[AAACE-NLA] Contextualized literacy instruction and plain writing

[David Rosen]

Colleagues,

An article in the Straits Times of Singapore, "Katrina hit US adult  
literacy"  [ http://tinyurl.com/6fhd38 ] , describes how the  
hurricane devastated adult literacy services in New Orleans and the  
slow road to restoration. The author describes a critical set of  
contextualized reading and writing skills -- filling out a government  
form to get housing help after a natural disaster.  A large number of  
adults who need to complete these forms, because they did not learn  
to read and write well in school, cannot do it. The author also looks  
at the other side of the literacy coin: the forms and their  
instructions are needlessly difficult for anyone to read.

For New Orleans, and for the country, we need a four-pronged national  
effort to:

1) legally require plain English federal government documents,  
especially ones that individuals are expected to complete,

2) create free national functional context curricula that will help  
adults learn to read and correctly complete specific government forms,

3) provide local literacy program models where reading and writing  
skills are taught in the highly motivating context of completing the  
form, at times that are convenient for adult learners. Volunteer  
tutors or classroom teachers could be trained to help adults read and  
complete a particular form; in the process they could help some  
adults read and write better; and they could inform the adults about  
opportunities to continue their literacy instruction if they wish to,  
and

4) provide a well-organized, easy-to-navigate, plain English web site  
that includes:
	a)  .pdfs of all the government forms so they could be printed out  
as needed,
	b) the forms in hypertext, with links to written and audio file  
definitions and explanations of technical or legal terms, examples of  
correctly completed sections, and
	     elaborations as needed,
	c)  a hypertext, step-by-step process for completing each form that  
includes a writing box for responding to each step, resulting in a  
completed form that could be reviewed,
              printed, and submitted electronically when all the  
steps are finished, and
	d) careful field-testing with low-literate adults of b)and c) above.

Are there examples or models or 2) , 3) and 4) that already exist? If  
so, could you let me know about them, please?  Thanks.

David J. Rosen
DJRosen at theworld.com




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