How Low Can You Go: Design and
Implement Contextualized
Workplace
Instruction in Low-Level ELL Classes
Summer Institute, 2013
Presenter Info
• Laura Rutmanis has been an ABE teacher for
about 15 years. She currently teaches two
levels of Retail classes at the Hubbs Center.
• Renada Rutmanis has been an ABE teacher for
the last 4 years. She currently teaches
Introduction to Healthcare Careers and
Business Office at the Hubbs Center.
Participant Info
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What is your name?
Where do you teach?
What levels do you teach?
What are you interested in learning today?
Overview
• Objectives:
– To define contextualized workplace instruction
– To identify opportunities to provide context in the
classroom
– To present three curriculum samples for
contextualized instruction in low-level ELL
classrooms
– To provide a roadmap for incorporating
contextualized lessons into the classroom
What is contextualized workplace
instruction?
• Contextualized instruction:
– Contextualized instruction = basic skills plus
– Integrates basic reading, math, and language skills
along with occupation-specific knowledge and general
work skills
– Is based on the idea that learning occurs best when
students process new information in such a way that
makes sense to them in their own frame of reference
(memory, experience, response)
• U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult
Education)
Why is context important?
• Increases student motivation
• Provides opportunities to apply skills
• Makes abstract ideas easier to understand (show
example)
• Makes the transition to work easier
• Allows lower-level students to show off
• Helps students to learn multiple uses of
vocabulary words (i.e. market)
Can you think of a time when you learned
something in context?
What contexts are important to
students?
•
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•
•
Personal
Cultural
Geographical
Career
– 41 percent of adult enrolled in adult education
programs nationwide are unemployed (Office of
Vocational and Adult Education National
Reporting System)
Taking it from the personal to the
workplace
• A patient going to the doctor – a nurse doing
patient intake
• A customer going shopping – a cashier
completing a transaction
• Riding the bus – driving the bus
• Talking to your child’s daycare teacher –
working as a daycare teacher
How do you make context for low-level
learners?
• At the higher levels, programs often partner
with employers or post-secondary schools to
give students hands-on training – at the lower
levels, those hands-on opportunities have to
come in the classroom through:
– authentic workplace scenarios and role-playing
– Lots of opportunities for teamwork, problem
solving, and application of skills
– Explicit connections between classroom activities
and the world of work
Overview of Literacy-Level
Occupational Classes
• Career Contexts: Retail, Healthcare,
Construction
• Length: 8-12 weeks, 40-80 hours total
• Students: Levels 2-4, High Beginning to High
Intermediate, 190-220 on CASAS
• Similarities: Portfolios, hands-on culminating
activities, workplace behavior expectations
Retail Literacy
• Three units:
– Supermarket
– Restaurant
– Department Store
These units are covered for 2-3 weeks each with
a culminating activity, unit test, and interview
practice sheet (Why Should I Hire You?) following
each of the units. The emphasis is on work skills,
soft skills, interview practice, and use of relevant
vocabulary and math.
Healthcare Literacy
• Students learn about five medical careers:
EMT, nursing, certified nursing assistant,
health interpreter, and home health aide.
• Examples of technical skills: ABCs (airways,
breathing, circulation); SOAP reports
(subjective, objective, assessment, plan);
stroke test; pain scale; measuring urine
output; feeding a patient, helping a patient sit
up in bed; ADLs (activities of daily living)
• Focus on cultural expectations in American
healthcare settings
Construction Literacy
• Unit 1: Six Specific Construction Jobs
– Identify jobs and work skills needed for each position,
identify tools required for each job, practice jobspecific math dialogues
• Unit 2: General Construction Topics
– Identify construction worker attitudes, career
pathways, OSHA and safety standards, accident forms
and procedures
• Unit 3: Culminating Activity and Evaluation
– Identify tools in a toolbox, follow directions to build a
birdhouse, evaluate work attitude and behavior,
evaluate work product
Culminating Activities
Culminating activities are an important part of
providing context and providing authentic
opportunities to apply skills
• Retail: store, delivery, weighing bulk foods
• Construction: making a birdhouse
• Healthcare: responding to an emergency,
doing patient intakes, interpreting a health
conversation, medical supply inventory
Portfolios
• All three classes also use portfolios to:
– Organize class materials
– Help students self-assess
– Keep certificates of completion
– Prepare students to take next steps
– Increase student investment in class and increase
attendance
Bringing it all together
Foundational Basic Skills: Reading, Writing,
Listening, Speaking, Math and Numeracy
Computer: email, word documents, Internet
Technical: Industry-specific, i.e. being able to
use a cash register for retail
Employability: General skills that are required to
be successful in any kind of employment, i.e.
problem solving, teamwork, professional
communication
Sample Retail Activity
You are a cashier in a store. A customer wants to buy a
pencil and a notebook. You add the amounts together
(25 cents and 95 cents. You tell the customer the total.
