The Problem of Literacy

Lately I’ve been writing about my personal, individual experiences with tutoring two girls at the literacy council. I enjoy blogging my reflections and I find it useful, but perhaps it may also be valuable to readers of this blog that I give a broad overview of the state of literacy in the US as I understand it. My individual experiences may be interesting, and hopefully readers learn something, but I am not convinced that my personal role at the council explains the issue in a way that provokes others to want to rectify it. 

America has a literacy rate of 99%, and since it is so close to 100%, many often overlook the problem of literacy in this country. (Those people that overlook the problem are usually able to read, write, perform basic arithmetic functions and work fairly well on a computer, however. Those people that overlook the problem also tend to have an income.)

Numbers, however, can be deceiving. Though some people may be literate in that they can read and write English, many have a below basic understanding of reading/writing/mathematics. Those people tend to drop out of high school, but without basic literacy skills they cannot obtain a GED. And without a GED, thousands of jobs are unattainable and the government is forced to pay those people unemployment. Many times, those people want to have jobs—they just have no way of teaching themselves, either because of a lack of understanding or a lack of practice materials. I anticipate certain backlash to the idea of funding a literary council, particularly as our country is in a recession, but I want to point out that an illiterate citizenry costs the country much more than a literacy council does. 

To get an understanding of that 99% of literate Americans, let’s look at some figures compiled by the National Center for Education Statistics. They administer a survey every ten years called the National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) that quantifies the US literacy problem.  In a survey of those 16 and over, the results for prose literacy are as follows:

Prose literacy tests include both fiction and nonfiction works, so both stories and newspapers fall under this category. According to the chart, 30 million people are capable of “no more than the most simple and concrete literacy skills.” 30 million people may not be able to read a newspaper properly or even read a book to their children. 

But this is a national statistic, and Pennsylvania is much better off, right? That statistic includes immigrant-heavy zones like lower Florida, the Southwest, and California, so the abundance of ESL citizens may affect those ranking—but let’s look at Franklin County, where I tutor, and assess the problem.

In a population size of 103,549, 13% of those tested placed at a below basic comprehension/understanding of prose. In other words, about 13,461 wouldn’t be able to pass their GED if they dropped out of high school without proper support and encouragement.

This number astounds me. Hopefully it astounds you as well. Volunteer work at a Literacy Council is helping, one person at a time, to shape an entire community, your community. If you forget about the enormous national number and just focus on one county at a time, it becomes manageable. Perhaps I could not feel like I was making a difference if I only looked at that staggering 30 million below the levels of basic literacy. But if I devote myself to just Franklin County, and just those two students I help every week (for now), I can see right away that I am making a difference. I focus so heavily on those two students in my reflections on this blog, but at times it is valuable to look at the bigger picture and realize those incremental changes that are being made. 

From a purely economical standpoint, it costs the country money to fund those who are illiterate. Many more skills and experience are required today to find employment and the market is competitive. Education is more important than ever.

But it is not mere economics that supports the role of a Literacy Council. From a humanist standpoint, every person deserves the right to seek assistance when they are struggling, especially when that person is actively seeking a way to better their life situation. Education not only creates a better workforce; it creates a better community. According to a brochure I found at the Literacy Council, “higher literacy levels in a community coincide with lower levels of crime and human rights abuse.” With education comes compassion, empathy, and genuine caring, and it is those characteristics that create a positive community.

So hopefully, after all of this, you understand that just because America is 99% literate, it does not mean we all have proficient literacy skills. Within that large group there are millions of people who could not effectively read current events on their own or fill out a job application without assistance. But this number can change, and that 99% can become more reflective of a literate America if volunteers are willing to give a little time to those who need help learning and re-learning comprehension, passage analysis, mathematics, and vocabulary. We can chip away at that 30 million by focusing on the 13,000 in our community and doing something about it.

To find out more about NAAL, click here.

A Lesson Learned in Small Group Tutoring

As I was settling in with my regular student (who I wrote about in last week's post) and we were discussing the areas she wanted to work on that day, an unfamiliar person walked through the door and sat down beside me. I said "hello" cheerfully, but I was a little bit confused. Shortly after, my adviser walked in and told me that I would be tutoring both students that day because they were on roughly on the same level of pre-GED work.

