Further to Susan's comments and other comments about teaching
comprehension: there's an old saying I'm aware of about adult literacy
learners (not sure where it came from originally but it might be from
Jane Mace) that an adult beginning reader is not (necessarily) a
beginning thinker. 

 

Freebody and Luke's roles acknowledge this as do other perspectives on
the importance of developing and using critical thinking and critical
reading skills and strategies with adults even when code-breaking skills
might be weak.  This is not to suggest that working at word level with
learners isn't crucial but I can't see that it's useful for an adult
learner to wait until they can decode entirely independently before they
use and extend their range of comprehension strategies. 

 

I'm also interested in whether people think there are overlaps - in
terms of teaching comprehension strategies to adults- between listening
comprehension and reading comprehension?

 

Enjoying the discussion very much. Thank-you.

 

Trisha Hanifin

 

Professional Development Coordinator

Workbase NZ Centre for Workforce Literacy Development

 

 

 

-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Susan Reid
Sent: Sunday, 28 May 2006 10:18 a.m.
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 61] Re: ARCS questions-Comprehension

 

Thank you for a very interesting discussion 

Just a comment to support what Amy is saying about comprehension
strategies 

In New Zealand our teaching of reading has been influenced by Freebody
and Liuke's four reader roles ( lately collapsed into 3 ) code breaker,
meaning maker or participant, text user and text analyst - the roles are
not linear - see

http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm

http://www.alea.edu.au/docs/ludwig.pdf

http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm

Certainly in the work I have done with lower level readers a number are
already at some level of the text analyst stage even though they may not
have the full range of codebreakling skills 

I presume that what you refer to on the website  is explicit teaching of
a range of comprehension strategies 

 

At Workbase one of my colleagues Trisha Hanifin  who I know  is
following this discussion led the development of a course on How to
teach reading to adults. Trisha and another colleague Ginnie Denny
deliver this course three times a year to a range of adult literacy
tutors. As a result of feedback about what tutors want to learn about
now  Trisha is currently working on a one day workshop on Comprehension
Strategies to provide more depth to those covered in the Reading Course

 

Regards 

Susan Reid 

Manager, Professional Development 

Workbase NZ Centre for Workforce Literacy Development 

www.workbase.org.nz

also see New Zealand Literacy Portal 

www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz

 

 

________________________________

From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Amy Trawick
Sent: Sat 27/05/2006 7:10 a.m.
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 59] ARCS questions-Comprehension

Thank you, John and Ros for the wonderful resource of the ARCS website
and
for this opportunity to ask questions.  My questions have mainly to do
with
comprehension, and the quotes in my message come from the silent reading
comprehension page of the mini-course.

1)  On the website, you say, "There are other subskills of reading
comprehension that require knowledge of the structure of language
(compound
and complex sentences, paragraphs, stories and informational text), and
the
ability to interact with text (metacognition) by assuming some
responsibility for understanding the author's message. Many ABE learners
have to learn "how" to comprehend. Teachers address these issues through
instruction in reading comprehension strategies."  Yet, I notice that
you
did not include assessments that measure *use of comprehension
strategies*
in the battery of assessments.  Could you please talk a little bit about
your reasons for this?  In other words, were there logistical concerns
or
research-based/theoretical concerns--or both?

2) This statement appears on the website: "Explicit instruction in
comprehension strategies should begin when a learner has acquired
sufficient
word recognition mastery, usually no sooner than low intermediate level,
GE
3. Beginning readers are focused on word analysis and recognition within
simple text that does not require strategies for understanding."
Whereas I
agree for the most part with this statement, I think that, since we are
working with adults, there might be a caveat here.  As adults, these
readers
often need to address real-life reading tasks (reading labels, filling
out
simple forms, paying bills) that, if they use some simple comprehension
strategies (attending to text formatting/structure, scanning for key
words,
thinking about what they know), they can accomplish simple but important
reading purposes with texts that are written above their reading level.
I'm
thinking here, for example, of reading to understand a utility bill.  A
utility bill can be difficult to read from beginning to end, but if you
just
want to know how much you owe and when it's due, a low-level reader can
read
for that purpose--if they know some basic comprehension strategies and
are
able to integrate this with their alphabetics and vocabulary knowledge.
Do
you have any philosophical problem with incorporating comprehension
strategies of this type into a curriculum for beginning readers, as long
as
due attention is also paid to building the underlying skills in
alphabetics,
fluency, and vocabulary?

Thank you!

Amy
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