You ask which method of payment they will use.
• Cash:
• Check:
you count up change from total
you ask for ID and verify information
You describe the return policy. You write the receipt. You
thank the customer. You check item off Excel inventory
sheet.
Retail Scenario: Reading
–Read and follow store
scenario; Read
information on check
–Read information on ID
–Read product price
information
Retail scenario: Writing, listening, and
speaking
Writing:
– Write receipt
Listening/Speaking:
– Tell customer total cost
– Ask about method of payment
– Count up change (if cash)
– Request customer ID (if check)
– Tell customer return policy
– Thank customer
Retail Scenario: Math and Numeracy
–Identify coins/values
–Write money amounts
–Make change
–Verify check amounts
–Do inventory on Excel
Retail Scenario: Computer, Technical,
and Employability
• Computer:
– Excel store inventory sheet
• Technical:
– Cash register/calculator in store use
• Employability:
– Punctuality, dependability, honesty,
accountability, time management, team
building
Sample Healthcare Activity
You work in a nursing home and fear that a patient is having a
stroke. With a co-worker, you use the stroke scale by asking
the patient these three questions.
• Can you please smile?
• Please close your eyes and hold your arms straight out in
front of you. I will count to ten and you can put them down
again.
• Please repeat what I say: “You can’t teach an old dog new
tricks.”
You discuss with your co-worker and determine that the
patient is not having a stroke, but may be dehydrated. You
make notes in the patient’s electronic file about your
observations.
Healthcare activity: Foundational Skills
–Reading: Prior to the activity, students
read about the signs of stroke and the
stroke scale
–Writing: writing notes in the patient’s
file
–Speaking/Listening: asking the
questions, listening to the responses
–Math and Numeracy: counting to ten
Healthcare activity: computer,
technical, and employability
–Computer: using the computer to
write notes in the patient’s file
–Technical: stroke scale, patient’s files
–Employability: careful observation,
working under pressure, speaking
with a co-worker, documenting work
Sample Construction Activity
You are a carpenter. You are drawing a picture of a
building before you build it. You look at the
blueprint below. You identify the roof, walls and
floor.
• You draw a picture with the floor 6 inches, the walls
4 ¾ inches and the roof 7 inches. You label each part
of the picture (roof, walls, floor)
• You describe and compare your picture with a
partner’s picture.
Construction: Foundational Skills
• Reading:
– Read and follow birdhouse pre-building scenario
– Read birdhouse blueprint
• Writing:
– Label the parts of the birdhouse
• Listening/Speaking:
– Describe birdhouse to partner
– Listen to partner description
• Math/ Numeracy:
– Identify measuring tools
– Use a ruler
– Identify parts of inches on ruler (1/4, 1/2, ¾)
Construction: Computer, Technical,
Employability
• Computer:
– Research birdhouse types on mycarpentry.com
• Technical:
– Identify tool types and purposes
– Use measuring tools
– Reading a blueprint
• Employability:
– planning, speaking with a co-worker, following
directions
Your Turn!
• Now we will:
– Get into groups
– Each group will get materials from one of the
literacy-level classes (retail or healthcare)
– Read through the materials, talk with your group
mates, identify different skills addressed in the
lessons, and complete the form
– Be prepared to report your findings back to the
big group
Reporting back
• What was your context?
• What skills were addressed and how?
Retail
Healthcare
Where can I get more information?
• Hubbs curriculum website:
http://hubbs.spps.org/occupational_prep.htm
l
• MNROC:
http://www.positivelyminnesota.com/mnroca
pp/
• Adult Career Pathways: www.acp-sc.org
Conclusion
• What contexts do you already use in your
classes?
• Do you use any work contexts?
• Do you see opportunities to use more work
contexts?
• What challenges do you see to providing
context?
Thank you!
• If you have any questions, you can contact
presenters at:
– Renada.rutmanis@spps.org
– Laura.rutmanis@spps.org