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Fi e l d n o t e s

1fall 2000

S k il le d Re a d i n g : To p -D o w n , c o v e rB o t t o m - U pP a u l A b r a h a m

Le a r n i n g t o Re a d , Re a d i n g t o Le a r n 3

Je s s i c a S p o h n

Re c o n s i d e r i n g Le a r n i n g D i s a b i l it ie s 5Ra c h e l M a r ti n

O h , E rn e s to , I H a v e S o m e t h i n gW o n d e r f u l t o Te l l Yo u Ja n e t F is c h e r a n d R ic h a r d G o l d b e r g 9

A Re a d e r Te a c h e s Re a d i n g 1 2T in a To r a n

To o l s f o r t h e C l a s sr o o m :A F ir st Re a d i n g Le s so n 1 4

M a r c ia C h a ffe e

Fro m Ta l k to P r i n t : P re p a r i n g S tu d e n tsto Re a d w i th E a s eS a lly G a b b

G e tti n g S t ro n g w i th t h e Fo r ta l ce te 1 9C u r ri c u l u mM a r ia E .G o n z l ez

M o d e l in g C l a ss A c ti v iti e s f o r Lo w 2 1L e ve l L i te ra cy L e a rn e rsLe e H a l l e r

F lu e n c y F ir st : D e v e l o p i n g 2 5I n d e p e n d e n t R e a d i n gA n i t a F e l d

Earlier this year , the readin g world bid goodbye to on e of i ts

stalwarts, Jeanne S. Chall , Professor Emerita of Reading from the

Harvard Graduate School of Education. Professor Chall had been

active in readin g education for alm ost 50 years.While Challs contr i-

butions to reading theory and practice were many, from readabili ty

to stage theor y, she was most of ten iden tif ied with the readin g wars,

the batt le fought between th ose advocating phonics instr uction and

those advocating whole language, which relies in part on instr uction

using sight words.

Challs belief that decodin g skil ls played a key role in th e r ead-

ing p rocess fo rced her in to a posi t ion o f represen t ing phon ics . Herview of readin g theory, however, always in cluded r ich language inp ut

along with skil ls in phonics. The reading f ield seemed to push her

into the r ole advocating phonics and lost sight of her str ong beliefs

about the importance of world knowledge, well-writ ten l i terature,

and developm enta l s tages .

R e ad i n g T h e o r i e sR e ad i n g T h e o r i e sR e ad i n g T h e o r i e sR e ad i n g T h e o r i e sR e a d i n g T h e o r i e sAs guardian of phon ics,Professor Chall was often viewed as a

bo t tom- up theor is t , tha t i s , one who em phasized the ab i li ty to de-

code o r pu t in to sound what is seen in a text . Other bo t tom- up theo-

r ists in cluded Gough (1972), LaBerge an d Samue ls (1974). The bot-tom- up m odel was f i rmly in p lace when I learn ed to read . Teachers

emp hasized decoding sk i ll s and spen t a lm ost no t ime h e lp ing

emerging readers recognize what they, as readers, brought to the

in format ion on the page .

The top-down model of reading does just that , focusing on

what the readers bring to the process (Goodman, 1967; Smith,

1971,1982). The readers sample the text for information and con-

Cont in ued on page 6

Skilled Read in g: Top-Down ,

Bottom-Up

by Paul Abr ah am

TA B LE O F C O N TEN TS

ReadingReadingReadingReadingReading

formerly Bright Ideas

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Fi e l d n o t e s

2 field notes

Fi e ld N o t e s i s a q u a r te r l y n e w s -l e tte r th a t p r o v i d e s a p l a c e to s h a r ei n n o v a ti v e p r a c t i c e s , n e w r e s o u r c e s ,a n d i n fo r m a ti o n w i th i n th e f i e ld o fa d u l t b a s ic e d u c a ti o n . I t i s p u b l is h e db y S A B E S , th e S y s te m f o r A d u l t B a -

si c Ed u c a ti o n S u p p o r t, a n d f un d e db y A d u lt a n d C o m m u n i ty Le a rn i n gS e r v i c e s ( A C LS ), M a ss a c h u s e tts

D e p a r tm e n t o f Ed u c a ti o n .

T h e C e n t ra l Re s o u r c e C e n t e r o fS A B E S i s l o c a t e d a t W o r ld E d u c a -ti o n , 4 4 Fa r n sw o r t h S tr e e t , B o s to n ,M A 0 2 2 1 0 .

O p i n i o n s e xp r e sse d i n Fi e ld N o t e s a r e t h o se o f th e a u th o r s a n d n o t

n e c e ss a r i ly th e o p i n i o n s o f S A B E S o ri t s fund ers .

Pe r m i s si o n i s g r a n t e d t o r e p r o d u c ep o r ti o n s o f th i s n e w s le t te r ; h o w e v e r,w e r e q u e st a p p r o p r i a t e c r e d i t to t h ea u t h o r a n d Fi e ld N o t e s.

S u b s c r i p t io n s a r e fr e e to M a ss a c h u -s e tts A B E p rac ti ti o ne rs . A l l o t he rsm a y su b s c ri b e f o r a n a n n u a l fe e o f$ 8 . 0 0 . To s u b s c r ib e , c o n ta c t Ju sti n eS a d o f f, W o r ld Ed u c a ti o n , 4 4

F a r n sw o r th S tr e e t , B o s to n , M A0 2 2 1 0 . M a k e ch e cks p a y a b le toW o r ld Ed u c a ti o n .

S u b m i s si o n s a r e w e l c o m e . If y o uh a v e a n i d e a f o r a n a r ti c le o r w i sh tosubmi t a le t ter to the ed i tor , ca l lLe n o re B a l li ro a t (6 1 7 ) 4 8 2 -9 4 8 5 .

W e d o r e s e r ve th e r ig h t to d e c l in ep u b l i c a t i o n .

E d i t o r : Len o re B a l li r o Lay ou t : Leno re B a l li r o S ubs c r i p t i ons : Jus tine Sa d o f f

A d v iso r y B o a rd fo r 2 0 0 0 / 2 0 0 1 :B r u c e D a h l q u i s t, Le e H a l le r, M a r i ly nM o n te iro , B o n n ie b e l le O N e a l ,S u sa n P e l ti e r, N a n c y Ta r i o t

F o r e w o r d

any of us in adult basic education have found ourway past the useless dichotom y between

ph on ic s an d wh ole lan gu age ep it om ized b y th e r ead in g war s waged

over th e last decade. We have come to accept a m ore b alanced ap-

p r oac h to teac h in g r ead in g em b r ac in g wh ole la n gu age p r in ci p le s

using l ite ra ture- r ich conten t whi le incorpora t ing decoding and o ther

reading subskills into the instructional practice.

The more we unders tand about the read ing process by examin-

ing how theory and research applies to our practice, the better read-

ing teachers we wi l l become. Unders tan ding how readers m ake

meanin g from the pr in ted page can ground us in our da i ly teach ing

and inform the choices we make in the classroom. We need to clarify

what we believe about language an d l i teracy acquisit ion so th e choices

we make about reading assignments and activit ies are purposeful.

This issue of Field Notes offers ar t icles by practi t ioner s whose

students range from the newly l i terate to the college bound. Some

wr i te rs , l ike Lee Hal ler and Marc ia Chafee , o f fer s tep - by-s tep lesson

p la n s fo r teac h in g bas ic r ead in g, wh il e ot h er s, li ke Pau l Ab r ah am an d

Jessica Spohn , o f fer th eore t ical f rameworks for under s tanding the

readin g process. Janet Fischer and Richard Goldber g do a str ikin g

jo b of il lu s tr at in g h ow th ey a p ply r ead in g th eor y p r in ci p le s to th e ir

c lassroom.

I have also selected Web sites and resour ce l ist ings with an eye

toward balancing theor y and pr actice. As always, read ers of Field

Notes are welcome to express the i r r eac tions in subsequent i ssues of

the n ewsletter by sendin g a letter to the editor or con tr ibutin g an

article.

Though articles on reading assessment are conspicuously ab-

sen t , the for thcom ing issue of Field Notes will focus entirely on as-

sessmen t , inc lud ing the assessmen t o f read ing ab i li t ies .

M

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Fi e l d n o t e s

3fall 2000

s s tuden ts comple te the ar -duous task of passing the

GED or completing an alter-

native high school diploma, they

have acquired a wide range of read-

ing comp rehen sion sk i l ls and they

have ach ieved an impor tan t m i le-

stone. Som e studen ts will want to

con t inue in postsecondary educa-

tion. But of ten, teachers have not

in t roduced the read ing sk i ll s and

strategies these students will needto succeed in a college sett in g. Col-

lege students h ave to cope with a

large amount of read ing, with

lengthy texts in scientif ic, historical ,

and technical areas.

In this ar t icle, I will discuss

strategies and skil ls in read ing in-

struction for students moving from

a small and often sup portive adult

basic education classroom into a

large and often impersonal college

sett ing.

Ho w Do You Fe e l a t t h eHo w Do You Fe e l a t t h eHo w Do You Fe e l a t t h eHo w Do You Fe e l a t t h eHo w Do You Fe e l a t t h e

E n d o f Th i s P a r a g r a p h ?E n d o f Th i s P a r a g r a p h ?E n d o f Th i s P a r a g r a p h ?E n d o f Th i s P a r a g r a p h ?E n d o f Th i s P a r a g r a p h ?Read the italicized text below

from a computer manual :

The Prin t dialog box is where

you al so set th e s ize at tr ib ute r at io s .

These se t t ings are percen tage mul-

t ipliers used to scale the current

font when ever relative size at tr ib-

utes are applied. For examp le, if the cur ren t font h as a size of 10

p oin ts , an d th e Lar ge s ize at tr ib utes

ra t io in the Pr in t Preferences d ia-

logue box is set to 120% , then any

where the Large attr ibute is applied

in th e documen t , the charac ter s ize

changes to 12 poin ts, which is 120%

of 10 poin ts (10 * 120% = 12).

