Building Basics: ESOL Toolkit for General Construction, Landscaping, Painting, and Plumbing

“Building Basics” is intended to be used with adult ESOL students in publicly-funded or community-based programs who have expressed a need and desire to learn English in the context of general construction, landscaping, painting, and plumbing.  Each curriculum contains four or five lessons.  Each of the lessons in the curriculum has its own objectives with a focus on integrating ELL and workplace competencies.  The lessons correspond to Life Skills Objectives, Equipped for the Future (EFF) Skills, and the Secretary’s Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) Skills. Lessons can be adapted to a workplace learning setting or delivered in the traditional classroom setting. Additionally, the materials are geared toward teaching students with English language proficiency levels corresponding to the three lowest National Reporting System (NRS) levels: Beginning Literacy, Low Beginning Literacy, and High Beginning Literacy. Some lessons are more complex than others; however, each lesson has activities that can be used with multiple levels of proficiency within one classroom. The Facilitator Guide provides guidance on the language difficulty for each lesson.