When the Need is Specific, the Curriculum Should Be, Too: In-House Curriculum Development for Adult Literacy Programs
Shannon Schuren, Literacy Council Coordinator at Sheboygan Family Resource Center
Denise Stueven, Workplace Literacy Program Supervisor at Sheboygan Family Resource Center
Adult literacy learners’ needs don’t always fit off-the-shelf curriculum. This panel discussion shares practical, field-tested strategies for developing literacy curriculum in-house, with discussion from three program practitioners who have built curriculum from scratch, including a health literacy curriculum for one-on-one tutoring pairs, a safety curriculum for adult refugee learners (water, bike, and outdoor safety) and a workplace English curriculum for workers in manufacturing settings.
Panelists will share their step-by-step development processes — needs assessment, drafting, piloting, and revision — and compare how that process shifts across delivery models, from one-on-one tutoring to group and workplace-embedded instruction. The discussion will also address the time, staffing, and expertise tradeoffs involved in building curriculum versus buying or adapting existing materials.
This session is especially relevant to programs serving English Language Learners, tutoring-based models, and workplace literacy settings where generic materials often miss the mark. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions of the panelists specific to their own learners and settings and will leave with practical examples they can apply to their own programs.
