NCFL Literacy Now

5 Responses to “It’s your turn!”

1. Charlene Says:
   June 23rd, 2008 at 1:44 pm

   I would love an opportunity to volunteer, but how? Where do I go? Am I literate enough? What qualifies a person to help someone read better? I live in the Louisville area (southern Indiana), cannot find work, and love to read. How about a section about volunteering? Or, a section on education for the want-to-be volunteer? Or job opportunities for people without an English degree, but with a passion for reading?

2. Roberta Goodin Says:
   June 23rd, 2008 at 9:38 pm

   I am enjoying what you provide! Am employing the things I learned at the Conference in creating our Story Times & Books program.

3. Sharon Says:
   June 25th, 2008 at 1:25 pm

   What I don’t see in your presentations is a frank discussion of the source of functional illiteracy - the beginning reading curriculum as taught in most schools.

   The Whole Word/Whole Language methods that are approved by the state are creating problems for beginner readers.

   I would really like to help teachers of first graders so they could experience success with every student. This cannot be done with the present restrictions on the teachers regarding curriculum for teaching reading. I spend most of my time at the Community Learning Center reteaching children how to read. The phonics lessons at their schools were mixed with the whole word technique. This confuses the students.

   Until this is actually exposed, talked about, and teachers are given control of the curriculum used to teach their students, we will continue to have non-readers who have been in school for ten years!

   Blaming the moms for not reading to their children shifts the responsibility and does not make a dent in the big problem of adult illiteracy.

   Sharon Hillestad
   Community Learning Center Pinellas County

4. Meg Ivey Says:
   June 30th, 2008 at 9:10 am

   Charlene,
   NCFL’s website is a great place to start to find information about volunteering in family literacy programs. On the “Family Literacy and You” page we have an article that offers ways to volunteer, and includes a list of suggested requirements that you meet before becoming a volunteer.

   Also on the website is an interactive map for you to search family literacy programs in your area.

   And finally, Thinkfinity Literacy Network is another great resource.

   Thanks for the comment, and good luck!

5. Laura Says:
   July 2nd, 2008 at 9:58 am

   Sharon,
   Thanks for your comment! Hope this reponse helps.

   First of all, if a reading program is taught well by incorporating all the components of reading then children can learn to read. The Whole Language method can be a successful program for many children.

   However, any program can fail if children who have not had enough earlier experience with language, and this is generally the primary reason children are not successful with reading, or children are recognized as having a disability that affects their reading development.

   A critical piece of any reading program is assessment of learners. We need to know what skills learners have and if they are applying them when they read. Once we understand what learners need we can target instruction to support them.

   For example, a learner may indicate consistent difficulty in decoding words while he is reading and this is hindering his comprehension. This learner may need some extra phonics instruction aside from the typical reading instruction that all students receive. But once this student gets extra support for this needed reading skill, he improves his reading of text and his comprehension.

   Or another learner may have difficulty comprehending text because she doesn’t know what the words mean. Research substantiates the lack of vocabulary for many children who come from homes where language is not as rich and frequent. Therefore, this learner may need extra work in vocabulary above other children in the same classroom who have broader speaking vocabularies which helps make reading easier for them.

   All of this means that we need to individualize instruction based on the reading needs of the learners with whom we work and to be able to do that we need to be assessing learners. Once this is happening and teachers are teaching reading programs well, then there is a much greater chance that all children will be successful readers!

   Laura Westberg
   Director, Research/Special Projects
   National Center for Family Literacy