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 eAN1fK929136; Wed, 22 Nov 2000 20:41:20 -0500 (EST) Date: Wed, 22 Nov 2000 20:41:20 -0500 (EST) Message-Id: <20001122.203307.12030.1.GDEMETRION@juno.com> 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: "GEORGE E. DEMETRION" <gdemetrion@juno.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-povracelit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-POVRACELIT:292] Dialogues in Literacy X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Mailer: Juno 1.49 Status: O Content-Length: 10423 Lines: 186 I wrote this in 1995 in a collection of interviews that Allison Gruner and I edited. What follows is the afterward, which speaks of some of the issues raised in my discussions with Anne Murr. George Demetrion Afterword The students interviewed in Dialogues in Literacy have expressed a wide range of reasons on why they are participating in the program, on what they are achieving and the hopes and expectations that they have on how literacy may change their lives. Their views are expressed overtly in many concrete ways as is evident in even a casual reading of this text. I briefly addressed some of these ways in the introduction. In this concluding piece I will touch upon an area alluded to in the interviews which is one of the most important and understudied issues in the field of adult literacy. This is the relationship students make both explicitly and implicitly between basic skill development and reading for meaning. In its new manual, Tutor: A Collaborative Approach to Literacy Instruction, 7th edition (Cheatham, Colvin, and Laminack, 1993), Literacy Volunteers of America (LVA) has fully embraced a whole language approach to literacy. Specifically, LVA has defined literacy as making meaning through the world of print by bringing personal knowledge to bear in understanding relevant texts and in constructing new texts by drawing on personal experience and knowledge. On this view, literacy is essentially a communicative process and incorporates speech as well as print for the purpose of obtaining relevant information and knowledge as defined by the subjects of such learning; the students themselves. This view contrasts vividly with a traditional, "bottom-up" approach which defines reading essentially as a decoding process through increasing mastery of phonetic clues and sight word memorization. The content of learning on this view is subordinated to skill development and often lacks any intrinsic meaning to a real reader. To bring this distinction out in its starkest and perhaps stereotypical way, consider the following passages in two very basic texts that are premised on radically different views of literacy: "Sam wanted to go fishing but he had no fishing pole. He saw an ad in the paper. It said "Fishing Pole for Sale-bait free if you buy a fishing pole" (Root, 1976, p.27)." The "story line" continues on the next several pages where we learn among other things that "Sam took the bus to the store" which was "next to the firehouse" where he bought a fishing pole. The purpose of this lesson is to teach the "F" and "S" sounds for which the text was artificially created. There is in fact, no story at all in the sense of an imaginative narrative with real characters grounded in actual time and place. Neither is there a situation to speak of that can sustain any serious interest or evoke any sense of curiosity and wonder. This text, in essence, represents the antithesis of meaning making and it was selected to illustrate the basic skill approach in its most extreme decontextualized format. The next passage is premised on the whole language view of literacy and its sole purpose is to evoke the "thought-world" and the creative imagination of the reader: "I remember when I was little my mother used to read to us. I don't know why I didn't catch on like my sisters and brothers. I used to cry myself to sleep (Smith, 1991, 57)." This poignant passage is part of a broader narrative titled The Crying Heart where the anonymous but very real author describes the intense emotional pain that she experienced in not being able to read as a child. She ends with a plea for children to learn while in school so that they would not have to undergo the suffering which she has been forced to endure. The entire passage, moreover, is part of an anthology titled Welcome To Our World: A Book Of Writings By And For Students And Their Tutors (Smith, 1991). This is a text replete with stimulating and often emotionally heartwrenching narratives whereby adult new readers share authentic life experiences grounded in person, place, and plot. These types of texts are used extensively throughout LVGH to foster basic literacy development. They evoke considerable discussion whereby students respond and often recount related experiences which sometimes become the source of new texts. In such a learning climate, meaning making is reinforced as a critical aspect of becoming literate. At the same time, there is also an emphasis on basic skill development in the Reading Center program at LVGH. Words are identified for phonic analysis and sight word memorization and spelling are often major concerns. The difference between the whole language from the traditional approach, according to the authors of Tutor 7, is that basic skill work emerges from a meaningful context of literacy usage. In our experience at the Reading Center, however, the reality is more complex