Wow, Steve. You're a man after my own heart! You actually combined reading
and food in the same thought!  :-)  [Said the woman who is sitting here with
a family-sized bag of potato chips in her lap!]  :-)
 
But I agree fully with your post, and thank your for understanding what I
was trying to say. Many adult ed people are using these books, and I
recently received the COOLEST video from the Adult Programming and Research
Director of "Down Syndrome of Louisville, KY" of a man with Down Syndrome
(one of her clients) reading one of my books. His pride was AMAZING, and you
can tell he really was enjoying the book! If you care to see the video,
email me, and I'll send you the link. (I doubt I'm allowed to post the link
here.)  It just proves that books that written on a first-grade reading
level, yet are written for adults, about adults and with adult characters
are exactly what emergent, struggling and ESL learners need to help them on
the road to lifelong literacy!
 
And perhaps Rubem Alvse said that educating was "the art of creating
hunger," which is oh so true, but I believe that once this hunger is
created, true educating is "the art of satisfying hunger." :-) Crunch,
crunch. 
 
Oh, and in answer to your question of "is the struggle to raise literacy
levels more directed towards children or towards adults?"  Well, sadly, it
would depend on who you'd ask. But bottom line, we need to raise the
literacy levels of ALL people--children and adults. We have many great
programs for child literacy. First Book, Book 'em, Reading is Fundamental
(if it's not eliminated), Reading First and Reach out and Read, to mention a
few. But we have VERY little for older adolescent and adult literacy.
[Although, my goal is to change that!]
 
Keep up the great work, Steve!
 
~Elise
elise.leonard at gmail.com
www.eliseleonard.com
www.NoxPress.com
 
 


  _____  

From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Steve Kaufmann
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 1:45 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2456] Re: ESL Reading - 2 or 3 things we
knowforsure


The famous Brazilian educator Rubem Alves talks about educating as "the art
of creating hunger". He describes a scene from his boyhood when he was eager
to eat the fruit of a tree in his neighbour's yard and devised a tool to
pick the fruit. Once he had the hunger, finding a method came easily. Once
we have hunger, we find a way to feed ourselves.

I guess part of creating hunger is making things available that learners
like to eat. I am not a literacy teacher, but I gather from Elise's post
here, that the problems of literacy are more related to providing things
that are good to eat and digestible, rather then the techniques of how to
hold a fork, or how to read. 

In that sense I have found, in foreign language instruction, that allowing
learners to choose content of interest, allowing them to listen a few times
before reading, and giving them some measurables of their activities and the
number of words that they have learned, all help make the reading taste
better, and encourage them to eat.

I presume the same is true for literacy learners.

As the French say, "l'appetit vient en mangeant".

Steve


On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 10:25 AM, Elise Leonard <elise.leonard at gmail.com>
wrote:


 Barbara and Joe and Glenda Lynn Rose,

First of all, I'd like to applaud you for trying to bring "reading for
pleasure" into our Adult Ed classrooms! As a former inner-city teacher who
has spent her entire career successfully teaching our nation's "forgotten"
people (kids kicked out of New York City public schools back in the 70s 80s
and 90s, our homeless, our migrant workers, at-risk students, our
immigrants, gang members and their leaders, and any other emergent,
struggling or ESL adult or adolescent learner who wanted a better life for
themselves through literacy), I have found that getting people motivated to
read and getting them to read for pleasure was easy as long as I kept two
very simple things in mind. 1) I had to give them something they COULD read,
and 2) I had to give them something they WANTED to read.

I had a 100% success rate (with the measure being the New York State regents
exams), which was basically unheard of with this target learner. But my
methods were quite simple, and again, I'll repeat: I gave them something
they COULD read and something they WANTED to read. Of course, as all of you
have probably experienced, and you, Barbara have mentioned in your message,
there's not much out there for this target audience that's of interest to
them yet is also on their reading level. So I wrote all of my materials
myself. Cool, fun, fast-paced, funny books for my learners. And they worked.
They got my learners reading, laughing, discussing and learning--building
their reading muscles and skills while having fun.

Elise Leonard
Elise.Leonard at gmail.com
www.NoxPress.com



-----Original Message-----
From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of joe ramos
Sent: Wednesday, May 14, 2008 12:13 AM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2441] Re: ESL Reading - 2 or 3 things we know
forsure

Hello,

I don't know if this is the right forum for my question but I'll try.

First of all my name is Joe Ramos, I am a graduate student working on a MA
in Education (Adult Education) and a Post Secondary Certificate in Reading
at San Francisco State University.

I am currently working on a project or paper that deals with motivation or
"motivating the unmotivated."


The focus is on teaching either high school students, post secondary
students or adult learning students who are involved in a reading or basic
English class who are unmotivated to learn to read or write on their own.

Is any one out there who might have a suggestion of an article or two to
read?

Or someone who might have experince working with this type of student.I
would appreciate some feed back as my paer is due soon.

Thank you

Joe Ramos


--- Glenda Lynn Rose <glyndalin at yahoo.com> wrote:


> I've found the same thing.  If I don't emphasize reading for pleasure

> by setting time apart for it during the student's study time, it is

> interpreted as being unimportant, no matter how many times I assert to

> the contrary.  So, I set some time aside to just let the read for

> themselves.

>

> Barbara Caballero <barbaracaballero at sbcglobal.net>

> wrote:          Good afternoon, everyone,

>   I'm Barbara Rotolo-Caballero, a part-time ESL instructor at Austin

> Community College in Texas. My comments are related to my

> intermediate/advanced level class and this assertion:

>   "4. Reading is an interactive process between the reader, the text,

> and the writer. The situation in which you read and write and your

> purposes for doing so play a role as well (think about opening a

> letter from the INS - now USCIS - or a note from your ex-spouse)."

