Listening is often described as a passive skill, but those of us who have tried to be effective listeners know that it takes total concentration and involvement. The term “active listening” is more than just a catchy phrase for good human communications; it really does mean active involvement on the part of the listener. The listener in all adult literacy programs can be the instructor, but most importantly it is the learner.

The EL Civics department at North Harris College – Parkway Center shares with the community 17 classes. All 17 classes are presently using the following textbooks - Voice of Freedom, Standout for the lower level students and the PEACE curriculum as an additional supplemental guide to enhance preparation of our students for the Citizenship exam with CIS (formerly INS). I would like to share a couple of great activities which two of our classes have administered. Judith an EL Civics and ESL instructor for the past three years uses music to reach her students. The music tends to calm students down, causing a more productive classroom environment. Think about it, if you have had a bad morning, woke up late, had a bad day at the office and walk into class hearing music, you cannot help but begin to relax and be ready for instruction. Music soothes the mind, body, and soul. If you do not believe me, just play a tape, CD, or 8 track depending on your mood and let go and listen. Every piece of music has a message just like an article/book has a main idea. Judith incorporates Jazz, the Blues, Hip Hop, and country to reach different student’s music interests. I had the privilege to be apart of one of the classes where the Isley Brother’s CD was playing and the students had the words printed on a page in English and were singing the song along with the CD. This practice is an awesome one for our adult students. They learned possibly a new song and learned some new English words at the same time. Music as many already know is a great tool for learning (we should all know that every song tells a story). Studies have shown that music calms the student down. The student can then reflect and hopefully retain the information heard. When I left Judith’s class at Bridges Academy, I felt rejuvenated and ready to hit my next task head on.

The other class I would like to share is Matt’s class held at DOSS Community Center where we have a partnership and great site supervisor – Diane Koon. Matt is a new instructor to our department and a graduate student at the University of Houston. Matt is an awesome fit for our students. Matt has mostly lower level ESL students, based on the BEST exam scores. When I entered his class in Spring of 2004, to see how things were going, Matt was discussing two and three syllable words along with pronunciations with qrst words. Matt would write five to six words of each letter on the board. The entire class would repeat the word after him and then define the word for a clearer understanding. Some words that were a little more difficult are quart, quite, etc. How do you define quite, with students trying to learn English, but Matt did a fantastic job!

Majority of our students are from Mexico, South America or Vietnam, but other populations are growing like Cambodians, Chinese, Japanese, and Arabic. Many of our adult students have degrees from other countries, but just want to learn how to speak English. As we all know, practice makes perfect. I enjoyed visiting all my classes and seeing what new activity the instructors have designed and shared with our students. Many times students give us ideas on how to teach a specific topic, so as an instructor we must listen to our student needs and develop new strategies that increase student retention. These new teaching strategies assist with classroom management.

Preparation by all staff members within any Adult Education department is crucial for students and staff involvement, retention, and classroom management. The front receptionist whether by phone or in person is your first point of contact. If that person is well informed and respectful, then the students will know this is a place to be. If the instructors are planning ahead for every class meeting and have more than enough assignments for each class, then the students will not get bored, nor drift off, and basically not have time to disrupt, because task after task after task is being administered. Regardless of what many educators think, structure is important as well as flexibility. The more structured and prepared staff are, the better retention programs can have. Yes I am aware there is no perfect model, but I believe a learning institution should have a solid professional development plan, seasonal instructors as well as newly hired instructors, so a diverse group of instructors and staff can learn from each other. These building blocks will flourish, if professional development is made a priority.

The Adult Education departments at North Harris College, Tomball College, Cy-Fair College, Montgomery College, and Kingwood College have dynamic programs, and I encourage you to come by and visit us as well as invite us to visit your programs.

Shannon Solis worked full-time for the Adult Education Department at North Harris College-Parkway Center for one and a half years. She is now working full-time with College Services on many projects to see how their district handles situations from a broader aspect and also works as an adjunct developmental math instructor. She was charged with developing a District ESL Task Force to involve all five campuses and develop timelines on strategic initiatives that will promote success for ESL students. She is a doctoral student in administration and supervision and looks forward to completing this degree and assisting students and institutions of higher education in a more productive and global manner.