Hi, all --

I wanted to write a response to Barbara Kushner's "P.S." about Laubach 
boring her students.  I know that many ESOL teachers are not Laubachian 
fans, probably for the same reason.

Well, I recently decided -- for a plethora of reasons I won't go into 
here -- to begin using the Laubach method in my ESOL classroom, and I'm 
doing so with a conscious intent to evaluate its application.  So far, my 
students have been far from bored and I am pleased and surprised at their 
progress.

My students are SPL-IV low-intermediate adult males in recovery or in the 
criminal justice system.  They are all from Mexico.  I have tried a number 
of different approaches, and after several months' of research, decided to 
go with the Laubachian method.  One of my main motivations was finding a 
systematic way to deal with fossilization, which, in my opinion, Laubach 
does facilitate-- that is to say, the lessons allow me to focus on 
fossilization; another motivation was to decrease my own prep time.  I'm 
very pleased with the method so far.

I agree that boredom could definitely creep in; however, I think boredom is 
a potential problem with *any* method and also is related much more to the 
style of lesson delivery and the individual teacher's selection of 
supplementary materials and activities.  I concur with Barbara insofar as 
the Laubachian method cannot stand alone without boring students.  Any 
teacher using it must be willing to modify and supplement lesson delivery. 
For me, personally, that is easier to do and less time consuming than other 
methods I've tried so far.

[I was also drawn to Laubach because while doing background research, I 
learned about his motivations, while reminded me very much of Paulo Freire 
and other "revolutionary" educators (a good site to visit on this topic is 
Informal Education, at http://www.infed.org/; Laubach isn't there, but 
Freire and all the other great innovators are).]

My class meets twice a week.  Each session consists of two 45-minute 
periods, separated by a break.  I present a Laubach lesson only during the 
first day but don't do much with it on Day 2.  This is because of attendance 
issues; I have a full class on Day 1, but only a partial class on Day 2. 
So, Day 2 is always devoted to thematic issues and, if necessary, Spanish 
GED prep.  We may, however, review elements from Day 1's lesson -- the other 
day, for example, we repeated a minimal pairs listening exercise.

Some notes on how I try to "liven up" Laubach lesson delivery:

As you know, Laubach incorporates handwriting.  I find that my students are 
all very eager to learn handwriting, especially cursive.  We do cursive 
writing as a warm-up activity, but during that activity, I play music.  I 
have also experimented with reading a hi-lo story aloud during handwriting 
warm-up.  The students seem to enjoy either approach.  It wouldn't occur to 
me to have them do handwriting without some sort of background audio. They 
also like having the handwriting as homework, because it is something they 
actually CAN do -- so they have a feeling of success and completion, which 
creates a wonderful feedback loop.

As for the specific sentence and/or word "drills," I always present and 
complement these with games.  I don't just follow the script in the Laubach 
teacher's manual.  I will deliver the lesson as suggested, but will very 
quickly begin to alter it.  One thing I liked about Laubach when I chose it 
is that the method encourages the teacher to be speaking no more than 40 
percent of the time.  So, once I'm finished with the basics of the lesson, 
the rest is in the hands of the students (with me guiding them, even just 
with gestures).  They correct each other -- which I find incredibly 
empowering -- when a fossilization error occurs.  This student-driven 
learning enlivens the class considerably.  There is much laughter and 
lightness -- even if the basic Laubach "drill of the day" is something like 
"What is this?  It's a pen."

When it's time for break, students do not want to leave!  They want to 
continue what we're doing.  So, I infer from that that they aren't bored. 
They are moving systematically toward reachable, assessable goals, with 
levels of mastery expected (and achieved), and are having a great time doing 
it.

But I agreee that just by looking at the Laubach materials, one could 
immediately be put off, as the lessons do look like drudgery.  But they 
contain, in my opinion, gems, as far as addressing the challenges of 
fossilization and truly working toward measurable mastery.  The challenge is 
for the teacher to take the material and present it in such a way so that 
students don't experience any drudgery at all, but rather obvious progress 
(obvious to THEM), all while having a good time.

Anyway, just my two cents' worth on Laubach . . .

--------------------------
Martha J. Bianco, Ph.D.
Adult Basic Skills / ESOL Educator
Multnomah County Department of Community Justice
Londer Learning Center
Portland, Oregon