Early Literacy Resources

These resources are good for working with adult beginning English learners who are either entirely unfamiliar with the Roman alphabet or never had the opportunity to develop literacy in their first language.

Contents

• Good foundational resources

• Sources for learning materials

• Teaching technique videos

• For a deeper dive

Good foundational resources

• Bishop, M. The ABC’s and All Their Tricks. 1986. Mott Media.  Available on Amazon for $13.49 (new).
  I use this book so often that is usually lives on my desk, not on the bookshelf.  It's a quick reference for spelling patterns and pronunciation, indexed by letter.  

• Bow Valley College.  A Practical Guide to Teaching ESL Literacy. 2018. 
  Available for free download here. 

• Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks.  Literacy Diagnostic Tasks. 2018. 
  Available for free download  here.
  This is a compendium of 20 tasks that can be used to assess initial reading and writing skills and abilities, including the templates and pictures that are needed for the tasks.  These were developed for an in-person assessment.  These could be adapted for an online assessment through a combination of sending printed material (for tracing shapes, letters and numbers) for the learner to do and then hold up to the camera, and Wordwall or Boom Card adaptations of the other tasks.

• Eide, D. Uncovering the Logic of English.  2012. Logic of English, Inc. 
  This book provides a good road map for the sequence of introducing the spelling patterns (which I prefer over 'spelling rules') for common sounds, and the multiple sounds that letters and letter combinations can make.  For example, if you were never explicitly taught that C followed by an E, I, or Y will always make the /s/ sound, this book is for you.   And when you introduce the digraph CH, you won't just teach the sound in 'chair', but also the sound in 'school' (and eventually the sound in 'machine').  With  beginning English students you won't be teaching the rules as stated in the book, but you can use the information to guide how you present letter sounds and spelling patters.

• Frey, P. LitStart: Strategies for Adult Literacy and ESL Tutors.  1999.   New Readers Press. 
  This is a compendium of very practical advice and tools for one-to-one tutoring of adults literacy learners, compiled by Michigan Literacy.   New tutors can use it as a comprehensive toolkit; experienced tutors can use it to find suggestions for specific issues.  Because it was designed for use with both native English speakers who never developed literacy and for English learners, many of the proposed instructions and activities assume a higher level of oral vocabulary than our English learners typically have, so you will need to adapt things quite a bit to minimize learner confusion.  And because it was designed for 1:1 in-person tutoring, some activities need to be adapted for small-group work and online work.

• LESLLA  - Literacy Education and Second Language Learning for Adults
  LESLLA was founded in 2005 to address the lack of research and knowledge about adult acquisition of initial literacy in a language that is not their first language.  This is a now a global community of practice, including both researchers and teachers, working to promote high-quality, inclusive opportunities for LESLLA learners worldwide with a focus on research-based teaching, professional development, advocacy, and policy. 

 Sources for learning materials (no charge for noncommercial use)

• Adult ELL Pathway to Literacy. 
  This is a grant-funded collaborative project to develop learning and teaching materials specifically for initial literacy English language learners in community literacy settings.  The materials focus on practical, usable vocabulary, with pictures and simple reading material.

• Bow Valley College ESL readers. 
  Bow Valley College developed a series of leveled readers specifically for early literacy English learners, using topics relevant to adult life (buying food, getting a job, going to the doctor, etc.).  

• Entry into English. 
  This Open Educational Resource was developed by Penny Jahraus and Sara Packer from Portland Community College.  Although much of the material is too advanced for initial literacy learners, there is a good phonics workbook by Jen Sacklin at Lane Community College here.  You can save a copy to your own Google Drive and then edit the workbook to fit your needs.

• ESOL News Oregon.
  This wonderful website is managed by Timothy Krause, with audio by Eric Dodson and Davida Jordan, all from Portland Community College.  News stories with an Oregon focus are added weekly, organized in three levels, with vocabulary and comprehension activities for each level.

• Home and School
  This Open Educational Resource was developed by Timothy Krause from Portland Community College.  It includes 10 easy picture stories with interactive activities.

• Linda Bonder's ESL website. 
  Linda's website includes many activities and links to resources for beginning-level learners, as well as lesson plans and teaching tips.

• Reading Skills for Today's Adults. 
  The Level 1 readings are at a slightly higher level than the lowest level readers from Bow Valley College, and don't have pictures.  The web page for each reading includes pre- and post-reading questions, three audio recordings of the reading (slow to faster), and a Wakelet link to additional activities.

• UFLI: University of Florida Literacy Institute Foundations Toolbox
  Although this website is designed for teaching elementary students, each of the slide decks in the Alphabet Unit Resources includes "watch me write" GIFs for showing how to write uppercase and lowercase letters.  I'm in the process of turning the GIFs into short videos; the playlist is here.

• USA Learns:  Free registration is required, but the user interface is not very user-friendly for English+Literacy learners.  It's probably a better resource for the teacher/tutor to find activities and then share the screen (online classes) or show to the learner (in-person tutoring).

