Youth in Adult Education

Welcome to our Library...

Books and other resources described in the Library section may be requested for a 30-day loan. We will mail each borrower up to five loan items at a time (just two for first-time borrowers), and even include a postage-paid return address sticker for mailing them back to us! Borrowers must be affiliated with a non-profit program providing adult or family literacy services. Annotated bibliographies of our entire library of resources are available in hard copy by request, or can be viewed on our website . Call 800-441-7323 or e-mail tcall@tamu.edu to check out materials described here or to request hard copy listings of even more resources.

“I wanted to write and let you know how impressed I am with the resources that TCALL has to offer. The staff is extremely knowledgeable and helpful, and the extensive collection of materials contains far more than I imagined.”
Lauralee Phillips
Senior Project Manager
Texas Engineering Extension Service

Adolescent Literacy Research and Practice.
Tamara L. Jetton and Janice A. Dole, Editors. New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 2004. This book represents research, theory, and practice in the field of adolescent literacy, written by leading authors in that field. The range of topics includes vital issues such as motivation and second language learning, literacy in the content domains, culturally responsive practice, assessment, computer technology, and teaching struggling adolescent readers. “This is a resource that all literacy researchers, teacher educators, and teachers will find invaluable” — Suzanne E. Wade, EdD, Department of Teaching and Learning, University of Utah. Book is available on loan to Texas educators only.

Country Boys (DVD).
David Sutherland, Producer. Alexandria, VA: Public Broadcasting System, 2006. Video of six-hour documentary is a portrait of the trials and triumphs of Chris Johnson and Cody Perkins, two boys coming of age in the Appalachian hills of Floyd County in eastern Kentucky. Filmed over three years (1999-2002), Country Boys tracks the dramatic stories of Chris and Cody from ages 15 to 18, and the two boys’ struggles to overcome the poverty and family dysfunction of their childhood in a quest for a brighter future. This film also offers unexpected insights into a forgotten corner of rural America.

Raising Cain: Protecting the Emotional Life of Boys.
Dan Kindlon and Michael Thompson. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 2000. In this New York Times bestselling book, two of the country’s leading child psychologists share what they have learned in more than thirty-five years of combined experience working with boys and their families. The authors identify the social and emotional challenges that boys encounter in school and show how parents can help boys cultivate emotional awareness and empathy — giving them the vital connections and support they need to navigate the social pressures of youth.

Raising Cain (DVD).
Michael Thompson. Alexandria, VA: Public Broadcasting System, 2006. Video of two-hour documentary explores the emotional development of boys in America from birth through high school through powerful documentary stories about real boys. The hallmark of the program is Michael Thompson’s in-depth interviews and interactions with these boys. The interviews reveal the challenges and confusion that boys encounter while growing up in America. In addition, Michael Thompson models ways for parents, educators and counselors to engage boys and help them bring their inner lives to the surface.

Raising Confident Boys: 100 Tips for Parents and Teachers.
Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer. Place: Cambridge, MA: Fisher Books, 2001. Like girls, boys are enjoying more freedom than ever, having been at least partly liberated from a traditional masculinity. Yet statistics show that they also have more behavior problems than girls have, as well as higher suicide rates. In addition, they are losing their academic edge over girls. Like girls, boys can only take advantage of their new freedoms if they are raised to believe in themselves. In this book, Hartley-Brewer explains how parents and teachers can help.

Reconnecting Disadvantaged Young Men.
Peter Edelman, Harry Holzer, and Paul Offner. Washington, DC: Urban Institute Press, 2006. The United States is home to 2 to 3 million youth age 16 through 24 who are out of school and out of work. Why are so many young people “disconnected,” and what can public policy do about it? And why has disconnection become more common for young men — particularly African-American men and low-income men — than for young women? The authors examine field programs and research studies and recommend specific strategies to enhance education, training, and employment opportunities for disadvantaged youth; to improve the incentives of less-skilled young workers to accept employment; and to address the severe barriers and disincentives faced by some youth, such as ex-offenders and noncustodial fathers.

Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls.
Mary Pipher. New York, NY: Ballantine Books, 1995. At adolescence, says Pipher, “girls become ‘female impersonators’ who fit their whole selves into small, crowded spaces.” Many lose spark, interest, and even IQ points as a “girl-poisoning” society forces a choice between being shunned for staying true to oneself and struggling to stay within a narrow definition of female. Pipher relates alarming tales of a generation swamped by pain and a tough, menacing world for girls, and offers some prescriptions for changing society and helping girls resist.

Teaching Adolescents Who Struggle with Reading: Practical Strategies.
David W. Moore and Kathleen A. Hinchman. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc., 2006. The authors emphasize the important preliminary steps to take during the first few days and weeks of class, when teaching adolescents who struggle as readers and writers. Book offers a balanced perspective on literacy learning, focusing on both embedding literacy instruction in regular subject matter instructional units, and special reading classes as well. The authors also discuss classroom management as essential for effective literacy teaching.

Whatever It Takes: How Twelve Communities Are Reconnecting Out-of-School Youth.
Nancy Martin and Samuel Halperin. Washington, DC: American Youth Policy Forum, 2006. This report documents what committed educators, policymakers, and community leaders across the country are doing to reconnect out-of-school youth to the social and economic mainstream. It provides background on the serious high school dropout problem and describes in-depth what twelve communities are doing to reconnect drop-outs to education and employment training. It also includes descriptions of major national program models serving out-of-school youth.

Building Resilient Students: Integrating Resiliency Into What You Already Know and Do.
Kate Thomsen. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press, Inc., 2002. What makes one student overcome obstacles, while another cannot seem to cope? What makes one student rise above difficult circumstances, while another flounders? Identifying the attributes of the resilient student is the first step in building resiliency in all of your students. This resource provides busy teachers with applications and activities for reframing the actions of even the most at-risk students, changing the focus from problems to solutions, from deficits to strengths. The author connects resiliency to five major educational megatrends — character education, multiple intelligences, emotional intelligence, service learning, and violence prevention. Book is available on loan to Texas educators only.

Mentoring for Resiliency: Setting Up Programs for Moving Youth from Stressed to Success.
Nan Henderson, et al, Editors. Ojai, CA. Resiliency in Action, 2000. What are the crucial elements of all successful youth mentoring programs? This book has the answers from leading authors and researchers on the topic of resiliency. Chapters explore how a mentoring relationship can be beneficial to the mentee, the mentor, and the organization, and provide a number of ideas on how mentees can manage their own personal development and career growth. In addition, the authors explain the skills needed to ensure successful mentoring partnerships, build and maintain the mentoring connection, and deal with issues such as power, diversity, resistance to change, learning styles, and successfully ending the relationship.

Resiliency in Action: Practical Ideas for Overcoming Risks and Building Strengths in Youth, Family & Communities.
Nan Henderson, et al, Editors. Ojai, CA. Resiliency in Action, 1999. Book is a guide to every aspect of fostering resiliency in children, youth, families and communities. Contents include: The foundations of Resiliency; Resiliency and Schools; Resiliency and Communities; Creating Connections: Mentoring, Support and Peer Programs; Resiliency and Youth Development; and Resiliency in Families. Each section is filled with easy-to-understand research reports and ways that the research is being applied.

Resiliency: What We Have Learned.
Bonnie Benard. San Francisco, CA: WestEd, 2004. Resiliency refers to the characteristics which contribute to a young person’s capacity to succeed with a healthy, productive life, even in extreme situations, such as those caused by poverty, troubled families, or violent neighborhoods. This easy-to-read discussion and synthesis about resiliency describes how to best integrate the research findings into school and community programs. Parenting style and impact is also discussed. The author considers how protective factors in a person’s environment shape that person’s success.

