Native English Speakers

Reading Horizons is a science-based software and direct instruction program that offers a multisensory approach to direct, explicit, systematic, and cumulative phonics instruction featuring five phonetic skills to aid readers in learning to decode and encode. Reading Horizons is great for beginner-level learners who are learning the alphabet, intermediate learners who want to improve their reading comprehension, and learners with learning disabilities like dyslexia. Reading Horizons is organized into six chapters, or levels, that cover a range of skills. Learners will go through each chapter to complete lessons, read short stories, and take quizzes and assessments along the way. The six chapters are:

• Chapter 1: Alphabet
• Chapter 2: Blends and Special Vowel Combinations
• Chapter 3: Phonetic Skills, Inflectional Suffixes, and Another Sound for C and G
• Chapter 4: Decoding Skills
• Chapter 5: Murmur Diphthongs, Digraphs, and Special Vowel Sounds
• Chapter 6: Extra Skills

English Learners

The Confidence and Connections curriculum helps adult learners make connections while practicing and improving English. The series prioritizes English for day-to-day living so that learners gain confidence for important conversations with other members of the community such as employers, doctors, or their children's teachers. Confidence and Connections is a six-level series from Intro to Level 5. This series emphasizes meaningful dialog including pronunciation, cross-cultural learning, and English conversation. Each lesson includes:

• A listening track with a real-life conversation
• Vocabulary words and images related to the topic of the lesson
• A pronunciation activity
• Teacher Tips and ideas for how to teach the different sections of the lessons
• A Language Tools and Grammar Practice section, plus a growing library of supplemental worksheets
• A Real Life / Your Life section where students apply vocabulary and grammar they have learned
• A Connect with Conversation activity that helps students and teachers share about their lives

Spanish Literacy Learners

Leamos is an easy-to-use online course that teaches non-literate Spanish-speaking adults to read and write in Spanish. Learning to connect print skills with oral language skills in Spanish before trying to learn English makes learning a lot easier. Leamos is offered at these Literacy Centers:

• Benjamin Franklin Branch Library
• Cahuenga Branch Library
• Central Library
• Echo Park Branch Library
• Junipero Serra Branch Library
• Lincoln Heights Branch Library
• Pacoima Branch Library
• Panorama City Branch Library
• Pico Union Branch Library
• Pio Pico – Koreatown Branch Library
• Wilmington Branch Library

Supplemental Curriculum

The Los Angeles Public Library offers a range of supplemental curricula to help learners meet their goals. Speak to your Literacy Coordinator to request any of these titles.

• Focus of Phonics: Focus on Phonics is a word-pattern approach that helps students sound out and spell new words.
• Street Speak: This series focuses on American idioms and slang with included audio programs and 1-minute videos.
• Oxford Picture Dictionary: A fully integrated vocabulary development program, progressing from essential words to the more complex, delivered in short thematic units with realistic scenarios available in multiple languages.
• Patterns in Spelling: This systematic method of learning to spell stresses patterns regularly found in English words.
• Grammar Wise: A two-level series that helps English learners master basic grammar instruction. Each unit focuses on one grammar point and offers a wide variety of practice exercises presented in a real-life context.
• Math Sense: A three-book series provides instruction and practice for the range of math skills that adults need to succeed in life, at work, and on high school equivalency tests.
• Workwise: This is a six-book series, designed to help adult students succeed before, during, and after the job search.
• American Manners and Customs: A three-book series that helps American newcomers avoid embarrassment, enhance social interaction, explain culture, and build ESL vocabulary and conversation practice.
• Book Series: All Literacy Center collections and Overdrive (accessible via the Libby app) have book series that can help learners read their first book.
• Newspapers and Magazines: All Literacy Centers have subscriptions to popular newspapers and magazines that have been selected for adult learners. These include News for You, The Change Agent, Easy English News, Scholastic, and National Geographic Magazine.