Three new NCSALL guides are available!

• Practitioner Research Training Guide: Research-Based Adult Reading Instruction
  
  • This practitioner research training guide provides comprehensive instructions for facilitating a 31-hour training that guides practitioners through an investigation of a problem related to reading. The practitioners conduct the research in their own classrooms. This guide provides all the necessary materials and clear instructions to plan and facilitate a four-session practitioner research training.
  • www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=1143
    
    
• Training Guide: Study Circle Facilitators
  
  • This training guide provides comprehensive instructions for preparing experienced adult education practitioners to facilitate NCSALL study circles. The training focuses on the NCSALL study circle "Research-Based Adult Reading Instruction." However, the training can be adapted to prepare facilitators for NCSALL study circles in general or on another topic. The guide provides all the necessary materials and clear instructions to plan and facilitate a one-day study circle facilitator training.
  • www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=1137
  
  
• Study Circle Guide: Adult Student Persistence
  
  • Newly revised to include the second phase of the NCSALL research on adult student persistence, this guide provides comprehensive instructions for facilitating a 10 1/2-hour study circle. It explores what the research says about adult student persistence and ideas for how to apply what is learned in the classrooms and programs. This guide provides all the necessary materials and clear instructions to plan and facilitate a three-session study circle with an option for a fourth.
  • www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=896

GEDTS has published a new brochure on accommodations.
The national office of the General Educational Development Testing Service (GEDTS) has developed a new brochure called Tips for Candidates with Disabilities, which provides information for people who wish to take the GED test. The brochure lists accommodations available for people with disabilities and provides information on how to request them. This fall GEDTS will disseminate the brochure to official GED Testing Centers.

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Workforce Strategies Initiative (WSI) identifies and advances strategies that help low-income Americans gain ground in today's labor market. To that end, WSI engages in applied research, facilitates dialogue, disseminates findings, and shares new ideas. To learn more, go to: www.aspenwsi.org/.

The Working for America Institute, in consultation with unions and labor-management partnerships in advanced manufacturing, has developed a list of the most pressing workforce challenges affecting the sector. To find out more, go to: www.workingforamerica.org/documents/challenges.htm.

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The Cultural Orientation Resource Center at the Center for Applied Linguistics has launched a new website. The website includes a world map linking to descriptions of current overseas cultural orientation programs for U.S.-bound refugees worldwide. It also features an expanded overseas cultural orientation provider toolkit and a search function. To explore this site, go to: www.cal.org/co/.

Understanding Adult ESL Content Standards by Sarah Young and Christine Smith is now available from the Center for Adult English Language Acquisition (CAELA). This brief defines different types of standards and describes the instructional benefits of using adult ESL standards. It also describes uses of content standards in the adult ESL field and discusses research about the implementation of content standards. To view the brief, go to: www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/briefs/contentstandards.html.

The Language Experience Approach is an effective method for teaching English to our non-native speakers. To learn more about this method of teaching, visit one of the following websites:

• The Language Experience Approach Revisited: The Use of Personal Narrative in Adult L2 Literacy Instruction by Adrian J. Wurr
  • www.readingmatrix.com/articles/wurr/
    
    
• Beginning ESOL Learners' Advice to Their Teachers by MaryAnn Cunningham Florez
  • www.ncsall.net/?id=279
    
    
• The Language Experience Approach and Adult Learners by Marcia Taylor
  • www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/digests/LEA.html

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The Department of Education has posted its report on the health literacy findings from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Report. The report is available from the Department of Education NAAL website at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2006483.

Teaching Patients with Low Literacy Skills, 2nd ed., is available now! The book is now considered a classic text in health literacy. The authors, Ceci and Len Doak, are often introduced at health literacy conferences as "the grandparents" of health literacy. Indeed, their contribution to the field and to our understanding of clear communication principles has been profound. The book's popularity has grown amongst health educators, health communication specialists, and health care providers. The text provides insight for all of us concerned with improving health communication. To download the book for free, go to: www.hsph.harvard.edu/healthliteracy/doak.html.

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