Methods and materials to use with pre-literate parents
From LiteracyTentWiki
The discussion thread below, streamlined here, was taken from messages posted to the NIFL-ESL electronic discussion forum [nifl-esl@nifl.gov] in January, 2006.
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Kathleen Moriarty k2moriarty at yahoo.com
Fri Jan 13 15:54:28 EST 2006
Hello all -
I am interested in finding out what materials and methods adult esl instructors have used to help their nonliterate/preliterate adult students (who are parents) support the emergent literacy skills of their own children? I realize this may seem a post for the family literacy discussion group (and will post there as well) - but I would like like to gather information from as many sources as possible.
Materials/methods for helping adult students who do not yet read in their home language and/or English :
- Using audio (with children's books)
- Making books
- Using storytelling for literacy development
- Explaining to parents the "why" behind early literacy practices
Any suggestions, book or research article tips, etc. would be appreciated. We are compiling resources to share with professionals who teach parent education, esl, child care providers, etc. who are preliterate.
Thank you,
Kathleen Moriarty
Director - Bilingual and Heritage Language Programs
Minnesota Humanities Commission
987 East Ivy Avenue
Saint Paul, MN 55106
kathleen at minnesotahumanities.org
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Darlene Hurtado director at literacycentral.org
Fri Jan 13 16:11:33 EST 2006
There is a curriculum available through the National Center for Family Literacy called "Parenting for Academic Success, a Curriculum for Families Learning English". I have just ordered it and it looks very good. We have also used a curriculum called, "Lullabies to Literacy" to teach tutors and providers working with low literate parents how to help parents support their children's literacy needs.
Darlene Hurtado
Literacy Volunteers of Central CT
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Pauline Mcnaughton pmcnaughton at language.ca
Mon Jan 16 11:34:15 EST 2006
Another resource for pre-literacy parents that you might find helpful is the national literacy standard publication used across Canada based on the Canadian Language Benchmarks national standard.
This document CLB 2000: ESL for Literacy Learners is task-based and has numerous activities and games at the Foundation (pre-literacy)level to Phases 1, 2 and 3 that could well be adapted to the kind of family literacy purposes you describe below. This document is extremely easy to read and follow for ESL practitioners - even those new to ESL literacy. It does a particularly excellent job at the pre-literacy level (called Foundation) and addresses reading, writing and numeracy.
You can download a free copy of this document to investigate further at www.language.ca
We have also just published a CLB Literacy Placement Tool - Volume 1: Foundation and Phase 1 to support placement into Foundation and Phase 1 with funding from the Canadian National Literacy Secretariat and the Government of Alberta. This document is not free however. Information on our website about how to order a copy. This tool would be appropriate for US programs - with the exception of a 2 small graphics of Canadian bills and 1 small graphic of nickel, dime and quarter.
We are now working on Literacy Placement Tool: Volume 2 to support placement into Literacy Phase 2 and 3 programs, also with funding from the National Literacy Secretariat in Canada.
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Sarah Young sarah at cal.org
Fri Jan 13 17:03:29 EST 2006
Hi Kathy,
"Parenting for Academic Success: A Curriculum for Families Learning English"
http://www.delta-systems.com/proddetail.cfm?cat=2&toc=92&stoc=0&pronum=3372&fcat=2&ftoc=92&fstoc=0 or http://tinyurl.com/yl3nmu is a resource that you may want to look into. It is not meant for preliterate parents, but it does support the parents' emerging literacy and English language skills. It is a 12-unit curriculum designed for parents who are non-native speakers of English.
[From the publisher's website]:
Its goals are two-fold:
- To develop the English language skills of parents.
- To increase the ability of parents to support the language and literacy development of their children in kindergarten through grade three.
The curriculum has two components-a set of Parent Workbooks for all 12 units and a comprehensive Teacher's Resource Manual. The organizational framework for each unit follows the stages of a lesson: Review/Warm-Up, Introduction, Presentation and Practice, Assessment, Evaluation, and Application.
Each lesson in the Parent Workbooks includes:
- Activities to support the language development of parents.
- Content knowledge development for parents to support their child's learning.
- Activities for parents to take home and do with their child.
Each unit in the Teacher's Resource Manual provides:
- The Unit Overview, which identifies a unit goal and offers background information and research on the unit's topic.
- The Lesson Plans, which identify a goal, parenting skills and language skills objectives, and suggested procedures for facilitating activities in the corresponding Parent Workbook.
- The Teacher Resources Section, which provides references, suggestions for further reading, reproducible masters for activities that require separate handouts for parents, and reproducible Parent Surveys in English and Spanish.For parents with emerging literacy.
You can read about the research background that went into the development of this curriculum here: http://www.cal.org/front/parenting_bkground.pdf
Thanks,
Sarah Young
Center for Applied Linguistics
4646 40th St. NW
Washington, DC 20016
Phone: (202) 362-0700 ext. 529
Fax: (202) 362-3740
Web: www.cal.org
Email: sarah at cal.org
CAL: "Improving communication through better understanding of language and culture"
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Janet Fulton jfulton at famlit.org
Mon Jan 16 10:12:55 EST 2006
Thank you Sarah for mentioning the Parenting for Academic Success curriculum. Let me just add a note about the pre-literate and semi-literate folks that were part of the materials pilot-testing. We worked with different family literacy sites across the country in 5 different states. Several sites had parents at pre-literate and semi-literate levels. They reported that although taking longer to work through the materials, parents were engaged and excited and would not let teachers skip over any of the content. They worked though learning activities/exercise and teachers were able to extend the teaching to accommodate the needs of parents.
