The curriculum materials in this guide are drawn mainly from in-depth interviews with six persons, five of whom live in the Germantown or Logan sections of Philadelphia and all of whom represent some of the diverse cultural backgrounds found in these two neighborhoods. In addition to the stories of these six persons, six additional stories present the reactions of adult basic education and advanced English-as-a-second-language students who field tested the materials. The ethnic backgrounds of the story tellers include Jamaican, Philippine, Ukrainian, Angolan, Cambodian, and African-American. Stories were chosen from the interviews and student responses according to the extent to which they might identify themes or raise issues that would matter to adult learners. The materials are intended to give learners the opportunity to express their experiences, ideas, and opinions in both written and spoken form. Each story has an accompanying set of suggested language activities, such as phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, discussion, and so forth, and is intended to be self-contained. Materials are not intended to be used by learners independently but with a teacher in a group setting. Appendixes contain background materials. (KC)