Literacy Links

Family Literacy

FREE ... Yours for the Asking ...

All of these FREE materials may be requested from the Adult Literacy Clearinghouse by calling the Hotline at 800-441-7323 or e-mailing tcall@tamu.edu

Family Literacy: Program and Professional Development

Adult Basic Education: Strategies to Increase Returns on Investment (ROI). Sticht, Thomas G. (1999). The author reviews research and suggests two "investment strategies" for adult education and workforce development. One is the impact of parents' education levels on children's learning and achievement; the second is the functional context approach to learning.

Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Intervention: OJJDP Fact Sheet #94. Greenwood, Peter W., Ph.D. (February 1999). This Fact Sheet presents an overview of a RAND report, Investing in Our Children: What We Know and Don't Know About the Costs and Benefits of Early Childhood Interventions.

Early Childhood Programs: The Use of Impact Evaluations to Assess Program Effects. GAO (April 2001). This report reviews current government-sponsored studies of 11 programs that fund early childhood education and care, including Even Start, Head Start, and Early Head Start. The final report on the Even Start study is expected in summer of 2003, and the Head Start report is not expected until 2006.

Family Literacy: Parenting

Discipline: Teaching Limits With Love. The Reiner Foundation (2000). In this 27-minute video, pediatrician Dr. T. Berry Brazelton shows parents that setting limits is not punishment, but a loving way to teach a child how to control his or her own behavior. Videotape and/or Pack of 10 Booklets. FREE copies available IN TEXAS ONLY while supplies last.

The First Years Last Forever. The Reiner Foundation (2000). This 29-minute video, hosted by Rob Reiner, helps new parents understand the importance of the first three years of life in the healthy development of their children. Also available in a Spanish-language version (Los Primeros A s Marcan Para Siempre), hosted by Gloria Estefan. Videotape and/or Pack of 10 Booklets. FREE copies available IN TEXAS ONLY while supplies last.

Parenting and Career Development: ERIC Digest No. 214. Kerka, Sandra (2000). This Digest looks research on the ways in which parenting styles, family functioning, and parent-child interaction influence career development.

Preventing Violence the Problem-Solving Way: Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Shure, Myrna B., Ph.D. (April 1999). This Bulletin describes the use of specific interpersonal cognitive problem-solving (ICPS) skills in a program called Raising a Thinking Child, a primary prevention program for parents and their children ages 4 to 7.

Ready to Learn: Essential Tips for Early Literacy. The Reiner Foundation (2000). This 24-minute video, hosted by Jamie Lee Curtis and LeVar Burton, shows parents and caregivers many things they can do to help build a child's literacy skills from the time he is born. Also available in a Spanish-language version (Listos para Aprender), hosted by Edward James Olmos. Videotape and/or Pack of 10 Booklets. FREE copies available IN TEXAS ONLY while supplies last.

Teaching Adults

Affecting Change in Literacy Practices of Adult Learners: Impact of Two Dimensions of Instruction. Purcell-Gates, Victoria, et al (November 2000). A central finding in this study is that the more "real-life" activities and texts used in the classroom, the more likely that students will read and write in their daily lives and at a higher level or type of texts. FREE copies available IN TEXAS ONLY. Also available online at http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/report17.pdf. ***

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Change: Connections to Adult Learning and Education: ERIC Digest No. 221. Imel, Susan (2000). Following a discussion of the change process, this Digest examines the connection between change and adult education and adult learning, and it concludes with some suggestions for adult educators involved in the change process.

Incidental Learning: ERIC Trends and Issues Alert No. 18. Kerka, Sandra (2000). Incidental learning is unintentional or unplanned learning that results from other activities. This Alert discusses how educators can help learners make incidental learning outcomes explicit and create a climate that fosters incidental learning.

Multiple Intelligences and Adult Education: ERIC Trends and Issues Alert No. 17. Kerka, Sandra (2000). Howard Gardner's (1999) theory of multiple intelligences (MI) views intelligence as a set of abilities, talents, and skills in eight areas. This ERIC Trends and Issues Alert discusses MI in the workplace, MI and multimodal learning using technologies, and implications of MI for adult literacy learners and adults with learning disabilities.

Transformative Learning and the Journey of Individuation: ERIC Digest No. 223. Dirkx, John M. (2000). This Digest summarizes and expands on the notion of transformative learning, discussing the role of image, symbol, ritual, fantasy, and imagination in transformation.

The Diverse Classroom

Diversity in the Work Force. Wentling, Rose Mary (2001). This paper summarizes work force diversity issues and reviews the key points from research studies, books, reports, and journal articles on diversity in the work force.

Group Effectiveness in the Classroom and Workplace: ERIC Practice Application Brief No. 15. Brown, Bettina Lankard (2000). This Brief identifies ways to prepare learners to be effective in group situations as well as ways teachers can prepare themselves to be skillful group facilitators.

