Dahlia has suggested that using wordless books is an effective way to work with very low level learners whether ESL or ABE.  Wordless books can also meet the challenge of designing PACT for multilingual groups in ESL settings. Wordless books can help learners develop and verbalize the story together.  Wordless books also help learners, both adults and children, recognize contextual clues about the story's events and characters from the book's pictures that will also lead to growth in language skills.
 
The Allen County (Fort Wayne, Indiana) Public Library has a great list of wordless books at this web site -- http://www.acpl.lib.in.us/children/wordless.html

-----Original Message-----
From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Shaewitz, Dahlia
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 2:38 PM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 366] Re: Scenario - Parent Child Activities


Hello Cyndy:
 
When you mentioned parents at a low reading level, I was reminded of a literacy program that I volunteered for in Washington, DC a few years back.  In this program (not a family literacy program per se) the director had planned eight weekly "classes" with women who were in halfway houses transitioning from incarceration to permanent residences. Not all of the women were mothers, but most of them did have small children.
 
The program began with wordless books, i.e., pictorial books/stories that may contain words such as items in a recipe, but no words to read, and progressed steadily up to books by the final week that required reading. Each book was accompanied by an activity that was related to the book, e.g., the first wordless book described cooking a meal so the activity used measuring cups, mixes, etc. related to cooking a simple dish. 
 
The wordless books were a big hit and allowed the parent to tell a story to their child without having any basic reading or English language skills. The activities were simple and both the books and materials were provided to the participants so they could replicate the activity at home with their children.  
 
In an ABE or ESOL program, these activities may also serve as a learning opportunity around the activity, e.g., vocabulary & reading a recipe to follow directions, etc. For children, the activities can be as simple as looking at the measuring cups and filling them up with water, or actually cooking at home using a recipe with mom or dad. Interestingly, the participants who were not mothers found the activities to be just as interesting and fun as the moms did.
 
Best,
Dahlia Shaewitz

  _____  

From: familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:familyliteracy-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Colletti, Cyndy
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 2:15 PM
To: The Family Literacy Discussion List
Subject: [FamilyLiteracy 364] Scenario - Parent Child Activities


Last week I attended a meeting where an experienced family literacy practitioner asked for assistance in designing and implementing PACT for her group.  She is having difficulty engaging the parents who are at a very low level reading.  She questions what would be appropriate activities for children who are very young and whose ages span a wide developmental range.  This is her scenario, does anyone have suggestions for her?
 
This is a newly formed project in an urban area. The family literacy parents are in an ABE class.  Their average reading level is between second and fourth grade levels. Not surprisingly, they are quiet and shy during both class and PACT.  The children range in age between 2 months to 4 years old with several being about 18 months old.
 
Cyndy Colletti
 

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