Ready to read on with con fi-d en ce an d co m p r eh en s io n o r a r e

you r eady to cry, give up or ask

some one for help? Is this how your

s tuden t fee ls when an ins t r uc tor

assigns a readin g from a college

text? Using m y comp uter , I checked

the r eadabili ty score of this d ocu-

m ent. I t has about an 11th grade

level equivalency, suggesting that

most 11th graders could read and

und erstan d the passage. So with amasters degree in educat ion , I

shou ld be ab le to read and compre-

hend this passage with ease.

But I cant . I cant read and

understand this passage without

access ing an ar ray o f comp rehen -

sion skil ls and str ategies that I don t

use every day. I have to be an active

and str ategic reader . I h ave to ask

and answer cer ta in quest ions and

draw on certain r eading skil ls that

wi l l he lp me read independent ly .Below is a l ist of these strategies an d

skills, drawn from Blooms Tax-

onomy, tha t I must use to under -

s tand the paragraph . The same

skills can b e taught to studen ts as

they encounter unfamiliar , chal-

lenging texts.

1 . W h y A m I R e a d i n g1 . W h y A m I R e a d i n g1 . W h y A m I R e a d i n g1 . W h y A m I R e a d i n g1 . W h y A m I R e a d i n g

T h i s ?T h i s ?T h i s ?T h i s ?T h i s ?

Why do I ne ed or want to readthis text: whats in i t for m e both as

an im media te goal and as a par t o f

who I am an d what I want? Answer-

ing this question creates a context

for becomin g an active reader . I t

se ts a purpose fo r read ing and es-

tablishes motivation. I t moves me

away from passively accepting the

text , which l imi ts compr ehen sion .I am m aking the cho ice to read ,

co m p r eh en d , an d u se th e in f or m a-

tion I learn from the text. Answer-

ing thewh y helps me, and any

reader , accep t the d iscomfor t tha t

comes f rom no t im m edia te ly know-

ing how to approach the text.

Why should I read the com-

puter paragraph? As an im med ia te

goal, I need to kn ow how to use m y

compu ter an d I cant always r ely on

o ther peop le to he lp me t roub le-

shoot . In the longer te rm, us ing the

compu ter is part of m y job, and I

want a sense o f indepen dence and

accom plishm ent. So I will end ure

the d iscomfort I will exper ience in

the pr ocess of find ing the skil ls to

help me unders tand th is passage .

Helping students to establish a

reason for enduring diff icult texts,

even when the immediate goal isnt

readily apparen t, is a good f irst steptoward developing active re ading

skills.

2 . W h a t T2 . Wh a t T2 . W h a t T2 . Wh a t T2 . Wh a t Ty p e oy p e oy p e oy p e oy p e o f Tf Tf Tf Tf Te x t Am Ie x t Am Ie x t Am Ie x t Am Ie x t Am I

R e a d i n g ?R e a d i n g ?R e a d i n g ?R e a d i n g ?R e a d i n g ?To h e lp m e co m p r eh en d th e

computer paragraph , I must iden t i fy

the type of text so I can use appro-

priate readin g strategies. I know that

I am r eading a technical passage that

involves m ath, so I will read m e-thodically to get specif ic inform a-

tion and an alyze inform ation from

tab les , fo rm ulas , equat ions , und er -

stand specialized vocabulary.

Studen ts , too , must iden t i fy

the type of text they are readin g so

Learn in g to Read , Readin g to Learnby Jessica Spoh n

Cont in ued on pa ge 4

A

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Fi e l d n o t e s

4 field notes

they can select different skil ls nec-

essary fo r read in g in d i f feren tgenres. Reading a novel is different

f rom r ead ing a techn ical man ual,

and teachers need to teach these

differen ces explicit ly. In m y case,

iden tifying m y paragraph as an e x-

cerp t f rom a d readed bu t necessary

manual- l ike book , Using Word Per-

fect, sets m e up for doing a certain

k ind o f read ing

3 . W h a t D o I A lr e a d y3 . W h a t D o I A lr e a d y3 . W h a t D o I A lr e a d y3 . W h a t D o I A lr e a d y3 . W h a t D o I A lr e a d y

Kn o w Ab o u t T h i s ?Kn o w Ab o u t T h i s ?Kn o w Ab o u t T h i s ?Kn o w Ab o u t T h i s ?Kn o w Ab o u t T h i s ?I draw upon m y prior kn owl-

edge o f computers an d m y person al

exper iences with comp uters to he lp

me unders tand the paragraph . Th is

ref lection, along with m y knowledge

of the type of te xtthe dre aded

techn ical man ual allows me to un -

ders tand th e vocabulary in con text.

The words dialog, attr ib ute, an d

character have m any meanings , bu t

I under s tand tha t th is i s a man ual oncomputers , n o t a poem by Shakes-

peare, so I read accordingly.

Students, too, m ust access

their p r ior kn owledge of a topic and

of the type 0f text they are r eading.

They can ask: What d o I already

know about this subject? When h ave

I read a s imi lar k ind o f book , and

how did I d o i t? Teachers can assist

studen ts in activating their pr ior

knowledge th rough p reread in g ac-

tivit ies. They can also help in creasea students knowledge of a difficult

subject by readin g lower- level ma-

ter ials to build that m issing knowl-

edge base. Students can learn to do

this themselves by seeking out ma-

ter ials on a similar subject writ ten at

a lower level in orde r to b uild back-

ground knowledge .

4 . H o w C a n I G e t t h e B i g4 . H o w C a n I G e t t h e B i g4 . H o w C a n I G e t t h e B i g4 . H o w C a n I G e t t h e B i g4 . H o w Ca n I G e t t h e B i g

P i c t u r e o f W h a t I l l BeP i c t u r e o f W h a t I l l BeP i c t u r e o f W h a t I l l BeP i c t u r e o f W h a t I l l BeP i c t u r e o f W h a t I l l BeR e a d i n g ?R e a d i n g ?R e a d i n g ?R e a d i n g ?R e a d i n g ?In m y case, I m trying to un-

ders tand a shor t excerp t from a

longer m anual. Sti ll , i t helps me to

sk im the m anual so I know how tha t

paragraph f i ts into th e longer text.

Then I can loca te more in format ion

if I need to .

If students can establish a big

picture for what they are reading,

they can increase the i r comprehen-

sion of , say, a chapte r of a te xt. Theycan skim the chapter for basic ideas,

scan for specif ic information, use

ti t les and headlines to predict what

they will be reading about. By estab-

lishing a kind of scaffold before

read ing , the i r chances o f und er -

s tand ing tha t chap ter a re m uch be t -

ter than if they open to page one

and s ta r t r ead ing .

5 . H o w W5 . H o w W5 . H o w W5 . H o w W5 . H o w Wi l l I E va l u a t e t h ei l l I E va l u a t e t h ei l l I E va l u a t e t h ei l l I E va l u a t e t h ei l l I E va l u a t e t h e

M a t e r i a l I a m R e a d i n g ?M a t e r i a l I a m R e a d i n g ?M a t e r i a l I a m R e a d i n g ?M a t e r i a l I a m R e a d i n g ?M a t e r i a l I am R e a d i n g ?In the case of the computer

paragraph, m y abili ty to evaluate the

cause-ef fect re la t ionsh ip and to

verify the value of evidence in this

pass age will allow m e to app ly it to a

concre te s i tuat ion when I need to . I f

I have read the paragraph correctly ,

I should b e able to set the six at-

tr ibute ratios for m y fonts. I f I can t

do i t , I h ave to read i t over again.

When s tuden ts read longerand m ore com plex m aterialssocial

sc iences , h is to ry , app l ied sc iences ,

for example, they will have to use a

variety of re adin g skills: they will

have to evaluate fact vs. opin ion and

assess the value of theories. They

will have to compare and discr imi-

na te be tween ideas and theor ies

based on following and evaluating

reasoned arguments . Al l o f these

skil ls need modeling and explicit

teaching in the GED or ASE class-room because they do not come as

naturally as, say, reading a story or

nar ra t ive .

To read my computer para-

graph su ccessfully, I h ad to d raw on

skills I don t use r egularly. As an

advanced reader , I access those

skil ls uncons ciously. But our stu -

den ts m ust learn these sk i l ls

through explicit exposure and prac-

tice, if they are to succeed in college

level reading.

Jessica Spohn has worked in education

for 15 years. She currently coordinatesth e ABE- to- Col l ege Transit i on Projectat the NELRC/World Education andcan be reached at (617) 482-9485

or .

