Sharon and others
I have been a reading teacher for 10 years in an adult correctional 
setting. I would like to share my observations.

1. the vast majority of poor readers that i work with have a pretty good 
understanding of letter sounds and phonetic decoding.

2. many of those who do not have this ability have some organic 
dysfunction that prevents them from learnig it, e.g. TBI or learning 
impairment.

3. a large factor in poor reading is limited ability with the language. 
They have impoverished vocabulary. We ask them to read and comprehend 
words they simply do not know.

I think the matter is way more complicated than simply not teaching 
people. If it were that simple, why is there such a wide variation in 
reading ability among students in a classroom? So much of it is 
socio-economic and cultural. You must have gone into a persons home and 
noticed they had no books, no newspapers, no magazines. The adults do 
not read to their children. There is no love of written language. Is it 
any wonder a child in this enviornment would not learn to read?
Tom Woods

Sharon Hillestad wrote:


> I received my teacher’s degree from River Falls Wisconsin State 

> University in 1966. I then began teaching third grade. The teachers 

> who were older and more experienced produced better readers. The other 

> teachers who, like me, had little classroom experience produced 

> students who did not read well. I realized that I couldn’t teach 

> students to read well either in spite of more than four years of 

> education courses in three colleges.

>

>  

>

> *The reason I could graduate from college with a degree in Education 

> and not know how to teach reading is because decades earlier there 

> were some very influential people who wanted it that way! */Why/ they 

> wanted to do this is a subject we ought to address. 

>

>  

>

> The results of such “teacher training” were already apparent. The 

> junior high teachers in my school were beginning to complain that they 

> were getting students who could barely read. As this was a new thing 

> in the late 60s, the teachers talked about it only amongst themselves. 

> It would take several more years and millions of poor readers before 

> “functional illiteracy” made headlines.

>

>  

>

> We can dance around methods of "repair" for another fifty years or we 

> can simply confront the fact that the first grade teachers are 

> poorly trained how to teach beginning reading. They are also very 

> constrained in what they are allowed to teach which makes it 

> impossible for them to create a better learning environment even when 

> they find out how to do so.

>

>  

>

> Two years ago I tutored a 22 year old woman how to read who had been 

> in school for 11 years and no one taught her the vowel sounds or how 

> to read by syllables. She couldn't even read the words on the back of 

> her drivers license. She is a very smart woman and very easy to teach. 

> The fact that no one else did so is criminal. 

>

> --- On *Sun, 9/28/08, Lucille Cuttler /<l.cuttler at comcast.net>/* wrote:

>

>     From: Lucille Cuttler <l.cuttler at comcast.net>

>     Subject: [LearningDisabilities 2371] Re: Dyslexia - What is it?

>     To: "The Learning Disabilities Discussion List"

>     <learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>

>     Date: Sunday, September 28, 2008, 12:41 AM

>

>     Explicit direct instruction in phonological awareness and

>     structure of English, as early as possible - specifically, an O-G

>     approach - would reduce the numbers of "struggling" students by

>     grade four, if done in grades K-2, and if possible,  sooner. 

>      

>     This is in accordance with neuroscientific findings. 

>      

>     The very fact that this dialog is going on gives evidence that the

>     departments of education are not developing teachers for the

>     tasks. Can we dare to ask why the tools for teaching

>     English, although well known and practiced since the early 20th

>     century, still remain a mystery for the general population?  The

>     Colleges preparing teachers should catch up and give students the

>     tools they need and deserve, by including O-G in the curriculum

>     for K-6 teacher candidates.  

>      

>     I personally appreciate the notice of a distinct difference

>     between lack of educational opportunity and dyslexia.  I have just

>     personally been thrilled to work, as a volunteer literacy tutor,

>     with a young woman who was identified, wrongly, as dyslexic.  She

>     was deprived of education of any kind until Grade 6.  By dint of

>     much effort, she has now achieved a B.A degree and is accepted for

>     law school.   Lucille Cuttler

>      

>      -----Original Message-----

>     *From:* learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov

>     [mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov]*On Behalf Of

>     *Sandman-Hurley, Kelli

>     *Sent:* Saturday, September 27, 2008 3:07 PM

>     *To:* The Learning Disabilities Discussion List

>     *Subject:* [LearningDisabilities 2368] Re: Dyslexia - What is it?

