I appear to have enlisted to teach Adult Literacy Outreach Classes for the next nine months at the central Brooklyn Public Library, at Grand Army Plaza.
I’m always glad to be ensconced in books, but apparently there’s some work invloved – They’re soon to teach me the skills I need to educate the 6-10 people in my assigned group, who will all allegedly speak english and read in the 0-5th grade reading level. (Apparently, if you teach them too well, the Institute of Slightly Higher Education intercedes.).
I’m quite confident that I possess the necessary wordsmithery, games, puzzles, and romance novels (don’t ask) to last make for a fun and challenging literacy program.
Unfortunately, I’ve found that good teachers aren’t necessarily wordsmiths, but more importantly, organized and patient. In fact, my mother got her masters in teaching from Adelphi, and she’s already given me chapter and verse about how teaching programs fundamentally fail to give teachers the necessary teaching skills. Since I’m not known for being patient or organized, any suggestions on how to improve in that regard? Or is this something only experience can teach?
They read at a 0-5 level, but what level do they speak at? I think discovering this will be a key to deciding how to procede. How to use this key, however, I haven’t much idea. I suggest using English phrases they know.
Are they going to be tested at the end of this? Will they have to write anything?
Patience - focus on effort and progression. Remember that at times it may appear that little if any progress is being made. Suddenly, a break through moment will occur. Celebrate the small successes. Teach the person first, the content second.
Organization - are you thinking about the scope and sequence of lessons you will present? Or are you thinking about documentation, feedback, administrivia?
pv
I don’t know, jacksen9, perhaps both. Or general tips, as you provide.
What would be a sucess, yojimboguy is open-ended. Class attendence is optional. People show up for you lesson, or they don’t. They graduate or they don’t. But some will expect me regularly for nine months. And they will all have to write if they ever want to graduate, yes.
In that sense, it’s very open and flexible and… well, challenging.
I was thinking parking tickets, as the first lesson. Who doesn’t need to know where their car is impounded?
Ace, the best advice I ever recieved was that you have to teach people from where they are at, not from where you think they should be. And in a situation like this, the first thing you need to know is where they are at. I would suggest some sort of pre-test for the first day–this can be disguised as a “personal informaiton sheet” or something–so that you can figure out where they are at in terms that are meaningful to you, as opposed to files that say things like “Readata 3.4 reading level”.