Principles of Adult Learning

The blog Tutors of Literacy in the Commonwealth (that is, Pennsylvania) is a salad bar of links to sites and publications of greater and lesser usefulness.

Last November, for example, Kim Rossman, the Executive Director over there, posted "Books for Low Level Adult Readers" about the Junkyard Dan series from Nox Press. I hadn't heard of these: now I have. This spring, I'll order a set from their website, www.noxpress.com.

More recently, she pointed me at Senior Technical Writer Stephen Lieb's "Principles of Adult Learning" from 1991. I found this less encouraging. Lieb starts off strong with Malcolm Knowles (though he calls him Malcom). Then things go downhill pretty fast. Just compare this mind-set:

Adults are autonomous and self-directed. They need to be free to direct themselves. ...[A]dults should be treated as equals in experience and knowledge....

with this mind-set:

Reinforcement is a very necessary part of the teaching/learning process; through it, instructors encourage correct modes of behavior and performance.

The former is about sharing information and supporting adult attempts to build skills. The latter is about raising kids or dogs or something.

What's interesting, in both cases (the Commonwealth site and Lieb's list[s]) is the lack of any apparent unitary philosophy of learning. There's no framework to bound the discussion or direct reflective readers toward greater quality.

In the case of the Commonwealth blog, that's a virtue. Ms. Rossman shows every sign of treating her readers like adult learners who are "free to direct themselves." Thanks for that. I'll be coming back.

Mr. Lieb's piece, part of the teaching tips section of the faculty development page(s) at the Honolulu Community College, is less... respectful. It seems full of thou shall and thou shall not.... Um, thanks for that, too. I guess. Maybe I'll just go down to the beach for a minute, Steve. You go ahead and start without me....

:)

Meh

I'll help you learn to read and write better. I'll help you with math or figuring out some basic computer stuff. I'll help you make a resume or get a library card or find out who your MLA is.

But I'm not your mother.

Barbarians In Da Howes

Chrift in thefe laft times comming to vs from the Father, is preferred aboue the Angels, both in Perfon and Office.

The Epistle of Pavl the Apoftle to the Hebrewes
King James Version of the Bible 1611

Ah, English. I'd know you anywhere, in any sultry garb. By the way, despite first impressions, this is English as well:

• 4:15 mikeisgay23: r u gone?
• 4:15 Zuzubar: wut up?
• 4:15 malikjhall: they went of air?
• 4:16 ashaolivia: sump wrng wit d mic
• 4:16 musicman85: wat up
• 4:17 malikjhall: lol...wat hapened
• 4:17 mikeisgay24: why u kicked my homie mike :(
• 4:22 v5fox: do you speak english?
• 4:24 TwiT2-1: ellow
• 4:27 amalia101-1: go on mine
• 4:31 Zuzubar: this is extremely boring
• 4:31 Zuzubar: :/
• 4:34 dubby_425: why arent you talking??????????
• 4:39 dubby_425: dk
• 4:39 ashaolivia: were coming back hold on guys
• 4:50 danny1981: what it do
• 4:51 barxtch2312: nun yu
• 4:51 danny1981: can u see me
• 4:51 nylonlover: r u wear n sox
• 4:52 nylonlover: will u show ur sox
• 4:52 BIG_DICK: wat
• 4:55 THE_SITUATION: whats the situation here

I've been lurking around YouTube comment threads and video stream chat lines for a while now, watching dull conversation and an amazing flowering of newer English.

Here's simple example. I've seen "what" spelled:

what
whatt
wht
wat
watt
wutt
wut
whut

At first glance, these spellings appear to be interchangeable. It's not a case of "wat" being used to ask a question ("Wats up?") while "wut" is used as a pronoun or something ("... wut she was holding"). Nor does there seem to be a great deal of consistency by users. I mean, it's not like jazzkid231 always spells it "whut" while snkrfrkr332 spells it "wutt."

I say "at first glance" because I haven't studied and tracked this stuff enough to do more than guess.

I can say that not all these spellings are phonetically sensible. Nor are they all convenient to type or text. There's certainly no evidence of English becoming more logical, more stream-lined and simply spelled (spelt?).

And this is just in North America. One can only imagine the a-harmonic symphonies being created among those English-using youth of China and India.




All this hearkens back to those grim days when Shakespear (sic) spelled his name a dozen different ways, and King James' bible committee spent the bitter cold spring of 1609 agreeing on the spellings of 6000 words. The short Elizabethan century (c. 1560-1640), that golden era of English poetry, music and literature, was no place for earnest spelling reformers and dictionariests like Doctor John (1709 - 1784) or Noah the Webmiester (1758 - 1843). It was kindda fun, though. Er... assuming no one cut off your head or gave you the bubonic plague or something.

Well anyway, the point is some people enjoy the accuracy and symmetry of the gardens in Versailles, and others take walks in the woods. I enjoy a tanglewood sort of English. That doesn't suit everybody, I know. Whatcha gonna do?

