TEXAS Adult & Family Literacy QUARTERLY

Getting There

FREE Things to Send For...

“As always, you guys are great! What a resource for Texas educators at all levels.”

Elizabeth Starek
Tutor Coordinator
Student Support Services
Trinity Valley Community College

Building Tomorrow’s Workforce: Promoting the Education and Advancement of Hispanic Immigrant Workers in America. Gershwin, Mary and Coxen, Tammy and Kelly, Brian and Yakimov, Gary (2007). Big Rapids, MI: National Council for Workforce Education. Over 50% of Hispanic immigrants have less than a high school education, and like other low-skilled working adults, they face a host of barriers if they want to earn the credentials they need to compete in today’s labor market. This report presents promising employer/community college partnerships that expand access to higher education and benefit low-skilled, immigrant Hispanic adults. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this title to Texas educators ONLY. The materials are also available online:
www.ncwe.org/Lumina_MAy19.pdf

A Chance to Earn, a Chance to Learn: Linking Employment and English Training for Immigrants and Refugees New to English. Wrigley, Heide Spruck and Strawn, Julie (2001). Chicago, IL: Illinois State Board of Education.
Among the millions of immigrants and refugees who have come to the US since 1990, the most disadvantaged are adults with minimal formal education -- those who are new to both English and to literacy. These individuals need proper training and job development in order to obtain work at a living wage and help meet the workforce needs of the new economy. Wrigley and Strawn provide an overview of educational patterns among immigrants and discuss the relationship between ESL, literacy, and employment. Gaps in the research are described, as well as recommendations about what works and doesn’t work in existing efforts to serve this population.

Field Notes, Volume 16, Number 4: ABE Counseling. Balliro, Lenore, Editor (Fall 2007). Boston, MA: System for Adult Basic Educational Support.
This quarterly, theme-based newsletter is designed to share innovative and reliable practices, resources, and information relating to ABE. This issue offers guidance for educators who counsel adult learners either informally while teaching or as professionally trained counselors in adult education or English language learning programs. Articles cover culture variables in counseling immigrants, setting boundaries, handling ethical questions, and avoiding legal issues. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this title to Texas educators ONLY. The materials are also available online: www.sabes.org/resources/publications/fieldnotes/vol16/fn164.pdf

Issues in Improving Immigrant Workers’ English Language Skills. Burt, Miriam (December 2003). Washington, DC: National Center for ESL Literacy Education. English language ability is related to higher wages and more stable employment for immigrants to the U.S., yet little training is currently offered to immigrants at the workplace. Issues in providing this instruction include unrealistic expectations both of what can be learned in a short workplace class and how quickly language and cultural behaviors can and should be changed; difficulties in defining and assessing outcomes; and a lack of value placed on the instruction. Research is needed on the use of the native language in workplace instruction; on the efficacy of short-term classes; and on creative ways of providing, monitoring, and assessing English language instruction on the job.

Language Assimilation Today: Bilingualism Persists More Than in the Past, But English Still Dominates. Alba, Richard (December 2004). Albany, NY: Lewis Mumford Center for Comparative Urban and Regional Research. Because of renewed immigration, fears about the status of English as the linguistic glue holding America together are common today. In a very different vein, multiculturalists have expressed hopes of profound change to American culture brought on by the persistence across generations of the mother tongues of contemporary immigrants. Using 2000 Census data, the Mumford Center has undertaken an analysis of the languages spoken at home by school-age children in newcomer families in order to examine the validity of the claim. One of the specific findings is that much third-generation bilingualism is found in border communities, such as Brownsville, Texas, where the maintenance of Spanish has deep historical roots and is affected by proximity to Mexico. Away from the border, Mexican-American children of the third generation are unlikely to be bilingual. One conclusion of this report is that both the anxieties about the place of English in an immigration society and the hopes for a multilingual society in which English is no longer hegemonic are misplaced. Other languages, especially Spanish, will be spoken in the U.S., even by the American born; but this is not a radical departure from the American experience. Yet the necessity of learning English well is accepted by virtually all children and grandchildren of immigrants.

