Adult Learning Activities | Reading competency and Fluency

Many of the teachers I speak with tell me they want more short reading activities that relate to thematic units. Teachers want to develop reading competency as well as fluency as a part of speaking and listening proficiency. In this blog, I discuss online resources and easily accessible print readings, like the newspaper, as well as activities that can help develop competency and proficiencies in ABE and ESL classrooms. I also located a free online training available to help you develop how you integrate reading lessons in the classroom.

The first two resources were recommended in the Adult Basic Education and Literacy Journal's Spring 2007 volume.

The Adult Learning Activities | California Distance Learning Project offers short stories related an array of thematic topics: money, health and safety, housing, science and technology, working, law and government, family, housing, services, going places, nature, and school. You can play an audio of the story, so students can listen as they read. A few stories also have video.

After entering a thematic topic, you are provided with a list of story titles. These stories are like brief news articles written at about a 4-6th grade level. You can give students the basic story or the full story. You are also given a link to activities to build vocabulary. The activities are all online, but they will give you ideas to develop into a lesson for the whole class if you do not want to/or can not use the website with each student.

You may also want to try the AwsomeStories site. This site is very colorful and has links to different story channels such as Click2Flicks, Click2Disasters, and LawBuzz, which has won a Golden Web award.

The stories can help integrate information on civics and American history as well as health and other subjects into your curriculum. I like the way they graphically present options for selecting stories and the chapter divisions. Although this format also makes it more convenient for students to use the site online than for you the teacher to print the stories and distribute. Unfortunately, not every story as a feature for listening to the story, and there are few graphics. However, words are underlined and link to photos of people or sites with more information on the person, place, or thing.


Keep in mind that the newspaper is a great resource that is often overlooked and can be applied to lessons for English as a Second Language Learners. A great place to access news stories at level for your students is at NewsForYou! This site stays current, so students can read and listen level versions of the current top news stories. You can also subscribe to get paper versions sent to your school. Using these readings should help you launch into W questions (Who, What, Where, When) or Yes/No questions that can develop a sense of grammar structure as well as help launch into critical discussions of current events.

If you want to develop how you include newspapers in your ABE, GED, or ESL classroom, then you may want to take this professional development course offered by Verizon's education network, Thinktivity.

News articles and topic related stories, like those on CDPL, may be a good way to build content familiarity and vocabulary before transitioning into role playing activities. Role playing may be particularly useful for the ESL learner. At this site for ESL speaking activities, you will find various role playing activities and assessment ideas. They also offer an oral test and rubric. You will also find some role playing activities and other resources at the ESL-galaxy site.

One neat site is the English Express: A Website for adult learners. Here, students can select the level of their content. You can print stories as well as listen as you read along. they also have word games, readers stories, and a link to things for teachers and tutors.

My favorite site so far is the Reading Skills for Today's Adults on the Marshall Education website. This site offers a short, printer-friendly reading that students can listen to. The print out has the lines number with the word count to help students keep track of their correct words per minute score (WCPM). You can also access dictation exercises, which are often a shortening version of the reading. The dictation is also leveled, so students can work at the level most appropriate it to their listening and speaking skills.

I think timed oral reading samples are a good way of developing and measuring fluency. If you have students do timed readings, be sure you are also helping them to gauge how well they are reading the words accurately.

I helped a teacher with this type of activity when I substituted for her. I noticed that students were able to easily recognize some words they were mispronouncing, like forecaster and throughout. Other words, they were not really aware they were saying incorrectly, such as saying means instead of meant or say instead of says.

You can ask some students who are more fluent listen to others, which may help develop mentoring skills and a sense of class community. You could also utilize tutors to help monitor student speaking if you can not make time to listen to each student at least once during the time set aside for the activity.

According to the National Institute for Literacy's Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults, the timed oral reading samples are a good option for measuring fluency. I am not sure how you are having students chart progress. I noticed Jackie's students like to make a note on their reading to indicate how much further into the text they can read with each attempt.

