This qualitative study will investigate the question of how adult literacy students of various ages (19 to 70 years), with learning difficulties, are taught to spell in literacy classes. I will examine strategies the tutors employ to teach spelling and if the students feel that these are effective. Firstly, I am going to justify my reasons for choosing this very specific technical skill. Secondly, I will then outline my central research question and the sub-questions that arise from it. Thirdly, I will discuss the relevance of the research publications identified to the problem of teaching adults with learning difficulties to spell and how they have helped to contributed to clarifying my research question and sub questions. Fourthly, I will look at the proposed methodology of the study and my choice of data sources and how they could further my understanding of the subject while considering the ethical issues involved and how they may affect the way the data is gathered. FinalIy, this study intends to link research to practice and be of benefit to both literacy tutors and their students.
Justification
While I believe that literacy difficulties should be looked at from a socio-cultural perspective (Green and Kostogriz, 2002), the subject of my investigation is a technical skill. Spelling can have a personal and social value as it may influence an individual’s ability to gain employment and participate fully in society. (Sawyer and Joyce, 2006). A recent Mencap survey (2012) tested Britain’s spelling ability and highlighted its poor spelling and also argued that this had implications for employment. The students I have worked with have expressed a clear desire to improve their spelling. Surprisingly, this aspect of literacy teac...
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...Online]. Available at http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/ann_rev/comings_ch4.pdf (Accessed 16 January 2014)
Viise, N.M. and Austin, O.F. (2005) ‘Can Adult Low-Skilled Literacy Learners Assess and Discuss Their Own Spelling Knowledge?’, Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, vol. 48, no. 5 [Online]. Available at http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/doi/10.1598/JAAL.48.5.4/pdf
(Accessed 16 January 2014).
Wanzek, J., Vaughn, S., Wexler, J., Swanson, E.A., Edmonds, M. and Kim A.-H. (2006) ‘A Synthesis of Spelling and Reading Interventions and Their Effects on the Spelling Outcomes of Students with LD’, Journal of Learning Disabilities, vol. 39, no. 6 [Online]. Available at http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=8222f6d9-e70a-4cca-8bdd-a8e28528de5e%40sessionmgr4005&hid=4208 (Accessed 16 January 2014)
Deborah Brandt (1998) wrote “Sponsors of Literacy”, a journal where she explained her findings of the research she has done on how different people across the nation learned to read and write, born between 1900, and 1980 (p. 167). She interviewed many people that had varying forms of their literacy skills, whether it was from being poor, being rich, or just being in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
I previously have mentioned, in prior reflection essays, just how important literacy is for a person’s future. Notice how I didn’t say “student’s” future? Literacy fluency effects several aspects of life, not only academically speaking. Ultimately, the literacy level of a child can directly affect their future as an adult. The whole point of Torgesen’s article “Catch Them Before They Fall” is about preventing students with literacy deficits from slipping through the cracks without the best possible, research-based interventions.
Next, we need to tackle the many misconceptions associated with dyslexia. Many people acquaint having a learning disability as having a disease. This is completely false, dyslexia is not a disease, and therefore there is no magic pill that can cure it. Actually, there is no cure and it cannot be outgrown. According to the journey into dyslexia, “it is a lifelong issue.” However, it is manageable with the assistance and resources, those with dyslexia can continue to keep up and retain their grade level in
Robert Buck once said, “If children can’t learn the way we teach, then we have to teach the way they learn.” The Wilson Language Program has become disclosed to amplify this mentality. Dyslexia is a common disease among ten to fifteen percent of the United States, where a human being has trouble in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. Programs are reaching out to try to terminate as much distress of dyslexia as possible. Up and coming programs, The Wilson Language Program for example, are making their best efforts to start working with children from a young age with the slight signs of this common problem. Catching dyslexia earlier in life brings more assurance that the child’s future will have little to no setbacks or disadvantages for success. In order to enhance the regressive literacy of dyslexic individuals, the Wilson Language Program is progressively being implemented into regular schooling to ensure that reading standards are met, through structure, hours of research, copious practice, and strong evidence.
Assessments should guide instruction and material selection. Any likely manner, assessments should measure student progress, as well as help, identify deficiencies in reading (Afflerback, 2012). One important indicator of reading deficiencies is spelling. Morris (2014), advocated the importance of administering a spelling assessment in order to have a better understanding of a student’s reading abilities. My school uses the Words Their Way spelling inventory to assess students’ reading abilities at the beginning of the year and throughout the reading year.
