Samples of Practice Exercise Responses

Module 3
Module 4
Module 5
Module 6
Module 7
Module 8

Module 3 - Proposal Writing

Write notes outlining a proposal narrative for a workplace literacy program at Green Shield Health (described below). Include notes on the need for the program, the types and sizes of classes, when and how often they should meet, outline of curriculum, amount of custom-designing, and recruitment strategies.

Green Shield Health

This small medical benefits office has 40 employees in customer service, claims processing, and general administration. The management has noticed problems with all three groups of employees. They have difficulty reading instruction charts for processing claims, reading computer screens of customer information, copying reference numbers, calculating premiums and benefits, writing letters to customers, and advising potential customers by telephone.

The office is also introducing more flexible working patterns: for example, one employee will follow a claim right through, rather than several people each dealing with one stage of the process. Since job distinctions are blurring, all employees will need all the relevant skills.

Sample of Practice Exercise Response

Need for the program:

Reading (charts and computer screens), writing (letters), math (premiums and benefits), listening/speaking (telephone) are all basic skills relating to customer relations.

Types and sizes of classes:

With the need for all to develop all skills, start with a Customer Relations class focusing on telephone skills (listening/speaking while reading computer screens) and letter writing (including claims processing and calculating premiums and benefits).

To make up each class, divide the 40 employees into groups of 10 (mixed across current job responsibilities).

When and how often classes meet:

Because the program is job-focused, classes will be on company time-held in the last hour of the working day. Each class will meet twice a week for 10 weeks (total 20 hours). Given the small size of the workforce, only one group of 10 can be released at any one time, but it may be possible to run two classes on different days over the same 10week period if teachers are available to do this.

Outline of curriculum:

• Throughout, use the skills employees bring to class by mixing workers from different areas of the office.
• Telephone skills-role play employee/customer conversations (for this job and reverse situations such as mail ordering by telephone).
• Letter writing - gather letters written on the job, look at patterns of letter structure, commonly misspelled words, etc; practice writing letters in class, critique each others' efforts; construct job aid with letter structures and dictionary of technical terms.
• Math - bring job forms and rules to class, practice individually and in small groups with realistic calculations.

Amount of custom designing:

• Telephone skills - develop startup scenarios to simulate employee/ customer conversations (later, workers can develop others from their experience).
• Letter writing - develop some customer letters for workers to reply to, gather others from the office.
• Math - develop sets of exercise worksheets for practice of separate premium and benefit calculations.

Recruitment strategies:

Although attendance is mandatory, employees will still need convincing of the program's value. Therefore, recruitment will begin with a meeting of all staff to outline the changes taking place in the office and deal with initial questions and concerns. This will be followed up with flyers in pay envelopes describing the program in more detail. The program developer and/or instructor will frequently be available to answer questions about the classes (for example, while gathering information about job tasks for curriculum development). The first group(s) of 10 to attend class will be volunteers or will be selected as those most likely to be enthusiastic advocates among their colleagues.

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Module 4 - Task Analysis

Conduct a task analysis for the everyday task "Help from the Yellow Pages" described below. Read the description to each person you ask to do the task. Observation of 2-3 people performing the task should be part of your analysis. In your conclusion, you should decide which aspects you would concentrate on if you were teaching this task, with reasons based on needed skills and possibly cost factors.

Help from the Yellow Pages

You return home to your apartment one Saturday afternoon to find water all over the floor from a burst pipe. There is no janitor on duty in the building, and you are new in town and so have no idea who to call. You pick up the Yellow Pages . . .

Describe in detail everything you do.

Sample of Practice Exercise Response

Notes on Person 1:

1. Looked up "Pipes" (not relevant) and then "Water" (didn't work either). Went to Index at front and skimmed down entry under "Water" until found "Plumber" and turned to that entry.

2. Decided to look at display ads only (probably larger firms) and skimmed for 24-hour service. Wrote down names and telephone numbers of three companies.

3. Called first company and asked when they could come. They said "Four hours." That was OK with Person 1, who didn't ask any other questions or call any other companies. [To avoid unpleasantness with real plumbers, the interviewer answered Person 1's imaginary call.]

(Note: Person 1 also mentioned finding main faucet and turning water off, before calling for help.)

