PersistenceTeacherTools

Teacher Tools for Supporting Persistence

The following list of tools and related resources provide a starting point when struggling with the question, "How do I, as a teacher, improve student persistence in my class?"

Managing Positive and Negative Forces

Focus on Teaching Supports and Hindrances: A Force-Field Analysis
Focus on Basics, Vol. 4, Issue A., March 2000
By Andrea Parrella
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=327

• Lists the steps for conducting a force field analysis with your class.

Affinity Diagramming http://www.infodesign.com.au/ftp/AffinityDiagramming.pdf

• One-page describing what it is and steps for using it to encourage new thinking.
  

Dialogue Journals

• Dialogue Journals – Interactive Way to Develop Language and Literacy
  

http://www.cal.org/resources/Digest/peyton01.html

• Using a Dialogue Journal
  

http://www.sil.org/linguaLinks/literacy/ImplementALiteracyProgram/UsingADialogueJournal.htm

Tutor Information – Literacy Games and Strategies http://www.csufresno.edu/scs/reads/dialogue.html

Getting into Groups (Pritza, M. 1998) http://www.ncsall.net/?id=415

Sponsors and Sponsorship, pg 13 (Comings, J. & Cuban, S. 2002) http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/lp_d.pdf

Setting Clear Goals

Integrating Goal Setting Into Instructional Practice
By the Staff at the Center for New Americans
Adventures in Assessment, Vol. 16: Spring 2004
http://sabes.org/resources/publications/adventures/index.htm

• Describes process of week-to-week curriculum design based on students setting weekly “mini-goals”.
  

The Case for Pre-Goal Setting
By Don Robishaw
Adventures in Assessment, Vol. 5: Fall 1993
http://sabes.org/resources/publications/adventures/index.htm

• Letter from the field that describes importance of preparing students for goal-setting.
  

Group Goal Setting Activities: An Approach from Youth Service Corps
Excerpted from the PECE Resource and Planning Guide
Adventures in Assessment, Vol. 4: Spring 1993

• Describes group pre-goal setting and goal setting activities that can be adapted for adult education classes.
  

Considerations for Setting Realistic NRS Goals

• Provides considerations and examples for setting realistic NRS goals related to employment, postsecondary education, and GED.
  

http://naepdc.org/Word%20Documents/setting_realistic_nrs_goalscon.htm

Equipped for the Future Framework and Role Maps

• Tool for helping students identify education goals that connect to family, work, and community

http://eff.cls.utk.edu/fundamentals/eff_roles.htm

Building Self-Efficacy

National Honor Society
http://www.naehs.org/Default.htm

Publishing Student Stories

MI inventories

Learning Styles Inventories

Engaged Learning Checklist – Will Your Lessons Engage Students?<br> http://www.springfield.k12.il.us/resources/techservices/handouts/engaged.htm

Motivating Your Students
http://www.usc.edu/programs/cet/private/pdfs/teaching_nuggets/motivating.PDF

http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infotrac/tips/motivatingstudents.pdf

Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn: A Comprehensive Guide for Teaching All Adults
R.J. Wlodkowski, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1998

• Revised edition offers culturally responsive practical advice and strategies to enhance adults’ motivation to learn. Looks at theory and research on how motivation affects instruction and highlights the integration of motivational strategies into lesson plans.

Available for purchase from

http://www.amazon.com/Enhancing-Adult-Motivation-Learn-Comprehensive/dp/0787903604

Collecting Student Feedback on Your Lesson – Ways to Give Students Voices Into Lesson Planning
http://www.indiana.edu/~teaching/ourservices/assess/samplecats.shtml

Learning Skills
A comprehensive orientation and study skills course designed for Tennessee Families First adult education classes

Build Motivation by Building Learner Participation (Garner, B. 1998)
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=419

Self Efficacy (Bandura, A. 1994)
http://www.emory.edu/EDUCATION/mfp/BanEncy.html

The First Three Weeks: A Critical Time for Motivation (Quigley, B. 1998)
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=420

Seeing Progress

Student/Teacher Evaluation and Planning Session (STEPS)
Provides a detailed process for setting up and implementing regularly scheduled planning sessions between adult students and teachers.
http://www.naepdc.org/Word%20Documents/seconddoc.htm

Contextualized Instruction and Wonderful Web sites

Reading

KEY - Newsletter for New Readers
The KEY is a current events newsletter written on a sixth grade reading level and funded through the Wisconsin State Adult Education Office. The newsletter includes an insert with ideas for teachers on how to incorporate the KEY into their classes. The newsletter was recognized as one of the LINCS "Hot Sites of Distinction."
http://www.keynews.org/

CNN – Learning Resources
http://literacyworks.org/learningresources/

GEDReading.com
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0809222310/

GED Teachers’ Lesson Bank: Language Arts, Reading
http://www.floridatechnet.org/GED/LessonPlans/LanguageArtsReading/Reading.htm

