Literacy in the United States
Presenter: Maryann Cucchiara
Session Summary
A participant in the 1997 SLTP, Maryann Cucchiara returned to Philadelphia to welcome the 1998 participants. With her presentation on a literacy program developed for New York City high school students called Project Freire, she offered the participants an insight into literacy issues in the United States.
There are not enough educational programs to address the literacy needs of people of all ages in the United States. Schools are expected to teach literacy skills to young children. Among adults, low levels of literacy are being addressed by numerous non-formal programs, such as the courses at the City University of New York (CUNY), which provide an opportunity for some of the 2.7 million immigrant adults in the city to acquire remedial skills for free. But adolescents of high school age, who have not acquired adequate skills in English literacy early on, are slipping through the cracks. These teenagers are, as Professor Richard Vacca of Kent State University describes it, victims of "benign neglect."
Project Freire is designed to build the literacy skills of high school students who fall into the lowest quartile of literacy assessments in the Brooklyn Borough of New York City. The program addresses the needs of adolescents who have not acquired standard high school literacy skills. Approximately half of the students in the program are immigrants who entered the American school system after the standard entrance age, many from the English-speaking Caribbean. For these "over-age" learners, opportunities for learning and appropriate materials are scarce.
To address this, the program takes a two-pronged approach by providing direct instruction for the students, and also professional development opportunities for the teaching staff. Staff are instructed in pedagogic methods based on the use of generative words, language experiences, alphabetic phonics, and content-based learning. Interns who work with the project, some of whom are experienced teachers, are trained in the area of adolescent literacy. They offer considerable support to the teaching staff, and gain valuable teaching experience with this age group themselves. The students involved in the project thus far have responded well to the age-appropriate teaching materials and the teaching methods, as was evident in a video Cucchiara showed the group. Project Freire helps students develop critical literacy competencies which will enable them to perform in school, and society, independently and appropriately for their age.
INTERNATIONAL LITERACY
INSTITUTE