DE Coordinators Interviews – 6707

Attached are the two interviews for Greg and Jory.

 

 

Problems and Challenges in the Teaching of Literacy in Correctional Facilities

Methamphetamine Use and Learning Disabilities 

Current practices in the teaching of literacy and reading in correctional facilities generally assumes that the all students are able to master the complexities of basic literacy and reading.  However, this standard view many times fails to address the learning disabilities of many of the students in our classes who have neurological problems of a nature that profoundly affect learning. This is more so when these problems have been brought about due to the drug of choice among the majority of inmates in California’s correctional facilities:  the use of methamphetamine.

The abstract Methamphetamine Use and Learning Disabilites (link below) attempts to address some of these fundamental problems and offer some possible solutions regarding the teaching of literacy and reading for those who exhibit neurological pathologies due to long-term use of drugs, especially  the use of methamphetamine.  Although I have an educational and professional background in literacy and reading I do not claim to be exceptionally informed or formal training in learning disabilities, especially disabilities related to chronic drug abuse.  I have for a long time been interested in learning and short and long-term memory processing, in particular memory related to language learning and the phonological processes that occur during literacy acquisition and reading.  The fundamental and necessary study of phonological processes in the recognition of phonemic and letter-sound correspondences is critical in any language learning process.   

Although there is a much information about learning disabilities (see Wikipedia’s Learning Disability), this information is predominately on disabilities among children and their effect on learning.  This seemingly paucity of information may only be due to my own lack of knowledge of where and what to look for while attempting my own research in this area.  If this lack of knowledge is the primary reason as to why I have as yet obtained information then I will in the next few weeks and month try to be more diligent in researching this information.  If the reason is, as I suspect, because little research has been done in the study of short and long-term memory, especially in language learning in general and literacy in particular, an attempt will be needed to devise a curriculum particular to re-mediate the problems for those who are learning impaired.  A caveat must be stated that such a curriculum will not guarantee success.  Neurological functions may be so impaired that no amount of teaching will succeed.

Such curriculum will not be developed quickly.  First, a thorough review of the literature regarding learning disabilities among those who have had prolonged use of methamphetamine use will need to be undertaken.  Then, specific knowledge as to what neurological process are necessary for phonological skills to be developed for initial literacy skills to be achieved have to be identified (if this, indeed, is possible among long-term users of methamphetamine).  If neurological injury is to such an extent that learning may be permanently impaired, then resources for the teaching of basic literacy skills for this group may be needed to be allocated proportionally according a student’s ability to learn (or relearn) new tasks.  I will elaborate on this more fully in the abstract itself.

In addition to the abstract I have included links to the revised RALP program and evaluations of the program initiated and taught between June 2005 and November 2006.

     Prison Library

Links to Documents

Abstract on Methamphetamine Use and Reading Disabilities

• Revision of RALP February 2005
• Class Evaluations for RALP

On Loretta L. Kasper’s ‘New Technologies, New Literacies: Focus Discipline Research and ESL Learning Communities’

Kasper is an instructor at Kingsborough Community College/CUNY and has written extensively on reading, writing, technology and the ESL student.  This is a brief summary of her article in Language Learning & Technology and my own thoughts on focus discipline learning and the use of technology.

Kasper reports on findings of ESL students’ reading and writing pass rates at the high-intermediate level relating to focus discipline research.  The study addressed three questions:  1.  whether focus discipline research facilitated students’ acquisition of basic liteacy skills; 2.  do students who use focus discipline research more likely to pass reading and writing tests at higher rates than those who do not use focus discipline research; and 3.  whether technology has a significant impact when students use focus discipline research.

Briefly, focus discipline research provides students with the opportunity to develop and refine literacy skills and strategies as they build a strong knowledge base through sustained research in a discipline they have chosen to study over time.  For optimum learning, focus discipline research is taught as a collaborative process and incorporates metacognitive and schema knowledge.  (Ideally, students should be familiar with metacognitive and schema processes and respond, through written and oral exercises, on their own learing styles, awareness of information that they already bring with them to the learning process and as to how best utilize these skills and strategies for effective and efficient learning.)

