Health and Literacy Compendium Home Page
Materials Index Page

Background Information about Health and Literacy | Materials Development and Assessment
Curricula, Curriculum Guides, and Lessons | Readers (Stories and Factbooks)
Bibliographies and Databases

Some of the curricula included here were intended for use in literacy classrooms; other curricula were developed to teach health to adults in community settings. All of the materials were written by people aware of the need for easy-to-understand health information.

Several criteria used for selecting these curricula came recommended by ABE and ESOL teachers. Included are materials that teach basic skills, such as grammar or spelling, as well as health content. For the most part, student writings are included only when they are accompanied by teacher commentary about how to use the materials. A few curricula help with the assessment of learner interests and needs regarding health. Others attempt to develop critical thinking skills, as caring for one’s health or the health of one’s family requires a person to assess options and make decisions for her or himself.

The reading levels of curricula are noted only when provided by the author or distributor. The Reading Level Index can also help with assessing appropriate audiences for various curricula.

The majority of these curricula are in English. For multilingual materials about a particular health issue, see the Language Index or the section titled Bibliographies and Databases. Many of the materials listed under Bibliographies and Databases will provide citations to limited literacy multilingual brochures and pamphlets.

Other curriculum guides are included in the section titled Background Information, as they cover a broader spectrum of information than the curriculum guides included here.

Available from Kentucky Cancer Program; Lucille Parker Markey Cancer Center; 800 Rose Street; Lexington, KY 40536-0098; phone (606) 323-6541; free.

These two booklets, each 25 pages, were developed for adult new readers in Kentucky, but include valuable information for all women. The materials were designed to encourage early cancer detection using accurate and culturally sensitive materials for people from Kentucky who cannot read above an eighth grade level. Literacy tutors, nurses, community workers, and health educators provided ideas that helped shape these booklets. The booklets follow facts about mammography and Pap tests with short stories and thought-provoking follow-up questions. Both simple line drawings and clear black and white photos enhance the work. The 85-page teacher's guide could be used in adult education settings or by health care providers, but it was designed to teach health content, not grammar, reading, or writing. It includes the text from the two booklets in the Take Charge of Your Health! series plus instructional techniques to be used on each page. It includes a glossary and phone numbers for more information. Also available are the two videos: For Your Peace of Mind, Get a Mammogram and Woman Talk: A Story Promoting Cervical Health. These videos, while directed at Kentucky women, are great models of how to create relevant materials for one’s target community.

Keywords: Breast cancer / Cervical cancer / Mammography

Available from: Full Blast Productions; Box 1297; Lewiston, NY 14092-8297; phone (905) 468-7558; fax (905) 468-5706; $15.95.

This 35-page curriculum is designed for ESOL or ABE classrooms with readers at different ability levels, ranging from grades six-10, in the same class. (Jigsaw units are curriculums designed for multi-level students working together.) Student collaboration is required, thus helping the students to become active participants in the learning process. The purpose of the curriculum is to help people improve their reading skills, but discussion and writing are also part of the curriculum. The curriculum includes readings and activities that cover four perspectives on abortion: pro choice, pro life, a wife and mother, and a husband and father.

Keywords: Abortion

Available at: http://www.otan.dni.us/cdlp/lllo/home.html; free.

This interactive Web site links to short readings with multiple choice exercises and vocabulary designed for adult learners. Useful for teachers using technology in the classroom, this is also a good starting point for students doing their own research or for patients interested in basic facts. Topics covered include Alzheimer's disease, smoking, domestic violence, child safety, poison prevention, skin cancer, alcohol abuse, AIDS, attention deficit disorder, medical insurance, and more. There are currently no plans to update these materials or to continue adding materials.

Keywords: AIDS/HIV / Alzheimer’s disease / Child safety / Domestic violence / Substance abuse

Available from: National Institute for Literacy Clearinghouse; CEGA Services, ATTN: Lisa; 3900 Industrial Avenue; Lincoln, NE 68504; phone (202) 632-1500; fax (402) 464-5931; free.

For free at: http://www.worlded.org/us/health/docs/Rosalie/.

This kit provides information about preventive health and dental care for ESOL, ABE, or health teachers to use with parents or primary care givers of young children. The kit includes two guides for facilitators with overheads and class activities, five copies each of three stories, and bookmarks and immunization cards for the students. The three short books, illustrated in black and white, discuss preventive care and techniques for communicating with young children. Rosalie, a nurse's aide and grandmother, answers her neighbors' questions about caring for their children and teaches them to keep track of their children's health in "health logs." The Facilitator's Guide includes suggestions and guiding questions for using the books in a classroom setting, transparencies for classroom use, and suggested resources for further reading and organizations to contact. Vocabulary lists are included, but no grammar is explicitly taught. Grade level: 4.

