Media Library of Teaching Skills for adult learning and literacy: A free, online, digital library of short videos of adult education teachers and their classes or tutorials, intended for use in professional development.
- Writing to Learn: Thinking on Paper: Doris Plumb uses a writing process that involves writing quickly in a journal, without thinking, so students' ideas come out fast. Doris gives a topic, Last Week's Experiences. She stresses as a purpose writing to learn something, to find their thoughts on issues, on themselves and others. She asks the students to pick one of these experiences and focus on it, to list a group of words that come to mind as they think about that experience or event. Students individually brainstorm, by themselves, without thinking about the ideas, without being critical, to free their minds to generate ideas. Then she asks them to write a short paragraph about the Event. She asks for a topic sentence and at least three sentences. The students said this helped to clarify their feelings and discover priorities.
- Ratio and Proportion: Accepting Student Responses: Math learners and thinkers share their ideas in problem solving. One strategy that math teacher, Abby Magee, uses is to write proposed solutions on the board and then discuss how these solutions were developed.
Outreach and Technical Assistance Network for adult educators: adult education and literacy providers support services including electronic collaboration, access to information, and technical assistance. Includes a video gallery that can be used for professional development.
- Adult Learning & Development: This course examines how adults learn and the implications for adult literacy programs. It explores the unique characteristics of adult learners as well as adult motivation, needs, and self-concept and their effect on learning. The course also explores adult development and the implications for effective teaching.
New American Horizons Foundation: Teaching ESL to Adults: Classroom Approaches in Action is a series of twelve videos, which can be viewed online. Each video is about 30 minutes long. The buzz words in italics next to the title of each video indicate some of the instructional strategies that you'll see demonstrated.
- Building Literacy with Adult Emergent Readers Language experience approach, whole-part-whole.
- Lesson Planning for Life Skills Review/warm-up, presentation, practice, application, evaluation, extension.
- Growing Vocabulary with Beginning Learners TPR (total physical response), contextualized vocabulary, recycling, comprehension check, pair-/group-work.
- Teaching Grammar in Real-Life Contexts Eliciting, inductive approach, comprehension check, meaningful practice, focus on accuracy/fluency, error correction, modeling, activating prior knowledge, PPP (presentation, practice, production), circle toss, grid activity, information gap.
- Working with a Multi-Level Class Whole group, like-ability grouping, cross-ability grouping, eliciting/brainstorming, critical thinking, collaborative learning, modeling.
- Developing Listening Skills with High-Intermediate Learners Authentic listening, activating prior knowledge, anticipating vocabulary/themes, listening for main ideas / for specific information, learner autonomy, jigsaw activity, pre-teaching vocabulary, higher-order thinking, open-ended questions.
- Cultivating Writing Skills at the Intermediate Level Pre-writing, drafting, revising, editing, presenting, publishing.
- Developing Reading Skills for Intermediate/Advanced Learners Connecting new info with previously acquired knowledge, activating prior knowledge, pre-reading activities, schema (background knowledge), making & evaluating predictions, reading for specific info, jigsaw reading, graphic organizers, main ideas & supporting arguments, follow-up activities, justifying answers to encourage reasoning & analytical skills.
- Assessing Learning in the Adult ESL Classroom Formative assessment: connects with instructional objectives & outcomes; uses multiple, varied strategies & tasks; is ongoing throughout the lesson; provides feedback on progress to inform instruction.
- Tasks to Promote Critical Thinking and Learning Skills Critical Thinking Skills (compare & contrast; identify assumptions; interpret, analyze, & evaluate; summarize & synthesize), Learning Skills (categorize & organize ideas, make & confirm predictions, listen & read selectively, practice note-taking), Activities (categorizing tasks, activities using grids, graphic organizers).
- Effective Grouping Strategies in the Adult ESL Classroom Maximal STT (student talking time), random grouping, like-ability groups, mixed-ability groups, whole group, modeling, collaborative learning.
- Tasks to Promote Oral Skills: From Accuracy to Fluency Tasks that focus on vocabulary, pronunciation, grammar, & language functions & competencies; TPR, line-ups, matching & chain activities, flyswatter game, & grid interviews.
The Practitioner Tooklit: Working with Adult English Language Learners from the Center for Applied Linguistics offers many resources and tools for ESOL instructors.
American English Webinars: This site from the US State Department offers teacher training seminars on topics related to speaking, listening, & pronunciation; reading & writing; US culture; fun & games; teaching methods; grammar & vocabulary; & global citizenship. Download free resources.
- Using Group Work Effectively to Increase Speaking Time in Class: explores several new warm-up activities and grouping strategies. The activities and strategies can be used to introduce or review lesson content and provide strategic opportunities for students to practice speaking in class.
Ed Tech Center @ World Education offers online courses as well as free, self-paced courses. Below are a few examples of the courses offered.
- Ideas for Teaching Reading Explore some of the research on reading and its implications for the development of curriculum and instructional techniques. Read articles that relate to your role in the program—ABE instructor, ESOL instructor, or program administrator/counselor. Consider how the findings or practices might apply to your situation and develop plans for trying out some of the ideas.
- Supporting Student Persistence Adults choose to enroll in ABE, ESOL, and ASE classes with goals that require lengthy time commitments. Due to the complexity of adult students’ lives, many factors can either support or hinder students in persisting in programs until they reach their goals. Delve into the research conducted by the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) on persistence and its implications for your instruction and program practices. Learn about the four supports to persistence that they identified—management of positive and negative forces, establishment of a goal by students, progress toward reaching a goal, and building self-efficacy.
- Examining Social Issues in the Classroom with The Change Agent Consider the intersection of social justice and adult education and identify concrete steps that you can take to implement classroom activities that will help students understand underlying social issues and how to advocate for themselves and their communities.