Barebones Blog
A place to share anything related to the world of teaching adult and adolescent English learners who have emerging literacy skills. If you want to comment on something below, or share an interesting item I could add to this list, please reach out.
What's New at abceng.org
April 2021: Vocabulary Slideshows are the newest edition to the Online Library. I've moved them to the top of the Online Library page because it's likely the best place to start looking for resources to supplement your curriculum or build your teaching plan. I've also started to work on the U.S. Citizenship resource page.
March 2021: I've made some updates to the Home Language Literacy resources. I've added Kinyarwanda, and plan to add Nepali and Arabic next. Also, each of the Reading Skills Stories now has a Slideshow version -- great for virtual teaching or for display on a classroom projector or Smartboard.
February 2021: Check out the new Easy English Grammar slideshows. I've also been working to add real voice audio files for each of the Reading Skills Stories, which should be up by the end of this month. (Thanks to my friend John Movo for helping with this!)
January 2021: The Spelling Lists have been redesigned to have larger photos, and a phoneme-by-phoneme word building effect. I'll be adding some Spelling Practice worksheets in the future. Also, I've made a new, more universal version of some of the Alphabet resources.
December 2020: New resources include Easy English Reading packets, Reading Skills Stories packets with new audio and activity suggestions, and a start on some Home Language Literacy resources in Spanish, Swahili, and Somali, with plans to add other languages
Other Resource Websites
LESLLA (Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults), to connect with other teachers and researchers
Literacy Minnesota, especially the Instructional Support Kits, Classroom Videos, and Pre-Beginning ESL Curriculum
The Literacy Centre of Expertise, especially their podcast
Cultural Orientation Resource Exchange, especially their U-Curve of Cultural Adjustment poster
CIWA (Calgary Immigrant Women's Association), especially their Health Literacy Resources
We Speak NYC videos; student favorites are Stay in School and Love and Money
BRYCS (Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services), especially the images and info in Raising Children in a New Country
Bow Valley Readers (Lexile Levels 100 to 600)
ESL Library (most resources are for students who read at Lexile 600 and above)
The Math Worksheet Site (printable worksheets to add numbers and numeracy practice to your teaching)
Books for Students
abc English Books
What's Next?
Sam and Pat
Futures, Literacy Workbook
Educational Technology
quizizz.com, to create online quiz activities
quizlet.com, especially the "spell" activity for dictation practice
Tools for Makers
Canva, especially to create student certificates
ttsmp3, to input text and output an mp3 audio file
Virtual Speech Recorder, to easily record and save audio files online
Flaticon and The Noun Project, for free icons
Photos for Class and Creative Commons, for free photos
Interesting Research
Podcast Series about Reading Instruction There are three episodes in this Audio Documentary series created by Emily Hanford, an education reporter with American Public Media: Part 1: Hard Words, Part 2: At a Loss for Words, and Part 3: What the Words Say. For a more in-depth follow up, check out the book "The Knowledge Gap" by Natalie Wexler. Although the reporting is centered on elementary and secondary reading instruction, I found all of them very thought provoking as an adult literacy teacher.
Does Contextualized or Decontextualized Instruction Matter? This article reports on research done with preschoolers learning letter-sound correspondence, but I think it's an interesting consideration for older learners acquiring alphabetic skills for the first time as well. "Findings support explicit decontextualized alphabet instruction emphasizing the relation between verbal letter labels and letter forms." I'd love to see this research repeated with adult and/or adolescent emergent readers.
Native Language Literacy and Adult ESL Learners. "Research conducted with adults in the United States in recent years shows that reading in the native language aids the acquisition of and reading ability in a second language."
Speed School for Out-of-School Children in Mali. This project studies older children, not adults. However, I think the idea of a "speed school" program is intriguing and would love to see similar research conducted with adult or adolescent learners in a third-country resettlement context. (Also, in general, I'm inspired by the research of the Innovations for Poverty Action organization and its founder, Esther Duflo.)