The NIFL suggests having them read three passages for one minute as rapidly as possible, having them count the words, and then computer the average words per minute for each of the three passages. Next, they count the number of errors in each and computer the average number of words read correctly per minute. For each reading, you have the words read per minute score (WPM) and the words read correctly per minute score (WCPM).

There are a lot of resources available for readings. More things are online. I prefer items we can print as well as those that offer the word count as well as the option to listen to the reading. If you can try some of these sites, please let others know what you think. If you know of other sites that can be used to develop reading competency as well as language fluency, then please post them.

Multiple levels of students in Math and Multiplication

Teaching math in an adult learner classroom can be particularly challenging because the disparity between levels can be very wide. To resolve this problem, our teachers tend to create small learning groups, which can mean the need t0 prepare several lessons for the same day as well as the provision of many smaller tasks (fillers) which students can do while they wait for their turn in the teaching cycle.

Even though the students may have advanced to division and fractions, or even geometry, they may still be lacking some basic multiplication skills. It can be hard to ask an adult to drill the multiplication tables, but they need to have the ability to multiply quickly mastered in order to assist their skill in estimating for division. It is unfortunate that students are slowing working through more advanced problems simply because they did not develop a mastery of the multiplication tables.

Here are some websites with resources to support multilevel class preparation for multiplication. You may want to distribute these activities to the more advanced students as filler to give them time to develop mastery.

The site, Multiplication.com - Multiplication Worksheets, has a nice set of worksheets, flash cards, and links to games you can purchase. I like the quick, 3 minute, 40 question quizzes with the answer sheet below. You can fold the paper and ask the student to take the quiz as 'filler' while you help other students in the class, then go back to review later. The bonus is that the student can check her own work while she waits.

Another site has, as the title suggests, Free Multiplications Worksheets. My favorite here is the blank multiplication table (one is left-handed), but there are many, many sheets with different arrangements of questions.


In case you have this option, there are sites with online games or worksheets where students are automatically corrected. Try the worksheets at 123 Aplusmath.

Adult Education and Technology: Video as a Writing Prompt

Many teachers wonder how they can use technology in the classroom. One way is to use a short video as a writing prompt. I saw this idea in a recent entry on a blog I follow,
Adult Education and Technology, by educational tech enthusiast Marian Thacher.

The video she selected as an example is a montage of cats being silly.

I suggest finding something shorter then 2 minutes and linear in progression--one short progression of an event, not a series of unrelated events. However, you can make that call depending on what you think will work best for your students.

There are many videos on Youtube, and you can select things by looking for subject content relevant to your current class material or themes.

If bringing in video is not an option, you can use photographs. I suggest images from magazines or picture/coffee table books.

Additionally, you do not need to have students write their responses. If you are teaching ESL students, you can have them talk about the videos. Voice of America has great podcasts on short demonstrations. This will build listening and speaking skills.

Activities for ESL/EFL Students

The Internet TESL Journal collected a variety of materials on one site, Activities for ESL/EFL Students (English Study).
Here, you can access activities ranked according to difficulty as well as online crossword puzzles students can do on their own and audio as well as video podcasts.

Voice of America Audio for ESL/EFL: Podcast RSS Feed

Many of the ESL teachers I know want more content that develops listening and speaking skills.
This site from Voice of America, Audio for ESL/EFL, offers podcast programs in an RSS feed, so you should get new material often!

ABLE Resource Center

YES! There are a wide array of resources available at the ABLE Resource Center!

You can find lessons plans, access journals, and request materials. There is a link to things specific to teachers and tutors as well as a link to everything new from the Adult Basic Literacy Education Bureau!!

NIFL- Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers

Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers

Peer Tutoring - Eric Digest

Are you interested in incorporating peer tutoring into your classroom? Maybe you are already using this strategy, and you want to develop ways to assess effectiveness. Please see this report in the ERIC Digest to give you the basics.

Small groups in Adult Literacy - a report

Maybe you are thinking about using small groups in your classroom. Perhaps you already are. Please see this report on Small groups in Adult Literacy and Basic Education from the ERIC digest. The article reviews why to use small groups, the disadvantages, characteristics of effective small groups, and considerations for implementation.

