with your learner. The ability of a student to identify and articulate goals in English can indicate what level of literacy the learner has already achieved.

Goal setting can be achieved through dialogue or by asking the learner to complete a simple form.

Information on this and the next three slides is adapted from Teaching Adults: An ESL Resource Book published by ProLiteracy America.

Needs and Skills Assessment

NEEDS Assessment focuses on the learner - background, interests, goals, immediate needs – to help you determine what skills the learner needs (and what materials to use).

Sample Needs Assessment Inventory:Name

HomelandHow long in the United States

FamilyJobs - in the United States and experience and work history in homeland

EducationPersonal Interests

GoalsReasons for learning English

SKILLS Assessment focuses on the level of literacy.

Skills Assessment

Inventory

Comprehension Reading

Speaking Writing

Understands you.Understands

simple directions.

Asks/ gestures for information

to be repeated.

Speech is intelligible and fluent.

Pronunciation &intonation

mimic American English.

Speech is grammatically

accurate.

Reads his or her name.

Reads/ understands

simple signs.

Holds a pen or pencil properly.

Writes his or her name with the

Roman alphabet.

Fills in blank forms.

Skills assessment should occur 3 times: when a learner begins a

program, during the program to check progress, and as the learner leaves

the program.

Creating a Lesson: Understanding the Process

Step 1: Ask WHO?

- Use information from the learner profile created during the needs assessment to develop individual learning objectives for the lesson (or the thematic unit).

Step 2: Ask WHAT?

- Identify the vocabulary and skills needed to meet the learning objectives.

Step 3: Ask HOW?

- Select materials and activities that will best demonstrate vocabulary and skills.

A Sample ClassStudents

Rosa – 23, Guatemalan, 2 years in the US, cleans rooms at a hotel, wants to teach kindergarten, married, no children. Rosa speaks enough English to be understood by coworkers and can read schedules and work materials. She likes to play soccer.

Lee Song - 45, Chinese, 5 months in the US, has an engineering degree, works as a assemblyman, married, 2 children (12 and 8). He studied English in China and can read & write English but has difficulty with pronunciation and cannot be understood.

Marta - 66, Mexican, 10 years in the US, lives with her son and grandchildren (8,6, 2), wants to be able to help with their homework. Marta works part-time at a florist’s shop. She is understood in English but cannot read or write well.

Pablo – 30, Brazil, two months in the US, no job, wants to help his family in Sao Paulo and prepare for them to join him in the US, he speaks little English and has difficult writing in Spanish and Portuguese. Pablo enjoys listening to samba music.

Materials in the Library“Summer League Needs Coaches: Youth Soccer and Baseball” – a local news article

Collaborations workbook – Literacy Level (level 1 in the series) Classified ads – “Help Wanted”

Oh, The Places You’ll Go by Dr. Suess “China Banks Open to Foreign Competition” – an AP news article

Sample questions from a TOEFL exam “Space Shuttle to Dock with Space Station” – an AP news article

How to Do Homework Without Throwing Up by T. Romain & E. Verdick – a homework helper for kids and parents

The Story of Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan Macy by Joseph P. Lash Music in Brazil by Jonathan Murphy

information and testing schedule from the NC Board of Examiners for Engineers and Surveyors

Chicken Soup for the Soul, to Grandma with Love by J. Canfield & M. Hansen

Who What HowRosa

Short Term Goal: improve level of literacy

Long Term Goal: enroll in teacher education program

“Summer League Needs Coaches;” Sample TOEFL questions;The Story of Helen Keller and Ann Sullivan Macy

Read article, compare soccer vocab, get more info, apply for job.Sample questions assess her literacy level. Will help focus time and support college goal.The Story -thematic unit - to reading, speaking and writing skills. Analysis, talk about role of teachers, arrange classroom visits.

Lee SongShort Term Goal: improve pronunciation

Long Term Goal: become a licensed engineer in NC

“China Banks Open to Foreign Competition” or “Space Shuttle to Dock with Space Station”Oh the Places You’ll GoInformation from the NC Board of Examiners

Read article – exercise to work on free conversation and speaking with a topic that is familiar.Oh the Places uses many rhymes and tongue twisters. Lee Song can practice sounds that are difficult with the goal of reading the story to his children.Information will help Lee prepare for the licensing exam – topics, sample questions, etc. – which will improve his job potential.

Who What HowMarta

Short Term Goal: better communication with grandchildren

Long Term Goal: better reading and writing skills

Oh the Places You’ll Go How to Do HomeworkChicken Soup for the Soul

Oh the Places - a simple reading activity to help boost skills. Goal: read to the kids.Homework can be used to help Marta think of activities to use with her grandchildren. Trying them develop speaking skills.Chicken Soup can be used to develop LEA writing activities where Marta shares stories about her life and grandkids.

PabloShort Term Goal: employment

Long Term Goal: English language literacy

CollaborationsClassified Ads Music in Brazil

Use the workbook to guide vocab and basic expressions. Use the unit on jobs.Use classified ads to practice job vocab and to select jobs Pablo is qualified for. Work on the application process.Music in Brazil – chapter on samba or CD of samba music can develop an LEA activity for writing and reading. It is a topic Pablo enjoys and may feel more comfortable expressing himself about.

The preceding exercise was adapted from the Verizon Literacy Network online courses, Working with English Language Learners and Working with Adult Learners.

Step 4: Write the Lesson

Remember that good lesson plans have a variety of activities.

Keep in mind: Total Physical Response (TPR) is an activity that does not

require a low level student to speak. He or she simply watches, listens, and mimics.

Graphic organizers, media, and music can help illustrate vocabulary and concepts. Seeing something can be as important as learning to recognize the word.

Activities can build on each other and on previously mastered skills. This is strengths based lesson planning.

Adult instruction should build on the four basic areas: comprehension, fluency, vocabulary, and phonemic awareness/word analysis.

Information on this slide is adapted from Teaching Adults: An ESL Resource Book published by ProLiteracy America.

Practice!

Group 1: Olin

Group 2: Amaliya

Group 3: Sachiko

Group 4: Benito

Sample: Learner Profile and Lesson PlanMarisela

• Age: 34• Homeland: Tlaxcala, Mexico• How long in the United States: 10 years• Family: 2 sons, ages 11 & 14; family in Mexico• Job in the United States: Housekeeping for local hospital (6 years)• Work experience in homeland: housekeeper, factory work, house

wife• Education: completed secundaria para trabajadores (education for

working students) and finished her formal education• Personal Interests: music of Carlos Santana, fan of Universidad

Nacional Pumas (fútbol), loves to cook (especially • Goal (short term): to be able to speak with her sons’ teachers and to

be able to speak more English at work• Goal (long term): to enter a nursing education program and become a

nurse at the hospital• Reasons for learning English: to better communicate with family and

community; for job advancement• English skills: verbal communication more advanced than reading and

writing. Has developed the English vocabulary to work and to survive in society.