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 h8HMJWT22921; Wed, 17 Sep 2003 18:19:32 -0400 (EDT) Date: Wed, 17 Sep 2003 18:19:32 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <20030917221624.21271.qmail@web11205.mail.yahoo.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: Bertha Mo <bertiemo@yahoo.com> To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:2688] Re: Appropriate books? X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Status: O Content-Length: 3247 Lines: 84 Thank you very much for the opportunity to respond to these questions. First of all, I would be concerned about sexual/violent content of any literature. This includes newspaper reports of assaults of any type. There should be an expressed reason why the article or story was chosen. Second, providing insufficient time for discussion in any course results in a poor learning environment. It doesn't matter what the topic might concern. Students need to realize that literacy is not just about reading, but is about reading, discussion and forming an opinion. Not to teach in a comprehensive manner is an insult to students and doesn't teach them "how to learn." Finally, as a trained health educator/social scientist, I have always felt that health education should be everyone's responsibility and a "teachable moment" can occur at anytime. Telling students not to feel, not to ask questions, that the purpose of the class is "learning to read" defeats the real purpose which is teaching people that reading is important for many reasons including; learning new information, getting in touch with your feelings, creation of relationships between people etc. Best Regards, Bertie Mo, Ph.D., MPH --- Daphne Greenberg <alcdgg@langate.gsu.edu> wrote: > Two questions have come up in my research project > and I am curious about what people think about these > issues. To remind everyone, I received a grant to > study different instructional approaches to teaching > reading to adults reading at the 3-5th grade levels. > One of the approaches involves exposure to > literature. In this approach, students read silently > books that are of high interest (we hope) and low > vocabulary. They also follow along as the teacher > reads out loud a novel written for adult expert > readers that our students could not have read on > their own. Here are three issues that have come up > regarding the selection of the read aloud books: > 1. The teachers select read aloud books that do not > have explicit incest descriptions. We do this > because we do not have time, nor the expertise to > deal with issues that get raised for many of us when > descriptions such as these are read aloud. Do you > agree with this? > 2. We do not follow the abovementioned policy when > it comes to descriptions of domestic violence > between two adult partners. Should we? > 3. In our research project, an adult is anyone 16 > and older. Therefore in any given class, as is > common in many adult literacy classes, we can have > students who are 16 sitting next to students who are > 54. This challenges the teacher to find a book that > will interest all the age groups in the class. Do > you think that we have to be careful about sexual > content in classes where we have 16, 17, 18 year > olds? > Any thoughts on any of the above will be much > appreciated! > Daphne > > Daphne Greenberg > Associate Director > Center for the Study of Adult Literacy > MSC 6A0360 > Georgia State University > 33 Gilmer Street SE Unit 6 > Atlanta, GA 30303-3086 > phone: 404-651-0127 > fax:404-651-4901 > dgreenberg@gsu.edu __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
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