Workplace Essential Skills scene summaries help teachers pinpoint resources

“DVDs are a wonderful tool for teachers because they can get exactly to the bit of learning they need for students in their classrooms,” says Tonya Crum, director of workforce development and training at Kentucky Educational Television (KET).

Now they are an even smarter tool because teachers can use scene summaries to pinpoint exactly what they want students to work on.

“With the scene summaries, they can plan their lessons by simply finding what is contained in each segment of the DVD,” says Crum. “The scene summaries are written concisely so that teachers can print them directly from the Teacher Resources section on LiteracyLink and add them to their Teacher’s Guide. It’s an excellent addition to help teachers plan lessons in an even quicker fashion than before to meet learner goals and expectations.”

Here’s an example:

“If you are using a DVD, ‘A Landscaping Problem’ doesn’t tell you much,” Crum points out. “If you use the scene summaries, however, you would know that the landscaping problem is that the boss wants to write the customer a letter. The whole scene talks about solving problems by writing. Sometimes students think they don’t need writing skills. This gives teachers a way to show students why they need writing practice and that writing is necessary in all kinds of jobs.”

To find the summaries, log in at www.pbs.org/literacy. Then click on Teacher Resources, then click on WES Scene Summaries