A More Perfect Union: A National Citizenship Plan. Chenoweth, Jeff and Burdick, Laura (January 2007). Washington, DC: Catholic Legal Immigration Network, Inc. With 37 million foreign-born residents, the United States’ strength and vitality depends on the contributions of its newest members. However, the integration of a population of this magnitude and diversity cannot be assumed. The pressing policy question becomes: what can be done to promote the integration of this record number of immigrants? This report proposes a national program to naturalize the eight million immigrants who -- based on their years as Lawful Permanent Residents (LPRs) -- may qualify to naturalize, as well as the millions more who will become eligible in the near future. This report sets forth the resources, activities, and partnerships that would be required to naturalize as many eligible immigrants as possible. Comprehensive recommendations were developed with support from English as a Second Language (ESL) experts. Chapter 7, “Preparing Immigrant Learners for Citizenship”, includes information on competencies for citizenship teachers, program models for ESL and citizenship, in-class curricula priorities for integrated citizenship program models, and an overview of current funding for adult basic education and ESL services. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this title to Texas educators ONLY. The materials are also available online:
www.cliniclegal.org/DNP/citzplan.html

HELPING ADULTS ACHIEVE GOALS

Adult Education and Literacy Instructor Starter Kit. Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center (2001). Richmond, VA: Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center. A reference for teachers and tutors new to adult education, this kit is customizable and reproducible. Administrators will find it useful as a guide for group or individual orientation sessions. Its informal tone and question-answer format encourage teachers to read about adult learning, classroom management, and testing and assessment. The kit also includes a collection of goal-setting and planning tools teachers may use or adapt: a checklist of responsibilities, goal-setting tools, suggestions for first meetings, tips for managing multilevel classes, information on tests and testing, general GED information, a list of adult education acronyms, as well as some information specific to adult education in Virginia. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this title to Texas educators ONLY. The materials are also available online:
www.aelweb.vcu.edu/pdfs/Instkit.pdf

Helping Job Seekers Who Have Limited Basic Skills: A Guide for Workforce Development Professionals. John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development (September 2004). New Brunswick, NJ: Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, Rutgers. This guide provides program planners and frontline staff at public and private career centers with an introduction to the steps involved in planning, implementing, and improving a system of services that helps job seekers who have limited basic skills to meet workplace skill requirements and get and keep rewarding, financially sustaining jobs. Anson Green of Texas Workforce Commission Adult Literacy says, “This is a great primer for those looking for resources to get started or further your plans to help students reach their employment goals. It is clear, full of information and presents great options for improving services. Because it is for workforce development professionals, it should help ABE practitioners better understand the workforce perspective on this issue, which might help you better understand how your local workforce system operates and sees things.” TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this title to Texas educators ONLY. The materials are also available online: heldrich.rutgers.edu/uploadedFiles/Publications/Job%20Seekers%2010.20.pdf

Promoting Success of Multilevel ESL Classes: What Teachers and Administrators Can Do. Mathews-Aydinli, Julie and Van Horne, Regina (April 2006). Washington, DC: Center for Adult English Language Acquisition. Adult education programs serve both learners who are native English speakers and those whose first, or native, language is not English. Learners in the latter group attend English as a second language (ESL) or ABE classes to improve their oral and written skills in English and to achieve goals related to job, family, or further education. The term multilevel has come to define classes where learners from a wide range of levels, from beginning to advanced, are placed together in a single group. In some parts of the country, multilevel classes are the only option that programs have when offering ESL classes. This Brief provides background information on multilevel classes and offers suggestions for teachers on instruction in such classes and for administrators on ways to provide support for teachers in programs with multilevel classes.

