Client Overview

ABC Learning Center (pseudonym used for the purpose of this project) is a non-profit educational organization operating in Denver and select locations across Colorado. It provides education and training for English Language Learners (ELLs) and for adult learners seeking General Education Degree (GED). Adult English language and literacy classes are held around the Denver metro area, and the center relies on volunteers to teach and support these classes. Its stated goal is to promote education opportunities for adult learners and their families to support their future achievements.

Program Overview and Challenge

The primary role of the organization is to educate and train its learners to be productive members of the community and workforce. According to the U.S. Census, approximately 68 million people, or 22 percent of the U.S. population, speaks a language other than English at home (Dietrch and Hernadez, 2022). Clearly, ELLs make up a significant part of the U.S. communities and workforce. Supporting ELLs so they can successfully interact in their workplace and community requires significant resources including:

• Administration staff

• Partner organizations (e.g., libraries and schools)

• Grant funding

• Learning materials (e.g., books, handouts, dictionaries, computer access)

• Volunteer teachers 

All of the above resources require high learner enrollments rates to maintain services and funding, which in turn requires a trained and organized volunteer corps.

Instructional Goal

The following project is designed to help teachers at ABC Learning Center build basic teaching skills, such as lesson planning, classroom management, and language teaching principles and approaches, in order to retain teachers and improve instruction for ELLs. 

Project Overview

The project helps teachers create effective and efficient lesson plans by aligning lesson plans to learning objectives; selecting appropriate learning materials; and adapting, adopting, or creating lesson materials based on student needs or proficiency levels. Assessment of the course is based on scenario-based activities that provide feedback based on simulated choices and a peer-review rubric that measures the criteria and quality of their lesson plans. For more on the overall project goals and front-end analysis please visit the Course Design Document.

Primary Learner Characteristics

Novice or experienced teachers looking to brush up on their teaching skills are the targeted audience for the training. Teachers must be 18 years-old or older, have at least a high school degree, be a native English speaker or have a score of 100 or above in the TOEFL assessment, and have some experience in training or teaching.

Secondary Learner Characteristics

A secondary audience to the training are the ELLs themselves. Adult ELLs may come from a wide range of educational backgrounds, primarily languages, and cultures. Their English proficiency may range from having no English (true beginners) to intermediate in English proficiency. Their learning needs may range from pragmatic needs (e.g., writing a resume or opening a bank account) to gaining work. 

The Project’s Learning Objectives

1. Given a lesson template and an objective, adopt, adapt, or create lesson materials that match the lesson objective.

2. Given a lesson template and an objective, adapt, adopt, or create lesson materials that match the students’ needs.

3. Given a lesson template and an objective, adapt, adopt, or create lesson materials that match the students’ proficiency levels.

Task Analysis

To help understand the tasks involved and the optimal path for achieving these tasks, a Subject Matter Expert survey was distributed to 7 senior teachers. Feedback from the survey helped to clarify the most important task and mistakes that novice teachers typically make.