Tutoring adults in reading- what materials to use?

[Perry]

I'm thinking of doing some volunteer work with young adults at our local Community College. I don't care for the program they use (Laubach). If you have tutored adults, what has worked well for you?

[Dobela]

The Barton Reading and Spelling system is oftenused with adults.

[ElizabethB]

Webster's Speller, Blend Phonics, and We All Can Read are my favorites for adult students.

 

The ABC's and All Their Tricks is a great reference book that can also be used for tutoring as a supplement after they've used another method and just need work with a few sounds and concepts.

 

Back on the Right Track Reading lessons is also good for adults.

 

Here's all the phonics books I like with links: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/phonicsandspelli.html

 

My adult students also like the game I originally designed for my younger students, and the nonsense words it makes are helpful: http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/concentrationgam.html

 

I have some general volunteer tutoring advice in this thread:

 

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=76393

 

My adult students do not mind using material designed for K and 1st grade students as long as they felt they were progressing. While I always start with my phonics lessons, which are designed for older students, I often use things that are clearly elementary level beginning books after I have worked with the student for a while, and they are not in the least bothered by using this type of material as long as they understand the reasons for it. I like to use sports analogies and tell them that even NFL football players run very simple drills.

 

The Laubach materials are very slow (but better than some other literacy materials which are more whole language based.) A regular phonics program is much faster. A program that does not use sentences or stories but just focuses on the basics is even faster. The fastest is something that incorporates syllables, like my lessons or Webster's Speller, the focus on syllables and multi-syllable words helps them improve to much higher reading grade levels than programs that do not teach syllables.

 

I've been a volunteer literacy tutor since 1994. I currently am teaching a class of 11 elementary students with the help of volunteers from my church. We taught a class of 9 students in October and November, twice a week for 2 months. The average improvement was 1.8 reading grade levels. We used Webster's Speller and Blend Phonics and sent home copies of my phonics lessons and my game. Most of the students watched the lessons, and the 3 students who were reading at or above grade level after the class all played the game with their parents and watched the lessons diligently.

Edited March 22, 2009 by ElizabethB