Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Reads Event: Literacy Learners Share Their Stories

Tue, 05/22/2007 - 12:32pm

When: February 15, 2011 at the Downtown Library: Multi-Purpose Room

The 2011 Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Reads 2011 book Life Is So Good is the story of George Dawson, a man who learned to read at age 98. Dawson's story of becoming literate at a late age is truly inspirational. What are the learning stories of local residents - and what are their successes? Be inspired as a panel of local literacy learners share their experiences. Discover how you can engage in learning that makes life worth living as a learner or volunteer. This event is co-sponsored by the Literacy Coalition of Washtenaw County.

Transcript

• [00:00:00.00] [MUSIC PLAYING]
• [00:00:23.74] SPEAKER 1: The 2011 Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti Reads book, Life is So Good, is the story of George Dawson, a man who learned to read at age 98. His story of becoming literate at a late age is truly inspirational. Sue wanted to know what the local experience has been of Washtinaw county's learners, so this Ann Arbor Ypsilanti Reads event is Literacy Learners Share Their Stories. It's co-sponsored by the Literacy Coalition of Washtinaw County, and to get us started I'd like to introduce Vanessa Mayesky from the Literacy Coalition.
• [00:01:02.23] VANESSA MAYESKY: Thanks. Welcome everyone, I'm so glad you could come out tonight. I'm really excited to hear from our learners, our students, our volunteers tonight. Before we get to our panel, though, I'd like to just introduce the Literacy Coalition of Washtinaw County. What we are is we're an organization that represents about 30 different groups that are working on literacy in our community across the lifespan. And so we're here, we're going to hear from folks from three different of our member organizations, from Family Learning Institute, from Young People's Project and from Washtinaw Literacy. And I will give one pitch, and that's that all three of these organizations, and many of our organizations really rely on volunteers to keep their programs running. And so I've set out some bookmarks out back. If you'd like to get volunteer information, you can visit the Literacy Coalition website. It's LCWConline.org and there you can get connected to volunteer opportunities with youth, with adults, and also with the behind-the-scenes work that keeps all the programs running.
• [00:02:13.85] So you're not here to hear me, though. And so I'd like to ask our panelists to introduce yourself, and if you could say which program you're with. Thanks. Let's start with Natalie because you're on my left.
• [00:02:26.16] NATALIE ERB: All right. my name's Natalie Erb, and I am a college math literacy worker with the Young People's Project.
• [00:02:33.72] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Hello, my name is Abdibassid, I go to Family Learning Institute.
• [00:02:40.21] ENID SUTHERLAND: My name Enid Sutherland and I'm a coach with the Family Learning Institute. In fact I'm this guy's coach.
• [00:02:48.86] TARIQ: My name is Tariq, I'm in Washtinaw Literacy for English learning. I move to the country also, so I'm glad to meet you all.
• [00:03:01.87] OSHAY: Hi, my name is Oshay, some people call me Norman, I'm with Washtinaw Literacy.
• [00:03:08.45] VANESSA MAYESKY: Great, thanks. And I was wondering if-- to get us started, I'm not sure if everyone here is familiar with all the different programs-- you could talk a little bit more about what it is that either you're tutoring or you're learning in that program. Talk a little bit more about it. This time let's start with Oshay.
• [00:03:27.86] OSHAY: OK, thank you. Well I came to Washtinaw back in the mid 80s. I was driving my car and this radio station came on and says it's never too late to learn. And I believed it. I never believed it before, but that day meant something different. And I gave Washtinaw Literacy a call, and it really started to change my life at that point. They were my tutor back in the 80s, Nadine. And so I've been with Washtinaw Literacy for a while. I think I met with Nadine for about three years. But then I went to work for a literacy program in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, called the Read Campaign. So I have actually been actively involved in literacy for a while. In Florida I had a chance to do a little tutoring too, so I got to see both sides of it. So Washtinaw literacy actually opened up many doors for me.
• [00:04:32.36] VANESSA MAYESKY: Could you talk more about what you do at Washtinaw Literacy, what their tutoring program is like?
• [00:04:36.91] OSHAY: Yeah, well I'm in college right now so I went back to Washtinaw Literacy to get a tutor to help me with some of my school work. So of course I go in, you have to do the evaluation, I did that. And a couple of weeks later they called and I got a tutor. This time was a little different than what it was when I first came here, because it's really about my school work now. Just trying to compete with the kids. And my tutor is-- so we really focus in on my writing skills and how to use the periods and question marks when you're supposed to. Because all that stuff, I never learned that in high school, so I'm trying to pick it up now in my 40s. So that's been a road.