A place to share anything related to the world of teaching adult and adolescent English learners who have emerging literacy skills. If you want to comment on something below, or share an interesting item I could add to this list, please reach out.
What's New at abceng.org
April 2021: Vocabulary Slideshows are the newest edition to the Online Library. I've moved them to the top of the Online Library page because it's likely the best place to start looking for resources to supplement your curriculum or build your teaching plan. I've also started to work on the U.S. Citizenship resource page.
March 2021: I've made some updates to the Home Language Literacy resources. I've added Kinyarwanda, and plan to add Nepali and Arabic next. Also, each of the Reading Skills Stories now has a Slideshow version -- great for virtual teaching or for display on a classroom projector or Smartboard.
February 2021: Check out the new Easy English Grammar slideshows. I've also been working to add real voice audio files for each of the Reading Skills Stories, which should be up by the end of this month. (Thanks to my friend John Movo for helping with this!)
January 2021: The Spelling Lists have been redesigned to have larger photos, and a phoneme-by-phoneme word building effect. I'll be adding some Spelling Practice worksheets in the future. Also, I've made a new, more universal version of some of the Alphabet resources.
December 2020: New resources include Easy English Reading packets, Reading Skills Stories packets with new audio and activity suggestions, and a start on some Home Language Literacy resources in Spanish, Swahili, and Somali, with plans to add other languages
Other Resource Websites
LESLLA (Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults), to connect with other teachers and researchers
Literacy Minnesota, especially the Instructional Support Kits, Classroom Videos, and Pre-Beginning ESL Curriculum
The Literacy Centre of Expertise, especially their podcast
Cultural Orientation Resource Exchange, especially their U-Curve of Cultural Adjustment poster
CIWA (Calgary Immigrant Women's Association), especially their Health Literacy Resources
We Speak NYC videos; student favorites are Stay in School and Love and Money
BRYCS (Bridging Refugee Youth and Children's Services), especially the images and info in Raising Children in a New Country
Bow Valley Readers (Lexile Levels 100 to 600)
ESL Library (most resources are for students who read at Lexile 600 and above)
The Math Worksheet Site (printable worksheets to add numbers and numeracy practice to your teaching)
Books for Students
abc English Books
What's Next?
Sam and Pat
Futures, Literacy Workbook
Educational Technology
quizizz.com, to create online quiz activities
quizlet.com, especially the "spell" activity for dictation practice
Tools for Makers
Canva, especially to create student certificates
ttsmp3, to input text and output an mp3 audio file
Virtual Speech Recorder, to easily record and save audio files online
Flaticon and The Noun Project, for free icons
Photos for Class and Creative Commons, for free photos
Interesting Research
Podcast Series about Reading Instruction There are three episodes in this Audio Documentary series created by Emily Hanford, an education reporter with American Public Media: Part 1: Hard Words, Part 2: At a Loss for Words, and Part 3: What the Words Say. For a more in-depth follow up, check out the book "The Knowledge Gap" by Natalie Wexler. Although the reporting is centered on elementary and secondary reading instruction, I found all of them very thought provoking as an adult literacy teacher.
Does Contextualized or Decontextualized Instruction Matter? This article reports on research done with preschoolers learning letter-sound correspondence, but I think it's an interesting consideration for older learners acquiring alphabetic skills for the first time as well. "Findings support explicit decontextualized alphabet instruction emphasizing the relation between verbal letter labels and letter forms." I'd love to see this research repeated with adult and/or adolescent emergent readers.
Native Language Literacy and Adult ESL Learners. "Research conducted with adults in the United States in recent years shows that reading in the native language aids the acquisition of and reading ability in a second language."
Speed School for Out-of-School Children in Mali. This project studies older children, not adults. However, I think the idea of a "speed school" program is intriguing and would love to see similar research conducted with adult or adolescent learners in a third-country resettlement context. (Also, in general, I'm inspired by the research of the Innovations for Poverty Action organization and its founder, Esther Duflo.)