New Hampshire Bureau of Adult Education

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Reading Components and Reading Disabilities
Tip from Robin Letendre
Posted July 29, 2010

Reading Components

phonemic awareness
decoding
fluency
vocabulary
comprehension

Phonemic awareness is the ability to detect individual sounds within words. This means when we hear the word “bag”, we can distinguish three distinct sounds, the /b/, /a/, and /g/. We don’t need to seethe word to know this.

Decoding is the ability to recognize words in print using letter-sound correspondences and sometimes larger word parts like prefixes and suffixes.

Fluency is the ability to read smoothly and at a reasonable rate with little effort. Fluent readers also use appropriate phrasing and expression, indicating an understanding of the writer’s message.

Vocabulary knowledge is understanding the words in a passage and being able to connect them to what we already know.

Comprehension is understanding what we are reading, and rereading when something is not clear.

A reading disability or RD is:

A reading proficiency below an individual’s expected proficiency given his or her age, intelligence, education or professional experience.
A specific type of learning disability.
Span a broad range, from those who cannot read at all, non-readers, to individuals who struggle with particular aspects of reading.
Often referred to as dyslexia, however, dyslexia is actually a combination of reading problems, in particular, trouble accurately and fluently decoding single words, as well as issues with spelling.

~Taken from Learning to Achieve, material developed prepared by the National Institute for Literacy Module 4

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Classroom Community
ESL Tips from Christine Powers
Posted July 11, 2010

Create a community of learners within the walls of your classroom. Encourage students to share something about themselves that they would like others to know. Name tents help students to learn each others names and besides writing their name on the tent ask them to draw or write something about themselves that they want all to know. As you circulate the room you can personalize a conversation with each student. In the beginning of the year it is a good way for students to learn the names of their classmates. You can use it as a grammar lesson to work on pronouns. During the year revisit the cards and have students ask more questions of each other. They may find they have more in common as the year goes on.

Community Connections
Tip for Adult Diploma Classes from Debby Kanner
Posted June 24, 2010

An important goal of Adult Education is empowering our students to advocate for themselves and to connect with their communities. Healthy living requires the ability to locate resources and engage in meaningful social interactions. Early in the semester it is useful to have students visit their town’s website and research information about town government, service agencies, and recreation opportunities. Many of us are unaware of the names of town officials and state representatives. This exercise serves as an ice breaker as students share information about where they live, how long they have been in the area, or what schools they have attended. An assignment might be for each student to make one new contact in their community. Suggestions might include obtaining a library card, attending a town event such as a fair or a farmer’s market, visiting a local museum or historical society, volunteering at the SPCA, or attending a town meeting.

Health Science Information
Tip from Denise Reddington
Posted June 6, 2010

Click on this amazing website if you’re looking for health science information to use with ESOL, ABE, or GED students.

www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tutorial.html

Fantastic site of interactive health education tutorials
Animated graphics and easy to read language
Is read aloud and you can choose questions or no questions
A free site with no ads or registration

Teaching Drama
Tip from Elise Hood
Posted June 6, 2010

When preparing students for the GED Language Arts Reading test we need to expose them to fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and drama. Drama seems to be a obvious form of literature, but this is not always so for students. Start with a simple play and assign parts to your more comfortable readers. Teach drama vocabulary like act, scene, cast list, characters, stage directions etc. Let the students with assigned parts go off a few minutes and read through their parts at least once. I call this “dress rehearsal”. Then, the return and read through the play “with feeling, acting out the stage directions but not reading them. Continue to use scripts of more difficulty and include other students. Besides helping with reading comprehension and literature, this activity will cement your classroom community.

Adult Diploma Teachers: A Special Calling
Tip from Lynda Galard LeBlanc
Posted June 1, 2010

An Adult Diploma teacher is a special calling. We are faced with the daunting challenge of motivating students who have, for one reason or another, fallen through the cracks of the normal high school experience. Many of them have the ability and even the desire to learn, but they are not always aware of their skills and capacities. And they do not always see the purpose of learning. So we have to find innovative ways to get them to allow themselves to achieve academically and strive for personal success.