Formulas & Tables at Math.com

Here is a necessary resource for all teachers of basic math, Math.com Formulas & Tables. The format is not the best, as you must print the whole web page to get the tables, rather than click and have access to a nice, printer friendly version.

Math Wars and Assessment in Mathematics

If you are looking for ways to improve your math curricula for adults, it may be useful to understand the historic "math wars," prompted in 1983, as with many education reform debates with the report, A Nation at Risk, and various arguments for assessment and standards-based math curricula.

In the document Assessing Students' Math Learning, published by the Educational Development Center, Inc., you will find a review of the standards-based curriculum, which includes mundane notes such as the inclusion of a rubric and evaluating proficiency. The document begins by noting innovative recommendation from the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) in 1989 to include activities for students to work together, for students to spend less time on memorization and more time on concepts, to have activities that use concrete objects to model mathematical situations, and to give opportunities for students to explain math knowledge in speech and writing. The standards were revised and re-released in April, 2000.

In the article, Making peace in the math wars," by Kathy Stanford (2000), we hear more about the formation of math standards and how they have influenced the adult education math standards in the state of Massachusetts.

According to Stanford, the rift causes the math war is a philosophical difference between constructivists and behavioralists. The NCTM standards promote a curriculum based on the assumption that knowledge is contructed during new experiences when individuals develop their own knowledge base for understanding. Behavioralists disagree and argue learning is acquired through drills and practice.

Not everyone is a fan of the NCTM recommendations which learn toward constructivist math or discovery learning. In a letter to the News-Leader.com, on September 16, 2008, one parent/teacher wrote:

Communities all over the U.S. are in the process of, or already have, thrown out these time wasting and failing programs. The parents in Columbia, along with 50 professors from University of Missouri and other schools, have started a petition and are pushing hard to have a traditional math program brought back in to their schools. They have had constructivism longer than SPS are seeing math test scores fall precipitously due to it.

The Standards-based math has been adopted by schools with the help of funing from the National Science Foundation (NSF) since 1991. In a more thorough argument, as Barry Garelick also pummels the discovery learing method in his feature article, An A-mazing approach to math, which also offers an account of the politics of the math wars in terms. Garelick also points out the simple problem with the discovery learning to math approach, when applied in the elementary grades, students do not internalize the basic facts which make more complicated computations a breeze, for example: with the question of "what is 8 times 7," a child may add 8 seven times rather than rattle off the expected 56.

In terms of how constructivist theory applies to an adult math curriculum, Stafford says her "zeal" has diminished with time and experience; however, she reminds us that and andragogy for the adult learner should work to bring mediate the broad base of life experiences and knowledge with class content.

Despite this push for connecting the concept to the practical application, I think there is still a voice for the traditional approach of drilling, where the need to acquire the base of knowledge to approach a problem is needed in order construct the knowledge of how to use the concept.

The question that stands before teachers I know is how to tailor the necessary drill to acquire facts to resistant students?

Even Start Funding Controversy-2006

What is all the fuss about funding Even Start programs? As one might suspect, the argument lies in the lack of conclusive evidence for effectiveness. Since first funded in 1989, programs have not been able to demonstrate that integrating adult education, parent education, early childhood education, and a focus on interactive literacy activities are able to increase learning outcomes.

You can read more about the debate in the 2006 report, Even Start: The Funding Controversy, from the Congressional Research Service.

The third national evaluation of Even Start programs found that parents did not participate long enough to receive enough instruction to affect learning outcomes and recommended efforts to improve the quality and content of language instruction in addition to efforts to improve evaluation.

From my perspective, one of the flaws in the assessment of Even Start programs are the measures of success. One measure is the increase in interactive literacy hours. However, while time on a task has been shown, or is believed, to be an effective predictor of content/skill success (Fisher & Berliner 1985; Brophy, 1988), the amount of time spent on a developing literacy, I posit, will vary in effectiveness depending on the age of the child and the quality of the activity. Consider, if you are not fulling comprehending the time spent on a tast, are you learning???

