All resources in Adult Education Open Community of Resources

Media Literacy Challenge: Writing Your Own Argument

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This lesson will challenge learners to critically read and evaluate news articles presenting different positions on a single issue that the learner takes interest in. The learner will then be challenged to formulate their own opinion by refining their own argument on the issue. The target audience of learners for this lesson constitute the Career and College Readiness Standards Grade Level E (9-12) in their reading and writing abilities. Learners will hone practical skills by engaging in this lesson, such as how to critically engage with news and media, being able to succinctly summarize larger pieces of information, and using information to write a structured argument based on their own opinions. These skills will have practical applications for everyday life, reading and writing the GED, and when applying for jobs that require information processing.

Material Type: Homework/Assignment, Reading

Author: Christopher Klune

The CUNY High School Equivalency Curriculum Framework

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The CUNY HSE Curriculum Framework provides direction, structure and materials for teaching math, science and social studies (integrated with reading and writing) in the new era of HSE instruction. The complete framework is available for free download. The framework was written by the CUNY Adult Literacy PD Team to respond to the challenges facing high school equivalency (HSE) teachers and their students. It is a guide for planning your instruction – including topic recommendations, model lessons, guiding questions, readings, and problems. The framework prioritizes depth over breadth. It does not address all of the content that might potentially be included on an HSE exam, but instead models a focused and coherent study of high priority topics within each content area. As teachers in adult literacy and HSE education, our work has always been demanding. Now that our students face a new and more challenging HSE test, the demands on teachers are even greater. Teaching students to read, write and do math at the HSE level is no longer enough. Students need specific, deep and coherent content knowledge, as well as the capacity to apply this content knowledge to analysis and problem solving. As the demands on our students and teachers are increasing, it is important that we don’t lose sight of one of our greatest strengths — our practice of starting from where students are and our serious respect for their learning processes. As a student of ours once said, “You can’t make a plant grow by pulling on it, you only make it rootless.” The Social Studies section integrates reading and writing through a focus on U.S. history, with extensions to civics, economics and geography. This section has a curriculum map, 12 unit descriptions, six model lesson plans and additional resources. The Science section provides an introduction to matter and basic chemistry with extensions to science/math connections. This section includes a curriculum map with 23 topic descriptions and key questions, and three complete inquiry-based model lesson plans. The Math section focuses on problem-solving in functions and algebra. It integrates problem-solving strategies, productive struggle, perseverance and mathematical discussion into content learning. This section includes a curriculum map, model lessons, rich engaging math problems, samples of student work, powerful routines for math classrooms, classroom videos, and more.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Assessment, Lesson Plan, Primary Source, Reading, Teaching/Learning Strategy

Authors: Eric Appleton, Kate Brandt, Mark Trushkowsky, Rebecca Leece, Tyler Holzer

Benjamin Franklin and the U.S. Constitution - Beginning Level

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This lesson on Benjamin Franklin and the U.S. Constitution covers Civics Test items from two sections: Principles of American Democracy and Colonial Period and Independence. It briefly introduces the branches of government, a topic which will be covered in more detail in separate lessons. We would recommend teaching the lessons on George Washington and Thomas Jefferson before introducing this lesson. The readings and pictures should help students understand the new concepts. As with previous lessons, the goal for the students is to comprehend and answer the Civics Test items correctly. Coveris civics test items 1, 2, 3, 12, 13, 14, 65, 66, 67, and 68.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Bill of Rights and Other Amendments - Beginning Level

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This lesson explains the concept of amendments and the background of the Bill of Rights in relation to the Constitution. We recommend teaching the lesson on Benjamin Franklin and the U.S. Constitution prior to this one. This lesson covers details about the First Amendment and voting rights. Covers civics test items 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 48, 50, 51, 54, and 66.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Big Grammar Book

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** This book has been donated to the public domain.** From the introduction: Hello there . . . ! Welcome to English Banana.com’s Big Grammar Book. It’s the third fantastic book from English Banana and the aim this time is to practise grammar, grammar and, er, more grammar! It’s jam-packed from cover to cover with a great selection of photocopiable worksheets taken from the popular English Banana.com website. We wanted to provide teachers with a really useful book of no-nonsense grammar worksheets that they can dip into and use in class with students at Entry Level (ESOL Core Curriculum Entry Levels 1 & 2). It is also ideal for students to work with at home since the answers are all printed at the back. The book is divided into four parts and is graded in difficulty, so that it begins with some basic stuff and builds up to more challenging grammar activities. It features a selection of Essential English worksheets which provide practice for crucial basic areas of knowledge for learners at Entry Level, like using numbers, writing the alphabet, spelling days and months correctly, and so on.

