Orienting to the Field of Adult Literacy Education

Strategies:

• Investigate what your town or community is doing to address adult literacy issues. Talk to adult literacy providers. Seek out library programs, school programs, community college programs, churches, the workplace and union hall basic education programs. Start locally, but if you need assistance finding local, adult literacy providers, the National Institute for Literacy maintains a useful search engine for finding adult literacy programs, called America's Literacy Directory: http://www.literacydirectory.org/ ProLiteracy America also provides a search engine for finding volunteer literacy programs: http://www.literacyvolunteers.org/locator/
• Research the impact of adult literacy on learners’ lives. Sources that you may find helpful include:
  • Stories of Lives Changed - Visit: http://slincs.coe.utk.edu/video_library.html and click on “Stories of Lives Changed” to view the 5-segment video of learners lived that were changed by participation in Tennessee adult education offered as an activity of welfare reform.
  • ProLiteracy Student Success Stories - http://www.proliteracy.org/students/profiles.asp
  • Verizon Literacy Network - Visit: http://literacynetwork.verizon.org/ and click on “Success Stories” in the lower left-hand column.
• Talk to teachers.
  • Subscribe to any of the National Institute for Literacy’s national discussion lists for adult literacy, which is a very useful way for anyone to learn more about the adult literacy field: http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html. Information on electronic discussion lists (“list-servs”) often leads to other useful sites on the Internet.
    • NIFL Discussion Lists have a searchable database of list postings: http://www.nifl.gov/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/search_discussions .
    • Moderators often summarize discussions with guest speakers and they are archived: http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/list_guests.html
  • Several other national organizations also sponsor discussion lists for its members and can answer questions about adult literacy.
    • AAACE-NLA: http://lists.literacytent.org/mailman/listinfo/aaace-nla
    • AALPD: http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/Professionaldevelopment
    • ProLiteracy America, the U.S. programs division of ProLiteracy Worldwide: http://www.literacyvolunteers.org/proliteracy_america/
    • TESOL: http://www.tesol.org/s_tesol/sec_document.asp?CID=127&DID=694
• Investigate professional development opportunities. Whether you are a practitioner in the field, a literacy council board member, or other business or community stakeholder, attending local adult literacy professional development opportunities is a very useful way to learn more about the field. Professional development offers opportunities to meet and interact with other adult literacy professionals, learn more about local concerns, network, and identify new avenues in finding answers to your questions.
  • To find out about professional development opportunities in general, contact the state literacy resource center in your state: http://wdcrobcolp01.ed.gov/Programs/EROD/org_list.cfm?category_ID=LRC
  • To find online professional development opportunities specifically (other than joining discussion lists), visit: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/AlePDOnline
• Talk with organizations, agencies, and social services connected to adult literacy even in ways that may seem peripheral (Prison Ministries, VISTA volunteers, missions, Indian reservations, cultural centers, counselors, etc.).
• Ask LOTS of questions. If you are a teacher wanting to learn more about teaching strategies,find out from adult learners and adult educators what works where they are, what doesn't work and why they think this is so. Do not reinvent the wheel, identify what works and adapt it to your situation. If you are a member of the community wanting to learn more about adult literacy, always feel free to contact anyone connected to the field.