I also argue that the ability of the parent to comprehend the significance of interactive literacy activities will be a predictor of continued application. Programs also do not often have the resources to follow up with families. Surely, the efforts of establishing life-long learning habits of interactive literacy will have a long-term effect if they are internalized and reproduced continuously even after the intervention and any subsequent follow-ups.

I agree with supporters that the need to offer family literacy programs to disadvantaged is too important to cut funding. I also agree that more efforts need to be made to offer technical support and identify and promote best practices in model programs. However, the true measure of the success of the program will come with a better measure of learning outcomes.
This is my 2 cents.

Please call your Sentator and Congressperson and tell them you believe that building life-long literacy skills will give disadvantaged families the opportunity to break the cycles of poverty. Tell them to fund Even Start!


Brophy, J. E. (1988). Educating teachers about managing classrooms and students. Teaching and Teacher Education, 4, 1, 3.

Fisher, C. W., & Berliner, D. C. (Eds.). (1985). Perspectives on instructional time. New York: Longman.

U.S.A. Learns

The National Institute for Literacy has developed a series of online courses, for free, to support English language acquisition. The content not only supports listening, speaking, reading, and writing skills, but also
U.S.A. Learns offers students basic information related to American civic life, such as holidays and our clothes size system, etc.

Research-Based Principles for Designing Mathematics Instruction

I have finally found a site presenting Research-Based Principles for Designing Mathematics Instruction.
Please examine the contents and post your response.

A couple of our teachers recently went to a math workshop where the presenters told them there was not much research on developing math curriculum, or a least, nothing conclusive. Still, it is nice to have a sense of what is out there...

MyPyramid.gov - Inside the Pyramid for Preschoolers

Here is a new website from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It offers information for helping parents create nutritional meals for their children. Here is a link to the pages for preschoolers. There is a lot more that could work in GED, ESL, or Family Lit, too.

Instructional Consultation Teams

Here is a fantastic site on the processes for working together as teams to support special needs and at-risk students. The University of Maryland trio of Gravois, Rosenfield, and Gotfredson have compiled a great body of information on instructional teams.

USDA Nutrition Handouts

Are you looking for handouts to supplement a lesson addressing health and nutrition? Please check out this link to the USDA's resource center.

The handouts are colorfull, full or bullet points, and offer many suggestions for following the 2005 Recommendations.

IAE- Teaching Speaking, Listening, and Writing

Please check out the International Academy's publication on IAE- Teaching Speaking, Listening, and Writing for a discussion on the principles guiding instruction.

ESL Companion: Structure -Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority

Australia's Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority offers the ESL Companion: Structure to help guide classroom practice. For me, one of the most appealing aspects of how they present the standards is the chart indicating the relationship of curriculum focus, learning outcomes, and indicators to the content areas of Listening and Speaking, Reading, and Writing.

Please examine and offer feedback on the usefulness of their discussion of the curriculum focus and lesson ideas.

Early Learning - training video for New Child Care Certification

Some of you may be interested in watching the training video for New Child Care Certification. You can find it at a Penn State site on Early Learning.

At this site, you will also find more juicy information about the New Child Care Facility Regulations!
The regulations became effective on September 22, 2008.

Equipped for the Future - EFF Fundamentals

Looking for an underlying philosophy to ground your curriculum? Try Equipped for the Future - EFF Fundamentals

fieldwork_builds_learning.pdf (application/pdf Object)

fieldwork_builds_learning.pdf (application/pdf Object)

Center for Collaborative Action Research

So you have been hearing more about action research, but you are still not sure what it is....Try reading the information on the website created by the Center for Collaborative Action Research.

Their graphics and concise explanations should help create a clear picture.
They do a great job of comparing action research to evaluative research and experimental research as they offer a definition.

How Adults Learn :: Ageless Learner

The website How Adults Learn :: Ageless Learner offers a basic discussion as well as a list of books and links to other resources.

PRINCIPLES OF ADULT LEARNING

Were you looking for a concise discussion on the PRINCIPLES OF ADULT LEARNING ?

Mainly, we should keep in mind that adult learners are self-directed, have a foundation of life experiences, are goal-oriented, prefer if things are relevant, are typically practical, and should be shown respect!

