Prison literacy rates, worse than I thought.

[ElizabethB]

On p. 27 of the report, Comparing the Prison and Household Populations, it notes that, "A higher percentage of prison inmates than adults living in households had been diagnosed with a learning disability (17 percent versus 6 percent)."

 

Of course, being the recipient of poor/misguided/outright racist reading instruction isn't a learning disability. It's a teaching disability.

I noticed that, too, and thought it was interesting as well, and also the graph showing that those that ended up in prison were doing worse literacy wise than the rest of the household, even with that being a really low average as well.

 

Some of the problems may be a true learning disability, but I suspect that many of them are just victims of poor instruction, as most of my remedial students are.

[Rosie_0801]

I haven't heard of anything like this local other than with home detention and I couldn't take my kids into that. I suspect the need is there though I just don't know or organisations that do it other than through the library and that requires a higher qualification than I have.

 

There's a national reading-writing-maths hotline, so I found out from buying 'The Big Issue' last night.

[Ausmumof3]

There's a national reading-writing-maths hotline, so I found out from buying 'The Big Issue' last night.

Oh Interesting. It looks like they use paid tutors/teachers from what I can see.

 

I did find another place where it looks like you can volunteer.

 

Which just leaves the other issue... time!

[LucyStoner]

A good friend of mine who is serving a 3 year sentence would probably confirm something similar. He is working as a tutor for other inmates that wish to get their GED. My friend graduated high school and culinary school and has often felt inferior when it came to his education compared to his friends, but he says his education was leaps and bounds over what most inmates have received. His greatest difficulty in tutoring though is that he suspects many are dyslexic or have other learning disabilities, and his resources are very limited in what he has to help them.

 

Also, an area adult literacy program has volunteers that does one-on-one tutoring. One of the places they serve is the county jail. This organization is always in desperate need to get enough volunteers to meet the desire for all those that want literacy tutoring. The jail program is in the most need, not because people aren't willing to tutor there, but because the demand is so high and the "allowed" tutoring hours are not possible for those that work 9-5 or have young children (or schooling children) at home.

Yes, I was offered a stipend position teaching algebra at the women’s prison and I had to pass because the drive time and the times I had to be there just didn’t jive with my family obligations. The stipend is really just enough to cover gasoline so it’s basically a volunteer job. They have a really hard time finding people.

 

One issue is that prisoner education programs are politically unpopular so they have usually been cut to the bone. The places that do offer anything past the GED, it’s funded by non-profits, not the government anymore. Very disappointing.

[Laurie4b]

It is sad, especially when many of them could have been fixed with better teaching methods.  (All are sad, but the easily preventable ones really break my heart, there is absolutely no good excuse for that.)

 

And, there is really not that good of an excuse for the truly dyslexic students that need an OG approach, it is time consuming, but it should save money in the long run, and even if not, is worth the cost in my opinion, and, I would think, the opinions of most people if they understood.

 

Whenever I do pro bono tutoring, I keep in mind that not only will that particular child's life be different, but so will the lives of the people who may have been impacted by any future crime. 

 

The school systems around here do provide Wilson tutoring for kids.

 

I no longer use OG, but have switched to Reading Simplified. It has many of the same components, but eliminated others and replaced them with more efficient methods .  I find it extremely fast in remediation compared to OG. I've had multiple students---from kids with multiple LDs to ESL speakers to kids about to be held back for lack of reading proficiency be remediated to grade level within a year, some as short as 2 months. 

[LucyStoner]

Whenever I do pro bono tutoring, I keep in mind that not only will that particular child's life be different, but so will the lives of the people who may have been impacted by any future crime. 

 

The school systems around here do provide Wilson tutoring for kids.

 

I no longer use OG, but have switched to Reading Simplified. It has many of the same components, but eliminated others and replaced them with more efficient methods .  I find it extremely fast in remediation compared to OG. I've had multiple students---from kids with multiple LDs to ESL speakers to kids about to be held back for lack of reading proficiency be remediated to grade level within a year, some as short as 2 months. 

 

And that particular child's likely future children.  Children with illiterate parents have a very high rate of illiteracy.  Education really can stop the cycle of poverty.  

[ElizabethB]

And that particular child's likely future children. Children with illiterate parents have a very high rate of illiteracy. Education really can stop the cycle of poverty.

Yes, it can. My website has graphs showing the link between literacy and earnings, it is more highly correlated than IQ. I use these graphs to motivate my students whose parents want them in the class but are not themselves highly motivated yet (this type of student generally becomes self motivated motivated by Lesson 3 to 5 as they see how well they are doing.)

