Adult Literacy Course Sequence

The sequence contains a general overview of undereducated adults suitable for all teachers, but coursework is also designed to give people from social services, welfare to work programs, business human resource development, education and adult education background. Courses deal globally with issues of illiteracy. What levels of literacy are necessary to participate in work, family and community? We also discuss teaching increasingly diverse populations and the role of technology and its implications for the educational haves and have-nots.

Content is intended to help teachers and volunteers design and teach customized programs to both individuals and groups of adults. The courses stress ways of working from individual strengths and determining the reading, writing and mathematics skills adults need to accomplish a specific set of goals. These goals may relate to work, family and community participation. In these classes you will learn how to adapt basic reading, writing and mathematics methods to teaching a variety of adult curricula.

Advanced courses are designed for those who want to work with private businesses or with vocational training programs in the public sector. We cover all aspects of literacy training, testing and writing in plain language from both practical and policy standpoints. Assessing literacy levels, designing programs, rewriting materials are covered.

Special emphasis is placed on technology, diversity and global education.

Fall Semester

AdEd 5201—Introduction to Adult Literacy (3 cr)

Overview of topics include: Who are the undereducated adults? What do the statistics tell us? What are the definitions of literacy? What are the critical issues in adult literacy? The course gives an overview of:

• The concepts involved in family literacy
• The relationship between parents' literacy skills and that of their children
• Preschool activities that improve children's literacy in the early grades
• Parental support of elementary age children
• Families' roles in preventing adolescent school drop-out
• Improving parents' skills by training them to tutor their children
• Poverty and welfare
• Research on poverty and lack of education
• Deficit and difference models
• Ethnicity, cultural diversity
• Cultural diversity within minority groups
• Language and social class
• Language and learning
• Native American Indian and minority groups
• Refugees and new immigrants
• Adult literacy in correctional institutions
• A review of literacy programs for work, family and community, funding and teachers in the literacy field
• Educational brokering and literacy resources
• Reaching and recruiting undereducated adults
• Solutions to literacy problems
• The role of the schools
• The role of the state and local government
• New social action approaches to combat illiteracy nationally and internationally

Summer Session

AdEd 5202—Assessment of Adult Literacy (3 cr)

Overall the course covers formal and informal ways of assessing literacy taking into account the social, psychological and legal implications.

Topics include:

• Probable causes of reading and math problems including lack of instruction
• Seriously intellectually or emotionally disabled
• Specific learning disabilities
• English as a second language students
• Determining goals
• Conducting an initial interview
• Screening for learning disabilities
• Initial reading assessment
• Standardized tests, informal reading inventories, phonic skills assessment, sight word assessment, spelling tests, comprehension at the decoding stage
• Selecting assessments for learning disabled, mentally retarded, ESL students
• Factors influencing reading comprehension testing
• Language ability and reading comprehension dialect differences and tests
• How to pick a reading comprehension assessment; individual versus group tests, criterion referenced tests, cloze procedures
• Competency based—life skills assessments, reading for working; reading for life skills, reading for pleasure, reading for parenting
• Mathematics, formal standardized math tests, informal assessment of math, mathematics survival skills
• Math for working, consumer economics, helping children with math
• Legal implications of testing in the workplace
• Goal setting in reading and math, mediating individual goals, setting a schedule to meet individual goals, deciding priorities
• Detailed hands on information about testing and assessment; curriculum development; and staff training and evaluation techniques
• Selecting suitable methods of instruction
• Selecting suitable materials for individuals and groups deciding on skills, deciding on content, suitable levels; characteristics of the learner
• Individualization and group work, management of individual programs building portfolios

Spring Semester

AdEd 5203—Methods of Teaching Adult Literacy (3 cr)

Overview of the course include: Methods used to teach all aspects of literacy including mathematics and writing as well as broad literacy goals.

Topics include:

• Adult literacy and learning
• The process of learning to read
• Models of learning to read
• Basic methods used to teach the technical skill of reading
• Implications for special populations including the learning disabled and ESL learners
• Basal approaches, phonic approaches, linguistic approaches, language experience programmed instruction
• Basic methods of teaching adults to understand what they read, metacognition
• Factors influencing reading comprehension
• Matching learning style to method
• Applications for ESL populations
• Teaching comprehension in life skill and other content areas
• Special program applications: such as parenting and workplace literacy programs
• Teaching vocabulary
• Writing and spelling
• Creative writing for adults and the GED writing test
• Functional writing in the workplace
• Basic methods of teaching mathematics
• How might different adults with special needs respond
• Mathematics in special areas such as the family and the workplace
• Classroom organization
• Classrooms and learning centers
• Flexible grouping by skill and interest
• Computer aided instruction
• Evaluation of commercial materials
• Criteria for evaluating materials
• Evaluation and design of computer software and its applicability to adult learners
• ESL cultural considerations
• Additional factors teachers to consider when working with a variety of cultural groups
• Case studies of setting up workplace literacy programs with businesses
• Techniques of writing in plain language for low literacy workers and computer assisted instruction in workplace literacy
• Designing family literacy programs for parents who want to learn to improve the literacy skill of their children and who may also need improvement in their own educational skills