"Making Sense of Decoding and Spelling: An Adult Reading Course of Study" is an evidence-based course of study designed to teach adult learners to decode and spell words more accurately and fluently. It is designed to be used as one component of a comprehensive adult reading course. The target population for the course is adult basic education…

When the goal is supporting excellent teaching, there is no "one-size-fits-all" approach. This book helps literacy coaches and administrators navigate the many choices involved in developing and fine-tuning a coaching program that offers the best fit for a particular school. The authors draw on current research and their personal experiences in…

Reviews the literature dealing with ways of improving the effectiveness of adult basic education reading instruction in the areas of teacher training, teaching styles, instructional methods and materials, and adult learning patterns. Discusses the implications of the studies cited. (AYC)

Intended to help adult education teachers and administrators select the type of adult literacy program that works best for their students, this digest surveys nine different programs and discusses the assessment methods used for each program. The programs examined are: (1) Time to Read; (2) Center for Literacy program; (3) Federal Prison System…

Cognitive style mapping enables adult basic education (ABE) teachers to more readily identify a student's cognitive styles, or preferred way of acquiring information, as well as the specific areas where improvement is needed. The procedure prescribes techniques and resources for enhancing both academic skills and interpersonal relationships. The…

Diagnostic/prescriptive techniques can match adult reading students with appropriate content materials. The Directed Reading Activity is a structured approach that introduces concepts and vocabulary, teaches or reviews specific reading skills, prepares for reading, encourages discussion of content, and follows up on information and skills…

The process model of reading suggests that even the effective reader makes recurring regressions to lower levels of functioning when faced with unfamiliar topics or texts. The gradual formulation of new linguistic and cognitive structures necessitated by the task of reading is similar to the acquisition of language, and the process model suggests…

The factors necessary for implementing and maintaining an individualized adult reading lab are outlined briefly in this paper. Teaching approaches that make the lab suitable for remedial readers, as well as how the individualized approach can help the student beyond the basics of reading are discussed under the heading of components. Suggestions…

Extensive reading is an approach to teaching reading that has been utilized with English as a Second Language (ESL) learners, but not widely used in the adult literacy classroom. This article investigates whether this approach can be utilized in a classroom for adults who have difficulty with reading. A description of our implementation of…

Three studies were conducted to determine the validity of the idea that adult literacy students have greater reading potential (and thus can learn in much shorter periods of time) than school children who score at comparable levels to the adults on standardized reading tests, and that adults are more efficient learners than such children. The…

This publication, which is based on the experiences gained in a workplace literacy program for learning-disabled workers at a paper factory in Massachusetts, is designed as a beginners' guide to identifying and addressing issues of learning disabilities in the adult education classroom. Section 1 defines the term "learning disability,"…

Two teachers from very diverse backgrounds combined their resources in the College of Public and Community Service at the University of Massachusetts to set up an adult literacy program. Based on the assumptions that instruction should be based on the needs of the learners, that reading is a cognitive rather than a mechanical process, and that…

A study examined the sources of motivation of adults participating in the adult literacy program at the Bob Steele Reading Center (BSRC) in Hartford, Connecticut. The "life cycle" approach used to explore motivation throughout the stages of the literacy learning process included brief case studies focusing on the importance of socioemotional…

An ethnographic study investigated four adult beginning reading (ABR) classes in several adult learning centers in order to determine the effect of an adult's age and developmental phase on his or her behavior and attitudes in the learning-to-read process. For 9 months, a four-member research team conducted on-site observations, compiled extensive…

A discussion of adult learners and a description of instructional reading strategies--based on thinking--for adult learners are presented in this paper. A definition of adulthood and the nontraditional learner in the paper highlights adults' cognitive skills, interests, and literacy levels, while the metacognitive awareness of disabled and good…