Illiteracy a hidden problem |
'I'd never read a book' |
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Project Literacy opens doors to a whole new world |
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 Andrea Chesworth graduated from KSS in 1998 with a low level of reading and writing skills. Last year she addressed the problem through Project Literacy Kelowna. |
Illiteracy
a hidden problem
Courtesy of The Okanagan Sunday
By Darren Handschuh
Kelowna—When Andrea Chesworth graduated from Kelowna Secondary School in 1998, she was not prepared to face the world.
“My reading and writing were poor,” said the 22-year-old. “I graduated, but I hid it from everyone.”
Chesworth said she could manage multiple-choice questions on exams, but offered only minimal answers on written tests.
Chesworth said the problems began when she moved to Kelowna, leaving a French immersion program and joining the English system in Grade 5.
“That’s when it was noticed. My Grade 5 teacher noticed, but no one else noticed,” she said, adding she was pushed through the remaining years of school.
Upon graduating, Chesworth soon realized just how much of a problem her reading challenges were. She saw a future of low-paying, dead-end jobs. Last year, she decided to do something about it.
She contacted the Project Literacy Kelowna Society and began a one-to-one tutoring program that changed her life.
She began reading lessons in April 2002 and moved on to college, where she graduated as a care aid.
“It was the hardest thing I ever did, going there, but once I walked through the door it was instant relief. My advice to anyone else is to talk to somebody and get some help.”
Chesworth
is not alone and the number of people with literacy challenges is surprising.
An international literacy survey in 2000 showed 22 per cent of Canadian
adults have difficulty reading and few basic skills or strategies for
decoding and working out text.
Another 26 per cent of Canadians have limited skills, do not read well and can deal only with material that is simple and clearly laid out.
Only 20 per cent of Canadians have strong literacy skills. Patti Boyle, executive director of the Project Literacy Kelowna Society, said those numbers are accurate for the Okanagan as well.
“The (survey) results pretty much reflect the national average,” she said. In fact, the statistics may be skewed by a person’s refusal to admit they have a problem, so the numbers could be higher.
“It’s a hidden learning problem. To come out and say you can’t read is difficult,” said Boyle.
The numbers may sound hard to believe, but they are a fairly accurate reflection of society, says Cheryl Farmer who conducted a Valley wide literacy study for the federal government in 2002.
Farmer said the international study included English as a second language students and the elderly, which may have affected the percentage of people with literacy problems.
“We know the older population tends to have more literacy problems than the younger generation,” said Farmer.
She said those at the lowest end of the literacy scale could not read a bus schedule or directions for medications.
“It
was a very practical type of reading. It’s pretty low-level English,”
she said.
Part of the challenge in addressing literacy problems is making people
believe there is a problem.
“The public just doesn’t believe the numbers are that high,” she said. “It’s hard, sometimes, to get people motivated about it.”
The mission of the society is to help adults reach their potential at work, home and in the community by building the literacy skills needed to advance in life.
The society
helps 200 people a year, but Boyle knows there are many more in the community
who
could use help.
 John Grover, 49, of Peachland learned how to read and write better to keep up his job as a millwright-mechanic at Gorman Brothers Lumber. Photo by Gary Nylander. |
Courtesy
of The Daily Courier
By Steve MacNaull
Friday, February 22, 2002
For the first time in his life, John Grover, 49, of Peachland is reading for pleasure and getting through entire books.
“I’m still not a great reader,” he admits. “But I sure am better than I was a couple of years ago when I had a Grade 4 reading ability. Now I probably have a grade 10 ability.”
Faced with increased report writing and reading of instructions and manuals at work, Grover decided four years ago to do something about his poor reading and writing.
“It’s something you have to decide to do for yourself,” he says. “For a long time, I’d wanted to improve myself and this way it helps both me and the company.”
Grover is a millwright-mechanic at Gorman Brothers Lumber. While his job is hands on and he’s a good mechanic, Grover found the job evolving to include more report writing on equipment performance and recommendations for machinery purchases and maintenance.
In addition, with new and more sophisticated machinery, Grover found himself faced with an increasing amount of complicated reading of maintenance instructions, manuals and reports.
“I guess I just decided I’d come to the end of talking my way out of situations,” says Grover.
“I decided to do something about it.” Grover had heard about Project Literacy in Kelowna and phoned. The project set up Grover with volunteer tutor Joan Pettman. They met once a week for one-and-a-half to two hours to work on reading, writing, spelling and comprehension.
