[AAACE-NLA] complex relationship between learning to read& learning to learn

[Nancy Hansen]

George, et all:
 
First of all, thank you very much, George, for your comments of appreciation for a little tiny story that was only meant to respond to an email that struck a really sensitive *nerve* with me.  To be truthful?  The email caught me with my guard down and in the height of emotions I wrote that litany.  But I guess it worked.  I'm sad and I'm glad for my student -- all in the same emotional roller coaster ride.
 
George wrote:
<< ... Who, among practitioners cannot say, I know what you mean and I can tell you ten stories from my own program?  Who among the professional researchers would not say that the kind of narratives provided do not represent at least part (if not a major part) of the data base the field needs if the field is to come into its own as a legitimate scholarly area of investigation?  Who among the policy makers would not say that, however incomplete such narratives may be as evidence, they surely tell us a great deal at least about some students, perhaps which, out of we could tease out additional implications about the impact of adult literacy education. ... >>

 
Secondly, related to the above paragraph (or portion thereof):  If there are, in fact, "ten stories from my own program" out there in ten different literacy sites, why are they not surfacing, do you suppose?  Why would it be too difficult to "layer our narratives" and present them to others than anyone wants to pursue?  Why wouldn't someone outside our field who influence the policies or who disseminate the important funding we all so desperately could use to expand programs for such young women as my learner react positively to 100 stories like the one I told?  
 
I'd say it's a matter of skill and time.  A matter of priorities and vision.  It's a matter of considering a future for learners who have few to stand beside them to encourage them, to stand behind them to lift them up or under them to give them a giant boost upward in meeting their goals.  A positive future is so far out of reach, in some learners' view, that it's an impossible dream.  And besides that?  "I don't have a single soul who cares about me as a human being.  I'm their number in an NRS record," they are saying while nobody is listening.
 
It's a matter of fear that all the work put into sensitive, individual narrative explanations will fall on the proverbial deaf ear, be heard by the "my-way-or-the-highway" or the "I'll-always-discount-change-in-the-systems" decision-makers.  
 
I've been, some would say, yapping for way **too** long about the need for scrutinizing the NRS, the standardized testing instruments and the documentation of progress being real - inclusive - all encompassing - to include factors such as building comprehension and self-esteem as talk-points.  But in order for that to happen, I *still* believe there have to be a lot more listeners with a lot more conversationalists who are willing to look at it from the learners' points of view.  "What am *I* getting from this program?" she's responding you?  She would not say that the High Point in her literacy career was a grade level -- that *that* was important to her.  Not in the least.
 
What we need is a coming-together.  Because what is our hope - vision - mantra as a field? The field *does* need "to come into its own as a legitimate scholarly area of investigation", in George's words.  But it will take more than 10 site coordinators or 100 learners.  WE cannot do it alone!  It also will take decision-makers willing to make change in the way documentation of our learners' progress is collected and legitimized.  To be willing to dare that there *is* a different way than the *current* way.  That a number isn't all there is to reading and writing as the center point.  That there truly IS more!  There really *is* "data" out there -- rich in the culture of the improved lives our adults are now able to live because they can read and write -- if not *fluently* -- at least *better*.
 
Nancy Hansen
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com
 
P.S.
Just a *short* story?  You ready?  Remember the 56 year-old I wrote about, a couple months or so ago, maybe in the fall?  Well, he called to wish me a Happy New Year while I was "vacationing" as George put it.  
 
*Then* he said, "I got up the courage to tell (my lady friends') kids over Christmas that I can't read very well."  (He had been so traumatized about how they would react, that it would be the end of his couple-dom, that the world would immediately end - who *knows* what *else* -  that he just wouldn't even *talk* about it in July.)  
 
"And ya know somethin'?  They were *proud* of me for gettin' help!" he exclaimed in total amazement. "Ain't that somethin'?" he asked.
 
                  First we teach them to read, so they can then read to learn. 

George demetrion <gdemetrion at msn.com> wrote:
Thank you Nancy for sharing that, and your point at the end is well taken on learning to read in order to read to learn, which obviously expands on the range of what one can learn.
 
In terms of where I was going on the issue of comparative research, if the field is to build a rich data base from its own practices, the kinds of stories that Nancy so eloquently shares with us, multiplied a hundred or even a thousand fold is an excellent place to start.  As an individual story, what Nancy has described does speak for itself even as one might want to know more of the dynamics at work of this person's learning (broadly defined) history, and as a narrative it is emotionally compelling enough in itself in documenting what participation in the program has meant for this individual.  A collection of such narratives in Nancy's program, with all the detailed description she provides would be even a more persuasive testimony as to the efficacy of adult literacy education, at least in some cases.
 