One of the best ways to get off to a good start is to be honest with the students: tell them that this program is a unique opportunity for them to turn around their poor academic record and start over again fresh with learning. I think it is important to impress upon them that the course they are taking with you is designed to be a serious and rigorous academic experience. Students should be told that they will be held to high standards, strict accountability, and regular attendance. But if they rise to this challenge and meet your expectations, they will find the class to have been a highly rewarding and enriching academic experience.

Reading Comprehension
Tip from Susan Bubp
Posted May 18, 2010

Typical reading comprehension questions ask who, what, where, when, why and how. These questions actually test comprehension rather than teach students how to comprehend. So instead of solely relying on the workbook approach to teaching comprehension, teach students how to make connections with what they are reading and what they know already, with other things that they have read, and with things they’ve heard about in the world. Have them practice paraphrasing what they’ve read. By all means teach them that rereading is something that all good readers do! Stress that reading is an active process and that the reader must ask questions while he/she reads and even make predictions about what will happen later in the text. Readers must learn to read between the lines and make judgments about what is important and what is not. Finally, help students to learn how to create mental pictures of what they’re reading so they are fully engaged with the text.

Teaching Vocabulary
Mentor Tip from Denise Reddington
Posted May 10, 2010

What research, experience, and many wonderful students have taught me:

Vocabulary lessons should be meaningful and purposeful to the students.
Encourage students to read and define as many words as possible before teaching them.
Introduce new vocabulary by category or topic, such as law words, government words, geography words, or solar system words.
Students should practice ways to define unknown words by using context clues.
When reading independently, students should highlight or underline any words that they want to review or ask about.
Preview new vocabulary before oral reading so students are comfortable with pronunciation.
Read orally often and discuss the meaning of new words at the end of each paragraph.
Use pictures or visual images, as much as possible, to help learners understand and remember new words. Keep a collection handy and
collect them everywhere.
Students should repeatedly use new vocabulary in a variety of ways: read, see, say, write, and use.
Using a dictionary can be very frustrating for students.

Teachers and tutors might recommend that students:

Use an intermediate or school dictionary
Look for definitions in the back of workbooks
Look for definitions in bold print or on the side of the page
Use context clues to get meaning
Ask others for definitions when possible
Use an electronic dictionary

Please Note: Order ABE/GED Science & Social Studies Vocabulary Lessons & Activities by Denise Reddington free from the NH Bureau of Adult Education Mini-Grant Program. The order form can be found here!

Creating Community
Tip from Susan Bubp
Posted 4/28/10

Create community by allowing time at the beginning of every class for people to have a time to discuss something going on their lives. After people get used to this, everyone usually enjoys having the floor. But one caveat-- before you start this routine, tell the class how much time will be allotted for the activity, so they will understand that they must keep their turn to speak to a reasonable time limit. Some students may “over share,” so the teacher must be tactful about facilitating the discussion and keeping to time limits. Shy individual’s comments may be very brief, but they too will benefit from the activity. After establishing this custom for a few weeks, students will get used to the routine and look forward to their time to connect with you and with the group. When people in the group feel like they know each other and care about each other, they have created a sense of community.

Adult Diploma Teachers: Student Self-Assessment Questionnaire
Tip from Lynda Galard LeBlanc
Posted 4/15/10

I have found that using a simple Student Self-Assessment questionnaire [adapted from Keys to the Classroom (Corwin Press)] on the first day of class in the Adult Diploma classroom helps guarantee success. This brief questionnaire has proven invaluable to me as far as individualizing each student’s unique educational needs and learning styles. I refer to it continually throughout the term as I plan my curriculum and correct written assignments.

Student name, email, and cell

Write a sentence about each of the following statements:

I like school.
I am a responsible person.
I have many friends.
I have a close friend.
I like to read.
I am comfortable reading aloud.

