This is the second in my series of introductory posts as the new LINCS Reading and Writing COP moderator. Please read the first one here.
I began teaching in adult basic education in September 1992. Prior to this, I taught high school social studies. In college, I learned a bit about teaching reading in the content area but not much. While I had a wonderful adult education mentor with great experience in curriculum and instruction, she never provided me with specific strategies on how to teach reading to my students.
In our drop-in learning lab, I was a “librarian” instructor. A librarian instructor passes out books. I thought the solutions to all my students’ reading problems were found in the right book. I would tell students, “If this book doesn’t work for you, we have many others we can try. Read pages 4 to 8, answer the questions, and let me know if you need help.”
I assumed all students’ reading problems were comprehension issues. If you asked me what I was doing to help students’ learn to read better, I could not tell you. I kept hoping that the book with the purple cover would be the one to unlock the joy of reading for my students! While some of my students made progress in their reading skills, many others left our program in frustration with unmet needs.
Please comment on one or more of these questions:
- How does my experience relate to yours about coming into adult education from another field?
- How did you move from being a librarian teacher to adopting a more evidence-based approach to teaching reading?
- How can we help our new adult basic education instructors be more proficient in teaching reading from the start?
Pun of the Post: What’s the difference between a hippo and a Zippo? One is really heavy and the other is a little lighter!
Thanks,
Steve Schmidt, LINCS Reading and Writing COP Moderator
schmidtsj@appstate.edu
Comments
(How I first understood to seek out evidence-based reading research and practices.)
I had one woman in my ABE reading class for a year (preparing for CTE program entry), and for the full year she was plateaued on the TABE and I was tapped out. I was stopping colleagues in the stairwell asking for literacy instruction insight, resources, anything.
It was this student that prompted my initial search for help. I first read Susan McShane's resource that I found first on a dusty shelf in the teacher's resource room. I devoured it - read it twice in as many days because I understood I had found my answers. So I went back to student and administered the student questionnaire (Scroll down at this link to Step 2). OMG - I found out that, while she had reported having a U.S. HS Diploma, that she had not started school in home country until age 11, then moved to US at 15 y.o. and was put into a local H.S. freshman class with pull out English classes. (Traumatic, no?!) She was in and out until getting her diploma. Can anyone suggest what was needed in her reading instruction?
Word of caution, though, about messaging. When I asked if I could test her on nonsense words for decoding and phonemic awareness, she said she felt like a child and was insulted and then left the program. (It pains me still!.)
How can we help our new (and experienced) adult basic education instructors be more proficient in teaching reading from the start?
Share the original research on reading. Reading it first-hand is an effective way to process it according to your context. Train the trainers! Read The Simple View of Reading by Linda Farrell, et al, assume that most comprehension problems can be improved with greater emphasis on decoding , then use this brilliant resource by Southwest Basic Education as classroom material (fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, civics and employment/life skills topics ). I'm working to implement as many changes as possible within the regular program parameters. I'll share what I am learning.