Barbara,
It was great!  I sent it to the supervisor and teacher listservs in
Tennessee.  The title of my email was "Inspiring Story".  Thanks for
sharing.
 
 
Hope Lancaster, Director
Professional Development and ESOL
TN Dept. of Labor and Workforce Development
Division of Adult Education
11th Floor Davy Crockett Tower
500 James Robertson Parkway
Nashville, TN 37245
PH (615) 741-7057  FAX (615) 532-4899
Hope.Lancaster at state.tn.us
 
This e-mail, including attachments, is intended for the exclusive use
of the person or entity to which it is addressed and may contain
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error, please advise the sender by reply-e-mail of the error and then
delete this e-mail immediately.  Thank you



>>> Barbara K Given <bgiven at gmu.edu> 01/26/07 8:57 AM >>>


Thanks for your note. After I wrote it, I wasn't sure I should send it
or not, so if it is of some benefit to others, I'm glad I sent it. Have
a great day, barb given

Barbara K. Given, Ph.D.
Director, Adolescent and Adult Learning Research Center
Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, and
Director, Center for Honoring Individual Learning Diversity, an
International Learning Styles Center 
George Mason University
Fairfax, VA 22030-4444
Fax: 703-993-4325
Ph:  703-993-4406


----- Original Message -----
From: Martha Jean <mjean at communityactioninc.org>
Date: Friday, January 26, 2007 8:10 am
Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 792] Re: Movies and texts
aboutlow-literateadults


> Dear Barbara, Oh, keep working on that manuscript, can't wait to

read

> the book! As a teacher you've reminded me of the determination that

> often gets my students to this adult ed class. I also had one of

those

> "YES!" moments about teaching phonemic awareness and phonics to low

> level and non-readers. Like in the public schools, its hit or miss 

> if an

> adult student gets that kind  of teaching. Thanks for your story.

> Martha Jean 

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov

> [mailto:professionaldevelopment-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of 

> Barbara K

> Given

> Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 1:37 PM

> To: The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion List

> Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 785] Re: Movies and texts

> aboutlow-literateadults

> 

> I'd like to take this opportunity to respond to David's question re:

> authentic/inauthentic teaching moments in books, films, TV, etc. 

> Perhapsmy story will be of some interest and will help phonemic

> awareness/alaphabetic skeptics to rethink their positions.

> 

> Between my ninth and tenth years in school, I came to a conscious

> decision that if I were ever going to learn to read, it would be 

> up to

> me. That summer I kept thinking about a conference held between my

> fourth grade teacher, my mother, and me. I recalled my teacher

showing

> us what I later learned were my results on the Primary Mental 

> AbilitiesTest. Ms. Murphy said I had scored at the high school 

> levels on

> problem-solving and reasoning subtests while failing all subtests

> pertaining to any and all aspects of reading. My mother asked what

she

> should do about it and Ms. Murphy simply replied that I was a bright

> girl and that eventually I'd learn to read. Being the last of five

> children into a family of limited means, my mother took my teacher

at

> her word and thought no more about it.

> 

> In second grade, I remember Ms. Street writing the vowels on the

board

> and giving their sounds, but to me, they all sounded the same. That

> evening, I told Mom about the "joke" Ms. Street had played on us. I

> remember Ms. Street being puzzled about how I could score so high on

> spelling tests, but couldn't remember the words in Dick, Jane and 

> Sally.She didn't know that I had developed an elaborate system of 

> cheatingwhereby all I did was copy the words on a small piece of 

> paper or on my

> desk. She always dictated the words in order and she seemed not to

> notice me copying. 

> 

> As a curious child and someone eager to learn, my hand was always 

> in the

> air to ask questions. I wanted to hear explanations of things other

> students were learning from reading. It was a devastating blow

during

> geography when my fifth grade teacher angrily said, "Bob, put your 

> handdown! Don't you know I get sick and tired of seeing your hand 

> wave in my

> face all day long?" It was years before I once again enjoyed the

study

> of peoples around the world and the lands where they lived.