What I Think about Writing:

How do I feel about writing?
The kind of writing I enjoy most are: stories, poems, reports, plays, songs, newspaper articles
The hardest thing about writing is _____.
The best things I have ever written were _____.
The reason they were so good was _____.
Some of the things I would like to do better in my writing are _____.

What I Think about Reading:

How do I feel about reading?
How much time do I read and when do I do it?
What are the best books or stories I have ever read?
What are the things I don’t like about reading?
What way will I become a better reader?

Federal Laws That Affect Individuals with Learning Disabilities
Tip from Robin Letendre
Posted 4/7/10

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

Limited to children and adolescents from birth through school age, up to 21 years
Provides for an identification and diagnostic process that is the responsibility of schools
Establishes an entitlement to services
Provides direct funding to schools for special education and related services

Rehabilitation Act of 1973, also known as the Rehab Act

Applies to an individual of any age
Extends past secondary education to post-secondary education and employment
Provides for reasonable accommodations
Requires self-disclosure
Places responsibility on the individual with a disability to provide his or her own documentation of the disability
Provides funding to state rehabilitation agencies for direct services for employment-related training, education and support

Americans with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) ADA was enacted in 1990, and amended in 2008, thus why it is called ADAAA

Extends concepts of the Rehab Act
- Access to all aspects of society for individual with disabilities
Like the Rehab Act
- age
- Self-disclosure
- reasonable accommodations
Unlike the Rehab Act
- no funding

Taken from Learning to Achieve, material developed and prepared by the National Institute for Literacy Module 3

Modeling
Tip for Adult Diploma Classes from Debby Kanner
Posted 3/29/10

One of the biggest challenges in teaching an Adult Diploma class is the range of student ages and abilities. It is important not to assume that students come to class equipped with the set of skills one might expect from a typical high school student. Before requiring students to write an essay, research paper, or response paper independently, it is helpful to model the activity by breaking down the process into steps and following through that process as a class. Using graphics to “map” the process provides a visual outline to reinforce learning.

Memory Games
Tip from Elise Hood
Posted 3/23/10

Everyone seems to like games. You can use basic simple memory games for a variety of subjects. In English, make half the cards a complete subject and another set of cards, complete predicates. Matching the two sets will give practice in reading and comprehension. Also, if you develop the cards with singular, plural, and complex subjects and predicates, your students will be practicing subject- verb agreement. In math, you can make a set of fractions and decimals and let students determine the match. These games are also fun for students to create themselves. To make the project as simple as possible, use index cards and markers. Both items can be found at “dollar stores” or other discount stores.

Teamwork Worksheets
ESL Tip from Christine Powers
Posted 3/12/10

When you find a good paper activity that will reinforce a skill use it as a class activity to encourage conversation. Each student does not need to finish the page so assign a few numbers to a pair of students. The pairs then split and join another classmate to form a new pair. These “experts” share their answers and then split again. This continues until the page is finished. This leads to a lot of speaking practice as well as writing and gets the students up and moving.

Teaching in a Multi-level Classroom
Tip from Denise Reddington
Posted 3/5/10

If you are an adult education teacher in New Hampshire, chances are you are teaching in a multi-level classroom. Organizing a class with different level learners can be challenging. Listed below are some things to consider when working in a multi-level classroom that may be helpful.

INVOLVE STUDENTS IN PLANNING AND GOAL SETTING

Guide your students into taking charge of their learning as much as possible.
They decide on how much homework is right for them, correct their own work, decide when something is too easy and go on, ask for extra work when needed. Assess progress often and adjust as needed.

ENCOURAGE AND PROMOTE “COMMUNITY” IN YOUR CLASSROOM

          Always introduce new students to the class and point out others with common
          goals. Throw questions back to the class; correct work together, share writing,
          work in small groups or pairs. Have “fun” worksheets handy to do together.