Notes on Person 2:

1. Looked for Index at back of Yellow Pages--not there. After a pause, thought of "Plumber" and turned to that entry.

2. Looked at display ads only (no reason given) and skimmed for local company with 24-hour service. Circled five display ads.

3. Called each company and asked when they could come and how much it would cost. Wrote this information next to each display ad. [See note on real plumbers above.]

4. Made a decision balancing cost against speed, with speed as the primary factor (rejecting only one very expensive callout charge).

5. Called back to chosen company to arrange visit.

Key skills:

1. Knowing how to use Index (and where to find it) or brainstorming appropriate term for relevant entry.

2. Deciding on criteria for choice.

3. Skimming section for entries fitting criteria and making selection.

4. Telephoning companies, asking questions and noting answers.

5. Making decision based on information received.

Conclusion:

Only two areas caused any difficulty. The first was the initial finding of the correct section in the Yellow Pages, which could produce a delay in fixing the problem. Instruction would address brainstorming relevant terms and using an Index. The second potential difficulty was making a choice without considering cost. It is possible that Person 1 chose the company with the expensive callout charge, and may have obtained much cheaper service with little or no delay. Instruction would address the reasons for choosing selection criteria and ways of comparing their importance.

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Module 5 - Curriculum Materials

Outline the design of curriculum materials for teaching the workplace literacy topic "Measuring to 16ths" described below. These materials should be for two hours of class activity. Describe the materials and outline how you would use them. (It may help to imagine that you are providing these materials for another teacher to use.)

Measuring to 16ths

Wood products workers are making many errors in measurement, causing much wastage of lumber. A task analysis has shown that workers are confused about the meanings and relative values of fractions with different denominators.

Sample of Practice Exercise Response

Materials:

• Sets of five card rulers (one for each learner) -- a large "inch" undivided, another divided into halves, the others into quarters, eighths and sixteenths.
• Worksheet 1 -- Pictures of fractions, showing shapes divided into 2, 4, 8 or 16 with some fraction shaded (what is the fraction?)
• Worksheet 2 -- Comparison of fractions, showing pairs of fractions with denominators 2, 4, 8 or 16 (larger/smaller/equal?)
• Rulers, screw gauges, pieces of wood, metal, plastic, etc.
• Worksheet 3 -- Form for recording measurements (object, length)

Classroom use:

• Start with card rulers-class discussion of meaning of fractions, comparison of sizes, equivalent fractions.
• Small group work on Worksheet 1, then whole class check answers and discuss.
• Individual work on Worksheet 2, then check in small groups.
• Pass about 5 objects around the class to be measured, and check results. Discuss differences-mistakes or small errors, and idea of accuracy.
• With all objects to be measured placed around the room, individual work on Worksheet 3, followed by comparison in small groups, and final class discussion.

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Module 6 - Supplementary Materials

Review two items from the publicly available materials on a workplace topic, making recommendations for the use of other teachers. These could be commercially produced textbooks, curriculum materials entered into the ERIC database system, or materials available on the Internet. Include an annotated list of items and your judgements on their relevance, intended use, coverage of material, instructional method, reading level, and price.

Sample of Practice Exercise Response

Supplementary Materials on Teaching Reading for ESL employees

Firsten, R. (1991). Real-Life English: Grammar. Steck Vaughn: Austin, TX.

This four-part series of books teaches basic grammar to ESL students. It is structured similarly to a primary school book. The illustrations and sentences are written for adults, however, the series as a whole seems very childish. I would not use this series in a workplace because its focus is not on work or life-related skills. Although many ABE programs use this or similar series, the skills are taught in isolation, and therefore, are not easily transferred to the workplace.

Price - $5.75

Reading Level - Series ranges from beginning to intermediate

Smith, J. H., & Ringel, H. (1991). The Working Experience. New Readers Press: Syracuse, NY.

This series of three texts is written to teach ESL students about different aspects of work. The stories used have been developed from stories written or told by ESL students. Each story will help students develop vocabulary and word analysis skills, expand reading and comprehension skills, and reinforce basic grammar patterns.

This series is very appropriate for the workplace. It is designed to teach students at a variety of levels and helps explain important workplace issues, such as teamwork and punctuality. It is very appealing to ESL students because the stories are written by other ESL students.

