Adult Education 

Adult education is a public education program for all adults. Adult schools offer free to low-cost classes for adults 18 and older. Students can get a high school diploma, general education diploma (GED), learn about jobs, learn to speak English, and learn how to become a U.S. citizen. Adult schools are located in many cities and towns.

Adult Basic Education Programs

Adult Basic Education programs help students increase their skills in reading, writing, grammar and math. These programs prepare students to complete high school subjects and GED programs. ABE helps students increase their reading/writing and math skills to improve their workplace abilities.

Adult English Language Instruction Programs

 Adult English Language Instruction Programs are designed to help immigrants and others who have not yet developed proficiency in English to acquire the basic knowledge and skills they need to function effectively as parents, workers, and citizens.

Fisher Hill has a language series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn English. This series is very popular with Adult Education classes. English for the Spanish Speaker is a four workbook series. Each book in the series has eight lessons. In Books 1 and 2, the lessons are about every day activities. In Books 3 and 4, four lessons are about every day activities and the other four are about United States history or government. The print in the workbooks is large. The reading level in Book 1 is at the first and second grade level. The books get progressively more difficult. The reading level for Book 4 is at the fourth grade reading level. Each lesson begins with a vocabulary list, then a conversation, story, activity pages, and finally an answer key. The lessons are bilingual with the word lists, conversations, and stories presented in Spanish and English. The directions for the activity pages are in Spanish but the activities are in English. There are two dictionaries at the back of each workbook: a Spanish dictionary and an English dictionary. There is a CD available for each workbook so students can listen to the vocabulary lists, conversations and stories in English. This series has been very popular with adult education classes.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to read more about our workbooks that help Spanish-speaking teens and adults learn English.

Dyslexia

October is National Dyslexia Awareness Month. The International Dyslexia Association defines dyslexia as “characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor spelling and decoding abilities.” The word dyslexia has two Greek morphemes: “dys” meaning “difficulty with” and “lex” meaning “words or language”. The Greek prefix “dys” or “dis” is commonly used to denote an intrinsic quality or condition in an individual, rather than a condition attributed to environmental circumstances.

Both of my boys have dyslexia.  I read stories to them; they went to Mommy and Me classes and weekly story time at the library but yet they had difficulty learning to read.

Dyslexia does not stem from a physical problem with eyes or ears but from a basic neurological functioning of the brain.

People with dyslexia usually have a deficit in the phonological component of language that is often unexpected in relation to other cognitive abilities. This lack of phonological skills can effect reading comprehension and impede the growth of vocabulary.

Using a multi-sensory, structured, explicit approach to teaching speech sounds will will help dyslexic students learn to read. Teaching students the principles of English orthography will be beneficial. Students can use these word recognition skills to learn vocabulary and increase reading fluency and comprehension.

With much practice and patience, both of my boys are doing fine. One is a software developer and the other is getting his Ph.D in Chemistry. They were given a multi-sensory, structured and explicit approach to learning the speech sounds and then using those sounds to read and spell. Thanks to IDA, my two boys are doing work they very much enjoy.

Fisher Hill has an English literacy program for Spanish-speaking teens and adults that uses a structured and expicit approach to teaching the speech sounds necessary to read and spell. This English literacy program includes four different workbook series. These series can be used in conjunction with each other.

How does this literacy program work? English Reading and Spelling Book 1 introduces students to reading in English. The English Reading and Spelling series uses a very systematic and expilicit approach to teaching the forty-four speech sounds used in the English language. Learning these sounds will help students read and spell. When English Reading and Spelling Book 1 is completed, students are ready to practice their beginning reading skills with English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 and their beginning writing skills with English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. Vocabulary presented in the first books of each series is reviewed in English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The four series each with six workbooks, were written to be used together to give students a good foundation in English literacy.

Adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Sapnish, there are lots of pictures but the content is for older students. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go! There is an answer key at the end of each lesson and an English translation of the Spanish directions at the end of each book.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our English literacy program for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.

Día de los Muertos

Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is a holiday honoring deceased family members and friends. It is celebrated on November 1 and 2 in Mexico and other Latin American countries. On November 1, children who have died are honored. Their graves are decorated with white orchids and baby’s breath. On November 2, adults who have passed away are honored. Their graves are decorated with bright orange marigolds.   At home, small, personal altars are set up with flowers, candles, food, drinks, photos and personal mementos of the people being remembered.

Día de los Muertos celebrates the lives of the deceased with food, drink, parties, and activities the dead enjoyed in life. The holiday acknowledges death as a natural part of the human experience, a continuum with birth, childhood, and growing up to become a contributing member of the community. On Día de los Muertos, the dead are also a part of the community, awakened from their eternal sleep to share celebrations with loved ones.

