Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Shopping, Clothing, Money
The following are a few suggestions for subjects to be covered in the ESL class.
Beginning students
- Recognize the coins and bills, their names and their values.
- Be able to inquire about the price of an item.
- Be able to count out an appropriate amount of money when told a total cost of items being purchased.
- Be able to count change if acting as a cashier.
- Be able to reconized whether they have been given correct change.
- Be able to return or exchange an item that they have purchased.
- Know in what situations things typically can or cannot be returned in the USA.
- Be able to read a bill.
- Be able to write checks.
- Be able to record the amount of money in the checkbook.
- Be able to talk about opening a bank account.
- Be able to make a deposit or withdrawal.
- Be able to use an ATM.
- Know the names of clothing types.
- Be able to describe what they are wearing.
- Be able to complement a classmate on what they are wearing, and respond appropriately to complements:
- That's a nice sweater. Is it new?
- That's a nice color on you.
Advanced Students
- Be able to look buy something online.
- Be able to fill out a credit card application.
- Understand responsible use of credit.
- Know strategies for establishing a credit history in this country.
- Be able to call a company to make inquiries about a bill.
- Be able to make a household budget.
- Be able to call or write a letter of complaint about poor service.
- Be able to recognize possible mail or other types of fraud.
I realize that you may not be able to cover all of these topics, but they are some suggestions.
In a textbook I was looking at recently, there was an interesting innovation. At the end of each major thematic unit, there was a student self-assessment
Early in December, I hope to send out some suggestions for holiday related topics as you wrap up the fall semester.