<div dir="ltr">Government forms are too complex for many poor readers to understand and fill out. The W-4, which must be filled out when someone takes a job, is needlessly complicated. I also feel that many poor people pay high fees to have their income tax foms filled out for them because of their complexity. <br>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 10:00 AM, David J. Rosen <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:djrosen@comcast.net">djrosen@comcast.net</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="PADDING-LEFT: 1ex; MARGIN: 0px 0px 0px 0.8ex; BORDER-LEFT: #ccc 1px solid">Colleagues,<br><br>An article in the Straits Times of Singapore, "Katrina hit US adult<br>literacy" [ <a href="http://tinyurl.com/6fhd38" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/6fhd38</a> ] , describes how the<br>
hurricane devastated adult literacy services in New Orleans and the<br>slow road to restoration. The author describes a critical set of<br>contextualized reading and writing skills -- filling out a government<br>form to get housing help after a natural disaster. A large number of<br>
adults who need to complete these forms, because they did not learn<br>to read and write well in school, cannot do it. The author also looks<br>at the other side of the literacy coin: the forms and their<br>instructions are needlessly difficult for anyone to read.<br>
<br>For New Orleans, and for the country, we need a four-pronged national<br>effort to:<br><br>1) legally require plain English federal government documents,<br>especially ones that individuals are expected to complete,<br>
<br>2) create free national functional context curricula that will help<br>adults learn to read and correctly complete specific government forms,<br><br>3) provide local literacy program models where reading and writing<br>
skills are taught in the highly motivating context of completing the<br>form, at times that are convenient for adult learners. Volunteer<br>tutors or classroom teachers could be trained to help adults read and<br>complete a particular form; in the process they could help some<br>
adults read and write better; and they could inform the adults about<br>opportunities to continue their literacy instruction if they wish to,<br>and<br><br>4) provide a well-organized, easy-to-navigate, plain English web site<br>
that includes:<br> a) .pdfs of all the government forms so they could be printed out<br>as needed,<br> b) the forms in hypertext, with links to written and audio file<br>definitions and explanations of technical or legal terms, examples of<br>
correctly completed sections, and<br> elaborations as needed,<br> c) a hypertext, step-by-step process for completing each form that<br>includes a writing box for responding to each step, resulting in a<br>
completed form that could be reviewed,<br> printed, and submitted electronically when all the<br>steps are finished, and<br> d) careful field-testing with low-literate adults of b)and c) above.<br><br>Are there examples or models or 2) , 3) and 4) that already exist? If<br>
so, could you let me know about them, please? Thanks.<br><br>David J. Rosen<br><a href="mailto:djrosen@comcast.net">djrosen@comcast.net</a><br><br><br><br>----------------------------------------------------<br>National Institute for Literacy<br>
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Email delivered to <a href="mailto:jeannemcgehee@fanniebattle.org">jeannemcgehee@fanniebattle.org</a><br></blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Jeanne McGehee<br>Literacy Coach-Read to Succeed<br>Fannie Battle Day Home<br>
911 Shelby Avenue<br>Nashville, TN 37206<br>Ph: 615-228-6745<br>Fax: 615-228-8773<br></div>