TV 411 Reading
http://www.tv411.org/reading/

Math

Missouri Valley Adult Education Math Lessons on Teaching with the Casio fx-260 Calculator
http://www.mvaea.com/casio.html

Empower – Extending Mathematical Power
http://adultnumeracy.terc.edu/

GEDMath.com
http://highered.mcgraw-hill.com/sites/0809222329/

Tools to Create Math Lessons from Scratch – ThinkQuest - Algebra
http://www.thinkquest.org/library/websitena.html?10030

GED Math Lesson Plans from Florida
http://www.floridatechnet.org/GED/LessonPlans/Mathematics/Mathematics.htm

Writing

Civic Participation and Community Action Sourcebook
http://tech.worlded.org/docs/vera/index1.htm

GED Lesson Plans from Florida – Language Arts/Writing
http://www.floridatechnet.org/GED/LessonPlans/LanguageArtsWriting/Writing.htm

Guide to Writing a Basic Essay
http://members.tripod.com/%7Elklivingston/essay/index.html

Resources for Teaching Writing – from SABES
http://www.sabes.org/resources/publications/fieldnotes/vol14/f142resources.htm

SABES Writing Theme – Web Sites
http://www.sabes.org/resources/writingwebsites.htm

YouthBuild Writing Together Wiki
http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/writing_together/youthbuild_writing_together?CFID=5013226&CFTOKEN=55029574&jsessionid=c230657531170309607796

Science and Technology

Hands-on Science
http://www.literacynet.org/sciencelincs/tthandson.html

Responsible Shopper
http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/responsibleshopper/

The Why Files: Science Behind the News
http://whyfiles.org/

Adult Education Web Quests to Download
http://www.altn.org/webquests/downloads/

Overall Wonderful Web Sites for Lesson Planning

Blue Web’n: A Library of Blue Ribbon Learning Sites on the Web
http://www.indiana.edu/~teaching/ourservices/assess/samplecats.shtml

Creating Authentic Materials and Activities for the Adult Literacy Classroom
http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/jacobson.pdf

Project-based Learning as Professional Development
http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/professionaldevelopment/07projectbased.html

What Teachers Say: Search the Archives of the National Institute for Literacy’s Discussion Lists
http://www.nifl.gov/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/search_discussions

Professional Development

Web video

NCSALL Study Circle Guide: Learner Persistence in Adult Basic Education
The study circle is designed for adult education practitioners who desire to explore specific topics, brainstorm ideas, and develop strategies in a small group setting. This guide includes everything needed to initiate a study circle on learner persistence including handouts, readings, discussion questions, etc.
Http://www.ncsall.net/?id=896

NCSALL Seminar Guide: Helping Adults Persist
This 3 ½-hour seminar introduces adult education practitioners to the research on adult student persistence, focusing on the positive and negative forces that help and hinder persistence.
http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/persistence_role.pdf

NCSALL Seminar Guide: Supports and Barriers to Persistence
In this 4-hour seminar, participants explore reasons why students leave programs and ways to support students, including sponsorship.
http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/supports_role.pdf

NCSALL Seminar Guide: Self-efficacy in Persistence
This 3 ½-hour seminar introduces adult education practitioners to the four supports to adult student persistence identified in the research study.
http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/self-efficacy_role.pdf

ProLiteracy Online Courses
http://www.newreaderspress.com/default_prolit.aspx

• (A) Free, Self-Paced:
  
  • Adult Student Persistence: An Overview
  • Student Retention Through Student Success
  • Should I Stay or Should I Go?
  • Stopping Out, Not Dropping Out

• (B) Fee-based, Facilitated
  
  • Applying What We Know About Student Persistence to Your Classroom
    

Additional Articles

Improving Retention in Adult Basic Education and Recommended Strategies for Effective Instructional and Counseling Interventions (Quigley, B. 1997)
http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/0600-3.htm

NCSALL’s Adult Persistence Study

• Persistence among Adult Basic Education Students in Pre-GED Classes (Comings, J. Parrella, A, & Soricone, L. 1999)

http://www.ncsall.net/?id=663

• Helping Adults Persist: Four Supports, pg. 6 (Comings, J. Parrella, A, & Soricone, L. 2000)

http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/lp_d.pdf

• The K-12 School Experiences of High School Dropouts, pg. 4 (Reder, S. & Strawn, C. 2001)

http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/lp_c.pdf

• Stopping Out, Not Dropping Out, pg. 7 (Belzer, A. 1998)

http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/lp_c.pdf

Research to Practice: Increasing Retention Through Student Success (Malitz, . & Nixon-Ponder, S. 2003)
http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/0200-11.htm

Staying in a Literacy Program (Willard, A. 1998)
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=418

Where Attendance is Not a Problem (Lucey, M. 1998)
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=416