[AAACE-NLA] Pre- and Post-NIFL Agenda

Tue May 11 17:46:57 EDT 2010

This is not included in teaching reading. What can happen, as Art describes, is "word calling." 

Andrea 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "John Comings" <john.comings at gmail.com> 
To: "National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE" <aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org> 
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2010 11:08:55 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Pre- and Post-NIFL Agenda 

This is a great story. It is also supported by research. Direct teaching of oral reading fluency (not just speed, but intonation and emphasis similar to normal speech) has been shown to improve comprehension among children who have a high degree of reading accuracy but still have trouble with comprehension. Why were school teachers not taught how to teach reading? 

On Tue, May 11, 2010 at 10:31 AM, Art LaChance < ruhtra.glc at ellijay.com > wrote: 

Andrea / Hugo, 

I think the one that set the stage for watching on my part goes back about 15 yrs. At that point we had just started a "Family Literacy" program. We worked with kids who were having trouble in school, 1st thru 8th grade, and working with their parents in a separate room in the center. A friend of mine who had been a 4th grade teacher for 16 yrs in the local school system referred a boy who was "in process of being diagnosed as LD" . He had some behavior issues, like couldn't sit still or keep his mouth shut and was disturbing the others every day. We worked with him for several weeks, one or two hours per day, expecting him to slow down etc and it just never happened, and he was still going through the evaluation process for LD. Long story short. My friend the teacher told me that they didn't know what was wrong with him but he was "The BEST reader in the class - he just had NO comprehension". So finally after watching him for a while, I take him to my office and sit down with him, opened a book and gave him a sentence to read out loud to me, he reads one-word-at-a-time, and quickly. But cannot put it together into any "meaning". So I asked him how he would tell me that sentence if we were simply talking on the street, eventually after several tries he read the sentence to me in a "complete thought", and his eyes got real big. I turned to a different page and had him read a slightly more difficult longer sentence, gave him a minute to study it, and then had him read it out loud. He did it perfectly. Gets to the end of the sentence, sits there with his head down, not moving, then slowly lifts his head - tears streaming down his cheeks - and quietly says, "Why didn't they just tell us that?". 

We worked with several kids in the various grade levels being served by that program for almost three years, and I saw the same exact issue time after time. So it became our standard at that point - anybody who initially assessed in the early grade levels 1st thru 6th - give or take - in Reading comprehension, had to sit with me for 20-30 min day to day until they got the sequence mastered. And we still do it - exactly the same way - and it works - every stinking time - regardless of the student's age. 
I have more ......? 

Art 

andreawilder at comcast.net wrote: 

Art, 

I think you are right in your analysis. 

What makes this work in schools can be the modeling by the teacher of self-efficacy. 

Would you write some about your experiences with kids? I know you have sometimes had them in your center. 

Thanks. 

Andrea 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Art LaChance" < ruhtra.glc at ellijay.com > 
To: "National Literacy Advocacy List sponsored by AAACE" < aaace-nla at lists.literacytent.org > 
Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 11:50:27 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: Re: [AAACE-NLA] Pre- and Post-NIFL Agenda 

Andrea, 
I think we as a society need to look quite closely at what is happening 
in the public system which is traditionally tax supported and receives 
federal and state oversight. My thoughts are based on personal 
experience here in the North GA region. Since 1988 I have held 
positions as rehab counselor, adult lit volunteer, adult lit teacher, 
and director of adult lit organization. I have personally witnessed many 
situations of absolute reversal of LD ADD etc symptoms in both children 
and adults who had been or were in process of being identified by 
licensed professionals utilizing approved diagnostic processes according 
to the DSM II, III, and IV. When the child was placed in a short term 
alternative situation outside of the environment that spawned the 
abberant behaviors, and efforts were made to restore the self image to a 
manageable level on the child's part, the child begins and continues to 
make 'normal' progress in learning new information. So where is the the 
issue ?? 

Quote below is taken from - http://www.des.emory.edu/mfp/BanEncy.html 
Please pay close attention to the last paragraph. 

*"D. School as an Agency for Cultivating Cognitive Self-Efficacy* 

During the crucial formative period of children's lives, the school 
functions as the primary setting for the cultivation and social 
validation of cognitive competencies. School is the place where children 
develop the cognitive competencies and acquire the knowledge and 
problem-solving skills essential for participating effectively in the 
larger society. Here their knowledge and thinking skills are continually 
tested, evaluated, and socially compared. As children master cognitive 
skills, they develop a growing sense of their intellectual efficacy. 
Many social factors, apart from the formal instruction, such as peer 
modeling of cognitive skills, social comparison with the performances of 
other students, motivational enhancement through goals and positive 
incentives, and teachers interpretations of children's successes and 
failures in ways that reflect favorably or unfavorably on their ability 
also affect children's judgments of their intellectual efficacy. 

The task of creating learning environments conducive to development 
of cognitive skills rests heavily on the talents and self-efficacy of 
teachers. Those who are have a high sense of efficacy about their 
teaching capabilities can motivate their students and enhance their 
cognitive development. Teachers who have a low sense of instructional 
efficacy favor a custodial orientation that relies heavily on negative 
sanctions to get students to study." 

** Bandura, A. (1994). Self-efficacy. In V. S. Ramachaudran (Ed.), 
/Encyclopedia of human behavior/ (Vol. 4, pp. 71-81). New York: Academic 
Press. (Reprinted in H. Friedman [Ed.], /Encyclopedia of mental health/. 
San Diego: Academic Press, 1998). 

andreawilder at comcast.net wrote: 
> Art, 
> 

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John P. Comings 
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