Talking It Over

for [Music] [Music] from the other side of the globe the United States is seen as a country of great richness vitality and natural beauty I'm Mike per and when I came from Australia in 1974 I was surprised to learn there are 3 million Americans totally illiterate and 30 million Americans functionally illiterate it's good to learn that so many people are tackling this illiteracy problem and this project on literacy instructor training is one such project this program is the fifth and last in our series and we'd like to offer some suggestions from experienced trainers in the area of adult reading and to do this we'll meet Ellena burn of literacy Volunteers Incorporated an organization that has done so much in this area and Peg Williams and Shirley Thomas the co-directors have learn let every age read now these people live at Buffalo New York with the Niagra Falls at their back door Peg sh sh what are some of the important things that you'd say to an instructor who is teaching adults to learn to read Mike I think one of the most important things for a tutor to be aware of when he has uh a student is to know that when you have an adult student this is different than a child the adult comes with all kinds of experience and language and we must be aware of that as a tutor the thing I'd like to emphasize is that the teacher is a teacher and not just a friend and never a do gooder but a real teacher Dr Annabelle Newman the director of the reading practicum Center at Indiana University and our literacy expert in this series the kind of empathy and warmth that an individual feels for another human being who for one reason or another may not have learned to read is perhaps however one of the most important characteristics of a good instructor Mr Horus Thompson is a literacy learner and is featured in our program on the language experience approach I asked Mr Thompson what he felt the characteristics of a good literacy teacher are a good liter teacher I think should be one who have a sincere interest in what they're doing they should want to help people who are seeking the help that they realize now that they need they should have the time to spend with the person they should be able to make the person that they're trying to help feel wanted and have uh the Pati that they deserve because in the back of their mind they are somewhat uh Angry with somewh somebody because they don't have what they should have they they should uh be able to keep the person listening back in their mind they feel that it's someone else's fault that they don't have the uh education they should have it might be from where they were born their location of this country they didn't have an opportunity to go to school now that they have an opportunity it's a little late but it's better late than never and for that reason they need to be encouraged to come on come on let's share this together and CJ Haynes A literacy learner who participated in our program on word analysis skills I think a good tutor is somebody who understands uh that has patience and likes their work a lot and that who care about people and John CJ's brother who encouraged CJ to improve his literacy skills gives his thoughts on on the characteristics of a good literacy instructor from from what I what I've observed C seeing CJ work with the tutors that he has it's it's my opinion that a good tutor is one who's who's really patient and and they want to work with the person to to help him learn and not not like not like the public system where they say do this it's so structured I mean they're willing to fish around find what's good for this person and they're really trying to help them learn that relationship right there means much more to the person and and they they want to learn I mean they install a little pride in himself they encourage him when he does it right there's none of this knock him down because that's the worst and a good tutor from what what I've observed has um shown him a little guidance make make him do do it on his own but at the same time make him feel as though he could do it and he is doing it even with a little help well in working with adults the tutor has to be very sensitive to the students needs much more so than if were teaching uh a child for instance well I think to teach an uh an adult is allog together different from teaching a child because you have to bring a a an adult up on your own level to get that attention because uh to teach them like you would a child I don't think you'd ever get their attention and until you get that attention you're wasting your time and with this in mind the the tutor will necessarily be very sensitive and very very um aware that his student is neither below him nor he above the student that it's on a lateral level you see so teaching an adult to read is very different from teaching a child sherley Thomas stresses the need for some immediate success another thing I think that's very important is that the tutor should be aware that this adult is coming in with all kinds of fears and and a low self-image uh he's failed he's not had successes otherwise he wouldn't be coming to you therefore it's important for you as a tutor to uh provide some sort of success to happen immediately in the first session if possible this is the best uh certainly as you go along you want those success successes to increase I would like to say to a tutor when a pupil first reach the school building or wherever you might meet them greet them as warmly as you know how because they need to have uh need to know that they are wanted and no one likes to be where they're not wanted so if they're warmly received I think they'll come back again and again something that a tutor ought to be well aware of is that whatever they use with a student in teaching should be able to be applied to his everyday living immediately let me give you an example Mike supposing you're using something in the line of cooking or words to that could be used in cooking I think it's important then that the the student be able to take that home immediately and apply that in her everyday living uh sometimes we get all caught up in our jargon and and uh very long words and it's not appropriate it's important to speak in the language your student can understand and remember that he's an adult he has dignity he comes with experience uh he has all kinds of things he give to you it can be a learning experience both ways when we think of reading we often think of books and sitting down and just learning how to read with specific skills that really isn't what always takes place what happens is this we have a student and we have a tutor and in order for that to really work together we have to know each other and the tutor has the opportunity of knowing the student on a onetoone basis of getting into his life and what he's like and the kinds of things he does what he's interested in so therefore the tutor becomes the learner at this point he learns from the student and as he learns from the student he takes these things and can plan lessons around them so he has to learn to like that person he has to know about him he has to feel with him he has to have empathy with him this makes him sens sensitive to all the things that