Do you ever feel embraced by print material the way the woman in the first picture does? Do you ever feel "read less, know more?"
Some of us come to literacy work because we love reading and writing. In tutor training at literacy programs, when we ask the question, "Why do you want to be a literacy tutor?" many reflect upon their own positive experiences reading and writing. I am one of those people. Once I learned to read, I became the kind of reader who transports herself to other worlds through reading. Reading is still a primary way I learn and writing is a primary way I express learning.
For those of us who enjoy "reading for pleasure" working in a literacy program where reading, for some, will always be a challenge, can be an awakening. For some literacy learners, working within this reality means developing "read less, know more" strategies to navigate a world that is as print-reliant as ours.
This is one of the differences that some literacy workers work across.
"Read less, know more" is similar to "speak less, get more" strategies we teach in ESL classses. If an ESL student working at a beginner level is ill, we do not tell him that he must wait until he is in level 7 before he can see a specialist. We work with him to find ways that he can access the information, resources and services he needs without speaking English (for example: finding a doctor who speaks a language in which he is fluent or using a translator).
When we teach ESL Literacy sometimes we are working with students to develop reading and writing skills and sometimes, in "read less, know more" mode, we are working with students on speaking and listening without using print and helping them develop non-reading strategies for dealing with the print material that will come into their lives (for example: how to identify what is important and what goes in the recycling bin, how to get information from the important stuff).
Teacher Perspectives on Teaching Reading
The purpose of this study was to explore possible implicit models of reading that drive curriculum and instruction in adult and postsecondary developmental reading contexts. This qualitative investigation explored faculty conceptualizations of reading via linguistic metaphors. Forty-six reading education professionals completed an online survey that gave two options for describing Reading and Te a c h i n g Reading: create an elicited metaphor through an open-ended statement or choose from a prescribed list of metaphors. Using metaphor analysis procedures, we identified conceptual metaphor categories. Results indicated interesting differences within the conceptualizations of these participants’ readerly identities compared to their teacherly identities.
Adult Literacy Teachers’ Perspectives on Reading Difficulties and the Origins of These Perspectives (PDF)
19 adult reading teachers were interviewed to explore their perspectives on how adults become less-skilled readers and the origins of these perspectives. Four themes were identified in terms of teachers’ perspectives, which attributed less-skilled reading respectively to: (a) learners’ distinct needs not being met, (b) readers’ “life baggage”, (c) under-developed sense of joy in reading, and (d) inappropriate learning environments. Four main types of experiences appeared to have contributed to the development of these perspectives: (a) teachers’ own experiences in learning reading, (b) teachers’ general teaching experience, (c) teachers’ experiences of teaching reading specifically, and (d) teachers’ knowledge of formal reading theories and/or empirical research findings. Potential implications for enhancing the outcomes of adult reading instruction programs are discussed.
Learner Perspectives on Reading
a poem by Barbara Adler
- What does literacy open up?
- What does it obscure?
