Health Literacy Lesson Plans

The www.nifl.gov website, internet home of the National Institute for Literacy, has quite an extensive collection of useful items. Today the site led me to a pre-made lesson plan for health literacy*. The lesson plan has helpful pictures that described medical situations, e.g. “[to] be dizzy or bleeding, to have nausea, to have chest pain” and so on. You can find it here: http://esl.adultinstruction.org/documents/LessonPlanSamplefrom50-01-53IntermediateLowCourseOutline-2.pdf

The plan includes a simulated 911 emergency call using a dialog that can be changed depending on the emergency you want to practice. The lesson plans refer to a group of students, but do not let that discourage you from using them. After all, a tutor and a learner are a group—of two. Most of the items can be adapted for a single pair. Try recruiting your learner's family members to join in. Imagine, for example, your learner’s grade school kid playing the role of a victim of stomach cramps, chest pain or dizziness while your learner practices making an emergency call. Most children I know would greatly enjoy that kind of play.

* NIFL directed me to literacynet.org/esl/teachertutor.html (no relation to this organization), which had links for tutors. That led to esl.adultInstruction.org, which had pre-made lesson plans.