This summary reports on a research project that looked at the relationship of whole language instruction to adult basic education (ABE) learning. It begins with the background of the three research projects. This section discusses the staff development program that enabled teachers to understand whole language, its principles, and its strategies…

In response to problems encountered in teaching Spanish to native speakers who had learned Spanish as their first (oral) language but because of their schooling were literate only in English, a study was conducted to explore issues related to development of native-language literacy skills after acquisition of second-language literacy. Two adult…

A literacy needs assessment on an aboriginal island reserve in Canada was conducted to address courses to improve the literacy of adult aboriginal students. Fifty-one adults responded to the questionnaire relative to the need to initiate an adult education program. Questionnaire results indicated that secondary school upgrading courses in…

A study examined the relationships between the skills measured by basic skills assessment tools and the competencies that U.S. employers desire of their hourly employees. The basic skills desired by employers were identified through a literature review. Tools for assessing adult basic/employability skills that are currently available from a total…

During the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS), trained staff interviewed nearly 1,150 inmates in 80 federal and state prisons that had been randomly selected to represent prisons across the country. Survey participants completed diverse literacy tasks and answered questions regarding demographic characteristics, educational background, and…

An evening adult literacy program was developed to provide pre-General Educational Development (GED) instruction to residents of a men's shelter who desired to become dry cleaners pressers. Because an intake assessment of the 32 enrollees revealed that only 34% of them were high school dropouts and more than 50% had some college background, the…

This guide, which is intended to assist literacy practitioners interested in establishing collaborative learning (CL) groups, outlines a collaborative learning approach that was developed during a project to coordinate citywide adult literacy efforts in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Discussed in the guide's eight sections are the following topics:…

This document consists of the final report and booklet developed by a project that provided individual counseling and life-coping skills workshops to recently unemployed workers lacking basic educational skills. The final report describes how individuals recruited at Philadelphia unemployment offices attended group workshop sessions where they…

This document consists of the final report and teacher handbook from a project conducted to develop a curriculum of information, strategies, and activities for adult basic education teachers, tutors, and counselors to use in helping adult students improve their higher order thinking skills. Findings of a review of the available literature on…

A project was conducted to design an alternative assessment tool for use with adult learners traditionally identified as reading below fifth-grade level. This assessment allows for the creation of a goal-oriented Individual Education Plan that is personalized to the learner's needs and educational goals. The approach, analogous to the art…

This guide contains a collection of alternative techniques for teaching arithmetic that have proved useful in teaching both children and adults with various learning problems. Discussed first are several underlying principles of instructing individuals with learning disabilities, problems, and differences and special accommodations for…

A series of five workshops were conducted to instruct adult education practitioners so that they could better perform their jobs as teachers of late adolescents and at-risk students. The five workshops covered the following topics: (1) adolescent development and working with at-risk youth; (2) classroom and behavior management relating to…

An educator in a bilingual family literacy program offers 10 suggestions for enhancing the retention of limited-English-proficient (LEP) adult students, accompanied by anecdotes of personal classroom experiences. Guidelines include: (1) being responsive to student expectations about teaching method and acknowledging cultural differences; (2)…

This annotated bibliography lists more than 340 resources for adult literacy programs (especially in Canada). All materials are listed by title; grade levels, prices, International Standard Book Numbers, and order numbers are included when available. Resources that include skills instruction are grouped into the following sections: reading,…

A project assessed perceptions of manufacturing employers regarding the workplace literacy skills of occupational groups in their industry in Manitoba. A mailed survey was sent to 125 members of the Canadian Manufacturers' Association; 41 completed it. The first part of the survey obtained information about the occupations in manufacturing and…