Hello all,
I'm not sure if my questions fall under the writing or the visual
problems categories or both, but here it is:

In my years of teaching to low-level ESOL adults, I have had many
students who I would call "weak writers" for lack of a better term,
often, these students have dropped out of school early, like 5th-8th
grades, but these are not non-literate students.  They usually require
much more time to write and copy from the board, and many students have
the problem of copying incorrectly.  We don't have any way of screening
for disabilities right now in our programs.  My assumption was that 
many students just were "out of practice", having spent many years out
of school both in their own countries and in the US, and essentially
their writing muscles are out of shape.  Is this possible or should I
always suspect LD?

In addition, I am quite surprised at the large number of students, even
the ones who write faster, who copy things incorrectly off the board. 
It's hard to know if this just comes from L1 interference.

If indeed it was possible to test students for the visual and learning
problems, how and where to refer our students?  Unfortunately we don't
have nor do we know of "Special Education" for adult ESOL learners.

Coincidentally, I have begun to find out just how many students have
visual problems and trying to find them affordable care.  Does anyone
have resources for this?  So far we don't know of any.

Thanks for an interesting...and important discussion.


Carolyn Grimaldi
Center for Immigrant Education and Training
LaGuardia Community College
29-10 Thomson Ave. C250
Long Island City, NY 11101
(718) 482-5067
www.lagcc.cuny.edu/ciet/
cgrimaldi at lagcc.cuny.edu


>>> robinschwarz1 at aol.com 2/16/2006 7:39:29 AM >>>



-----Original Message-----
From: Robinschwarz1
To: focusonbasics at dev.nifl.gov 
Sent: Wed, 15 Feb 2006 21:44:45 -0500
Subject: writing and handwriting for low literate /non-literate
learners

This is in response to Aaron's and others' comments and questions on 
teaching writing to low or non-literate learners. 
 
Though this is an area I am not so well acquainted with, here are some

observations and thoughts: 
 
AS for phonological skills, the skill of handwriting requires roughly 
the same preparation that young children get before they are expected 
to write easily-- lots and lots of fine motor practice-- the muscles 
for holding a writing instrument must be developed and the movements 
developed from large to small. When remediating these skills in persons

with dysgraphia, it is necessary to start with large arm movements, 
creating circles and other letter-related movements on the board or on

newspaper with markers ( pens , especially most ball point pens, are 
slippery for those with hand writing challenges--plus the added tactile

input of markers is helpful in teaching the fingers to grasp 
correctly.) Fat pens or pencils would be helpful in the beginning-- or

fat markers. 
 
Much tracing experience is recommended--plus other kinds of activities

that involve fine motor with a writing tool-- mazes, connecting dots, 
coloring---all the things children do to strengthen their fingers and 
hands. 
There is an amazing choice of "adult" coloring books-- lovely designs,

pictures from different cultures, etc--usually available through 
museums- ( does anyone know the name of that company that produces 
those in great profusion?? They must be available on the web). 
 
There are a VERY few books for non-literate adult ESOL learners that 
include some basic tracing of letter forms, but to my highly 
opinionated view, they have far too little practice in them. Like all 
skills, these must be mastered-- overlearned-- for further writing to 
develop comfortably. Also bear in mind that for those with dyslexia and

dysgraphia, cursive is highly recommended over block printing. Thus it

will undoubtedly be easier for those learning to write for the first 
time to move directly to connected writing and curvy lines rather than

straight interrupted lines. A friend of mine in the DC area, Janette 
Haynes produced a wonderful handwriting book for adult ESOL learners 
coming from other alphabets-- it was called American Handwriting Slow 
and Easy and was a simplified cursive system. (Delta Publishing 
Systems, 1995) My Arabic college students found this very helpful--it 
has practice with check writing, names of states, different names for 
streets, cardinal and ordinal numbers, etc--all things ESOL learners 
need to learn anyway, instead of meaningless sentences. 
 
As for those who write already, here is where my culture alarms go off.

  Many other cultures have a very different approach to writing than we

do . For example, in the French=based system I taught in in Africa, 
students were obliged to have "perfect" handwriting at a very early 
age. They had a much different formation of letters than we do--and 
they were severely punished if their writing was not neat and beautiful

and if they misspelled ANYTHING. Thus learners coming from such 
cultures may be extremely hesitant to write in English, a) because they

do not know how to form the letters the way we do and b) because they 
fear being reprimanded for making errors. As Dave Barry would say, I am

NOT making this up. In my class of adult ESOL learners in Massachusetts

I encountered this very situation. These were mostly learners from Cape

Verde and Brazil, Haiti and different African countries. When I gave 
them some task to write and hardly anyone moved their pencil, I asked 
them whether they were afraid I would be mad if they made spelling 
mistakes or wrote badly= they ALL nodded vigorously. I had to assure 
them repeatedly I was not going to look at those things!!! 
 
And finally, looking further to actual composition--again culture is a

huge obstacle. How text is organized for writing varies enormously from

culture to culture--in some it is considered rude to make a point 
explicitly. It is up to the reader to figure it out. In other cultures

it is important to write EVERYTHING you know about a topic-- and these

do not understand why we get so exercised about their voluminous 
compositions that appear to us to ramble all over the place.  As I have

said many times in my trainings, the concept of main idea in writing 
does not exist much beyond our borders. This was confirmed by my next 
door neighbor here in Columbus, where I live now== she is Romanian, and

a doctoral student. She told me she also had a terrible time figuring 
out how to write in the highly linear way we do in America, --a thought

seconded by my Portugues doctoral advisor at Lesley. She said she had 
to teach herself how to write " just the important points" when she was

a newly arrived college student from Portugal. 
 
Robin 
 

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