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 h5GGwVC09876; Mon, 16 Jun 2003 12:58:31 -0400 (EDT) Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 12:58:31 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <38.3a37fa10.2c1f4fba@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: MWPotts2001@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-4eff@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2389] Cross post/Father's Day X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Mac sub 39 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Status: O Content-Length: 7942 Lines: 145 This is a cross post from the AAACE List. Father's Day by Tom Sticht Quite long and very interesting. You may want to print for later reading. Note the relationship of the last paragraph to the philosophy of EFF. What matters most when we are teaching reading to adults is an emphasis upon the interests of the adults (hence our focus on goal setting) and an understanding of the factors underlying their desire for learning (embedding practice in the Teaching/Learning Cycle). Meta Potts, Moderator 4-EFF List FOCUS on Literacy Glen Allen, VA Two "Fathers of Adult Literacy Education" in the United States Tom Sticht The year 2003 marks the 135th anniversary of the birth of J. Duncan Spaeth (1868-1954) and the 105th anniversary of the birth of Paul A. Witty (1898-1976). Born 30 years apart, these two men are nonetheless united in the history of adult literacy education by the common thread of the world wars of the 20th century. Spaeth worked at teaching literacy to soldiers during World War I and Witty did similar work during World War II. But while united by war's calling to teach adults to read, Spaeth and Witty were widely separated not only by time but also by their beliefs about the teaching of reading. Spaeth was an early advocate of a "code emphasis" in teaching reading, and Witty was a strong advocate for the "meaning emphasis" approach to teaching reading. Both made pioneering contributions to the field of adult literacy education. J. Duncan Spaeth (1868-1954) During World War I, John Duncan Spaeth, a native of Philadelphia with a Ph. D. in early Anglo-Saxon literature from the University of Leipzig,, took time away from his position as Professor of English at Princeton University and worked as Educational Director of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) at Camp Wheeler, Georgia and Camp Jackson, South Carolina. Because large numbers of men being called for military service were illiterate, or of very limited literacy, schooling in reading and writing became a necessary element of military training. In 1918, the Southwestern Department of the National War Work Department of the YMCA in Atlanta, Georgia published the "Camp Reader for American Soldiers," written by Spaeth. A revised edition was published in 1919. In the preface to the 1918 edition of these instructional books Spaeth devoted just three paragraphs to introducing the principles underlying the lessons and explained that, "The "Camp Reader for American Soldiers" is more than a mere reader. It combines exercises in reading, writing, phonics, and spelling in each lesson. The essence of the method here advocated lies in the simultaneous acquisition of the ability to read words, to recognize and differentiate articulate sounds and sound groups, to associate them with visual symbols, and to write these symbols. The three types of association must go hand in hand, and it is therefore essential that in each hour part of the time be devoted to reading, part to phonic drill, and part to exercises in writing." In the 1919 revision of the Camp Reader, Spaeth expanded his discussion of the instructional principles of the lessons from three paragraphs to six pages. In these pages, he produced what appear to be the first teacher training materials for adult literacy educators that discussed relationships among the four communication processes of listening, speaking, reading, and writing and he provided an explanation of the phonetic system of reading (phonics) and its relevance to writing. Throughout the book, extensive footnotes further instruct the teacher in the teaching of phonics, and extensive drills are provided on decoding lists of words. In this book, Spaeth showed clearly that he was a proponent of the methods of teaching reading and writing that rely heavily upon the understanding of the written language as a substitution code for the spoken language, and he advised considerable attention to the teaching of the decoding and encoding of the written language through phonics. Paul A. Witty (1898-1976). During World War II the armed services once again faced the need to utilize hundreds of thousands of men who were illiterate or poorly literate. Paul Andrew Witty, with an M.A. (1923) and Ph. D. (1931) from Columbia University in Psychology, specialized in understanding the process of learning to read and in developing methods for helping students who were having difficulties in learning to read. With this background, he was called upon to serve as an education officer in the War Department. In May of 1943 the War Department published TM 21-500, entitled the "Army Reader." In this book, which was produced under Witty's direction, soldiers in the Army's Special Training Units for literacy instruction were introduced to Private Pete, a fictional fellow member of a Special Training Unit who was also learning reading, writing, and arithmetic. The idea was that soldier's would be able to identify with Private Pete and understand what they were reading about him because they shared common experiences, such as living in the camp, sleeping in the barracks, eating in the mess hall, and so forth. These were all things that Private Pete did in the Army Reader. Witty was apparently the first to use this approach of trying to motivate adults learning to read by providing a fictional counterpart with whom they could identify. Witty's approach reflected the influence of William S. Gray, one of the founders of the famous Dick and Jane series for children, which provided a model for Witty's use of Private Pete in the Army Reader, and Arthur I. Gates, a leading reading professor at Columbia University. Both of these men were advocates of the "meaning emphasis" approach known as the "word" method. In this method students first develop readiness to read by discussing illustrations from the readers. Then they learn a basic store of sight words used in the readiness training. Then they move on to simple sentences made up of the sight words. In this approach, phonics instruction is postponed until the student can do quite a bit of reading based upon discussion and whole word recognition training. In the Private Pete program, the teacher's guide of some 26 pages never goes into the teaching of phonics. Indeed, in Samuel Goldberg's (1951) book, Army Training of Illiterates in World War II, it is reported that, against advice, some of the teachers were making "…excessive use of phonics in teaching word recognition and pronunciation." This was followed by a list of "unfortunate results" resulting from the over use of phonics against instructions to teach phonics only sparingly. Positive Outcomes From the World War Literacy Education Among the major outcomes of the teaching of illiterates in World Wars I and II was the repeated demonstration that hundreds of thousands of adults who many thought were not capable of learning to read, or learning much of anything else for that matter, were, in fact, capable of acquiring at least rudimentary reading ability in a fairly brief time, generally less than three months. Furthermore most of them went on to learn and perform their Army duties in a satisfactory manner. There may also be lessons here regarding the so-called "code emphasis" or "meaning emphasis" approaches to teaching adults to read. Bridging the "great wars" and the gap between the different approaches of Spaeth and Witty, was the motivation that soldiers had to learn to read and write letters from and to distant loved ones, and the functional nature of the material, relating as it did to the daily lives and needs of soldiers This may have rendered both emphases about equally useful. For adult educators, the main lesson may be that what makes the most difference in teaching reading with adults is an emphasis upon the interests of the adults and an understanding of the factors underlying their desire for learning.
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