Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id f4HDXlf14412; Thu, 17 May 2001 09:33:48 -0400 (EDT) Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 09:33:48 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <200105171330.JAA17538@bellerophon.cnchost.com> Errors-To: alcrsb@langate.gsu.edu Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: Deborah Schwartz <deborah@alri.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:1450] Re: X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Type: text/plain Status: O Content-Length: 5051 Lines: 79 This conversation has been really exciting to listen to. I wanted to share one anedote and pedogigical reflection about reading that addresses Daphne's question, atleast some what. When I was teaching adult basic educatioin students, all women, in a family literacy program, they spanned reading levels from about 3rd grade to high school. I experimented with sharing complictated, and what I termed "meaningful" fiction and literary non-fiction with them. I brought in a duffle bag of my favorite novels and books and walked them through a selection process that lovers of reading often go through. We spent a lot of time talking about and writing about strategies for choosing books and how to make one's way into a book. I developed worksheets and they used reading logs. We also spent a lot of inclass time reading aloud from our choosen books. Basically, each student choose a book and through a series of silent-sustained reading exercises, reading aloud, writing exercises, discussion activities, made her way through atleast one chapter of the book. Before these students attempted to choose and read these texts, we had done a un it on Beloved by Toni Morrison. The students read most of the first chapter outloud-- we looked at the structure of the book, we put a lot of that chapter to movement, the students retold parts of the stories from differing narrative persepctives to each other, we analyzed the role of the house, we viewd video interviews with Morrison and looked at pictures of slave ships in middle passage. It tokk a month to get through chapter one together and it was worth it. Their comments in their reading journals were incredible! After that success, that's when we moved on to how does one choose a book of ones own? That's when I modeled for them how I choose books, how I even heard of which books to read, how I would go into a library and pick a book off the shelf and read from an arbitrary page, and how if the book touched me, I would have to write about it- to a friend in a letter or email, in my journal, or with a poem or story of my own authoring. We did all these things with our new books. Here's some of the books the students' choose: Zora Neale Hurston:'s Their Eyes were watching GOd; Nicholasa Mohr's El Bronx Remembered, Anchee Min's Red Azalea and Barabara Kingsolver's The Bean Trees. I felt really strongly that my students had a right to acess powerful women's writing and that they could. I still feel that, and in fact I had support to c0-start a teacher's sharing group called Hooked on Whole Boooks with the then-ABE SPECIALIST at our local staff development support institute- The Adult Literacy Resource Institue in Boston. Ironically, I work there now. I share this anecdote because I too think that there are ways-pedagocially sound ways- of mentoring our students so that they can read books that are dense, complicated and that change lives. The Masachusetts' DOE adult ed newsletter, Field Notes (once called Bright Idea) published a great issues on teaching reading and looking at decoding versus meaning-making. It can be found from a link on the Massachusetts' System of Adult Basic Ed. Support's Web page: www.sabes.org. But ultimately, it was the sharing group of other teachers that really supported me to experiment with, reflect on, analyze and document how we were giving "whole books' to our students and why, Interestingly, I had choosen the first round of books to help students not feel overwhelemd, then from there, they had made specific choices about which book they wanted to read. Also, we practiced choosing books from the library and even going into bookstores. And we certainly talked and talked about those books like they were friends. One student wrote in her reading journal (i've changed her spelling because she asked me to) "I can read two pages a night from the Bean Tree. I love this woman and have to find out what happens to her. Deborah, I also have to let my kids trash the house cause how do I get through this book? I lock myself in the bathroom for 1/2 hour. and let the four of them play in the living room. And when I get out. Well you know. But it's worth it." Deborah Schwartz ---- Daphne Greenberg <alcdgg@langate.gsu.edu> wrote: > I am very interested in the following question that Mev has asked us: > "Will having access to more basic reading level materials that touch on women's issues and concerns make a difference in women's engagement with reading and learning?" > My intuition says "of course!" but I wonder, does anyone have any experiences which would provide evidence that would support or negate my "of course" reaction? > This is important, because if my "of course" is accurate, before we can get funding to develop and accumulate women centered materials, we would need to be able to back up our assertions with some evidence. And, if my "of course" is wrong, then maybe other priorities would need to be addressed before this one is even touched. > Daphne > > >
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