Working with Adult English Language Learners with Limited Literacy: Research, Practice, and Professional Development. Burt, Miriam and Peyton, Joy Kreeft, and Schaetzel, Kirsten (July 2008). Washington, DC: Center for Applied Linguistics. “Adult education programs serve both learners who are native English speakers and those whose first, or native, language is not English. Native English speakers attend adult basic education (ABE) classes to learn basic skills needed to improve their literacy levels and adult secondary education (ASE) classes to seek instruction to help them earn high school equivalency certificates. Both ABE and ASE instruction help learners achieve other goals related to job, family, or further education. English language learners attend English as a second language (ESL), ABE, or workforce preparation classes to improve their oral, written, and literacy skills in English and to achieve goals similar to those of native English speakers. This brief is written for teachers, program administrators, education researchers, and policy makers to ensure those who work with adult English language learners with limited literacy have the knowledge and skills needed to work effectively to address the literacy needs of adult English language learners.” - from the Introduction.

FAMILY LITERACY

The Family: America’s Smallest School. Barton, Paul E. and Coley, Richard J. and Educational Testing Service (September 2007). Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service. The gaps in critical home conditions and experiences of young children mirror the achievement gaps that begin early in life and persist through high school, according to results from a new study conducted by the Education Testing Service. The study’s researchers examined the factors that influence early childhood learning and found that 33 percent of children live in families in which no parent has a full-time, year-round job. Additionally, by age four, children of professional families hear 35 million more words than children of parents on welfare. According to Paul Barton, who co-authored the report, “single-parent families, parents reading to children, hours spent watching television and school absences, when combined, account for about two-thirds of the large differences among states in National Assessment of Educational Progress reading scores.” The study suggests that in order to improve schools and student achievement, reform efforts must go beyond the public policy arena and focus on creating home and community environments that aid in educational development. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this title to Texas educators ONLY. The materials are also available online: http://www.ets.org/research/pic

Intergenerational Literacy Notebook. Carr, Karen, Project Coordinator (February 2004). Denver, CO: Colorado Department of Education. This collection of thematically based activities for adults and their children to complete together was designed for adult education, Even Start, and Migrant Even Start programs in Colorado. A majority of the activities are designed for English language learners and are life skills based. Science and social studies activities primarily target the ABE/GED learner. Themes include: Community Services, Consumer Economics, Employment, Health, Housing, Transportation, Science, and Social Studies. Each thematic unit includes group activities as well as some that require minimal teacher support and could be used as take-home activities. Numerous reproducible elements are included. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this title to Texas educators ONLY. The materials are also available online: http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeadult/iglindex.htm

Family Math Fun! Nonesuch, Kate (2008). Duncan, BC: Vancouver Island University. Family Math Fun is a manual of family numeracy activities, ready to use in early literacy programs, day care centres, primary grades and Adult Basic Education/Literacy programs. Patterns, recipes, and hand-outs all included (109 pages). The manual includes math for the whole person: Spirit, heart, body and mind are all connected in the activities in this book. When these are in balance, math becomes part of our whole lives, not a beast or a barrier. Activities for the whole family: Things to do in the kitchen and on a walk, rhymes, games, and things to make, all to promote math thinking and learning. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this title to Texas educators ONLY. The materials are also available online: http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/familymath/cover.htm

Preschool: America’s Best Investment: DVD Video. National Institute for Early Education Research (2004). New Brunswick, NJ: NIEER. Video features Dr. Steven Barnett of NIEER in a preschool reviewing the latest research supporting preschool as a good investment. The economic analysis of the High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40 indicates a 10 to 1 payoff for quality preschool. Other statistics from the study are an eighty percent less likely chance of having been arrested, fifty-nine percent earn more money, and less need for special services in those who attended quality preschool. Also discussed in the video are the “sounds and look of written language” in the preschool experience and the development of social/emotional patterns and self-regulation. This presentation can be useful in advocating for early education as an investment with economic benefits for society. TCALL’s Clearinghouse Library distributes free copies of this video to Texas educators ONLY, in either DVD or VHS format. Video is also available via streaming online: http://nieer.org/docs/index.php?DocID=112