Schoolwide Approaches for Fostering Resiliency.
Nan Henderson, et al, Editors. Ojai, CA Resiliency in Action, 2000. How do schools currently build resiliency in students and staff, and how can they do the job better? Based on the research proven assumption that “effective education” and “fostering resiliency” go hand-in-hand, this book offers: teaching strategies that are proven resiliency builders; ways to assess and improve school wide resiliency building; suggestions for creating safe, violence free schools; an annotated bibliography; information on what makes a “turnaround teacher”; resilience-building perspectives from principals; and an understanding of how building resiliency is the foundation of effective education and vice versa.

The Struggle to Be Strong: True Stories by Teens About Overcoming Tough Times: With Leader’s Guide.
Al Desetta and Sybil Wolin, Editors. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit Publishing, 2000. In 30 first-person accounts, teens tell how they faced and overcame major life obstacles. Readers learn about seven resiliencies — insight, independence, realtionships, initiative, creativity, humor, and morality — that everyone needs to triumph over adversity. The Leader’s Guide includes activities, exercises, and questions that help teens go deeper into the stories, relate them to their lives, and build resiliency skills. Set of two books with reproducible handout masters is available on loan to Texas educators only.

Bridges Out of Poverty: Strategies for Professionals and Communities.
Ruby K. Payne, Philip DeVol, and Terie Dreussi Smith. Highlands, TX: aha! Process, Inc., 2001. In her earlier books, Dr. Payne defined poverty as related to eight areas of resources (financial, emotional, mental, spiritual, physical, support systems, relationships/role models, and knowledge of “hidden rules”) rather than being solely defined by lack of finances. The authors of this book apply that framework to social service and community organizations that work with people in poverty. Book is available on loan to Texas educators only.

Class Concerns: Adult Education and Social Class.
Tom Nesbit, Editor. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, Summer 2005. Number 106 in the New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education series. From the Editors: This volume “brings together several leading progressive adult educators to explore how class affects different arenas of adult education practice and discourse. It highlights the links between adult education, the material and social conditions of daily and working lives, and the economic and political systems that underpin them. Chapters focus on adult education policies; teaching; learning and identify formation; educational institutions and social movements; and the relationship between class, gender, and race.”

Educating for a Change.
Rick Arnold, et al. Toronto, Ontario, Canada: Between the Lines and the Doris Marshall Institute for Education and Action, 1991. In its eighth printing as of 2001, this book was written by educators who have spent decades working in popular education for social change, in such contexts as community and solidarity groups, unions, boards of education, anti-racist and human service organizations. Drawing on their experience in facilitating a wide range of workshops, the authors offer theory and practical tools for consciously applying the principles of democratic practice to educational work.

Freedom Road: Adult Education of African Americans, Revised Edition.
Elizabeth A. Peterson. Malabar, FL: Krieger Publishing Company, 2002. Editorial Description: “This book attempts to look at the African American struggle for racial equality and socio-economic equity from Reconstruction to today, by focusing on African American educators who persevered in this struggle and the philosophy which guided their practices. The book has a special focus on the role of adult education in this struggle. In this updated edition ... a new chapter has been added that explores the role that Malcolm X, a minister in the Nation of Islam and civil rights activist, played as an adult educator.”

Life at the Margins: Literacy, Language, and Technology in Everyday Life.
Juliet Merrifield, et al. New York: Teachers College Press, 1997. This book develops an understanding of literacy and illiteracy through the life stories of twelve adults from diverse backgrounds living in the United States. In the process of coming to know these adults, we learn, contrary to commonly held assumptions and beliefs, that adults with limited literacy skills work hard and long, make limited use of public resources, and do use technology. Hanna Arlene Fingeret, former executive director of Literacy South says: “This book makes statements about racism, about classism, about gender discrimination, and about language discrimination. The examples of courage and spirit are inspiring.” Book is available on loan to Texas educators only.

New American Blues: A Journey Through Poverty to Democracy.
Earl Shorris. New York, NY: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997. Shorris uses narrative to take the reader inside the lives of the poor in El Paso, Oakland, rural Tennessee, the South Bronx, and other points around the US. Armed with insights into who the poor are and the world in which they live, Shorris asks this question: “If the poor are human, and if the cultivation of their humanity benefits both society and the poor themselves, then why not teach them the humanities as the basic tools of citizenship?” To answer that question, Shorris started an experimental school in which logic, poetry, art, and moral philosophy were taught to a group of young people from backgrounds of homelessness, drug abuse, and prison. Book is available on loan to Texas educators only.

Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America.
Barbara Ehrenreich. New York: Metropolitan Books, 2001. Millions of Americans work full-time, year-round, for poverty-level wages. In 1998, Barbara Ehrenreich decided to join them. She was inspired in part by the rhetoric surrounding welfare reform, which promised that a job — any job — could be the ticket to a better life. But how does anyone survive, let alone prosper, on six or seven dollars an hour? To find out, Ehrenreich left her home, took the cheapest lodgings she could find, and accepted whatever jobs she was offered as a woefully inexperienced homemaker returning to the workforce. Moving from Florida to Maine to Minnesota, the author discovered that no job is truly “unskilled,” and that one job is not enough; you need at least two if you intend to live indoors.

Other People’s Words: The Cycle of Low Literacy.
Victoria Purcell-Gates. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995. The author describes a qualitative research study of children and grandchildren of white Appalachian families who migrated to northern cities in the 1950’s to look for work, a group that makes up a significant proportion of the poor in these urban areas. The author demonstrates that this group’s literacy problems provide a unique look at the relationship between literacy/print and culture. Book is available on loan to Texas educators only.

Radical Equations: Math Literacy and Civil Rights.
Robert P. Moses and Charles E. Cobb, Jr. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2001. A civil rights activist in 1960s Mississippi, Moses later founded and taught in a national math literacy program called The Algebra Project. In this book of personal narrative and impassioned argument, Moses brings his civil rights experience to bear on education today. In a technological era when the most pressing civil rights issue is economic access, Moses sees a crisis in math literacy in poor communities as urgent as the crisis of political access in Mississippi in 1961.

Reading Lives: Working-Class Children and Literacy Learning.
Deborah Hicks. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2002. Combining a long-term study of two children from white working-class families and her own experience of growing up in a rural setting in the southeastern U.S., Hicks explores how these children’s lived experiences influence their self images and reading practices, and discusses the critical role of their teachers. Book is available on loan to Texas educators only.

Reading Poverty.
Patrick Shannon. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 1998. Shannon looks at how social, political, and economic contexts inform the literacy education field, including how competing representations of poverty underlie our assumptions about IQ testing, textbook content, national standards, standardized achievement tests, volunteerism, school/business partnerships, and many other contemporary issues in education. He argues that we have perpetuated a system geared toward the protection of property over the well-being of people. Shannon’s theory of poverty seeks to blur traditional class lines among Americans in order to direct us toward a more just and equitable society.

Schoolsmart and Motherwise: Working-Class Women’s Identity and Schooling.
Wendy Luttrell. New York, NY: Routledge, 1997. Drawing upon the school experiences and life stories of working-class women — black and white, rural and urban, southern and northern — Wendy Luttrell examines how schools shortchange women, both when they are children and when they return to school as adults. She documents in detail how patterns of social difference and inequality are sustained in unseen ways through the relationship between schooling and mothering, and offers explanations and practical suggestions for school reform and adult literacy education.

Sista, Speak! Black Women Kinfolk Talk About Language and Literacy.
Sonja L. Lanehart. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press, 2002. Lanehart explores how the higher status associated with the “proper” English used in white, affluent society has affected the language, literacy, educational achievements, and self-image of five African American women. Through interviews and written statements, Lanehart draws out the life stories of these women and their attitudes toward and use of language. Making comparisons and contrasts among them, she shows how, even within a single family, differences in age, educational opportunities and social circumstances can lead to widely different abilities and comfort in using language to navigate daily life.

Where We Stand: Class Matters.
bell hooks. New York: Routledge, 2000. Feminist teacher and author bell hooks writes about class as the “elephant in the room” — the unnamed subject she considers central to our culture and its problems. Drawing on both her roots in Kentucky and her experiences with Manhattan coop boards, hooks reflects on how our dilemmas of race and class are intertwined, and how we can find ways to think beyond them.

