Hello Everyone,
Amber has hit on one of the "old chestnuts" in ESL instruction (and I am very aware that I am "preaching to the choir" here!). Amber's  question rephrased  is "what language skills am I supposed to teach and in what sequence?"   The additional question of how to teach reading to low level learners also worked its way in as well in follow up posts-another difficult area.
As I presume you have found out, Amber, creating a curriculum is much better than just following along in a textbook, but it is a daunting task, as you can see from others' comments when you queried.  I, too, have many years (over 30) teaching ESL  and have yet to find an easy-to use adult oriented curriculum that can be used in multi-level classes that we teach here in Washington state.  (My husband's expression for something that seems easy but requires a great deal of know-how is: "It's like buying a "pre-hung door" at the lumberyard!!)
We also have literacy level students in our classes as well.  The best lessons in my opinion, are ones that stem from student interests, and that I develop/adapt materials for as we go along.
You can use other curricula/texts to keep from reinventing the wheel or as a take off, of course.

p.s. to all-This is my first post, but I have been following the listserv since last spring and have benefited and enjoyed the discussions tremendously.  Thanks to everyone!

Mary Brunelle
ESL Instructor
Yakima, Washington

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Amber Gallup
Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 10:59 AM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 5096] Real curriculum vs. just a textbook: thanks!

Hello colleagues -

Thank you Naeema, Maria, and everyone else who responded so helpfully to my query about the curriculum for adult ESL programs!  And of course, I'd love to hear from anyone else who has gone through the process of creating or selecting a comprehensive curriculum for their program, moving beyond a merely textbook-driven approach. Thanks again,

Amber Rodriguez
Riverdale, MD


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