Material Type: Textbook

Author: Matt Purland

Verbs at Work

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This is a PowerPoint of common verbs used in the workplace and at home. It can be used for beginning level English language learners. Part 1 uses clip art of 16 verbs and part 2 uses Brendan Tuttle’s artistic illustrations of 28 verbs. The additional PowerPoint is a handout for students to write the verb under the picture and there is also a list of suggested activities for the teacher.

Material Type: Diagram/Illustration

Author: Angy Folkes

Compare and Contrast: Learning through Pictures, Graphs, and Charts

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This presentation is a stAIR Design. It is like an interactive PowerPoint Presentation that reviews the language and concepts of comparison and contrast in order to help students understand those vocabulary words. The presentation was helpful for beginning and intermediate ESOL students and includes keyword Vocabulary: (and), (both..and),(not only...but also), and (but). Part 2 is more advanced and contains keyword vocabulary: (equally), (just like), (similar), (the same as), (although), (different), (unlike), (whereas), and (while).

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive

Author: Mary Ewald

Fahrenheit to Celcius Conversions for the Adult ESL Learner

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Adult ESL learners may not know the American measurement system. The United States is one of only five countries still using Fahrenheit to measure temperatures (see list below). Simplifying the conversion can help our learners make sense of local temperatures. The method below is “a reasonable approximation”, not an exact calculation.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Interactive, Lesson Plan

Author: Orly Penny

Steps to Solving Equations

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This lesson unit is intended to help teachers assess how well students are able to: form and solve linear equations involving factorizing and using the distributive law. In particular, this unit aims to help teachers identify and assist students who have difficulties in: using variables to represent quantities in a real-world or mathematical problem and solving word problems leading to equations of the form px + q = r and p(x + q) = r.

Material Type: Assessment, Lesson Plan

Identifying Text Structure

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This is a lesson plan, student worksheet, and teacher answer key to introduce identifying text structures and using appropriate graphic organizers (GO) for each text structure. There is an introduction with a video lecture from which students can get basic information and examples on 6 text structures. There is a link to more guided and independent work in this area. The author used this lesson in a pre-GED Adult Basic Education class with non-native English speakers who read at a 5.0 - 8.0 GLE.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: Heather Turngren

Reading and Analyzing Text in the Context of a Societal Issue: Privacy

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This lesson is designed for students in adult basic education grade level E (low and high adult secondary education). The purpose of this lesson is to develop student proficiency in reading and analyzing text. The lesson topic is the issue of an individual’s right to privacy as balanced with the government’s responsibility for security of its citizens.

Material Type: Lesson

Author: Cheryl Clark

Remix

The Argu

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The learner-audience for this lesson are adults preparing for the GED, specifically the English/Language Arts assessment. The lesson demonstrates how the successful writing of the “thesis-statement” is essential for writing an effective persuasive essay. The lesson will help prepare learners to write an effective thesis statement which their essay responds to. The lesson shows how a successful thesis statement guides the direction of the rest of the essay and that without an effective thesis statement most essays are difficult to write and to comprehend for the reader. The lesson encourages learners to practice writing thesis statements and to write thesis statements that draw from their own experiences.

Material Type: Lesson Plan

Author: newton buliva

Analyzing Community Issues through the Flint, MI Water Contamination Crisis (REVISED)

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These 3 lessons are for high ABE/low ASE students at a level D-E Reading level to practice identifying key points in video and text and analyzing the causes and effects of social issues, and identifying solutions to these problems. By watching two short videos and reading EPA materials on the effects of lead exposure and a short article on the specific drinking water crisis in Flint, MI, students will examine key issues, analyze the problem and its causes, identify approaches to solving this problem and ones like it in other locations, and apply this approach to other scenarios that are relevant to their immediate lives.

Material Type: Case Study, Reading

Author: Ruth Sugar

Bay College - MATH085 Pre-Algebra

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A series of 63 instructional videos from MATH085 - Pre-Algebra created by Jim Helmer for Bay College. © 2017 Bay College and Content Creators. Except where otherwise noted this work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Material Type: Lecture

Law and Algebra: SVU (Special Visual Unit)

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For too long, algebra has been viewed in adult education as the second most daunting math (second only to fractions), and now it is time to make algebra as approachable as adding. This resource will help you to discover some new approaches to teaching algebra as patterns, rules, equations, and lines on a graph while utilizing research-based tools, techniques, and resources learned from the Adult Numeracy Instruction – Professional Development (ANI-PD). Hands-on practice and ready-to-use resources are provided.

Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Homework/Assignment, Teaching/Learning Strategy, Unit of Study

Author: Heidi Schuler-Jones