The teacher walked to the front of the room with her book in hand and as she got closer to the front, Paul got lower in his seat. He knew what was coming next; it was time for the class to read the next chapter. The teacher would start reading and then call on different students to read as they moved through the chapter. This scared Paul right down to his toes. He had read in front of the class before, but it was what followed after class that worried him the most. The taunts from the other students like “retard” or “are you stupid or what?” This type of relentless teasing would continue until gym class where he could hold his own ground again. He did not have any problems in gym; class he was good at sports and liked to play. The reason that Paul has so much trouble reading is because he has Dyslexia.
Literacy, or the capability to comprehend, translate, utilize, make, process, assess, and speak information connected with fluctuating settings and displayed in differing organizations, assumes an essential part in molding a young's persons trajectory in life. The ability to read speaks to a key factor of scholarly, social, and financial success (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998). These abilities likewise speak to a fundamental segment to having a satisfying life and turning into an effective worker and overall person (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1999). Interestingly, recent studies have demonstrated that low reading skills lead to critical hindrances in monetary and social achievement. As stated by the National Center for Education Statistics, adults with lower levels of reading skills and literacy have a lower average salary. Another study evaluated that 17 to 18 percent of adults with "below average" literacy aptitudes earned less than $300 a week, though just 3 to 6 percent of adults with "proficient" reading abilities earned less than $300 a week (Snow, Burns, & Griffin, 1998).
The causes of reading difficulties often arise because of learning disabilities such as dyslexia, poor preparation before entering school, no value for literacy, low school attendance, insufficient reading instruction, and/or even the way students were taught to read in the early grades. The struggles that students “encounter in school can be seen as socially constructed-by the ways in which schools are organized and scheduled, by assumptions that are made about home life and school abilities, by a curriculum that is often devoid of connections to students’ lives, and by text that may be too difficult for students to read” (Hinchman, and Sheridan-Thomas166). Whatever the reason for the existence of the reading problem initially, by “the time a [student] is in the intermediate grades, there is good evidence that he will show continued reading g...
Eve... ... middle of paper ... ..., K., Milczarski, E., & Raby, C. (2011). The Assessment of English Language Learners with Learning Disabilities: Issues, Concerns, and Implications. Education, 131(4), 732-739.
Literacy is vital for reading and writing of all children, both hearing and deaf. Research has shown that having a strong L1 foundation, it can be applied in learning how to read and write in English. Advocates of bilingual bicultural education agree that the reading and writing skills that are acquired based on the strong foundation of their L1 develops the foundation of L2 (Evans, 2004; Puente et al, 2006). Researches conducted by Padden & Ramsey (2000) show that ASL fingerspelling skills are related to English literacy and vocabulary knowledge (Hile, 2009). One study done by Padden & Ramsey (2000), showed the fingerspelling tasks that were given to thirty-one deaf students in two groups (3rd-4th graders
If a child has Dyslexia, work with that child to find out what different things they could do to read better. See if spacing sentences out will help. Maybe they would just need a blank sheet of paper to block out the other words, Use flash cards and repetition. Also, routines are extremely
Santa Barbara, CA: Learning Works, 1996. Print. The. Girod, Christina M. Learning Disabilities. San Diego, CA: Lucent, 2001. Print.
Diane Pedrotty Bryant, J. E. (2001). Iris. Retrieved April 1, 2011, from Secondary Students with Learning Disabilities in Reading" Vocanulary Development: http://iris.peabody.vanderbilt.edu/infoBriefs_local/cld/cld_vocabulary
Reading is an essential skill that needs to be addressed when dealing with students with disabilities. Reading is a skill that will be used for a student’s entire life. Therefore, it needs to be an important skill that is learned and used proficiently in order for a student to succeed in the real world. There are many techniques that educators can use to help improve a student’s reading comprehension. One of these skills that needs to be directly and explicitly taught is learning how to read fluently for comprehension. “To comprehend texts, the reader must be a fluent decoder and not a laborious, word-by-word reader” (Kameenui, 252). Comprehension can be difficult for students with learning disabilities because they tend to be the students that are reading below grade level. One strategy is to incorporate the student’s background knowledge into a lesson. This may require a bit of work, but it will help the students relate with the information being pres...
Education Queensland (n.d.) states that “literacy is the ability to read, view, write, design, speak and listen in a way that allows us to communicate effectively and make sense of the world.” The Australian Professional Standards requires myself to seek help with my failing literacy skills and improve further upon my numeracy skills. The reading writing hotline is nationwide service that will provide myself with information about where i can locate nearest literacy classes and provide myself with learning resources. The Queensland Council for Adult Literacy (n.d.) offers the chance to improve my literacy skills and “provides seminars, workshops and