take part in that lesson how important is motivation very important I think it's mo one of the most important things in life is being able to encourage others to continue in a direction that they should be encouraged in regards to what it might be everybody needs to be encouraged the adult student very often will come in with a great deal of motivation when they've made this decision to learn to read it's a it's a real decision and so they come in and want to do it however I think the uh tutor must be aware that this uh motivation is sometimes unrealistic as far as what's going happen within a given period of time so it's important for the tutor to be sensitive to that and and constantly encourage and uh create an atmosphere where the adult uh sees a realistic kind of goal ahead but also has a great deal of encouragement all along the way Shirley and Peg have tried a variety of techniques in teaching adults to read you might like to try some of them we like to use a tape recorder because this is lots of fun for the student as well as something that he can hear and listen to his progress as he moves on a diary is another successful method of uh motivation the student will go home and write in the diary keeping down whatever she or he wants and brings it back if she wants to it's a way of getting that student to write down words and maybe some sentences and sharing it as I said if she wants to with with a tutor another one of the things that is very very good are all kinds of printed materials in the line of newspaper apers comic books greeting cards uh from newspapers we can take just certain sections depending upon his level and where he is maybe we want to look at say the weather and learn to read the weather maybe we want to use a TV Guide or perhaps part of the radio but things that apply to his life well you got to be able to find what they what they what they are interested in if they are interested in let's say flowers or gardening get a book with some of the information in are either automobile if you please A lot of people are interested in learning more about the automobile and if they can get a book on learning about what they're interested in they're coming back again and again and again tutor takes her student out for a walk and they begin to take pictures of the scenery and pictures of one another and then those pictures are developed and the tutor will bring those pictures back the next week and share the pictures with her student the student then sits down and begins to talk about the picture she's looking at and the tutor will write down what she says and there is our experien story The plus part of that is that it's an immediate kind of experience it's something shared with a student and the tutor and it's out of the vocabulary of the tutor of what we we talked about this before it's just another way of doing it for a woman perhaps we want to use coupons that comes through the mail or might even be in the newspapers all reading can be taught from Life Experiences we might want to take them on a trip a simple trip around the block and make a map of where you live and the streets and the names and learn these and from this we can use phonics and teach phonics or we can go into pattern words and teach pattern we can go through all of the approaches using these kinds of materials and this is what's so exciting about working with an adult on that onetoone individualized basis an important literacy skill is to learn how to diagnose the level of your literacy learner you know a lot of times a student knows exactly where he is and the kinds of needs he has and I think a tutor ought to understand this that if you're going to be teaching a student uh an adult we have to look and say uh what are some of the problems you see in the kind of reading that you're doing and where can I be helpful now that will give a teacher a lot of Clues at this point that's one way of doing it I think that uh this is a very difficult uh thing to do but it can be done by asking the prospective student student to come in maybe into the office and let's sit down and share this book and see where we might find ourselves another way would be an informal what we call spot diagnosis and in spot diagnosis you'd have him read some kind of a simple paragraph and from there if he made some mistakes you mentally and I want to really emphasize that mentally take note of these as to where his mistakes were and what they were the kinds of things that you you can now plug into immediately perhaps for your next lesson it's awfully hard to measure progress on formalized reading measures when your student may be so low that he doesn't even show up on the test so i' keep lots of notes and I try to compare actual reading by means of a tape recorder keep a tape from week to week making regular additions But be sure that you record on the tape the date that you make it so that you can keep track of where you are your student will soon enjoy hearing himself and will look forward to demonstrating new skills one of the questions a tutor might ask himself would be what am I going to do with my student the first time I meet with them what am I going to say what's going to happen and certainly most tutors the first time or the first few times they are nervous you don't know what kind of person this is uh you're unsure whether you're going to be able to communicate and all those things that go into that the student is equally as nervous uh he or she doesn't know what kind of person you are and communication we're not sure of so it's important that the tutor comes in with some materials that will hopefully open up some sorts of communication I would uh go out of my way to make it a lot of fun for them to come to school you can't just have it all seriousness you got to put a little fun in it to take uh the to take the relax them whenever they can do what they need to do relaxed and they will enjoy it this is the way I feel about adult education uh another part that's important is to remember that your adult student has other demands on his or her life therefore when you meet together time is important he may have another appointment after you he may have children at home a job to go to this kind of thing so that it's important for you to to plan your time wise ly as a tutor and to be uh aware that this particular student has other things that are going on other than just being taught to read if you're an adult if you're a normal man you have a family and you got to work you got to earn your meat and bread you got to pay your rent now you have to sacrifice two hours or 3 hours of your rest in order to get what you know you need and as as I said a minute ago back in your subconscious mind you blamed somebody for that and if he doesn't get the right encouragement he's going to fall by the way B by the wayside real fast getting sleepy and uh getting discouraged by words from other people you won't have him very long if so it's just a [Music] [Laughter] number Librarians can be a wonderful resource for you some libraries have developed sections which they reserve for material suitable for the adult new read if your local library doesn't have such a section perhaps you could help develop one [Music] [Music]