Price - $4.50

Reading Level - Ranges from low-beginning to low-intermediate

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Module 7 - Lesson plans

Plan the outline of 10 hours of instruction for the workplace literacy topic "Statistical Process Control" described below. Set out an overview of your plan, including objectives, materials and activities connected with your teaching. (You do not need to produce the materials-just describe what they would be.)

Statistical Process Control

A machine tool factory is planning to monitor its production with Statistical Process Control. All workers will need to be able to sample their machine's production, record the values, calculate averages, plot graphs, and decide whether to reset their machine based on the results.

Sample of Practice Exercise Response

Objectives:

To understand the overall method and purpose of SPC, to measure and record values to two decimal places, to calculate averages accurately, to plot points accurately, to recognize and act on graphical trends.

Plan for 5 two-hour lessons:

Lesson 1

Materials: several SPC charts (some completed); large cardboard number line showing two decimal places; production gauges; supplementary textbooks for extra practice with decimals.

Activities: introduction to company's need for SPC (from production manager) and overview of SPC process (from quality inspector), followed by questions from class; review of decimals (using number line) and small group practice of reading decimals from gauges. Homework (optional): textbook exercises on decimals.

Lesson 2

Materials: worksheets on calculating averages (some job-related, others everyday); large cardboard number line showing two decimal places; production gauges; real SPC forms; supplementary textbooks for extra practice with averages.

Activities: class discussion on use of averages; individual and small group work on averages worksheets; brief recap of reading decimals from gauges; calculating averages from gauge readings (including filling out real SPC forms). Homework (optional): textbook exercises on averages.

Lesson 3

Materials: graphs and charts from newspapers (gathered by class); graph reading worksheet (recording subject, axis labels, sample value pairs); graph plotting worksheet (from given axes and table of value pairs); several completed SPC charts and those from Lesson 2 with averages only; supplementary textbooks for extra practice with graphs.

Activities: class discussion of newspaper graphs and charts, concentrating on structure (subject, axis labeling, reading value pairs); individual work on graph reading worksheet, followed by small group checking of results; teacher-led session on plotting points and drawing graphs; individual work on graph plotting worksheet, followed by small group checking of results; class discussion of plotting for SPC charts, followed by practice with those from Lesson 2. Homework (optional): textbook exercises on graphs.

Lesson 4

Materials: graphs and charts from newspapers (as for Lesson 3, plus more examples gathered by class); several completed SPC charts and those from Lesson 3 with graphs drawn.

Activities: class discussion of newspaper graphs and charts, concentrating on meaning and trends; small group work discussing and writing about meaning and trends, moving from familiar graphs to unfamiliar; class presentations by small groups, explaining graphs they have analyzed; small group analysis of SPC charts from Lesson 3, followed by class discussion of on-the-job decisions, actions and consequences.

Lesson 5

Materials: production gauges; real SPC forms.

Activities: whole process of carrying out SPC on the production line-reading gauges, recording values, calculating averages, drawing graphs, making decisions; example modeled by teacher, small group work, then individual work, followed by class discussion of analyses; production manager (or quality inspector) returns to discuss effect of SPC on production and the company.

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Module 8 - Evaluation

Develop a set of 3 job-related scenario questions for the workplace document "OSHA Card" (shown in the course handbook). You should write one factual, one inference and one application question, and supply model answers for the questions.

Sample of Practice Exercise Response

OSHA CARD Job-related Scenario

The government has safety regulations and special labels in many workplaces. I am going to show you a safety card that many employees in America must keep in their pockets while working. This card shows how to understand safety labels.

Now go ahead and read the article. (Interviewer, wait while learner reads article. )

Now I am going to ask you some questions about the card.

1. (factual question)

What should you do when you see the letter "X"?

(Answer: Ask my supervisor. Directly explained in the text )

2. (inference question)

What is the most common type of protection from "A" to "K"?

(Answer: gloves. Requires the interviewee to look through several parts of the text and then to generalize the information )

3. (application question)

If a supervisor says you are about to do a job that requires sanding, which protective items would you choose?

(Answer: safety glasses and a dust respirator. Optional: gloves, combination dust/vapor respirator and a face shield. Requires the interviewee to interpret the information on the card and to relate it to a reallife situation. )

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