To the Facilitator
About the Rosalie's Neighborhood Series
Rosalie's Neighborhood is a parent awareness literacy series providing essential health care information for parents or primary caregivers of young children, ages birth to 6. The series includes three short books (written at about a fourth grade reading level), to help parents better understand the importance of providing preventive health and dental care for young children and of communicating with their children in ways that foster age-appropriate language development. The series can be used by teachers, tutors, health care providers, counselors, or anyone working with adults with limited literacy who may need guidance to fully comprehend and use vital health-related information. The materials were written to increase parents' knowledge and skills in seeking comprehensive health care for their children - and in understanding its importance - as they develop literacy and problem-solving skills.
The health information is presented in the narrative style through a series of conversations among friends. In the first story, Rosalie, an understanding grandmother, offers support and information about preventive health to Ginny and Felicia, two young mothers in the neighborhood. In the second story, the three friends share information they have learned about appropriate dental health for their children. The third story focuses on issues related to language development and communicating with children. As Rosalie's neighbors and friends learn together about health-related matters, so do the users of the materials.
About this Guide
This guide accompanies the three books in the series, Rosalie's Neighborhood: What is Preventive Health?, Why Do I Have to See the Dentist?, and Let's Talk. Section I of this guide explains several instructional techniques to help you build learners' literacy and thinking skills while you impart essential health information. The techniques help learners more deeply process and comprehend the information given in each book. Section 2 provides some ideas and information for adapting the materials for different audiences, such as working with adult beginning readers or non-native speakers of English. Section 3 includes suggestions for developing background knowledge prior to reading each book; discussion questions to be asked before, during, and after reading each chapter; masters of transparencies to introduce or expand information in the books; and reproducible literacy activities. Section 4 provides additional resources to extend the benefits of the series, such as suggested readings for children and parents or caregivers, resource organizations, and other curriculum materials to supplement the series. Section 5 contains a glossary, which can be copied and used for reference by students.
Preparing for Sessions
These materials were designed to be used in a one-on-one tutoring situation or in a group setting with a skilled facilitator. Your role is to ensure that learners enjoy, learn from, and act on the information. This guide will help you be more effective in that role.
First, thoroughly read the books in the Rosalie's Neighborhood series. Think about the background of your learner or learners, including their prior knowledge, experiences, and attitudes toward health and health care issues. Think about your personal knowledge, experiences, and attitudes toward health and health care issues. Consider how to build on this background to expand your and learners' knowledge about these ideas and issues.
Second, become familiar with the instructional techniques and information described in Sections 1 and 2 of this guide. These strategies will help you build learners' reading and problem-solving skills as they learn about preventive health. You may want to learn more about these techniques and to practice them if they are not familiar to you. Information about these approaches as well as training and other assistance are often available through local literacy councils, adult basic education programs, public libraries, colleges and universities, and state departments of adult education and/or state literacy resource centers. Additional resources can be located by searching the Internet for sites that focus on adult basic and literacy education.
Third, read instructional materials provided for the book and choose or make adaptations to the materials based on your knowledge of the needs and backgrounds of your learner(s). Consider the amount of time you have to cover the materials. Alternate activities so that learners do not become bored or frustrated with any one kind of activity, such as alternating reading and listening activities with class discussion, role plays, and instructional activities. Consider how you can provide a supportive environment that allows everyone to be successful with the materials.
Finally, use the information in Section 4 to supplement your sessions. Check out the suggested children's books from the local library and have them available for learners to look through and borrow. Schedule a visit to the library, and ask the librarian to meet with learners to discuss the library's resources and to help them locate health-related materials for themselves and their children. Identify people in the community to speak about the health-related concepts you are teaching; visit places in the community with your learner(s), such as a clinic, hospital, or dentist's office.
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