STAY ORGANIZED

Use folders to keep track of individual learners and group lessons. Have students keep track of their own work.

BE FLEXIBLE

Have a variety of lessons and individual work on hand to use. Always be listening and paying attention to the needs of the group as well as the individual.

SET RULES THAT EVERYONE KNOWS AND FOLLOWS

Don’t disrupt other students learning, be positive, don’t ever answer for another student unless asked, listen to and respect others.

STAY UPBEAT, POSITIVE, & ENTHUSIASTIC WITH STUDENTS.

Humor and laughter is a very good thing.

GET HELP

Volunteers or assistant teachers can be very helpful.

Concept of Specific Learning Disability
Tip from Robin Letendre
Posted 2/28/10

The concept of specific learning disability can be defined with six key points.

The concept of specific learning disability, or SLD, is valid and is supported by strong converging evidence.
Specific Learning Disabilities are neurologically based, and intrinsic to the individual.
Individuals with Specific Learning Disabilities show intra-individual differences in skills and abilities.
Specific Learning Disabilities persist across the lifetime.
Specific Learning Disabilities may occur in combination with other disabling conditions, but they are not due to other conditions, such as mental retardation, behavioral disturbances, lack of opportunities to learn, or primary sensory deficits.
Specific Learning Disabilities are evidenced across ethnic, cultural, language and economic groups.

(Taken from Learning to Achieve, material developed and prepared by the National Institute for Literacy Module 1)

Add Color to Lessons
Tip from Elise Hood
Posted 2/18/10

Just because you are teaching adults, don’t think crayons or markers should never be used. There are many lessons that will be enhanced if a little color is added. The color can expand your students’ learning capacity and their retention. When working with maps, using markers to enhance certain geographic areas really makes sense. When teaching latitude and longitude, use two different colors to make a visual connection in the brain. In math, preparing graphs and making color-coded liquid capacity charts can catch your students’ attention. Even in writing, you can have students sketch something from their past and then use their picture as a writing prompt.

To get started, put a mug, cup or any container of markers in the middle of classroom tables or desks. Encourage students to use these markers when appropriate. There are students who will resist or think this is “kiddish”. But, after a while most will participate. Do not worry if a few never want to use them. It happens.

Walking and Talking
Tip for Adult Diploma Classes from Debby Kanner
Posted 2/11/10

A great way to get acquainted with your students on the first night of class in September is to go for a themed walk. For a social studies class the walk could feature local monuments, public buildings, or historic markers. Science students might focus on local flora or weather and a math class might do some measurements or try orienteering. Walking provides a non-threatening opportunity for class members to chat with each other and the teacher, thereby becoming more comfortable. Remember to ask the program director or counselor to notify students as they register so that they will dress appropriately!

Adult Diploma Teachers: Classroom Management Tips
Tip from Lynda Galard LeBlanc
Posted 2/3/10

I enjoy the challenge of getting the students in the Adult Diploma program engaged in literature. Many of these students do not care much for reading when they enter my courses, but I have been successful in getting them to develop a love for, and appreciation of, the pleasures of reading great works of literature, whether they be works by Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, or Arthur Miller.

Here are a few classroom management tips I have shared with other Adult Diploma teachers across the state to help them build a successful classroom community. By implementing these easy strategies and techniques with your students, you will find that they will soon feel comfortable and, even more importantly, they will develop a strong sense of community within their individual classroom.

Some classroom practices and activities that have proven particularly effective for me include the following:

making the students accountable (for attending class regularly and being on time, for completing reading and writing assignments by their due date, etc.)

structuring the class in an orderly way so that there will not be any surprises (e.g., I put a focus agenda – or “road map” – on the blackboard at the start of each class so that the students know exactly where we will be going during the remainder of the class session, and at the end of each class session, in a free-write activity, I have them answer the question: “What have I learned today in class?”)

instituting a leadership program (one of the students volunteers each class session to be the group’s unofficial leader)

utilizing catch phrases that grab the students’ interest and attention (I label one of our reading comprehension and textual interpretation activities “detective hunt”)

implementing active learning and active questioning (e.g., students regularly do structured pairs work and small-group work, during mini-lectures I use the “think-pair-share” technique, etc.)

exposing students to works of critical literature that interpret many of the texts they are reading.