> 

> For sixth grade, we moved to a larger community where all students 

> in my

> class were in the same grade. When the teacher realized I could read

> very little, she sent me to work with the custodian whenever the

class

> was engaged in reading assignments or subjects that required reading

> such as health and social studies. 

> 

> The custodian was very kind; he taught me far more than the 

> teacher. For

> example, to give me something to do, he asked me to select a picture

> from a coloring book; I chose a Scotty dog with fur sticking out in

> every direction. He than asked me to trace it twice on a piece of

3/4

> inch pine board, so I could make a pair of book ends for my 

> mother. 

> 

> He gave me a coping saw and said to begin cutting. It was 

> difficult. The

> thin, fragile blade seemed to break at the least amount of 

> pressure. He

> would kindly say, "Now, Little Lady, coping saw blades are like 

> people.They are fragile and you have to treat them with care." 

> When I'd

> complain that the board was too tough, he said, "Now, Little Lady

you

> must remember this board is like life; it's difficult to cut 

> through, so

> it's up to you to figure out how to do it." Then, he'd give me

> instructions on how to hold the saw, how to move it back and forth 

> in a

> smooth motion, and how to treat the delicate blade gently. I looked

> forward to working in the basement boiler room at my work bench 

> with my

> new friend, Besides, I was glad to be out of the critical 

> environment of

> the classroom.

> 

> Other than my time with this beautiful Black man, my sixth grade

year

> was miserable. One day, the other students decided not to speak to

me;

> so they didn't-- except for the two Black girls in my class. At 

> recess,while standing alone by the building, they came up and 

> said, "We knows

> just how you feel," and I knew they did, because that was the 

> treatmentthey received from most of the students every day. That 

> year, I was

> accused of stealing someone s stickers and was reprimanded for 

> somethingI didn t do. Another time, I was accused of damaging a 

> playground swing

> over the weekend and had to meet with the principal, because a woman

> across the street described the child she saw and swore it was me.

It

> wasn t.

> 

> Two weeks into the seventh grade, I was called into the office to 

> learnthat I would be transferred to the "Opportunity Class." My 

> heart sank.

> The boy across the street was in that class. He was older than I,

much

> bigger, and he had great difficulty talking and figuring out how to

> carry on a conversation. While we enjoyed playing cards and board 

> games,drawing and running around for hide and seek with my 

> youngest brother

> and other kids in the neighborhood, I knew I wasn't like him. 

> 

> Just before the big move into the dreaded class, I was hit by a car

> while riding my bicycle, and shortly after my stay in the 

> hospital, we

> moved again. Thank goodness! My sigh of relief must have been heard

> around the world; however, in my new school, I learned the 

> nightmare of

> spelling bees. Teams were chosen and we sat in rows. As the first 

> personin the row missed a word, he or she moved to the back and 

> everyone else

> moved up a seat. When it was my turn to sit in the 'hot seat' I 

> knew not

> to put my bottom on the chair, because as soon as I was given a

word,

> I'd simply move to the back. There was no way I could spell seventh

> grade words, consequently, when spelling bee teams were chosen, I

was

> always the last one picked. 

> 

> We moved once more before the end of the seventh grade making three

> different schools that year. I really enjoyed meeting new 

> classmates and

> making new friends with the hope that once they got to know me, they

> wouldn't care that I couldn't read. And I was right. There were 

> usuallysome for whom it made no difference. In fact, several tried 

> to help me

> with my homework.

> 

> I started the eighth grade in a new community, new school, and new

> challenges, and it didn't take long for the teachers to realize I 

> wasn'tliving up to their standards. I remember thinking that being 

> a teacher

> would be a terrible job, because they seemed so unhappy and there

was

> little joy in their classrooms, no fun, and no forgiveness for

failure

> to understand the reading assignments. I worked incredibly hard each

> evening attempting to read the texts. I'd study the pictures,

graphs,

> and diagrams in hopes of getting clues regarding the content. Next 

> day,I'd sit in class in utter amazement as other students engaged in

> discussions about what they had read. I wondered how on earth they 

> couldgain that much information from texts that were 

> incomprehensible to me. 

