Abstract

This thesis documents the process of developing and evaluating a curriculum written for adult literacy students transitioning from their current literacy goals to academic and occupational pursuits. The curriculum, titled the Basic College Skills Transition Curriculum (BCS Transition Curriculum), was written for students at Project Read, a non-profit adult literacy program located at the Provo Library in Provo, Utah. The model used to design this curriculum is a variation on the ADDIE model (analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation), including the reiterative steps of research and evaluation. The lesson plans and materials in the BCS Transition Curriculum include the topics of U.S. History Vocabulary, Textbook Reading Skills, Lecture Note-Taking Skills, Study Organization Skills, Test-Taking Skills, Computer Skills, and Time-Management Skills. The curriculum is content-based, with each skill being taught through the content subject of U.S. History. This allows vocabulary to be recycled through each lesson plan and creates more opportunities for vocabulary acquisition. This also ties the curriculum together in an integrated experience that simulates an academic course in U.S. History. After the lesson plans were developed, tutors and students used the lesson plans and participated in an evaluation of the curriculum. Their feedback gave direction for revisions and provided ideas for the future development of this curriculum. Some lessons learned during this project about curriculum design include the importance of 1) including the curriculum designer's needs in the needs assessment; 2) clearly communicating needs and constraints to collaborators and stakeholders; 3) planning for problems and accepting limitations in the product; and 4) collaborating with others.

Degree

MA

College and Department

Humanities; Linguistics and English Language

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2014-06-10

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd7002

Keywords

ADDIE, adult literacy, college skills, curriculum design, document design, ESL literacy, lesson plan, tutoring, vocabulary acquisition

Language

English

Included in

Linguistics Commons

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