In summary, Kasper found that focus discipline research does help to “develop and hone the multiliteracies they need . . not only in ESL learning communities, but also in academic, social, and professional contexts beyond the ESL classroom.”  (Emphasis mine)

Because discipline research creates and fosters a rich learning experience in a communal setting the implications for any teacher is that learning communally, through disciplined research, offers rich and important opportunities for all students, no matter what level.  As such, novice / beginning students of ESL gain much through use – if even at a very rudementary level – awareness of and appreciation for their own schemata and metacognitive processes.  (See SQ(4) R below for my own views on research on reading for information and my own experiences learning through research during my undergraduate years.)

     Lilies

SQ(4)-R: Survey, Question, Read, Recite, Review (and Research)

Background 

You’re probably familiar with SQ3-R as a formula / method for efficient and effective reading of content-based texts. This strategy helps students select what s/he is expected to know (at times outlined on class syllabi and / or gleemed from classroom notes); help students remember important ideas just read and, probably most important of all, help students review efficiently.  However, I’ve modified it a bit.  The well-known strategy is widely-know as SQ3-R but I’ve included a fourth ‘R’.  Still, the method is simple:

S = Survey what is to be read with emphasis on major and sub headings and any graphs, tables, pictures and notes as well as any summaries that may be included.  (I also teach my students to read and make notes of topic sentences for each sentence and / or paragraph).

Q = Turn the headings, (subheadings, graph or picture notes, or summaries) into Questions.

3 – Rs:

R = Read to answer your questions.

R = Recite and answer your questions in your own words.

R = Review by looking over highlighting and / or notes for basic points for each section.

Modification

My fourth ‘R’ is Research.  I believe that having students research topics in is a powerful tool for reinforcement of learned material. I also believe that questions asked by students during their initial survey and questioning of the reading but not covered in the reading assignments will help them develop a wider knowledge and understanding of what is expected of them to know.  Hopefully, students will also ‘get into the habit’ of delving into topics/subtopics related to though not necessarily germain to what they may immediately need to know. 

I have no empirical evidence for this other than it ‘makes sense’.  First of all, as students read more and incorporate what they read as part of their own schema the more knowledge resources they are able to draw upon as they progress to their education goals.

Secondly (and, I admit, even less empirically valid) is that it worked and still works for me. Let me explain.

A Lucky Undergraduate

As an undergraduate I took a class during with an instructor whose a approach to education was based on ‘traditional’ approaches current at tertiary levels at English (and now at many U.S.) colleges and universities which emphasize the student, after initial guidance and couseling, focus attention on particular areas of topics related to the particular class taken.

I took a History of the Reformation class taught by a visiting professor from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, B.C.  There were traditional assigned readings and lectures with plenty of encouragement and opportunity for students to delve deeper into particular areas of general topics.  Not long into the course we were required to to write five general topics that interested us and on which we would be willing to do more intensive research.

I don’t remember all five topics I choose but I do remember being fascinated with Erasmus and Luther’s famous ‘epistemological battles’ on the nature of free will and on the influence that John Calvin had on the Reformation with emphasis on Geneva and its aftermats.

Let it suffice . .

to say that I gained more knowledge on these two subjects and that I continued to read more widely on the Reformation since taking the class.  Was this all?  Not quite.

My instructor gave us worksheets of broad outlines (much like major and subheadings found in basic content-based texts) for us to fill in, as it were, with questions of our own to further research.

In other words, the professor taught us a method of studying and – especially – of researching that I used throughout not only during my undergraduate and graduate years but which still use to this day (using judious border notes in my text with, if possible, my laptop at hand for quick research) to supplment and / or clarify what I am reading.

So, research – especially in this day of a wide and rich array of electronic databases – is an important method that I add to the popular SQ3-R formula and which I not only encourage but teach as part of any class for efficient and effective reading.

Finally, let me add that I use collaborative learning to the method first introduced to me by my Simon Frazer professor.  This increases the potential for a more deeper and broader knowledge base as dyads, triads and what-have-you pool their resources, schema and talents to the studies at hand.