Janet M. Fulton, Senior ESL Design Specialist
National Center for Family Literacy
325 W. Main Street, Suite 300
Louisville, KY 40202-4237
502.584.1133 x170
E-mail: jfulton at famlit.org
http://www.famlit.org
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: DonMcCabe@aol.com DonMcCabe at aol.com
Fri Jan 13 20:41:25 EST 2006
Dear Kathleen,
You really should check out the http://www.spelling.org website. The AVKO Foundation even offers FREE Lesson plans for the teaching of parents in how to help their children who have reading and spelling problems. It also has FREE a curriculum for both adults and children that teaches handwriting (manuscript and cursive), keyboarding, reading, and spelling AS it methodically teaches the alphabet and the sounds of the letters as they occur regularly in patterns.
Don McCabe
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: robinschwarz1@aol.com robinschwarz1 at aol.com
Sat Jan 14 19:43:23 EST 2006
I don't know how many of you know about it, but I recently learned about a program called HIPPY-- Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youth. It is a very well-established program developed originally in Israel in the 1970's that provides three years of 30-modules each year of highly structured pre-literacy skills for parents to teach to children. The parent is first taught the skill by a Home Instructor who teaches through role play, demonstration and use of a very wide variety of supplies and materials. Parents are taught to use objects and materials found in the home to practice pre-literacy skills with their children-- sorting, color recognition, sound recognition, etc. -- a little story book with a very simple story provides a focus for questions and answer activities about sequence of events, and many activities go with the books-- matching cut outs of wheels to trucks, oars to boats, etc. All senses are stressed and lessons build nicely on the previous knowledge . Parents are taught to do one set of activities per day for 15-20 minutes with a 3-5 yr old (but for ESL learners it could be much older children--the vocabulary is core CALPS--language needed to understand children's books). It is really a remarkable program in many ways and provides the same preliteracy skills for the preliterate adults that the children need and get.
Unfortunately, it is not entirely suitable for ESL because the stories are of course vocabulary- and grammar- laden, and can be quite challenging for someone new to English, simple though they appear. However, if an ESL instructor were using them to both teach ESL and pre-literacy skills to parents to teach their children, they could possibly be quite powerful. HIPPY is used in about 6 or 7 countries, all English-speaking, but the materials are available in Spanish, too. My only real objection is that they are extremely culturally biased to middle class American values--but again, that could be a teaching point, rather than a detriment.
Check them out--I don't have a website for the program-- the materials I saw come from the HIPPY center at the University of North Texas. I saw them used in a program in Ft. Worth. Again, I caution that language and culture are issues to address, but the pre-literacy skills and very basic literacy as well as the activities used to teach them are amazingly well addressed.
Robin Schwarz
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Pauline Mcnaughton pmcnaughton at language.ca
Tue Jan 24 11:38:00 EST 2006
Again I recommend the Canadian Language Benchmarks: ESL for Literacy Learners (adults) which starts out at the Foundation Level with the assumption that learners have never even held a pencil. It's free and downloadable online at www.language.ca or specifically to the page http://www.language.ca/display_page.asp?page_id=255
It has been nationally validated across Canada and used very successfully. It is very transferable to the US context.
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Kelly Castle kellyc636_6 at hotmail.com
Sun Jan 29 18:53:50 EST 2006
Absolutely agree - the materials on the sites are intended to be used flexibly - the suggestions in the guidelines do include singing, speaking, using artefacts, images, developing motor skills etc. They can be used by teachers, bilingual assistants or be given to those learners who literate in other languages.
There are many sites with delightful images and some with songs and rhymes in English and other languages - which obviously would have to be mediated by the teacher.
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Shash Woods swoods at sbctc.ctc.edu
Tue Jan 24 21:05:25 EST 2006
Here is another excellent resource:
Tacoma Community House Training Project in Tacoma, Washington has developed a booklet called "Making It Real" that is a guide to teaching adult pre-literate refugees. While it does not deal with early literacy for children, it is a useful resource for teaching adults. The book contains a wealth of information on techniques and activities and a checklist and resource section. You can download it for free from www.tchtrainingproject.com
Shash Woods
Professional Development Coordinator
NW Region
Washington State Board of Community and Technical Colleges/ Office of Adult Basic Education
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Miriam Burt miriam at cal.org
Wed Jan 25 09:19:31 EST 2006
In fact, in Practitioner Toolkit: Working with Adult English Language Learners, the National Center for Family Literacy along with the Center for Applied Linguistics published a guide for those working specifically with adults learning to read who are not native English speakers - discussing the role of phonological processing, vocabulary knowledge, syntactic processing, and background knowledge. In section II, pages 57 -59, these skills are discussed. Then, on pages II- 60 -61, pre-reading activities to use with pre-literate and nonliterate English language learners are described. (The next pages have activities to use with beginning level learners, intermediate, and advanced). You can download the toolkit in PDF at http://www.cal.org/caela/tools/instructional/prac_toolkit.html
Miriam Burt
Miriam Burt
Center for Applied Linguistics
4646 40th Street NW
Washington, DC 20016
(202) 362-0700
(202) 363-7204 (fax)
miriam at cal.org
To: nifl-esl@nifl.gov
From: Charles Larue study at uscitizenship.org
Wed Jan 25 13:20:34 EST 2006
Developed with a grant from the MN Dept of Education The LaRue Literacy Skills Test <http://www.mcedservices.com/PDFs.html> and Pre-Literacy Exercises are available free online.
PS: It's worth the time to get a free version of alphabet bingo.
Charles LaRue
Minnesota ABE teacher of the Year 2001-2002
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