The What's Up? series presents many activities that build skills and knowledge of U.S. culture for adults in three volumes.
Each unit prominently features activities that develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills and contains nine sections: Survey, Think, Read, Understand, Listen, Talk, Write, Apply, and Homework. Each unit also includes:
§ Readings adapted specifically for these students from actual news reports--selected for the interest level of the storylines and usefulness of the information, then carefully re-written to an appropriate language level
§ A variety of authentic products or realia (menus, advertisements, forms, etc.) to help adult students develop cultural literacy skills
§ A cloze dictation exercise to develop listening skills
§ A consistent lesson format for quickly mastering directions and completing activities independently
§ An opening survey with many useful applications in the classroom
Each unit can be completed in one week, with the homework assignment occurring over the weekend. The lesson format is consistent throughout the book, so once students have mastered the directions, they will be able to complete the activities independently.
Book 1 is appropriate for students at the true beginning level.