Project-Based Learning
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Family Literacy & Project-Based Learning
Go Hand in Hand
by Audrey Abed,
Southwest Texas State University
The following are activities that developed out
of the learning process at the Kyle Family Learning and Career Center. The center
is a collaboration of several agencies, which offers a comprehensive program
of adult education and career services to the Kyle community. These agencies
include Community Action of Hays, Caldwell and Blanco Counties; Head Start,
Early Head Start and Even Start Programs; Hays Consolidated ISD; Lockheed Martin
IMS; Ten County ACE Co-op; Rural Capital Area Workforce Development Board; and
the Texas Workforce Commission. These partnerships work to support not only
the students, but also the families of the students as well. As a result, family
literacy is an important function of the collaboration of providers.
We discovered at the center that projects, which
grow out of the needs and desires of students as opposed to those that are fully
initiated by instructors, are the most successful in retaining interest and
facilitating the learning process. The activities that are described below all
have this one thing in common. These are not projects that were planned by the
instructor, but rather began with theme-based instruction, such as eating out,
family, and friendship. For example, the first project, Restaurante Mi Familia,
was the culmination of a month long theme of food and eating out.
When I asked my class how many had the experience
of eating out, not one person had been out to eat. They showed a real interest
for understanding the whole culture of eating out and pricing on a menu. As
a class, we went out to eat to practice ordering from a menu and to observe
the environment of a restaurant. We began to role-play and develop our own restaurant
and menu. The awards ceremony for our center was on the horizon and when I asked
them what we should do to show what we had learned in class, the idea of a skit
about eating out came naturally.
Students chose characters and a plot and began
writing the skit. They practiced everyday and it wasn't until the last day that
they decided to end the skit on a humorous note with the waitress and the customers
outsmarting the obnoxious owner of the restaurant.
The skit was then performed in front of the community,
including other adult learners, the students' children and spouses, and other
stakeholders. These adult students got up in front of a room of people and performed
in their newly acquired language. Now that's success. Not only were they able
to demonstrate their English language proficiency, but also their children,
probably for the first time, watched as their parent or grandparent used their
new language publicly and made that room full of people laugh.
These activities were developed for adult learners,
but we hope it had an impact on these learners' children and the community as
a whole. Literacy is powerful when it is shared.
ESL Skit - Restaurante "Mi Familia"
Level of adult learners
- This activity was developed for a multilevel
ESL group of adult learners; however, ABE and GED students also joined the
group.
Learning activity objectives
- Adult ESL students will be able to communicate
with others in English in a restaurant setting (e.g., to review a menu, order
food, discuss poor service at a restaurant, negotiate with wait staff).
- Adults will learn to write a skit and perform
in front of an audience.
Materials/Resources
- Oxford Picture Dictionary, paper, pen, word
processing program, materials for props (manila folder, paper, markers for
menus), various clothes and aprons for wait people and cook.
Description of the activity
- Adult ESL and ABE learners developed a skit
by first describing a plot and choosing characters. Students chose the character
they would perform and then they all sat down and wrote what they would each
say. One person acted as note taker and then another student recorded the
notes on a computer.
- After the skit was written, the students practiced
their lines and fine-tuned the dialogue. Students who did not have an acting
role were given roles such as narrator, noise maker, prop maker, etc. Students
performed this skit for ABE/GED students as a dress rehearsal and then in
front of their children and other community members at the KFLCC Recognition
Dinner.
Adult learner outcomes
- Adults learned the English language necessary
to develop a skit.
- Adults learned to write a skit, which included
a plot, characters, dialogue, and props.
- Adults had increased self-esteem about their
ability to speak and act in English in front of a group of peers and their
children.
Child learner outcomes
- Children had an increased level of self-esteem
as they witnessed their parents perform in English in front of a large group
of community members.
Valentine Card Fundraiser
Level of adult learners
- This activity was developed for a mixed-level
group of adult learners including ESL, ABE and GED.