L e a r n i n g t o R e a d . . .L e a r n i n g t o R e a d . . .L e a r n i n g t o R e a d . . .L e a r n i n g t o R e a d . . .L e a r n i n g t o R e a d . . .cont in ued from page 3

B l o o m B l o o m B l o o m B l o o m B l o o m s Ts Ts Ts Ts Ta x o n o m ya x o n o m ya x o n o m ya x o n o m ya x o n o m y

B l o o m s Ta x o n o m y i s a u s e f u l r u b r i c f o r te a c h i n g r e a d i n g t o s tu d e n t s w h op l a n t o g o o n t o p o st se c o n d a r y e d u c a ti o n . Fo r a c l e a r a n d u se f u l c h a r ti ll u str a t in g B l o o m s ta x o n o m y w i th i m p l ic a ti o n s fo r te a c h i n g r e a d i n g , g o t oth e f o ll o w i n g W e b s i te s :

< w w w< w w w< w w w< w w w< w w w . c o u n . u v i c . c a / l e a r. c o u n . u v i c . c a / l e a r. c o u n . u v i c . c a / l e a r. c o u n . u v i c . c a / l e a r. c o u n . u v i c . c a / l e a r n / p r o g r a m / h n d o u ts / b l o o m . h tm l >n / p r o g r a m / h n d o u ts / b l o o m . h tm l >n / p r o g r a m / h n d o u ts / b l o o m . h tm l >n / p r o g r a m / h n d o u ts / b l o o m . h tm l >n / p r o g r a m / h n d o u ts / b l o o m . h tm l >

< w w w< w w w< w w w< w w w< w w w . o p s . o r g / r e a d i n g / b l o o m s _ ta x o n o m y. o p s . o rg / r e a d i n g / b l o o m s _ ta x o n o m y. o p s . o r g / r e a d i n g / b l o o m s _ ta x o n o m y. o p s . o rg / r e a d i n g / b l o o m s _ ta x o n o m y. o p s . o r g / r e a d i n g / b l o o m s _ ta x o n o m y. h t m l >. h t m l >. h t m l >. h t m l >. h t m l >

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Fi e l d n o t e s

5fall 2000

urin g a worksh op at anadul t l i te racy p rogram

located within a two- year

co llege , each teacher p resen t

vo iced the assum pt ion tha t the m a-

jo r it y of h er s tud en ts we r e le ar n in g

disabled. This conclusion was

based on such evidence as the fact

tha t a s tuden t h ad been in th e p ro-

gram a lon g t ime with l i t t le

progress , was unab le to remember

what shes learned in an earlierclass, or had a case histor y of

mental i l lness or participation in

special education classes. Once the

pre l imin ary d iagnosis was m ade,

the studen t was sent to the special

Needs Center at the local collegefor a battery of exams includin g

the IQ test .

Inc luded among o ther c r i te r ia

commonly used to identify learning

d isab led s tuden ts a re : loose thought

pat te rns; d isor ien ted in t ime; o f tenlate; cannot retain new information

Recon sider in g Learn in g Disabil i ties

without excessive rehearsal andprac t ice ; seems res t less , sh i f t s po-

sit ion often during reading tasks;

halt ing and jerky reading style.

My own r eading of the d is-

course of learnin g disabil it ies

owes much to the works of Peter

Johnston (1985) and Gerald Coles

(1987). It was Johnstons Un d er -

stand ing Reading Disability that

f irst al lowed me to consid er th at

readin g abil i ty m ight have m ore todo with factors such as att i tude, m o-

tivation, strategies, and situations

than neu rological dysfunction . And I

have seen teachers in p rograms in

which I have worked ap ply the ter m

learning disabled to nearly every

studen t they teach , wi th no more

ra t ionale than tha t used by the p ro-

gram men t ioned a t the beginn ing of

this section. That m ay be because

this is easier than seeing our own

st ra tegies and c lassroom st ruc tu resas in effective. I believe th is si tua-

tion r esults from a l i teracy f ield thatassumes anyone who can read and

cares can teach re ading, and i t

p l ace s u n d e r p r ep a r ed tu to r s an d

teachers in un tenab le c ircum-

stances, where learning disabil i ty

seem s the on ly explanation for fail-

u re to p r ogress .

by Rachel Mar t in

Classroom Tip: Resp on din g to Readin g

After l i teral comprehension questions, then what? The following suggestions can help st imulate com-

plex discussions of texts, particular ly f iction. Some of these questions can help students present an opinion

and su pport i t with reason ing, a skill that can be extended to n onfiction readin g as well . These q uestions

were adap ted f rom the Web s i te

This excerpt is from Rachel Martins

fo r thcoming book: Listen ing Up:

Reinventing Ourselves as Teachers

and Studen ts , Heinemann, January ,

200 1. Rachel Martin teaches writ ing

to adults and facilitates staff devel-

opment in radical pedagogy and cur-

r icu lum design .

DNotes :

Coles, G. (1987). The learning mystique:

A critical look at learn ing disab ilities. Ne w

York: Pan theon Books.

Johnston, P (1985). Under standin g read-

ing disab ility: A case study appr oach.

Har vard Ed Review. 55 (2) (pp .153- 177).

As a prer eading activity, have students read th e t i t le of a story only and create the ir own storiesf rom i t . Compare them to the o r ig ina l . Ask studen ts: Decide which character in the stor y would l ike to spen d a day with an d why.

Ask studen ts to decide if the story really could have happen ed an d why.

Ask studen ts to explain why a character in a story acted as he or she did .

Ask s tuden ts to compare the s to ry wi th ano ther one the s tuden t has r ead .

Ask studen ts to wrtie a letter to one of the characters in the stor y offer in g adviceor in format ion .

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Fi e l d n o t e s

6 field notes

trast i t with their world knowledge,

helpin g to make sens e of what is

written. The focus here is on thereaders as they interact with th e text.

For those read in g theor is ts who

recognized the im por tance o f bo th

the text and the r eader in the read-

ing process, an amalgamation of the

two emer gedthe in teractive ap-

proach. The interactive

m odel (Rum elhar t , 1977;

Stanovich, 1980) stressed

both what is on the writ ten

page and what a readerbrin gs to i t using both top-

down and bo t tom- up sk i ll s .

Chall, who actually took

a mor e inter active stance in

the great debate, served on a

b lue r ibbon panel tha t

he lped crea te Becom ing a Nation of

Readers in 1985 . These read in g

theor is ts and prac t i t ioners de-

scr ibed sk i l led r ead ing as const ruc-

tivethat is, th e read er con structs

m ean in g f r om an d m ak es sen se o f the p r in ted page . The p anel a lso

descr ibed sk i l led readers as f luen t ,

strategic, and motivated. Moreover ,

they suggested that skil led readers

prac t ice , develop , and r ef ine the i r

read ing over the i r l i fe t ime.

More than a decade and a ha l f

later , these descriptors st i l l i l lus-

trate the reading process for skil led

reade rs. I d l ike to apply these te-

nets to a readin g lesson , and I haved ivided the lesson in to before , dur -

ing, and af ter reading.

B e f o r e R e a d i n gB e f o r e R e a d i n gB e f o r e R e a d i n gB e f o r e R e a d i n gB e f o r e R e a d i n gS k i l l e d r e a d i n g i s c o n s t r u c - S k i l l e d r e a d i n g i s c o n s t r u c - S k i l l e d r e a d i n g i s c o n s t r u c - S k i l l e d r e a d i n g i s c o n s t r u c - S k i l l e d r e a d i n g i s c o n s t r u c -

t i v e t i v e t i v e t i v e t i v e

The no t ion o f const ruc t ing

knowledge refocuses the locus of

con tro l in the read ing p rocess on

the reader . I t i s no t enough fo r

readers to decode the in format ion

f rom the tex t , bu t ra ther they must

br ing to min d the i r own wor ld

knowledge and worldview. I t de-mands that the teachers activate

their studen ts schem a that is,

help students recognize the knowl-

edge that th ey already have about

the topic of a text. This would be

akin to the b uilding of a foundation

in the process of construction.

Activating kn owledge about a

topic is particular ly im portan t for

second language reader s whose

world knowledge often far exceeds

their l inguistic skills. Teachers nee d

to provide opportunities for all

readers to think, write, or discuss

what they know about the topic of

the read ing. In add i t ion , teachers

need to focus the studen ts attention

on features of the text that can aid in

build ing a scaffold for what th ey will

read: t i t les, photographs or i l lus-

t ra t ions , an d i f appropr ia te , the

actual structure of the text. (Forexample , a n ewspaper i s s t ruc tu red

a certain way that facili tates skim -

ming, scanning, and locating spe-

cific inform ation; a textbook uses

chapter t i t les and subheads to orga-

nize topics and con cepts.)

S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e s t r a t e g i c S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e s t r a t e g i c S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e s t r a t e g i c S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e s t r a t e g i c S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e s t r a t e g i c Teachers can h e lp s tuden ts

recognize the great variation in her -

en t in th e read ing p rocess and to

unders tand tha t we do n o t read each

piece of writ in g in the sam e

way. For examp le, quite different

skil ls are needed to locate and readthe l ist of show tim es for a n ew film

in the n ewspaper than to read a

jo ur n al ar t ic le on ce ll p r op er tie s.

Teachers can serve as guides to the

variety of skills and p rocesses us ed

in reading. They can pose question s

to he lp s tuden ts re f lect

on the i r read ing

pr ocesses: Why are

we reading this par-

t icular text? What

in format ion do weneed to glean from

it? How closely do

we need to read? I t

i s impor tan t to he lp

ESOL readers , who

m ay not have even

basic l i teracy in their f irst language,

to unders tand d i f ferences among

texts and to vary the readin g skil ls

they use.

S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e m o t i v a t e d S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e m o t i v a t e d S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e m o t i v a t e d S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e m o t i v a t e d S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e m o t i v a t e d This descr ip to r focuses the

teacher of reading on the selection

of m aterial . Obviously, selecting

relevant and interesting material for

readers i s key to the i r engagemen t

in th e process. But teachers can

improve student motivation by cre-

ating classroom opportunities for

sustained silent reading (SSR).

In- class SSR, widely used in public

schools, can also be part of an adult

readin g program . This type of

read ing had been shown to be ef -

fective for ESOL readers (Pingreen

& Krashen, 1993; Mason &

Krashen , 199 7) .

Class t im e durin g which stu-

dents are allowed to choose their

own read ing mater ia l shou ld be

S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .Cont in ued from page 1

Conti nu ed on page 7

...skilled readers practice,develop, and refine their readingover their lifetime.

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Fi e l d n o t e s

7fall 2000

consis ten t ly scheduled . Over t ime,

teachers can create a class l ibrary

with popular material . Double cop-

ies would be helpful so that students

with similar interests can discuss

the same book or ar t icle. The class

library can be f i l led with newspa-

pers and m agazines as well as novels

and adult l i terature.