Keywords: Family health / Oral health / Parenting / Preventive care

Available from: Fearon/Janus/Quercus; phone (800) 848-9500; $149.95.

This 700-page curriculum was designed by and for teachers of ABE or adult ESOL students interested in using competency-based health information in the classroom. The curriculum can be used in multi-level or single level classrooms, and has been tested in urban, suburban, and rural settings. The lessons can be easily pulled out from the binder and photocopied, yet the teacher’s guide includes ideas for customizing the lessons for one’s students. Topics covered include staying healthy, nutrition, medicines, children's health, adult health, first aid, emergencies, the medical care system, and dental health. The adult health section has screening information about breast and cervical cancer, TB testing, and more. The medical care section describes the difference between general practitioners and specialists, and tells how to find a doctor. Each chapter includes assessment materials, clear objectives, and some ESOL practice exercises such as irregular verbs, vocabulary, and dialogues. Clear instructions tell the teacher what to prepare in advance. Classroom teaching activity hints are provided for each level of student, including things such as using newly learned words in Scrabble games and using cut-up comic strips to practice sequencing of information. The health content is all carefully fact- checked and includes reference citations. Grade level: 1-4

Keywords: Family health / First aid / Medical care -- Finding and using / Nutrition / Oral health

Available at: http://www.mlrc.stthomas.edu

This publication, forthcoming on the Web, is geared for at-risk, adult literacy students. It includes activities, illustrations, and reproducible worksheets. The curriculum was developed for African Americans facing stress from homelessness, substance abuse, poverty, or legal problems, but could be used with any population with similar concerns. Intended to be used with groups of two to 12 students, its main purpose is to make students feel comfortable talking about their feelings and stress. Topics covered include depression, relationships and family, anger, and abuse. The teacher’s manual includes background information about mental "illnesses" and tips for teaching such sensitive topics. To inquire about when it will become available, phone the South Dakota Adult Literacy Resource Center at (612) 962-5570.

Keywords: African Americans / Mental health

Available at: http://novel.nifl.gov/susanc/healthhome.htm; free.

These seven online pages are part of a Web-based curriculum on Teaching and Learning with Internet-based Resources: A Set of Lesson Plans and Activities. The URL for the entire curriculum is http://novel.nifl.gov/susanc/inthome.htm. While the main purpose of this curriculum is to help adults, whether they be literacy students, instructors, or others, get familiar with using the Internet, several of the examples used are about finding health information. A list of hypothetical scenarios that require the learner to find health information is presented, along with a set of urls for recommended health information sources. Also included are activity sheets to help the learner plan a search strategy and evaluate the results of her or his search. This Web site could not be used as an "instant lesson," as there is not enough supporting information. However, it could spark some ideas or provide some background information for a teacher interested in creating an online lesson about health. Susan Cowles conducted this research as part of a 1996-97 NIFL fellowship, and adult learners in Oregon field-tested the project activities.

Keywords: Health education / Internet (computer network)

Available from: EPA Region 1; Attn: Alice Kaufman; 1 Congress Street, Suite 1110; Boston, MA 02114; phone (617) 918-1064; free.

This curriculum is intended for use in ESOL classrooms, particularly for students with children. It includes a teacher's guide; a glossary in Chinese, Haitian-Creole, Khmer, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and Vietnamese; and beginner and intermediate/advanced lessons. The topics covered include going to the doctor; identifying symptoms of illness; making water safe to drink; preparing and storing food; avoiding dangers in the dirt; finding the right home; identifying household hazards; making your home safe; and renovating your home. Each lesson includes dialogue, vocabulary, and discussion points. Each lesson includes information and gives people a chance to practice taking action to have "lead safe families." Safety tips and role plays are in many chapters. Clear illustrations are included.

Keywords: Child safety / Immigrants / Lead poisoning

Available from: World Education; 44 Farnsworth Street; Boston, MA 02210-1211; phone (617) 482-9485; $40.