Learning activity objectives
- Adult students will be able to design and create
their own Valentine card.
- Adult learners will be able to market the cards
to the community and plan how the money will be spent.
- Children will be able to fill in the cards to
give to classmates.
Materials/Resources
- Paper, pens, pencils, markers, vocabulary words
in English for ESL students, computer word processing program, copy machine,
pink paper, and ribbon.
Description of the activity
- Adult learners created Valentine's Cards to
be sold to the community as a fundraiser as well as for their children to
give out to classmates. The money raised was used for a field trip to the
San Antonio Zoo.
- ESL students learned vocabulary in English regarding
Valentine's Day. ABE/GED students learned to develop their creativity to make
a card. Students utilized a computer word processing program to make their
card. Each student designed one card and made copies of their card on pink
paper. A packet of 25 cards was made into a bundle, tied together with ribbon,
and sold for $2.00.
- Adult learners marketed these cards to the community
by making a flyer and posting it in the community as well as by telling neighbors
and friends about the cards. Students worked with KFLCC and Even Start staff
to organize the field trip to the zoo. Adults helped their children to fill
out cards for their classmates.
Adult learner outcomes
- Adults learned literacy skills, English language,
how to design a card, word processing program, marketing skills, how to plan
and organize a field trip, how to teach their children literacy skills.
Child learner outcomes
- Children learned about literacy skills while
learning how to send a card to a friend.
- Valentine's cards reinforced activities in child
care, such as the color pink, heart shape, friends.
Family Albums
Level of adult learners
- This activity was developed for a mixed-level
group of adult learners including ESL, ABE and GED.
Learning activity objectives
- Adults and children will have increased self-esteem
as they share their stories about their families with others.
- Adult ESL students will use English vocabulary
regarding the family and emotions.
- Adult ABE/GED students will be able to write
about their family.
- Students will use a word processing program
to write albums.
- Children will learn about their families and
observe their parents in a literacy activity.
Materials/Resources
- Family pictures, copy machine, paper, word processing
program, wrapping paper or other decorative paper, cardboard, scissors, markers,
glue, glitter, yarn, and ribbon.
Description of the activity
- This activity grew out of ESL units on emotions
and family. Adults brought in pictures of their families and then wrote about
the pictures. The copies of the pictures and their descriptions were put together
into an album which adult students made out of cardboard and wrapping paper.
- On November 1, 1995, National Family Literacy
Day, the adult learners and their children gathered at the public library.
The adults read their albums aloud to the whole group and then presented their
books to their children. The family albums were exhibited at the Southwest
Writers Special Collection at Southwest Texas State University in conjunction
with a photo exhibit of Head Start families.
Adult learner outcomes
- Adults had an increased level of self-esteem
through presenting their life stories to the other families and their children
and as a result of the albums being exhibited at the university.
- Adults learned to value literacy as a means
to record their family history and pass it on to their children.
- Adult ESL students learned to describe their
families utilizing English vocabulary about emotions and family.
- Adult ABE/GED students learned to write about
their family and life experiences.
- Adults learned to use a word processing program.
Child learner outcomes
- Children had an increased level of self-esteem
as they witnessed their parents present their family albums to the rest of
the group.
- Children learned to value literacy as they see
their parents make their own books and they read the family albums with their
parents.
- Children learned about their relatives.
About the Author
Audrey Abed is Coordinator of the Adult Education
Credential Project, a special project funded by the Texas Education Agency and
housed at Southwest Texas State University's Center for Initiatives in Education.
She was formerly the Adult Education Coordinator at the Kyle Family Learning
and Career Center where these lessons plans were used in her classes. Currently,
she is also a field specialist for the ESL Professional Development Project
at Texas A & M Kingsville. Audrey has worked with adults in the fields of
adult education and family literacy since 1990. Her son, Gibreel, now 17 months
old, brings her much joy. e-mail Audrey at aa09@swt.edu
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