D u r i n g R e a d i n gD u r i n g R e a d i n gD u r i n g R e a d i n gD u r i n g R e a d i n gD u r i n g R e a d i n gS k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e f l u e n t S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e f l u e n t S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e f l u e n t S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e f l u e n t S k i l l e d r e a d e r s a r e f l u e n t

Fluency in r eading is a balance

between the skil lful decoding andongoing compr ehen sion . Th is f lu-

ency assumes that the decoding of

m o s t wo r d s th e r ead e r en co un te r s

is automatic. Readers have only a

limited am ount of cognitive energy

to use dur ing the p rocess . I f they

spend m ost o f the i r t ime on decod-

ing, then they have no e ner gy lef t

for conn ecting the ideas of the text

to make meaning . Therefore , be ing

f luen t demands tha t readers haveinternalized decoding and can

and shape . I th en exp lained tha t

these headings could serve as a

guide for his notetaking. He looked

at me in amazemen t and sa id , What

a good idea!This type of direct explanation

of what you, yourself, do as a pro fi-

cient reader is of ten very helpful

for your stude nts: usin g graph ic

cues , no te- tak ing , re read ing , and

summ ar izing paragraphs o r sec-

t ions . Having s tuden ts read the

sum m ary at the en d of a textbook

chap ter f i r s t , fo r example , p rov ides

a good overview. It can help create a

schema for s tuden ts as they ap-

proach the beg inn in g of the chap-t e r .

T h i n k Al o u d P r o t o c o lT h i n k Al o u d P r o t o c olT h i n k Al o u d P r o t o c o lT h i n k Al o u d P r o t o c olT h i n k Al o u d P r o t o co lModeling your own reading

process m ight also serve your stu-

den ts. You could choose a text that

the whole class might be reading

and go th rough a pub l ic th ink- a loud .

In o ther words , te l l the s tuden ts

what you are th inkin g as you read a

text for the f irst t ime. I would sug-gest that you practice on a text to

prep are yourself . However, as you

share your own process with the

students, you should use an unfa-

mil ia r text to m ake the task more

authentic.

A f t e r R e a d i n gA f t e r R e a d i n gA f t e r R e a d i n gA f t e r R e a d i n gA f t e r R e a d i n gThe typical postreading exer-

c ise tends to focus on compr ehen -

sion exercises. I would suggest that

ra ther than sh or t answer o r m ul-

t ip le cho ice exerc ises , reader s

m ight be asked to think about a vi-

sual represen tation of the text: a

fo lded paper with p r os and cons; a

Venn diagram with traits and sim i-

lar i t ies; a web m ap with several dif-

fe ren t ideas conn ected by ar rows.

S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .Cont in ued from pa ge 6

Cont in ued on page 8

focus conscious energy on compre-

hension . Decoding can be par t icu-

lar ly problematic for second lan-

guage learn ers b ecause they often

have a very limited oral based lexi-

con .

A number of exercises can

help readers improve the i r au to -

matic processing skil ls. These

include identif ication exercises,

m atching words, ide ntifying parts of

words, and f lash cards for sight

words. (Editors note: See Lee

Haller s art icle on page 21 for ex-

amples o f r ead ing exerc ises .)

M a k i n g I t C o n c r e t e :M a k i n g I t C o n c r e t e :M a k i n g I t C o n c r e t e :M a k i n g I t C o n c r e t e :M a k i n g I t C o n c r e t e :U s i n g P o s t - i t sU s i n g P o s t - i t sU s i n g P o s t - i t sU s i n g P o s t - i t sU s i n g P o s t - i t s

To improve top-down skil ls,

ESOL teacher Judy Powers has h er

s tuden ts use post - i t no tes to mark a

text as they are readin g. The n ota-

t ions on the post - i t s inc lude: asking

a question, answering a question,

crea t ing a m enta l p ic tu re , express-

ing opinion , connectin g to l ife, and

connect ions to read in g . These

notes could include key informa-tion, a new vocabulary i tem, inter -

ers t ing descr ip t ions , o r whatever

focus seem s appr opr ia te . Although

studen ts read on th e i r own, they

rev iew the i r read in g p rocess by

using post- i ts, also making their

reading a more active process.

I r em em b er o n ce h e lp in g a

studen t who was studying a chapter

in an intr oductory text for a college

course . I asked h im how he learnedthe mater ia ls . He responded tha t he

read the chap ter th rough . I asked

what he d id n ext , and he re-

sponded tha t he read the chap ter a

second t ime. I then asked i f he

took no tes and he sa id no . I sug-

gested tha t he examine the h ead-

ings th roughout the chap ter and

notice the differences in font size

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Fi e l d n o t e s

8 field notes

B l o o m s TB l o o m s TB l o o m s TB l o o m s TB l o o m s Ta x o n o m ya x o n o m ya x o n o m ya x o n o m ya x o n o m y

Post readin g activit ies andquestion s should also take into ac-

count the six-level hierarchy of

skil ls that Bloom suggests in his tax-

onom y. The f irst level is knowl-

edge, which includes recall or rec-

ognition of inform ation. The next

level , comm only used in post - read-

ing tasks , i s compreh ension , where

the reader migh t exp lain , descr ibe ,

or reph rase a text. The next four

levels focus on the following:

ap p l i ca t io n ap p l i ca t io n ap p l i ca t io n ap p l i ca t io n ap p l i ca t io n , wh e r e t h e r e a d e r

app l ies the in format ion learned in

the text;

analysis analysis analysis analysis analysis ,,,,, w h e r e t h e r e a d e r

would m ake in ferences o r d er ive

generalizations;

s y n t h e s i s s y n t h e s i s s y n t h e s i s s y n t h e s i s s y n t h e s i s , wh e r e t h e r e a d e r

combin es severa l ideas; and

N o t e sN o t e sN o t e sN o t e sN o t e s

Anderson, R.C., Hiebert , E., Scott ,

J., & Wilkinson, I. (1985). Becoming

a nation of readers. Washington,DC: National In sti tute of Education.

Goodman , K.S. (1967). Reading: A

psycholinguistic guessing gam e.

Journal of th e Reading Specialist , 6 ,

126- 135.

Gough, P.B. (1972) . One second of

reading. In J.F. Kavanagh &

I.G.Mattingly (eds.) ,Language by ear

and by the eye (p p.331358). Cam -

bridge, MA: MIT Press.

LaBer ge, D. & Samu els, S.J. (1974) .

Toward a theory of automatic infor-

mat ion p rocess ing in read ing . Cog-

nitive Psychology, 6, 293323.

Mason, B. & Krashen, S. (199 7).

Extensive readin g in English as a

foreign language . System, 25,

91102.

Pingreen , J. & Krashen, S. (1993)

Sustained silent reading. School

Library Media Quarterly, 22, 2123.

Rumelhart, D.E. (1977). Toward an

inter active m odel of readin g. In S.

Dorn ic (ed . ) , Atten t ion and per for -

mance VI (pp .57360 3). Hillsd ale,

NJ: Lawrence Erlaum.

Smith F, (1971).Un d er s t an d in g

reading. New York; H olt , Rineh art &

Winston .Stanovich, K.E. (198 0 ). Toward an

in terac t ive-compensatory model o f

ind iv idual d i fferences in the devel-

opmen t o f read in g f luency. Reading

Research Quar ter ly , 16, 32- 71.

evalua t ion evalua t ion evalua t ion evalua t ion evalua t ion , w h e r e t h e r e a d e r

ju d ges th e valu e or im p or tan ce of a

text.

These leve ls p r ovide a s im ple

yet h elpful guide to the types of question s that you might ask af ter

read ing .

C o n c l u s i o nC o n c l u s i o nC o n c l u s i o nC o n c l u s i o nC o n c l u s i o nSki lled reader s p r ac t ice , de-

ve lop , and ref ine the i r read ing over

the i r l i fe t ime. Th is summ at ive de-

scr ip to r ind ica tes the impor tance o f

practice to develop expertise in

readin g. With suppor t , practice and

insp i ra t ions , a l l r eaders can im -

p r o v e .

Paul Abraham is the Director of the

M aster of Arts in Teachin g ESL an d t heChai r o f the Educat ion an d Hu ma nServices Department at Simmons

College. He can be reached at

S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .S k i l l e d R e a d i n g . . .Cont in ued from pa ge 7

W h a t i s S u sta i n e d S i le n t Re a d i n g ?W h a t i s S u sta i n e d S i le n t Re a d i n g ?W h a t i s S u sta i n e d S i le n t Re a d i n g ?W h a t i s S u sta i n e d S i le n t Re a d i n g ?W h a t i s S u sta i n e d S i le n t Re a d i n g ?

Sustained silent r eading (SSR) is a t ime set aside in the class-

room for studen ts to read on the ir own. Even 15 m inutes of SSR

is worthwhile.

Students select something suitable and interesting to

read ,p r eferab ly a whole book .

Teachers m ay or m ay not have students keep dialogue journals

on what they read. Teachers responses to the journals affordindividual attention.

Research has su ggested th at SSR is valuable in helpin g students

progress in read ing and in h e lp ing second language s tuden ts

acquire language p roficiency.

Having students read on their own allows brief periods for

teachers to work on por tfolio assessme nts or to have ind ividual

conferences wi th s tuden ts .

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Fi e l d n o t e s

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Oh, Ern esto, I Have Som eth in g Won der ful to

Tell You:Makin g H igh er Level Read er s Out of

Lower Level Lear n er sby Janet Fischer and Rich ar d Gol dber g

Con ti nu ed on page 10

s teachers in Bostons

Asian Am erican Civic Asso-

ciation, we work with im -

migran t adu l t learners a t a read ing

level of 34, th e grade level

equivalents used by the Massachu-

se t t s Depar tmen t o f Educat ion .

Richard s level I class is slightly

lower than Janets level II class. In

this ar t icle, we will provide som e

prac t ical , c lassroom- based ideas

for teach ing h igher -order read ing

skills to lower level reader s who are

nonnative speakers of English.