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/profitable.html

 

The poor methods hurt the poor, minorities, and those with generational illiteracy the most. Those that can afford tutoring can fix the poor methods, as can families with good literacy and a copy of a good phonics book. Many minorities suffer from extremely bad schools, generational illiteracy, or poor English knowledge even if they can read well in their native language.

 

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Phonics/litpercent.html

Edited March 17, 2018 by ElizabethB

[ElizabethB]

Whenever I do pro bono tutoring, I keep in mind that not only will that particular child's life be different, but so will the lives of the people who may have been impacted by any future crime.

 

The school systems around here do provide Wilson tutoring for kids.

 

I no longer use OG, but have switched to Reading Simplified. It has many of the same components, but eliminated others and replaced them with more efficient methods . I find it extremely fast in remediation compared to OG. I've had multiple students---from kids with multiple LDs to ESL speakers to kids about to be held back for lack of reading proficiency be remediated to grade level within a year, some as short as 2 months.

I have found the same, and have remediated students as fast or faster with similarly streamlined methods. Only a few students really need the full blown, slow pace of an OG system.

[Spy Car]

Thanks.  Looking back over the actual video, it's actually only 80 minutes, not 10 hours!  It's been a while since I worked on it.  Unlike my other phonics lessons, which are just watch and learn, I deliberately made slides where I say, "pause the video and go do X exercise," so it is 10 hours of teaching but only 80 minutes of instruction, they are made to be an interactive class guided by volunteers but with my instruction.

 

With Bill's tips, I'm now motivated to re-do the audio.  There are other minor audio problems that the blankets should fix.  The room has a vaulted ceiling, but the floors are carpeted.  The computer is in a built in cabinet in the living room that is like a tall built in armoire, so I can easily drape a few blankets across the cabinet doors and make myself a mini-recording booth.  The cabinet doors are wood.  Should I try to line the inside of them, too?  

 

I wasn't looking forward to spending time to record exactly what I recorded before, but I am more motivated now that I suspect the audio will be much better overall, and that it is only 80 minutes!!

 

I got a longer cord for my microphone so that it is away from the computer.  When looking up suggestions and images for making good voiceover, I saw a few setups with curved foam a bit behind the microphone, but I'm wondering if that is necessary for me.  I have a blue Yeti and I set it on cardiod mode, that produces the best audio with the least ambient noise.  We have a ton of junk lying around that I can make something like that with if necessary, my husband has all kinds of stuff in the garage and I have left over craft stuff from when the children were younger.

 

Anything you can do to cut reflectance (within reason) off hard surfaces will help. Especially, those that kick back directly towards the microphone and most especially glass.

 

Padding hard surfaces (think of creating dead air space) will make the recordings much better.

 

Even a little impromptu booth created from household items will improve the sound and it will feel cool to have a "booth."

 

80 minutes? Ten hours? What's 8:40 between friends? :D

 

Bill

[ElizabethB]

Anything you can do to cut reflectance (within reason) off hard surfaces will help. Especially, those that kick back directly towards the microphone and most especially glass.

 

Padding hard surfaces (think of creating dead air space) will make the recordings much better.

 

Even a little impromptu booth created from household items will improve the sound and it will feel cool to have a "booth."

 

80 minutes? Ten hours? What's 8:40 between friends? :D

 

Bill

 

Just a small estimation error...glad we're still friends!!  

 

I am going to have a crazy looking cabinet when I'm done, I'll have to do a short YouTube video or take some pictures so you can see it. 

 

My childrens' friends think I'm cool because of my microphone, they all have microphone envy.  If I have a sound booth, they might want to move in!

[ktgrok]

Whenever I do pro bono tutoring, I keep in mind that not only will that particular child's life be different, but so will the lives of the people who may have been impacted by any future crime. 

 

The school systems around here do provide Wilson tutoring for kids.

 

I no longer use OG, but have switched to Reading Simplified. It has many of the same components, but eliminated others and replaced them with more efficient methods .  I find it extremely fast in remediation compared to OG. I've had multiple students---from kids with multiple LDs to ESL speakers to kids about to be held back for lack of reading proficiency be remediated to grade level within a year, some as short as 2 months. 

 

Reading Simplified looks VERY similar to abecedarian, which we are having great success with!

[G5052]

Yes, I'm not surprised.

 

During my single days I went to a state penitentiary once a month with Prison Fellowship. We had to be very careful which songs we picked because many of them could not read but had memorized quite a few. So we always picked ones they knew or simple songs with a chorus that they could learn. Some wanted help getting their Bibles open to the right place for the lesson even though they struggled reading so they could try to follow along as best they could. The guy who taught was also very careful to stick primarily to one passage.

 

Oh, good days. I often wonder what happened to the guys that had been in there a long time for relatively minor crimes. Some of them had indeed learned to read in prison.

Edited March 18, 2018 by G5052