Teaching Basic Computer Skills in Simple English

Alternate title:  Computers: Can't Live With Them, Can't Throw Them Out the Window.

As hard as some people may find it to use a computer, getting the basic tasks of life accomplished without one is getting harder. Learners on the wrong side of the digital divide these days will find themselves struggling harder to find work, get an education, communicate with their doctors and pay their bills. In 2014, for example, students taking the GED exams will find themselves sitting at a computer keyboard from start to finish. 

Computer literacy, bluntly put, is literacy. Literacy organizations around the country are recognizing this fact and finding creative ways to help their learners begin to get basic skills. Some organizations offer on-line computer training. Using a computer to teach people how to use a computer makes sense. We do, after all, use English to teach English here and around the world. There is no substitute for hands-on learning.  

Take a look at the website of the Saint Paul (MN) Literacy Consortium: www2.spclc.org/curricula/computer#basic. They start from the very beginning—turning the computer on. They proceed to teach elementary vocabulary in very plain English with clear pictures. To give two examples, "DESKTOP: The screen
you see first when your computer turns on. DIALOGUE BOX: A window that pops up and
asks you questions."

Each short module focuses on a specific, basic skill. First come the elements of using the computer. The basics of the most common applications, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint, follow in a logical sequence of skills. After teaching how to open an Excel spreadsheet, they move on to entering data and maneuvering with the tab key and arrow pointers. Only then do they introduce more complex functions like sums and graphs.

If you are wondering where your learners skills stand (or for that matter, your own), you may check out the Northstar Online Digital Literacy Assessment.  This assessment and the computer skills resources I am sharing today came by way of a Wisconsin Literacy webinar. Kudos and thanks, Wisconsin Literacy! 

Literacy Network has classes in basic computer literacy this semester in Spanish Tuesday nights from 6:00 to 8:00PM.

Everybody Loves Homework

A tutor asked me how to assign homework to an adult learner. In her new student interview she had said she could do two hours of homework a week. We try to find out how learners feel about doing homework when we assess them to get a tutor, but the question always needs more probing.

A tutor should ask more questions, such as, ‘When, in a normal day, can you find a few minutes to spend by yourself? In that time, how much energy do you have?  Where do you go?’  Ask most students whether they want homework and they’ll say yes, which is what they think you want to hear. The more productive questions aim at finding out when and where she has the means to do something related to English. An adult learner needs a reasonably quiet space to read and write or listen to some English. She needs the physical stuff, whether it’s a computer, a notebook, worksheets, a CD player or the TV, to make that happen.

The tutor mentioned that her learner wants to work on verbs. I recommended that she try sending her home with a game to play between lessons. Here is a link to a document you can download at the Literacy Network website.  Clicking that should get you a Word document that you can print out. It has irregular past tense verbs, e.g. make – made, take – took, come – came. You can print that on card stock and cut the verbs out to make a ‘concentration’ game in which she has to pair the irregular past tense with the present 

Literacy network tries to be realistic about the amount of homework an adult learner with a  brutal work schedule and a family to care for can do. For that reason I encourage tutors to give homework that can be done in the little bits of time that they can snatch away from their busy work and family lives. And to increase your chances of the assignment getting done, try to make it fun.

An Inexpensive Resuorce: "Bob Books"

Literacy Network Tutor Connie Gruen reminded me of a low-cost resource for teaching phonics, the very popular “Bob Books.” Connie writes, “I used Bob Books with my learner—all the boxed sets….[they are] good because they isolate sounds, start with most common, and have simple pictures that correspond to text.”

Bob books are available at common outlets such as Amazon and Borders Books. You can buy one of the boxed sets pictured below for something in the neighborhood of $10 to $15 at Amazon. The sentences stick to a specific phonics concept. Looking at the illustrations you can see that they are clearly made for children, which may be inappropriate for some adult learners, but do not rule them out without taking a look at them. Connie is not the only tutor who says that this issue never even comes up when she uses the books. For beginning readers Bob may be the best thing you can use at the lowest price you can find. They’re worth a look. (more below)

Thanks, Connie! And remember to bookmark the blog, especially of you don’t always receive my e-mail messages. You’ll find announcements of two upcoming in-service workshops on the right side of the page. Please keep in touch. I enjoy getting your questions and hearing about your new ideas.