The revised General Educational Development (GED) tests introduced in 1988 require higher-level analytical skills of examinees than previous tests. The most immediate revision is the writing skills test, which requires examinees to demonstrate writing ability. This guide provides the GED student with a plan for writing an essay that will receive a…

This article focuses on using writing activities in adult basic education/General Educational Development level classes to increase students' self-confidence, enjoyment of writing, and opportunities for group instruction. Suggestions are made for early writing experiences as well as later activities. The writing activities most enjoyed by other…

This handbook is intended to provide teachers with background information about the writing skills needed by General Educational Development (GED) students as well as practical instructional activities for use in the adult basic education/GED classroom. A guide to using the ideabook explains the POWER format that involves Prewriting, Organizing,…

This paper presents a series of reading and writing activities centered around a 19-item word list suitable for use in tutoring adults. The activities in the paper involve short stories, writing exercises, and take-home exercises. Included with the activities is a guide that presents, in addition to the word list and the exercises, instructions…

This course of study presents a competency-based approach to teaching effective writing. It is intended to give the adult educator a tool that can be used for any level of student at any point in writing instruction. The first section contains 48 competencies that address 5 domains of writing--planning, organizing, writing, evaluating, and…

Developmental writing students pose particular problems for composition instruction because of their pragmatic orientation and because they come from and live in an oral, nonliterate culture. The writing instructor must create writing situations that make real-world demands and bring about real-world consequences, and assign topics that students…

Using a writing journal with adult literacy students is an effective way to introduce them to writing while working with their reading, self-esteem, and confidence levels. One type of journal that combines the skills of reading and writing is the reader response journal. In these journal exercises, the students read a story or section of a story…

The set of instructional materials included here consists of reading, writing, and language development worksheets to be used in adult English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) literacy education. Materials are grouped according to four themes; this volume contains units on theme 3 (diary writing) and theme 4 (study skills). Each unit contains an…

This publication shares three "best teaching practices" as identified by the Ohio Literacy Resource Center from responses from Ohio's adult literacy programs. "Identifying Errors in Writing" (Mary Cupilary) is a writing improvement strategy/lesson that involves selecting one sentence from a paragraph written by each student,…

This document was developed as a resource for teacher trainers and adult educators who are teaching writing to adults. It has been designed to provide suggested intended learning outcomes, instructional strategies, and resources in an easy-to-use format. Most of the document is a chart that lists 10 intended learning outcomes, with parallel…

This document was developed as a resource for implementing the teaching of writing in adult education programs. Based on curriculum, assessment, diagnosis, prescription, instruction, evaluation, and classroom management. The program is presented in a 12-step systematic sequence. The steps are the following: (1) develop/customize/adopt a writing…

The collection of articles addresses current issues in adult and adult basic education in Virginia communities. Titles include: "Goal-Setting in the New River Valley: Teachers' Perceptions and Strategies" (Sue Barton); "What Happens When ESL Students Experience Authentic Work Situations?" (Pat Bowyer); "Orientation to…