     Man in India Reading Book

Link to Power Point Presentation on Effective Reading

Resources

On SQ3-R:  There’s quite a lot out there on the Web.  For a basic overview see ARC@ at Sweet Briar College.  For more detailed (and excellent information) visit Strategies for Success.  Use their link Vary Your Reading Strategies for savvy skills and strategies when using SQ3-R for discipline-specific readings.

On Sandra Cisneros’s “My Name”

My first blog entry and not at a loss for words. I just finished Sandra Cisneros’ “My Name” in Interactions and find myself reflecting on my own name or, I should say, names.  I read “House on Mango Street” many years ago and remember even then thinking about this excerpt from the book.  Let me explain.

I immigrated from the Azores when I was six.  My name was listed by Immigration and Naturalization as Jose Manuel Avelar Rosa.  ‘Jose’ was my father’s name, ‘Manuel’ his father, ‘Avelar’ my mother’s maiden name, and ‘Rosa’ my patrilineal (father’s side of the family) surname.  Upon naturalization I ‘Anglicized’ ‘Jose’ to ‘Joseph’ (but I rarely use ‘Manuel’).

A couple of years ago I decided to apply for dual citizenship (Portuguese-American) through the Portuguese consulate in San Francisco.  To do so I had to have an official copy of my birth certificate from the Azores.  What a surprise when I received it in the mail!

I looked at copy of the birth certificate, and then again.  They made a mistake!  They must have!  I read ‘Jose deAvelar’.  They left out my patrilineal! Well, they hadn’t.  Rosa had never been my patrilineal.  deAvelar is my legal surname (in Portugal).  It was registered as such when my father had me baptized in the village church eight days after I was born.

A friend of mine, who was also born in the Azores, and is far more knowledgable about Portuguese social and cultural patterns than I am, explained that it’s very common for parents to change or modify baptismal names and that many in her family had done the same.  I’ll never know why my father didn’t use Rosa, his surname, as my own (for he died many years ago).  My mother never even knew this for she was still bedridden when my father took me to the church.  She was just as surprised as I was when I showed her the birth certificate!  Does it matter that I’m ‘really’ Jose deAvelar and that it’s not my legal name here in the U.S.?  I’m not sure. 

When I became a citizen I considered changing my name to Joseph Francisco Avelar, ‘Francisco’ being my mother’s father’s name.  Cisneros on page 15 states:  “So your entire life is spent trying to figure out who you are and how to be happy being that person.”  ‘Being’ Joseph Avelar Rosa or Jose deAvelar would not greatly alter how I see or define myself.  Still . .

Cisneros inherited her great-grandmother’s name, Esperanza.  However, she states that, although she inherited her name, she didn’t want “to inherit her place by the window”.  The name had a negative connotation because her great-grandmother was literally abducted by her great-grandfather and possibly held against her will and, metaphorically, spent the rest of her life “by the window”.  She didn’t want to inherit a name – a legacy – that connected her to an incident that suggested a kind of ‘captivity’. But there is a deeply-felt and very positive connection to my mother’s father.

Francisco Avelar was a whaler and owned a small whaling boat.  I remember watching the six to ten men crews rowing the small boats out to the whales passing our small island during their annual migrations.  This work was very dangerous and my grandfather, being the owner of the boat, was the one who held the harpoon and who struck the first blow; a very important but dangerous task.  The boat would be dragged through the at-times turbulent waters and often boats would be overturned by the whale and lives would be lost.

Fortunately, my grandfather lived to old age.  He was known as “O Capitao”, The Captain.  He was a gentle, caring, soft-spoken man, that much I remember.  It is for these reasons – his bravery, his caring, gentle ways – that I would be honored by changing my surname from Rosa to deAvelar.

     Sandra Cisneros

Resources

Want to know more about Sandra Cisneros?  Try these links:   A good biography of Cisneros is available at Modern American Poets. This is the Authorized Sandra Cisneros Web Site.  However, I had trouble accessing some of the internal links.  Maybe you’ll have better luck! VG: Voices from the Gaps is an excellent blog from the University of Minnesota dedicated to women artists and writers of color.  Start with “Our Project” under “Praxis” to find out more about the blog.  “Bios” under “Art” will access a page with alphabetical links to individual artists and writers.

The Azores?  Try these: Beautiful Azores (Be sure to see ‘Flores’, the island where I was born.)