The Working Poor: Invisible in America.
David K. Shipler. New York, NY: Vintage Books, 2005. Shipler examines the “forgotten America” where “millions live in the shadow of prosperity, in the twilight between poverty and well-being.” These are citizens for whom the American Dream is out of reach despite their willingness to work hard — a description that fits many adult literacy learners as well. Struggling to simply survive, they live so close to the edge of poverty that a minor obstacle, such as a car breakdown or a temporary illness, can lead to a downward financial spiral that can prove impossible to reverse. David Shipler interviewed many such working people for this book and his profiles offer an intimate look at what it is like to be trapped in a cycle of dead-end jobs without benefits or opportunities for advancement.

A Critical Discourse Analysis of Family Literacy Practices: Power In and Out of Print.
Rebecca Rogers. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2003. Rogers explores the complexity of family literacy practices through an in-depth case study of one family of urban African Americans labeled as “low-income” and “low literate.” Using participant-observation, ethnographic interviewing, photography, document collection, and discourse analysis, Rogers describes and explains the complexities of identity, power, and discursive practices that the family members engage with in their daily life. She explores why, despite their proficiencies, they see themselves as literate.

Eager to Learn: Educating Our Preschoolers.
Barbara T. Bowman, M. Suzanne Donovan, and M. Susan Burns. Washington, DC: National Academy Press, 2001. This comprehensive review of research includes findings from the Committee on Early Childhood Pedagogy. Topics include early learning of young children (two to five-years-of-age), the importance of relationships, and the influence of different social and economic groups. Theories and practices for school and home settings, teachers and other relationships, special populations, assessment and diagnosis, and teacher planning and development are discussed. All aspects of early childhood learning are reviewed with recommendations for practice in an executive summary and a summary of state programs.

Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others.
James Kouzes and Barry Z. Posner. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003. “Charged with real-world examples, practical ideas, and expert advice, Encouraging the Heart is your guide to mastering one of the most important elements of exemplary leadership.” Also from the back cover, “a wonderful tool for creating a work-force that cares,” comments P. Lencioni. The chapters cover seven essentials for encouraging, describe the heart of leadership, and how to find your voice. This book works for new leaders and those needing a new perspective.

Evidence-Based Reading Instruction: Putting the National Reading Panel Report into Practice.
Charlene M. Nichols, Project Editor. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2002. In 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP) completed the most comprehensive review of existing reading research to be undertaken in U.S. education. The five topics identified by the NRP are presented and discussed with articles from the International Reading Association. The sections are phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary development, comprehension strategies, and a section for “putting it all together.” Articles highlight instructional practices for teachers of preschoolers to elementary children.

Family Literacy: From Theory to Practice.
Andrea DeBruin-Parecki and Barbara Krol-Sinclair, Editors. Newark, DE: International Reading Association, 2003. Edited book presents theoretical perspectives and strategies for family literacy programs in different settings. Chapters focusing on ESL, fathers, children with disabilities, Even Start, young mothers, assessment, and evaluation provide a comprehensive look at family literacy in practice with many program examples. Intended as a tool for educators and community organizations setting up effective family literacy programs, this book is available on loan to Texas educators only.

Family Pictures/Cuadros De Familia: Paintings and Stories/Cuadros Y Relatos.
Carmen Lomas Garza. San Francisco, CA: Children’s Book Press, 2005. This fifteenth anniversary edition of the children’s classic includes an introduction by San Antonio author, Sandra Cisneros. Author and Illustrator, Garza, has painted and written stories of her days when she was growing up near Kingsville, Texas. The paragraph-long stories and colorful paintings will ring true with families in Texas family literacy programs, with text presented in both English and Spanish. Stories include “cakewalk,” “picking nopal cactus,” “hammerhead shark,” “rabbit,” and “quinceañera.” Teachers will be inspired to have their families create their own “family pictures.”

