Return-Path: <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id e96GEa927698; Fri, 6 Oct 2000 12:14:36 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2000 12:14:36 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <a04320401b603b706d109@[10.3.1.82]> Errors-To: listowner@literacy.nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Anne Murr <anne.murr@drake.edu> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:163] Introduction and response 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: 2937 Lines: 55 I am a (late blooming) lifelong learner, well into my middle years and a newcomer to adult literacy. I began first as a volunteer tutor and now am the coordinator of the Adult Literacy Center, which serves mainly adults functionin at NALS Level One. I For the past two years I have been learning about the abilities and needs of adult new readers. At the most basic level I am discovering the unique, intrinsic value of each person with whom I am in contact. This, of course, I have "known" at the cognitive level. However, at the deeply personal level, the insecure level, I have felt the need to be better than someone else. Isn't that one of our common human conditions and the basis for prejudice and racism? In my own personal learning, through therapy and working with all those inner child issues, now I am freer to accept myself and others. I recognize that I am not free of bias and prejudice, but I am more open and affirming and am aware that I need to let go of those old messages that "I'm better than you because my skin is lighter than yours and my speech is clearer than yours and my degree is higher than yours etc etc etc." Don't need that stuff!!!! I am joining this listserv because I am deeply concerned about the effects of low literacy skills on learning and on economic opportunity. Reading disabilities result in low economic (and often personal) status. For those of you whoare describing your wonderful, interactive curriculum activities incorporating text and writing, I have this question: How many of the students in your classes struggle with the writing because of defcits in spelling and the ability to organize their thoughts? I have been researching the question, why did adults fail to learn to read as children? The answer is clear: The fundamental deficit is the inability to connect letters and sounds, the lack of phonemic awareness and the inability to segment and blend those sounds (decode and encode). Reid Lyon, chief researcher at National Institute of Child Health and Development, compares reading to digestion. Just as the digestive system must break proteins down into amino acids in order to process them in the body, so the brain must break down words into phomemes in order to be processed by neural systems in the brain. The lack of phonemic awareness results in the wide range of language difficulties we see in ABE classes. This deficit must be addressed in order to bring our learners to independent literacy levels. We have been using the Wilson Reading System for just over a year and are seeing small steps of progress. The persons who come to our Adult Literach Center are determined to learn. We are determined to give them the opportunities to practice the skills they must have in order to learn. Anne Murr, Coordinator Adult Literacy Center Drake University Des Moines, Iowa 515-271-3982 anne.murr@drake.edu
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