So this was new territory. As I said before, one-on-one tutoring is easy for me. I'm comfortable in that situation because I can devote all of my energy into helping just that person. I can tailor my methods and my tutoring personality to what appeals to that student, to what is most effective for her. And honestly speaking, I've been pretty successful in that atmosphere; so when asked to change this dynamic by including another person, I was a bit uneasy.

The session started out rockier than I had hoped. The new student wasn't totally receptive to the way I presented the information. For example, with my original student, we would take turns reading the questions and the answers so I could hear when she was confused about a word. She stumbled on the word "census" in a graph question, and although it wasn't necessary to the math portion of the GED that she understood it, I realized that the word "census" may be important in the social studies section so I explained what it is, how often it is sent to households, and its purpose. The new student gave me a sideways glance and kind of scoffed at me when I asked her to read a question aloud. My first student was eager to read, but the new student wasn't. I sighed, assuming this would be an uphill battle.

But I tried to make it better and make the new student comfortable. I got the impression she didn't really want to be there. She was dropped off and picked up by her parents, so it wasn't as though she was attending the session on her own. There was some coercion involved, clearly. Eventually, as she became used to the way I tutored the other girl, she saw I wasn't trying to embarrass her by having her read aloud. She noticed it was just the way that I ran the session so I could improve their reading through practice and individual help.

As it turns out, she is a pretty fast reader, much faster than my first student. And with this information, I began worrying about something else-- would she be too bored by this session? I could recall sitting in classrooms where I was ahead of everyone else, so I became withdrawn and scoffed at the things we were asked to do. Those classes didn't challenge me, and so I felt they were a waste of my time. Perhaps this new student was feeling the same way I do in those situations.

After that session, I talked to Marie (my adviser) about that observation. She pointed out to me that yes, the new student could read better as far as speed and accuracy goes, but could she comprehend what it was she read? I thought back to the session-- while my older student struggled with the actual words, when it came to answering questions, she actually was more aware of what the question was asking. The new student often had to return to the question and re-read it in its entirety. While there is nothing wrong with a re-read, it would often be immediately after she had read it, and I did get the sense that her comprehension of the text was lower, even though she sounded like an excellent reader.

"I thought it would be helpful to pair these two students together," Marie told me, "because they have skills in separate areas-- [the older student] isn't as good a reader, but she can comprehend better than [the newer student]. They could learn from each other."

Of course. When I first thought about group tutoring, the concept of having the students teach one another is one that did not cross my mind. I assumed I would have to split myself between the two individuals and constantly be going back and forth to explain things. The truth of the matter is, I don't need to be so hard on myself-- they can help each other.

Everybody has their strengths and weaknesses, and the fact that these two students have different strengths is actually a benefit to small group tutoring. This way, it is not just me imparting information or helping them through the problem. Often, I sit back and let them talk through their ideas to come to a conclusion. Most of the time, they figure out the answers together. I would have been oblivious to this if that new student hadn't come in and given me a tutoring challenge.

I usually tutor both of them throughout the week and the newer student is much more receptive to me now. In fact, she showed me a couple of the skills she has-- she is an excellent artist and even showed me how to make an origami box out of a few sheets of paper. And what's even better, both of my students are comfortable with me and with one another, and I've seen their reading skills improve over the past couple of weeks. What was once intimidating to me is now commonplace; small group tutoring pushed me to enhance  my tutoring abilities to accommodate new students and use the resources I have. Sometimes those resources just happen to be other students.

Thoughts on My First Tutoring Session

On my first day of volunteering after the Literacy Carnival, I assumed I would be training or working on some tasks around the office, organizing something, or perhaps reading about ESL. However, a young adult preparing for her GED was scheduled to come in and there were no other volunteers to help her, so my site advisor asked if I would be willing to start tutoring right away. I was excited to begin my main role at the literacy council so soon, but naturally I was a bit nervous because I had never tutored someone for a GED before.

