Adult Emergent Literacy (LESLLA) Teaching Toolkit

In this active activity, learners stand in a circle and take turns asking and answering questions as they throw a ball to one another. This activity allows learners to practice speaking and consolidate the grammar/vocabulary newly learned. Photo from Minnesota Literacy Council Materials:  A soft ball or bean bag Procedure: 1. Teacher writes a question on the board (e.g., What are you going to do after school?) and elicits a few possible answers from learners to check their understanding of the question. 2. Learners stand in a circle. 3. Give one learner the ball. S/he should answer the question on the board. 4. Have the learner throw the ball back to the teacher. Teacher repeats what the learner said and gives his/her own response to the question (e.g., He is going home. I am going to buy some food. ). 5. Teacher throws the ball to a different learner. S/he have to repeat the teacher’s response and then add his/her own response. 6. Continue until everyone has re

When preparing for a celebration, learners can contribute according to their talents, interests, or abilities.  Teachers may do this activity near the end of the course. A celebration of their hard work and achievement enhances LESLLA learners' confidence in learning. Procedure: The whole class think about the following questions: * Who are we going to invite? * What are we going to eat? * What are we going to do? * What are we going to bring? You may find page 84 of the blue Collaborations book (Huisenga & Weistein-Shr, 1996) useful. In small groups, learners think about what they are going to do. They may show, teach, cook, or do something. Have learners fill in a chart. Each group reports to the class what they are going to do. (Teaching points: Grammar "going to" & pronunciation gonna ) Learners make a list of all the people in the class (including the teacher). Write down what each person is going to do. (Huisenga & Weistein-Shr, 1996, pp.84-8

At the end of the lesson, the teacher tells the class what their goodbye task is (saying something or answering a question) and prepares learners for the task. When learners leave the classroom, the teacher (and the teaching assistants) can stand by the doors and have learners carry out the task. Examples: Chunks (to develop automaticity) / Social language e.g., See you tomorrow. Have a good weekend!   Teacher asks, "How old are you?" Learners answer, "I am ___ years old." or "I'd rather not tell." Photo by  susannp4 on pixabay My mentor teacher carried out this goodbye routine every lesson. I noticed that this simple activity developed learners' confidence. After they interacted with the teacher or me in English, they looked so happy.

This is a " Bringing the Outside in " activity. Learners are to bring in things to show what they can do. (Huisenga & Weistein-Shr, 1996, p.61) Reference: Huisenga, J., & Weistein-Shr, G. (1996).  Collaborations: English in our lives (Beginning 1 student book) . Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.

Picture stories can be used to introduce new vocabulary and to practice speaking and/or reading skills (Minnesota Literacy Council). Photo from Bow Valley College Procedure: Introduce the story and show the pictures after activating schema. Look at the pictures one by one. Give or have learners supply one short sentence to describe each picture. Have the whole class repeat the sentence. Provide learners with sentences on paper strips. Have them match the sentences with the pictures. Have learners read the sentences aloud. Variation : Divide the class into groups. Ask learners to put the pictures in order. In this way, each group creates a story of their own. Each group then shares their story with the whole class. (Adapted from Croydon, 2005, p.71; Hartel, Lowry, & Hendon, 2006; Minnesota Literacy Council) References/Resources:  Bow Valley College. (n.d.). ESL Literacy Readers: Forty theme-based readers for adult ESL literacy learners. Retrieved from  ht

After teaching vocabulary, the teacher may tell the class that they are going on a scavenger hunt  (e.g., in the park, in the campus library, in the neighborhood). Before going out, the teacher asks learners to create scavenger hunt worksheets for their classmates. To create the worksheet, each learner writes or copies vocabulary words, which are items that their peers have to look for. Then, the class goes out and learners look for items on their handout. When they find the item, they can draw or take pictures. The activity helps learners associate print with real-life objects. It also allows learners to practice reading print in a relaxing setting. Some learners spend most (if not all) of their life in their neighborhood only. Arranging field trips to places outside of their neighborhood can broaden their horizon and understand the city/country more. Sometimes, it even gives them insights into what life they want to live and motivates them to learn English to engage in social activ

"Bringing the outside in" is to offer learners opportunities to "talk about their current and earlier lives, as well as urgent ongoing concerns" in the classrooms (Simpson, 2011, p.14). Photo by Alex Blăjan on Unsplash Examples: * Pictures of Your Country : Have learners bring pictures of their country to class. Put the pictures on the wall and write the name of the country under each picture. (Huisenga & Weistein-Shr, 1996, p.9) * Things That Help You Learn : Have learners bring to class one thing that they use to learn English (e.g., a book, a magazine, a dictionary, flash cards, a game, or a CD) and show their classmates. (Huisenga & Weistein-Shr, 1996, p.29) * Family Photos : Ask learners to bring in photos of their family. In class, learners will ask and answer questions with a partner.       Questions:           * Who's that?           * Where does s/he live?       Answers:           * in + city/state/country           * on +

Have learners listen for two sounds (e.g., /s/ and /k/). Provide each group or learner with a set of pictures. Show learners the pictures and name the pictures (e.g., cat ). Learners then put the pictures under the corresponding sound (e.g., putting the cat picture under /k/). Give a few examples before learners do it on their own. Photo by Philipp Mandler on Unsplash Reference: Liden, A., Poulos, A., & Vinogradov, P. (2008). Handout from TESOL conference presentation:  Phonics and student-generated texts for emergent readers . New York City, NY.

The cup game allows learners to practice listening to beginning, middle, and end sounds without being distracted by the written form of the words. Photo by  Bru-nO on pixabay Procedure: 1. Teach learners “beginning” (or “first”), “middle”, and “end” (or “last”) and demonstrate how a sound (e.g., /s/) is in the beginning (e.g., s ay ), middle (e.g., pen c il ), and end (e.g., fa ce ). 2. Give each learner or group three cups labeled with beginning, middle, and end. Provide each group or learner with a chip or a letter to drop into the cup. 3. Call out a word and have learners drop their chip or letter into the right box. Variations: * Provide learners with more chips or letter tiles for keeping score. Their chip/tile will remain in the cup when their answer is correct and be removed if not. * Practice only the beginning and end sounds with low level beginners. * Include multiple letter sounds when playing with higher level learners. Also, allow these learners to

Photo by Rachel Lynette French on Unsplash There are many benefits of using writings written by learners (Parrish, 2004, pp.142-144; Peyton, 1993, pp.60-62): Learners can relate to the texts easily and are engaged in reading and writing in a meaningful way. This motivates to express their thoughts and feelings. Using learner-produced texts allows learners to see that their thoughts and experiences are worthy sharing with others. This empowers them to take on an active role in their community. Writing drafts and reading texts written by their peers allow learners to actively think about what good writing is. When revising their drafts, learner writers think about language use, grammar, punctuation, and discourse in a meaningful way. The peers' writings are good models to show emergent readers that they can also become successful writers. Emergent readers need to read extensively in order to acquire the language. Using learner-produced writings provides a substantial q