• [00:05:21.74] VANESSA MAYESKY: Tariq?
• [00:05:25.01] TARIQ: Actually I moved recently to the country. I'm from Jordan, I work with an international company, it's a French company. We do IT projects overseas for different kinds of sectors. Actually I'm one of the lucky persons, I get a lottery to move to the United States, I get a green card by lottery. So I moved recently here, I'm looking for a job, so I joined that classes that I'm working in order to improve my English language. Because my English is not very good. We don't choose to use English in our country, so when I moved here I try to improve my skills, so I joined the classes. This has been very wonderful classes. I met a lot of people, very kindness people. I help them. I joined the TOEFL classes. I'm learning now to apply-- I actually go to Eastern University I applied for to join to get my master's degree in business. So I go to the University, they ask me to do the TOEFL exam in order to join the class because my high school and my varsity, my grades is becoming fine. So I try to improve or to learn more in order to catch-- to improve myself in order to enter university to do my master's degree. So that's what I'm doing now.
• [00:07:14.19] VANESSA MAYESKY: Thank you.
• [00:07:18.59] ENID SUTHERLAND: Well I am a musician by trade, and I have an adjunct position at the University of Michigan. But I have a little extra time, and for quite some time I've been thinking that I wanted to do some volunteer work, and what I really wanted to do is find some way to work in the literacy field. But I had no knowledge of any these programs that exist in Ann Arbor and so I didn't know where to turn. I went to visit a teacher who teachers in the public schools who's a neighbor of mine to see if she could help me figure out what I could do, and she immediately steered me to the Family Learning Institute. And I have since discovered what a wonderful organization it is, right?
• [00:08:05.29] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Yes.
• [00:08:05.83] ENID SUTHERLAND: Yes. And I've been there for-- this is my second year, and this is my second year working with this guy, who's my partner. And I am very proud of him, he's worked very hard. The Family Learning Institute take students from the second grade, starting in the second grade through the fifth. And the idea is that the student's work one on one with a coach. It's frustrating because we only get to see the students for an hour a week, and we would love to see them longer and more. But we do the best we can, we get some good work done, don't we, in an hour?
• [00:08:49.02] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Yes.
• [00:08:50.51] ENID SUTHERLAND: Right. And the Family Learning Institute also has a math program, and I'm not exactly sure how that works, I guess it's the same thing, right? I'm looking at Amy Ross here, who's the head of the whole thing, and she's just wonderful at what she does. And I'm extremely impressed with this organization. The people there who run it-- Amy and JoEllen Mollegaard -- they know what they're doing in this field. And they really help you, they help the coaches know how we need to function to help the students as best we can, and we have a good time.
• [00:09:34.43] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: We do.
• [00:09:35.15] ENID SUTHERLAND: Yes we do. So I think it's your turn.
• [00:09:43.23] VANESSA MAYESKY: So what do you do when you go to Family Learning Institute?
• [00:09:46.08] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Well I stay with my coach for an hour. And after that we go to the writing table and we write our prompt down, and after that we share it.
• [00:10:03.09] VANESSA MAYESKY: So you do a writing exercise around the prompt sentence, and then you share it with the other students there?
• [00:10:08.29] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Yes.
• [00:10:09.90] VANESSA MAYESKY: Then what happens?
• [00:10:11.86] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: After that we do a brain box.
• [00:10:16.75] VANESSA MAYESKY: A brain box? That sounds really cool.
• [00:10:19.50] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: It's a square, and then you write your main topic from the prompt. And then you write it down on that box and then you write who, what, where, why, and when, and sometimes how. And after that you show one, two, three, five lines of the Brain Box.
• [00:10:43.06] VANESSA MAYESKY: Right, and it the Brain Box the end of the day at Family Learning Institute, or do you do more?
• [00:10:48.20] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: We do sloppy copy.
• [00:10:49.85] VANESSA MAYESKY: What is sloppy copy?
• [00:10:52.51] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: It's when we write the brain box, we turn that into cop a sloppy copy.
• [00:11:00.16] VANESSA MAYESKY: Why's it called sloppy copy?
• [00:11:03.61] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: It's just a fun thing.
• [00:11:05.17] VANESSA MAYESKY: Just for fun.
• [00:11:06.09] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Yeah.
• [00:11:08.72] VANESSA MAYESKY: Great.