• www.kidzone.ws/tracers/none to make custom letter/word tracing worksheets.  Instructions for using the website are here (from Literacy Minnesota).

• Amy's list of "practice oral vocabulary" words to build pre-reading skills

• Amy's tools for teaching vowel sounds and spelling patterns 

• Amy's YouTube channel (not monetized): https://www.youtube.com/@ag7802 

• Early literacy readers links, each with a printable book, Google slides, and a video (based on Bow Valley College early readers, Literacy Minnesota readers, and original work)
  
  

Teaching technique videos and self-paced courses

Classroom videos from Literacy Minnesota of in-person classes with early-literacy learners. https://www.literacymn.org/classroom-videos.  Includes:

• Orton-Gillingham Phonics Approach. 2020. https://youtu.be/dLpljcgV1hA 

• Phonics and Rhyme Activities. 2019.  https://youtu.be/JnI_cfJOcRg 

• Building Speaking Skills. 2019. https://youtu.be/dy71dGh4Jis 

• Routines for Starting the Class. 2019. https://youtu.be/bbBKw6rpuUs?

• Word Stress Routine. 2019. https://youtu.be/q5PtGQCJAWs 

• Total Physical Response Activities. 2019. https://youtu.be/3LdIYEIRuoc 

My self-paced mini-courses:

• Connecting with Entry-Level Learners (reducing learner confusion through clearer communication)

• Correcting Learner Errors

Good training resources (get on these email lists)

• Literacy Minnesota offers free online workshops on a variety of topics, as well as recorded videos (see list above)

• Proliteracy.org Teacher Training Plus - Low-Level ELL (free live and recorded webinars), including:  Starting to Read: Building Phonemic Awareness and Foundation Literacy Skills with Preliterate ELL Students

For a deeper dive 

• Cárdenas-Hagan, E.  Literacy Foundations for English Learners.  2020.  Paul H. Brookes Publishing. This is a good book for understanding the underpinnings of literacy acquisition in a second language, with research-based recommendations and model activities.  The only downside is that it was written primarily for teachers of elementary school children, many of whom may be literate in their first language, so it doesn't focus on initial literacy acquisition by adults. 

• Centre for Canadian Language Benchmarks.  ESL for Adult Literacy Learners. 2016. 
  This publicly-funded program has developed a wealth of free information for programs that are working with adult English+Literacy learners, which you can download in pdf form here.  This page includes three short coaching videos for in-person teachers/tutors:
  Teaching ESL Literacy in a Multi-level Classroom
  An Interactive Model for Teaching with ALL (Adult Literacy Learners)  [Note: this teachers needs to simplify her instructions!]
  Digital Literacy for ESL Literacy Learners (audio only)

• Daloiso, M.  Supporting Learners with Dyslexia in the ELT Classroom.  2017.  Oxford University Press.  This is a great resource for gaining a better understanding of dyslexia.  The tips and techniques suggested in the book offer best practices for improving teaching for all adult beginning English learners, not just students with dyslexia.

• Kilpatrick, D.  Equipped for Reading Success. 2016. Casey & Kirsch Publishers.  
  As the book cover describes, this is "a comprehensive, step-by-step program for developing phonemic awareness and fluent word recognition."   It summarizes and applies current research into the sciene of reading and includes specific teaching practices and suggested word lists.  The appendices are especially valuable, including: phonological awareness development charts and screening tests; letter-sound helps (for teachers); common rime units, prefixes, and suffixes; look-alike words to promote word study; and a glossary of terms.  The only reason I don't list this in the foundational resources section (above) is that it is designed for working with native English-speaking children in a full-time classroom setting.  I use this book to understand the science behind learning to read, but have to significantly adapt the activities for working with English-learning adults in a community literacy setting.

• Stubbe Kester, E.  Difference or Disorder?  2014.  Bilinguistics, Inc. 
  This book is designed for speech and language pathologists working with children, but includes good, succinct information 14 languages or dialects.  For each language there is a chart showing common pronunciation difficulties, a Venn diagram comparing the phonemes in English and the other language, and a very brief comparison of  the morphosyntax of English and the other language (word structure, word sequence, and sentence construction.  Chapters include: Arabic, Czech, Farsi, French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Russian, Spanish, Vietnamese, and African-American English.  If you're not familiar with the International Phonetic Alphabet, keep this link handy as you read the book.  This book is not as in-depth as Learner English (see below).

• Swan, M. and Smith, B.  Learner English.  2001.  Cambridge University Press. 
  This book was written for ESOL teachers, to help them better understand their students' first languages and how those first languages may lead to errors by the English language learners.  Each chapter includes information about the language's phonemes, stress, intonation, punctuation, grammar, and vocabulary.  Chapters include: Arabic, Chinese languages, Dravidian languages, Dutch, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay/Indonesian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Scandinavian languages, South Asian languages, Spanish and Catalan, Swahili, Thai, Turkish, and West African languages.