I've been thinking about all this is from the point of view of literacy and questions like "literacy for what purpose?" and "whose literacy counts?"

Consider this: In all my lurking, I cannot recall a single instance of serious, sustained misunderstanding based on literacy difficulties. Here is a medium that is purely about reading and writing for communicating meaning, and these crazy spellers all seem able to talk to each other. What's going on here? Are they "appropriately literate" or wht?

dk

but it make u think if your nto thinking more n yelling bout spelling

lmfao :)

I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way.

Mark Twain

Kids Just Wanna Have... Books

Whereupon, discovering the chest held books,
one pirate set upon another in the contest for
who should be first to choose.

Here's a note we got back from a community partner after supplying some books for their 2009 Christmas party:

Thanks for starting fights at the party. lol Actually had to intervene in 2 fights over books. Those great books that you brought were fought over by 2 different sets of people. lmao Imagine that. And.... people were trying to steal them. The books were a huge hit, can't wait to expand on it next year.

Hey, our pleasure!

This book give-away (one of two) is part of our expanded post-storytent work in two neighbourhoods over the winter. More about that later.

Just keep this in mind the next time you hear some old troll say kids don't like books or reading.

Of course they do.

They don't like bullying, crappy books, tests or home assignments. But books - good books - are on their list of things worth fighting for.

What!?! You think she wouldn't put out your lights for a chance to read a good book in peace?

;)

What Is A "Christmas Break"?

I have a chart on my fridge that lists the differences between a "high school" modeled adult learning program and community-based adult literacy work that follows adult learning principles.

(Yes, I know. That's a pretty dorky thing to have on my fridge. Nevermind.)

The chart offers a lot of reflection and conversation points. One of them is this: where civil servants manage adult literacy or basic adult education services, they may think of these services as public school for big people. And if they have that paradigm, they may feel comfortable with things like a two week Christmas break.



But, where and when adults want literacy help to deal with stuff like bills or meds or kids or courts or work... those adults don't look forward to a Christmas break.

Where and when adult literacy work has a large counseling and support / encouragement dimension - someone's left an abusive relationship, just lost a job, is having trouble fitting into a new city or country - Christmas might be the worst time to take a break.

I'm just saying. Community literacy, and schooling for grown-ups, can be two different worlds.

K. I have to go to the bank now and plan for my two-week lay-off. (A cheerful "Christmas break" without pay is something else them civil servants thought up). Then, I have some house visits to arrange.

Online Resources - Few and Far Between

Scam city central. Putting the phrase "GED essay" in a post is enough to attract a scam-bot from the GED A+ Essay Services. The scam-bot then generates a redirect that sends your readers to a multi-faced web service that promises to write you a plagiarism free essay for a small fee. Indeed, they offer a $5,000 no-plagiarism guarantee.

Since they've already claimed authorship of my last post (see the image below - clicking on that Q~C~L link takes you there, not here), I'm thinking plagiarism is about the only thing these guys can guarantee.


Do these services work? I mean, do they actually earn income? Judge for yourself. This is some text from an online advice forum:

I ordered a custom essay... for $79.96. ...After 12 hours, he sends me an essay via email attachment which seemed mediocre... I emailed him for a revision with exact instructions.... No response. ...I thought, "hmm maybe he downloaded the essay from one of those sites that sells already written essays"... So I do some searching across the internet by the title and copy and pasting some of the body of the essay... and I find many..results. The seller got the essay from one of those pre-written essay sites (probably a member who pays monthly to access their datebase [sic]) and charged me 80 bucks.
... Can I even take legal action? ...if I DO get kicked out of school for plagiarism, would that entitle me to sue this guy for ruining my life?

Um... no. But thanks for being entertainingly dense.

Just last evening a colleague was bemoaning the disproportionate number of misleading learner resource sites out there. "You click on a link, and it just takes you to another link, and then another... and you never get to the thing they promise."

That's the over-sold and under-used aspect of the internet.

The good news is we have sites like NALD, which just celebrated it's 20th. NALD is a bit hard to navigate because it's so large. But that's a product of success, not failure. If I took 10 minutes to learn how to build a custom Google search I could fix that.

Two other sites I watch for resources are Alphaplus (they don't host so much as point out) and the New Zealand Literacy Portal. I'm sure there are other state and provincial resources, and probably some in the U.K. - I just don't know enough of them.

Of course, you can always come here. I'll write you essays galore, and I won't charge you a cent.

:)

Reading and Writing Book Reviews

"Are there questions to go with this book?" she asked.

Sort of.

Luckily, I was almost finished typing out a sheet on writing a book review. Years ago, I had a really good version of tips and examples for writing reviews. Actually, I had one for fiction and one for non-fiction. Those were the days when we were putting out Hooked, our class newsletter on entertainment and leisure activities. Then... those handy sheets just slipped away, or got deleted or lost on failed hard drives. You know how it is.

