In another example of a lesson (illustrated below), Juan comes to the adult education program with a set of goals about reading. Again, the instructional plan considers Juan's life and prior experiences. Here, as in many cases, it is possible to use the total learning community for instruction in achieving Juan's goals.

Juan has just come to the learning center. He is single and lives with his mother. He currently works in a school office as a clerk. He has limited time available after work and after his volunteer activities. What he would like most to do is to learn the read the newspaper. In working with Juan, the following reading goal was selected:

The learner will read and construct meaning from text using a variety of materials related to own purposes.

In interviewing Juan, it is learned that he has strong visual learning skills which can help him achieve his goal. Some examples of possible instructional activities include:

• Juan will watch the news every night on television.
• The following days, Juan will look at the newspaper for photos of the same events he saw on TV.
• Once Juan has located pictures of the same events, he will look at the captions to read what they say. He may do this with a partner so they can help one another.
• Next, Juan will focus on the headlines, finding the key words from the captions.
• Finally, the instructor will ask Juan to look at the first paragraph of the article to find the important information. Juan will scan the paragraph for the answers to When? Where? Who? Why? and How?, and use a highlighter to highlight the answers.

During this series of activities, Juan has moved from doing what he feels comfortable wi th -- watching TV news -- to relating this to newspaper photos, to the written words of description in the captions, and finally to reading the important first paragraph.

Note that the above instructional activities are consistent with what is known about Juan. He is visual, as are the majority of the activities. The activities are flexible, meaning they can be done in relatively little time, especially during his spare time. They can also be completed among his friends and within his home. This is an example of using the larger community for learning experiences.

This lesson is another example of how learning standards can be addressed concurrently. The above instructional activities can easily focus on the history of the United States, world history, geography, or economics. Thus, two learning standards are being attended to at the same time by, again, being creative with instructional planning.