'On the Hurricane Deck of a Mule': Teaching Adults To Read Using Language-Experience and Oral History Techniques.

Designed to instruct adult literacy teachers in using Language-Experience and Oral History techniques and distributed statewide to teachers in Nevada, this manual presents reading materials, diagnostic packages, and guidelines for adult literacy program organization. The first of three chapters begins with an introduction to the manual, and defines three types of adult readers--beginning (first to third grade level), transitional (fourth to sixth grade level), and specialized (functioning above sixth grade level but in need of specialized literacy training). In the second chapter, diagnostic teaching principles are outlined, informal measures of literacy proficiency and informal reading inventories are presented, and implications for teaching the beginning reader are discussed. The third chapter of the manual focuses on developing an Oral History program, and includes sample lessons for all three reading levels. A selected bibliography is appended for oral history in the classroom; the Language-Experience approach; literature, folklore, and histories based on oral records; and articles and books on adult reading education. In addition, the following appendixes are provided: (1) a case study of a 35-year-old male in an adult literacy program; (2) a literacy proficiency manual, with a case summary sheet, pupil interview schedule, informal test of early word knowledge, and evaluation guide for writing; (3) student passages of adult informal reading inventory; and (4) dictations, written accounts, and interviews. (MM)