Colleagues,
Many in our field think we need to teach adult learners about the Affordable Care Act, how it works, and where they can get good information for making decisions about their family health insurance. It has occurred to me that there are opportunities in teaching about health care insurance for teaching reading comprehension, numeracy problem solving and financial literacy as learners engage with this critical issue.
There is a collection of web-based numeracy lessons, called Mathalicious, http://www.mathalicious.com/ that was recommended by a math teacher at a workshop I did yesterday. Mathalacious is not specifically designed for adults, but this teacher said the lessons have been engaging and effective with the out-of-school young adults he teaches. He recommended these lessons as a way to help students enjoy and engage with mathematics, learn to think mathematically, and learn real world math. On the Mathalicious web site I noticed a sample lesson on health care insurance; it looks like an interesting approach to get a "twofer," that is, to teach both health literacy and numeracy in an engaging way.
I'm interested in knowing what you think of this lesson -- from a health literacy teaching perspective, from a numeracy teaching perspective, and from a financial literacy perspective, so I am posting this to all three CoPs.
Numeracy colleagues, If you are using mathalicious lessons with adult learners, how do you like them?
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com