JUNTOS IN THE COMMUNITY
Enhanced Curriculum

Juntos partners have developed curriculum that meets the needs of the partnership, individual programs, and instructors. These shared curriculum development efforts began in 1998 with the first of five Curriculum Frameworks project grants received by Juntos from the state Department of Education to take the Massachusetts Adult Basic Education Curriculum Frameworks and develop more specific curricula for the local community. For each of the five years, the Juntos coordinators chose a component of the frameworks (health, writing, math, science, and technology) and designated relevant instructors from each partner organization to work in teams to design curriculum. In 2001-02, for example, the coordinators focused on the integration of technology with writing. Instructors from each partner organization developed new curriculum units that used the core concepts, guiding principles, and content strands from the state Science, Technology, and Engineering and English Language Arts frameworks to generate learning activities appropriate for their own students' interests and ability levels. The coordinators are pleased with the results. One said, "The curricular frameworks are really impressive. You see teachers come together and end up with a product."

Another curriculum project is the 2001 multiyear English Literacy/Civic Participation project, funded by the U.S. Department of Education. Its purpose is to promote the teaching of literacy skills and civic education in an integrated program. A teacher from CEP headed the partnership's efforts and worked closely with other Juntos EL teachers and a curriculum expert from the New England Literacy Resource Center. The result of the collaboration was a series of plans to integrate new civic participation activities into each classroom during the 2002-2003 program year.