Project Care: Health Care Case Studies, Multimedia and Projects for English Language Learners

Project Care: Health Care Case Studies, Multimedia and Projects for English Language Learners

The Change Agent: Newspaper on Adult Education on Social Justice

Looking for a way to engage your students in a discussion on pressing social issues and develop their critical thinking skills? Try The Change Agent: An Adult Education Newspaper for Social Justice!

This newspaper is published twice a year in March and September.
If you are not sure how to use the newspaper, they offer a list of suggestions.

You can subscribe to receive an online or print edition.

SkillsTutor: Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE 7)

Here is an interesting site to help prepare your students for TABE 7.
SkillsTutor: Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE 7)

There are free sample lessons and lists of what is covered on the test. Of course, they are asking you to register to get to the real goodies...
Let us know what you think.

Your Amazing Brain

Explore the many features on the website: Your Amazing Brain.

CanTeach: Songs & Poems - Bears

We will soon be including the book "We're going on a bear hunt" into our classroom. Can you even have enough songs and stories about bears?
Here is a link to many more!

CanTeach: Songs & Poems - Bears

7 Secrets to Raising a Happy Child - Page1 - Family & Parenting - Your Life - MSN Lifestyle

7 Secrets to Raising a Happy Child - Page1 - Family & Parenting - Your Life - MSN Lifestyle

Adult Ed Math Curriculum to check out--TERC: EMPower

TERC: EMPower was suggested to us because it is apparently pretty popular here in PA and supports contextualized learning. They offer curriculum materials, professional development, help with school reform, research, and evaluation. Adult numeracy is listed as one of their areas of expertise.

In addition to the workshops they offer to introduce teachers to their EMPower math curriculum they also provide a model for Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy (TIAN).

At the TIAN site, you can download bundles of classroom materials, here is an example of their materials to teach Number Sense: Flexibility and Fluency!

If you have been to a workshop, used the materials, or participated with TIAN, please comment about your experiences.

Literacy Assistance Center

Literacy Assistance Center

\Access videos online through Easton Public Library!

Did you know you could download videos through the Easton Public Library?

Go to the following link for a list of available videos:
MLDVProgramList.pdf (application/pdf Object)

PowerTeaching - TeacherTube

If you like to access teacher specific help in video format, then you should try TeacherTube.
The concept, as the name suggests, is YouTube for teachers interested in Power Teaching.

You will find a variety of videos offering content lessons as well as videos demonstrating critical thinking activities, student engagement, how to manage students, and tutorials. Several tutorials are web tech specific, such as creating a google account and converting PowerPoint into a DVD.

TeacherTube is one component of the PowerTeaching movement/product began/marketed by Chris Biffle and Jay Vanderfin. They offer the videos on TeacherTube are free.

They also offer a variety of free downloads, which include subjects such as SuperSpeed Math, Teaching Challenging Students, and a PowerTeacher's Teaching Manual. Go here for even more free resources.

Here is a link to their tips on Classroom Management.

You can also download testimonials and case studies for free, but there are things to buy (if you like what you find) as well as seminars to attend.

The goal is to help teachers at all levels address their shared problems in order to create peaceful and fun learning environment.

Picture Stories for Adult ESL Health Literacy

This website offers lessons you can use to help your students improve their communication skills.
Picture Stories for Adult ESL Health Literacy

Use the pictures to encourage your students to answer questions or explain the pictures. Using these lessons may help them develop test taking skills that will enhance performance on the SABES exam.

Figure This! Math Challenges for Families - Challenge Index

Here is a cool site to 8o different math challenges.
Figure This! Math Challenges for Families - Challenge Index

I suggest using these lessons as a way to integrate math literacy and parent literacy curriculum goals. The challenges vary by topic. Some address issues of heath, for example one asks if soda is bad for one's health by looking at the number of broken bones sustained by teens who drank soda and those who did not.

Family Math Fun!

Courtesy of Canada's National Adult Literacy Database, we can access Family Math Fun!
The clean layout makes it even more enjoyable to access the neat math activities for families.

I particularly like chapter 5 on Math in the Home, which gives activities related to cooking and grocery shopping. In another chapter there are activities for making things, which means learning occurs on several levels and fun and creative!