Fluency Writing
ESL Tip from Christine Powers
Posted 1/27/10

Transfer this skill from speaking to writing. Have the students discuss a topic in small groups to get ideas for writing. Limit this to about 10 minutes, leaving the students wanting to talk more. Next ask them to date a page in their notebooks and write for 3 minutes. They are not to use a dictionary or worry about spelling or grammar. The pencil and paper must be in contact for the 3 minutes. The first few times if they can not think of anything to write let them know they can write their name, address, children’s names, grocery list – anything, as long as the pencil and paper are working together.

At the end of the given time have the students read what they have written out loud to themselves. It is fun to listen to all of the voices! Initially the students may feel a bit silly but as you continue the activity in each class they become comfortable with it and look forward to it. Dating the page each time allows the students to look back and see how they have progressed.

Essay Writing
Tip from Susan Bubp
Posted 1/18/10

One way to give students additional experience with essay structure is to cut-up an essay into paragraphs and ask students to reconstruct the essay into the whole. When choosing an essay for this exercise, make sure the introduction, body and conclusion are quite clearly denoted with transitional words like “first of all,” “next,” “in conclusion”, etc. Students can highlight the transition words to help them justify and understand their organizational strategy. This exercise works particularly well if students work in pairs so they can discuss their thinking; then everyone can come together as a large group to discuss the results. Eventually, you can try this technique with essays that the students have written.

Lesson Planning Help
Tip from Christine Powers
Posted 2/14/07

Do you have trouble finding just the right idea or activity for your lesson? Do you find yourself looking for a new “hook” to get your students motivated? Do you find planning time a difficult thing to fit into your busy schedule? If your answer is yes to any or all of these questions then I have a book for you!

“ZERO PREP Ready-to-Go Activities for the Language Classroom”
by Laurel Pollard & Natalie Hess
Alta Book Center Publishers
ISBN 1-882483-64-2

This book is set up into seven chapters covering the four skill areas as well as ice breakers, vocabulary and structure. The activities are written very clearly with simple, easy to read directions. The level it is intended for, the aim of the activity and the procedure to carry it out as well as variations for some activities are included. With a little bit of experience and time you will find yourself thinking of new ways to use some of the ideas.

An example of an Ice Breaker: “MY ADJECTIVE”

This is suggested as a Monday morning wakeup to encourage conversation as well as a focus on adjectives.
Students brainstorm adjectives that can be used to describe people. This can be done in small groups or as a class. They then choose the adjective that best describes them at that moment. They mingle throughout the class telling each other which adjective they have chosen and why.
They can then talk about what classmates told them in plenary.

This could be expanded by having students choose a few classmates to write about. This lesson can lead to work with comparisons and superlatives as well as the use of pronouns.

An example of a Writing Lesson : “CLOZE DICTATION”

This activity promotes attention to detail and student self-correction.
It is for beginning to advanced levels and works on spelling, vocabulary and content review.
Choose a passage the students have read. It should be about 2 paragraphs, less for beginners. In pairs have the students create 2 cloze passages with different words left out in each. Next have each pair trade with another pair and then dictate to each other the passage with the left out words. When both dictations are finished they should be the same and they can check by looking at the original.
This requires little teacher work but the students have practice in writing sentences in the correct word order with the correct punctuation.

These are only two of the 100 activities that are in this great book. It is handy for the times you are tired and need a quick lesson and for those times when you need an idea to stretch to meet the needs of your class.

If you have this book let me know how you have used it. If not, put it on your wish list for materials to get. As with all ideas and lessons, think about how else you could use any of the ideas in this book.

