Hi Everyone,
I was saddened to learn of Dr. John Strucker's recent death. Please find his obituary here. John was a huge contributor to the field of adult literacy reading instruction.
I read some of John's work when I was first started in the field. A video he recorded for STAR training still rings in my ears. "It's like flying blind," he said when asked about not giving individual diagnostic assessments in the four components of reading.
I came to know John better when he agreed to do a LINCS discussion in our community last year. Despite his great knowledge, he was a humble man and was always willing to help. Our field has lost a giant.
Have a story or a tribute to share about Dr. John Strucker? Please respond to this post.
Many thanks,
Steve Schmidt, Moderator
LINCS Reading and Writing Group
Comments
Thank you for sharing this sad news, Steve. As you say, John Strucker had a huge impact on our field, especially in the area of teaching reading to adults. I have personally greatly benefited from his research and writing on how to teach reading in a systematic way.
I also want to mention an article, "More Curriculum Structure: A Response to "Turbulence" that appeared in the Focus on Basics newsletter in November of 2006 -- long ago!-- in which Strucker underscored the value of adult basic education programs offering a more "structured curriculum" and a more flexible class schedule to address the persistence issues that are so common in our work. To this day, I find Dr. Strucker's arguments and suggestions compelling.
Here's a paragraph from the introduction to Strucker's piece. I would encourage everyone to read the whole thing since it's abundantly clear that we continue to deal with similar persistence issues in our programs today.
"It's time to stop blaming adult learners for failing to attend classes regularly because they live adult lives. We need to admit that many learners will have difficulty attending classes consistently and completing programs on schedule. At the same time, we need to take advantage of their persistence and determination. These characteristics have implications for the ABE/ESOL system as a whole. For example, I've always wondered why more ABE and ESOL programs don't offer weekend classes for people whose work week is full. In recent years the program I taught in, like many around the country, has moved away from open entry–open exit enrollment, which added new students as other students disappeared or completed. I applaud this trend. I also hope programs will avoid the temptation to fill seats by enrolling learners who have only the slimmest chances of attending regularly or completing the course. Enrolling people who have little chance of persisting and succeeding is hurtful and disrespectful to them. It is also highly disruptive to teaching and to the learning of those learners who are able to stay and attend regularly."
RIP, Dr. John Strucker.
With kindness,
Susan Finn Miller
Moderator, English Language Acquisition CoP
Steve, Susan and others,
I was deeply saddened to hear that we lost John Strucker. He was a wonderful person, a great teacher, and an excellent researcher. I first met John when he was teaching adults to read at the Community Learning Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. His students and colleagues loved him for many reasons, not the least that he was an effective reading and writing instructor. In his work with the National Center for Adult Literacy, sponsored by Harvard University and World Education, John had profound impact as a researcher and teacher educator. A few years ago, John Strucker and John Comings developed a reading assessment for school drop-outs in the West African country of Liberia, through their work with the U.S. - based Education Development Center. This assessment has also been successfully used by the Liberia Family Literacy Initiative. I believe that it is the only reading assessment contextualized for Liberian adults and out-of-school older youth.
We may have lost John, but the impact of his important work in adult literacy will long be read and felt.
David J. Rosen