From the Father of our Nation to the Queen Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in our Nation, adult

1
From the Father of our Nation to the Queen
Mother of the Civil Rights Movement in our
Nation, adult literacy educators have empowered
millions of Americans with the ability to use the
English language, read, write and compute at
levels needed to function in various contexts.
Whether these educators followed a phonics or
whole language approach to teaching literacy,
they all taught basic skills in a functional
context of relevance to learners.
The Shoulders on Which We Stand
Ten Pioneering Adult Literacy Educators in the
History of Adult Literacy Education in the United
States
1. George Washington Father of our Nation 2.
Susie King Taylor 3. Harriet A. Jacobs 4. Cora
Wilson Stewart 5. J. Duncan Spaeth
6. Wil Lou Gray 7. Frank C. Laubach 8. Paul A.
Witty 9. Francis P. Robinson 10. Septima
Poinsette Clark Queen Mother of the Civil Rights
Movement in our Nation
2
(No Transcript)
3
(No Transcript)
4
(No Transcript)
5
Harriet A. Jacobs (1813-1897)Incidents in the
life of a slave girl written by herself (1861)
Harriet Jacobs was born a slave and as a little
girl her masters daughter taught her to read and
write. When Jacobs got to be around 12 years old
her master got interested in her for sexual
favors. Frightened, Jacobs ran and hid in her
grandmothers house. She hid in a garret of the
house for 7 years before escaping to freedom. She
became the first former slave to write her own
narrative of her life.
6
In this extract from her book, Jacobs indicates
that she used the A, B, C, approach to teaching
reading indicating that she followed a decoding
(phonics) approach to reading instruction. She
also used a functional context approach by using
the Bible for the instructional material, which
is the material Uncle Fred wanted to learn to
read. This illustrates the importance of making
the content of instruction relevant to the
desires of the adult learner.
7
Later in her life Jacobs taught literacy in the
Freedmans Schools during the reconstruction
following the Civil War. The materials used once
again were made relevant to both children and
adult learners by using African-American
illustrations and providing materials relevant to
the life of the learners.
8
Later in her life Jacobs taught literacy in the
Freedmans Schools during the reconstruction
following the Civil War. The materials used once
again were made relevant to both children and
adult learners by using African-American
illustrations and providing materials relevant to
the life of the learners.
9
In 1911 Cora Wilson Stewart, Superintendent of
Schools in Rowan County, Kentucky, got teachers
to volunteer to teach the illiterate parents of
school children. Because of dangers in the hills
and hollows, adults could only come to school on
nights when the moon was out. This led to the
schools becoming known as the Moonlight Schools
of Kentucky. Stewart introduced the first
newspaper for adult literacy learners, she coined
the theme Each One Teach One and wrote the
first series of books for country learners. She
was the first adult literacy educator to address
a major political party when she spoke at the
Democratic Party convention in 1920.
10
(No Transcript)
11
(No Transcript)
12
Country Life Readers First Book Community
Development Compare.
13
Country Life Readers First Book Community Develop
ment .and Contrast
14
Country Life Readers First Book Sustainable
Development Soil Conservation On The Farm
15
Country Life Readers First Book Sustainable
Development Soil Conservation On The Farm
16
Country Life Readers First Book Health Literacy
17
Country Life Readers First Book Health
Literacy
18
Cora Wilson Stewart provided an early version of
Family Literacy
19
(No Transcript)
20
World War I Selective Service reported that 25
of adults being called for service were
illiterate, poorly literate, or non-English
speaking.
21
Soldiers First Book Instructions to teachers
indicates that Cora Wilson Stewart advocated the
whole language approach to teaching. Like her
other materials, the Soldiers First Book follows
a Functional Context Education approach.
22
In the first edition of his Camp Reader J. Duncan
Spaeth thanked Cora Wilson Stewart for her aid.
But he favored a phonics approach and in the
revised book he dropped his mention of CWS who
favored whole language. He went on to introduce
the first teachers manual for adult literacy
educators focused on a phonetic system of
reading. He also provided training in teaching
non-English speaking soldiers. World War I
Army camp.
23

Spaeth followed the same Functional Context
Education approach as used by Cora Wilson
Stewart. But he always included a sound drill to
teach phonics.
24
Wil Lou Gray (1883-1984) State Superintendent
of Adult Education in South Carolina Influenced
by work of Cora Wilson Stewart 1923 Initiated
Sign Your-Own-Name and Ill Write My Own
Name Campaigns
25
1932 Wil Lou Gray introduced first scientific
research on adult education in study of
Opportunity Schools she started demonstrating
that both White and African-American adults of
all ages could learn literacy and other skills
thought by many to be beyond the plasticity of
adults.
26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
Frank Laubach, like Cora Wilson Stewart earlier,
came up with the slogan each one teach one but
he popularized the idea around the world. In 1955
at the age of 70 he started Laubach
International, the first major organization for
adult literacy education in the United States.
29
Laubach favored phonics and innovated by using
the first visual mnemonics in adult literacy
education to help learners learn the sight-sound
correspondences in phonics. For the letter b,
using the English chart, one says, See this, this
is a bird (pointing to the bird). Then pointing
to the b letter with the faded bird beneath it,
one says, this looks like a bird and says buh,
the sound of the letter. Then the next two
columns are used to repeat the words and letter
sounds to form a mental association of the sight
and sounds of b.