• [00:11:11.78] NATALIE ERB: All right. So I'm with the Young People's Project, and the Young People's Project is probably the outlier here. We are focused on math literacy, so our program functions around a curriculum of math games, and then we also like to incorporate a lot of different kinds of social justice activities. That might seem like an odd mix. I'll give you a little history, I guess. The Young People's Project grew out of Dr. Bob Moses' work in the 1960s in the civil rights movement. He worked as a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, and registered African American voters in the south. And then he grew up, went to Harvard, and had children. And he started the algebra project, which is a program in schools to help improve algebra skills. And his children actually, who are working with him, created the Young People's Project, which is kind of the after-school component of this Algebra Project.
• [00:12:15.78] So the Young People's Project grew to be an extension of these math and algebra skills, but also took on another component of community organizing and working for social justice in their communities, and other issues. So our curriculum is based on this module of math games. And we train college math literacy workers, so we have college students from U of M, EMU, and Washtinaw Community College who work in six high schools in Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti. And they train about ten math literacy workers, who are the high school students. And then those high school students facilitate these games to middle school students. So it's this long pipeline of peer to peer learning.
• [00:13:05.65] So it's a really wonderful program. I have worked at two different schools, at Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti and at Mount Huron High School. And in both programs we've gotten all the way down to the middle schools. So that's a little background.
• [00:13:20.38] VANESSA MAYESKY: What happens when you go into the high school? What do you do?
• [00:13:26.11] NATALIE ERB: So we-- the college math literacy workers learn the whole math module, so what we teach for the semester in about a week. And then we spend two days a week for two hours in the high school teaching that to the high school students. So a typical day, we'll maybe go in and do a little name game or ice breaker. Then we'll spend about an hour or so on the math material. So a lot of it is just playing these games that are designed to teach the concepts. So it's kind of like tricking them into learning math. And then we'll have a discussion on some kind of social justice topics. So sometimes we pull articles from the news, maybe-- I don't know of a good example. Maybe something about the Dream Act recently, and have a discussion about that and how that applies in their schools. Or we have a lot of different activities from the inter-group relations group on the University of Michigan campus, which does a lot of identity and social justice little games and stuff. So it's a good mix. And then we'll just do a wrap-up, debrief. So it's a good mix of the math and also other topics and leadership development as well.
• [00:14:47.40] VANESSA MAYESKY: I'm wondering, you all had different motivations for joining your different programs. I'm wondering what keeps you motivated? What keeps you going as you continue learning or as you continue teaching? And I'll start with whoever wants to go first.
• [00:15:07.78] ENID SUTHERLAND: It's fun. It's a delight to work with students like this guy right here. And you just want to get in there and help him get better and better and better at his reading. And I think he's got something to say.
• [00:15:24.46] VANESSA MAYESKY: Yes indeed.
• [00:15:26.11] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: It is fun working with my coach Enid. And we-- that's all I got.
• [00:15:33.08] ENID SUTHERLAND: We have fun together. Right?
• [00:15:35.14] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Yes we do.
• [00:15:38.87] OSHAY: Yes. I know one of the things that keep me motivated to keep moving forward is the fact that I can still remember very clearly getting things in the mail and not being able to read them. I always had to take it over to my sister's house, or some family member's, to read stuff for me. And I also remember when I was able to read my mail. And just the expression on my face when I was able to read it was priceless. And that really keeps me motivated, that this is possible. There was a time when I thought learning was not possible for me because my dyslexia. And now that I know it's possible, it keeps motivating me to keep wanting to improve and get better and better and better.
• [00:16:35.21] TARIQ: For me, it's a challenge, a challenge to get a job first, a challenge to continue my higher education if I can. And I try of course to improve, to apply for a TOEFL, so there are TOEFL classes there. To get a job I have to be improved to know more about culture, environment, the market as well. So it's a challenge for me.
• [00:17:04.43] NATALIE ERB: What keeps me involved? Well I think working with the high school students, and then the middle school students as well, just seeing them grow and seeing that YPP is a program that is unlike anything else that is offered in their schools. I mean, these schools have countless amazing programs. The YPP really offers something different that a lot of students really cling on to, and it really makes a big difference in their lives. So it's been wonderful getting to know them as a mentor and a friend and a teacher, and learning from them as well.
• [00:17:42.11] VANESSA MAYESKY: I know I have some more questions, but we had someone in the audience with a question. I think Katy's going to come around. Because we do have an audience that isn't even here, we have an online audience that will see it later.
• [00:17:56.36] SPEAKER 2: Thank you. I was just going to ask the gentleman who learned to read as an adult, I don't know anything about adults learning to read, but what's it like being an adult learning to read versus a child? Does it go faster, or is it harder? Or like what, you know, how is it?