Richard sh ows how to get stu-

den ts to read and respond to a

whole book on work and family is-sues. Janet sh ows how to take a

s tuden t-genera ted tex t and prov ide

readin g and writ ing activit ies to

build background knowledge in or-

d e r t o i n c r ea se com p r eh en s io n .

Jo i n i n g t h e L it e r a c y Cl u bJ o i n i n g t h e L it e r a c y Cl u bJo i n i n g t h e L it e r a c y Cl u bJ o i n i n g t h e L it e r a c y Cl u bJ o i n i n g t h e Li t e r a c y Cl u bOur comm on goals a re to h e lp

lower- level learner s , in Fran k

Smiths words, to join the l i teracy

club, that is, to make reading more

en joyable, to en gage with texts, to go

beyond the wall of pr int barr ier of

too man y new words, and to ac-

quire the kinds of reading strategies

necess ary for success at h igher lev-

e ls o f educat ion and em ploym ent .

We don t see th ese goals as mu tually

exclusive, and we believe teacher s

shouldn t focus on one at th e ex-

pense o f the o ther .

L i n k i n g T h e o r y t oL i n k i n g T h e o r y t oL i n k i n g T h e o r y t oL i n k i n g T h e o r y t oLi n k i n g Th e o r y t o

P r a c t i c e : R i c h a r dP r a c t i c e : R i c h a r dP r a c t i c e : R i c h a r dP r a c t i c e : R i c h a r dP r a c t i c e : R i c h a r dIn m y level I ABE class, stu-

d en t s r ead Womans Work, Mans

Work by Roseanne Keller (NewReaders Press) , a sm al l chap ter

book focusing on the diff icult ies

faced by an im m igrant family. The

husband, laid off and unable to f ind

work, is forced to stay home an d

take care of the couples thr ee chil-

dren, while his wife works full- t ime

to suppor t the family.

F i r s t St e p s : Co n t e n t a n dF i r s t St e p s : Co n t e n t a n dF i r s t St e p s : Co n t e n t a n dF i r s t St e p s : Co n t e n t a n dF i r s t St e p s : Co n t e n t a n d

F o r m a l S c h e m a t aF o r m a l S c h e m a t aF o r m a l S c h e m a t aF o r m a l S c h e m a t aF o r m a l S c h e m a t aSince non e o f the s tuden ts had

ever read an en t i re book in English ,

we thought i t useful to bring som e

reading theory into the classroom to

suppor t our view that me anin g is not

found in individual words or texts

but as part of an in teractive process

between a re ader s background

knowledge and the text (Carrel &

Eisterhold, 1983). First we exam-

ined con ten t schemata (what

readers already know about the

subject theyre reading) . Students

easily wrote examples of wom ans

work and m ans work, both in

the i r na t ive countr ies and in the

United States, and they were asked

if they ever knew of a wom an who

did m ans work or a man who did

wom ans work. We also d iscussed

how differen t societies would view

men and women in these s i tua t ions .

These activit ies provided much use-

ful inform ation for a future lesson

on chan ging gender ro les .

Next, we used formal sche-

m ata (knowledge of the organiza-

tional structures of different kinds

of textsfor exam ple, h ow a book is

d i ff e r en t f r o m a p o em ) .

Students were asked to skim

the en tire book by looking at the

front cover (a picture of an exasper-

a ted house husban d) , tab le o f con-

ten ts , nam es o f chap ters , p ic tu res ,

and reading small sections, such as

any chapters first an d last para-

graphs. Each s tuden t then sharedher/his f indings with the class. Fi-

nally, we tr ied to predict the con tent

of each of the seven chapters by

wr i t ing one sen tence summar ies

based on the t i t les (The Broken

Dream, Anger, Change of

Hear t ,e tc . ) and to p red ic t the end -

ing from the last l ine of the book,

Oh, Ernesto , I have someth in g

wonderful to tell you.

Studen ts r ead the book in d i f -

ferent ways: through sustained si-lent re ading in class, by reading a

few paragraphs a loud round - rob in

style, by l istenin g to the teacher

read aloud, and by reading assigned

chap ters a t hom e. Al l in - c lass read-

ing followed a str ict no dictionar-

ies policy. I f students encountered

diff icult new words or idioms, they

A

Note: Because this article was written by two teachers, we have indicated author ship of each section in the sub headin gs.

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Fi e l d n o t e s

10 field notes

O h E r n e s t o . . .O h E r n e s t o . . .O h E r n e s t o . . .O h E r n e s t o . . .O h E r n e s t o . . .Cont in ued from pa ge 9

Con ti nu ed on page 11

The challenge is to find themesthat all students can relate to.

would under l ine them and t ry to

guess mean ings from con text with

the r est of the class, or th ey would

try a list i t and skip i t approach of

wr i ting the word in th e i r read ing

jo ur n al an d lo ok in g u p th e m ean in g

later . (For an excellent l ist of strate-

gies that can be used before, during,

and af te r read in g , see

Auerbach and Paxton

(1997).

R e a d i n g a n dR e a d i n g a n dR e a d i n g a n dR e a d i n g a n dR e a d i n g a n dWWWWWr i t i n g a sr i t i n g a sr i t i n g a sr i t i n g a sr i t i n g a s

I n t e r a c t i v e S k i l l sI n t e r a c t i v e S k i l l sI n t e r a c t i v e S k i l l sI n t e r a c t i v e S k i l l sI n t e r a c t i v e S k i l l sIn all our classroom

work, we use readin g and writ ing

together , not as discrete skil ls.

Among the writ ing assignm ents was

a le t te r to e i ther Carmen or

Ernesto, the two main characters, in

which studen ts would give their re-

actions to th e hu sband s or wifes

plight and offer suggestions to im -prove their respective si tuations.

Af ter read ing the book , s tuden ts

were asked to wr i te the i r own end-

ing to the story and pre dict what

migh t happen to Carmen , Ernesto

and the i r ch i ld ren in the nex t few

years. Finally, they did a longer

piece of writ ing to explain how they

would deal with the p roblem of job

loss and shif t ing child care ob liga-

tions if those si tuations sur faced in

the i r own famil ies .

N a r r o w R e a d i n gN a r r o w R e a d i n gN a r r o w R e a d i n gN a r r o w R e a d i n gN a r r o w R e a d i n gThese activit ies were not d one

in a vacuum bu t were part of longer

un its on the chan ging family and

working in the United States.

Through this kind of narrow read-

ing, investigating a topic in d epth

by reading m ultiple genresa short

book , a newspaper a r t ic le , a poem

studen ts a re ab le to increase the i r

background knowledge and t ransfer

bo th con ten t and fo rmal schematato m ore challenging readings. Al-

though we do only one ch apter of

the b ook in class every day, each

time we read th is book I have always

not iced tha t many s tuden ts a re

readin g it at a faster pace on th eir

own, p roving that if the m aterial

conn ects with their reali t ies, stu-

d en t s o ft en d o m o r e in d ep en d en t

read ing .

U s i n g S t u d e n t - G e n e r a t e dU s i n g S t u d e n t - G e n e r a t e dU s i n g S t u d e n t - G e n e r a t e dU s i n g S t u d e n t - G e n e r a t e dU s i n g S t u d e n t - G e n e r a t e d

WWWWWr i t i n g a s Cl a s s Tr i t i n g a s Cl a s s Tr i t i n g a s Cl a s s Tr i t i n g a s Cl a s s Tr i t i n g a s Cl a s s Te x t s :e x t s :e x t s :e x t s :e x t s :J a n e tJ a n e tJ a n e tJ a n e tJ a n e t

At the beginn ing of each n ew

class cycle, I try to establish a stron g

foundation for reading. For ex-

amp le, we begin th e f irst class day

with a read ing ass ignm ent in te-

grated with a writ ing assignm ent.

Although most students are Chi-

nese , we often h ave non - Asian s tu -

dents in our classes. The challenge

is to f ind them es tha t a l l s tuden tscan re la te to . For m y s tuden ts , im -

m igrating to the United States is a

un iversa l exper ien ce; therefore , I

choose readings related to this

them e. What follows ref lects a com-

bina t ion o f in - c lass and a t - hom e

readin g activit ies.

Students begin b y writ ing

about the thoughts th ey had about

the Uni ted Sta tes before they imm i-

grated her e. We next l ist all of the

studen ts responses on the board .

The following class, studen ts are

given a photocopy of the l ist theygenera ted f rom the p r evious c lass .

This l ist enables students to read

the i r c lassmates responses and

validate their own ideas in prin t . We

then d iscuss s imi lar i t ies and d i f fer -

ences amon g the g roup . Studen ts

respond very posit ively

to this activity because

they rece ive immedi-

a te feedback f rom

thei r peers . I t a lso

encourages them tore la te the i r exper i -

ences to the i r peers

an d p r ep a r e s t h em to

r e sp o n d to su b se -

quent class readings at more chal-

lenging levels.

We con t inue the theme with a

publ ished read ing ass ignmen t us ing

two excerpts from I Was Dreaming

to Come to Amer ica : Memor ies

from the Ellis Island OralHistory

Project.New York : Puffin Books ,

199 5. Students read about the ex-

pectations and thoughts of two im-

m igrants who arr ived at Ell is Island

in 1920. They also read a shor t bi-

ography of each of the im m igrants.

Af ter re fer r in g to the i r ear l ie r re -

spon ses in th e open ing activity, they

write a short let ter to one of these

imm igran ts . In the i r le t te r , they

explain how they can identify with

the wr i te r s fee l ings o r exper ien cesand how they themselves reac ted in

their own situations. Usin g letter

writ ing provides stud ents with a

clear audience for their writ ing,

making i t eas ier to de term ine tone ,

level of formality, and other choices

any writer h as to make.

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Fi e l d n o t e s

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O h , E r n e s t o . . .O h , E r n e s t o . . .O h , E r n e s t o . . .O h , E r n e s t o . . .O h , E r n e s t o . . .Cont in ued from page 10

N o t e sN o t e sN o t e sN o t e sN o t e s

Auerbach, E. & Paxton,D.(1997) I ts

not th e English thing: Bringing

reading research into the ESL class-

r o o m . TESOL Quarter ly, 31( 2), 7

237261.

