Citizenship: Passing the Test

Help your students prepare for the new Citizenship Test. Citizenship: Passing the Test provides all of the skill and concepts your students need to pass the civics and literacy tests and prepare for the interview. The program comes in three parts. Each part of the program includes a workbook and audio CDs.

Civics and Literacy Student Book
(Literacy – Low Beginning)

• Material is presented in a visual format
• Students learn words that must be pronounced correctly in spoken answers
• Words key to recognizing and understanding oral civics questions are presented
• Words found on the official spelling list are identified
• Students can review the official USCIS test questions

The Civics and Literacy Audio CD helps students build listening comprehension skills that are critical to passing the civics and literacy tests.

Ready for the Interview
(High-Beginning – Intermediate)

• Students learn to prepare for various interview situations and answer questions from the N-400 application
• Vocabulary and communication skills are reinforced to build student confidence
• Students practice asking to have a question repeated

The Ready for the Interview Audio CD includes exercises to check understanding, sample interview segments, and questions that can be used to practice answering with personal information.

Literacy Skills Workbook
(Literacy – Low Beginning)

• Students learn sounds and names of letters, simple spelling patterns, and sight word recognition
• Writing is taught through modified dictation activities
• Each student page contains a note to the teacher to guide student learning

The Literacy Skills Audio CD provides oral instructions and models for pronunciations of featured words and dictations.

Talk-a-Tivities

Talk-a-Tivities: Problem Solving and Puzzles for Pairs by Richard Yorkey

Talk-a-Tivities is a collection of activities that gets students to practice their communication and listening skills, sharpen their reasoning abilities, build their vocabularies, and deal with practical survival skills. Most of the activities in this workbook are designed for pairs of students, with some group activities included, also.

The puzzle and problem situations include strip stories, picture differences, cooperative crosswords, appointment book contexts, survival skill practice in supermarkets and libraries, and map activities. Emphasized vocabulary covers direction words, letter names, numbers, occupations, times and dates, clothing, foods, and household objects.

All activities develop listening and speaking skills through the transmission of information from person to person. Specific language functions include: asking for clarification, describing details and locations, discussing alternatives, giving directions, making appointments, interpreting diagrams, and understanding grids.

Transparent English Library Edition

Software: Transparent English: Library Edition (This is a title for Spanish speakers.)

Have a student with access to a personal computer?

Transparent English uses a USB device to deliver an integrative approach to learning English for beginning to intermediate students. The program focuses on vocabulary and then on using the words and phrases learned. The software includes over 15,000 words, native speaker pronunciations, videos, games, progress tracking, and more.

To run the program, all you have to do is insert the USB "key" and install the program onto your computer. The USB key must remain in the computer for the program to run. The program will track and save your progress as you work your way through the exercises. Best of all, you can check out Transparent English at a later date and it will remember your progress (as long as you keep the program on your computer).

The program is compatible with Windows XP SP2, Vista, or higher and Mac OS X 10.4.11 or higher.

Software titles can be checked out for 28 days at a time and can be renewed twice (as long as there aren't holds on the item). Transparent English (LITERACY 428.3421) can be found on the second floor of the library in the ESL Collection.