I like book review exercises because it's something a learner can do no matter what their independent reading level. I've seen perfectly fine reviews of three sentences on level one books, and also conventional 250 word GED essay-style reviews. Also, you can review any kind of book or story - even a math book if you are so inclined.

Like all writing, composing a review offers a chance to practice spelling, punctuation, clear expression and making an argument in a relatively functional context. (Not really functional, since it's schoolwork; but better than a bunch of brainless workbook exercises IMHO.)

Anyway, today I made up a new "Book Review" guide. Maybe it will get test driven today.

Meantime, I'm throwing it up on the the skydrive as a word doc (link here). The document itself is a reading level 5 or 6, so I've created a new folder for it.

Just FYI. :)

Book Three in the Reading Level 4 Series

H'okay. Black Castle book number 3 - Shadows and Stones - is done and posted to the skydrive (link here). Whew....

One more to go.

Oh, no questions yet. (I'm really bad at making up questions and worksheets and such.) If you have any you want to send and share, I'll stick 'em up in the skydrive.

:)

Christmas Cards

I came home the other day to find a parcel from Heather Reisman in my mailbox. Ms. Reisman is President and CEO of the Coles - Indigo - Chapters bookstore chain. She'd sent me a lovely gift and a Christmas card. Apparently I've spent enough of my income on books to show up on her radar. (Can a note from Becky McKinnon of Timothy's Coffees be far behind?) Or maybe we swapped names, and I missed the email. Cripes... that would be bad. What if I drew Frank Stronach? What to get Frank? An ice-scraper?

Ah... the awkwardness of Christmas.


I picked up some packets of cards for class the other day. I like to have them available for learners who might like help figuring out how addressing works or how to word a Christmas greeting. I use the cards as well for family, friends and co-workers - which is either a good example of modeling literate behaviour, or a questionable example of doing personal errands during work hours.

I never know what to say in Christmas cards, and always end up saying the same thing: "Best wishes for the season" (which is about as empty a sentiment as possible, I fear). On the other hand, I love getting Christmas cards, no matter what they say (or how much I have to spend to get them). I read every single word and then stand or tape them up in some extremely visible spot at home.


Sending and getting cards is still socially important or something. I have no idea how old the tradition is.... Still, I've learned not to make too many assumptions about the whole affair.

One year, after handing out Christmas cards to my learners, a gentleman quietly asked me what he should do with it. "I don't know," I replied blithely. "What do you usually do with your Christmas card?"

He said, "Nothing. I never got a Christmas card before."

Oh.

Writing Poems

She said, "I want to learn to write poems."

Okay.

After a couple of embarrassingly ineffectual starts, we ended up using National Geographic magazines. The first time, I found a photograph without a whole lot going on - a gray, tableau scene of a wolf, partly hidden in blowing snow, beside a downed caribou - and we talked about what colours and objects she saw. Then she wrote a paragraph of sorts. We struck out the connecting words and some other "extra" words, and she arranged the resulting phrases into a verse-like form.

The next poem she wrote from an NG photo she picked out herself. I helped with spelling and with identifying the connecting terms that could be safely left out. She arranged the phrases. Then, for her third effort, she imagined a picture. She wrote a paragraph, struck out some words (and checked with me about some others) and ended up with the poem pictured above:

Sky

Some little brown birds
are flying around
the wind is blowing all
the Green trees around
there are white clouds
up in the Sky
the light blue Sky

Is it a good poem? Who knows?

Opinions about poetry are like opinions about hockey teams or pie crust. Everybody's entitled to their views: nobody needs pay much attention to anything anybody else says.

In any case, people are entitled to write bad poetry. Forget the jazz police - it's a free jungle out there. Good poetry, in my immodest opinion, is enjoyable to read because it's a balanced mix of ideas and imagery showing an economical use of language and arranged in verse. Bad poetry lacks balance (is only imagery or ideas), has too many words, or is presented in some kind of unrecognizable, tortured format. It's less fun to read or muse upon. But it's not illegal.

But here's the point I wanted to make. (And I'm still riffing off Yabroff's mean-spirited Newsweek tripe discussed here.) Writing these three poems - of whatever merit - involved identifying a photo's main idea, choosing words to represent an image, talking about word forms (e.g., cloud vs. cloudy), thinking about adjectives (I didn't promote the idea of adverbs), and talking about poetic forms and paragraphs (a.k.a. stanzas). It also involved the sustained work of writing and re-writing (each poem went through four drafts: paragraphed twice, versed once, then good-copied into her book).

There's more work to do. Soon, she'll start asking about punctuation. We'll also get around to talking about when and why to capitalize words. Still, if you add in the 30 or 40 minutes of silent reading that happened earlier in the class, and it was a solid bit of language arts learning facilitated through a learner-requested activity that was both individualized and functional - functional because she now has a small collection of poetry she wrote herself.