Gateways to Early Literacy Video Set. Reading is Fundamental. Washington, DC: Reading is Fundamental, 2003. Each of four videos features nationally recognized early childhood educators and literacy experts who discuss key messages and emphasize current research and research-based best practices, and features adults working with children, infant through prekindergarten, in these areas: setting the stage, conversations, reading aloud, and emergent writing. Clips of the children could be used to illustrate strategies with parents. Set includes four 30-minute videos, User’s Guide, Self-Study Guide, a poster depicting literacy-filled family child care homes, and a children’s book. Information presented can help a program set up a literacy-rich environment and guide a literacy curriculum. Boxed set is available for loan to Clearinghouse Library Preferred Borrowers only. Ask us how to become a Preferred Borrower.

Literacy and Young Children: Research-Based Practices.
Diane M. Barone and Lesley Mandel Morrow, Editors. New York, NY: The Guilford Press, 2003. Contributions from numerous authors highlight the research behind classroom and home environment literacy practices. Sections include: “Foundations for Early Literacy Learning and Instruction”; “Home Literacy Experiences of Children”; “Phonemic Awareness, Code Learning, and Book Acting”; and “Recent Trends in Literacy Research: Technology, Fluency, and Information Text”. Topics discussed range from English language learners, preschool strategies, learning to read, to reading for learning.

Raising a Family: Living on Planet Parenthood.
Jeanne Elium and Don Elium. Berkeley, CA: Celestial Arts Publishing, 1997. Raising a Family introduces the concept of “FamilyMind” — defined in the book and discussed with many issues, such as loving with the heart, conflicts, obstacles, mental health issues, children, and men/women perspectives. The authors illustrate “the difference between the service-oriented environment of work, where energy is focused on a single goal, and the care-oriented environment at home, where multiple issues need attention.” Balancing the home life discussions may be used as a strategy in integrating family literacy program components.

Reading Lives: Working-Class Children and Literacy Learning.
Deborah Hicks. New York, NY: Teachers College Press, 2002. Valerie Walkerdine, Professor at University of Western Sydney, describes this book as “a beautiful, brilliant, sensitive and profound exploration of literacy and class. Deborah Hicks takes us into classrooms and homes with working class children as they struggle not only to learn to read but with the kind of subjectivity that literacy appears simultaneously to hold out to and refuse them.” Combining a long-term study of two children from white working-class families and her own experience of growing up in a rural setting in the southeastern U.S., Hicks explores how these children’s lived experiences influence their self images and reading practices, and discusses the critical role of their teachers. Book is available for loan to Texas educators only.

Richard Scarry’s Best Counting Book Ever/ El major libro para contra de Richard Scarry.
Richard Scarry. Flagstaff, AZ: Luna Rising, 1975, renewed 2003. Oversized children’s picture book features English and Spanish counting text and colorful illustrations. The book is appropriate for interactive literacy activities and ELL (English Language Learner) curriculum activities.

The Temperament Perspective: Working with Children’s Behavioral Styles.
Jan Kristal. New York, NY: Paul H. Brooks Publishing Co., 2005. Based on the work of Chess and Thomas, this book adds the author’s own research and clinical work to present practical guidance for working with children and their parents. What is temperament, how does it affect children’s behavior at different ages, how can teachers and caregivers adapt the learning environment to help children, and meeting the challenges of difficult behavior are among the topics discussed. Chapters include “Goodness of Fit,” “The Temperament Profile,” “Infants: Unique from the Beginning,” “Toddlers and Preschoolers,” and “School-Age Children.” Book is a resource for all areas and components of family literacy programs.

The Voice of Evidence in Reading Research.
Peggy McCardle and Vinita Chhabra. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing Co., 2004. The authors look at landmark research summary reports, the Report of the National Reading Panel and the Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, and further the discussion about using evidenced-based data and criticisms of National Reading Panel work. Questions addressed are “why scientific research?” and “where are we today and where are we going?” Sections include an overview, “reading research that provides evidence: the methods,” “evidence-based practices that teachers are asked to implement,” reading research evidence in the classroom,” and “neuroimaging and brain research.”