Posted by Christine Powers

Here’s A Great New Book About Writing!
Tip from Susan Bubp
Posted 9/8/06

Mary Pipher’s newest book, Writing to Change the World, (ISBN 1-59448-920-3, Riverhead Books, 2006) should be on the nightstand of every adult educator. Whether you’re a teacher or administrator, or a little of both like me, you’ll find this book to be both useful and inspirational.

One section is devoted entirely on writing to elected officials… (We’re no strangers to that) According to Pipher, “Politicians pay attention to personal stories about the impact policies have on voters. They are also influenced by letters of appreciation. Many politicos said they choke up when they receive thank-you notes. I inferred from this that gratitude is in short supply for people in public life.”

She goes on to give some concrete guidelines when writing to your political representatives:

Respect your reader
Find common ground
Keep to what you hold in common
Empathize with the person
Say what you want to achieve
Say what actions you would hope the recipient will take
Keep your language simple
Avoid academic language and acronyms
Be hopeful
Use the “sandwich method” to place any criticism between two positive comments
Always end your letter with a suggestion for action

Every chapter is loaded with stories of the power of words. Pipher’s goal in writing this book is “to help you translate your passion and idealism into action. This is not a book on how to write; rather, it’s a book on how to write in order to improve the world.”

Practical Learning Disability Resources
Posted 11/5/06

Over the last few years, the educational resources developed by Dr. Richard Cooper for learning disabled students have been of value to me. Although he is not in the business of creating educational materials for marketing purposes, Dr. Cooper has made many of his resources available in an inexpensive catalog. These resources have proven useful at the his Center for Alternative Learning in Havertown, Pennsylvania. Dr. Cooper, who has ‘learning differences’ himself, developed these simple instruction booklets and tools which are not sold elsewhere. One appeal of these tools is that they are related to specific difficulties that a student may be experiencing. Dr. Cooper (and recently some other professionals) identifies and addresses specific difficulties rather than general learning disabilities. Dr. Cooper uses specific phrases such as ‘students who have difficulty keeping their work organized on a page’.

My first recommendation is an instruction manual for the Tic Tac Toe math system. This technique uses grids to help ‘students who have problems with multiplication and division’. Using the system, I have found that it is possible for students to learn their math times tables and solve problems related to multiplication and long division. This technique uses visual spatial memory effectively.

The Cooper Screening of Information Processing has a long and short form. The short form takes about ten minutes. The longer form helps teachers develop an educational plan based on its findings. There is also a Spanish form for those able to use it.

The Mnemonic Guidebook lists guidelines and examples for effective mnemonics. The mnemonic technique employs clues for memorization that help ‘students having difficulties with memorization’.

A Packet of Dice is another inexpensive tool used for teaching ‘students with difficulties learning number facts and organizing their numbers’. The packet includes a set of 16 die, eight white and eight red, which are used for assessing organizational skills and increasing speed with number facts.

The Modified Rulers are another device that can be used to reduce confusion for ‘those who have difficulties learning measurement’. These rulers keep the inch and half inch labels directly below the actual distances.

The Comprehension Companion provides notepads printed with the words ‘who, what, when, where and how’ on the front, and ‘why and summary’ on the back. ‘Students with difficulties remembering and organizing what they read’ can use the sheets as bookmarks and write notes as they read.

Another resource worth mentioning is the graph paper with half plain and half graph lines to help ‘students who have difficulty keeping their math calculations straight’. There are also clock faces with the minutes printed on them, and a talking math calculator for ‘students who need to hear the numbers when they enter them’. Finally, there is a discrete checkbook insert for those who resist writing checks because they can’t spell the number words correctly.

These and many other teaching aids are available in the Learning Disabilities Catalog. I have found them useful in my own work with students with learning difficulties and I hope you will find them helpful as well. The catalog can also be found on line at www.learningdifferences.com or requested by calling 1-800-869-8336.

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