Strategies for Contextualizing Writing in the Adult Basic Education

Classroom

Make it Mine!

Laurie WestonChair, Transitional Studies (252) 493-7439Pitt Community CollegePO Drawer 7007lweston@email.pittcc.eduGreenville, NC 27835-7007

What is Contextualized Instruction?• Hands-on • Experience-based• Relevant to work, home, community• Real Life• Addresses personal interests, goals

“A set of teaching, learning and assessment practices that:are aimed directly at developing the skills and knowledge that adults need to deal with specific situations or perform specific tasks, andthat they have identified as important and meaningful to themselves ‘right now’ in their everyday lives…..In addition, rather than focus only on the possession of basic skills and knowledge, contextualized instruction focuses on the active application of those skills and that knowledge ‘in a context.’ (And this context should be as ‘real-world’ as is feasible.)”

http://efftips.wordpress.com/2012/05/29/faqwhat-is-contextualized-instruction/?blogsub=confirming#blog_subscription-2(Equipped for the Future, retrieved 10/22/13)

A collection of practices that “relates subject matter content to real world situations; motivates students to make connections between knowledge and its applications to their lives as family members, citizens, and workers; and encourages student persistence.”

http://0347dbd.netsolhost.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Abstractforwebsite.pdf(Motheread/Wake Tech Research Project on Contextual Teaching, retrieved 10/22/13)

Contextualized Writing Strategies

• To Be or Not To Be?• Pardon Me…..• SnapShot Bio• Parts of Speech??• Silly Proverbs• Where I’m From Poem

Pardon Me, but your Participle appears to be dangling.

Now You Try…• Riding along on my bicycle, the dog knocked me

over.• Donna saw the ball walking by the lake.• I found a dollar walking home.• He made a table for his aunt with wooden legs.• The young girl was walking the dog in a short

skirt.• The dog was chasing the boy with the spiked

collar.• The library has several books about dinosaurs in

our school.• While camping, I saw a bear in my pajamas.

Snapshot Bio Activity

• Provides the opportunity to examine personal experiences with culture, family, history, and identity

• Connects writing with social networks, websites, and the Internet in an unthreatening way

• Provides experience with technology• Contextualizes learning• Inspires creativity• Promotes community within classroom• Provides a basic framework for

beginning essay writing

Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

Twas brillig and the slithey tovesdid gyre and gimble in the wabe.All mimsy were the borogoves and the momeraths outgrabe.

Silly Proverbs Game subject/verb agreement

• Birds of a feather flock together.• Birds of a feather make light

work.• Great minds think alike.• Great minds are not always what

they seem.• Bad news travels fast.• The early bird travels fast.

Where I’m From, By George Ella Lyon

Writing as a component of Project

Based Instruction• Collaborative groups or individual• Competitive or display• Career oriented or topic of students’

choosing• Make writing a component of the project• Depending on student level, include a

template for scoring or feedback• Connects with student goals, interests,

needs

lweston@email.pittcc.edu

(252) 493-7439