Thanks for all the contributions around "authentic materials" - 
 
Thanks, Elsa Auerbach also for participating in this discussion and
challenging some of the ideas put forward. It makes this a more exciting
and worthwhile discussion as we grapple with what to teach to whom and
how and what difference it might make. I am hoping that the rest of you
will feel free to disagree or pose alternative views - and, as you have
done, offer your own ideas. 
 
Here are my two cents Coca Cola, doing literacy work around the print
materials that students bring to class, and the value of strategy-based
teaching:  
 
 I take Elsa's point about making sure that the materials we use as a
start are both known to the students and meaningful to them - and I had
a sinking feeling that the minute I mention Coca Cola and McDonald's,
the issue of teaching toward consumerism might come up. It is indeed an
issue to consider. A couple of thoughts on that one, before we move on
to connected text: 
 
1.	One reason we chose Coke and Micky D. in our assessment
materials because they are ubiquitous - if a student does NOT recognize
the logos, it does tell us something about their level of print
awareness. In our study, there was only one group, a group of elderly
Hmong refugees who did not recognize the Coca Cola can (whether by
color, logo or script and good for them). The knowledge that highly
popular consumer items are unfamiliar to our students indeed tells us
that we need to start at a different point. 
2.	Yep, if you use authentic materials to find out if students can
read and negotiate familiar print, you indeed have to find out what
print is familiar to them and asking students to bring in examples is,
of course, a great idea. 
	*	Much is to be learned from what students read or want to
read in L1 as well as in English and what kind of print materials baffle
them. Print in other language also offers opportunities for authentic
communication as students explain to the non-bilingual teacher or to
students who don't share the same language: What is it? What does it do
(what's it's function)? And what do some of the key words mean. Having
students teach other students and a the teacher a few words is a good
way to connect groups to each other and build community. 
	*	I know several teachers who model vocabulary learning,
by having the students teach them a few high frequency words a day from
their language. They write down the words on big flashcards, and in the
back, draw a picture or paste a photo of the word and write the English
equivalent underneath. They then show the students how they study the
words (look at the back, study the clue, predict the word and then turn
it over). A word you know goes into one pile - the ones who still have
trouble with goes in another. They then encourage the students to do the
same, with a few select words that are key to what's being studied or
that students really want to know and remember. And together they set a
few minutes aside to study the words. The students then work in pairs to
check each other, using the flash cards as tools - they count the words
they know and put them on a chart and keep working with the ones they
don't know and keep adding to them (it's ok to just give up on some
words because they are not all that important to you anymore and you
figure you'll never learn them and that has to be ok). The class then
checks the teacher on her new vocabulary. The trick is for the teacher
to take on enough of a challenge so the task is genuinely difficult ..
The class then continues with a number of other vocabulary learning
strategies - and each gets modeled and practiced - again, a lot of the
words come from words that students are curious about but there should
also be words that the teacher selects because they have high value in
terms of facilitating reading comprehension for the topics they class
has selected - 
	*	if you are working with speakers of Romance languages
(Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole), there is a high value in making
students aware of cognates as a strategy for building skills in "word
study"- but that's a topic for another day
3.	As for the concern that we may be emphasizing consumerism by
focusing on brand news, flyers, catalogues, and ads, here are my
thoughts: 
	*	We are bombarded with consumer messages all day long and
so are most of our students. Why not take advantage of what's out there
and use it as an apportunity not just for reading, but for discussion.
There is great value in "problematizing" consumer messages - in taking
that Coke can and saying, what is it? What does it do? Who drinks it in
your family (a lot of the grandkids). Why is this the one product we
know? Where do you see it? Is it good for you? Wy or why not? What else
do people here drink? What do you drink? When you were little - what did
you drink? You can move the direction into a critical analysis of
marketing (who benefits?), of health and nutrition, and of alternative
ways of eating. It can also lead to parenting issues (how do you say
"no" to your children)
4.	A quick thought on having students bring in materials and
discussing them in class. Many times, I see teachers just do a quick
explanation and rephrasing of what those print artifacts are and what
they mean, and quite a few opportunities for language learning gets lost
because the discussions tend to be hit and miss and students tend to be
interested in their own piece but not necessarily in what others bring
in. 
	*	I like what some of you have suggested, asking students
to bring in example of print that they find interesting and that baffles
them and then collecting these pieces (copy, and, if necessary, black
out names, and number each piece). After students to their sorting, it
may be worthwhile to take one type of text with several examples and
study it further. 
	*	I think it is worthwhile to introduce reading strategies
specific to different kinds of print (labels, announcements, bills,
ads), so that students can see how to approach, navigate and make sense
of the different genres. 
	*	If you have enough examples for small groups, you can
ask the group to sort and categorize, filling out a chart (a literacy
activity in itself) that has them seek and record evidence such as what
is it? What is it's function, who sent it and why? who is it for? And,
is it current (date)? Is it urgent? Should I do something (is action
required?). Is there small print?  Why? 
	*	Most importantly, perhaps are the questions: What is the
central message here?  And What happens if I ignore it (USCIS letters;
IRS letters etc; letters from a court)
 