• [00:18:15.85] OSHAY: It's really hard to answer that question, but for me it was real hard. I can tell you honestly in high school I didn't have the mindset to do what I had to do when I got older. The focus that I needed to put into my learning was at a very high level, because I wanted that bad. When I was in high school and junior high, they just-- that energy wasn't there for me. And so it's hard for me to say, because I didn't learn when I was young. But I would think it would be easier for a child then to catch it later. It was tough, it was a long road, and a lot of perseverance. If that answered your question.
• [00:19:05.44] VANESSA MAYESKY: Yeah, we've got another question. Did that answer your question? Great. We may as well incorporate questions now as you have them, and we can--
• [00:19:16.20] SPEAKER 3: Real quick, what was your occupation before you had trouble reading and with literacy?
• [00:19:22.30] OSHAY: Actually I was a supervisor at a computer company. I had 28 people working under me. And what actually motivated me to even call Washtinaw Literacy was my boss asked me to read something out loud in front of them. And you can imagine the fear. The paper was blurry, I couldn't see anything. And the phone rang and he had to leave. So I was saved by the bell. But that day I just wanted to change my situation. I didn't with want to be in that. I was living in fear my whole life. I was hiding my whole life. People taking reading for granted, because you just read. But living life without having that skill-- imagine going somewhere and you don't know what exit to get off, you get off the wrong exit, you're trying to find your way back and you can't read signs. I mean it could be daunting out there. But yeah, you could say I was successful before I was-- before I improved my reading.
• [00:20:31.30] VANESSA MAYESKY: We've got another question in the back here.
• [00:20:36.58] SPEAKER 4: Well I want to ask you a question. You said you were a supervisor, so that means that you were intelligent already. So how could you escape the fact that you had parents, you had siblings that can read. How did you escape that? They didn't teach-- your siblings didn't try to help you out? Because that's one problem about reading, it's like one person learned how to read, they should teach that other person before they go to school. But if you don't have the parents to give you that incentive, then there's something wrong, you fell through that gap. Because I hear a lot of people saying that reading-- I have experienced the fact that if somebody can read in your family, and if they are a little above you or somebody, I don't care who it is, they can teach you how to read, because they're on your level. But if anybody has a family and somebody is reading, that's neglect. I don't know how that happened, but that happens some--
• [00:21:51.80] VANESSA MAYESKY: Well let's hear from Oshay then, please, how that played out.
• [00:21:56.01] OSHAY: Well I came from a family where there was no books in my house. When I grew up, my mother, she couldn't read that well neither. And my father, I don't know if he could not because he was working all the time. So there was never, lets go to the library type of-- growing up, or let's read a book. It was always, here, watch TV. And I don't blame my mother because she grew up that way too. Her mother did the same thing. So it was a generational thing going on in my house where reading just wasn't that important. Nobody never talked about going to college when I was growing up. Just if you could graduate, that's good enough.
• [00:22:42.10] SPEAKER 4: You went to first grade?
• [00:22:43.62] OSHAY: Yes.
• [00:22:44.45] SPEAKER 4: Who was your teacher? I mean, the teacher didn't still that in you? you know, I mean--
• [00:22:52.46] OSHAY: Well I can tell you when I was young, or actually a little kid, they didn't know a lot about dyslexia. You have to understand that I was dealing with a learning disability. Which is different from somebody who's just not being able to-- like just reading a book to a child, they're picking it up and they're learning. I had something actually blocking me from grasping at a young age like that. Nah, you couldn't whoop this.
• [00:23:27.56] ENID SUTHERLAND: Can you guys hear me all right? Sorry. Well I just want to speak to that whole thing about upbringing a little bit. I raised a dyslexic son. And we read and everything, he wasn't actually identified as dyslexic until the second grade. And he went through the whole Ann Arbor system and was pronounced OK, and really never learned until he really taught himself to read. And he dropped out of Community High.
• [00:24:07.43] He's doing fine, he's 35 this year. He reads-- I mean it's a great joy to me to have us discuss books and so forth now. But I think part of it, there's no one set formula for-- I mean, I grew up with a lot of reading. I read almost every day of my life. My parents read out loud to each other, I read out loud to them, I read out loud to other adults. I am here tonight because I've always kind of wanted to teach somebody else to read, because it's meant so much me. And as far as the learning disabilities, we did everything that the Ann Arbor system told us to, and I have no-- I don't think any of us failed him. I just think everyone has a time in life when they come to different parts of their own development. And yes, it's important to offer the right environment. But for instance I just graduated at 58, the oldest of my class in nursing school. And I'm loving nursing. So there's no-- I don't think there's any particular pattern for how everyone should develop. And I'm not sure exactly where my son learned to read, but one day he was just devouring books.