Carrell , P. & Eisterh old, J.(1983)

Schema theory and ESL reading

pedagogy.TESOL Quarterly, 17 (4) ,553573 .

Jan et Fi scher is an ABE teacher an dRichard Goldberg is ABE ProgramCoordin ator an d teacher at t he Asia n

Am erican Civic Associa t i on in Boston.They can be reached by email at an d

The follow- up re ading is a

longer s tuden t- genera ted text f rom

a former ABE studen t. We discuss

students reactions to this students

experiences, again drawing com-

parison s and contr asts. As a finalactivity, we create a chart com-

paring the three writers to the class

m emb ers , examin ing country ; age

when im migra ted ; thoughts before

comin g to the U.S.; hopes for th e

future; and advice/su ggestions for

each person . Through the use o f

this graphic, we look for common-

ali t ies. The us e of a chart also pro-

vides students with a different

readin g skil l: locating inform ationfrom a graphic, which is organized

differently from a narrative.

Recyc l ing VRecyc l ing VRecyc l ing VRecyc l ing VRecyc l ing Vo c a b u l a r yo c a b u l a r yo c a b u l a r yo c a b u l a r yo c a b u l a r yBy followin g one r elevant

them e for a per iod o f t ime, we cre-

ated a context that helped students

in c r ea se th e ir co m p r eh en s io n o f

the readin g matter . Vocabulary is

P r e - R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sP r e - R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sP r e - R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sP r e - R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sP r e - R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e s

Accessing prior knowledge Writin g your way in to read in g (Writin g about your

experiences r elated to the topic)

Asking questions b ased on th e t i t le

Making predictions based on previewing

Iden tifying text structure

Skimm ing fo r the genera l idea

Reading the introduction and conclusion f irst

D u r i n g R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sD u r i n g R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sD u r i n g R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sD u r i n g R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sD u r i n g R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e s Skipping unkn own words; guessing from context

Predicting the main idea of each paragraph

Drawing pictures to show what you see in your

minds eye

A f t e r R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sA f t e r R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sA f t e r R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sA f t e r R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sA f t e r R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e s Revising prer eading expectations

Making an outlin e, chart , m ap, or diagram of the organizationof the te xt

Retelling what you thin k the author is saying

Relating the text to your own experience

S a m p l e R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sS a m p l e R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sS a m p l e R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sS a m p l e R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e sS a m p l e R e a d i n g S t r a t e g i e s

The following day, studen ts do

a variation on a role- play using writ-

ing instead of talking. Each studen t

exchanges her letter with a partner

and takes on the ro le o f the imm i-

gran t her p ar tner wro te to . Studen ts

wr i te responses to the i r par tn er s

le t te r addr ess ing spec i f ic i ssues ,

concerns , o r cha llenges the i r par t -

ner s have faced . These s tuden t-

generated texts give studen ts op-

por tun i t ies to read more au then t ic

texts with a controlled level of dic-

t ion. Depending on the class, wewill do u p to two letter exchanges

to re in force the i r r ead ing and wr i t -

ing sk i l ls f rom mul t ip le perspec-

tives.

naturally recycled when you use a

them e, so s tuden ts have the

chance to see n ew words re-

pea ted in d i f feren t read ings .

Using s tuden t- genera ted texts is

a natural way to keep the level of

diction low enough for studen ts

to read with ease. By intr oducing

publ ished mater ia l on the same

them e, they have the oppor tun i ty

for exposure to language som e-what beyond their reach. By

combining reading and writ ing as

inter active activit ies, studen ts see

the conn ect ion b e tween the two .

All of these strategies with low-

level studen ts help set th e stage

for h igher o rder read ing sk i l ls .

(b a s e d o n A u e rb a c h a n d P a xto n , 1 9 9 7 )

U s i n g C h a r t sU s i n g C h a r t sU s i n g C h a r t sU s i n g C h a r t sU s i n g C h a r t s

7/29/2019 fn102

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Fi e l d n o t e s

12 field notes

ne of my fi r s t mem or ies

is si t t ing in my moth ers

lap while she read to m e.

This one-on-one connect ion cou ld

not h ave lasted for long, because I

have f ive younger sister s, bu t a

seed o f joy, con ten tm ent , an d

wonder was p lan ted th en , and I

have been a reader ever s ince .

F r o m c h i l dh o o d I r e m e m b e r

The Five Little

Peppers , Li t t le Wom en, Litt le

Men( I loved

Litt le Men ,

probab ly be-

cause there were

so m any fem ales

in our house) ,

an d The Bobbsey

Twins. When I

was old enough

to baby-sit I was addicted to Nan cy

Drew books. I made $.75 an hour,

so I would si t and count on the

hour (75, 1.50, 2 .25, 3 .00.. .) to

calculate how much m oney I was

m aking so I could f igure out how

many new Nancy Drew myster ies I

could buy. I HATED finish ing one

without a pr oper b ackup. As an

adult , I st i l l read just about an y-

th ing I can get m y hands on , bu t I

can always count on Pat Conroy,

Ann e Lamot t , Tom Robbins , and Ican re ad J.D. Salinger over an d

over .

R e a d i n g i n P r e - G E DR e a d i n g i n P r e - G E DR e a d i n g i n P r e - G E DR e a d i n g i n P r e - G E DR e a d i n g i n P r e - G E DOne of the r easons I love

teaching a pre- GED class is that I

can in corporate m y love of l i tera-

ture in to my teachin g. I teach pre-

GED at the Adult Collaborative of

Cape Cod for Educational Suppor t

Services (ACCCESS) pr ogram . Pr e-

GED covers th e same basic material

that the GED program covers , but

we move at a s lower and m ore thor -

ough pace. Each s tuden t has a dif-

ferent educational background, has

dif feren t s t ren gths an d chal lenges ,

and learns at a different rate. While

the core lesson of the d ay is the

same for all , the s tuden ts work withthe m aterial at a level that th ey are

able to h andle. We also have tutors

in th e classroom to assis t with this

type of divergen ce.

My tim e with s tuden ts in class

is l imited to two times per week,

three hours per sess ion , and mos t

of my students h ave so man y family

and work obligations that I cann ot

assign an y substantial hom ework.

Therefore, I have a very small win-dow of opportun ity to share m y pas-

s ion, expose m y class to differen t

forms of l i te ra ture , and prepare for

the GED examin at ion . Fur ther ,

some s tuden ts f ind the Li tera ture

and Arts section very difficult. Re-

cently, though, I h ave found som e

inter esting ways to br ing m y own

reading in to m y pre- GED class and

sti l l m ake i t mean ingful for m y stu-

d e n t s .

G r a m m a r a n d L i t e r a t u r eG r a m m a r a n d L i t e r a t u r eG r a m m a r a n d L i t e r a t u r eG r a m m a r a n d L i t e r a t u r eG r a m m a r a n d L i t e r a t u r eAs I was readin g Beach M usic

by Pat Conroy, I noticed th at I was

laughin g at the d ialogue. In class, we

had just covered th e use of the

comma to separate dialogue from

the tag l ine, and using the d ialogue

in th is book

seem ed to b e awonderful way to

illustrate what we

had just studied. I

a lso hoped , o f

course, that exam-

inin g the dialogue

would spark the i r

curiosity about th e

rest of the book.

I copied a

particular ly funn y section of dia-

logue to i l lustrate the gramm ar

rule, and brought at least two copies

of the book in case any of the stu-

dents wanted to borrow it . They

enjoyed the p assage (a dialogue be-

tween a fa ther and h is th ree d augh-

ters) , the g ramm ar m ade a l it t le

m o r e sen se , an d m o r e im p o r t an t ,

two of the s tuden ts lef t with a copy

of the book.

The next comma rule we stud-

ied was the in ter rup ter an d theappositive. I wasnt sure how I was

going to il lustrate this poin t

until I read A Heartbre aking Work

of Staggering Geniusby Dave

Eggers. I t is almost imp ossible for

Dave Eggers to write a sen tence

without an interrupter , which i l lus-

A Read er Teache s Readin g

When I was old enough to baby-sitI was addicted to Nancy Drew

books...

Con ti nu ed on page 13

Oby Tina t or an

7/29/2019 fn102

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Fi e l d n o t e s

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trates th e poin t beautifully. I began

readin g with an eye for content th at

coincided with what we were study-

ing in class.

R e a d i n g B e t w e e n t h eR e a d i n g B e t w e e n t h eR e a d i n g B e t w e e n t h eR e a d i n g B e t w e e n t h eR e a d i n g B e t w e e n t h e

L i n e sL i n e sL i n e sL i n e sL i n e sThe f irst page of Cold Moun-

tain by Charles Frazier f i t beauti-

fully into our class for r eading com-

preh ension . Af ter read in g the f i r s t

page , I asked the s tuden ts quest ions

like When did th e story take

p lace? Did the m an in the hosp i ta l

grow up in the coun try or the city?

The students were a bit skep-

tical about f indin g all this inform a-

tion from just one page of the novel,

but then they really got into r eading

between th e l ines. I told the class

that we can tell a lot about a n ovel by

ju st r ead in g th e fi r s t p age, so we

tr ied to extract as much information

as we could.

When we examin e the f i r s t

page of a novel, we look for tone,

t ime, word cho ice , and fo reshadow-

ing techn iques .

In a s im i lar ve in , I used thefirst couple of pages from Where the

Hear t I s by Billie Letts. This n ovel of

a young, pregnan t woman who has no

m oney, no fam ily, and no way to take

care o f herse l f , r e f lects them es o f

comm uni ty , fr iend sh ip , family, and

pers onal growth. Lettss n ovel

worked well to teach foresh adowing

tech n iq u es .