These materials--a video, photonovella (dialogue with photos), and teacher's guide--were designed to present information about mammography, breast self-exam, and pap smears while addressing some of the barriers to screening expressed by people with limited-literacy skills and/or adults who are learning to speak English, particularly Latinas. In the story, Carmen finds a lump in her breast and needs to have a mammogram. Then she talks with her friend Sophia, and helps Sophia get a pap smear. The story was produced in collaboration with adult educators, adult learners, health educators, and health providers. The teacher's guide includes a glossary and activities taken from the Health Education and Adult Literacy Project. It presents a participatory approach to using the video in the classroom. While it is not recommended that the video be shown without a preliminary discussion of breast and cervical cancer, ways to bring up the topic are suggested in the teacher’s guide.

Keywords: Breast cancer / Cervical cancer / Latin Americans / Mammography

Available from: Grab Bag Publishing; 635 Markham Street; Toronto, Ontario M6G 2M1 CANADA; phone (416) 588-3900; fax (416) 588-4874; elizabethg@VylatNet.com; $40.

Almost 100 pages of large-print, reproducible health lessons are included in this publication designed for ESOL teachers. The indices make it easy to look up activities based on either the skill-acquisition desired, such as completing a medical form or using the telephone, or the grammar or vocabulary being taught, such as learning the simple past tense or names of body parts. Many of the lessons are designed as games, whether they be crossword puzzles or board games. The lessons encourage discussion and are adaptable for multi-level classrooms. The lessons help the learners navigate the health care system; they also cover home care for common, mild conditions but not for specific diseases.

Keywords: Medical care -- Finding and using

Available from: Lutheran Settlement House; 1340 Frankford Avenue; Philadelphia, PA 19125; phone (215) 426-8610; fax (215) 426-0581; $12.

Designed for ABE and GED students reading at the sixth through eighth grade reading level, this 88-page curriculum manual supplies skits, stories, facts, and lessons about the AIDS epidemic. Not all the statistics included are current, and most of the resources listed are specific to Philadelphia, but there is still much valuable material. This curriculum manual helps people learn about AIDS through an emotional exploration of the subject. People also gain some basic factual information about the disease and how it is spread. The materials were field-tested with adult educators.

Keywords: AIDS/HIV

Available at: http://www2.wgbh.org/mbcweis/ltc/ebos/intro.html Scroll down to desired curriculum; free.

This Web site includes both curricula and an overview of the Massachusetts Department of Education-funded Comprehensive Health Program. As part of this multi-year Comprehensive Health Program, the Harborside Community Adult Learning Program collaborated with the East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. The four abridged, Web-based curricula include lengthy health lesson plans for Spanish literacy and health; Spanish literacy and nutrition; ESOL level 3; and ESOL level 4. Also included are lesson ideas for how to involve the students in deciding what to study, and teacher comments about the outcome of each lesson actually carried out in a classroom. These are more like curriculum guides than actual lessons, as factual supporting materials are not provided. Topics covered include AIDS, nutrition, health care in home countries (home remedies), immigrants’ rights, anatomy, and tobacco.

Keywords: AIDS/HIV / Anatomy and physiology / Immigrants / Nutrition

Available from: Hudson River Center for Program Development, Inc.; 102 Mosher Road; Glenmont, NY 12077; phone (518) 432-4005; fax (518) 427-9718; free.

This extensive kit of nine subject-based curricula, each between 30 to 60 pages long, with supporting teacher resources, was created for adult education teachers and for ABE, ESOL, or GED students who want to learn about health. Topics covered include sexual abuse, health insurance, health care resources, first aid, exercise, nutrition, women's health, alcohol and other drugs, and child safety. The kit includes audiocassettes for students, teacher’s guides, student workbooks, and a videotape to encourage teachers to use health in the classroom. The teacher’s guides do not include grammar lessons, but focus instead on the teaching of the health content. Teachers and students from adult literacy programs reviewed the guides. There is a list of organizations to contact for further information, but most are New York-based rather than national groups. Glossaries are included for each curriculum. The teacher’s guide for the women’s health curriculum, Women’s Health: Body Wisdom for Every Woman, is now on the web at: http://www.hudrivctr.org/dnload.htm#adedres/womanhth.zip.

The teacher’s guide for the child safety curriculum, Child Safety: A Healthy Start, is now on the web at: http://www.hudrivctr.org/dnload.htm#chdsaf.

Keywords: Child safety / Exercise / First aid / Medical care -- Finding and using / Nutrition / Sexual abuse (child sexual abuse, adult rape) / Substance abuse / Women's health

Available from: Marjorie Jacobs; Community Learning Center; 19 Brookline Street; Cambridge, MA 02139; phone (617) 349-6371; free.