> 

> While in the ninth grade, Mom purchased a television set, and she 

> lovedto share programs with me in the evenings. While working as 

> hard as I

> could on homework, she often called to me, "Bob, come on down and 

> watchthis television show with me. You'll learn more from it than 

> from that

> book you're reading." I'd protest, but she insisted. The truth is,

she

> was right. 

> 

> I treaded water in ninth grade by enrolling in stagecraft, home

> economics, public speaking and anything else that required little

> reading. I had no skills to understand the 'Rhyme of the Ancient

> Mariner' even when someone else read it to me. 'Casey at The Bat',

> however, seemed like a fun way to interpret a baseball game. And 

> so it

> went.

> 

> I made friends with neighborhood kids, and we often played a teenage

> version of "Truth or Dare or Desparate" under the light post on the

> spring evenings. There were cliques at school and none of us

belonged.

> In fact, some from the  in  crowd made fun of my clothing and 

> teased me

> about getting what I wore at the Thrift Shop. They knew this to be 

> true,because what I wore used to be theirs.

> 

> As summer approached, I kept thinking about the first day of 

> school and

> that dreaded English form everyone was required to complete. After

> entering my name, I was to list all the books I had read over the

> summer. Of course, I'd never read a book, so those spaces were

always

> left blank. The more I thought about it, the more that conference

with

> my fourth grade teacher and the lessons from my custodian friend

kept

> popping into my consciousness, so I took my baby-sitting money to

the

> book store and told the clerk I wanted to teach my six-year old

niece

> how to read; I asked her to recommend a book. On the spot, I 

> purchased,'Teach Your Child to Read." I still have the book. 

> 

> I spent the summer working through the pages and came to realize

that

> letters have rather consistent sounds, that the /r/ sisters (er, 

> ir, and

> ur) are triplets that all have the same sound. I learned that the

/oi/

> boys are twins who sound alike. By consistently going over and 

> over the

> same pages, I began to learn that it was possible to sound out

words,

> and that I didn't need to memorize how they looked. I was fascinated

> that a,e,i,o, and u didn't sound alike at all, but each had distinct

> sounds. What a revelation! I was amazed and excited. 

> 

> Finally, about half way through the summer, I worked up my courage 

> to go

> to the public library and ask the children's librarian if she could

> recommend a book. I quietly told her I wasn't a very good reader.

She

> found 'Hot Rod' for me. The biggest word in the book was 

> ambulance; all

> the others were composed of consonant-vowel-consonant words or some

> variation that I could now decode. It took the rest of the summer to

> read that exciting book, and I felt like I had conquered Mt. Everest

> when I finished reading the last page.   

> 

> I took a job that year working at a soda fountain and soon was 

> promotedto manager with responsibility for closing the shop, 

> counting the money,

> and making certain everything was as it should be for the night.

> Customers liked me and I really enjoyed interacting with them. For 

> somereason, it gave me some status at school, too. And now, I

believed

> myself to be a reader. 

> 

> Unfortunately, that balloon was soon popped when the tenth grade 

> Englishteacher assigned the reading of a classic book. I was 

> nearly sick with

> worry until I looked in front of me at the soda shop one evening and

> there was a circular display of Classic Comics. With a sense of 

> relief,I chose 'A Tale of Two Cities'. I'm here to tell you that 

> the essence of

> that tale cannot be translated from the illustrations. Further, the

> words were far beyond my ability to decipher. 

> 

> Without fanfare, the teacher asked me to stay after class when my 

> "bookreport" was more than a little garbled. As she quizzed me, I 

> simply had

> no idea what the story line was, what cities were involved or who

the

> main characters were. My confession produced a rather mild 

> scolding and

> encouragement to practice my reading. That was all the help I ever

> received in school for reading improvement. Nonetheless, I was

gaining

> confidence in myself as a problem solver and decision maker. 

