Introduction to Beautiful Day’s Granola Production English Curriculum
The Adult ESL Curriculum is a guide for preparing participants for work in Beautiful Day’s kitchen and packaging department and for preparing them for their next jobs. Beautiful Day’s Granola Production Training Program is approximately 350 hours in length; however, the formal ESL training is much shorter. Participants meet as a group once a week for an hour lesson, then meet one-on-one or in a smaller group for about 30 minutes later in the week. While they work, participants are exposed to English as they respond to requests to complete various tasks. They are encouraged to use English while they work. All participants are enrolled in ESL classes in adult programs in the community.
The lessons at Beautiful Day focus on these 6 themes:
- The Basics
- Kitchen Hygiene
- Production
- Social Interactions
- Ingredients
- Job Readiness
Lessons from the themed units are interwoven throughout the program. Beginning participants must immediately comply with kitchen hygiene practices and steps in production; and they must learn how to call in sick or late. As they settle into their work routines, they expand the vocabulary used for understanding recipes, production, packaging, and cleaning. The final third of the program focuses on understanding timecards, paystubs, applications, and resumes; and participants prepare for the process of getting their next jobs.
The Basics addresses numbers, clock time, calendars, schedules, and money. Participants need to understand calendars, to say what days and times they work, and to read numbers in Beautiful Day’s recipes. Some participants are or will be engaged in selling items and need to know the value of coins and how to make change. The Basics activities may be most helpful for nonliterate or preliterate participants.
Kitchen Hygiene addresses clothing worn in the kitchen, proper handwashing, and appropriate and inappropriate behaviors that promote high quality products. participants are urged to say what clothing they or their fellow participants need to wear in the kitchen. In later lessons participants learn the names of cleaning supplies and cleaning activities.
Production introduces participants to the names of appliances, utensils, and other tools used in the kitchen. It also introduces them to language describing production activities: preparing and measuring ingredients by weight and volume; mixing and heating products; packaging and labeling finished products. participants are introduced to prepositional phrases used to describe locations of supplies, verbs commonly used in any work environment (give, take, bring, get, etc.), and materials (metal, plastic, glass, etc.) used to describe utensils and containers.
Social Interactions helps participants introduce themselves; offer, receive, and request food (all of which are immediately useful during Beautiful Day’s community dinners); and ask for clarification in any conversation.
Ingredients activities review the names of grains, seeds and nuts, fruits, and flavorings used in Beautiful Day recipes.
Job Readiness activities begin with interpretation of Beautiful Day’s production schedule, completion of personal information forms, and practice calling in sick or late to work. Shown simplified time cards, they compute hours worked. Shown simplified pay stubs, they compute hours worked and the difference between gross and net pay. They document their education and work histories and practice speaking about them. They also practice asking questions they might ask on the first day of a new job.
Submitted by Karen Hlynsky
Curriculum Developer
Granola Production Training Program
Beautiful Day RI