>

>         There is a distinct difference between lack of educational

>         opportunity and dyslexia. For those who have NBT or Never Been

>         Taught, they will benefit from the same type of intervention,

>         with one important exception - they will learn much faster.

>         For the most part, those with dyslexia will have much more

>         difficulty with phonemic awarenes and phonics than their NBT

>         counterparts. This can be teased out witha good assessment

>         that includes nonsense words and phoneme segmentation.

>          

>         There are also reading disabilities that manifest later in

>         school (around 4th grade when words become more difficlt) that

>         are not dyslexia. I don't know what the statistics are for the

>         Never Been Taught group but it is estimated that 

>         approxiamately one in five people have some degree of dyslexia.

>          

>         Andrea's point is a very important one. When beginning to

>         teach someone, it needs to be determined via a valid

>         assessment and knowledgable tester and tutor whether or not

>         dyslexia is present.

>          

>         So, how do you determine the needs of your students? What

>         assessments are you using? How do you determine what

>         curriculum to use?

>          

>         kelli

>          

>          

>         ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>         *From:* learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov

>         [learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Andrea

>         Wilder [andreawilder at comcast.net]

>         *Sent:* Saturday, September 27, 2008 11:09 AM

>         *To:* sharonhillestad at yahoo.com; The Learning Disabilities

>         Discussion List

>         *Subject:* [LearningDisabilities 2367] Re: Dyslexia - What is it?

>

>         Sharon--

>

>         Personally I think every teacher should have screens /

>         assessments available to use with their students.  And I also

>         think that a teacher should know exactly what dyslexia is so

>         they can recognize it when they see it.

>

>         Andrea:)

>

>         On Sep 27, 2008, at 1:59 PM, Sharon Hillestad wrote:

>

>>         Are we talking about two different problems? Dyslexia being

>>         some kind of brain problem and the low level reader or

>>         functionally illiterate person something else? The latter is

>>         far more common than the former. I really disagree with so

>>         much of our resources going into dyslexia when the bigger

>>         problem is plain old NBT - Never Been Taught. This is

>>         something that needs addressing. One teacher who faced this

>>         head on was *Marva Collins. A*fter 14 years of teaching in a

>>         public school, She created her own school so she could teach

>>         her own way and she was very vocal about the fact that*

>>         functional illiteracy is a taught disability.*  I visited her

>>         school in 1981. It was located in Chicago’s inner city. All

>>         200 students were black and most of them came from working

>>         class families. She had books in stacks in the hallway and

>>         essays written by the students on the walls. There is book

>>         and a movie about her school. Marva Collins, teacher, is one

>>         of the most admired women in America.

>>         At the time of my visit, she was tutoring a young man who was

>>         in college on an athletic scholarship. He couldn’t pass his

>>         classes, let alone graduate, because he didn’t know how to

>>         read well. The college ended up paying for his tutoring so he

>>         could learn what he should have been taught in grade school.

>>         Marva was tutoring him on the same skills (phonics, grammar,

>>         using a dictionary, etc.) that she taught her elementary

>>         students. She taught basic skills so effectively and

>>         thoroughly that many of her students could read classic

>>         literature at an early age.  President Regan wanted her on

>>         the Education  Committee. I really wish she would have

>>         accepted his offer. Lots of the NBT kids end up being called

>>         dyslexic and grow up to be low proficientcy readers.  Oh well.

>>         Sharon Hillestad

>>         Director of a literacy center in Clearwater, Fl

>>

>>         --- On *Fri, 9/26/08, Andrea Wilder

>>         /<andreawilder at comcast.net

>>         <mailto:andreawilder at comcast.net>>/* wrote:

>>

>>             From: Andrea Wilder <andreawilder at comcast.net

>>             <mailto:andreawilder at comcast.net>>

>>             Subject: [LearningDisabilities 2363] Re: Dyslexia - What

>>             is it?

