Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id j32I5BG13579; Sat, 2 Apr 2005 13:05:11 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 2 Apr 2005 13:05:11 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <54ff37ad409cd643401a29691b5d82e8@theworld.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: David Rosen <DJRosen@theworld.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2942] Re: Shared Priorities X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.619.2) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Status: O Content-Length: 2010 Lines: 49 Amy and others, On Mar 23, 2005, at 12:42 PM, Amy R. Trawick wrote: > > I think about a shared priority as being a 'hot topic' or a > student-generated unit of study through which skills are used and > developed. > I am not in the classroom right now but am working with teachers who, > although they value using life-based topics/activities to guide > instruction, > find it a challenge to find topics and activities that are meaningful > to > students. If anyone has used a technique or an approach that worked > well > for you in identifying a shared priority, I think a bunch of us would > benefit from your sharing that on the list. Amy, sometimes narrowing the topic area helps a group choose a topic they are all interested in. In Massachusetts the Department of Education has funded small, participatory grants on health literacy, for example. The teacher tells the students in a class that they need to come up with a health topic that is important to everyone in the class. Health is often a good area to start with. Another is "next steps: work or college." Another is "schools: how the K-12 schools work." If you look at www.firstfind.org -- a collection of plain English web pages for low-literate adults who go to libraries to get information, the topics chosen are for the most part ones which are of high interest to adult learners. It helps sometimes to define what the product is that the class will produce: a brochure, newsletter, presentation (for other groups) web page, health fair, etc. Once the topic area is settled, brainstorming questions -- in the class -- is the next step. Then these can be voted on -- for importance to the students -- or pairs or small groups of students can investigate certain questions. If you are interested I can send some links to web-based student projects in health, and next steps work or college, that were made using this process. Hope this is what you were asking for. David David J. Rosen djrosen@comcast.net
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