Describes how the work of modern poets can expand adult learners' views of the uses of reading and writing and their own ability and specifically shows how the works of Carl Sandburg, Lucille Clifton, William Carlos Williams, and Langston Hughes can be used to teach adults to read. (SRT)

Presents a taxonomy of graphs, including lineal, quantitative, spatial, pictorial, hypothetical, and omitted graphs. Provides illustrations of each kind of graph and suggests that reading teachers take the responsibility for teaching graph reading and drawing skills. (MKM)

Reviewed are five programs (textbooks, audiovisual materials, workbooks, video-cassettes) designed to improve academic survival skills in secondary students. Content emphasis, reading level, rationale, objectives, organization, instructional method, student evaluation, physical features, and recommendations are listed for each. (KC)

Describes practical materials that relate to places within the English-as-a-Second-Language learner's own community, such as the supermarket, local fast food restaurants, pharmacy, and library. Each literacy booklet contains approximately 35 pages of activities that can be used as classroom handouts. (LB)

Recommends adapting the language of class materials and texts used in apprenticeship training programs to make them appropriate to the functional language demands made on tradespeople in real-life working situations. (AEA)

The purpose of this instrument is to supplement data from the Adult Basic Learning Examination in assessing the functional level of adults in daily situations. It may also be used as a teaching tool for adults requesting tutoring in specific concepts and skills presented in the instrument. This instrument is an informal assessment instrument and…

Such everyday paper materials as cash register receipts, labels, travel pamphlets, and train schedules provide a wealth of excellent materials for teaching life skills and functional reading to multihandicapped hearing-impaired students. Possible activities include comparing grocery receipts and conjecturing about the shoppers and reading medicine…

This set of learning modules was developed during a project to deliver workplace literacy instruction to individuals employed in the more than 50 businesses related to the activities of the Port of Baltimore. It is intended to help employees of port businesses improve their spelling and vocabulary. The first module is a preassessment designed to…

Analysis of reading applications in everyday life and on the job should be done at the task level because a task is the lowest level of behavior that describes the performance of a meaningful function. The main objectives of such an analysis are to identify the technical aspects of the actions a learner performs in a functional setting and to…

This document is intended to help groups raise their level of awareness about what it feels like to have difficulty with reading or math, look at how varying levels of literacy and numeracy can affect the quality of their group's activities, and look at ways in which they can overcome literacy- and numeracy-related problems. The beginning of the…

Like Humpty Dumpty after the fall from the wall, language does not work effectively when it is not whole. For many students, the reading problems they begin to experience in the third or fourth grade are caused by the basic skills manner in which beginning reading is taught. Recognizing the limitations of basic skills instruction and the genre of…

This article suggests the following ways of making material easier for adults to read: using layout and print size to make meaning clear; making audio recordings and simplified versions of printed matter; and increasing the relevance of the content to the reader. Intended for teachers of adults in reading programs, the study also contains a…

Details a study indicating that the minimal level of literacy necessary for adults in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is very high. Provides a master list of vocabulary words, symbols, numbers, abbreviations, computational skills, and writing skills needed for functional literacy. (MKM)

Offers suggestions for teachers to integrate the functional uses of numbers and mathematics into the English-as-a-Second-Language classroom curriculum, as well as several sources of information for additional exercises and ideas for activities. (15 references) (Author/LB)

The article provides a task analysis and procedures for teaching reading skills to nine trainable mentally handicapped students with the use of the TV Guide. (PHR)