Each year Minnesota ABE educators create innovative educational technology curriculum projects through Department of Education funding. The MLC Tech Services Center assists and oversees the development and distribution of these mini-grant resources. Projects cover a range of educational technologies, such as: audio, video, the Internet and software. Topics are geared toward ABE life skills requirements and are typically aligned with helping learners improve their CASAS skills levels. When projects are completed they are linked to this website.

NEW!  Grants Awarded for 2009 -2010

The Language of Mathmatics

Charles LaRue will create materials to help both native and non-native English language speakers learn the language of math and how it is used in math problems on standardized tests.  The grant  will provide glossaries organized by topic, which will include translations of  math terms into the top  languages of non-native speaking students currently enrolled in Minnesota ABE classes according to the MABE site. There will also be interactive online quizzes, grouped by topic, that will teach and review these words in English.  

“Discover Computer Careers” FastTRAC Course 

Mankato Area Adult Basic Education will develop a FastTRAC course in the area of Computer Careers. The course consists of modules covering basic computer skills, concepts, and terminology that will be encountered by computer technicians, computer programmers and network technicians. The course will be hosted on Moodle and students will use web technologies such as keyboarding programs, Google mail (gmail), Google Documents and Spreadsheets. The Windows operating system will be highlighted including utilities such as Windows Explorer.

Life-skills Math Website (For Intermediate ELLs and Their Teachers) Part 2

Kate Mueller & Nikki Carson-Padilla previously created a website with links to ESL-friendly math sites, interactive video clips, and local photo prompts to accompany word problems for Intermediate level ELLs.  They will continue to add resources including original handouts, worksheets, mini-clips, and suggested activities that align with CASAS competencies targeting the B level tests, both reading and math.

Visit the website at http://sites.google.com/site/mnabeeslmath/

Karen to English Booklets and CDs

Andrea Echelberger and her students at the MLC Arlington Hills location created a booklet and a set of two audio CDs to help Karen students practice English.  The grant award will allow for more copies and a wider distribution of the materials. Download the Karen aren to English Booklet  For more information about the materials you may contact Andrea directly at achelberger@themlc.org  To order a set of the CDs contact jbrazier@themlc.org

Previous Grant Awards

 Listening and Pronunciation CDs and Website

Heather Turngren's grant created Listening and Pronunciation CDs and accompanying literature/text for learner listening and pronunciation.  The first Listening and Pronunciation CDs  have the most often used verbs in English and their tense forms followed by the verbs used in context. Other Listening and Pronunciation CDs  have essential sight word lists along with the words used in context. Learners will be able to listen and read along with the Listening and Pronunciation CDs. There will also be a short time after each sentence for students to repeat.  All of these items on a website for learners to use if they are not able to get a Listening and Pronunciation CD.

Handouts: 

Level 3-4 

Simple Present and Simple Past Verbs with Sound of "d" 

Simple Present and Simple Past Verbs with Sound of "id" 

Simple Present and Simple Past Verbs with Sound of "t" 

Irregular Verbs Simple Present and Simple Past  

Level 5-6 

Present Perfect Verbs with Sound of "d"  

Present Perfect Verbs with Sound of "id"  

Present Perfect Verbs with Sound of "t" 

Present Perfect Irregular Verbs

Our Stories

Through the Our Stories project, Karon Sherarts developed a series of picture storybooks for beginning level adult learners. The Our Story books presents several themes and skills outlined in the Minneapolis Public Schools preliterate and Level 1 curriculum standards and CASAS level 1 competencies.  The books  use visually compelling original photographs to read and discuss, present a simple, engaging English text to read, and use an interesting storyline. Each book was created using RealeWriter software for formatting, and can be printed and bound for students or used online.

Samples:

In and Out in PDF format ( 12 MB may take a few minutes to load)

Oh Baby Story in PDF format  (8 MB may take a few minutes to load)

Download RealeWriter Free

ELL Level 0 Activities.

Created by Amy and Tim Reisdorf, this website covers 16 topic areas with interactive activities especially geared toward Level 0 leaners.

http://ell-level0.themlc.org/

Story by Story Online Reading Activies

Originally developed as print material by Marn Frank of the Learning Disabilites Association, now adpated for the internet by Charles LaRue. These stories provide authentic context that American-born low level readers can use as part of a systematic phonics instruction.  The stories demonstrate basic phonic patterns at or below first to second grade level. They are also appropriate for pre-literate ESL students scoring less than 191 on the CASAS.

