[Fwd: Re: [NLA] Evidence-based practice in Adult Literacy Edu cation]

[Missm1775@aol.com]

Hi Andrea,
   I am thinking particularly about a paper by Purcell-Gatyes, Degener, 
Jacobson & Soler ( Reading Research Quarterly, v37,N1- Jan/Feb/Marh 2002). It 
is titled "Impact of authentic adult literacy instruction on  adult literacy 
practices." In addition, I am presenting work at a conference for 
incarcerated educational programs on research that I have been conducting on 
the impact of explicit teaching of phonological segmentation skills on adult 
second language learners' reading comprehension in both the L1 & L2.  Another 
study which has guided my current practice  (I teach ESL in a correctional 
facility and at Stony Brook University & am engaged in second language 
literacy acquisition research, as well as coordinate an EL/CIVICS program and 
I'm writing an Even Start Grant) is a 1996 paper by Purcell-Gates "Stories, 
coupons, and the TV Giude: Relationships between home literacy experiences 
and emergent literacy knowledge" (Reading Research  Quarterly, 31, 210-219). 
   I find it very challenging to integrate authentic literacy practices in 
classrooms where my students have NO  L1 reading ability. Many of my students 
have never written their name when they arrive in my classroom ( at the jail) 
and I am starting at the very beginning with these adult learners. I draw on 
their schema as much as possible, but everything is so conditioned towards 
students with even low literacy skills- it sometimes seems very hopeless, but 
when we get a man to write his name and eventually read a children's book on 
tape and send the book and tape home, I feel we have really changed the world 
for that individual and his child/ren.
 ( I guess this is some methodology discussion!)
Best,
Margo
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