Heide and everyone,

 

This is Phil Anderson, from the Florida Department of Education.  I worked in ESOL classes with Haitians, Mexicans and Guatemalans in central Florida for several years before joining the DOE Office of Adult Education.  I provide technical assistance to adult ESOL programs in the state.  

 

I remember hitting so many walls in my first years teaching ESOL in Belle Glade, Florida.  After operating my own English school in Haiti where my students were highly literate in French and somewhat in the language of Kreyòl, I had a hard time knowing what to do.  If I had one thing I believe helped me not to lose students, it seems to be that I stuck close to the students' needs and used their needs to build the projects.    During that time, I had a teacher friend who loved teaching adult students very much, but she was stuck on doing the same thing with her adult students that she had done with her first graders during the day.  One of her students said something to me once.  This proud, economically successful Haitian lady who had raised her children to excel in US schools, came to class because she could not read or write in any language, except her name and social security number.  Her statement was "I have finally learned the ABCs in English and I can say them and write them all.  But that is all I do every day in class.  I don't know anything about how they go together, and I wish I could learn that."  

 

Heide, I would really enjoy hearing what you would suggest in a situation like this.  I can think of some missteps or missed opportunities long before the student expressed her frustration.   The idea of doing all the alphabet at the same time, and having students copy and repeat until they can say and write them out of habit, to me, is a misstep.  A missed opportunity would be doing exercises around the students' needs and wants, incorporating a few key words and sounds that immediately give the students a chance to get what they want and need.  But I am sure you have more suggestions.  How could this have been avoided?  And now that it had reached this point, what could be done to at least reach the best outcome possible? 

 

I realize this question may not be central to teaching "reading" in the mid-stages where the majority of our students are working, but there seems to be such a lack of awareness among our teachers of some key proven and familiar methods to work with students like the one I described on their path toward becoming readers.

 

 

CONTACT INFORMATION

Philip Anderson

Adult ESOL Program

Florida Department of Education

Tel (850) 245-9450


 

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http://data.fldoe.org/cs/default.cfm?staff=Philip.Anderson@fldoe.org|17:23:31%20Mon%2012%20May%202008
 



 ________________________________

From: Wrigley, Heide [mailto:heide at literacywork.com] 
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 2:18 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Cc: Lynda Terrill
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2382] Reading and Adult English Language Learners

 

Good morning all 

 

It's 7 am here in Southern New Mexico, it's still nice and cool and the roses are blooming big time and I should be going out to water soon (coffee first, though)

 

 

I wanted to welcome you to the discussion on ESL Reading and am hoping that we'll have a lively back and forth as you pose questions, challenge assumptions, and share your own experience teaching reading to ESL students - either teaching these skills explicitly and systematically or just folding reading into your regular curriculum. 

 

I would like to invite you to tell us a sentence or two about yourself and your work and your experience before you post your messages.

 

Just a bit of background: I'm Heide Spruck Wrigley and my work revolves around the intersection of research, policy and practice. I've been involved in several studies on ESL literacy (broader than just reading) that we can talk about, and this year I'm doing quite a bit of work around workplace literacy.  Most of my work has been with language minority adults who are relatively new to English but I've also taught in intensive reading programs at the university level.  

 

I've been working with the Texas GREAT Centers (professional development centers) for a number of years, and this year we started a series of institutes that focus on ESL Reading with a special emphasis on comprehension skills. So this discussion is an outgrowth of this work. 

 

A bit later, I'll write a note about the 2 or 3 things we know for sure about reading (of any kind, not just reading in another language so we don't have to get caught up in the "reading wars"). 

 

But in the meantime, I'd like to invite you to jump in and say a bit more about who you are  and what issues you are grappling with when it comes to helping your ESL students understand what they read.  

 

And a special welcome to the Texas teachers who have been involved in the institutes. I'm hoping you will share your experience teaching reading and tell us what has worked for you. 

 

All the best 

 

Heide

 

 

 

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Lynda Terrill
Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 7:21 AM
To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2374] Discussion on Reading and Adult EnglishLanguage Learners begins

 

Dear subscribers,
 
I am happy to announce that our discussion on reading and adults learning English as a second language is beginning.  Heide Wrigley will be facilitating this discussion along with Texas practitioners who have been working on a project related to reading.  I look forward to hearing what they have to share, butI  also look forward to hearing many of your experiences, questions, and answers about this important topic.
 
Lynda Terrill
lterrill at cal.org
 

________________________________

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