I'm Embarrassed When I'm Asked to Read Something Aloud

Description of Learner:
Donna is a 48-year-old African-American woman who reads at a 2nd grade level as measured by the TABE (Tests of Adult Basic Education: CTB/McGraw-Hill). She has participated in learning center activities for over 2 years, and believes she is making significant progress. Her original goal was the General Educational Development Test (GED), but she has now enrolled in the External Diploma Program, which provides her with more study structure and short-term goal attainment. She has trouble pronouncing and remembering people's names, and due to her manner of speech, it is difficult to understand what she says in conversation. Also, she tends to jump from one subject to another without any transition. After she expressed a desire to return to the world of work, I referred her to the Virginia Department of Rehabilitative Services (DRS) for evaluation, because there may be significant underlying difficulties and/or disabilities that prevent her from learning adequately. She has since obtained a job through DRS, but she still wants to obtain her high school diploma.

Challenge Faced:
Donna grasps basic math concepts and operations, and tends to want to work only on math. She avoids any reading or writing as much as she can - including math word problems. We spent a few months attempting to motivate her to work on reading and writing, but nothing we've tried so far has helped.

What We Did:
One day, Donna told me about her church involvement; she said it was her pastor who suggested she come to the learning center to improve her reading so she could read Scripture aloud in church. She told me how proud he was of her progress. I asked her if she wanted to bring her Bible to class, so we could work on some readings there. She took me up on the offer, and over the next few months, we spent several sessions on specific passages she planned to read aloud at church. The archaic language in the King James Bible was quite difficult for her to read, but she sounded out some simple words, and she knew certain words by sight. She continued to stumble when reading 'thee' and 'thou', so she wrote them and several other words on individual pieces of paper for use as flashcards. She said she looked at them when she was on the bus. Judging by Donna's manner of reading the passages, I suspected that she did not understand their meaning, or the metaphors used, but to my surprise, she explained the passages beautifully.

Analysis:
Donna needs a good reason to work on her reading. Her church involvement and her pastor's approval are perfect motivations for her. While working on Bible passages, she considers the process of reading the Bible and not working on reading skills. Individual word cards are creating new and important sight words for her. She is motivated to learn them and the cards are ready resources, handy for studying at home, in class or on the bus.

What I Learned:
Reading materials for low-literacy-level readers need to be relevant to the reader's life for the effort to make sense. Low-level readers may tend to use avoidance as a solution to their low reading skills, so relevant and meaningful reading - determined by the learner - should be the vehicle for practicing reading skills. Sight words - words the reader recognizes immediately without having to sound them out - should be those the reader believes are important, relevant, and needed. If learner-chosen reading materials and sight words are the basis for practicing reading skills, the learner has opportunities to bring his/her own background knowledge to the task and acquire new knowledge based on meaning.

Donna, Group Discussion:

Wouldn't another, simpler and more colloquial version of the Bible be better for her to use?
Yes, most definitely; however, Donna wants to read from the Bible used in her church. It appears that Donna is familiar with the archaic language of the King James Bible, but she has a problem recognizing the corresponding written words. Knowing the stories and the meaning behind what she is reading helps her "guess" at words she does not know.

How do other students - possibly with different religious backgrounds - react to the Bible as a reading text?
I have seen no obvious reaction. In this particular learning center, all students have individual study time during which they work on material of their choice. Sometimes informal collaboration occurs, but most prefer to work alone. In addition, participants attending this specific learning center present many different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds, and never has there been an incident, comment, or obvious attitude that would project intolerance. The students all work well together and respect the fact that they are all different while they are there for the same basic purpose.

Donna and I often leave the main area of the learning center and go to a nearby room that is quieter and more secluded. Donna seems much more comfortable in this one-on-one, private setting than when reading where others can hear her. While all learners attending the center want to improve their reading skills, she seems particularly uncomfortable with her low reading level.

Does it matter that she already knows the Bible stories?
While that helps her understand what she reads, does it help her develop a reading vocabulary that transfers to other material? Knowing the story helps her guess at words she does not know. Frequently, her guesses are incorrect, but knowing the meaning behind the words gives her an advantage as far as reading for meaning is concerned. This fact gives her an advantage when working on words she wants to learn to read automatically. We have not yet assessed how well she transfers her memory of the words to other contexts, but that is the next step. Often, with low-level readers, they are more concerned with getting the words pronounced correctly than with understanding the message. Since Donna already knows the message, this is one less challenge for her in the reading process, and she can spend more focus on remembering individual words by sight.

Summary:

Director's Comments:

Your choice of the Bible is an excellent entry into helping Donna learn to read. To enhance her progress, she could draw pictures on the backs of her word cards that represent the meanings of the words for her. When alone, the pictures could give her the added boost needed to recall word pronunciation and word meaning accurately. Also, you may wish to begin working on family words. That is, by using a word she wants to know such as 'thou,' you could begin teaching 'out,' 'ouch,' and 'couch.' When she sees how words have common elements, she may become less fearful of the reading process.