Case Study | Steve | Beginner

Background

Steve is 20 years old and lives with his mother and sister in Preston. He was born in Clunes in central Victoria. His father left the family when Steve was 14 and his mother moved the children to Melbourne. He never liked school and had difficulty with reading and writing. Moving to a new city high school in Year 9 was very hard and he had trouble adjusting socially and applying himself to his learning. He left school early in year 11. Since then, he started a pre-apprenticeship in motor mechanics at TAFE but never completed the course, finding the study demands beyond him. He has had intermittent factory and storehouse work but nothing satisfying or steady. He saw an ad for the Reading and Writing Hotline and was referred to a community centre to get literacy support.

Literacy Ability

Steve knows the names and sounds of the alphabet and can recognise a few words in a simple text. He can write his personal identification details on forms and very simple sentences. He has, however, recognised that his low literacy skills are holding him back. He has trouble with everyday functional literacy tasks: reading signs and labels, newspapers and phone messages. His handwriting is poorly formed and he has trouble with spelling. Steve has some digital literacy skills including slow typing but only uses his smart phone for reading basic messages and calls.

Interests

Cars, learning to drive, socialising with friends and sports such as AFL, cricket and soccer

Immediate Literacy Needs

Form filling and other functional literacy tasks, reading public transport times and routes, preparing for Learners’ Permit test, reading car sales ads, using more functions on his phone.

Lesson 1

Introduction

Spend time talking to Steve and getting to know each other. Discuss his interests and his goals for these literacy sessions.

Language experience story

Write down a few key parts of Steve’s story in his own words. Select one focus sentence eg; I watch the AFL most weekends with my mates. Read in turn, cut out words, reorder them, remove key words and replace.

Reading

Using a laptop or iPad, find a short news article online about one sport/team/athlete of interest. Ensure that both of you can share the screen. Get Steve to predict content from photo and headline. Then read it to him slowly and indicate each word. Ask Steve to attempt to read one section with support. Pause, prompt and praise as he reads.

Spelling

Have a personal dictionary note book ready. Add a few words from the news story. Focus on initial letters and one or two common letter patterns, eg ion.

Handwriting

Prepare a 4 line writing grid to encourage standard letter formation. Get Steve to copy focus sentence from his own story. Consider posture, pen grip and approach to the task. Give feedback on clarity, letter shapes, upper and lower case letters.

Letter & Sound Relationships

Focus on one sound from words in his story, eg f. Write a list of words used this session that have that target sound: footy, Friday, phone, rough, coffee. Get Steve to highlight the f sound in each word. Identify the range of ways we can spell one sound. Then read each word aloud.

Conclusion of Lesson

Write a short SMS to Steve giving day and time of your next meeting. Get him to read the message and reply. Read over the focus sentence and the target sound words.

Lesson 2

Introduction and review.

Chat about Steve’s week activities and his goals for this session. Discuss any responses to last week. Get him to read focus sentence and target sound words. Revise letter/sound f and possible spellings.

Language experience story

Write down a few key parts of Steve’s past week in his own words. Select one focus sentence eg; On Saturday, I looked at cars for sale in a car yard in Preston. Read in turn, cut out words, reorder them, remove key words and replace.

Reading

Using a laptop or Ipad, find a used car ad on Carsales.com. Ensure that both of you can share the screen. Get Steve to predict content from photo and heading. Then read it to him slowly and indicate each word. Explain standard abbreviations. Ask Steve to attempt to read the ad with support. Pause, prompt and praise as he reads.

Spelling

Have a personal dictionary note book ready. Add a few words from the car ad. Focus on initial letters and one or two common letter patterns, eg ay.

Handwriting

Prepare a 4 line writing grid to encourage standard letter formation. Get Steve to copy focus sentence from his own story. Consider posture, pen grip and approach to the task.

Give feedback on clarity, letter shapes, upper and lower case letters.

Letter/ sound relationships

Focus on one sound from words in the car ad, eg c. Write a list of words used this session that have that target sound: car, black, mechanical, access. Get Steve to highlight the c sound in each word. Identify the range of ways we can spell one sound. Then read each word aloud.

Conclusion of lesson

Read over the focus sentence and the target sound words. Ask him to revise and learn new words in his personal dictionary at home.

Hints for the beginner literacy learner

• No one is a complete beginner. All learners will have some familiar words from print in the environment such as signs.
• At this level learner created texts are the focus of reading through the language experience approach- writing down of a     couple of sentences from students own life and experience. Write down exactly what your learner says then get them to     read it back.
• Select authentic texts based on your students immediate literacy needs and interests.
• When accessing reading texts ask your learner to predict what the text might be about from picture clues and context.
• For phonics focus on words and identify initial sounds taken from their own writing.

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