Curriculum Part 3

        I had a few ideas for changing the class description.  It is always a great idea to review and revise anything you are working on for a class.  I definitely need to add some kind of sentence or two covering the types of class materials; texts, readings, Youtube, etc.  I haven't quite worked out what yet, but expect a change in the statement next time I write.

        Okay, we are at one of the more difficult parts of building a curriculum; determining objectives and deciding on how to assess them.  I won't talk too much on formatting your objectives.  SWBAT works just fine or some other statement of the same format.  Objectives need to be clear.  Have some people read what you come up with and try to tell you what the objectives mean in their own words. If you get a match, you probably have a good objective.  Also, I never want for vocabulary to be an objective on its own, otherwise you get an objective that is not so productive.  For example,, it might sound something like this; "students will be able to memorize fifteen vocabulary words ...." Instead, it is more productive to include vocabulary within in your objective.  Personally, I like to include some vocabulary in every lesson.  I believe it is a natural part of learning another language and your students will always have questions about words they do not readily understand.  Objectives need to be able to be assessed easily.  You may not always be the one presenting your lesson and other instructors will need to understand them in order to assess results.  Finally, objectives need to be attainable.  it is frustrating to not be able to achieve an objective; especially for ELL students.  It is important to also understand that you as an instructor will certainly have some parts of your objective that are implied within your lessons.

        Let's take a look at a simple objective on our topic of employment.  "Students will be able to identify key parts of a standard job application."  So, some questions; "what are the key parts of a standard job application?" And, "what is a standard job application?"  These are the parts of your objective that will be implied from your lesson plans.  So, the answer to the two questions are essentially up to you the instructor, but most adult Americans will have a good idea of what both mean.  You have to convey this generality to ELL students who may have never seen or filled in a job application.

        To ensure the students can achieve this objective, you as the instructor would build a lesson plan that explained what a standard job application looks like and what the key parts are that it contains.  I don't want to get to far down into the minutia of it, but looking over a few sample applications will help you to define these concepts.  As mentioned, vocabulary would included in the lesson and would be assessed as part of the overall objective.  I would try to limit the new vocabulary presented to 5-7 words or terms.  Students will definitely add a handful of additional words/terms as you present your lesson and as they ask questions on what is presented.  The end goal is to have introduced no more that around 15 new words.terms; anymore will be difficult to retain.  In my opinion less is more here. Thoroughly learning 10 words is better than sort of learning 20.

        I think from there you could include a second lesson covering applications, ensuring that you build in some time for review.  Thus, by the end of your block of lessons, you will have introduced somewhere around 20 new words/terms over your two lessons and will have reviewed the other important points of your objective.  All that is left is to then include this objective in some form of assessment.  We will get to that in a few posts.

Curriculum Part 2

        At this point we have had a chance to mull over our gathered information.  I would, at this stage, start to think about any "special" issues I may have in mind for my curriculum to be.  By this I mean things like searching out and inviting guest speakers, any media issues, text and reading selections, and whatever else may come to mind.

Guest speakers could be any employment related speakers.  For example, it might be great to invite someone who does job interviews or who writes employment/job descriptions.  This would be a chance to have the students ask questions. This fits into both listening and speaking skills.  Media can be almost anything, but specifically would include videos you might want to show.  The internet is loaded with practice interviews and presentations about jobs and employment issues in general. These types of things are always works in process, so visit the web frequently. A good rule of thumb is to always pre-check your links at the beginning of any semester and always before each class. Technology is changing and links often disappear and change with little or no warning.  Texts are a hard issue.  I have not been fortunate to find many texts relating to specific ELL topics like employment and especially when the students are primarily adults.  I doubt a search for an ELL-focused text solely on employment will 100% fruitful.  However, there may be parts of texts that do address this topic and certainly there are some articles out there somewhere.  Again, this takes a ton of prep time, but the payoff is certainly worth it in the end.  The students will appreciate your hard work.  As an aside, I have found that Adult ELL students are generally some of the most appreciative students I have ever found.  Other items that may come to mind are things like gathering some real-world job applications (these are fun and informative to practice filling out), collect some links to a few job advertisement web sites (Monster.com being an obvious one), and perhaps collect a few resume templates.

The next step is perhaps one of the most difficult ones in this process; develop a class overview statement.  In this statement you needs to address the end state of your course.  Again, this can be a work in progress.  However, this statement is what people will base their interest in your course upon. It is also a statement of what tools a typical student should leave your class with.  Another word of caution; avoid using numbers in your statement.  Numbers imply specific expectations, and if those exist, then it is imperative that you deliver exactly the numbers you promote.  A better course of action is to try to make a specific, but all encompassing statement of purpose.  An example for this course here might be something like my example below.  As always, this is a fluid statement that will be revised as we go through the process.

        Employment for ELLs can be a matter of the utmost importance.  ELL105 will provide students         with an overview of employment in the United States.  Vocabulary will be focused on                           employment/job-related terms.  Students will be exposed to many aspects of employment such           as; resumes, job interviews, job descriptions, the application process, employment reviews, and           job/salary negotiations.  The course will include practical exercises to aid in the job search and           the application process.  Students completing the course will be better able to successfully seek           out employment as well as understand the process as a whole.

So, now we have a course ready for its next step.  Let's think a bit on what that step is and I will be back in a few days to give you my thoughts.