than the very coherent and attractive model recently developed by LVA. In the interviews, students often articulate the common sense notion that their primary purpose is to learn to read, and what they read is less important than in obtaining general literacy skills. Brian Street interprets such a "decontextual" understanding as the "autonomous" view of literacy. Yet, on my reading of the situation, students upon entering the program may have a diffusive sense of the value of literacy, but it is far from decontextual. Rather, they typically begin with a general notion that becoming increasingly literate is an invaluable skill for living in a complex urban environment and that the mastery of the various decoding skills plays an essential role in any such attainment. As they become immersed in the program more refined interpretations of literacy often emerge, as Susan Lytle states; including the relationship between reading and writing and specific knowledge that students find meaningful. Yet, even as students make the transition from learning to read to reading in order to learn, they still place a high level of importance on refining their basic decoding skills. Thus, in the "real world" of adult literacy provision, reading and writing for meaning and basic skill development are simultaneously held within the minds of students and teachers alike in varying relationships and combinations. Students and tutors alike work with this issue pragmatically through experiential approaches, for the purpose of moving learning forward in any ways that they can. The challenge for literacy programs is to assist students in making connections between general literacy development and reading for meaning and purpose. The interviews indicate how this has happened in innumerable ways. What most commonly takes place is that students discover a world of learning that in many respects had been previously closed. They find that through literacy that they can learn in formal school-like ways and that such learning becomes a powerful source of intrinsic motivation for many. In the process, the quest for basic skill mastery and reading for specific purposes typically remains entwined for students at all different levels. What also seems clear is that higher level students read more specifically for content while lower level students express more diffusiveness in their objectives. Even the latter, however, are interested in more than basic skill mastery and often engage in vigorous discussion on the topics of particular lessons. Yet as the interviews bring out, those students at a higher stage of literacy development have identified more discriminating reasons for reading. They begin to read and write for specific purposes and as a result, their perception of literacy or what Lytle refers to as "beliefs" becomes more sophisticated. In stating this they do not disregard the importance of skill work, but contextualize it as an integral part of reading for meaning. As one advanced student stated it at the end of his interview, "I want to comprehend and read better [in general] and I'm hungry for knowledge." Another advanced student identified several powerful content areas that she wanted to master, including the Bible, reading correspondence from her child's school, filling out forms, obtaining a GED, reading for pleasure and obtaining her nurse's aide certification. Clearly, this student reads for specific purposes and her objectives have become increasingly refined throughout her learning history at the Reading Center. Yet, she also attributes a high degree of importance to correct spelling which she identifies as a major "weak" area. As she assesses the situation, "I have to really start getting my spelling together if I want to get a job and to fill out applications." What the interviews disclose is that the world of print is opening up to new adult readers in a broad array of creative and fascinating ways. Discriminations that adult literacy educators make between whole language and basic skill approaches are not part of their "thought-world." Engaging literacy as a meaning-making process is inevitable as each person needs to make sense of this in ways that conform to the radical particularity of his or her own learning style and inclination. In general, it is reasonable to assume that as students become increasingly proficient there is more of a tendency to read in order to learn rather than learning to read as an end in itself. Yet, the relationship between these two dimensions of reading remains highly complex and interdependent. We know little yet, of how such interaction actually works, but the students interviewed in this book point to its importance. REFERENCES Cheatham, J.B,Colvin, R.J., and Laminack, L.L. (1993). Tutor: A Collaborative Approach to Literacy Instruction. Seventh Edition. Syracuse, NY: Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. Lytle, S.L. "Living Literacy: Rethinking Development in Adulthood." Linguistics and Education, 3, 109-138. Root, J.H. (1976). Read On! Basic Reading for Adults and Teens. Book One. Syracuse, NY: Literacy Volunteers of America, Inc. Smith, S.W. (1991). Welcome To Our World: A Book Of Writings By And For Students And Their Tutors. Hartford, CT: Literacy Volunteers of Greater Hartford Street, B.V. (1984). Literacy Into Theory and Practice. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press.
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