Interesting situation, Dottie!

 

Great idea to use prepaid phone cards w/the refugees. I really like the idea
of working the concept into the English language instruction.

 

I haven't done quite the same thing, but I've covered using the phone book
to access community services. I attached a beginner-level lesson for this
purpose that I created years ago as part of an EL/Civics curricular unit for
Fairfax County, Va. Maybe the types of activities in this lesson would give
your teachers some ideas for how to introduce the concept of phone cards . .
. 

 

For instance, you could write a very short (i.e., 6-8 sentences) story on
someone who is newly arrived to the country, makes a lot of phone calls
home, and then gets the phone bill - maybe something like this:

 

"Bahta comes to the United States. 

He misses his family. 

He calls his country every day. 

He gets the phone bill. 

It is $700. 

He says, "How can I pay for this?"

 

Get the students to brainstorm - maybe even write sentences on the board as
the students voice their ideas.

 

You could then introduce the concept of a phone card (maybe someone will
have come up with it at this point) - show them a phone card, ask if anyone
knows what it is, and maybe do a story like this . . . 

 

"Bahta buys a phone card for $50.

He calls his country.

He talks for 10 minutes.

It costs $20.

He calls his country again.

He talks for a long time.

He is cut off.

He says, "What happened?"

 

You could even work in some basic numeracy here - e.g., the phone card is
worth $50; he uses $20; how much is left?

 

Have fun with this! Great lifeskill concept for a lesson.

 

-- Betsy

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Betsy Lindeman Wong

Lead ESL Teacher

Alexandria Adult and Community Education 

 

  _____  

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Dottie
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2008 2:35 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2103] teaching pre-paid phone cards

 

Colleagues -- I need ideas for a lessons on using pre-paid phone cards!

 

Our agency is having a bit of a problem with a few of our adult refugee
clients running up HUGE phone bills.

When we have  their phones installed, we get "local access" only, but some
have managed to get their service changed to include unlimited services
(including international long-distance).  The agency pays the refugees phone
& other utilities for 3 mos., but NOT $700 phone bills!  

 

Most of the refugees use international phone cards to "call home".  Now the
agency bosses want me to cover the issue in our "Basics for the U. S."
classes (money; drinking/driving laws; carseats; 9-1-1; job safety, etc.).  

 

I've never used phone cards, so I'll need to learn the basics myself, but I
could use some suggestions for teaching.

 

Thanks!

 

Dottie Shattuck

ELT coordinator

Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society

Charlotte, NC

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