1. Make it Mine!
Strategies for Contextualizing Writing in the Adult Basic Education Classroom
Laurie Weston
Chair, Transitional Studies (252)
Pitt Community College
PO Drawer 7007
Greenville, NC

2. What is Contextualized Instruction?
Hands-on
Experience-based
Relevant to work, home,
community
Real Life
Addresses personal interests, goals

3. “A set of teaching, learning and assessment practices that:
are aimed directly at developing the skills and knowledge that adults need to deal with specific situations or perform specific tasks, and
that they have identified as important and meaningful to themselves ‘right now’ in their everyday lives…..
In addition, rather than focus only on the possession of basic skills and knowledge, contextualized instruction focuses on the active application of those skills and that knowledge ‘in a context.’ (And this context should be as ‘real-world’ as is feasible.)”
(Equipped for the Future, retrieved 10/22/13)
A collection of practices that “relates subject matter
content to real world situations; motivates students to make connections
between
knowledge and its applications to their lives as family members, citizens, and
workers; and encourages student persistence.”
(Motheread/Wake Tech Research Project on Contextual Teaching, retrieved 10/22/13)

4. Contextualized Writing Strategies
To Be or Not To Be?
Pardon Me…..
SnapShot Bio
Parts of Speech??
Silly Proverbs
Where I’m From Poem

6. Pardon Me, but your Participle appears to be dangling.

7. Now You Try… Riding along on my bicycle, the dog knocked me over.
Donna saw the ball walking by the lake.
I found a dollar walking home.
He made a table for his aunt with wooden legs.
The young girl was walking the dog in a short skirt.
The dog was chasing the boy with the spiked collar.
The library has several books about dinosaurs in our school.
While camping, I saw a bear in my pajamas.

8. Snapshot Bio Activity
Provides the opportunity to examine personal experiences with culture, family, history, and identity
Connects writing with social networks, websites, and the Internet in an unthreatening way
Provides experience with technology
Contextualizes learning
Inspires creativity
Promotes community within classroom
Provides a basic framework for beginning essay writing

9. Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll
Twas brillig and the slithey toves
did gyre and gimble in the wabe.
All mimsy were the borogoves
and the momeraths outgrabe.
Jabberwocky by Lewis Carroll

10. Silly Proverbs Game subject/verb agreement
Birds of a feather flock together.
Birds of a feather make light work.
Great minds think alike.
Great minds are not always what they seem.
Bad news travels fast.
The early bird travels fast.
Silly Proverbs Game subject/verb agreement

11. Where I’m From, By George Ella Lyon

12. Writing as a component of Project Based Instruction
Collaborative groups or individual
Competitive or display
Career oriented or topic of students’ choosing
Make writing a component of the project
Depending on student level, include a template for scoring or feedback
Connects with student goals, interests, needs

18. lweston@email.pittcc.edu (252) 493-7439