>>             To: "The Learning Disabilities Discussion List"

>>             <learningdisabilities at nifl.gov

>>             <mailto:learningdisabilities at nifl.gov>>

>>             Date: Friday, September 26, 2008, 5:46 PM

>>

>>             Thanks, Kelli,

>>

>>             I think I will just stick with the developmental

>>             disability as I am getting used to that.  Personally, I

>>             don't confuse it with Down's syndrome--maybe others do.

>>

>>             Thanks!

>>

>>             Andrea:)

>>

>>             On Sep 26, 2008, at 4:51 PM, Sandman-Hurley, Kelli wrote:

>>

>>>             Andrea:

>>>

>>

>>              

>>

>>             There is a lot of reference to dyslexia as /developmental

>>             dyslexia/ but I would differentiate that from a

>>             developmental delay such as Down’s Syndrome. The main

>>             point behind stating that dyslexia is not a development

>>             disability is to say that it is not the result of low

>>             I.Q. In order even be diagnosed with dyslexia, the

>>             learner has to have at least low average intelligence.

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         Kelli

>>

>>

>>          

>>         ------------------------------------------------------------------------

>>

>>         *From:* learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov

>>         <mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov>

>>         [mailto:learningdisabilities-bounces at nifl.gov] *On Behalf Of

>>         *Andrea Wilder

>>         *Sent:* Friday, September 26, 2008 12:46 PM

>>         *To:* The Learning Disabilities Discussion List

>>         *Subject:* [LearningDisabilities 2358] Re: Dyslexia - What is it?

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         Hi Kelli--

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         Correct me if I'm wrong--but dyslexia is a developmental

>>         disability, in that  it is inborn--part of the individual's

>>         genetic make-up.  I think there is some mixing up of letters

>>         when the individual has a condition akin to "visual neglect,"

>>         which I understand only slightly.

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         Andrea:) 

>>

>>

>>

>>         It has occurred to me that we have discussed some

>>         interventions, but we have not discussed what the actual

>>         definition of dyslexia is. There are many myths and

>>         misconceptions about dyslexia. I will use the definition

>>         adopted by the International Dyslexia Association:

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         *Dyslexia *is a specific learning disability that is

>>         neurological in origin. It is characterized by difficulties

>>         with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by poor

>>         spelling and decoding abilities. These difficulties typically

>>         result from a deficit in the phonological component of

>>         language that is often unexpected in relation to other

>>         cognitive abilities and the provision of effective classroom

>>         instruction. Secondary consequences may include problems in

>>         reading comprehension and reduced reading experience that can

>>         impede the growth of vocabulary and background knowledge.

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         One of my favorite things to do is explain what dyslexia is not:

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         n      Caused by poor eyesight or hearing problems

>>

>>         n      A Developmental Disability

>>

>>         n      Acquired Alexia, Aphasia or Anomia – these are caused

>>         by some type of head injury (ie: stroke)

>>

>>         n      A degenerative disease

>>

>>         n      Lack of educational opportunity

>>

>>         n      The result of a lack of effort or laziness on the part

>>         of the student

>>

>>         n      It is NOT seeing letters or words backwards. Although

>>         this is a symptom, people with dyslexia don’t actually see

>>         things backwards. Rather, they have trouble processing with

>>         phoneme goes with the grapheme.

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         I have attached some slides I have taken from a much longer

>>         presentation to help discuss the definition of dyslexia and

>>         the remediation/accommodation that we can use with these

>>         students.

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>         Kelli

>>

>>

>>          

>>

>>          

>>

>>          

>>

>>         <dyslexia_listerv.ppt>

>>

>>         ----------------------------------------------------

>>

>>         National Institute for Literacy

>>

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>>         <mailto:andreawilder at comcast.net>

>>

>>

>>          

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>>

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>

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