Barbara, I like the Barton Reading System way of teaching phonemic awareness. It works with my adult ESOL class as well.  I have developed a system that is a take-off of what Barton uses.  I use a magnet board and magnetic "tiles" which I made from a jar of "Phonics Tiles" I purchased at Wal-Mart. I used alcohol to erase the phonemes that were on some of the tiles that I didn't need and then printed the ones I needed with a black felt tip pen. (I had to glue  magnets pieces on the back.) If you can get a hold of Barton's Books 1-3, you will have guidelines to follow.  Book 1 is entirely on phonemic awareness lessons, first using blank colored tiles and then moving to the letter tiles.
The steps involve "breaking words into sounds", "changing sounds", and "Comparing sounds". This is done by manipulating the tiles while saying the sounds.  Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic modalities are being used. Beginning with Book 3, words, phrases, sentences, and stories are provided to reinforce the phonemic awareness lessons.  "Advanced" stories are provided to use with adults.  These are just short half to one page selections.

The Challenger and Voyager Series by New Reader's Press provide more interesting reading. Challenger begins with the long vowels; whereas Voyager starts at the beginning.

Have you seen Very Easy True Stories by Sandr Heyer? There are five different titles published by Pearson Education.  The ISBN for this book is 0-201-34313-4.  Pictures are used with one or two sentences under each one followed by the story written in regular paragraph format. Then there are four exercises following each story: vocabulary, comprehension, writing and discussion.  I REALLY like these for my ESOL class.

Betsy S. Gauss
Lake Wales Literacy Council trainer

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: BKuSh407 at aol.com 
  To: learningdisabilities at nifl.gov 
  Sent: Saturday, May 19, 2007 8:53 AM
  Subject: [LearningDisabilities 1200] Re: Focus on Basics onlearningdisabilities


  Dear Betsy,
  Thank you for your comments.  You are "right on" when it comes to teaching English basics  (reading and grammar) to ESOL adults with language processing difficulties.  As an ESOL teacher in adult education, one of my biggest challenges is finding adult reading material to teach phonemic awareness as well as easy reading  stories  I am always looking for age appropriate material to teach reading to my Low Beginning adult esol students.  
  Can you recommend any books that are designed to teach reading skills to the adult ESOL student? 
  Thanks!
  Barbara Kushner
  Adult Education Center, WPB, Fl.

  PS "Laubach" bores them!





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