Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning

FREE Things to Send For...

"The Clearinghouse has evolved into a truly helpful, user-friendly resource for Texas educators. The caliber of the staff, materials, and range of services makes it a pleasure to use, especially when one is preparing training for other teachers, or simply finding new materials for the classroom. Everything you folks put out for our consumptiuon in the field is excellent...also because it "weeds" out for us material that otherwise we would have to go through ourselves. That, plus the wonderful human touch from all staff makes it all so worthwhile!"

Tina Whitney
Adult Education and Literacy Consultant

Success Stories

Entrepreneurship Success Stories: Implications for Teaching and Learning: ERIC Practice Application Brief
Brown, Bettina Lankard (1999). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. This brief describes the societal trends and personal characteristics that are facilitating movement from corporate to self-employment. It reports on successful entrepreneurs and suggests practical teaching and learning strategies for promoting entrepreneurial behaviors and skills in the classroom.

I've Come A Long Way: Learner-Identified Outcomes of Participation in Adult Literacy Programs. Bingman, Mary Beth and Ebert, Olga (February 2000). Cambridge, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. This study builds on the work of the Tennessee Longitudinal Study of Adult Literacy Participants (1991-1995). A major finding was that "outcomes of literacy program participation in learners' lives are diverse, often complex, and determined by individuals' life situations." FREE copies available to Texas educators ONLY. Also available online at http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/report13.pdf ***(scroll down page to find title).

Pennsylvania Family Literacy Program Portraits of Success. Gioia-Fine, Rose and Reiff, Tana (2002). Harrisburg, PA: Pennsylvania Bureau of Adult Basic and Literacy Education. Pennsylvania family literacy programs were asked to submit stories of families who had reached both individual and family educational goals. Fourteen of the fifty stories submitted are included in this publication. These families' stories celebrate their perseverence and accomplishments and the program staffs' dedication and effectiveness as they work together in cooperative partnerships representing the best in family literacy programs.

Self-Esteem: Issues for the Adult Learner. Academy for Educational Development (Summer 1994). Washington, DC: National Adult Literacy and Learning Disabilities Center. In this issue of LINKAGES, two adult students who tell how they overcame struggles with low self-esteem to confront their literacy difficulties and learning disabilities. The lead article is entitled "How Not to Feel Stupid When You Know You're Not: Self-Esteem and Learning Disabilities." Another feature offers tips for practitioners to help improve adult students' self-esteem.

Race, Class & Gender Issues in Adult & Family Literacy

Adult Education and Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Communities: ERIC Trends and Issues Alert No. 21. Kerka, Sandra (2001). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. Adult educators concerned with inclusiveness and social justice are addressing issues related to students who are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgendered (GLBT). This report gives an overview of research and resource development on this aspect of diversity, and how teachers in the adult classroom might address GLBT issues.

African Americans and Self-Help Education: The Missing Link in Adult Education: ERIC Digest No. 222. Rowland, Michael L. (2000). Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. 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. An approach to adult learning that integrates the various dimensions of the lives of African American learners must be researched for the future growth of the field of adult education.

Classroom Dynamics in Adult Literacy Education. Beder, Hal and Medina, Patsy (December 2001). Cambridge, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. Study investigated classroom behavior in adult literacy education examining questions critical to understanding the field: How is instruction delivered, and what is its content? What processes underlie teaching and learning? What external forces shape classroom behavior? A better understanding of these issues can influence policymakers' decisions, teachers' classroom strategies, and researchers' agendas. In Chapter 6, several factors shaping classroom composition are discussed, including gender, age, ethnicity, and race. FREE copies available to Texas educators ONLY. Report is also available online in pdf format at http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/br_beder.pdf

Constructing Achievement Orientations Toward Literacy: An Analysis of Sociocultural Activity in Latino Home and Community Contexts. Monzó, Lilia and Rueda, Robert (2001). Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. Minority children are often thought to lack an achievement orientation. In this report, CIERA researchers discuss the home and community contexts of Latina/o immigrant children in a low-income community in Southern California, to demonstrate how sociocultural factors interact to produce motivation. Findings reveal that even among demographically similar families, a diverse set of constraints and affordances are at play which significantly impact students achievement orientations toward literacy and schooling.

Family Matters Related to the Reading Engagement of Latina/o Children. Arzubiaga, Angela, Rueda, Robert and Monzó, Lilia (2002). Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. This article reports on the relationship between ecocultural (Weisner, 1984) features of 18 Latina/o families and their children's motivation to read. Five ecocultural features emerged as salient in families' daily living: immigration, culture and language, nurturance, instrumental, and workload. Ecocultural features were examined in relation to children's perceptions of themselves as readers (self concept as reader and value of reading, [Gambrell et al., 1996]).