Pre-literate Curriculum

Pre-literate students have had little or no formal school experience in their native countries. These students are beginning to learn reading and writing at the level of young children but with the ability to reason at a high level and have had adult experiences. Pre-literate learners need to develop an oral understanding of words before they can decipher, or decode, the written words which represent them.  This ten unit curriculum was designed especially with these factors in mind.

Pre-literate Teacher Guidelines     Curriculum Outline   

For a copy of the curriculum on CD contact jbrazier@themlc.org.

English for Work Interactive

Functional Work English instructor Bethany Gustafson combined video field trips and flash interactive activites to create a CD that allows students to not only experience job skills but targeted vocabulary as well. Jobs include housekeeping, dishwasher and laundry worker. The videos are now available for download and on-demand streaming from Minneapolis Adult Basic Education at  http://abeweb.mpls.k12.mn.us/english-for-work/

SmartBoard Interactive Exercises

As SMART boards enter more and more classrooms, curriculum is needed to keep up with this unique interactive technology. Traci Pederson of Warroad ABE developed  exercises allowing students to interact with the digital learning materials. Topics include: employment,emotions,grocery stores, money management, personal care, names, numbers, bathroom objects,and sentences & word match.  Download SMART board Interactive Viewer  Download a zipped copy of the files.

Updated Adult Computer and Employment Skills (ACES) Curriculum.

The ACES program strives to provide participants with practical computer skills while continuing to build reading, writing, and oral language skills.  These materials have been designed to meet the needs of students with little to no computer experience and at least a low-intermediate English reading ability.  Over the last 3 years, Jessica Jones has worked to tailor these original materials to meet the needs of Adult Basic Education participants, especially English Language Learners.

You're Hired: Job Interviews Online

Ric Dwyer from Rochester ABE created an interactive website with videos, online exercises and print handouts. Videos show ESL students acting out good and bad interview scenarios with a Rochester temp agency interviewer.

Authentic Listening Lessons for Beginning-Level Learners

Kristi M. Degenhardt created theme-based lessons would focus on the development of a variety of listening skills that learners need, including listening to confirm predictions, listening for the main idea, and listening for specific information, as well as the development of listening strategies, such as predicting, asking for clarification and using visual cues. For a CD copy, please contact jbrazier@themlc.org.

Online Readings with Word Families

Stephanie Toland and Julie Trupke-Bastidas created materials that help learners improve their decoding skills and learn strategies for recognizing words.  The materials include online pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading components that focus on vocabulary, decoding, and comprehension. The interactive readings are followed by comprehension questions and a phonics component that includes attention to word families.

Medical Literacy Exercises

Metro North ABE: Charles LaRue has created online practice for medical vocabulary related to nutrition, diabetes and high blood pressure. Exercises provide learners with practice reading labels and understanding the fat, carbohydrate and protein content of foods.

Online Reading Skills Practice

Marshall ABE: Charles Carrera and Sally Belgum-Blad created online reading practice exercises for students from levels 1-8 or CASAS levels 200-235. Topics include stories related to Civics, Employment, Housing, Health, School, Money, and Government. Reading skills practice includes pre-reading activities, timed and repeat  readings, and comprehension questions. Reading graphs to help learners chart their improvement can be printed out from the website.

Online Form Practice                     Teaching Guidelines pdf

Minneapolis Public Schools: Amy and Tim Reisdorf  created online practice forms for pre-literate through advanced ABE learners. Teachers can print out forms for in-class practice, then do follow up online exercises. Forms range from very simple name entry to complex and topic specific forms, such as drivers license and insurance forms. Printable teacher guidelines are included.

Take Home Audio Study Guide 

Jessica Schachterle and Heather Cox outlined a process to create a series of audio files and accompanying print materials that could be distributed online and copied onto CDs and cassettes to be used by ESL students who are pre-literate or emergent readers. The lesson modules would focus on prereading skills (letter names and sounds) as well as vocabulary in core content areas (family, health, work, transportation, etc).

Understanding Prescription Medicines

Metro North ABE: Charles LaRue created online PowerPoint exercises teaching how to understand prescription medicine and over-the-counter medicine labels, including instructions and side effects. Exercises include  an audio narrative of medical vocabulary. Translations in Somali, Hmong, and Arabic are provided.

Life Skills Exercises

Marshall ABE: Charles Carrera used Hot Potatoes software to create a wide variety of life skills and literacy building exercises related to CASAS competencies, such as employment, health, grammar and computation.

Reading Practice 

(This website is currently being moved, a link to the new location will be added shortly.)

Lehman Center: Heather Turngren created online reading modules with a software called Hot Potatoes for low-level ABE/ESL learners. Stories have interactive multiple-choice, short-answer, jumbled-sentence, crossword, matching/ordering, and gap-fill exercises.