Reading for Life Lessons

Minnesota ABE Supplemental Services, Linda Strand, 2004-2005

And the Minnesota Literacy Council

Focus: Community Services (Reading for Life, volume 1, unit 4: Telephone)

Objectives: Learners will be able to identify community services and find relevant information for them in the phone book.

Key Vocabulary: hotline, crisis, crisis intervention, agencies, counselor

Topics to Review: skills for using the phone book

Materials: phone books, brochures from a variety of community services (library, YMCA, suicide or rape hotlines, addictions hotlines)

Procedure:

Real-life application:

            T asks students to list some services in their community. These include animal control, hotlines for addiction, disabled services, services for mental health etc. Discuss services offered by each one. Teach new ones using brochures. You may wish to find the community services listing in the White Pages to coordinate with the brochures you bring to class.

Have students brainstorm questions about community services. Write the questions on the board. Have students choose a few questions and answer them. Students share the answers to their questions with the class.

I have a problem: Make a list of some problems or situations in which a student might want to contact a community service. Read one of the situations to the class. Individually, students choose a community service they would go to in that situation and write a sentence explaining why. Students share their ideas with the class.

T shows student the phone books. T and students discuss the phone books and where to find information in them. Think of some services and find them together in the phone book.

List some different services on the board. Have student practice finding them in the community service listings and write down the appropriate telephone numbers.

Progress to Reading for Life, v.1 competency worksheets: Applicable worksheets: RFL v.1, unit 4

Progress to multiple-choice format activities: Some to be created by MLC – coming soon

Extensions:

• See Daily Living Activities on pages 57 and 58, as well as activities on pages 64-67 in Reading for Life v.1.
• Have students talk about community services that they personally want to know more about.  Then have them call 211 and ask for information about that service, then report back.  Alternatively, the group could decide on services that they all want to know about.  They can then divide up the list and do research.
• Do the Look It Up and Scanning Scavenger Hunt activities outlined in the Reading section of the Tutor Tip Archive on the MLC website http://www.themlc.org/Reading.html
• If you have access to a computer lab, have students visit the online version of First Call for Help and have them do research on what’s available: http://www.thebeehive.org/Templates/National/Default.aspx?PageId=1