Six practical and readily accessible informal assessment strategies for evaluating adult readers are described. These include (1) observation, (2) simplified reading inventories, (3) cloze procedures, (4) group reading inventories, (5) criterion-referenced tests, and (6) informal reading inventories. (CH)

Describes the experience of a 19-year-old learning disabled woman who enrolled in a literacy program. After one year, she enrolled in a community college and was able to make plans for her future. (JOW)

The repeated reading technique has been used successfully with children to build fluency and enhance comprehension and can be a viable instructional and remedial technique for adult beginning readers. (SK)

Explains how using computers allows adults to learn basic skills in new ways and to avoid reliving experiences with frustration, failure, and humiliation that they may have endured as children in school. Includes advantages and disadvantages associated with the use of computers in instruction. (JOW)

Describes an intergenerational reading program using children's literature in adult literacy classes. Discusses the adult literacy training sessions and the adaptations of the model in a variety of instructional settings. (JOW)

This document offers "reciprocal questioning" as a technique that promotes active learning and that is a practical and powerful way to help students improve their reading comprehension. First, the technique is described in detail. Steps include selection of four to five paragraphs of text; preparation of 10-12 questions over the material,…

Discusses techniques to use with adult beginning readers in the areas of (1) assessment (i.e., interviewing, voice pointing); (2) discussion (i.e., explaining approaches, incorporating interests); and (3) instruction (i.e., assisted reading, progress tracking). (CH)

Discusses barriers to self-direction in the adult learner and their implications for the program of reading instruction. Recommends methods by which these barriers can be surmounted. (NRJ)

The purpose of this document is to provide a step-by-step outline of the language experience approach. It first explains this technique for teaching both words and sentences to beginning readers. Steps are outlined first for teaching words, then for teaching sentences. What to do and what to say is suggested for each step. Teaching words includes…

Because reading is first and foremost a language comprehension process focusing on the visual form of spoken language, such teaching strategies as language experience and assisted reading have much to offer beginning readers. These techniques have been slow to become accepted by many adult literacy instructors; however, the two strategies,…