DLTK's Printable Crafts for Kids

Are you always looking for something new and crafty to do with the little ones? Try this site: DLTK's Printable Crafts for Kids.

Let us know if you like it!

Green-Collar Jobs Campaign

Developing job skills and literacy as it relates to a specific field in today, as well as tomorrow's, workforce is an important aspect of many Adult Education programs. You can learn more about what resources and options may be available to support your program as it tries to develop a work skills specific lesson targeting green jobs.

The following link will give you a good overview of how policies will affect the development of green jobs:

Ella Baker Center : National Legislation: Green Jobs Act of 2007

This link will give you some great teach tools for exploring the green job market:

WE LEARN, Women Expanding Literacy Education Action Resource Network

Are you looking for a way to merge your interests in literacy and reading with women's empowerment? Then you should visit this site:

WE LEARN, Women Expanding Literacy Education Action Resource Network


WE LEARN sees literacy as a tool for personal growth. We can change people, families, and society through education!

If you are interested in supporting the same goals as WE LEARN, you may want to check out their conferences.

6th Annual WE LEARN (Net)Working Gathering & Conference on Women and Literacy

Stronger Leadership & Literacy: Empowering Women to Action

March 6-7, 2009 - Thursday, March 5, 2009 / Student Leadership Gathering (tentative)

University of Rhode Island, Providence Campus

Providence, RI

For details and form go to: http://www.litwomen.org/conference.html

Deadline: November 30, 2008

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

Call for ABE Student Writing

Women's Perspectives 2009 - Issue #4

Theme: Transition / Transformation

For details, lesson plans & pre-writing activities, go to: http://www.litwomen.org/perspectives.html

Deadline: December 5, 2008

AAA Math

AAA Math

This site has some very simple explanations of how to do some basic math problems. There is one column with a list of common math topics, such as addition, algebra, comparing, counting decimals, division, etc.

There is also a row allowing you to select topics and instructional tips accoring to grades k-8.

Give this site a try and tell us what you think.

Colleges spend billions on remedial classes to prep freshmen - USATODAY.com

Colleges spend billions on remedial classes to prep freshmen - USATODAY.com


This article highlights why adult education is so important. Some people need assistance developing English language skills before they enter college and have to pay high tuition costs to learn the same skill set!

Jobseekers: Lehigh Valley

Jobseekers: Lehigh Valley

If you are interested in tailoring your curriculum to fit the job skills needed for your area, then you can find helpful resources on the top industries in your area through your regional workforce development website.

Learn to Read at Starfall - teaching comprehension and phonics

Learn to Read at Starfall - teaching comprehension and phonics


This site was recommended by an adult educator on a professional development listserv maintained by the National Institute for Literacy. The site is geared for children, but she said her students like it.

There are many resources available, including Greek Myths, which may be the most appropriate for adult readers. The stories are online resources, and they are very graphics heavy. Do not use unless you have a high speed connection.

I am curious to know what others think of it.

Mathematics Enrichment from NRICH at the University of Oxford

nrich.maths.org :: Mathematics Enrichment :: NRICH Home Page

NRICH, which started in 1996, is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project and is located in the Faculty of Education and the Centre for Mathematical Sciences.

You should be able to find new resources (games, articles, math thesarus) for students of all ages every month.

Please leave a comment to let us know how you used these resources. Discuss how helpful they are and what else you may be looking for.

HRSA Health Literacy Free On-Line Training

HRSA Health Literacy Free On-Line Training for Providers: "Unified Health Communication 101: Addressing Health Literacy, Cultural Competency, and Limited English Proficiency"

This training application seems to be geared to health practitioners, but it may be interesting to explore how the content can be useful for adult educators.

Please review and comment if you comeplte the training. Let others know if/how useful you found it to be.

ABE - Teacher Handbook

ABE - Teacher Handbook

If you are interested in how to screen for adults with leaning disabilities, then try reviewing Section 4 and Section 3 in the ABE-Teacher Handbook from the State of West Virginia.