>

>   I like to have fun in my class, but reading has often been the least

> fun. Too often I have inserted myself between my students and text and

> writer by diligently focusing on comprehension and

> vocabulary-building. What a drag.

>

>   My students weren't doing reading homework that I assigned. My

> students didn't have books in English at home. Attempts to get them to

> bring in reading material that was interesting to them (something out

> there in the real world) bombed. The only reading we were doing in

> class was ESL textbook reading and usually reading aloud. I knew that

> they needed to read more and to get the feel of reading English as

> part of everyday life. I didn't know how to make this happen.

>

>   Inspired by Nancy Meredith, a colleague at ACC, I've introduced a

> new process. For one-half hour in the middle of our 3-hour class, my

> students sit down with a book and read, silently. So do I.. I have a

> file box full of leveled readers for adults (mostly Penguin, mostly

> books based on movies). Each student may select any book. Each student

> keeps a log of the books completed. That's it. We don't all read the

> same book. I don't plan a lesson around any of these books. We just

> sit and read for pleasure. Not one student has balked at this, nor

> have I lost a student because of it. I encourage them to read through,

> without dictionaries. I encourage them to keep a list of words that

> they'd like to learn. It's often difficult to pull them away from

> their reading when it's time to move on to another task.

>

>   I'm very happy with this new process and I wonder who else is doing

> this.

>   Barbara Rotolo-Caballero

>   brotoloc at austincc.edu

>

>

>

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

> From: "Wrigley, Heide" <heide at literacywork.com>

> To: "Wrigley, Heide" <heide at literacywork.com>; The Adult English

> Language Learners Discussion List <englishlanguage at nifl.gov>

> Cc: Lynda Terrill <lterrill at cal.org>

> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 3:26:57 PM

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2390] ESL Reading - 2 or 3 things we know

> for sure

>

>             Hi, all

>

>   Apparently, there's been a bit of a problem with the CAL server but

> we are moving along.

>

>   Hello again to those of you participating in the Reading for Adult

> ELLs discussion. As promised, I wanted to start us off with the two or

> three things we know for sure from research in reading (though not

> necessarily from research with adult English language learners - we

> don't yet have research that speaks directly to this population).

>

>   So here is my questions. Which one of these assertions really

> resonates for you?  If you are an ESL teacher do you have examples

> from you students that either supports or disproves one of these

> points

>

>

>

>    You learn to read just once (this is also known as "breaking the

> code"; once you have developed phonemic awareness in one language and

> you know to decode one language), you don't need to start all over

> with developing phonemic awareness in another language - you just need

> to absorb the rules of the new system - that is, you must learn how

> English works, not how literacy works.

>

>

>    Knowledge from the first language transfers to knowledge about the

> second language but transfer is not automatic. You may need to draw

> your students attention to certain common features of the language.

>

>

>    We make sense of the world by connecting prior knowledge with new

> knowledge.  We gain meaning from print the same way. So if your

> knowledge of the world does not match the knowledge of the world that

> the writer assumes, the text is likely to be confusing to you even if

> your reading skills are ok.

>

>

>    Reading is an interactive process between the reader, the text, and

> the writer.  The situation in which you read and write and your

> purposes for doing so play a role as well (think about opening a

> letter from the INS - now USCIS or a note from your ex-spouse).

>

>

>    When we read, we activate two types of knowledge - what we know

> about meaning making (top down

> processes) and what we know about language (bottom-up processes).

> It's important to keep in mind that the purpose of reading is

> comprehension.

>

>

>    Although control over bottom-up processes is important for learning

> to read, it does not follow that new readers must have mastered all

> sub skills before they can focus on comprehension. Using sub skills

> effectively enhances comprehension, but control over sub skills does

> not automatically lead to comprehension.

>

>

>    Language proficiency and reading comprehension are closely related.

> One way of increasing the reading skills of literate learners is to

> build language skills.  One way of building students comprehension of

> (pre) academic texts, is to present such information orally

> (mini-presentations) and visually (through PowerPoints or video clips)

> so you can build understanding of concepts without your students

> getting mired in print.

>

>

>    Vocabulary knowledge is one of the key determinants of reading

> comprehension. Increases in vocabulary means increases in background

> knowledge and in reading comprehension, the same as in everything

> else, the more you know - the more you know

>

>   Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

>

>   Heide

>

>

>

>       From: Wrigley, Heide

> Sent: Monday, May 12, 2008 12:18 PM

> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> Cc: Lynda Terrill

> Subject: Reading and Adult English Language Learners

>

>

>

>

>   Good morning all

>

>   It's 7 am here in Southern New Mexico, it's still nice and cool and

> the roses are blooming big time and I should be going out to water

> soon (coffee first, though)

>

>

>   I wanted to welcome you to the discussion on ESL Reading and am

> hoping that we'll have a lively back and forth as you pose questions,

> challenge assumptions, and share your own experience teaching reading

> to ESL students - either teaching these skills explicitly and

> systematically or just folding reading into your regular curriculum.

>

>   I would like to invite you to tell us a sentence or two about

> yourself and your work and your experience before you post your

> messages.

>

>   Just a bit of background: I'm Heide Spruck Wrigley and my work

> revolves around the intersection of research, policy and practice.

> I've been involved in several studies on ESL literacy (broader than

> just

> reading) that we can talk about, and this year I'm doing quite a bit

> of work around workplace literacy.

>  Most of my work has been with language minority adults

=== message truncated ===>
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-- 
Steve Kaufmann
www.lingq.com
1-604-922-8514 

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