I've been catching up with all of the comments and messages that came in yesterday.  I have been teaching pre-literate and beginning-level literacy students for around 15 years.  The classes are always a mix of a few true beginners in a group of people with more skills, but a lack of confidence in the basics.  I'm lucky in that we have a large enough program that we don't have the wide range of skills in one class that some people have talked about.
 
My classes focus on each student's personal information, basic personal history, and personal experience such as family and daily routine.  Most of the materials I use are of my own making so that I can incorporate the names of current students into them.  I also use a lot of reproducibles that are simple and targeted.  In the beginning of a quarter, I limit the vocabulary focus to 6-8 words, and later in the quarter the list in a single lesson can be around 16 words, knowing that some of them are already familiar.  Pictures matched with words are important.  Pre-literates students can expand their spoken vocabulary through pictures, even if they are slower to match the picture with a written word.
 
I always spread a lesson out over several class sessions.  Repetition is so important to remembering new things.  We start simple and then build slightly more difficulty into each part of the lesson.  This also helps to keep the more able students engaged.  We do a lot of small group work.  I mix the groups up ability-wise.  Those who are the least able can listen and watch, and then join in when they are comfortable.  I don't have assistants in my class, so I let the stronger students assist the weaker ones, and they usually do a terrific job.  When it comes to writing practice in the class, I often simplify what I expect from those who are just learning.  This term I had two women who couldn't copy from the board or even from a different line of writing, so I wrote for them and had them trace my writing.  I make adjustments like this all of the time.  I can keep the pace of class correct for the students who know more and have more confidence, while assuring the others that they don't have to accomplish the same things.
 
On the question of beginning a class, we start everyday with the date and the weather.  We put a couple sentences on the board that everyone can copy.  We can talk about capital letter use and periods when appropriate.  Next we do a verbal greeting and question that gets everyone out of their seats and warmed up for the class.  I tell them how many people I want them to talk to, for example, 7 classmates, so that they don't say good morning to one person and sit down.  I often have to go model the short dialog for those who need help, but after a couple of examples, they do okay.  I do the same kind of one-to-one modeling in other kinds of activities, too.  To start a new term, we cover the few supplies that a student needs to bring to school each day, we learn the class schedule, we see who knows the alphabet and numbers from 0-10, and we get acquainted with each other.  I also include something more fluid, such as one thing I like and one thing I don't like, or words to describe people, or some basic gestures that we use.
 
I'm happy for this conversation and look forward to seeing more ideas through the week.
Annette Stofer
ESL--South Seattle Community College

 
 
 -----Original Message-----
From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Betsy Wong
Sent: Monday, December 10, 2007 5:56 AM
To: 'The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List'
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 1950] Practical Strategies for Working withLiteracy-Level Adult English Language Learners



 Happy Monday, Everyone!  And welcome to this discussion on working with literacy level learners. As teachers and mentors to adult ESL teachers, one of the questions that we frequently hear is, "What can I do with my literacy learners?"  We hope that the discussion that we will all have this week will address that question and more. 

 

Where to start?  How about the way we start a class, by activating prior knowledge and experiences and clarifying some of the expectations and goals of our discussions over the next few days?  Following is the description of a representative adult ESL literacy level class.  We offer it as a discussion starter.  Take a look at it and think about what questions and comments it brings to your minds.  For example: 

 

- What would be running through your mind, as the teacher walking into this class?  

- What pieces of information do you think are important here?  

- How would you find out the students' needs and goals?  

- What would you do the first night? 

- What would you do to make students feel comfortable and secure? 

- How similar or different is this from your experiences with literacy level classes?  

- What other points would you add or revise in a scenario like this, based on your experiences?

 

The Class/Classroom

The class is offered as part of a lifeskills-based curriculum.  It meets in a high school classroom two nights a week for two hours each night for a total of twelve weeks.  Learners buy a textbook and workbook at the "literacy" level of an integrated textbook series used by the program.  They have access to class sets of picture dictionaries and the teacher has access to a variety of reproducible literacy materials and flashcards. The classroom walls have a lot of high school-oriented print, so much so that the adult ESL teacher often uses flipchart paper to cover it up, so students don't experience overload.

 

The Students

The students all tested as literacy level students, but still exhibit important differences.  For example, Amina has never been to school in her native Somalia, does not speak any English, and does not read or write in any language. Gustavo went to school for three years in El Salvador. He speaks almost no English and has minimal literacy skills in Spanish.  Maria also went to school for three years in El Salvador, but she converses easily in English and has a wide vocabulary. She can sight-read some high-frequency words in English and Spanish but cannot sound out words in either language that she does not know. Laxmi is a professional from Nepal who speaks and writes Bengali, but she doesn't know the Roman alphabet and speaks very little English. Alemseged is a senior citizen from Ethiopia and while he says he studied English among other subjects in his native Ethiopia, he was unable to read or write responses to even the simplest placement test questions. Rena was a language teacher in her native Tunisia. She has strong oral English language skills and is very comfortable and happy using her speaking and listening skills with her less accomplished classmates.  However, when asked to read or write, she becomes more hesitant and less confident.

 

As we said at the beginning, this is a way to get the conversation started.  Think of it as that picture that starts out most units in ESL textbooks---there are all sorts of possibilities!

 

Looking forward to our discussion.

 

MaryAnn Florez

and

Betsy Lindeman Wong

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