Family Literacy

Adult Basic Education

Teachers can use these resources with adult learners as they work to improve their basic skills and life skills and study for their GED.

  • Authentic Text Resources


  • The Adult Education Component from Show Me Family Literacy
    www.lift-missouri.org/resources/smfl/Chapter%2004.pdf
      "Adult education provides the information and instruction necessary to support the improvement of literacy and learning skills in adult learners. The adult education component also works in concert with the other family literacy components to support adults' transfer of acquired skills and knowledge to their home and community."

  • Book Bridges
    www.nald.ca/CLR/BookBridges/covers.htm
      Book Bridges is a community-based family literacy program that offers direct service to adults and indirect service to children. Patterned after an intergenerational program developed by Goldsmith and Handel (1990), which uses children's literature selections as a way of engaging students and exploring reading comprehension strategies, Book Bridges, in addition, incorporates process writing (Graves, 1983). Curriculum content is organized around themes, beginning with the reading of family stories, realistic and historic fiction, fables and folk tales, and concluding with an emphasis on informative text. In the writing workshops, participants first create biographies and then, in keeping with what they are reading, develop their own family stories.

  • CDLP Adult Learning Activities
    www.cdlponline.org/
      The purpose of this site is to help adults improve basic skills like reading and spelling using real-life stories on topics of interest to adults. The stories are based on real life situations of interest to adults. Many came from television news stories. Some of the stories are now more than a year old, however, and things may have changed in that time. There is a separate section for teachers and adult educators that can be accessed by selecting the For Adult Educators link at the top of the homepage.

  • Consumer and Family Economics
    www.ace.uiuc.edu/cfe/index.html
      "This site's goal is to provide timely educational information to help individuals and families make informed consumer and financial decisions." A good resource to use in parent education classes for financial literacy.

  • The E-Square
    www.alri.org/esquare/
      Take a virtual tour of E-Squares three city blocks of useful, informative store fronts. Each store in E-Square covers a different topic on everything from getting a job to early child hood education to rental agreements and buying a home.

  • The Fairfax County Family Literacy Curriculum www.aelweb.vcu.edu/publications/famlitcurric/
      This piloted site for multi-level ESOL Family Literacy classes from Fairfax County, Virgina, includes four sections of four lesson plans each, and an appendix with recommended texts and web sites. Areas covered are Introduction (Self, Family, Community), Government (Schools, Community), Health, and Consumerism (Shopping, Budgeting).

  • Families First Idea Book
    www.cls.utk.edu/2000_idea_book.html
      Categories include citizenship, classroom management, games, learning styles, life skills, numeracy, self-esteem, progress assessment, reading comprehension, social studies, writing, and workplace literacy.

  • Focus on Basics
    www.ncsall.net/?id=31
      Focus on Basics is the quarterly publication of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy. It presents best practices, current research on adult learning and literacy, and how research is used by adult basic education teachers, counselors, program administrators, and policy makers. Focus on Basics is dedicated to connecting research with practice, to connecting teachers with research and researchers with the reality of the classroom, and by doing so, making adult basic education research more relevant to the field.

  • How To Study
    www.how-to-study.com/
      This study skills webpage helps students prepare to study, listen better, improve reading skills, keep track of assignments, and more. These study tips are for students from elementary grades up through adults.

  • The Internet Public Library
    www.ipl.org/
      Resources and information on a wide variety of topics. Much of this site would be useful for parents preparing to take their GED test or helping their children with research.

  • Interventions for Students with Learning Disabilities
    www.ncld.org/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=523
      “Learn more about two promising interventions for students with learning disabilities: (1) helping students develop their use of learning strategies; and (2) helping them develop their phonological awareness. Use this publication with its companion resource list, which lists journal articles and books available on learning strategies for these students.”

  • National Adult Literacy Database (NALD)
    www.nald.ca/index.htm
      The National Adult Literacy Database Inc. (NALD) is a federally incorporated, non-profit service organization which fills the crucial need for a single-source, comprehensive, up-to-date and easily accessible database of adult literacy programs, resources, services and activities across Canada. It also links with other services and databases in North America and overseas.Two study circles of interest are listed below:
      • Research Based Adult Reading Instruction - Study Circle Guide
        http://www.ncsall.net/?id=892
        This guide provides comprehensive instructions for facilitating a ten-hour study circle that explores differing theories of the reading process, the four major components of reading and the implications for teaching, the development of learners' reading profiles, and the Equipped for the Future framework.
      • Teaching and Learning in Authentic Contexts - Study Circle Guide
        http://www.ncsall.net/?id=897
        This guide is based on research that examined the impact of the degree of authenticity of activities and texts and the degree of student/teacher collaboration on changes in literacy practices of students outside the classroom.

  • Promising Practices Network (PNN)
    www.promisingpractices.net/
      "The Promising Practices Network (PPN) web site highlights programs and practices that credible research indicates are effective in improving outcomes for children, youth, and families. The information offered is organized around three major areas: proven and promising programs, research in brief, and strengthening service delivery."

  • Taking a Closer Look: A Guide to Online Resources on Family Involvement
    www.gse.harvard.edu/~hfrptest/content/projects/fine/resources/guide/resource_guide.pdf
      This is a resource guide that contains annotated Web links to recent (published in and after 2000) research, information, and tools about family involvement which covers resources about parenting practices to support children's learning and development, home-school relationships, parent leadership development, and collective engagement for school improvement and reform. Resource Guide sections include: Knowledge Development, Professional Development, Standards, Programs, Tools, Convening, Special Initiatives, Appendix: Resource Guide Organizations.

  • Understanding What Reading is All About
    www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=91
      Scroll down this page for the link to this resource. This guide offers a set of 13 lessons designed to help learners understand the components of reading that are part of becoming a more fluent reader, and to guide them as they work with the teacher to set their own goals for reading.



    • Quotes on family and education (Refresh to see another quote)


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    Ohio Literacy Resource Center - Celebrating 10 Years of Enhancing Adult Literacy 1993-2003 This page http://literacy.kent.edu/FamilyLiteracy/forworkers/adulted.html
    and is maintained by the OLRC.
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