> 

> After a massive flood forced my place of employment out of 

> business, I

> began working at an ice cream parlor. One of my jobs was to paint 

> Disneycharacters eating ice cream on the windows. They were pretty 

> good, and

> my photograph standing beside my artwork was placed in the local

paper

> with a nice piece about me. Again my confidence soared and I

continued

> practicing my reading every chance I could.

> 

> I wanted to go to college, but my high school counselor warned me

that

> my reading skills were too low for success. She recommended a small,

> liberal arts college in the wheat fields of western Kansas, but I

had

> visited that campus and felt it was not where I belonged. By this 

> time,my mother had her own business and she sacrificed to send me 

> to Colorado

> Women s College. There, I worked in the bookstore, made some

life-long

> friends and was voted president of my dormitory. Later, at Kansas 

> StateUniversity, I lived at home and completed an undergraduate 

> degree in

> elementary education. I had no desire to belong to a sorority, but

Mom

> insisted that I join if asked; she wanted me to have advantages she

> never enjoyed. To my surprise, my sorority sisters elected me to

> represent them in the Miss K-State pageant. Mistakenly, they

reasoned

> that since I was a runner-up to Cheryl Richie at CWC who later

became

> Miss America, that I could do it. I begged them to choose a 

> replacement,since  there was no competitive exercise in the CWC 

> choices, while

> K-State required a display of talent. They encouraged me and 

> refused to

> bail me out. I was scared to death and totally bombed my talent

> performance a dramatic  reading  of all things. I was glad the

> competition did not include a bathing suit parade; that would have

> definitely caused my early demise.

> 

> At K-State, one of my professors asked me to make an appointment 

> for a

> conference. He, I hope with good intent, informed me that I 

> shouldn t

> work so hard, that I didn t have the background that most of the

> students had, and that I probably never would be able to catch up. 

> Onceagain, I realized that it was up to me to work harder and to 

> cut through

> the toughness of life.

> 

> Time marched on as I completed an undergraduate degree in elementary

> education, a Master s degree in education of the mentally 

> retarded, and

> a Ph.D. in Education of the Exceptional with a minor in 

> psychology. I

> was thrilled to receive commendation for my dissertation defense the

> first one awarded in the last four years at The Catholic 

> University of

> American in my program of studies.

> 

> As I look back on my career as an assistant teacher in a school 

> for the

> mentally retarded before children with disabilities were included in

> public schools, as a camp counselor for a similar population in

Maine,

> as a second-grade teacher in Oregon, as a teacher for special needs

> students in Oregon and Virginia, and later the initiator of the 

> SpecialEducation Teacher Preparation Program at George Mason 

> University, and

> now as a faculty researcher in the area of reading disabilities at

the

> Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, I wonder how I got to a place

> where my background suggests I should never be. 

> 

> My purpose in writing this long narrative is to encourage teachers

of

> adolescent and adult struggling readers to teach phonics beginning 

> withdifferences between sounds, because some  may just now be 

> ready to learn

> sound differences. Maybe I m taking time to share my story, 

> because I

> have a manuscript to revise and I don t know where to begin. 

> Reliving my

> struggles gives me courage to tackle the task and convince myself

that

> with hard work, the task can be accomplished with dispatch and

> excellence. All I have to do is remember that life is tough and 

> that it

> s my responsibility to figure out how to cut through it.

> 

> Best regards, barb given

> 

> 

> 

> Barbara K. Given, Ph.D.

> Director, Adolescent and Adult Learning Research Center Krasnow

> Institute for Advanced Study, and Director, Center for Honoring

> Individual Learning Diversity, an International Learning Styles

Center

> George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030-4444

> Fax: 703-993-4325

> Ph:  703-993-4406

> 

> 

> ----- Original Message -----

> From: Donna Chambers <donnaedp at cox.net>

> Date: Thursday, January 25, 2007 7:36 am

> Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 783] Re: Movies and texts

> aboutlow-literateadults

> 

> > Another note about movies -

> > A great classroom lesson/discussion  would be to compare the 

> > female heroin 

> > in Freedom Writers with the female heroin in Educating Rita. The 

> > obvious 

> > comparison is the passion of the teacher versus the passion of 

> the 

> > student. 