Sample pages available at: http://www2.wgbh.org/MBCWEIS/LTC/CLC/tobaccohomepage.html

This is a 105-page, six unit curriculum, with an additional 56-page teacher’s guide, for ESOL, ABE, and pre-GED programs. It includes essays about the history and economics of tobacco; cigarette advertising; why people smoke; the dangers of smoking for smokers and nonsmokers; and how to quit. Each essay includes black and white illustrations, questions to test for comprehension, and activities to personalize the learning experience, such as making a family tree to trace smoking histories. The teacher's guide includes some suggested lesson plans. The material was tested with over 200 low-income adult education students from around the world and from the United States, ranging in age from 18 to 55, who were studying at the Community Learning Center in 1994-1995. It includes organizational resources to contact for more information and a bibliography for further reading. The curriculum was designed for native and non-native English speaking adults who can read at a six-12 grade reading level.

Keywords: Smoking

Available from: EDRS (ERIC Document Reproduction service); 7420 Fullerton Road; Suite 110; Springfield, VA 22153-2852; phone (703) 440-1400; fax (703) 440-1408; ERIC Document #404436; $37.89.

This 200-page report and curriculum was originally written for the National Institute for Literacy, the agency which sponsored this one-year project to develop and test a health curriculum that would help young, limited literacy adults to maintain better health. The curriculum was designed to teach African American students in Chicago how to read health information and to develop values and attitudes that would help them make healthy choices. This report describes the process used to bring together public health nurses and health educators to develop and teach a curriculum at community agencies to pre-GED and GED level students using the expertise of a literacy specialist. The report describes both how the researchers evaluated the teaching process and their outcomes and conclusions. They found the process of involving students in the educational experience to be time intensive and to require flexibility in the teachers, but was effective in communicating knowledge and changing health attitudes and behavior. The eight units covered in the curriculum include nutrition for health and economy; human development; parenting; dealing with stress, social isolation and family violence; human sexuality; AIDS and other STDs; problems of safety; and accessing and using health care and health information. Each unit has lesson plans with objectives, materials and learning activities. Some also include vocabulary, handouts, worksheets, checklists, and tests.

Keywords: African Americans / AIDS/HIV / Domestic violence / Literacy -- Research / Medical care -- Finding and using / Nutrition / Parenting / STDs / Stress / Urban populations / Young adults

Available from: World Education; 44 Farnsworth Street; Boston, MA 02210-1211; phone (617) 482-9485; $20.

This 197-page manual is intended to be a practical guide for ABE and ESOL teachers interested in using breast and cervical cancer as topics for classroom learning. Four teachers and the students they worked with have documented the process of bringing breast and cervical cancer into the classroom. This is a sourcebook of ideas and strategies for how to develop learner-centered curriculum on sensitive health topics that could be of use to health educators as well as literacy teachers. Included is information about participatory curriculum development, specific tools and activities for classroom use, and narratives and stories that document the work of the teachers and learners involved in the Massachusetts Cancer Education and Literacy Initiative.

Keywords: Breast cancer / Cervical cancer / Health education

Available at: http://www2.wgbh.org/mbcweis/esquare. Click on "Health Center"; free.

This Web site, still in development, includes teacher and student-created materials on a variety of health topics, including smoking cessation, headaches, stress, home remedies in the Hispanic community, and nutrition. The nutrition section includes Chinese recipes and herbs. However, not all the content is accurate; some material is included based on student opinions. The nutrition piece gives examples of how a teacher incorporated some talk about nutrition into her ESOL classroom. The smoking piece includes some online grammar exercises; for example, using "a" and "the" with medical words ("a cold," "the flu").

Keywords: Headaches / Immigrants / Nutrition / Smoking / Stress

Available from: Cambridge Prevention Center; 552 Massachusetts Avenue; Cambridge, MA 02139; phone (617) 441-0700; $5.

This 185-page curriculum, written for ESOL and ABE instructors, includes teaching materials about alcohol, drugs (over-the-counter, prescription, and illegal varieties), tobacco, HIV/AIDS (key concepts and ways to prevent it), and taking action in one’s family and community around issues of substance abuse and HIV. Materials include role plays, problem-posing, brainstorming, true-false exercises, quizzes, cloze exercises, word puzzles, and vocabulary lists.

