Module 5 - Adult Literacy Classroom
Instructional Design
Out-of-Classroom Learning
Consider your daily and weekly schedule. You likely have commitments, priorities, and appointments that fill your schedule. Like you, adult literacy learners have busy lives and schedules. The time they can devote to face-to-face instruction is often limited and even irregular. In addition, adult literacy education resources may be limited and classes are only available at certain times and places. Given these factors, in-class instruction should focus on acquiring new skills, clarifying understandings, and problem-solving students’ learning challenges. For this reason, practice exercises that strengthen memory, build fluency, and maintain skills are often assigned as homework. For those learners whose schedules have gaps – they cannot attend class, or the class is only available twice a week—out-of-classroom learning helps to keep information fresh and maintain learning and study habits.
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“We only see them for a few hours in class – and they have so much they want to learn. Students have to make time for schoolwork and study outside of class. It is simply essential to their success.” |
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“I use to hate homework in school. It’s still work – and I have to make myself do it, but I understand things better when I do the extra work.” |
Take a moment to consider the implications out-of-classroom learning has for instruction of adult literacy learners.
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On your worksheet, record your initial thoughts on planning for homework in adult literacy instruction. |
Research in the way the brain processes information indicates that repetition over time helps to move learning into long-term memory. In addition, work done out of the classroom helps to associate knowledge and skills with other environmental conditions. Practice exercises can include family, work, and community elements - like nutrition information on food labels, or recipe doubling while cooking. Practice outside of class is done by the learner, at times and in situations they arrange in their schedules. This builds time-management skills and study habits that form life-long learning habits. Lastly, homework can serve as an evaluative tool for the instructor and student. A strong performance on one’s own, outside the classroom, is a good indicator of understanding.
Listed below is a real-life adult education scenario. While you are reading, consider the needs of the learners. How has the instructor used out-of-class learning as an instructional tool?
Real-Life Scenario – Dmitri’s Lesson on Poetry:
Dmitri’s students vary widely in their writing and reading abilities. Based on their needs, he has taught a lesson on poetry to the class. They looked at, listened to, or read and discussed several different types of poems – haiku, sonnet, free verse, limericks, and poems written by contemporary poets, including adult learners. Dmitri then had them work in groups and teams to construct poems – students were grouped by reading and writing ability (basic, intermediate, and high) and each assigned a different type of poem to construct, share, and discuss. He now feels it would deepen their understanding of poetry to try to write some poetry independently. For the weekend, he assigns the group studying for the GED (high) to write a rhyming poem with three or more stanzas on a topic relating to the outdoors - he encourages them to take a walk in the neighborhood for inspiration. The pre-GED group (intermediate) is asked to create a limerick related to their workplace or community, and the basic literacy level group is asked to construct a haiku on the family using words listed on slips of paper Dmitri has prepared and placed in an envelope for them. When they return on Monday, he plans to have them work in groups to polish their work and then use their poems to prompt further discussion of poetry.
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On your worksheet, record your thoughts on how Dmitri used homework to strengthen learning and as a tool to evaluate students’ understanding of the topic? |
Click the + sign in the box to the right to see ideas from other Adult Education Instructors. | [?] |
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I used to spend hours grading students’ independent work – and they were all focused on the grade. Then I decided to have them share responsiblity for evaluating how well they understand – at least part of the time. I make sure they have access to the answer keys, and scoring rubrics. I still review their work, and provide feedback, especially on writing assignments, but they review their work first – it has definitely made them more careful and deliberate in working math problems.
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Adults often have access to great resources outside of the class. One mom who was learning to read, for example, would bring in her kids’ story books. We would review them in class and then she’d go home and practice reading with her children. You know how kids ask for the same story over and over? You can’t ask for a better practice situation to build reading fluency!
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I caution my students about working on their own too much. Not that I don’t want them to study at their own pace – but sometimes they can “get on a roll,” and work so fast that they’re really only skimming the information, not really understanding in depth or moving it to longer-term memory in their minds. It is important that they check-in with me so we can catch errors in conceptualization or application before the errors are practiced many times and are harder to unlearn.
In reviewing these ideas, did you find any similar to your own? Did any of them strike you as particularly interesting? Did they provide any new insights for your instruction of adult literacy learners?
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On your worksheet, make note of any tips, insights, or new ideas gained from the instructors’ suggestions. |
In Summary:
- Homework has an important place in instructional design. For all learners, assignments that allow for practice outside of class help move learning to long-term memory, build speed and accuracy in completing tasks, and aid in applying these concepts to real-world situations.
- As adults take responsibility for their own learning, they should be encouraged to check their own work, fostering self-evaluation skills.
- Instructors can use students’ self-evaluations, as well as their own review of student work, to inform instruction and aid in planning upcoming lessons and activities for both in and out of class work.
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On your worksheet, record any final notes or thoughts, specific ideas you want to remember, plans for further study, etc. |
Click "Next" below or a specific topic on the outline to the left to continue.