Through activities of this sort, we can teach students that different
kinds of environmental print are laid out differently and that there are
often indicators that give us a worthwhile clue although we may not yet
have the English skills to understand all the language in the text.
Just having the confidence and the competence necessary to approach a
new text can move students down the road to what is called "strategic
competence" (knowing what to do when your English is still not good
enough to understand it all or explain what you mean). 
 
Here's hoping you are all having a terrific weekend 
 
Heide
 
 
________________________________

From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Elsa Auerbach
Sent: Friday, April 13, 2007 5:24 PM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 287] Re: [Special Topics] authentic materials
for low literate adult ESL learners - document literacy
 
A word of caution: when using authentic materials, it's important to be
sure they're authentic for the learners, not just for the teachers. So,
for example, if students shop at local Chinese grocers, a flyer from a
food chain may not be authentic.  If you like, McDonald's, your students
might not. It's also important to consider the message you send as a
teacher: are you using mainly consumer products to teach literacy? Does
that send a message of preparing students to become good consumers.  An
alternative is to ask students themselves to bring in materials that
they would like to understand. Alternatively, they can take pictures of
signs (with throw away cameras) of signs or symbols that are confusing
to them. They can bring in mail that they get that's difficult to
understand and teachers can teach genre conventions (where do you find
the amount you have to pay on a bill? Where do you find the due date?).
Elsa


On 4/12/07 7:26 PM, "Wrigley, Heide" <heide at literacywork.com> wrote:
Hi, Joanne and others 
 
As many of you know by now, one of the major findings of the What Works
Study was that a set of instructional strategies we clustered under the
heading of "Bringing in the Outside" made a significant difference in
learner outcomes. 
 
This finding is consistent with other research (Sticht, Purcell-Gates)
that points to the importance of keeping adult language and literacy
connected to the language and literacy tasks that students encounter in
their daily lives (in the community; at work; in training). 
 
It is indeed difficult to find authentic materials that are accessible
to first level learners, especially if you are looking for "connected
text" (written pieces that use paragraphs as part of prose literacy).
Examples of document literacy, particularly environmental print, are
much easier to find and they provide a great many opportunities to
develop sight words, read for meaning, skim and scan for specific
information, compare and contrast various texts and develop critical
literacy (do we really think that this medicine will flush out fat and
make us slim and thin?)- 
 
Here is a listing that provides a great starting point (more on
connected text later) 
 
1. Authentic real life products that students can identify and talk
about (what is it? Where do you find it? What is it for? Do you like
it?) - these can include cans of food from the store, soft drink cans,
fast food bags or wrappers; toothpaste tubes, aspirin bottles. Students
can work in groups to discuss and categories or fill in charts - it's a
great starting point for low level learners. If you want to see how
these materials can be used as part of an assessment, go to
www.clese.org <http://www.clese.org/> <http://www.clese.org/>  and click
on "Reading Demonstration" and you'll see me work with Bessima, a woman
from Bosnia who is a refugee who had never had the opportunity to go to
school. 
 