> > What obstacles do each need to overcome to get to the goal?  

> Wow!  

> >  Donna 

> > Chambers

> > 

> > ----- Original Message ----- 

> > From: "Wendy Quinones" <wbquinones at adelphia.net>

> > To: "The Adult Literacy Professional Development Discussion 

> List" 

> > <professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>

> > Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 10:43 PM

> > Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 765] Re: Movies and texts 

> > aboutlow-literateadults

> > 

> > 

> > > So many people wrote about "Freedom Writers" that I thought 

> I'd 

> > send along

> > > this Op-Ed piece from the New York Times.  The "hero teacher" 

> > has always

> > > bothered me -- and I'm sure glad I teach adults!

> > >

> > > Wendy Quinones

> > >

> > >

> > > ----- Original Message ----- 

> > > From: "David J. Rosen" <djrosen at comcast.net>

> > > To: <professionaldevelopment at nifl.gov>

> > > Sent: Thursday, January 18, 2007 8:17 AM

> > > Subject: [ProfessionalDevelopment 760] Movies and texts about

> > > low-literateadults

> > >

> > >

> > >> Professional Development Colleagues,

> > >>

> > >> Several weeks ago I asked about books and movies that 

> inspired 

> > you as a

> > >> teacher.  We had a rich and interesting discussion that 

> > produced a

> > >> terrific list that I have archived on the Adult Literacy 

> > Education Wiki 

> > >> at

> > >>

> > >> 

> >

>

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Books_and_Films_which_Inspire_Tea

> chers>>

> > >> I hope you -- and others -- will help now with another 

> > question.  Can

> > >> you recommend good books or movies (or scenes from movies) 

> that you

> > >> believe authentically capture the experience of an adult 

> > learning to

> > >> read, write or compute.  The film "Stanley and Iris" comes to 

> > mind, for

> > >> example. For some it is an authentic example, for others it is

> > >> inauthentic.  I am also interested to hear about scenes from 

> > films that

> > >> you believe are inauthentic, or that just plain get it wrong, 

> > and I

> > >> would like to know what you think was inauthentic about it.  

> I 

> > would>> also appreciate hearing from people who learned (or are 

> > learning) to

> > >> read as adults.  From your experience as a person who has 

> > learned to

> > >> read as an adult, what texts, what films ring true? Which

don't?

> > >>

> > >> Those of you who teach adult new readers might be willing to 

> > take this

> > >> question to your students and post back to the list what they 

> say.> >>

> > >> Thanks for your help.

> > >>

> > >> David J. Rosen

> > >> djrosen at comcast.net

> > >>

> > >> ----------------------------------------------------

> > >> National Institute for Literacy

> > >> Adult Literacy Professional Development mailing list

> > >> ProfessionalDevelopment at nifl.gov

> > >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please 

> go to

> > >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/professionaldevelopment

> > >>

> > >> Professional Development section of the Adult Literacy 

> > Education Wiki

> > >> 

> >

>

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Devel

> opment>>

> > >

> > 

> > 

> > -----------------------------------------------------------------

> --

> > -------------

> > 

> > 

> > > ----------------------------------------------------

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> > > Adult Literacy Professional Development mailing list

> > > ProfessionalDevelopment at nifl.gov

> > > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go 

> > to 

> > > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/professionaldevelopment

> > >

> > > Professional Development section of the Adult Literacy 

> Education 

> > Wiki> 

> >

>

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Devel

> opment 

> > 

> > 

> > ----------------------------------------------------

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> > Adult Literacy Professional Development mailing list

> > ProfessionalDevelopment at nifl.gov

> > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go 

> to 

> > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/professionaldevelopment

> > Professional Development section of the Adult Literacy Education 

> > Wiki 

> >

>

http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Adult_Literacy_Professional_Devel

> opment

> > 

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>

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> opment

> 

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