Literacy for Adults
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greelights
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Literacy for Adults
I'm considering a job in adult education, but most of what I've been seeing in the market is literacy-based -- which sounds like it would be a lot of fun and challenging as well (I've worked with eldercare communities in the past before too so I'd be a good candidate for this kind of work.) Can anyone comment on the kind of training one would need to excel in this field? Are there adult education-specific credentials, as with special ed?
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Sally Olsen
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Are you from California? There should be some good courses at a university near you. I recommend Carleton University if you want to travel to Ottawa, Canada. They have excellent courses in Adult Literacy. It is part of a Masters program in SLALS - never remember what those letters stand for but it is Linguistics and you will fnd that any course for ESL or EFL serves your purposes as well because most Adult Literacy courses combine the two for adults who have never learned to read in their own language so you are teaching them to read in English which is doubly hard as they don't speak the language. We have discussed this topic quite extensively so if you go to the Search button above and type in Adult Literacy you can get in some old but good discussions.
Certainly a rewarding field in many ways but not usually financially unless things have changed in the last five years. A terrible waste of human talent in my opinion both of teachers and students.
Good luck.
Certainly a rewarding field in many ways but not usually financially unless things have changed in the last five years. A terrible waste of human talent in my opinion both of teachers and students.
Good luck.
Check out the CAL PRO, OTAN websites
You probably would find both the California Adult Literacy website and OTAN useful.
The websites provide a clear roadmap for the State Department of Education’s official goals for adult ESL students. The essential goal is help students become better workers, smarter consumers, more involved parents, and eventual citizens. Visit http://www.calpro-online.org
You know the old teaching cliché: what gets tested, gets taught. The state tests passive skills. A cynic might think that the goal was to teach passive skills (reading, listening) and ignore active skills (writing, speaking). If students can work at McDonalds, why do they need to learn more English? If students are not going to get a high school diploma or attend a community college, why should they learn to read more than a few paragraphs? It's a very narrow perspective - and the official party line.
We should aim a better higher. Let’s at least help adult students go from cleaning ladies, valets, and busboys to nannies, waiters, and managers.
Still, the CALPRO and OTAN websites offer a rich variety of educational resources for adult school ESL teachers and administrators. You want to know the pleasures and possibilities of the position before diving in.
The websites provide a clear roadmap for the State Department of Education’s official goals for adult ESL students. The essential goal is help students become better workers, smarter consumers, more involved parents, and eventual citizens. Visit http://www.calpro-online.org
You know the old teaching cliché: what gets tested, gets taught. The state tests passive skills. A cynic might think that the goal was to teach passive skills (reading, listening) and ignore active skills (writing, speaking). If students can work at McDonalds, why do they need to learn more English? If students are not going to get a high school diploma or attend a community college, why should they learn to read more than a few paragraphs? It's a very narrow perspective - and the official party line.
We should aim a better higher. Let’s at least help adult students go from cleaning ladies, valets, and busboys to nannies, waiters, and managers.
Still, the CALPRO and OTAN websites offer a rich variety of educational resources for adult school ESL teachers and administrators. You want to know the pleasures and possibilities of the position before diving in.