“It
was a bit like going back to school, but it was totally customized for
me,” says Grover, who dropped out of school in Grade 10. “I
started improving right away.”
After two years, he completed his Project Literacy program—but his
learning didn’t stop.
“I
can keep up at work and you bet I read for pleasure all the time now,”
he says.
His favourite author is Francine Rivers, who writes Christian-themed historical
fiction. He reads woodworking magazines to support his hobby and he’s
even comfortable reading out loud at group Bible studies.
“The
group knows I have a reading problem and they’re really supportive,”
he says.
His wife also helps. She was encouraging as he worked on his Project Literacy
program. But her help really began 28 years ago when the couple was newly
married and Grover was working on his inter-provincial millwright ticket.
“I’d bring all the stuff home and my wife would read it to me,” he remembers. “I knew how to do the work and I understood it all when it was read out to me, but I just couldn’t read it on my own.”
The reading and writing problems caught up with him in the form of having to repeat the third year of his millwright course and barely passing the final written test—even though he knew the material.
Grover’s experience has resulted in him being proactive in encouraging his two sons to do their schoolwork and read as much as possible.
Grover found out both he and his sons have a type of dyslexia that makes learning to read and write difficult.
“We
just have to try harder and be taught a different way,” he says.
Grover doesn’t mind people knowing that he had literacy problems
and that he’s gone though a Project Literacy program.
“I
feel great that I did something about it,” he says. “And I
think anyone who has a reading disability should find out about getting
help. They have to make the first move.”
Project Literacy opens doors to a whole new world
 Betty Babiuk’s goal is to help adults improve their reading and writing skills in an effort to help them find employment. Photo by Kip Frasz |
Courtesy
of The Kelowna Daily Courier
By Shelley Nicholl
September 8, 2001
Kelowna--An Okanagan woman almost had to ditch her plans to get into the gardening business.
Her stumbling block wasn’t a shovel; it was a textbook.
To take a horticultural program through Okanagan University College, she needed to upgrade some high school classes. But, she couldn’t get past the first reading assignment in her English class. She understood what she was reading; she just couldn’t retain the information.
“I’d read something, and I’d forget it,” said Phyllis, who asked her real name not be used. “ I have to read things over 15 times to remember it.”
When she explained the problem to a counselor, she was re-routed to Project Literacy. Set up with a tutor, it made all the difference.
“When we read together, I can do it,” said Phyllis. “I’d never read a book in my life. At OUC, I read Of Mice and Men,” she said.
Her tutor, Betty Babiuk, a former elementary school teacher, said Phyllis can spell better than her, but needs a boost of confidence to get through things.
“She felt she needed help with a letter. She could do it; she just needed someone to support her. I said, “Hey, let’s do it together,” said Babiuk.
Phyllis will need to pour though many textbooks for the horticultural certificate. It will be a struggle but, with that ticket, she feels more confident heading for a job. Improving job skills is the most common reason clients end up at Project Literacy in Kelowna.
“It’s not as much reading,” explained operations manager Patti Boyle. “People need some skills that they missed in school. The job search has changed a lot. People aren’t staying in the same job for 20 years any more.”
One client needed help improving spelling and writing for a retail job. Not normally associated with English skills, a retail job requires doing inventory, filling out forms and written communication.
Another person just needed some quick help with math for a nursing exam. With the help of a tutor, the woman was able to score 80 percent on the entrance exam.
The job focus in the Okanagan is the same worldwide. Today marks International Literacy Day, first proclaimed in 1965. Kelowna’s non-profit Project Literacy began 15 years ago.
Over the last year, about 50 people in need were matched with volunteer tutors and Boyle expects a 40 per cent increase next year. Tutor training sessions are held three times a year.
Learners are matched one-on-one with a volunteer tutor and spend about two hours together, twice a week.
It’s a personal approach that works well for both sides. “I liked that it was an educational extension of what I had done all my life and it gives me a lot of things I need, like friendship,” said Babiuk, who moved to Kelowna two years ago and shares an interest in gardening.
From Phyllis’ view, “I feel more comfortable speaking to a person I know and get used to.”
The two have been working together since April and will work through Phyllis’ one-semester program that starts in January.
After
that, the work may stop, but the friendship won’t.