Teaching Notes

Assumption:

You have decided to incorporate SCANS into your ESL curriculum, so you are looking for ways to integrate these skills with your regular curriculum periodically. You will introduce SCANS ideas over the semester, and pre-teach how these can be useful to your students. These mingle, dictation, and learning log ideas will be an additional way for you to address this your stduents needs.

Objective: By completing these speaking exercises,  your students will:

• increase their self awareness of SCANS competencies they already possess and use;
• identify SCANS competencies they may need to gain or strengthen;
• increase their abilities to specifically name their areas of expertise; and
• increase their general communication skills.

Level: Intermediate community college students.

I imagine your class to be multi-level, with perhaps a vocational focus. Following California Model Standards used at CCSF, these materials are designed with Level 5/6 or higher students in mind. You could adapt up or down without much trouble.

Working with the vocabulary in both preview and recycle modes is probably a very good idea! For dictations you might want to write challenging words on the board or OHP, then erase completely or partially during dictation.
 

Suggested Procedures:

1. Be explicit with your students about the benefits of communicating their competencies at work, in school, and in the other communities to which they belong. Foster community building as a life asset.
2. Copy and distribute the student introduction letter or have your class read it on-line.
3. Students complete one mingle activity which introduces each SCANS concept. You can print these, find them in our Department's curriculum binder collection, or ask your students to print one for each group if you have a computer classroom. And of course, you could take the practically paperless route, and have students create the grid on recycled paper.
4. Give them a dictation which introduces more vocabulary and more in depth questions about each specific competency. Change this to a pair or team dictation if you like. Correct and discuss new vocabulary.
5. Students discuss their answers in pairs or small groups.
6. Students complete a learning log about the topics from the dictation questions. Perhaps they will email this to you, or hand it in another form.

Dictations:

1.  SCANS Competency I: Resources
2.  SCANS Competency II: Interpersonal
3.  SCANS Competency III: Information
4.  SCANS Competency IV: Systems
5.  SCANS Competency V: Technology

Notes:

There is great room for adaptation or spin-off work with these materials. I hope they will help you support your students abilities to toot their own horns a bit, and to keep them learning English in a meaningful way!