Living Literacy: Rethinking Development in Adulthood

1. Living Literacy: Rethinking Development in Adulthood Susan L. Lytle

2. Some considerations of Adult Literacywww.proliteracy.org Lower literacy rates contribute to increased poverty rates Increased risk of pregnancy rates and decreased future earnings

3. Portraying Adults: Stigmatized as “incomplete adults” (376) Negative stereotypes in public media (homelessness, addiction, poverty) do not match reality (379) Reality: Often “…consistently productive workers, family members and…community leaders” (379)

4. Issues and assumptions in Adult Literacy How society often views the functionally illiterate: Reality:

5. Issues related to Adult Literacy Literacy as skills/tasks: Belief that adult learners are “…failed readers with specific deficits…” (381) Skills that are learned independently of a social context (381) Literacy as Practices: Focuses on the practices of the learner and their value system (381,382)

6. Dimensions of Literacy Development in Adulthood • Beliefs: • Adults’ knowledge about language, literacy, teaching, and learning (386) • Practices: • Adults’ range and variation of literacy-related activities in every day life (386) • Processes: • Adult learners’ repertoires of managing reading/writing tasks (386) • Plans: • Adults long term/short term goals for their learning plan(s) (386)

7. Beliefs “Adult learners bring to literacy programs beliefs…that inform and sometimes constrain their own development” (387) These beliefs come from the adult learner’s life experiences and are key to making effecting changes in learning practices, processes, goals, and plans (387)

8. Practices The adult learner should be considered the “…primary unit of observation and analysis” (390) Adult learners are often new to university life and/or come from culturally different backgrounds (391) “School-like” literacy activities in family life may initiate a shift in roles (e.g., becoming more involved in their own children’s education) (392)

9. Processes The step by step process of literacy transactions (392, 393) Think-aloud protocols may be useful in glimpsing the student’s thought process and aid the teacher in offering strategies for new or different learning (393) Documentation of processes benefits student and teacher alike, providing material for discussion and review in order to promote growth (394)

10. Plans What adult learners specifically want to learn from the course and what their plans to achieve that goal are (394) Providing a range of opportunities to the adult learner often broadens the adult learner’s goals (395) Adult learners’ tend towards increasing independence in learning, as competence and confidence improves (395, 396)

11. Summary Educators will need to develop adult literacy programs that take into consideration the areas of “…culture, styles of learning, gender, race, and community…” in order to better understand and partner with the adult learner (401) Adult literacy programs will need to be re-evaluated and current assumptions revised in order to reach the adult learner, who has “…become increasingly marginalized and alienated from the educational systems of mainstream culture…” (400,401)

12. How can I help? Get Involved! ProLiteracy Education Network: Authentic Literacy Instruction If you or someone you love is struggling with literacy issues, the below link can help: LINCS Literacy Information and Communication System

13. Works Cited Lytle, Susan. "Living Literacy: Rethinking Development in Adulthood." Cushman, Ellen, et al. Literacy: A Critical Sourcebook. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001. 376-401. Print. ProLiteracy. www.proliteracy.org. 2014. webpage. 21 June 2014. <http://www.proliteracy.org/the-crisis/adult-literacy-facts>.