Skeletons and skulls are the most familiar symbol of Día de los Muertos. They appear in candied sweets, as parade masks and as dolls. The skeletons and skulls are portrayed as enjoying life, often in fancy clothes and entertaining situations.

The holiday originated in Mexico but is celebrated everywhere where there is a Latino population. Los Angeles, CA has celebrations throughout the city.

For Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn English, visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com. A popular series is English for the Spanish Speaker. This is a four book series. It is for Spanish speakers who know how to read and write Spanish. Each book in the series has eight lessons. In Books 1 and 2, the lessons are about every day activities. In Books 3 and 4, four lessons are about every day activities and the other four are about United States history or government. The print in the workbooks is large. The reading level in Book 1 is at the first and second grade level. The books get progressively more difficult. The reading level for Book 4 is at the fourth grade reading level. Each lesson begins with a vocabulary list, then a conversation, story, activity pages, and finally an answer key. The lessons are bilingual with the word lists, conversations, and stories presented in Spanish and English. The directions for the activity pages are in Spanish but the activities are in English. There are two dictionaries at the back of each workbook: a Spanish dictionary and an English dictionary. There is a CD available for each workbook so the student can listen to the vocabulary lists, conversations and stories in English. This series has been very popular with adult education classes.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about this series English for the Spanish Speaker and other workbooks for Spanish-speaking teens and adults who want to learn English.

English Spelling Rules and Generalizations

Part 2

Knowing English spelling rules and generalizations makes learning English more logical and easier to master.

The Letter e

The letter e is the most used letter in English. The silent e at the end of a word usually makes the preceding vowel say its name (long vowel sound). For example: game, these, fine, hope, cute.

The letter e after c or g makes the letter c sound like an s and g sound like a j. For example: nice, gem.

The letter e is found at the end of a word after a single s, v, or z. For example: mouse, cheese, gave, love, maze.

Middle Spellings

The first choice for the long e sound in the middle of a word is ee. For example: meet, feed.

Use the spelling ai to spell the long /a/ sound in the middle of words, usually before an n or an l. For example: rain, trail, mail, main.

The spelling oa is usually found in the middle of one-syllable words. For example: soap, load, toast.

The spelling oi is usually found in the middle of a word.

The sound /oo/ as in moon has several spellings (ue, ou, ew). The first choice for this sound in the middle of a word is oo. For example: soon, smooth tooth.

Ending Spellings

The spellings ay and oy are found at the end of words but may be followed by suffixes.

The spelling aw is usually found at the end of a word or sometimes followed by n or l. For example: saw, claw, lawn, crawl.

The first spelling choice for the sound of /oo/ as in moon at the end of a word is ew. For example: new, blew, flew.

The first choice for the spelling of long /o/ at the end of a word is ow. For example: show, grow, blow.

The above spelling rules and generalizations are introduced and practiced in our series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about this series for Spanish Speaking teens and adults.

English Spelling Rules and Generalizations

Part 1

 Consonants

There are 26 letters in the English alphabet. Twenty-one of those letters are consonants and the other five are vowels. The letters a, e, i, o and u are vowels. The consonants make one sound except for c, g, and s.

The letter c is the first choice for the /k/ sound at the beginning of a word.

The letter c has the soft sound /s/ when followed by e, i or y. For examply city, rice, cyclone.

The letter g has the soft sound /j/ when followed by e, i, or y. For example: gentle, gym, fringe.

The letter s makes the /s/ sound as in snake. It can also sound like the letter z at the end of many words. For example: his, dogs, brothers.

The letter q is always followed by a u and one or more vowels. For example: quit, quack, queen.

The lettes v, x, and w are never doubled.

Short Vowel Rule

The five vowel letters each make more than one sound. They each make is called a short vowel sound. Short vowel a says /a/ as in cat. Short vowel e says /e/ as in pen. Short vowel i says /i/ as in pig. Short vowel o says /o/ as in hot and short vowel u says /u/ as in cup.

Double the final f, s, z, or l in short words after a single vowel. For example: huff, pass, buzz, hill.

Use the spelling ck to spell the /k/ sound after a short vowel. For example: snack, stick, lock.

Use the letter k to spell the /k/ sound after a consonant, a long vowel or a double vowel. For example: sink, chunk, hike, peak, soak.

Use the spelling tch to spell the /ch/ sound after a short vowel. For example: catch, pitch, notch, clutch.

Use the spelling ch to spell the /ch/ sound after a consonant or a double vowel. For example: bunch, porch, peach, coach.

Use the letters dge to spell the /j/ sound after a short vowel. Examples: badge, fudge, bridge, lodge.

Use the letters ge to spell the /j/ sound after a double vowel or a consonant. For example: gorge, gouge, plunge.

The above spelling rules and generalizations are introduced and practiced in our series English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about this series for Spanish Speaking teens and adults.

English Literacy Program for Spanish Speakers

Fisher Hill has an English literacy program for Spanish-speaking teens and adults that includes four different workbook series. These series can be used in conjunction with each other.