ESL

Finding and Evaluating Adult ESL Resources on the World Wide Web: ERIC Q and A. Florez, MaryAnn Cunningham (October 2000). Although written for adult English as a second language (ESL) practitioners, the Q & A is appropriate for all educators seeking more efficient ways of locating resources on the Web.

Online Professional Development for Adult ESL Educators: ERIC Q and A. Hawk, William B. (September 2000). This Q & A examines the benefits and challenges of online professional development, surveys the range of options available to adult ESL teachers and tutors, and provides guidance in exploring and evaluating these options.

Reflective Teaching Practice in Adult ESL Settings: ERIC Digest. Florez, MaryAnn Cunningham (March 2001). The field of ESL education requires approaches to professional development that accommodate the largely part-time workforce and limited financial resources for training. This digest discusses one practice that has gained popularity in recent years - reflective teaching.

Special Populations

African Americans and Self-Help Education: The Missing Link in Adult. Education: ERIC Digest No. 222. Rowland, Michael L. (2000). In this Digest, the author asserts that a multicultural approach to adult education and self-help must include a review of literature that examines self-help education and its impact on African Americans' learning and development.

Cruel and Usual: How Welfare Reform Punishes Poor People. Gordon, Rebecca (2001). Oakland, CA: Applied Research Center. According to this report, welfare reform as enacted under the 1996 PRWORA (Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act) has led to discrimination in four areas: race, gender, language and national origin. FREE copies available IN TEXAS ONLY.

Dialogue Journals: Interactive Writing to Develop Language and Literacy: ERIC Q and A. Peyton, Joy Kreeft (December 2000 Revised). Adults learning English as a second language (ESL) bring to the classroom extensive life experience and proficiencies in different languages and cultures. At the same time, they may have limited literacy skills in their native language. Dialogue journals provide these learners with one-to-one communication crucial to meeting their needs.

Staff Development: Understanding Our Youngest Students: A Revision of the 1994 Project. Diller, Ilsa Powell and Diller, Michael E. (1999). This manual provides the structure and content for a series of three workshops: 1) Adolescent Development: Working With At-Risk Youth in the ABE Classroom; 2) Curriculum-Based Assessment and Instructional Strategies; and 3) Applied Experiences (incorporating discussion of difficult case histories). FREE copies available IN TEXAS ONLY. Loan copies are available for out-of-state requestors.

Trauma and the Adult English Language Learner: ERIC Digest. Isserlis, Janet (July 2000). This digest describes trauma and abuse in immigrant communities, discusses the effects of trauma on learning, and suggests ways in which practitioners can modify their practice to facilitate learning among victims of trauma and violence.

Workforce Preparation

Apprenticeship: ERIC Trends and Issues Alert No. 19. Wonacott, Michael E. (2000). Apprenticeship's direct ties to employment make it a natural element of the market-driven, customer-focused job training system envisioned by WIA (The Workforce Investment Act 2000). This Alert provides a brief overview and a list of resources on the current state of apprenticeship.

Career Exploration by Adults: ERIC Practice Application Brief No. 14. Kerka, Sandra (2001). This Brief examines why and how adults explore potential careers and how practitioners can support them in this process.

Career Portfolios: ERIC Practice Application Brief No. 13. Wonacott, Michael E. (2000). Career portfolios provide evidence of individuals' knowledge and skills in working with data, people, and things. Developing a portfolio can be a valuable career awareness and career planning activity and a very useful tool in job search and career change. This Brief describes practices in developing and using portfolios for career-related purposes.

Contextual Teaching and Learning: Preparing Students for the New Economy. Berns, Robert G. and Erickson, Patricia M. (2001). The authors give an overview of the development of the field of career and technical education from behaviorism to contextual teaching and learning (CTL), and the influence of constructivism. Such approaches include problem-based learning, cooperative learning, project-based learning, service learning, and work-based learning.

Future Work: ERIC Myths and Realities No. 11. Kerka, Sandra (2000). Many projections about the future of work and jobs have been made. An example is the prediction that technology will create jobless economic growth and mass unemployment. Are some of these projections more likely than others to come true? This question is explored here by examining trends in technology and nonstandard work and their implications for work in the 21st century.

Informal Workplace Learning: ERIC Practice Application Brief No. 10. Cofer, David A. (2000). This Brief explores the meaning of the term informal learning as defined by several authors, reviews the results of research conducted by the Education Development Center (EDC) Inc., and describes the planning strategies and implications for practice offered by EDC and others.

Is the GED a Valuable Credential? ERIC Myths and Realities No. 10. Brown, Bettina Lankard (2000). What value does a GED have for high school dropouts and how does a GED credential translate to employment, earnings, further education, and personal well-being? This Myths and Realities examines these questions by exploring the differences between the high school diploma and GED credentials and the value of receiving one in comparison to the other.