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ESL Literacy Readers (Bow Valley Readers)
This collection of 40 theme-based readers features adult ESL learners engaging in everyday work and life activities. The learner page provides ESL students with access to seven levels of stories written specifically for adults. Each story focuses on a different learner and has an accompanying listening track so learners can listen as well as read the story.
CollectEdNY.org – ELA
This site hosts resources in all content areas, including English Language Arts. Some of the materials are taken from K-12, but they are all framed and explored in the context of adult education classrooms. The site is divided into four main parts: 1. Resource Reviews Find free, quality teaching resources…
What’s Trending in Distance Reading Instruction?
This April 2020 MN ABE Connect newsletter article included “trending” ideas, platforms, and resources for distance reading instruction (meaning, recommended more than once). All were collected from MN ABE teachers attending several ELA/STAR/EBRI Virtual Coffee Break webinars or participating in the STAR 19/20 training cohort.
Ideas for Providing Distance STAR Instruction
This March 2020 document provided early ideas from STAR trainers across the country for implementing distance STAR instruction. Not all may be appropriate or reasonable for your ABE program; however, they were intended to inspire creative thinking about how to "carry on" with evidence-based reading instruction (EBRI) during the pandemic and school closings.
Promoting Collaborative Accountability to Text Evidence
Participants in this workout will collaborate with peers to practice and reflect on a routine to hold learners accountable for supporting text-dependent questions with evidence from the text.
Emergent Readers
This website contains instructions for scaffolding reading texts and speaking activities for literacy level learners, resource lists, and videos of literacy level classroom instruction.
iPads and Tablets in the LESLLA Classroom
With suggestions of iPad/tablet apps that build reading foundations skills, numeracy, and digital literacy for ESL learners with limited or interrupted formal education, this list can help integrate ABE standards in a targeted, self-paced, and differentiated manner.
Global Oneness Project
According to their website, “We aim to connect, through stories, the local human experience to global meta-level issues, such as climate change, water scarcity, food insecurity, poverty, endangered cultures, migration, and sustainability. Through featuring individuals and communities impacted by these issues, our stories and lessons provide opportunities to examine universal themes that emphasize our common humanity... Our lessons facilitate the development of students' critical thinking, inquiry, empathy, and listening skills."
Morpheme Matrices Crosswords
These crossword puzzles and answer keys accompany Morpheme Matrices, an ATLAS resource focusing on morphological awareness. Six of puzzles target Latin morphemes (prefixes, roots, suffixes) and two target Greek forms and related suffixes.
Making Sense of Decoding and Spelling: An Adult Reading Course of Study
This scripted, ready-to-print, curriculum package is designed to improve accurate and fluent word reading and word spelling. It is useful for Intermediate level students.
CCRS Reading Standards: Foundational Skills K-5
Free, reproducible student activities aligned with Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for Reading Foundational Skills (and other ELA standards). They are organized by grade levels (K-5), provide teacher pages outlining objectives/materials/steps, and include student pages without a childish appearance.
Newsela – Multilevel
This website provides several “levels” of the same newspaper articles on a wide variety of topics, along with accompanying online quizzes, that students can read and take.
Text-Dependent Question Stems & Frames to Reach CCRS Reading Anchors (Levels A-B)
How can we ask text-dependent questions (TDQs) at lower levels, when students' English language and literacy is still emerging? This handout offers a range of question stems and TDQ ideas for teachers at low-levels (CCRS A & B).
CollectEdNY.org – Math
This site hosts resources in all content areas. Some of the materials are taken from K-12, but they are all framed and explored in the context of adult education classrooms. The site is divided into four main parts: Resource Reviews (by and for ABE instructors); Framework Posts (lessons, problems, activities, & readings organized by HSE subjects, domains & subdomains); Math Memos (addressing non-routine math problems); and Career Posts (activities and supplementary materials for the NYSED/CUNY CareerKits).
Reading Skills for Healthcare Workers – ESL
A free online Career Pathway literacy curriculum based on CNA and general healthcare content, including 175 selections for intermediate-level readers between 5.5 and 8.5 grade levels.
Phonics Pull-Out Kit
English language learners at many levels need additional assistance with building their phonetic awareness and strengthening their phonetic decoding abilities. The Phonics and Phonemic Awareness Kit provides a variety of activities that can be used with low-beginning to high-intermediate levels of English language learners.
News in Levels: World News for Students of English
This website has articles collected from around the world available in three different levels. Each level has highlighted vocabulary words and a listening track so that readers can hear a native English speaker reading the article.
Making It Real: Teaching Pre-Literate Adult Refugee Students
This book is a great place reference for both new and experienced teachers. It covers a variety of effective practices for teaching low-literate adult refugees, and describes techniques and activities that support these practices.
Minnesota Literacy Council Pre-Beginning ESL Story Bank and Curriculum
This curriculum builds literacy skills and incorporates level-appropriate Transitions skills identified by the ATLAS program's Academic, Career & Employability Skills (ACES) initiative, as outlined in the Transitions Integration Framework (TIF), into every life skill unit.
New Resources
Taking Care of Yourself: A Checklist
This checklist outlines the three basic aspects of self-care – awareness, balance, and connection – and offers a list of ideas for self-care strategies to use after a difficult event. As the resource indicates, "There are several ways you can find balance, be aware of your needs, and make connections. Use this list to help you decide which self-care strategies will work for you."
SAMHSA’s Concept of Trauma and Guidance for a Trauma-Informed Approach
The authors explain, "The purpose of this paper is to develop a working concept of trauma and a trauma-informed approach and to develop a shared understanding of these concepts that would be acceptable and appropriate across an array of service systems and stakeholder groups.... The desired goal is to build a framework that helps systems 'talk' to each other, to understand better the connections between trauma and behavioral health issues, and to guide systems to become trauma-informed."
Call to Mind: Spotlight on Childhood Trauma
According to the website, Call to Mind is an initiative by MPR to inform and generate conversations about mental health. This podcast explores the impact of childhood trauma on mental health and suggests ways to build resilience in children. The impact of childhood trauma on adults is applicable to ABE practitioners.
Presenter Information
Get information about stipends, reimbursements, and other instructions for presenters.
MN ABE YouTube Channel
The MN ABE YouTube Channel is a free online PD resource that you can use to explore teaching techniques and classroom ideas in action! Find out more in this MN ABE Connect newsletter article.
Upcoming ABE Events
October 26, 2020
1:30 pm–3:00 pm
Online
ABE Foundations at a Distance: Special Pandemic Edition! – Webinar 3
Online
Registration Deadline: MON. 10/26/20 This fall, due to the inability to hold the in-person ABE Foundations Workshop, the online course is a great option for those new to ABE! However, it’s a lot of information, and we recognize that having the in-person… Learn More
Online
October 27, 2020
2:30 pm–4:00 pm
Online
CCRS at a Distance: Seriously?!
Online
Registration Deadline: TUE. 10/27/20 Implementing CCRS is challenging enough in the best of circumstances, and 2020 has been anything but typical. How can we do standards-based education (math and ELA) when we can’t even see our students in person?! Join CCRS leaders Kristine Kelly and Lindsey Pust… Learn More
Online
October 28, 2020
6:30 pm–8:00 pm
Online
Please Say That Again: Virtual Pronunciation Instruction for Adult ESL Learners
Online
Registration Deadline: WED. 10/28/20 It can be challenging to make yourself understood over the phone, even for native English speakers! In this webinar, learn about three different pronunciation features that can be taught and practiced during virtual video instruction. Participants will learn how the three features impact speakers’… Learn More
Online