If you work with learners who don't have much experience with reading
and writing in their own language, real materials (products, not just
pictures) make a lot of sense as a starting point. 
 
You then can move on to using print that students often see and are
probably interested in and that contains lots of picture support. 
 
2. Grocery flyers, Sunday paper inserts, Home Depot ads and catalogues
(tools, gear; department store) 
 
 
3. Then you may want to move to environmental print that has some
pictures (just because it's not as intimidating as print alone)
Ads are great (you can have students design their own); TV schedules;
magazine articles ("How to" are sometimes accessible but you may want to
just start with the headings and pictures); brochures
 
4. Next comes environmental print that does not have visual support but
still reflects every day tasks. These might include: 
Lottery tickets; Penny Saver type ads; simple medicine labels, simple
maps; utility bills; yard sale announcements; street signs; signs in and
around the airport, etc;  
 
Basic reading development tends to move through the following stages
*       from recognition of common products and labels as a whole (how
else would anyone manage to shop)
*       to being able to recognize a word when the product name appears
clearly in a photograph with the logo prominent
*       to being able to read the word in question on a piece of paper
when visual support is not there  (e.g., if Coca Cola or Crest is
written on a drawing of a can and toothpaste
*       to being able to manipulate words (which word says "coca" which
word says "cola"), 
*       to being able to manipulate the string of letters the word
represents (if we take out the "c" in cola - what word is left?) 
*       to being able to decode simple words (Cola and Lola; Mac and
pack) 

You can then, of course, use the products you've worked with, and
categorize them into sound patterns so that you don't have to do
decontextualized phonics work, but can keep going back to real words
that students recognize as you introduce new words that follow the same
pattern. The beauty here is that you can use real products that the
students know about and use at home (they can copy the labels at home
and bring them in and do various forms of Word Sorts). We don't see
these types of activities in textbooks, since publishers, for good
reason, don't use real products. 
 
By the way, even when doing phonics and decoding work with low level
learners, I would still continue with recognitions and comprehension
work around real things (including newspaper headlines or magazine
articles on common topics), since comprehension is where the rubber hits
the road in reading. 
 
More on connected text later - and I apologize Joanne if your learners
are at much higher levels of proficiency than what is indicated here 
 
All the best 
 
Soon more 
 
 
 
 
 
 

-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]
<mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov%5d>  On Behalf Of Hartel, Joanne
Sent: Wednesday, April 11, 2007 12:49 PM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 278] [Special Topics] What Works Study for Adult
ESLLiteracy Students
 
I work at a a community-based adult education program.  We run two
levels of ESL literacy classes, one for beginning speakers who may not
be literate in their native languages or in English (although some in
this level can read and write in a non-Roman alphabet.)  The other
literacy class is for students who know the alphabet and can read very
simple text. Both classes work with written material that is controlled
for useful, every day vocabulary, length of sentences, and grammar.  In
both levels, it is typical for students to be better at reading than at
writing. We use a combination of a structured approach, including
phonics, and more traditional ESL approaches that include listening and
speaking activities. The students come from many different countries,
including Haiti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Nepal, and some Central American
countries. I have two questions: 
 
1. I don't know of any standardized reading assessments for low level
ESOL students.  I think the Woodcock-Johnson Basic Reading Skills Tests
were developed for native speakers of English.  Was the comprehension
subtest controlled for vocabulary that would be unfamiliar to someone
who is a beginning speaker? In my experience teaching ESL literacy, ESOL
students do not do well with nonsense words because they can't relate or
get any meaning from them.  Also it is difficult for the test
administrator to judge correct pronunciation of words and separate out
issues due to second language interference.
 
2. I've always had difficulty using authentic materials with beginning
literacy students.  Can you suggest ways to use them without simplifying
them so much that they don't resemble the real thing? 
 
Thanks for all of your work.  I think this will be very useful to the
field. 
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