Resources to address the foundational literacy skills that Betsy
mentions-sound-symbol correspondence, manipulating sounds, sight word
vocabulary, the mechanics of writing letters and words-were exactly what I
was looking for (and still keep an eye peeled for) when I was working with
true literacy level learners.  As I said, coming from a background in
language instruction, I knew how to create communicative lessons that
integrated language skills, elicited learners' needs, and incorporated
authentic materials, themes, and texts.  What I didn't feel that I had a
battery of were the strategies and activities that I could integrate to help
learners with foundational literacy skills development.  

 

Two resources that I want to mention are the Talk of the Block series from
New Readers Press and a book called The Reading Reflex (Carmen McGuinness
and Geoffrey McGuinness, published by Simon and Schuster). Talk of the Block
is a reading series for adult ESL beginning readers.  It is actually beyond
true literacy level-more for emergent readers that are a step beyond true
literacy level, but what I like is that the stories focus on life contexts
and events (family, home, shopping, health) and build in phonetic
instruction and reading practice.  

 

The Reading Reflex is actually a book about teaching children to read, but
it has lots of individual activity ideas that an adult ESL teacher could use
to support foundational literacy skills development.  I was very cautious
about the book when a colleague recommended it, because as an adult ESL
teacher, I always look critically at materials that either don't
specifically address adults and/or don't address nonnative language
instruction.  There are a few commonalities, but reading skills development
in children and adults IS different, as is reading skill development in a
native vs. a nonnative language.  While there are definitely strategies and
theories in this book that are not appropriate or useful for adult ESL
contexts, there are also a number of ready-made activities and resources
that could be good additions to your instructional battery.  As long as you
familiarize yourself with the principles and strategies for adults learning
to read in a language that is not their native language, and you are clear
on what you are looking for in terms of activities that would further your
students' needs and goals, you can look at a book like Reading Reflex and
find some useful resources to add to your tool box.

 

MaryAnn

 

 

MaryAnn Florez

Project Director

Adult Education Professional Development Center

D.C. LEARNs

1612 K Street, N.W. Suite 300

Washington, DC 20006

202/331-0141, x25 (tel)

202/331-0143 (fax)

www.dclearns.org/aepdc 

mflorez at dclearns.org  

 

 

****************************************************************************
**************************

The Adult Education Professional Development Center at DC LEARNs -
Connecting D.C. adult educators with professional development opportunities
and resources.

www.dclearns.org/aepdc

****************************************************************************
********************

The D.C. LEARNs Mission

To work with Washington, D.C. literacy programs, learners, and supporters to
strengthen adult, family and children's literacy services, and present a
strong, unified voice on the importane of literacy as an investment in the
community.

 

D.C. LEARNs' literacy calendar lists significant literacy events or
deadlines, as well as a selected number of regional and national events that
may be of interest to the D.C. literacy community.  If you know of any
upcoming events in the D.C. region, please submit them to be added to our
calendar at info at dclearns.org 

 

You can visit our calendar at http://dclearns.org/calendar2/plans.cgi 

 

If you want to volunteer as a teacher or tutor for GED, ESL, ABE (Adult
Basic Education), Computers, or Children's Literacy, please enter your
information into our volunteer database at www.readoutloud.org 

  _____  

From: Betsy Wong [mailto:betsywong at comcast.net] 
Sent: Friday, December 14, 2007 9:17 AM
To: 'The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List'
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2008] Classroom ideas and resources

 

Welcome, everyone, to the last day of our discussion on practical strategies
for working with literacy-level adult English language learners!

 

We've heard some innovative ideas for building learners' vocabulary and have
had an interesting talk about the pros and cons of using read-alouds in the
ESL classroom.

 

I wanted to take the discussion one step further and address the needs of
learners who cannot yet read sentences or words from textbooks.

 

Simply put, what are some ways to help learners acquire sound/symbol
correspondence?  Sight recognition of high-frequency words? The mechanics of
actual writing?

 

What strategies, activities, and materials can you share?

 

I wanted to recommend one resource that's been around for a while: "Sounds
Easy! Phonics, Spelling, and Pronunciation," by Sharon Bassano (available
from Alta Book Center Publishers for $27.95, at
<http://www.altaesl.com/Detail.cfm?CatalogID=1543>
http://www.altaesl.com/Detail.cfm?CatalogID=1543)

 

This book has clearly-illustrated photocopiable exercises for grades 5
through adult that help learners identify patterns in spelling and
pronunciation. I find that it's easy to adapt the exercises to the varied
needs of my learners - and great for a multilevel class. For instance, an
exercise emphasizing two consonants  might be useful to literacy learners in
terms of establishing the sound that goes with each letter. At the same
time, learners who can already read and write would find value in the
exercise of accurately producing and discriminating between two somewhat
similar sounds.

 

I look forward to hearing more ideas!

 

---------------------------------

Betsy Lindeman Wong

Lead Teacher

Alexandria Adult and Community Education

 

 

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