Return-Path: <nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id g5RID7X23964; Thu, 27 Jun 2002 14:13:07 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2002 14:13:07 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <3D1BFD60.787316E6@ellijay.com> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Art LaChance <arthur@ellijay.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:565] Re: Supporting learner persistence X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 [en] (Win98; I) Status: O Content-Length: 4252 Lines: 80 This is a really good question. The person who "runs the desk" here is my example for part of the answer. She has just turned 40. She is a GED grad- about 6 years ago. The plant she worked at unexpectedly moved to Mexico so she has unemployment experience and public support. She is a mother of three - two teens and a third grader. She has good maternal instincts. She is soft-spoken and has a non-threatening persona. She dresses appropriately for the area and speech patterns are also geographically correct. She expresses little "professionalism", yet she now (after three years of on-the-job training) understands how to evaluate the new students' skills and how to introduce them to a TABE assessment, can grade them and deliver the outcome in non-threatening terms (no "grade level" association is made or inferred), she can orient the new student to the computerized assessment and it's associated curriculum in basic skills all the way to college prep. She can comfortably (for the student) refer any question or situation that she feels she cannot answer without creating frustration for the student back to me. She can explain the GED test registration process and carry it out flawlessly. Therefore I normally stand back out of the way, in a directly adjacent office, and let her run the place while I watch the body language reactions of students and butt in when she hits a brick wall. Why have I put a non-college graduate in this position? To bypass the student's expectation of meeting up with the 'professional' facade that was a very large part of public school failure. Does it work? You bet. As a back up I also employ as a para-pro, a psychology major in her senior year who is learning almost more than she can handle about human nature under stress as well as what it takes to "teach" complex issues to an adult who comes to the program with preconceived notions however inaccurate they may be. She is "learning" directly from everyday interpersonal experiences with anxiety laden adult literacy students, not out of a book. BUT, are they "Teachers" with all the appropriate "certifications"? Heck no. They just "care" about the student and sincerely have a desire to "help". My life experience totals 23 years military plus fifteen years in adult lit - first as a volunteer in a church program, three years as a rehabilitation counselor that included individual program design for physical, mental, and emotional rehab- including brain injury; and 10 years as director of this federally supported CBO focused on GED prep that grew out of the church program. I hold an MEd in Rehab Counseling, awarded just short of my 50th birthday. In 1995 I accomplished a "practitioner inquiry" project, with UGA, that proved to me beyond a shadow that the average adult literacy student, one who functions academically below the 9th grade level in any of the three R areas, has a significant history of emotional disruption that must be dealt with prior to any attempt to 'remediate'. 100%, yep, 100% of the 15 interviewees in my project, that was initially designed to look for school-age TBI's (traumatic brain injury), indicated various types of childhood related unresolved emotional impact that was strong enough to force them to disengage mentally from the classroom and therefore from integration of academic material. How did I know this? The time corelation for the emotional incident matched to within a year their scores on the initial TABE assessment at time of entry into the program. At the very least this would suggest further examination by more "qualified" researchers, don't you think? For us, I think we'll continue the way we do business and hope and pray the bureaucratic impact will be delayed at least a couple more years. Art Art LaChance Gilmer Learning Center Ellijay,GA Barbara Garner wrote: > Peggy Kohn (pkohn1@hotmail.com) sent the following > question to the NIFL-FOBASICS discussion list: > ------------------------------------------------------------ > In your programs, what types of information were reported or observed > to be the most helpful to the adult learner support persons in their > efforts to encourage learner persistence and achievement of personal > goals?
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