Many of us could (and have) share(d) similar experiences about student growth as Nancy, and in principle, the this type of documentation is richly available. In terms of public/policy legitimization, the type of evidence that these narratives represent (formally stated, site-based, practitioner-driven, case-study, ethnographic description) needs to be viewed in a much more positive light in order for the field, if you will to commit the resources to undertake such efforts in a more systematic manner. In such an environment, what the anthropologist Clifford Geertz refers to as "thick description," would need to be balanced by a more dynamic inside/outside probing and comparative analysis if the objective is to provide some decent illumination about adult literacy as a field.  
 
Clearly, there's a danger in such a proposal of "objectifying" the process, but that can be guarded against by having interdisciplinary teams of practitioners, researchers and students and an illuminating view of what science is, particularly when the subject matter is a cultural phenomenon linked in some important way to the human condition.  No doubt, that is very broad, the focus of would need to be at least somewhat sharply defined.  On that I would want to know how the relationship between learning to read and reading in order to learn unfolds over time for different groups of students and how program philosophy and orientation influences the direction of what is learned.  Various sub-questions could follow from that, but in terms of providing an overarching investigative framework, perhaps the two central questions could provide some of the grounding needed to move a constructive research agenda forward.
 
On that latter point, John Comings' concerns about lack of funding (and lack of legitimacy) are serious matters, which at least at some level with any moving forward of such a research agenda.  On the other hand, the field is not operating from a zero-sum situation in that a decent amount of the ethnographic documentation is already available in published articles, dissertations, books, and reports.  In short, there is enough for some research center or enterprising research or group of investigators at least to begin to take on such work, that is, if it is viewed as valid in the first place.  On that, there may be some intellectual and psychological hurdles to overcome. At the very least, who is not moved by the narratives that Nancy provides about her students?  Who, among practitioners cannot say, I know what you mean and I can tell you ten stories from my own program?  Who among the professional researchers would not say that the kind of narratives provided do not represent at
 least part (if not a major part) of the data base the field needs if the field is to come into its own as a legitimate scholarly area of investigation?  Who among the policy makers would not say that, however incomplete such narratives may be as evidence, they surely tell us a great deal at least about some students, perhaps which, out of we could tease out additional implications about the impact of adult literacy education.  That being so even as there is a need to know more and to find ways of organizing such insight into manageable frameworks that can influence others who may not necessarily be empathetic on first blush.  Finally, what politician or funder would say that such narratives that might be constructed on a larger scale and in a more systematic, comparative manner, is not persuasive at least in relation to the students that comprise such studies, in which at the least, reasonable inferences (requiring, perhaps, additional research) can be made about adult literacy
 learning as a field.
 
There is more to say, but the hour glass has run out.
 
George Demetrion
 
----- Original Message -----
From: Nancy Hansen
Sent: Wednesday, December 22, 2004 3:56 AM
To: National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] complex relationship between learning to read& learning to learn
 
Andrea and Colleagues:
 
But "the center of literacy" so much *more* than you defined it!!!!  
 
You wrote:
< ... What we know is that it is a cognitive (brain-based) skill, enhanced in several ways--by learning in a specific context, for example, or by learning what the individual wants to learn to begin with. ...>
 
So we tutor (or teach) them to read and write (or we help them improve the skills they already have) and say, "Hey!  We are done with you now."  Is that factual reality for the rest of you practitioners lurking out there somewhere?  It sure isn't for *me*.  In most cases for the adults enrolled in *this* CBO, it is a whole lot more.  
 
Related to:  << ... Any program which says it is an adult literacy program and doesn't put this as its central concern .... (meaning:  "The center of literacy is the ability to read and write.") >>
 
In addition to your definition of "center", our program places an importance on building the adult's ability to think critically and solve problems, to develop confidence in their abilities and trust that they know the right answers to questions instead of "self-doubting" themselves as many of them do, to be able to fill out forms without a helper, to read a map before taking a trip and so much more.  Saying we focus on JUST the "ability to read and write" is minimizing what is going on in most adult literacy programs, I believe.
 
Here's a story for you (a little long, but worth reading for the "reality check"):
Just yesterday I had an exit interview with a 27-year old petite and smiling, young woman.  She enrolled in our program in October, 2002, so she could read the *whole* newspaper article instead of just the first paragraph, to be able to read aloud and not be ashamed of her "reading speed", to work on study skills and also maybe one day she'd read a novel -- never attempted novels, she told me, because she didn't remember the story line and details of the book.  
 
She had "been here" before -- then moved away to be with her fiance in Missouri for 2 years, but she never forgot the Laubach program helped her so much and "I was much happier here," she told me, at her re-entry registration on 10/4/02.  
 
