[Reading-hall-of-fame] Re: Five Shades of Gray

[vpurcell.gates at gmail.com]

Hi all; My appointment as a Canada Research Chair is couched as an 'Early Childhood Literacy' Chair. As some of you may know,though, I approach early literacy through community literacy, adult literacy, and literacy as taught in schools lens. I have found over the years that this is hard for people to understand, especially policy people. 
Probably, this connection needs to be examined more closely through empirical research but it would take a sophisticated research design and lots of money. I'm about to retire (Yaaay!) so I feel ok about putting this out there for someone else to take up!
Best, Vicki
Sent from my iPhone

On Nov 27, 2012, at 10:01 AM, Yetta Goodman <ygoodman at u.arizona.edu> wrote:

> Tom has been saying for a long time that adult literacy programs and early
> childhood literacy programs should be integrated.
> Certainly as a field, we should be involved in acknowledging how related
> the two fields are.
> There is general agreement that literacy history of parents and involvement
> of parents in reading and writing with their children is important to
> literacy development
> in young children.   Is there a way to make such an important issue more
> relevant in the learning to read communities.
> Yetta
> 
> On Mon, Nov 26, 2012 at 3:05 PM, <tsticht at znet.com> wrote:
> 
>> Thanks to all who sent me info re William S. Gray. I ended up not calling
>> him the father or godfather of Dick and Jane in the following note that I
>> posted on a couple of adult literacy discussion lists. Thanks again for
>> your input!
>> 
>> Tom Sticht
>> 
>> 
>> 11/26/12
>> 
>> 
>> Five Shades of Gray in Adult Literacy Education
>> 
>> 
>> Tom Sticht
>> International Consultant in Adult Education
>> 
>> 
>> Speaking at numerous workshops around the United States I have asked
>> participants if they knew who William S. Gray was. Close to 100 percent of
>> the time the answer has been “no”. But when I show them pictures, almost
>> all the participants recognize the fictional children which, as an editor
>> and author at Scott Foresman publishers, Gray helped turn into the American
>> cultural icons: Dick and Jane!
>> 
>> 
>> But Gray did not confine his work to children. His work came in different
>> shades of interest in adult literacy and he produced some of the
>> foundational work on adult literacy education during the first 60 years of
>> the 20th century. Here are five shades of Gray that adult literacy
>> educators should know about.
>> 
>> 
>> Shade#1:Gray-The Educator of Adult Literacy Educators
>> 
>> 
>> In 1929, President Herbert Hoover was persuaded to form a National Advisory
>> Committee on Illiteracy. In 1930 the Committee commissioned Gray to produce
>> a Manual for Teachers of Adult Illiterates (Gray, 1930;Whipple, Guyton, &
>> Morris, 1931).
>> 
>> 
>> In some 185 pages, the manual offers recommendations for the qualifications
>> and preparation of teachers and extensive, multiple chapters present
>> information on how to organize programs, how to teach adults to read,
>> write, and compute, and how to assess learning progression. (source:
>> Whipple, Caroline A., Guyton, Mary L., Morris, Elizabeth C. (1931). Manual
>> for Teachers of Adult Elementary Students. United States Office of
>> Education, Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C.
>> 
>> 
>> Shade#2:Gray-The Adult Literacy Education Researcher
>> 
>> 
>> In 1932 Gray served as first author of what appears to me to be the first
>> rigorous study of adult literacy education in the U. S. The research
>> examined the results of four week, residential summer courses on literacy
>> and other subjects, in separate schools for Whites and Blacks.
>> 
>> 
>> The researchers concluded that: Quote: "In summary, the facts which have
>> been presented in the study show clearly that agencies of adult education
>> may render invaluable service to adults of limited education. Because of
>> the very nature of the training provided, an opportunity school of the type
>> described in this report has unique possibilities of service. Such schools
>> should be far more widely established. They should supplement the public
>> school and be supported by public funds.” End quote (source: Gray, William
>> S., Gray, Wil Lou, & Tilton, J. Warren. (1932). The opportunity schools of
>> South Carolina: An experimental study. New York: American Association for
>> Adult Education.)
>> 
>> 
>> Shade#3:Gray-The Adult Literacy and Readability Assessor
>> 
>> 
>> To find out which aspects of written materials caused problems in
>> comprehension for adults of limited reading ability, in 1935 Gray teamed
>> with Bernice Leary, and conducted an early survey of the reading skills of
>> some 1700 adults around the nation. They developed a reading test
>> consisting of the comprehension of paragraphs of increasing difficulty and
>> administered this test and the Monroe Standardized Reading Tests and
>> determined that the average adult scored just below the 8th grade level.
>> 
>> 
>> To determine features of paragraphs causing adults problems in
>> comprehending
>> the materials Gray and Leary counted numerous features of writing such as
>> average sentence length in syllables, number of “easy” words, etc. and
>> correlated them with paragraph comprehension scores. By combining five such
>> features into a formula, they found a correlation of +.645 with
>> comprehension scores. This work by Gray and Leary helped to stimulate
>> numerous other researchers to develop a wide variety of readability
>> formulas. (source: Gray, William S. & Bernice E Leary. 1935. What Makes a
>> Book Readable. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.)
>> 
>> 
>> Shade#4:Gray-The International Literacy Expert
>> 
>> 
>> In 1956, UNESCO published a four year study of literacy by Gray in a report
>> entitled The Teaching of Reading and Writing: An International Survey (the
>> information here is taken from the online second edition published in
>> 1969). In his chapter on Teaching Adults to Read he expresses what many
>> adult literacy educators have found regarding the reluctance of many adults
>> to participate in adult literacy programs and their changed attitudes about
>> themselves once they discover that they can learn. He states:
>> 
>> Quote ”…many illiterates look upon ability to read as a superior
>> achievement
>> and lack confidence in their own ability to acquire the art. They either do
>> not join literacy classes or are so timid that they make little progress
>> after they enroll. The fact has been demonstrated repeatedly that once
>> confidence has been established many of these adults make very satisfactory
>> progress.” end quote (p.154).
>> 
>> 
>> Shade#5:Gray-The Reading Profession Organizational Man
>> 
>> 
>> In 1956 the International Council for the Improvement of Reading
>> Instruction
>> and the National Association of Remedial Teachers were merged to form the
>> International Reading Association and Gray was elected the first President
>> of the IRA. In this capacity he argued for attention to the improvement of
>> reading not just in the primary and middle grades, but in high school,
>> college and throughout adulthood. He brought attention to the need for
>> improving reading in the content areas of English, mathematics, history,
>> science, etc. and for remedial education at the college level.
>> 
>> 
>> For over half a century, the IRA has built on Gray’s early work on adult
>> illiteracy. My personal experience with this work came during 1975-76 when
>> I had the opportunity to serve as Chairperson of the IRA Committee on Basic
>> Education and Reading and again from 1979-2003 when I served yearly as the
>> IRA representative on UNESCO’s International Literacy Prize Jury. Today,
>> the IRA continues to sponsor initiatives on adult literacy instruction in
>> the United States and around the world building on the five shades of Gray!
>> 
>> 
>> tsticht at aznet.net
>> 
>> 
>> 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Yetta Goodman, Regents Professor Emerita
> 7914 S Galilleo Lane, Tucson Arizona 85747
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