After reading a description of

Novalee Nation and Willy Jack

Pickens, characters from the novel, Iasked th e class to pr edict what would

happen to the charac ters . Studen ts

also had to support their ideas with

exam ples from the text. To m y de-

light, th e class elected to r ead this

book together , an d all of them loved

it . They were exceptionally prou d

when th ey saw the m ovie that was

made f rom th is book and were ab le

to conduct a discussion of the merits

Carey Reid (SABES Staff

Developmen t Specia l is t ) and

Mar y Jayn e Fay (ABE Certifica-

tion Specialist) are st i l l collectingcomm ents on the d raf t ABE

Teachers Certif ication process

as descr ibed in the Second

In ter im Repor t to the Commis-

s io n e r /DOE .

T h ese co m m en t s a r e

brought to th e statewide Certif i-

cation Advisory Committee

Still Tim e to Give Feed b ack on ABE Teach er

Certificationm eet ings where th ey d i rec t ly bear

on d iscussion .

Do you support the Teachers

Competency Lis t in i t s p r esen tfo rm? Do you th ink the s t ream-

l in ing op t ions fo r exper ienced

teach e r s m ak e sen se?

If you have not provided your

comm ents ye t , p lease do take the

t ime to do so .

The repor t m inus a t tach-

m ents is n ot very long, and for

those of you especially pressed

for t im e, ther es an executive

summ ary. These are posted on

both the DOE and SABES Websi tes :

and . Please

emai l your comm ents to

as soon

as you can, or m ail them to:

Mary Jayne Fay, ACLS, 350 Main

Street , Malden, MA 02148-

5023 .

P i e c e s o f Li t e r a t u r eP i e c e s o f Li t e r a t u r eP i e c e s o f Li t e r a t u r eP i e c e s o f Li t e r a t u r eP i e c e s o f Li t e r a t u r econti nu ed from page 12

Whenever I br ing a piece of

l i terature, I also bring the book or

text that i t cam e from. The studen tskn ow that I always carr y books to

d iscuss and share , and as a resu l t ,

we have star ted a book exchange in

the classroom . I collect books at

yard sales for that purpose, but

adult basic education programs

might ben ef it f rom add ing book

acquisit ions to their bud get for this

p u r p o s e .

Tina Toran has worked on shr i mp

boats in Key West, supply boats inLouisian a, an d boat del iveries to the

Caribbean . She is worki ng on h ermasters degree in l i terature andwriting as she teaches pre-GED.She can be reached a t t toran @cs.com.

of reading or see ing a work

of l i terature.

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Fi e l d n o t e s

14 field notes

O b j e c t i v eO b j e c t i v eO b j e c t i v eO b j e c t i v eO b j e c t i v eAfter this lesson, students should be able to recognize their own name in print and

be able to read the sen ten ce: My nam e is _______.

R e a d i n g S k i l ls C o v e r e dR e a d i n g S k i l l s C o v e r e dR e a d i n g S k i l ls C o v e r e dR e a d i n g S k i l l s C o v e r e dR e a d i n g S k i l l s C o v e r e dLetter recognition, word recognition, sentence recognition, visual discr imination,

in t roduct ion o f conson an t sounds, read ing f rom lef t to r igh t

S t u d e n t sS t u d e n t sS t u d e n t sS t u d e n t sS t u d e n t sBeginn er level (SPL 0- 1) ESOL students at the b asic l i teracy level. There should b ea m aximu m of eight studen ts in the class.

L e n g t hL e n g t hL e n g t hL e n g t hL e n g t hThe whole lesson takes about one and a h a lf hours . There i s no n eed to rush th is

lesson because so m any li te racy sk i l ls a re em bedded here .

B a c k g r o u n dB a c k g r o u n dB a c k g r o u n dB a c k g r o u n dB a c k g r o u n dThis lesson works well af ter studen ts have been in class a few days. Before star t in g

this lesson, students should already be able to:

Answer the questions: What is your name? and Where are you from?

Identify the sound made by the f irst let ter of each name of students inthe class.

S t e p b y S t e pS t e p b y S t e pS t e p b y S t e pS t e p b y S t e pS t e p b y S t e p

1.1.1.1.1. Oral pract ice:Oral pract ice:Oral pract ice:Oral pract ice:Oral pract ice: Studen ts ask each o ther What i s your name?

2.Name recogni t ion2.Name recogni t ion2.Name recogni t ion2.Name recogni t ion2.Name recogni t ion : Teacher sca t te r s index cards wi th the names o f a l l the

studen ts in the class on a table. Names sh ould be writ ten e ntir ely in upp ercase.Each s tuden t se lects h is o r her own nam e f rom the cards on the tab le .

Tools for th e Classr oom : A Fir st Readin g Lessonby Marci a Ch aff ee

TTTTTe a c h a b le M o m e n ts:e a c h a b le M o m e n ts:e a c h a b le M o m e n ts:e a c h a b le M o m e n ts:e a c h a b le M o m e n ts: So m e ti m e s tw o s tu d e n ts w i l l h a v e n a m e s th a t s ta r t w i th th e s a m e l e tte r,li ke M o h a m m e d a n d M o u la . S tu d e n ts m a y d i sc o v e r th e i r o w n n a m e o r m a y n e e d th e h e lp o ft h e t e a c h e r t o e x a m i n e t h e v i s u a l c o n f i g u r a t i o n o f t h e n a m e ( l e n g t h a n d s h a p e ) , s o u n d s , a n da n y f e a t u r e s t h a t d i s t i n g u i s h o n e n a m e f r o m a n o t h e r .

Author s n ote: I have used th is lesson successfully with my studen ts at the In tern ational Insti tute of Boston; somes tudents a re n onl i te rate and some are semil i te ra te in a non - Rom an a lphabet . Al l have had zero to th r ee years o f

fo rmal educat ion .

Teachers can b egin to teach letters of the alphabet in con text by using the f irst let ters of studen ts nam es in th e

class. Teaching letter r ecognition and sound /symb ol correspon den ce can be facili tated by using an ESOL lexicon.

(IIB has created i ts own.)

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3 .3 .3 .3 .3 . S p e l l i n g a l o u dS p e l l i n g a l o u dS p e l l i n g a l o u dS p e l l i n g a l o u dS p e l l in g a l o u dStuden ts p rac t ice spe l ling the i r own nam es a loud . I f one s tuden t cannot spe l l her n ame, the

teacher can ask a more advanced student:Can you spell Mohammeds name? This allows for

multilevel flexibility.

4 . W4 . W4 . W4 . W4 . Wo r d r e c o gn i t i o n / s e n t e n c e i n t r o d u c ti o no r d r e c o gn i t i o n / s e n t e n c e i n t r o d u c ti o no r d r e c o gn i t i o n / s e n t e n c e i n t r o d u c ti o no r d r e c o gn i t i o n / s e n t e n c e i n t r o d u c ti o no r d r e c ogn i t i o n / s e n t e n c e i n t r o d u c ti o nThe teacher writes on board My name is Ahmed. and prompts students to guess what i t says

by asking Ahmed, What is your name? The teacher asks other students and guides them to read

the sen tence by repeating My nam e is as she poin ts to each word, the n sub sti tutes each

studen t s name.

5 .5 .5 .5 .5 . R e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n gR e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n gR e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n gR e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n gR e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n gThe teacher gives each studen t a str ip that says My nam e is and anoth er str ip th at has a

classmates nam e. This is a deliberate tr ick to get studen ts to read carefully. Students th en d is-

cover th at they have som eone elses nam e. This usually elicits laughter and m akes the p rocess fun.

6 . D i s c o v e r y a n d c o r r e c t i o n / r e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n g6 . D i s c o v e r y a n d c o r r e c t i o n / r e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n g6 . D i s c o v e r y a n d c o r r e c t i o n / r e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n g6 . D i s c o v e r y a n d c o r r e c t i o n / r e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n g6 . D i s c o v e r y a n d c o r r e c t i o n / r e a d i n g f o r m e a n i n gEach s tuden t d iscovers tha t she has a n ame th a t i s no t her own and exchanges nam e s t r ips wi th th eappropr ia te s tuden t to m ake cor rec t ions .Each s tuden t comple tes h is /her sen ten ce wi th her own

nam e. Studen ts then r ead the i r sen tence to the others .

77777..... S i gh t w o r d sS i gh t wo r d sS i gh t w o r d sS i gh t wo r d sS i gh t wo r d sThe teacher rein forces each word by holding up single word cards for My, nam e, is and th e

whole group identif ies the words.

88888 ..... S i g h t w o r d s / s e n t e n c e s t r u c t u r eS i g h t w o r d s / s e n t e n c e s t r u c t u r eS i g h t w o r d s / s e n t e n c e s t r u c t u r eS i g h t w o r d s / s e n t e n c e s t r u c t u r eS i g h t w o r d s / s e n t e n c e s t r u c t u r eThe teacher ass ists each s tuden t in cu t t ing up h er own sen tence in to s ing le words and scrambl ing

the words . Studen ts r ear range the words back in to the sen tence . (My name is Ahmed.)

99999 ..... S ig h t wo r d r e i n f o r c e m e n tS ig h t wo r d r e i n f o r c e m e n tS ig h t wo r d r e i n f o r c e m e n tS ig h t wo r d r e i n f o r c e m e n tS ig h t wo r d r e i n f o r c e m e n tThe teacher calls out in dividual words (Pick up m y; Pick up nam e; Pick up is.and studen ts

p ick up the cor responding word cards f rom the i r reassembled cu t - up sen tence . Studen ts con-

t inue th is in pa i r s .

1010101010 ..... Sentence wri t ingSentence wri t ingSentence wri t ingSentence wri t ingSentence wri t ingEach s tuden t cop ies her own sen tence .

1111111111..... F o l l o w - u pF o l l o w - u pF o l l o w - u pF o l l o w - u pF o l l o w - u pFor th e n ext class, the steps ab ove are repeated in a sim ilar m ann er for I am from ______.

