HI All--and HI to Iris, who is facing a truly frustrating situation, 
which I exerienced first hand.  I will give some thoughts on her 
message tomorrow-- I have been training all week and am really tired 
tonight.     There have been some good, thought-provoking questions and 
discussions here--thank you all for your interest and messages.   I 
will answer more of them this weekend.    Robin

-----Original Message-----
From: iris.broudy at SDH.state.ma.us
To: focusonbasics at nifl.gov
Sent: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 09:29:57 -0500
Subject: [FocusOnBasics] a lament

Thanks to Robin for hosting this discussion.  I have no answers to 
specific
questions posed this week, but I feel a need to use this forum to 
express my
frustration and sense of helplessness.  I hope you will indulge me.  I 
have
12 years of ESOL experience, in a great variety of settings, and a 
master's
in ESOL. In July 2002, I took a position in correctional education, 
teaching
beginning ESOL to male inmates in a large county facility in 
Massachusetts
that is well-known for its education program.  When I came here, I had 
no
training or experience in working with special-needs students.  Yet, as 
you
all probably know, a great percentage of incarcerated adult students 
have
learning issues. Many of the ESOL students here are nonliterate in their
first language, which in this case is Spanish.  It is difficult to know,
when a nonliterate inmate comes through orientation, why he can't read
because we have no screening protocols.  He simply gets placed in the
beginners class. (This is if his oral SPL is 0 to 2; if he can 
communicate
at an intermediate level but can't read, that's another challenge that 
we
cannot meet.) In rare cases, such as that of Rodolfo, a 21-year-old from
Guatemala, the student simply had not been to school. I initially 
thought
Rodolfo had LDs. In addition to being nonliterate, he seemed unable to
produce oral language. But over time I discovered that Rodolfo lacked
confidence and self-esteem. Eventually, he began speaking (with 
excellent
pronunciation).  As for reading, early on I had little success using a
phonics approach. Then I discovered that he was very good at word
recognition in context.

In most cases, however, there are issues of LDs, head injuries, 
substance
abuse, childhood trauma, low intelligence, etc. Take Anibal (age 30) or 
José
and Hector (both in their late 50s): After months of school, despite
individual work with a peer tutor (inmate) and one-on-one tutoring from 
me
when I could manage it, they still could not read a simple word.  Since 
I've
been here, I have attended several workshops on learning disabilities,
including an excellent one presented a year ago by Robin herself at this
facility.  But I am far from a trained reading specialist. And I cannot 
even
apply what I have learned so long as the special-needs students are
integrated with beginning learners who are literate in L1 and may even 
have
high school diplomas.  Yes, I can provide things like Irlen overlays. 
But we
do not have the resources to creat special-needs ESOL classes. So most 
of
these men sit and do busywork or, when possible, work on computer 
software.
With intensive tutoring, they might be able to learn. But under these
circumstances, they make little or no progress, and because they are
mandated to be in school, they take spaces in class that could go to
students with greater learning potential. So this is my frustration. 
I'm not
trained to teach a large number of our ESOL students, and even if I 
were,
limited resources prevent delivering what they need. I feel that I'm 
burning
out and question the value of what I'm doing.  Perhaps teachers in other
kinds of adult programs face the same issues.

Iris L. Broudy
ESOL Instructor/Programs Dept.
Hampden County Sheriff's Department
627 Randall Road
Ludlow,  MA  01056
(413) 547-8000  ext. 2468
Fax:  (413) 583-3099
iris.broudy at sdh.state.ma.us



-----Original Message-----
From: Julie McKinney [mailto:julie_mcKinney at worlded.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 16, 2006 10:02 AM
To: focusonbasics at nifl.gov
Subject: [FocusOnBasics] Use this address: focusonbasics at nifl.gov


Hi All,

Please note that the correct address to send postings to is:

focusonbasics at nifl.gov

Cut out the"dev":
Those of you who have been with us for a while may still be using the
old address focusonbasics at dev.nifl.gov. This one no longer works.

You can also just reply to a message from the list, but consider if you
want the subject line to match what you are replying to, or if you want
a new one.

Thanks folks!

Julie

Julie McKinney
Discussion List Moderator
World Education/NCSALL
jmckinney at worlded.org

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