Flaw in a Literacy Program

2/16/2010
by: Erin Pembroke

Literacy programs are excellent tools to help people how to read and giving back to the
community can be full-filling. Literacy programs teach people how to read and write and some even go
beyond that and teach people history, math and global events. However, just like everything else,
literacy programs can and may have flaws that can be solved. I am currently at once such program
where I have been trying to implement a solution to remedify the situation.

I have been a volunteer teacher for several months at a literacy program at one of the Brooklyn
library branches and although the program strives to teach its adult students, the program fails to
acknowledge that there is a phonics problem among them. This is the one main and essential topic I
have tried continously to bring up among the director of the program. Apparently, my strong and
passionate concern it not important enough to be fully implemented. I am at a constant battle between
what the literacy program asks for and requires of its tutors and the reality of the situation that my
students are in.

When I have tried to follow what the literacy program askes of me (which is for me to teach the
adult students to read, write, do mathematics, and learn current events etc.), the phonics problem comes
up again! How am I going to teach adults how to read basic words when they cannot even begin to
sound the word out, pronounce it correctly to write and read it correctly? My students cannot break up
the syllables in the word and cannot sound the word out.

They do not know the blending of the letters to make the blending of the sound. For instance,
one of my students could not sound out the word “strike” and kept saying it was “speak” or “spoke.” I
asked her, “Do you see any “sp” in the word? You keep saying “sp” sound when the sound is a “st” as
in street.” The blending of the “str” sound made it more complicated for my student to sound out the
word “strike.” I had to continously, in a visual manner, break the word up for her in order for the
student to get it.

When my director asked me “How did everything go tonight?” I responded, “It is the same
problem as before. The student does not know her phonics so she has problems with the words “strike,”
“against,” “agree,” and “politics.” The director responded and said “Next time, read to her. Yep, just
read to her.” I could not believe what the director told me to do. Logically speaking, if a person cannot
see the word, break up the word, know phonics and have been hearing words all their life, how is the
person going to make the mental connection/association between what the word looks like, sounds like
and is pronounced?

Just because a person has heard of a word such as the word “because” does not mean they will
be able to recognize the word. They might spell it as “becouse,” “becos,” “becose”, “becoz” and
“becoze.” Or they may spell the word in different variations. Their mental spelling of the word does not
match up to the actual physical spelling of the word. Hence, they might not even recognize the word
unless they can sound it out, try to notice the difference and most importantly, be exposed to the word
with the proper education. Trust me, I have seen this happen about a month ago in a male adult student
about 40-50 years old. I had to continously in a visual manner break the word up for her in order for the
student to get it.

When I spoke to the director about a solution to the problem I cam up with to remedify the
situation, she refused to accept my solution without telling me why she rejected the idea. My solution is
simple and viable. Although we do not have enough teachers, it can work. The solution is to form a
(what I term) “phonics class.” This is a class that consists of one teacher/tutor and about five to eight
students that do nothing but learn phonics. Once, the students have learned and mastered phonics then
they can join other students that learn the subjects that we are required to teach. Therefore, the tutor
does not have to waste valuable and limited class time trying to teach phonics when they should be
learning subjects.

Now, to solve the next question which is where does the literacy program have the space for
this? The easy solution to this question is to do this: since I have plenty of space in my class, I can take
on another tutor/teacher's students and my two students along with a few more can be exchanged into
the other tutor's class. Therefore, the balance of space is preserved with the fluctuation of students
exchanging from one group into another. That is if another tutor/teacher has the patience for teaching a
“phonics class” because I do not. I prefer to teach subjects and not phonics. I fervently see what is
realistic and necessary for my students and not what I desire to teach them.

The closest thing we have to a phonics system is one internet website that the literacy program
uses where the students can put head-phones on their ears and listen to a story as they read and copy
what is being said. However, they are not being exposed to the program and phonics enough. The area
is a low-income area, therefore, most adults in that area either do not own a computer because they
cannot afford one or they do not know how to use one. They are only being exposed to phonics for 30
minutes at the beginning of each session which is only twice a week. By the time the weekend comes,
they probably have forgotten what they have learned from the website since they do not have access to
it at home.

To conclude, literacy programs may have several flaws that they do not realize that they have or
cannot do anything about however, there is a soluntion to the one I currently volunteer at and would
like to use it instead of ignoring the problem. The soluntion is to establish a “phonics class” where
students can learn phonics before entering a subject class so it does not slow down the teacher and the
class that they are in or get put in. Act now and help spread the word to as many literacy programs as
you can think of and if you have the patience, try volunteering for one so that you can be apart of the
change to establish a “phonics class.”