Yet I had tutored young adults in the writing lab on campus. I spent all of last year walking students through the writing process, explaining what a comma splice is, and helping formulate or strengthen a student's thesis. This kind of one-on-one atmosphere I was familiar with, even comfortable in. I typically approach a stressed-out freshman struggling with his final paper in WIFYS with a genuine smile and a few kind words to help him gain confidence in his writing. I give compliments while showing areas that need improvement, and most of the time, it seems as though students leave me after a tutoring session brainstorming new ideas and self-assured they can develop their work. And from my perspective, that means I’ve done my job.

Could I carry this confidence into a new environment? My worry was that I would come off as condescending rather than helpful, or just completely make a fool out of myself in front of somebody who may not want to be there but feels compelled to be so that he or she can find a job. I thought to myself in those brief fifteen minutes I had before my new student arrived, what qualities would I want in a tutor? What would I consider helpful, and what would make me uncomfortable?

The truth is, I’ve never had a tutor of my own; I’ve only played the role. I’ve had advisors and inspirational teachers, though. I knew the qualities I admired in them, the qualities that made me want to be a better learner, that motivated and encouraged me to reach my potential. That attitude is what I wanted to bring to the literacy council to help make it (even more than it already is) a place of helpfulness, earnestness, and progress. To put it simply, I want to make learning pleasurable, not aggravating and frustrating, for the students who come there so that they continue educating themselves and asking questions even after they leave the program.

I definitely lucked out with my first student. She came in motivated to work and succeed, and though she comes from a learning support background, she hasn’t let that impede her desire to test for a GED. Every week so far she has asked for homework, especially for reading assignments because she realizes that is her weakest subject. Rather than roll her eyes when I ask her to read a question aloud, she jumps right in without hesitation, only looking to me when she crosses an unfamiliar word. And best of all, she asks questions about content in the test book that she doesn’t understand rather than brushing it off, which shows me that she is as willing to learn as I am to teach.

We’ve talked about things outside the practice booklet too, especially when something in one of the questions sparks a conversation. For example, a math question involved a graph about refugees, and while it was not particularly important in answering the question, she asked me what a refugee was. After explaining that a refugee is somebody who has been forced out of his country by a government or militia, she looked at me and said, “People actually do that to other people?” She was genuinely interested in something outside her own experience and even if she never joins the Peace Corps or works for UNHCR, she became aware of a situation she may have never learned about otherwise. It sparked a reaction in her and made her curious about the world outside Franklin County, if even for a moment. And that’s what service and volunteerism is all about, right? Making the world a better and more knowledgeable place, one person at a time. 

My nervousness at the beginning was warranted—I mean, this was a completely new kind of tutoring for me-- but I realized quickly that I had to make this environment comfortable for her so that she would come back. I’ve worked with her each Wednesday since then and am now assigned to work with her every Wednesday until there is a scheduling conflict or until she is ready to take the test.

I am so grateful that nobody came to volunteer that first morning of my service because it allowed me to begin building a connection with a student right away, and now I can spend my time looking for new, inventive ways of teaching the information for the GED without any anxiety whatsoever.

Literacy Carnival

Since September is National Literacy Month, those at FCLC decided to start the month with a kid's Literacy Carnival at the Chambersburg Mall! The event was a total success. An especially helpful surprise was the number of incoming Ship students who signed up to volunteer. Many of them helped with carnival games, scavenger hunts, face painting, and even dressed up as the Cat in the Hat and Thing 1 and Thing 2!

First Book was kind to donate around 700 books to give away to families. I helped mostly at this table, and also walked around to check on each table, taking photos and making sure things were going well. Watching the faces of children who were given FREE books was amazing-- one little girl even said, "This is the best place in the entire universe!" The books donated were a range of early children's books like Little Einstein and Disney Princesses to chapter books about the Jonas Brothers and Pirates of the Caribbean.

A magician performed for an hour in the middle of the day, which was a nice break between the morning and the afternoon activities. It gave the kids (and parents) a chance to sit down and be entertained for a bit while the volunteers grabbed lunch and prepared for the afternoon. The kids seemed to really enjoy the "wacky" magician.

Later, Dr. Cella of Ship University read books to a group of kids and, when she finished them, gave them away!

Once again, the success of this event has a lot to do with the generous Ship volunteers who woke up bright and early on a Saturday to spend their day promoting early literacy. We couldn't have done it so well without them, so thank you Ship volunteers!