Another way to help low-literate people is, while having them read aloud, note the words which give them trouble. Then help them to concretely and multi-sensorily decode those words. And if those words are at a higher vocabulary level than level one, and if the student is unable to define any of those words, use the level one corresponding words that relate to those words. In this way the student improves her/his literacy level as he/she reads and uses the material. These methods work because this is how a natural reader learns to read, using the three major centers on the brain's left side. For more information, read OVERCOMING DYSLEXIA by Sally Shaywitz, M.D.

Anita learntoreadnow

David J. Rosen wrote: 

> 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 comcast.net

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