Hello,
I am teaching a young adult ELA SEI class to newcomers, most spanish speaking males, ages 17-23. Many of these students are a sub-population of ELL, SIFE (students with interrupted formal education) and/or the education received in their home country does not match the US education equivalent. I will be teaching targeted literacy skills in my ELA class this year, which is new to me as I am not a certified reading teacher. I plan to create centers for targeted reading, writing and foundational literacy skills (decoding, sight words, phonics).
I am looking for any resources, research articles this community may suggest for teaching literacy skills to adult learners. My biggest struggle and question at this point, is to find age appropriate resources for older students. For example, I want to have an audio option to listen to sight words individually and in context. I have found apps - but few websites that aren't geared toward Kindergarten/1st grade, hence the material/images/voices are too young. My plan at this point is to create ppts that have audio of my own voice pronouncing the sight words and sentences in context. However, if I don't have to create the wheel, that is my preference! Should anyone have any online resources students could use at a foundational skill center (audio) or useful materials otherwise - please share! I will be creating flashcards (sight words) and picture glossaries (new vocab). We do use Raz-Kids for audio books with our ABE/ELL adult student population, which again is geared toward younger kids but has options that are relevant to older students too.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts and guidance.
NIki R.
Comments
Hi Niki, Thanks for your important questions. I think you would find the the ELLU course on teaching emergent readers quite helpful since it includes many practical ideas for teaching this special group of learners.
Cheers, Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP
Susan,
I will definitely check out the link you provided. Thanks so much!
Niki
Niki, as promised, I'm posting a few suggestions to add to others in this group.
On LINCS Toward the top of our LINCS pages, you'll find link to our Resource Collection. Once there, enter different keywords to identify resources to meet your needs, such as "teaching literacy to adults," or "English Language Learners," or "Phonics Instruction." Among them are the following;- Beginning Alphabetics Tests and Tools (BATT) strives to provide a ‘principled’ system for ABE/ESL teachers who want and/or need to develop their students’ knowledge of Roman alphabet letters, English letter-sound patterns, sight or high frequency words, and transfer of those lettersound-word skills to text fluency and comprehension.
- Using the PIAAC Literacy Framework to Guide Instruction: An Introduction for Adult Educators - This is a very helpful resource written by Amy R. Trawick, who was a guest participant in one of our recent events. You can access that discussion, PIAAC Literacy Circle, at https://community.lincs.ed.gov/group/piaac-literacy-circle
The list goes on. Audio You and your students will love two sites.- Audacity is an open source platform that allows you and, more importantly, your students to easily create audio files. I recommend this site for students to hear themselves and each other, for short dictations (a lost art), paired dialogues, and more.
- Voki.com is another gem and a real hoot! In just a very few minutes, you/your students can select from many avatars and accessories and have it say whatever you want. The site has voices that will read what you write, or you can read the words yourself. The segments can be downloaded and shared in many ways, including email. Here are a couple of examples. I didn't have a voice at the time, so I used Voki voices.
- http://tinyurl.com/j9s7e8m
- http://tinyurl.com/jznm3nv
- http://tinyurl.com/hl8mtse
The free option is more limited than the paid, but it's still very good. Flashcards Now you've called upon another favorite: Quizlet.com. On Quizlet, you/students can find umpteen pre-made flashcard series on unlimited topics. You can also create cards, which can then be practiced with games and other fun activities. Again, the free version has more limited options (no images, for example), but the app is super popular with instructors and students. Enter any topic and then play with the practice tools that show up from someone else's work. As you said, no need to reinvent the wheel. Finally for now, if you do a search on OER Commons, you'll find umpteen resources for adults. The nice thing about OER (Open Educational Resources) is that you/students can download and modify the content! OK. I'll let others drop in and add gems to this thread. LeecyLeecy,
Thank you very much for welcoming me to the group and providing me with some great resources and asking additional questions. I will review the resources, as well as the suggestions to connect to other groups. I will also answer your questions regarding the acronyms I referenced. I want to give this thought and allow time to review everything. I will be back in touch very soon.
What a lovely learning community - I didn't expect such quick responses! I also have to change my settings so I receive notifications that people have responded to posts.
Talk soon.
Niki
Wonderful, Niki! You'll find an option for receiving notifications every 12 or every 24 hours. Let's keep talking! Leecy
I am looking for a good home for a collection of materials related to adult learner writing (e.g., research articles, guidebooks, and collections of adult learner writings from around the U.S.) I compiled these over the past three decades but now need to turn them over to someone else for use and safekeeping. (I am in the process of moving and can no longer store these materials.) I think these represent a treasure trove of good work done by creative practitioners and learners and could be very useful for others (e.g., practitioners, learners, researchers, graduate students and faculty in university adult education programs . . . ) interested in the helping learners develop writing skills and related areas like student publications and adult learner leadership. If you might be interested in taking ownership of these materials, please contact me ASAP. Paul Jurmo www.pauljurmo.info, pjurmo@comcast.net
Thanks for offering this great gift, Paul. I know that you'll have lots of "takers." If you have digital resources, I would love to post them on one of my Adult Ed learning sites as open resources! Leecy, leecywise@gmail.com