M arcia Chaffee is the Coordi na tor of Adult Education at th e In terna tion al In st i tut e of Boston a nd has 21 years of experi-ence teachi ng and supervisin g teachers in ESOL and basic lit eracy for ad ul t refugees an d im m igran ts. She can be reachedat (617)69 5-9 990,ext.152, or by e- m ai l at < m chaffee@iiboston.org>.

.

A d a p t a t i o n f o r s t a fA d a p t a t i o n f o r s t a fA d a p t a t i o n f o r s t a fA d a p t a t i o n f o r s t a fA d a p t a t i o n f o r s t a f f d e v e l o p m e n tf d e v e l o p m e n tf d e v e l o p m e n tf d e v e l o p m e n tf d e v e l o p m e n t : T e a c h e r s m i g h t e n j o y g o i n g t h r o u g h t h i s p r o c e s sth e m s e lv e s w i th th e h e l p o f a fa c i li ta to r w h o c a n d i re c t th e m w i th a la n g u a g e t h a t use sa n o n - r o m a n a l p h a b e t l i k e A r a b i c o r K h m e r . T h i s a c t i v i t y c a n e a s i l y b e d o n e d u r i n g ap r o g r a m m e e ti ng .

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16 field notes

ou can do it!! You can talk

and l isten! Reading is just

talking writ ten down!

In 30 years of working with

adu l t learner s , I h ave o f ten h eard

teachers state this m yth as gospel

with good inten tions. The inten t is

usually to encourage the learn er by

suggesting that read ing isnt some-

thing foreign, but an-o th e r f or m o f som e th in g

he or she can do already.

But writ ten language is

m u ch m o r e th an sp eech

written down, unless i t

is the exact record ing of

a speech or conversa t ion .

And even th en , i t i s con-

fine d by its limitsno

sound , n o gestu re , no in ter rup t ions .

For adults whose language ism o r e o r a l - b a sed th an t ext - b a sed ,

becoming an easy reader can be

an arduous task . Fir s t , learners

m ust realize that writ ten language is

not just speech writ ten down;

written language is a spe cial way of

using language.When n ew and inex-

per ienced readers rea l ize th is , and

when th ey are given a r oad map of

strategies to help them clar ify the

expecta t ions f rom d i f feren t k in ds

of print , they can star t the journeytoward becom ing f luen t r eaders .

E xa m i n i n g O r a l a n dE xa m i n i n g O r a l a n dE xa m i n i n g O r a l a n dE xa m i n i n g O r a l a n dE xa m i n i n g O r a l a n d

WWWWWr i tr i tr i tr i tr i t t e n L a n g u a g et e n L a n g u a g et e n L a n g u a g et e n L a n g u a g et e n L a n g u a g eI have found that developing

readers , those who can decode , bu t

have never become good readers ,

can gain some f luency in readin g by

lookin g at th e ways written language

is d i f feren t f rom sp eech , by be ing

p r ep a r ed f o r t h o se d i f fe r en ces , an d

b y lea r n in g so m e co m p r eh en s io n

skills that help the reader negotiate

the d i f ference be tween s to ry and

expository text.

A develop ing reader to ld m e,

When I watch TV or a m ovie, I can

get a feeling for whats h appen ing, I

can get the whole picture. With abook, i ts too m any words, too m uch

work . I have heard th is sen t im ent

often in m y years of teaching adult

reading and GED preparation. But

mil l ions o f hum an be in gs read wi th

ease. Why is i t so diff icult for som e

adults to achieve comfort with prin t

in sp ite of having gained basic de-

coding skills early in life?

I have found th at the following

bar r ie r s have p reven ted develop ing

readers f rom moving in to f luencyand h igher leve l comprehension .

These bar r ie r s a re o f ten a resu l t o f

s tuden ts h aving more exper ience

with or al language than pr int . The

bar r ie r s a lso re la te to th e develop-

ing readers lack of understanding

about how the p r in ted word m akes

var ious k inds o f demands on a

readerdem ands tha t a re very d i f -

f e r en t f r o m th o se r eq u i r ed in

speaking and l istening.

1)1)1)1)1) VVVVVo c a b u l a r y : o c a b u l a r y : o c a b u l a r y : o c a b u l a r y : o c a b u l a r y : When a person doesn t read a

great deal, his or h er vocabulary

tends to b e l imi ted to funct ional

te rms and spec i fic a reas tha t re la te

to the p ersons cu ltu re , hom e l i fe ,

religion, and occupa-

tion. Expand ed vo-

cabulary is a key as-

pect of readin g flu-

ency .

Shir ley Brice

Heath , esp ecially in

Ways with Words

notes tha t in the

so- ca lled o ra l com-

munities, especially those in which

people se ldom t ravel ou ts ide asm all social circle, people h ave

man y mor e non verbal than verba l

or text - based commun icat ion

f o r m s .

Fur ther , s tuden ts who are s t i l l

developing proficiency in the En-

glish language can ben efit f rom ex-

plicit vocabulary developm en t; this

migh t he lp ease the p ressure to use

read ing m ain ly as a way to collect

new words .

My lea r n e r s h ave r e sp o n d edwell to building vocabulary through

word play, role playing, round -

robin writ ing, and Jeopardy type

word games. These games are espe -

cially effective when linked to

readin g that is part of a thematic

unit of vital inter est to the studen ts.

From Talk to Pr in t : Prepar in g Studen ts to Read

With Easeby Sal l y Gabb

For new readers, all writtenlanguage is called story.

Cont in ued on page 17

Y

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17fall 2000

2 )2 )2 )2 )2 ) L a c k o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g b e - L a c k o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g b e - L a c k o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g b e - L a c k o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g b e - L a c k o f u n d e r s t a n d i n g b e -

t w e e n n a r r a t i v e a n d e x p o s i - t w e e n n a r r a t i v e a n d e x p o s i - t w e e n n a r r a t i v e a n d e x p o s i - t w e e n n a r r a t i v e a n d e x p o s i - t w e e n n a r r a t i v e a n d e x p o s i - t o r y t e x t a n d b e t w e e n f i c t i o n t o r y t e x t a n d b e t w e e n f i c t i o n t o r y t e x t a n d b e t w e e n f i c t i o n t o r y t e x t a n d b e t w e e n f i c t i o n t o r y t e x t a n d b e t w e e n f i c t i o n

a n d n o n - f i c t i o n : a n d n o n - f i c t i o n : a n d n o n - f i c t i o n : a n d n o n - f i c t i o n : a n d n o n - f i c t i o n : For new readers, al l writ ten

language is called stor y. In fact,

stor ies (narratives of something that

h ap p en ed to so m eb o d y, e i t h e r r ea l

or f ictional) , are most l ike spoken

language. They are personal, de-

scr ip t ive , t im e sequen ced . They are

more l ike ta lk wr i t ten down than any

other form of writ ing.I have found it useful to talk

with developing readers about the

d i f fe r en ces b e tween sp o k en an d

written language early on. We also

talk about the definit ion of story and

nar r a t ive and th e d i f feren ces be-

tween f iction and nonfiction

as well. I ask learn ers to tell family

or comm unity stories that have an

oral history, to write them d own,

then to read them back, looking fo r

the d i f ferences be tween the spokenand wr i t ten fo rm.

I then beg in in t roducing li te r -

ary elements th rough the use o f

these per sonal nar ra t ives . Charac-

te r s , se t t ing, p lo t , mood , and po in t

of view can be an alyzed through the

use of the students narratives, thus

prov id ing a b r idge f rom person al

nar rative to fiction.

Because th ey have a l im ited

under s tand ing of the d i f feren t ways

in which print can work, developing

readers often read f iction as reali ty .

For examp le , some readers ge t an-

gry at a character in a story, deman d

to kn ow why a character would act a

certain way, or p ut down a story in

disgust because of what the char ac-

ter h as don e. To clar ify the d iffer-

ence be tween the i r n ar ra t ives and

true f iction, i ts fun to assign som e

creative f iction writ in g with stu-

dents. Those who are hesitant can

ju s t ch an ge th e n am es an d p lace s of

a true stor y they have experien ced.By creating their own s tories, they

can u n d e r s t an d th e e l em en t s o f

f iction from the in side out. When

learn ers c rea te the i r own charac-

ters, i t dawns on th em h ow fiction

works . (Of course , s tuden ts n eed

some prom pts fo r c rea t ing f ic t ion

on the i r own, an d teachers m ay want

to consult some books and ar t icles

on u sing creative writ ing in the ABE/

GED classroom.)

3 )3 )3 )3 )3 ) I n a b i l i t y t o c o m p r e h e n d I n a b i l i t y t o c o m p r e h e n d I n a b i l i t y t o c o m p r e h e n d I n a b i l i t y t o c o m p r e h e n d I n a b i l i t y t o c o m p r e h e n d

b a s e d o n l a c k o f b a c k g r o u n d b a s e d o n l a c k o f b a c k g r o u n d b a s e d o n l a c k o f b a c k g r o u n d b a s e d o n l a c k o f b a c k g r o u n d b a s e d o n l a c k o f b a c k g r o u n d

k n o w l e d g e : k n o w l e d g e : k n o w l e d g e : k n o w l e d g e : k n o w l e d g e : Even f ictional n arratives can

be hard fo r new readers to under -

stand if they have no b ackgroun d

knowledge that relates to the stor y.

I t is of ten hard to relate to a charac-

ter or story that is totally foreign to

h is or her exper ien ce . Jenn ifer

Crom ley, a 1998 N IFL fellow, spen ta year r esearchin g cognitive strate-

gies for adult learnin g. In one sec-

tion she suggests that a major need

I have often described a si tuation th at happen ed one evenin g at a

learnin g center for hom eless adults where I was workin g. I had

been tu tor ing a middle- aged m an f rom