Author: Marilyn Gillespie and others

Institutional affiliation/Agency/Program: SRI International

Publication date or date of most recent update: 1990

Number of pages: 138

Website URL: http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICDocs/data/ericdocs2sql/content_storage_01/0000019b/80/22/6d/bc.pdf

Type of product (lesson plans, curriculum, training product): activities guide

Key words: reading, adult education, instruction, new readers, non readers, adults, literacy methods, basic literacy, reading activities, instructional materials, writing, writing activities, new writers.

Target population: Instructors

Skill levels of instructional materials (lessons, curricula): ABE Beginning Literacy (NRS Educational Functioning Level 1), ABE Beginning Basic Education (NRS Educational Functioning Level 2)

Training required: None

Abstract: This handbook grew out of the experiences of the teachers and students in a community based literacy program. It is both a documentation of the experiences of the program and a guide for teachers. The four sections of the handbook contain a number of modules, each of which indicates type of activity, time estimate, purpose, research notes, and steps or activities. Section 1, Creating a Community of Learners, consists of a series of group activities, each requiring from 30 minutes to 2 hours, that can be used with mixed groups of students and volunteer tutors to set the climate for adult literacy classes. Section 2 includes suggestions for one-to-one goal setting conferences and for using individual learning contracts. Three short group activities for introducing the individual activities and evaluating the progress of the group are also in this section. Section 3 contains group activities to help participants and tutors examine their reading history, activities to acquaint students with what good readers do, and other reading related activities teachers can use with individuals or groups of students. Section 4 includes suggestions for writing, publishing, and sharing student work. Each section ends with reference notes.

What the experts say: It needs to be clear that all parts of the handbook are not equally valuable.  Although Modules 1, 2, and 4 are strong, Module 3 needs to be read with caution and in light of current research.

This resource has been around for quite awhile.  Still, while reading it again I found it fresh and relevant.  As I read I recalled that tutors and teachers I knew used it to find good ideas for their work with students.

Fresh, helpful ideas – even though the resource has been around since 1990, the ideas are up to date and the language is today’s language, e.g. community of learners, using personal goals to guide instruction, basing learning on adult life roles, etc.

Well written – Gillespie speaks in language teachers find helpful.

The major problem with this resource is that it is outdated. It is full of information that is outdated and does not include information that is current. Of course, this is not the fault of the authors who published this in 1990. Although there are useful parts to this resource, the “outdatedness” of other parts outweigh the advantages, especially since the strengths can be found in other resources (my guess is that in 1990 this resource was ahead of its time!).

There are two points to be made about the value of this handbook:

1. The author is clear in her expectation that the handbook is only one resource that a program might have for tutor training and literacy instruction.  In the last paragraph of the Introduction, Gillespie writes: “We have found many books that help us learn how to teach skills.  We have found few that have provided guidance in the difficult task of facilitating.  For this reason, the primary focus of this handbook is on setting the stage for participation in reading, writing and planning (emphasis mine) rather than on the specific skills which should be taught.  The handbook does not stand alone.  Rather, its purpose is to enrich the specific skills and objectives of a literacy program.” (p.1)
2.  “Setting the stage” means addressing motivational issues related to literacy learning.  Gillespie writes, “We believe that our students benefit by examining what literacy is, the conditions under which they haven’t learned to read, and the conditions under which they might learn best” (p. 2).  The work of the Reading Research Workgroup over a decade later supports this attention to motivation (see Trend 28 in Kruidenier, 2002, p. 95), as does the research in persistence conducted by John Comings and colleagues.  The handbook is a phenomenal resource to help both tutors and students consider what it means to be literate and how efforts to “become literate” are rooted in a social past and have implications for the relationships around them.  The various activities in the handbook work together to convey a central message that adult learners have an important role to play in shaping their own learning and that literacy is an active, purposeful activity.

I found the following modules to be especially promising in the activities they presented:

1.2 Why Susan Can’t Read
1.3 What is Literacy?
1.4 Illiteracy:  Myths and Facts
1.5 Inner Networks
1.7 Purposes for Reading and Writing
2.2 Life Goals: Maria’s Story (thinking of goal-setting in terms of “doing,” “having,” and “being”)
2.3 Using the Individual Goals List
2.4 Using the Learning Contract
All of Module 4 on writing (though, I admit that I am less familiar with the current research on writing instruction.)

Whereas most of the approaches presented in the handbook have stood well the test of time, those presented in Module 3: Introducing Reading should be read with caution.  For instance, one aspect that I find troublesome is the repeated message that words aren’t all that important to reading.  For instance, on pp. 65-66, one of the headings presented for “what research says good readers do” is that GOOD READERS DON’T READ EVERY WORD.  Whereas that might be true when skimming and scanning, it is not true for reading connected text, based on recent research conducted around the eye movements and brain scans of skilled readers processing printed text.  In fact, skilled readers seem to process every letter, in some way.   Although the use of other word identification strategies can and certainly are applied by skilled readers when faced with unfamiliar words, they are usually secondary/supplemental to using graphophonic cues and tend to slow down reading.  

In general, the handbook is most problematic when it is tied too heavily to some of the messages associated with whole language.  These come through most obviously in pp. 61-62 and pp. 65-66, where, for instance, talking about phonics seems to be considered “nonsense”.  When the author is presenting instructional techniques, however, the treatment is more balanced, if incomplete.  The actual word study options provided around word recognition/identification (pp. 74 – 79) are probably fine but little guidance is given teachers about how to choose letters/patterns/words for study, about the importance of not covering too much at one time, and about how much time to spend on each letter/pattern/word.  This is where the statements in the Introduction about the handbook being about “setting the stage” and being accompanied by other resources need to be taken very seriously.