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 g5SJaLX18008; Fri, 28 Jun 2002 15:36:21 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2002 15:36:21 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <a05010408b94269dcdc0e@[10.3.3.130]> 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: Anne Murr <anne.murr@DRAKE.EDU> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-fobasics@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-FOBASICS:567] Re: Supporting learner persistence X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Content-type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset=us-ascii Status: O Content-Length: 2342 Lines: 51 Hello Barbara, Art, Andrea, and all you others "out there", Our adult literacy center has just one paid staff person - me. All support persons are volunteers. Currently over 50 adult learners are meeting one-to-one with a volunteer tutor. Their goal is to improve their reading and spelling skills. (Of course, this improvement has an impact on their broader life goals as well.) The adult learners persist in this program because their deepest need - to learn to read - is being met. If a person's needs are met, he or she will "stay with it". We find that every adult who comes to the Center, regardless of their reading level (non-reader to low intermediate), has a basic deficit in phonemic awareness and phonological processing skills. They often have been in -and dropped out of- programs that try to teach them to read whole words without learning the sounds (phonemes) that go with the letters and how to combine and segment those sounds (phonological processing skills) for reading and spelling. Because they struggled with reading in school, they also have traumatic school experiences and self esteem/emotional issues which have a direct impact on their ability to learn now. The emotional component must also be addressed by giving the learner a safe, supportive, respectful learning environment. That alone, though, is not enough. The basic deficit, that hidden disability, must be addressed with multisensory, direct, systematic hands on learning experiences. We use the Wilson Reading System, an adapted Orton-Gillingham method, written for adults. Our learners stay a year, 2, 3 years and longer. They are learning to read. One learner now has also become a tutor. As she's completing her studies, she now is staying to teach another. >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? -- Anne Murr, Coordinator Adult Literacy Center School of Education Drake University 3206 University Ave. Des Moines, IA 50311 anne.murr@drake.edu Tel 515-271-3982
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