Section 4 covers Intake and Enrollment in the ABE Classroom. Section 3covers Meeting the Needs of Adult Learners. In this section we explainhowto work with adults with leaning disabilities and how to screen students using the Learning Needs Screening.

Please comment on the usefulness of this information.


Here is some of the more pertinent information pasted below:

Learning Styles Links:
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Union/2106/lstylstd.htm

Index of Learning Styles Questionnaire:
http://www.engr.ncsu.edu/learningstyles/ilsweb.html

Learning Styles Chart:
http://www.chaminade.org/inspire/learnstl.htm

Learning Styles and Multiple Intelligences: http://www.ldpride.net/learningstyles.MI.htm

R.M. Felder: Learning about your students and how to teach them: http://adulted.about.com/education/adulted/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm

C.I.T.E. Learning Styles Inventory:

http://wvde.state.wv.us/abe/documents/Section3SLNFY09.pdf

Need a Practive Test? Try Test Prep Review | Exam Practice

Test Prep Review Exam Practice for ACCUPLACER, ACT, GED, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MAT, MCAT, NCLEX, Praxis, SAT and other Test Preparation


This site has an extensive array of online, free practice tests! Please print, use, and discuss how you found it to be useful (or not).

Need Incentives?? Free Printable stickers, free sticker charts

Free Printable stickers, free sticker charts, teacher printables, printable seals and more


This site is a great resource for charts to monitor progress with stickers and stamps. The site also has printable stickers...now we just need sticker paper to print on!

You can use these charts to motivate children to read, to note who has cleaned up, or to mark other literacy skill development benchmarks.

Motivating Kids to Read with tips from Reading is Fundamental

Reading Is Fundamental Parents Motivating Kids to Read

This site offers a series of tips directed at parents to help them motivate their kids to read. These tips may be applied by teachers.

You can access resources according to age level, beginning at birth to over 13. They also have tips and resources for the whole family!

ABLE: Learning Differences Project Intro Page

ABLE: Learning Differences Project Intro Page

Yes, ABLE has recourses on adult learning differences. This page offers tips and fast facts on how to differntiate instruction for adults. It does not seem to address specific disabilities such as dyslexia or ADHD, diagnosis, or go beyond issues of short-term memory or auditory receptive learning. They do have a link to Cooper Screening of Information Processing (C-SIP).

Resources on Special Education, Learning Disabilities for children, teens and their families

Special Education, Learning Disabilities Resources for special needs

How can we quickly identify when a student has a learning disability and what actions can we take to address their special learning needs? Here is a website with a variety of resources on learning disabilities as well as at-risk behaviors and life circumstances.

This site is geared more for children and teens. What resources are available for adults?

Marshall Adult Education - A favorite website

Marshall Adult Education

This site has an amazing amount of resources for ESL and GED educators. I am curious about the limits of this information.

For example, at the beginner level, the reading assingments intorduce a variety of verb tenses as well as several different forms of punctation. The reading represents conversations and not simple sentences focused on one verb tense at one subject (1st person, etc.) at a time. Where are resources of that nature?
Also, where can one access more variety to supplement a classroom with returning students who have already completed this material.


Please add comments and paste in links to address specific curriculum materials. Tell us why you like something and/or how you would like to see it improved.

ABOUT's English Lesson Plans - Free ESL EFL Lessons

English Lesson Plans - Free ESL EFL Lessons in Grammar, Reading, Writing, Speaking and Listening

I am somewhat cautious about ABOUT websites. I usuall look over these resources and try to glean the useful information that is available. They claim to have resources for children as well as adults.

You be the judge. If you find something particularly useful, then please write a comment about why and paste in the link to help other locate what you used.

Phonemic Awareness through Cued American English

Phonemic Awareness through Immersion in Cued American English--KidsWorld Deaf Net E-Doc--Gallaudet's Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center

Although intended for instruction with students who are deaf, I have heard recommendations for using this system with various types of learners as well as various age levels. I am curious to hear from people who have used this system with ESL or TESOL.

Welcome

Hi!
I created this blog to facilitate the sharing and analysis of infomation on adult education and early childhood education curriculum and instruction.

Please add your wisdom and share our insights and resources.