30
Laubach followed the same functional context
approach of teaching literacy using materials
relevant to learners as used by the earlier
pioneers of adult literacy education.
31
Witty was a follower of the work of William S.
Gray who fathered the Dick and Jane readers. In
those books, children who were learning to read
could identify with the fictional children and
their activities. Witty followed that approach in
developing materials for the Army literacy
program. He invented a fictional soldier, Private
Pete, who was a literacy student in the Army just
as the real students were. This let the real
students identify with the fictional soldier who
was learning literacy.
32
Witty introduced the use of audio-visual
technology in teaching adult literacy. World War
II Filmstrip for Teaching Reading
33
Soldier literacy students viewed and discussed
the filmstrip with no words, then with one word,
and then words in sentences using a word (whole
language) approach like that used in the Dick and
Jane readers.
34
In the Army Reader, Witty introduced the first
use of a programmed or instructional systems
approach to teaching adult literacy. The book had
four parts, each with a pre-test and a post-test.
If the soldier passed the pre-test to Part One he
could skip that module and go on to Part Two. If
he failed the Part One pre-test he had to study
the module and then take the post-test and pass
it to go on to Part Two.
35
Like other adult literacy pioneers, in the Army
Reader Witty followed a functional context
approach and integrated basic skills instruction
in materials with which the soldier learners were
familial in their daily lives in camp. Teaching
math was made relevant with tasks such as
figuring out how much insurance to get for Mom or
Dad or Sweetheart if the soldier did not come
back from the war.
36
A newspaper entitled Our War was developed and
included the first use of a comic strip featuring
Private Pete and his sidekick Daffy.
37
Another innovation in adult literacy education
was the development of a photo novel using real
people to play the roles of Private Pete and his
sidekick Daffy. This was used in a program for
soldiers getting discharged from the Army who
missed literacy training on entry into the Army
or whose skills had deteriorated from little use
in the war. The book used the same systems
approach as with the Army Reader.
38
(No Transcript)
39
(No Transcript)
40
Illiterate and Non-English Speaking Soldiers
Fighting for Freedom in World War II Learn to
Read and Write Writing in the July 1943 issue of
Our War, a newspaper for the literacy students
of World War II, a student wrote This is my
first letter in English. I have learned to read
and write so that I can help protect or country.
Private Porfirio C. Gutierrez A mother of a
soldier wrote to the Army in original spellings
and punctuation dear sir I thank you all for
Learning My child to read and wright I dont Know
how to thank you all Because My child did no know
nothing it is really high apprishated Because I
did not have the time to send him to school I did
not have no husband I raised him from a Baby By
my self and that is all my help and I thank you
and I thank you when you wrote me and siad My Boy
did that I was so glad I did not Know what to do
and I realy appreshated it. Very truly yours,
M--- W---
41
During World War II the Army needed personnel
with knowledge of chemistry and physiology to
deal with chemical and biological warfare. They
sent more highly literate troops to colleges to
learn these subjects but found that many lacked
the study skills needed for college level reading
and study. So the Army got Francis Robinson,
professor of psychology at Ohio State University
to develop a study skills training course for
Army personnel. Robinson developed the famous
SQ3R formula, the most widely used study skills
strategy in the world. It deals with what the
reader does before reading, during reading, and
after reading. This general approach forms the
basis for most reading comprehension, study
skills approaches taught in college developmental
reading courses in the U.S.
42
Septima Poinsette Clark (1898-1987) Queen
Mother of the Civil Rights Movement
43
Septima Poinsette Clark 1957-January 7 Opened
citizenship school on Johns Island for
African-American adult illiterates used
kinesthetic method to teach them to write
their names, read South Carolina election laws to
qualify for registering to vote, do other
functional tasks. 1961-Left Highlander to work
with Dr. Martin Luther King in the Southern
Christian Leadership Conference developing
citizenship schools and in 4 years trained 10,000
teachers and registered nearly 700,000
African-Americans to vote in the South.
44
Clark followed the whole language approach in
teaching reading, but like the other pioneers of
adult literacy, she followed a functional context
education approach using materials relevant to
the goals of the learners.
45
The so-called kinesthetic method used by
Septima Poinsette Clark was based on a method
developed by Cora Wilson Stewart when she found
that the first thing adult literacy students
wanted to learn was how to write their names.
This overcame a large stigma of shame for them.
Astonishingly, a simple technique for teaching
illiterate adults to write their names lead to
the eventual registration to vote of millions of
African-Americans and stimulated politicians to
pass the Civil Rights laws of the mid-20th
century.
46
Speaking of a cleaning woman who asked to be
taught to read and write in the Citizenship
School on Johns Island, South Carolina, so that
she might prepare herself to vote, Septima
Poinsette Clark wrote This woman is but one of
those persons whose stories I could tell. One
will never be able, I maintain, to measure or
even to approximate the
Good that this work among the adult illiterates
on this one island has accomplished. How can
anybody estimate the worth of pride achieved,
hope accomplished, faith affirmed, citizenship
won? These are intangible things but real
nevertheless, solid and of inestimable value.