Getting There: A Curriculum for People Moving Into Employment, Revised Edition, 1996. Colette, Marian et al (1996). Knoxville, TN: Center for Literacy Studies. Developed through a process of consultation with students, educators, and employers, this curriculum is designed to meet the needs of adult students who are trying to make the transition from welfare to work or to further education. Learner-centered and participatory, it draws content from daily experiences of the learners. The role of the teacher is that of a facilitator engaged in a participatory research process with the students, encouraging a larger world view, self-confidence, critical thinking, and skills for solving daily problems individually and collectively. Basic skills included in the curriculum are reading, writing, math, and communication. FREE copies available to Texas educators ONLY. Also available online at http://cls.coe.utk.edu/literacy_resources/teacher_tutor.html (scroll down page to find title).

How Emancipatory Is Adult Learning? ERIC Myths and Realities. Imel, Susan (1999). Columbus, OH: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. The goal of emancipatory learning is to free learners from the forces that limit their options and control over their lives and to move them to take action to bring about social and political change. This Myths and Realities investigates to what extent adult education actually fulfills an emancipatory mission by examining beliefs and practices surrounding emancipatory learning.

Involving Migrant Families in Education: ERIC Digest. Martinez, Y. G. and Velazquez, J. A. (2000). Charleston, WV: ERIC Clearinghouse on Rural Education and Small Schools. Children of migrant farmworkers confront a number of risk factors for school failure including mobility, poverty, and lack of access to schooling. School-level data, however, indicate that educators frequently attribute school failure to a lack of parent involvement ("parents just don't care"). This Digest describes parent involvement in the education process from the perspective of parents and educators and offers strategies to enhance the experience of schooling for migrant students and their families.

Second-Chance Strategies for Women Who Drop Out of School. Boudett, Kathryn Parker, Murnane, Richard J. and Willett, John B. (December 2000). Washington, DC: Monthly Labor Review. Based on data collected in the early 1990's, this study looked at women's income ten years after dropping out of high school and found that women who obtained a GED in the third year after dropping out of high school had incomes that were 25 percent higher than those who did not pursue further education. Those women who both obtained a GED and attended a year of job training or college had incomes that were nearly 50 percent higher.

Other New Resources Available FREE

Andragogy Revisited: ERIC Myths and Realities. St. Clair, Ralf (2002). Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education. Malcolm Knowles' theory of andragogy often appears to gain uncritical acceptance based on name recognition rather than careful consideration of its propositions. Since Knowles introduced his theory in the mid-1960s, many concerns have been raised about how the claims of andragogy are grounded. This Myths and Realities examines the viability of andragogy in the 21st century by considering its background and asking which aspects of the theory are still useful more than 30 years later.

Assessing Adult/Child Storybook Reading Practices. DeBruin-Parecki, Andrea (June 1999). Ann Arbor, MI: Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. In this paper, DeBruin-Parecki reviews the existing research on joint storybook reading practices, outlining the behaviors essential for success. She then describes and reports on the efficacy of her assessment instrument, the Adult/Child Interactive Reading Inventory (ACIRI), an observational tool that evaluates 12 literacy behaviors and was piloted by Even Start teachers. The ACIRI instrument, a single-page matrix for documenting observation of adult and child behaviors, is included as an appendix.

Career and College Advice to the Forgotten Half: What do Counselors and Vocational Teachers Advise? Krei, Melinda Scott and Rosenbaum, James E. (2001). New York, NY: Teachers College. The authors examine the career and college advice that high school counselors and vocational teachers give to the "forgotten half" - students who are unlikely to seek a 4-year college degree. Although the article is specifically about how high school guidance counselors and vocational teachers provide advice and opinions about college to their students, it would also apply to teachers counseling adult literacy and GED students in their plans for workforce participation. Published in Teachers College Record, Volume 103 Number 5, pages 823-842.

Creating Authentic Materials and Activities for the Adult Literacy Classroom: A Handbook for Practitioners. Jacobson, Erik, Degener, Sophie, and Purcell-Gates, Victoria (April 2003). Cambridge, MA: National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. Based on the findings of NCSALL's Literacy Practices of Adult Learners study, this handbook provides examples of contextualized classroom practice, and teachers are invited to think about their own practice and consider what might work best in their own class. Each chapter has a few discussion questions and some exercises to be completed, so the handbook could be utilized in a teacher study group. FREE copies available to Texas educators ONLY. Also available online in pdf format at: http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/teach/jacobson.pdf.

ESOL Starter Kit. VALRC Associates and Roy, Jane (October 2002). Richmond, VA: Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center. This new version has been updated with current resources and contacts, relevant instructional articles, and two new sections on integrating technology and EL/Civics into programs. FREE copies available to Texas educators ONLY. Also available online in pdf format at: http://www.aelweb.vcu.edu/publications/ESLKit/ESLKit_2002.pdf.