Many teachers and program directors are looking for guidance on how to apply the Massachusetts ABE Curriculum Frameworks (CFs) to practice. SABES and ACLS are developing new training to help teachers to use the CFs more easily. In addition, several programs around the state are exploring their own ways to make the CFs alive and relevant to their work. In this article, we would like to share examples of how two programs set up successful curriculum development efforts. In both cases, staff members worked together and their directors were strongly supportive.

Bristol Community College
The ABE Program at Bristol Community College has been en-gaged in curriculum development using the ABE Curriculum Frameworks for several years. In FY2004 the program began to develop a new reading curriculum. They organized a group of interested teachers into a curriculum development team.

Director Eileen Cruz takes an active role as the curriculum development team leader; the team also includes teachers Kathleen Manning, Nan MacDonald, and Sarah Hague. This team stays in touch with the entire ABE staff through monthly staff meetings, when questions and issues are brought back to the whole staff for brainstorming and feedback.

Using the ELA Framework and Reading strand as a starting point, the team developed a scope and sequence for levels of ability, which they labeled ABE Pre-Reader; ABE; Pre-GED 1; Pre-GED 2, and GED. This scope and sequence was a first step toward organizing class levels around the ELA strands/standards, and a move toward greater clarity for teachers about what skills and knowledge they expect to cover in their classes. It also helped clarify what skills and knowledge learners need to move on to the next level.

Connecting to Research
The team then used the ELA standards as a kind of map for research. They began to review standard by standard what they were teaching. Using Research-Based Principles for Adult Basic Education Reading Instruction (see citation below), the group was able to flesh out the emerging reading curriculum with research-based practices. Kathleen Manning brought an additional research dimension to the process; she participated in a field test for a Harvard-based research project focusing on vocabulary development and fluency, areas identified as crucial for intermediate level (4–8 GRE).

The team's final step was to identify strategies, methods, materials, and tech resources for each standard at each level. However, they continue to meet and discuss in detail each strategy, and the program director remains strongly involved. The team has also developed a database so staff can manipulate the data to examine various elements such as level, strategies, or objectives.

Some of the successful strategies from the Harvard study include round-robin reading and using full novels in the classroom. The team has incorporated these strategies into the intermediate- level reading curriculum. Overall, the research supported and validated what they were doing based on the standards of the ABE Frameworks [no italics, plus title is shortened here].

Ludlow Area Adult Learning Center (LAALC)
This spring three practitioners from the LAALC—Deirdre Marley, Monica Ceccatto, and Kermit Dunkelberg—participated in SABES West's Introduction to Curriculum Frameworks and Curriculum Development course, sometimes known as CD101. The practitioners came to the training already convinced that curriculum development should be a program-wide effort. They also realized that a program-wide curriculum project is too big for any one individual to put together, so they set up a team.

As Kermit Dunkelberg, program coordinator, noted,"[CD101] has been made all the more valuable in that three out of four instructors were able to take part, and have contributed a lot of effort, enthusiasm, and creativity to developing curricula together. Working together, we drew on a much broader base of teaching strategies and materials."

The initial activities of CD101 ask participants to identify goals and interests of their own learners and then to build theme-based units of lesson plans, using the CFs for guidance. The LAALC team decided to develop a unit focusing on the human body, health and illness/symptoms, and medical treatment/doctor visits. They wanted to create English language lessons on this theme through the three class levels in their program. Later on, they integrated the Health CF strands of Prevention, Early Detection and Maintenance, and Promotion and Ad-vocacy. They also included ESOL CF strands and standards. The coordinator developed a chart indicating (and documenting) which ESOL strands would be covered by each activity. According to Kermit, "One especially helpful insight [about the ESOL Framework] was that the standards for each of the four basic strands-Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening-can be broken down into: communication for various purposes; structure/vocabulary, and strategies. This is a workable level of detail to internalize.

In the second session of the CD101 workshop, each team presents its curriculum materials and other participants in the workshop give feedback. Feedback focuses closely on how practitioners will know if their lesson units are effective, both for individual learners and for the class as a whole. These classroom-based assessments are teacher-designed and directly keyed to the stated learning objectives of particular classes.

Again to quote Kermit, "I value classroom-based assessments which are task-based, and are authentic. Assessment is also important to teachers' understanding of whether the material or skills they intended to teach were in fact what was learned!"

Curricula can take many forms. It can be presented in file folders, binders, notebooks, or a computer database; it can be organized according to theme or class level; it can reflect all of the above. Whatever the form, it should always be user-friendly, flexible, and accessible to teachers. The LAALC team eventually developed a series of lesson plans and materials on their health theme, organized by class level.

The LAALC team realizes, however, that curriculum building is not something you do once and then put the materials on the shelf, finished. On the contrary, the process is on-going and requires commitment, planning, and leadership. Therefore, the team will revisit their curriculum products on a semiregular basis as they are evaluated, updated, and changed to fit the changing needs of their learners.

According to Kermit,"the staff is looking forward to using common planning time, both during the year and during planning weeks, to develop more cross-class, theme-based curricula. We enjoyed the process."

Another goal of the team will be to incorporate the CFs into their teaching so they become second nature. According to Kermit, "the ESOL benchmarks are too detailed to be easily internalized, so the question arises, how do we incorporate them into planning and teaching? I think that if the benchmarks are revisited a few times a year and not obsessed over, they will eventually become more familiar." Recently, when doing teacher observations, he incorporated the benchmarks into his feedback to the teachers. "That is one way to build knowledge of the benchmarks into our conversations and thinking about instruction."

What can other programs take away from the experiences of these two programs? First, it makes sense for a critical mass of teachers in any ABE or ESL program to work as a team to develop curriculum and connect it to the CFs together. If the team is self-selected, all the better. LAALC realized that a curriculum project is just too big for any one individual to put together for an entire program, and that a curriculum often crosses over class levels. They also recognized that most teachers want to be involved in designing instruction; they do not want to have something handed down to them from above but want to base their curriculum on student interests and needs. Second, strong, supportive leadership is necessary to keep the curriculum development process ongoing. Finally, it is important to find ways to keep the curriculum work active, ongoing, refreshed, and easily shared among colleagues. Bristol Community College and LAALC found the Frameworks helpful in strengthening their own curriculum building process. Your own program can also collectively explore possibilities that work for you.

Annemarie Espindola is the associate coordinator/curriculum and assessment coordinator for Southeast SABES. She can be reached at: aespindo@bristol.mass.edu

Dori McCormack is the curriculum and assessment coordinator at SABES West. She can be reached at: dmccormack@hcc.mass.edu

Carey Reid is a staff developer at SABES's Central Resource Center and a member of the Curriculum and Assessment Team. He can be reached at: creid@worlded.org