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)

Presents issues and research concerning the assessment and education of incarcerated juvenile offenders. Summarizes the special needs and problems of this population, examines programs and offender characteristics, and suggests an evaluation outline. Proposes an evaluation model for use in juvenile educational programming and offers suggestions…

Describes the Greensboro (North Carolina) Public Library's "Community of Readers," a network of community representatives who provide strategic planning for literacy services and act as advocates for literacy students. Also highlights the "Literacy in Libraries Across America" project as well as 13 public libraries in four…

An analysis is provided of the belief that theories developed about literacy within different academic disciplines and development campaigns have been built around contradictory assumptions. The conclusion is made that research is needed in order to make literacy instruction more functional in adult literacy programs. (109 references) (GLR)

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)

Describes a functional literacy program successfully carried out in a very remote district in the mountains of Nepal. Describes the program's successes in increasing literacy, self-confidence, community awareness, and social awareness among Nepali women. Discusses keys to this success. (SR)

Projections to 2006 suggest that 18% of new college graduates will not be able to find college-level jobs, depending on major, aptitude, and location. Investment in college education, especially in functional literacy and high-demand job skills, improves prospects. (SK)

Analyzes, within the historical context of functional literacy, a Connecticut Department of Education policy paper linking adult basic education and work force development. Calls for broader basic education that links instrumental knowledge with autobiographical insight and meaningful sociocultural knowledge using collaborative methodology. (SK)

In this study the authors investigate the experience of Sandy, a nontraditional university undergraduate whose student teaching took place in a small, impoverished rural community in the southwestern U.S. They focus on her student teaching experience with third graders in a community whose youngsters, living in rural poverty, were at-risk in their…

Describes functional literacy for those interested in office-based occupations. Components of office literacy include computer and cultural literacy, as well as reading skills. Offers six propositions that have implications for office literacy curriculum development. (CH)

Describes the "Walking Teachers" program in Thailand, developed to bring functional literacy to all adults in the community where they live. The walking teachers have three functions: (1) teaching adult functional literacy, (2) overseeing nonformal educational activities, and (3) coordinating rural development activities in general. (CH)

The study evaluated the readability of warning labels on potentially hazardous substances sold in a grocery store. Findings indicated the reading level of half the key words ranged from 4th grade to 10th grade and that many words seldom taught to the moderately or severely retarded appeared frequently and others commonly taught appeared rarely.…

Describes the efforts of an inner-city elementary school teacher to create a functionally literate environment in the classroom by linking written language to classroom routines, giving children many opportunities to write and receive written communication, and encouraging group learning. Explains the teacher's role in creating a print-rich…

This study developed an inventory that could be used to assess adult beginning readers' attitudes toward reading in the three attitudinal dimensions of beliefs, feelings, and behaviors and in five reading situations identified by a sample of adult beginning readers. Suggested uses for the inventory were generated. (Author/CH)