Keywords: AIDS/HIV / Drugs (legal) / Smoking / Substance abuse

Available at: http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/CALL9.html; free.

This Web-based curriculum of AIDS education activities is quickly becoming dated; at least one url can no longer be found, and statistical information on a quiz is from 1996. It includes exercises involving the use of poetry and personal stories. It is included here both as an example of how to use the Internet to create health and literacy curriculum, and for teaching how to approach sensitive subjects through an emotional or personal approach.

Keywords: AIDS/HIV

Available from: Council on Family Health; 225 Park Avenue South, Suite #1700; New York, NY 10003; phone (212) 598-3617 for single copy; phone (212) 725-3200 for larger quantities; free.

This 50-page ESOL teacher's guide includes lessons for beginning, intermediate, and advanced level students. It teaches why it is important to read medicine labels, how to do so, and how to ask the pharmacist for help. It includes dialogues, key concepts and vocabulary, and question-and-answer exercises. The teacher's glossary is quite extensive.

Keywords: Drugs (legal)

Available from: World Education; 44 Farnsworth Street; Boston, MA 02210-1211; phone (617) 482-9485; $10.

This 120-page curriculum guide was developed as part of the Health Education and Adult Literacy (HEAL:BCC) Project. As such, it is intended to be used as part of a larger adult education unit on breast cancer. While it makes references to parts of the HEAL Kit, it can also be used as a stand-alone piece. Most of the lessons were written for classroom instruction, but much of the guide could be given to students working independently. It gives an overview of environment and environmental health; it describes how to take action when there is an environmental problem in one's community; and it discusses how organochlorine chemicals may be a factor in some cases of breast cancer. It includes readings, suggested lessons and GED practice, and references to further readings and organizations. The readings include a fictional story about a woman diagnosed with breast cancer. The material has been reviewed for accuracy by a team of representatives from educational and governmental agencies with expertise in health and literacy issues.

Keywords: Breast cancer / Environmental health

Available from: The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs; 1611 North Kent Street, Suite 910; Arlington, VA 22209; phone (703) 528-4141; fax (703) 528-4145; $25 teacher manual; $12 student workbook.

This 125-page student workbook and additional 66-page teacher's manual provide a simple curriculum for teaching nutrition and English to beginning level ESOL students. The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs field-tested the curriculum with teachers across the country and conducted focus groups with students from a variety of ethnic backgrounds when creating the curriculum. Simple black and white line drawings help explain the written text. Topics covered include healthy foods, how the body works, healthy cooking, keeping foods safe, smart shopping, WIC, and food stamp information. The teacher's guide includes lesson plans. Some lessons use the "Language Experience Approach," which builds vocabulary using the students’ own words. Other lessons use "Total Physical Response," which involves learning through doing, such as following recipes to cook a meal.

Keywords: Nutrition

Available from: The Association of Farmworker Opportunity Programs; 1611 North Kent Street, Suite 910; Arlington, VA 22209; phone (703) 528-4141; fax (703) 528-4145; $25.00 teacher manual; $12.00 student workbook.

These books--a 100-page student workbook plus an extra 60 pages for the teacher--were designed for ESOL students and teachers to introduce pesticide safety information. The lessons about pesticides describe what they are, how they cause illnesses, how to avoid them, and what to do when exposed to them. Also included are lessons about other farm safety concerns and farm workers' rights. Each lesson includes vocabulary, basic grammar, and a skills-building component. Examples of skills-building include learning to give directions or to identify body parts. The books have simple black and white line drawings, with lots of white space. Organizational resources for further information are included.

Keywords: Agricultural laborers / Occupational health and safety

Available from: Kristin Kellom; Coalition Coordinator; Tobacco Free Greater Franklin County Coalition; 72 Federal Street; Greenfield, MA 01301; phone (413) 774-4678; free.

This approximately 30-page curriculum guide presents a four-week session on stress reduction that includes art activities, breathing techniques, stretching (yoga), positive self-talk, hypnosis/relaxation, and massage. While originally designed for mothers, it is adaptable for mixed-gender audiences. The original plan was to create a smoking cessation resource, but when stress was determined to be a large factor in people's smoking, it seemed best to focus first on stress reduction. It includes information about how to adapt the materials for limited literacy audiences.

Keywords: Smoking / Stress

Background Information about Health and Literacy | Materials Development and Assessment
Curricula, Curriculum Guides, and Lessons | Readers (Stories and Factbooks)
Bibliographies and Databases