How does the program work? English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 introduces students to reading in English. This English Reading and Spelling series uses a very systematic and explicit approach to teaching the forty-four speech sounds used in the English language. Learning these sounds will help students read and spell. When English Reading and Spelling Book 1 is completed, students are ready to practice their beginning reading skills with English Reading Comprehension for the Spanish Speaker Book 1 and their beginning writing skills with English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. Vocabulary presented in the first books of each series is reviewed in English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker Book 1. The four series each with six workbooks, were written to be used together to give students a good foundation in English literacy.

Adults like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, there are lots of pictures but the content is for older students. Teachers like our books beause everything is ready to go! There is an answer key at the end of each lesson and an English translation of the Spanish directions at the end of each book.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our English literacy program for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.

Teaching Letter-Sound Association Strategies

 According to Stanford researchers, beginning readers who focus on letter-sound relationships, in contrast to memorizing whole words, increase activity in the area of their brains most efficiently wired for reading. Those taught to attend to letter-sound patterns, or phonics, were able to read new words never seen before. When the same participants were taught to memorize whole words, they learned to recognize those particular words on a reading test, but they were unable to read new words not previously memorized.

Words learned through letter-sound association instruction elicited neural activity biased toward the left hemisphere of the brain; words learned via whole-word association showed activity biased toward right hemisphere processing. The study’s co-author Bruce McCandliss noted that this strong left hemisphere engagement during early word recognition is a hallmark of skilled readers, and is characteristically lacking in children and adults who are struggling with reading.

Our series, English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker uses a systematic approach in teaching the English speech sounds (letter-sound relationships) and provides practice with phonemic awareness, which is the ability to identify individual sounds and their order within words. Learning the different speech sounds will help students read and write in English fluently. Eighty-five percent (85%) of the words in English are phonetic. The series also presents many of the small, commonly used words, called sight words, that are not phonetic.

The series is bilingual since the word list for each lesson is presented in English and Spanish. There are pictures to go with many of the words in the lists. Each lesson emphasizes one or two new speech sounds. The vowel sounds in English are different that those in Spanish, but many of the English consonant sounds are similar to those in Spanish.

Older students like our workbooks because the pace is reasonable, print is large, directions are in Spanish, there are lots of pictures but the content is for adults. Teachers like our books because everything is ready to go. There is an answer key at the end of each lesson and an English translation of the Spanish directions at the end of each book.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about English Reading and Spelling for the Spanish Speaker and the other series in our English literacy program for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.

Vocabulary Development

Having a well developed vocabulary is the key to reading comprehension. The more words a person knows, the better he/she will understand the text. For English language learners (ELLs), vocabulary development is especially important. The average native English speaker enters kindergarten with a vocabulary of 5,000 words. The average ELL kindergartner may know 5,000 words in his or her native language, but very few words in English. Closing the gap can be a challenge for ELLs.

Most ELL students quickly learn to communicate verbally with peers, but ELL students must also learn academic English. There are many Spanish English cognates that can help students learn academic English. Cognates are words in different languages that derived from the same original word or root. About 40% of all English words have similar cognates in Spanish. Family and familia, coast and costa, lion and léon are cognates.

Research shows that it takes from 10 to 20 repetitions to make a word part of your vocabulary. Using the new words as often as possible in every day conversations or writing will increase a person’s vocabulary

Most vocabulary words are learned from context. The more words you’re exposed to, the better vocabulary you will have. When reading, it is often possible to figure out the meaning of a new word from the context of the sentence or paragraph.

With the use of iPads and eReaders, it is easy to look up unknown words. You only need to tap on the word to pull up its definition.

In our series English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker, students get the necessary practice to increase their English vocabulary. Many Spanish English cognates are presented in the six workbook series.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our English Vocabulary for the Spanish Speaker series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.

Argumentative Writing 

With the adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS), argumentative writing is required at every grade level. Three types of argumentative writing are opinion, persuasive, and argument. It is helpful to compare the three types of writing. Below is a chart developed by Smekens Education Solutions, Inc. which explains the three types of writing. In the primary grades, students write papers to share their opinions. As they progress with their writing, students aim to get readers to agree with their opinion. This is called persuasive writing. In sixth grade, students begin to do argumentative writing where their aim is to get readers to accept their perspective as truth.

Fisher Hill has a series called English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker. It is a series with six workbooks. The first workbook begins by teaching basic sentence structure, progresses to longer, more detailed sentences, and ends with students writing informative paragraphs. After completing the entire series, students are writing informative, operational, persuasive, and contrast/comparison essays. The series uses a structured and systematic approach to teach the different writing skills.

Visit our website at www.Fisher-Hill.com to learn more about our English Writing Composition for the Spanish Speaker series for Spanish-speaking teens and adults.