Katherine-
Oh, I totally agree. I wouldn't throw out handwriting! I'm thinking that using the computer for this group with so many barriers might make learning the letters and working with words easier. In a pre-literate world, computers wouldn't be possible. We've got them so we can use them. They still need to learn to make the letters, but perhaps the computer would help remove the barrier that writing takes in learning the letters. 

It has been amazing to me how many basic concepts my students had to learn around print awareness and discriminating between the letter shapes before we could even start. The concept of a word being written down, and that those different sets of squiggles meant different things was brand new to them. In one lesson, I used sight words on index cards. I had "God loves Elizabeth" (I'm in a church setting so this is ok) with one word per card. I showed Elizabeth the three cards, then put them in a sentence, reading them to her, pointing at each word. We did that a few times. Then I picked up the God and Elizabeth cards and switched them. She watched me switch them, then read "God loves Elizabeth" with no concept that the word order was different.

Handwriting has been just as tough. When I started, they could not copy a circle or make a triangle or square without my providing dots for the corners and their connecting the dots. They had no clue how to make the pencil do that without them. I have had them practice tracing letters, worked with stencils and given them things to copy. Even after a year, Essah still makes his s sideways and does not recognize that orientation is important. I'm thinking if I used the keyboard more might help reinforce the properties of the actual letter in seeing it over and over.

It has been a wonderful journey, but in so many ways I wind up inventing materials for them to use. In American society, we are exposed to print everywhere we are and much of that is assimilated by the time a child reaches kindergarten. All of this is new to my students, and it is compounded by their elder status, making learning new things that much harder as the plasticity of the brain has modified somewhat. We laugh a lot and have fun together, but as in many instances, as the teacher I am learning as much as the students.

I'd love to hear if there are ideas to work with this level out there from our guests. Maybe Barbara? 

Jean Marrapodi
Director of Education
Providence Assembly of God Learning Center
Providence, RI


-----Original Message-----
From: Katherine G <Kgotthardt at comcast.net>
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Sent: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 10:19 am
Subject: [SpecialTopics 613] Re: text communication



I have to interject here.  No matter how much we depend on computers, hand writing skills are extremely necessary if students of all ages are to be fully-functioning communicators.  Think of all the forms that still require hand written responses.  Think of classroom activities including those on the black/white boards.  Additionally, hand written notes often serve as the only indication of original work; this includes the signature, something we would not want reproduced, say, on our checks or contracts.

 

Teaching hand writing has become a lost art in this age of overwhelming program and curriculum requirements, and it is certainly undervalued in this age of technology.  No, we need to teach people to write the alphabet, to sign their names, to form letters.  I say this as a distance education instructor who has pretty poor handwriting.

 


Katherine Mercurio Gotthardt, ESOL Online Instructor

Prince William County Public Schools

Adult Education

P.O. Box 389

Manassas, VA 20108

work 703-791-8387

fax 703-791-8889
.

 


-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of rejoicer at aol.com
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2007 9:20 AM
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 611] Re: text communication


What a marvelous thought!!! Bypassing the need to write them and the elimination of a necessary skill! I teach pre-literate Liberian senior citizens here in the US and they have had such a difficult time learning to write the letters. I would have thought learning the keyboard was one more skill, and a challenging one at that, but it may just be easier to recognize and locate a letter than to form it with a pencil. I must try this!!!

Thanks Narema.

Jean Marrapodi
Director of Education
Providence Assembly of God Learning Center
Providence, RI (USA)

PS. Is anyone capturing this content on the ALE Wiki?


-----Original Message-----
From: Hann, Naeema <N.Hann at leedsmet.ac.uk>
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Sent: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 4:03 am
Subject: [SpecialTopics 610] Re: text communication




Janet, your observation on how literacy manifests itself i.e. the difference in richness of communication from person texting or writing is interesting. 

At a basic literacy program in Bradford, we found that adult learners were able to ‘write’ (create texts) sooner when word processing on a laptop. Could this be because they bypassed the different motor skills needed for each letter of the Urdu alphabet and just needed to remember the shape of the letter and its position on the keyboard? For the Urdu script, Urdu as a Second Language learners have remarked on this being the easier option.

 

Are there any L1 literacy programmes in English speaking countries? I would love to hear from people who have experience of these.


Naeema B.Hann




 

-----Original Message-----
From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Janet Isserlis
Sent: 12 September 2007 13:36
To: specialtopics at nifl.gov
Subject: [SpecialTopics 599] text communication

 

Juliet and all

I've observed, among participants in a Deaf literacy program here in Providence that people use sidekicks (a T Mobile phone?) extensively.  I first became aware of it when a Deaf learner showed up at my office, which is not far from the building where classes are held.   We didn't know the room # of the building, and as I was using the regular land line to try to call someone at the university to find out where the class was held, this learner was using his side kick to send a text message to the program coordinator.

I was particularly struck by his fluidity and fluency (if I may use those terms) with generate the text message (I can't bring myself to say "texting") -- particularly after having seen his hand writing, which was very much that of a basic basic level writer.  Made me really stop and think about what "writing" is and how literacy manifests itself – as we know – in so many ways.  Also puts me in mind of work that Glenn Young and others are doing in figuring out ways to utilize technology in service to people whose literacy abilities may seem limited, but – with the use of technology – are not.  In other words, the specific skills of spelling, decoding are subordinate to the larger abilities of thinking and expression.

Other thoughts?

Janet Isserlis



From: Juliet Merrifield <j.merrifield at zen.co.uk>
Reply-To: <specialtopics at nifl.gov>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2007 08:06:20 +0100
To: <specialtopics at nifl.gov>
Subject: [SpecialTopics 596] Re: Community Literacy

Re. technology:  there is, of course, a lot of experimenting with e-learning in the UK, but it’s probably not very different from what’s going on in the US.  More intriguing is an example from the Gambia (it’s in the Language of Literacy chapter in our Oxfam book) on how mobile phone technology has transformed communication for deaf people.  This was incorporated into a programme of sign language and literacy.  I hadn’t really thought about the importance of texting versus voice phone, and of course it is a very particular literacy. Anyone else know something similar/
 
Juliet
 

Juliet Merrifield

-----Original Message-





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