Invisible Struggles

1. Invisible Struggles How to help low-literacy students in the STAR Classroom

2. Handouts: • Two minute test • Retention Pyramid • Bloom’s Taxonomy of Scale

3. Activity: A test: • Two minutes to decipher the handout in front of you. • Do not get help from others • Do not look at it until timing begins

4. Three groups: • Those who read easily • Those who need to take additional steps to read • Those who cannot read at all What did you feel during the activity? This is how our students feel.

5. It is all around us. . . • 40 million Americans are functionally illiterate • One in three prisoners/parolees function at a low reading and math level (below 6th-7th grade) --National Adult Literacy Survey, 1992

6. What is Literacy? The U.S. Congress incorporated the following definition into the National Literacy Act of 1991: “An individual's ability to read, write, and speak in English and compute and solve problems at levels of proficiency necessary to function on the job and in society, to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential."

7. People with Low Skills: • Cannot write out numbers on a check • Cannot read a map • Cannot count correct change • Cannot complete a job/DMV application • Cannot understand prescription doses • Cannot understand a meeting schedule

8. Literacy Scale: Prose Literacy: knowledge and skills needed to understand information from a text. Document Literacy: knowledge and skills needed to locate and use words and symbols in materials such as job applications, transportation schedules, maps, tables and graphs. Quantitative Literacy: knowledge and skills needed to to apply math operations (alone or sequentially), using numbers embedded in printed material. Needed for balancing a checkbook and figuring out interest or loans. --National Adult Literacy Survey, 1992

9. One in Three Parolees. . . Scored at the lowest tested level: Prose Literacy Level 1 The knowledge and skills needed to understand information from a text: • Read signs • Read a white board • Read a handout

10. These parolees do not have: Document Literacy: knowledge and skills needed to locate and use words and symbols in materials such as job applications, transportation schedules, maps, tables and graphs. Quantitative Literacy: knowledge and skills needed to to apply math operations (alone or sequentially), using numbers embedded in printed material. Needed for balancing a checkbook and figuring out interest or loans. --National Adult Literacy Survey, 1992

11. The research shows. . . • Lack of literacy skills increases a person’s sense of disconnection with the community in which they live • Criminal behavior is more likely to occur among people who feel a sense of “exile” from the community in which they live

12. How do you know &What can you do? • How can you tell someone has low reading and math skills? • How can you meet their needs in the classroom? • What are the “Do’s and Don’ts” with low-literacy students?

13. How can you tell? • You can’t • Your students will hide it • These students feel shame and embarrassment every day • They will avoid situations that may cause them more embarrassment or exposure

14. Identification. . . • They will ask to take the work home • They will say they don’t have their glasses • They will ask you to read things for them • They will say they are sick and don’t want to participate • They will act out when confronted (asked to or expect to be asked to read out loud) • They will get other students to write for them

15. They will also. . . • Ask a lot of questions about written information (or ask for a printed handout of what is on the board) • Have trouble reading cursive • Ask you how to do the assignment after you have given it in detail • Carry a book or newspaper • Never take notes • Pronounce words incorrectly based on the way they hear them, but not from having read them

16. Easy to miss. . . • Sometimes it looks like a refusal to participate • Sometimes it looks like repeated socializing during instruction • Sometimes it looks like defiance • Sometimes it looks like rage • Sometimes it looks like manipulation • Sometimes it is absence. . .

17. Some will not return. . . • If a student fears exposure, he or she may risk returning to prison rather than being found out • If the learning environment replicates the same uncomfortable atmosphere that the student remembers from childhood, he or she will shut down

18. We Can’t Solve Their Problem: • But we can ensure that learning happens through: • Multi-modal learning strategies • Using Audio, Visual and Kinesthetic strategies simultaneously • Using Group work • Ensuring a safe, non-judgmental environment

19. Five-step Process Review, Review Review (let’s go back and make sure we’re all on the same page) Rephrase 4 and 5 times if needed Always reward participation Summarize what you’ve covered Check for understanding (not a Yes or No question) Ask open-ended questions Always ensure that the board, the handout and your discussion match Helpful Strategies:

20. Levels of Comprehension: 1.Knowledge – recall, recognition 2.Comprehension – interpret 3.Application – use the information 4.Analysis – examine in detail 5.Synthesis – originates, integrate ideas 6. Evaluation – assessment, criticism

21. Retention Pyramid • How much do you remember from college? • From High School? • From Grade School? Why do we lose students as they increase in grade level?

22. Look for literacy issues when there is defiance or resistance Notice/point out student progress Use multiple strategies Respect student confidentiality Draw students into discussions Treat these students like everyone else Reassure students when taking pre-post tests Point out students to read; instead, ask for volunteers Make the reader analyze the reading, open up for others Embarrass or single out the student Hand students forms or papers to fill out alone Confuse students, be visually, audibly and kinesthetically consistent Push a student if you do not know his literacy level Do: Don’t:

23. Always ask yourself. . . • Could this be a literacy issue? Before you assume the student is simply non-compliant

24. Free tutoring at every library Word banks Phone book for words Prison literacy programs Hooked on Phonics Helpful Tools for Students:

25. Review • How do you identify it? • A helpful strategy. . . • Something you should not do. . .