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Highlights from Eight Years of Literacy Links
Timely Topics: Selected Articles from Literacy
Links. St. Clair, Ralf, Durbin, Peggy Sue, and Perry, Kay,
Editors (January 2004). College Station, TX: Texas Adult Literacy Clearinghouse.
This book is a collection of selected articles featured between 1996 and
2003 in Literacy Links, the adult education
and literacy newsletter for Texas. Articles are grouped into the following
topics: good practices in adult literacy education; literacy and work;
learning and assessment; and collaboration. Writers include teachers,
program administrators, trainers, and researchers in the field of adult
and family literacy.
Resources for Election 2004 Classroom Activities
The Change Agent Issue 18: Focus on Voting in
the 2004 Elections. Anaam, Cara and Orlando, Angela, Editors (March
2004). Boston, MA: New England Literacy Resource Center.
This issue focuses on the opportunity the November 2004 election offers
teachers of adults to encourage civic participation. In 2000, only 60%
of Americans who could vote, did so. Articles in this issue are intended
to encourage those who haven't voted before as well as those who are seasoned
voters, to get out to the polls and make the best decision they can for
their country. Expanded 36-page issue explores some of the reasons people
vote and don't vote, who can vote, and who still cannot. Articles feature
facts and analysis on several "hot" election topics; guidelines for how
to pick a candidate; and ideas for conducting voter education and registration
in the classroom. Powerful narratives by naturalized citizens help learners
understand how they felt when they first voted in their new homeland.
A young voter explains why she started voting and how she makes her voice
heard. Other articles explore some of the reasons people say they don't
vote. Free hard copies are available to Texas Educators ONLY, but all
back issues and subscription information are available online at: http://www.nelrc.org/changeagent/.
People and Politics: A Civic Literacy Curriculum.
Hager, Ashley (2000). Boston, MA: New England Literacy Resource Center.
Written by an adult education practitioner, the objectives of this civic
literacy curriculum are for students to increase their awareness of the
effect of their actions or non actions on their own well-being and the
well-being of their communities; to identify the issues most important
to them and select a candidate whose platform reflects their own concerns;
and to write a letter to a decision maker.
Pick Your Candidate. Tasker, Debbie (1995).
Concord, NH: New Hampshire Department of Education, Bureau of Adult Education.
This 25-page manual is intended to help adult students sort through issues
in preparation for deciding which candidates they will support in an upcoming
election. Topics include: registering to vote; campaign news coverage
and advertising; campaign speeches; campaign promises; negative campaigning;
use of "buzzwords"; opinion polls; meeting a candidate; considering issues;
choosing your favorite candidate; and helping your candidate. Discussion
questions encourage critical thinking. Students can do the reading and
writing activities independently or in groups.
Family Literacy – Early Childhood Component
Addressing the Needs of Latino Children: A National
Survey of State Administrators of Early Childhood Programs: Executive
Summary. Buysse, Virginia, Castro, Dina C., West, Tracy, and Skinner,
Martie L. (2004). Chapel Hill, NC: FPG Child Development Institute.
Latinos are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S. today. Nationally,
Latino parents have participated at lower rates in early childhood education
and early intervention services than parents from other racial and ethnic
backgrounds. This new study examined the linguistically and culturally
relevant practices that state administrators reported were recommended
or being used by early education and intervention programs that enrolled
Latino children and families. Over 100 administrators of state early childhood
programs (child care, Head Start, Part B-Section 619, Part C) in 48 states
and the District of Columbia provided input on specific challenges, strategies
and beliefs about serving Latino children (birth to 5) and their families.
All four groups reported the lack of Latino or bilingual professionals,
and insufficient staff preparation and training, as the most urgent challenges
in serving the Latino population.
Early Childhood Education: A Call to Action from
the Business Community. The Business Roundtable and Corporate Voices
for Working Families (May 2003). Washington, DC: Corporate Voices for
Working Families.
Declaring that too many children enter school ill-prepared to succeed,
The Business Roundtable (BRT) and Corporate Voices for Working Families
(CVWF) released this statement describing "the wide learning gap between
lower- and higher-income children before they enter kindergarten" and
warning that many poor and middle-class children who start out behind
"will fall further and further behind." The statement says high-quality
programs can close the gap, citing research that shows that children in
such programs score significantly higher on measures of learning skills
and school readiness. Nine-page statement with bibliography plus two-page
press release are included.
Early Literacy for Inner-City Children: The Effects
of Reading and Writing Interventions in English and Spanish During the
Preschool Years. Yaden, David B., et al (2001). Ann Arbor, MI:
Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement.
Article originally featured in "The Reading Teacher" reported on a four-year,
longitudinal examination of the effectiveness of a preschool emergent
literacy intervention in a skid row child-care facility in downtown Los
Angeles. The primary purpose of the project was to provide multiple opportunities
for Spanish-speaking four-year-old children to engage in a variety of
reading and writing activities within the center, at home and in the surrounding
community. Results of the study indicate that not only did preschool children
begin their kindergarten year on or above grade level in understanding
concepts about print, but both preschool teachers and parents established
regular habits of shared book reading and numerous ways for children to
write and display their work.
