Return-Path: <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f4LF9Kf07796; Mon, 21 May 2001 11:09:20 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 11:09:20 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <84.162f5ea0.283a80e8@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: DEBBYDAM@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:1605] Re: a question for facilitators X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 138 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Status: O Content-Length: 2884 Lines: 38 Let me jump into the fray here by first expressing my context. I am not now nor have I ever been an adult literacy instructor, though I spent eight years working on basic writing and reading and study skills with underprepared CUNY and SUNY students, both in remedial classes and in for credit classes, much of it as an adjunct as you are now. In adult literacy, I have been both a researcher and an adminsitrator of a large union based program. So I want to make clear that I do not have the classroom experience of most of those on the list. Currently, I work as a researcher with the Adult Literacy Media Alliance, makers of TV411. Your words resonate with me for two reasons: 1) I think we have had the same experiences trying to get practitioners to work with media in creative participatory ways that EFF trainers and trainees have had--changing practice is hard, time consuming, and taking place in a stressful, underfunded context and 2) the ALMA staff is working with EFF folks to cross walk our materials to the standards, so we are thinking a lot about them. It seems to me that your learners are indeed taking responsibility for learning. they are identifying a learning goal, and strategies that they think will help them get to that goal. I could see brainstorming all of those strategies, perhaps adding some of your own, and working out with your students ways to periodically monitor their learning and adjust the strategies accordingly. If conveying ideas in writing is a goal as well, the components of that standard could be explored alongside the strategies identified. A discussion of what kinds of reading supports good writing could be part of that. I think a clear plan of the learners' own design that is fully compatible with EFF could emerge here. They may find, in their process of monitoring their progress, that they need to adjust their strategies in ways they hadn't envisioned. Or, they may not. I doesn't feel to me that their ideas and direction are fundamentally in constradiction with EFF, even though they are not articualting a methodology for learning that we might prefer. In fact, the situation you describe reminds me of one of the Milestones segments in our TV411 television and video series. In it, a woman has a limited time to pass a reading test to get into a job training program that is very important to her. She discusses her strategies for reaching that goal, including both reading and parenting strategies that supported her efforts (like putting her five small children to bed earlier so she could study). I think your learners would have a lot in common with her, and her experience exemplifies many of the components of the Take responsibility for learning standard. Am I missing something? I'm almost sure I am, but I would like to know what it is! Debby D"Amico
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