Literacy Videos

Have you had a chance to take a look at the literacy videos on U Tube. If not, we've made it easy for you. Scroll down toward the end of this blog. We have some that you can click on to watch. These are random, based on the term adult literacy. At some point, we'll review some of these. Some are appropriate for tutor training. Nova Scotia has some good ones.

Tutor Training and In-Service

Here is a free resource that can be used in the basic reading tutor training workshop or for in-service.  

Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers

http://www.nifl.gov/publications/pdf/applyingresearch.pdf

It was published 4 years ago and is classroom oriented, but can be adapted for volunteers with help from your tutor trainer and experienced tutors.  It includes all of the basic concepts and includes specific instructional strategies.  Taken as a whole, it could be intimidating for volunteers.  But, with your help, it can be served up in bites --that tutors will find useful.  

Here are a few ideas on using this freely available tool.  Please post your own suggestions or ways you train tutors initially or provide them ongoing in-service.

• Assign short readings from it to a group of tutors.  Encourage tutors to share their learnings and questions online in a wiki, on your blog or over lunch.
• When you contact the tutor to provide tutor support, find out what their student is struggling with.  Then assign the pages that relate back to the skill such as decoding, fluency or phonics.  Touch base again to see if it helped.
  
• Post a question of the week on your blog, and ask tutors to read related sections and post their observations.

Please share your thoughts and ideas in comments on this blog.

Books for Adult Learners

The Ohio Literacy Resource Center has published two lists of books reviewed by adult literacy professionals and recommended for use in adult literacy programs. Many of the books are for new adult learners and can be found in your local library.

When you go into the site, you can select categories such as historical fiction, photographic, biography, wordless, easy reading and more.  There are also titles based on the GED test subject areas.  Easy reading  lists titles for low level readers. At the bottom of the page, you can select the type of reader to help find the "right" book.

Libraries could help their local literacy program by adding subject categories for each of these titles they own into their automated catalog.  If they add a consistent heading, it would help tutors and students find these books.

Ideally, all libraries across the United States would have one consistent heading for their adult literacy collection.  Everyone uses something different which makes it difficult to find these titles.