She told me she was working long, tough shifts at a box manufacturing company.  It was hard on her both physically and emotionally.  The workers were less than descent to her. So she had a heavy burden labeled "employment".
 
Her life circumstances changed drastically.  She and her fiance separated, meaning she lost her apartment and was threatened with losing her car, too, because of her loan payments.  For a long period of time she no longer had a support system.  The job intensified - a demand for 6-day weeks and being "written up" when she requested a day-off several different months.  Yet she kept on coming to lessons, even though in order to have her own apartment again, she had to take on even *more* hours at this awful job.  She wanted to learn to read and write.
 
About a year ago she added a *new* goal:  She wanted to learn to use a computer.  Maybe she could get *out* of that awful place, she thought.  So she arranged for a 2nd lesson each week with me at the small student computer center in this literacy council.  Many weeks she would come with swollen and scratched up arms and hands - never canceling because her fingers were sour from working until 11:00 the night before as a machine operator.  
 
At the computer she learned to "turn it on", so to speak, having never even *sat* at one before!  She also gained some typing speed and confidence in her ability to type rather than "hunt and peck".  She typed her own resume and began looking for a different job.  Remember now:  All this time she was doing great learning to *spell* by using word families and word patterns, thanks to a Tutor volunteer who would give up her Sunday afternoon to spend with her, teaching her from the core material entitled "Patterns In Spelling".
 
Four months ago, her job search ended.  She left that box place to work for a bank call center, feeling like, comparatively, she'd entered a professional work environment.  At that same time, she was studying tough lessons in her 4th book of the study series.  My concern for her was the pressure of doing both difficult tasks simultaneously.  But she would *not* even *consider* taking a temporary leave from her lessons for the first months of her new job.  "Nope!  I've wanted to be able to read and spell a lot longer than when I got my first job and I'm not giving that up for any *new* job!"               [But ... you *do* know how to read, my inner voice said.]
 
So onward to yesterday's exit interview and progress report:  She has two lessons left, she told me, and she wanted to come over to do an assessment to see where she was at in her skill development.  It was no surprise to me that she'd made significant progress from the level she was when she began her program using Laubach's beginning series book 2 and felt proud of it.    I was proud *for* her, too.
 
Last year we discussed that she had a *different* long range goal.  That discussion was a casual conversation after "typing lessons" one day.  Her goal was to enroll in a college course.  So yesterday I broached that as the next step -- that I would walk beside her through the registration process at a local 2-year community college.  But ...
 
"No WAY," she insistently explained,  "I *still* have so much *more* to learn!  I want to be able to spell easily.  I'm on the Career Path at my new job after only four months and have gotten a pay raise already.  I'm not giving up on learning to write an *essay* now!"  She claimed that she feels as though she is just getting started!  
 
She shared with me that the last four months haven't been easy.  That the on-the-job tests she had to take were so horribly stressful for her that many times she went home in tears.  Learning new computer programs was totally different than the small step she'd taken here, but with the help of a dedicated supervisor, she had made it happen!  She walked in with a new shine to her - confident and smiling.
 
So *is* "the center of literacy" *just* reading and writing to her?  I do not believe it is.  You see, yesterday's appointment was *not* an "exit interview" after *all* -- It never *was* in her eyes, you see.  
 
She intended to re-enroll and be matched with a different Tutor.  She knew that that was the routine when a learner finishes a series with us.  She wants to "learn more -- to learn to write" using a different core series (even though my personal opinion is she already has writing skills she doesn't realize she has). 
 
As soon as the first Friday she gets off in January rolls around, she has an appointment.  She will be back to complete the re-registration process. Because, you see, the literacy council program is so much more than just reading and writing to her.  I wish all of you could meet her because she would light up your room.
 
Nancy Hansen
Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com
 
P.S.
Just a little one -- I believe the expression in the field as *I* have known it is:  First we teach them to read so they can read to learn.  (not learning to read & learning to learn)

AWilder106 at aol.com wrote:
Colleagues:


The center of literacy is the ability to read and write. Any program which says it is an adult literacy program and doesn't put this as its central concern is advertising falsely.

How and under what circumstances this can best be done sends many people into the ether. Let's keep grounded here to what we actually know.

What we know is that it is a cognitive (brain-based) skill, enhanced in several ways--by learning in a specific context, for example, or by learning what the individual wants to learn to begin with. Computer instruction can help. And so on.

If we don't know how to develop skilled readers we had all better hang up our hats and go into another line of work.

Andrea
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Nancy Hansen, E.D.
Email: sfallsliteracy at yahoo.com

Sioux Falls Area Literacy Council
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-1314
Phone: (605) 332-BOOK
Fax: (605) 332-9389 

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