Archive
Recent Newsletter Articles
Memory Quilt Project
After learning about the history of quilts, students create their own family trees, discuss how stories and traditions are passed down in their cultures, write about a significant person or event they want to memorialize, and finally create related memory squares that are made into a quilt. Read More
Academic Debate Unit
This project-based academic debate unit ends with a service field trip. Over several weeks, students effectively develop and refute arguments; analyze controversial issues; evaluate evidence; and recognize opportunities for leadership. Read More
Additional Comprehension Resources
ESL Literacy Readers offers 40 theme-based stories, a learner page, and a teacher's guide with ideas for reading activities and extensions. ESL Yes! offers 1600 stories intended for Beginning and Intermediate level ESL students, supplemented with audios and various kinds of exercises. Read More
Tiered Sentence Combining (TSC, 2014)
Explicit sentence combining instruction can help them write sentences that are longer, more complex or interesting, and varied in structure. This evidence-based resource provides a starting point that may ultimately improve ABE students' sentence composition, complexity, and comprehension. Read More
Online Writing Lab (OWL)
This website offers resources for understanding and teaching prewriting, outlining, paragraphing, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, avoiding plagiarism, and many other writing skills for students at grade levels 7-12. Read More
Making Sense of Decoding and Spelling
30 scripted lesson plans and related materials for teaching intermediate-level adult students how to accurately decode and spell multi-syllable words. It begins by reviewing short vowel syllables, continues with the most common and useful spelling patterns of English, and always applies taught skills to repeated readings of short passages. Read More
Just Write! Guide
This resource from Teaching Excellence in Adult Literacy (TEAL) “aims to help adult education instructors improve the writing instruction they already use in their programs.” It is not a curriculum, but a guide to increase familiarity with evidence-based writing instruction and translate research findings into teaching practices. Read More
In Their Own Words: Reading and Understanding Through Paraphrasing
Effective paraphrasing builds students' reading and writing skills and boosts comprehension of complex texts. Summarized here are materials and techniques for teaching paraphrasing in various ABE contexts, including addressing paraphrasing for the GED 2014 Extended Response. Read More
In Common: Effective Writing for All Students
The writing samples included here are split into two types: on-demand writing and range of writing. The on-demand samples show progression of writing with one topic in K-5 and 6-12. The range of writing samples shows the possibilities for integrating writing tasks across content areas. Read More
Grammar Bytes
A great resource for use with pre-GED, GED, diploma, college-prep learners and advanced ELLs. It can be used in the classroom with groups, during individual sessions with volunteers, or to help students build grammar skills at home or in an open lab. Read More