Implications of Brain Development Research for
Even Start Family Literacy Programs. Logue, Mary Ellin, RMC Research
Corporation (Fall 2000). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education
Even Start Program Office.
This report from the U.S.D.E. discusses brain development research and
outlines specific applications for parents or caregivers and very young
children. The second half of the report has implications for Even Start
programs.
Program Advocacy & Improvement
An EFF Handbook for Program Improvement: Using
the Equipped for the Future Approach to Quality. King, Jereann
and Bingman, Beth (2004). Knoxville, TN: EFF National Center for Training
and Technical Assistance.
Equipped for the Future (EFF) is a standards-based approach to reform
in the adult literacy education system. This handbook is designed to help
community-based organizations that provide adult education improve their
program quality in order to better achieve results that matter; it uses
EFF to frame the program improvement process. The handbook identifies
four phases of program improvement and includes tools and other resources
to support the process. Free hard copies are available to Texas Educators
ONLY, but handbook is also available online in pdf format at: http://pli.cls.utk.edu/comp_models.htm.
International Literacy Day Tool Kit. National
Literacy Summit Initiative (2003). Chicago, IL: National Coalition for
Literacy.
Carrying out International Literacy Day activities on September 8 is one
way to support the development of the nation's adult education and language
system and raise awareness of your program and the issues of adult literacy
and language learning in your community. Originally developed for International
Literacy Day in 2002, this Tool Kit was updated in 2003 to provide suggestions,
models, and materials to engage your community. Free hard copies are available
to Texas Educators ONLY, but Tool Kit is also available online in pdf
format at: http://www.national-coalition-literacy.org/.
Research to Practice
Multiple Literacies: A Compilation for Adult
Educators. Hull, Glynda A., Mikulecky, Larry, St. Clair, Ralf,
and Kerka, Sandra (2003). Columbus, OH: Center on Education and Training
for Employment.
Literacies are tools for reading the world - bodies of knowledge, skills,
and social practices with which we understand, interpret, and use the
symbol systems of our culture. The conventional understanding of literacy
(singular) is reading, writing, and numeracy. Recent developments are
broadening this definition by including a wide range of symbol systems
- reading, writing, viewing, speaking. Being literate thus means being
able to combine these systems in complex ways to create meaning. This
compilation looks at the various literacies as the application of critical
abilities to several domains of importance to adult life in the 21st
century. An annotated resource list provides sources of more information
about critical aspects of the following literacy domains: multiple, critical,
civic, digital/electronic, environmental, financial, geographic, health,
media, and technological/scientific. Free hard copies are available to
Texas Educators ONLY.
Opportunities and Limits: An Update on Adult
Literacy Education. Belzer, Alisa and St. Clair, Ralf (2003). Columbus,
OH: Center on Education and Training for Employment.
This paper reviews significant events and resources that have emerged
since the 1992 publication of "Adult Literacy Education: Current and Future
Directions. An Update" by Hanna Fingeret. The paper begins by looking
at the current context for doing research, including the legislative
influences of the Welfare Reform Act and the Workforce Investment Act.
Next, the monograph explores major aspects of the infrastructure that
support the field, related to policy, assessment and accountability,
and professional development. The next section summarizes and analyzes
the state of the field with regard to the following areas of teaching
and learning: adult learning and development; instructional strategies;
learner engagement; special populations (specifically, learners with
learning difficulties and those from diverse ethnic and racial backgrounds);
trauma; reading, writing, and numeracy; teaching for the General Educational
Development Test; family literacy; work force literacy; health literacy;
and technology. Free hard copies are available to Texas Educators ONLY.
Research-Based Principles for Adult Basic Education
Reading Instruction. Kruidenier, John, Ed.D. (October 2002). Washington,
DC: The Partnership for Reading.
This document presents findings from an analysis of the adult basic education
(ABE) reading instruction research base and is designed as a resource
for practitioners and reading researchers. It focuses on principles that
can be derived from the research and a research agenda for the future.
For the purposes of this project, "adult reading instruction research"
is defined as research related to reading instruction for low-literate
adults, aged 16 and older, who are no longer being served in secondary
education programs. This includes low-literate adults in community-based
literacy centers, family literacy programs, prison literacy programs,
workplace literacy programs, and two-year colleges. Analysis includes
research related to all low-literate adults in these settings, including
adults in ASE (Adult Secondary Education) programs, ESOL (English for
Speakers of Other Languages) programs, and adults with a learning or reading
disability. This report is the result of an evaluation of the research
conducted by the Reading Research Working Group (RRWG), a collaborative
effort of the National Institute for Literacy and the National Center
for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. Free hard copies are available
to Texas Educators ONLY, but report is also available online at: http://www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/adult.html.
 
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