K. Lynn Savage discusses adapting textbooks to reach new standards after the release of the College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education report.
Recently in adult ESL there has been a lot of buzz about the document “College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult education.” The challenge for us, as teachers, is to review our textbooks and other instructional materials to determine whether they address the standards.
In doing this for myself, I’ve used the following process:
(1) Identify the overall intent;
(2) “Unpack” each anchor standard; and
(3) Become familiar with activity types that can develop the skills I’ve unpacked.
This process will answer two questions:
(1) What should we look for when we review textbooks for possible adoption?
(2) What should we be developing if our textbooks don’t have activities that develop the skills identified in the anchor standards?
The intent of this article is to illustrate this process by looking closely at one anchor from the Language strand. First you will see the anchor. Next, you will see what I’ve identified as the intent. Then, you’ll see how I’ve unpacked the anchor. After analysis of the standard, you’ll find a link to an example of an activity that develops the skill identified in the standard. These examples come from the Ventures series.
Anchor. Language Anchor 4 states “Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases by using context clues, analyzing meaningful word parts, and consulting general and specialized reference materials as appropriate.”
Intent
From my perspective, the intent of this anchor standard is to help students develop skills to determine meaning rather than to give them the meaning. It reminds me of an old proverb: “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.
Unpacking the anchor standard
I find two categories of words (words that learners don’t know and words that have more than one meaning). I also find three strategies for determining or clarifying meaning (1) using context clues, (2) analyzing meaningful word parts (e.g., prefixes, suffixes, roots), and (3) consulting reference materials (general and specialized)
Examples of activities
Using context clues: In this example, learners look at clues in a reading to determine whether a word has a positive or negative meaning.
Example of using context clues from Ventures 3, p. 66, Ex B1
Analyzing word parts: These activities may focus on prefixes, suffixes, roots or compound nouns.
Example of analyzing word parts from Ventures 4, p. 51, Ex 3B
Using references: In the first example, learners use a dictionary to identify part of speech and to select the definition that best fits the reading. In the second example, learners use either a dictionary or thesaurus to find synonyms for words found in the reading.
Example of using references from Ventures 3, p. 103, Ex 3B
Discovering multiple meanings: In this example, learners write the meaning of words in the reading and then use a dictionary to find a different meaning for the word.
Example of discovering multiple meanings from Ventures Transitions, p. 99, Ex 3B
I hope that this process will help as you review the materials you are currently using. If they don’t have activities that develop the skills identified in the CCRS, then perhaps the examples of activities cited in this article will help you develop ones that do. I would love to hear how this process works for you!