• [00:25:26.53] So life is a big palette. And I think that it's important to keep an open mind about how people develop themselves. You're certainly a bright person, you're obviously bright person. The first time I realized that not everyone reads I was at Emory University in the late 60s. And my boyfriend who later became my husband of 27 years was working on the grounds crew for the summer. And he said well I have to go get so and so a Coke from the machine. And I said, well can't he go get that? You know, I wanted him to go spend time with me. And he said, well actually he can't read the Coke machine. He can't tell where to put-- I mean he knows where to put the money in, but he can't tell how to make the selections.
• [00:26:25.29] And that was 40 years ago. So the way the media is now, and you know, it's not one phone, black, on the wall around a desk anymore. Life is complicated. and I just think it's reall\y-- I was pretty shocked at what a difficulty that would be to not have the rudimentary ability to handle rudimentary instructions, how frustrating that would be.
• [00:26:55.01] VANESSA MAYESKY: Thanks so much for that story. It was great to hear. We have another question here.
• [00:27:06.51] SPEAKER 5: How is the literacy hard for you to learn?
• [00:27:13.75] VANESSA MAYESKY: Are you asking everyone that question, or one person in particular?
• [00:27:20.50] SPEAKER 5: One.
• [00:27:21.27] VANESSA MAYESKY: One? Which one? Oshay, who's been talking?
• [00:27:25.20] SPEAKER 5: Nevermind, I can hear myself. Can I talk about my brother this time?
• [00:27:30.34] VANESSA MAYESKY: Talk about your brother, go ahead. Your brother's a panelist, right?
• [00:27:35.44] SPEAKER 5: It's like my brother is so nice to me, he always offers things to me and I just appreciate it. And I just love how he breaks a leg when he's reading, and it's just really nice to learn that information.
• [00:27:53.81] VANESSA MAYESKY: Thanks for sharing that.
• [00:27:56.11] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: You be nice to your brother.
• [00:28:03.59] VANESSA MAYESKY: I'll get to your question in just one moment if you could hold them for a second. Because I'm wondering from some of the other panelists, some of your stories that you might want to share about either things that you've seen happen because of the tutoring, or that you've noticed in yourself change. We've heard a lot from Oshay, and I love your story Oshay. I'm just interested in hearing some of the other stories to share. Go right ahead.
• [00:28:32.32] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Well last year when I started the Family Learning Institute program, when I always went to the writing table I had messy writing. Then after that year, I improved last year, and my mom signed me up this year and I got much better.
• [00:28:56.24] VANESSA MAYESKY: That's great. And as his reading coach, what sort of changes have you seen?
• [00:29:02.96] ENID SUTHERLAND: Well oh yes. Abdi wants me to tell you how we've been working on his reading with expression, and man is he good at it. Yeah. Because I realize that if you don't stop at the periods, right, and if you don't make the quotations sound like someone's talking, you're not really understanding what you're reading. So we've been doing a lot of work on that and he's gotten quite good at it. He's sometimes very dramatic, actually, as you might be able to imagine he could be.
• [00:29:39.21] VANESSA MAYESKY: I would never guess that.
• [00:29:40.10] ENID SUTHERLAND: Yeah, you probably wouldn't have guessed that. Another thing that happened this year which was a little bit by accident I suppose, I discovered what Abdi really likes to read, especially likes to read, and that is biography. Do you remember what biography is? You've probably forgotten. It's reading about the people, right?
• [00:30:06.55] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Yeah. Nonfiction.
• [00:30:07.39] ENID SUTHERLAND: And so I think we spent-- well it's nonfiction, yes, but it's reading specifically about individual people. And who are some of the people we've read about this year?
• [00:30:17.74] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Houdini, Harriet Tubman,
• [00:30:22.27] ENID SUTHERLAND: Harriet Tubman, yes. Who's the president of the United States?
• [00:30:26.35] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Obama. We read about Martin Luther King, Junior, and the last book we read was--
• [00:30:38.24] ENID SUTHERLAND: The last one we read was about Harriet Tubman. Oh but you read another one to me about Michael Jordan when he was a boy.
• [00:30:49.83] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Oh yeah, Michael Jordan.
• [00:30:50.52] ENID SUTHERLAND: Can you tell them about that story? It was-- I had never heard this before, it was very interesting. What did his mother do?
• [00:30:57.69] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: When Michael Jordan laid down when he was asleep, his mother taught him to do his prayers before he goes to sleep. After that when we went to sleep, his mother got a piece of salt and she put it on his shoes. And then the next morning he said, mommy I'm growing, I'm growing, I'm growing.
• [00:31:19.15] ENID SUTHERLAND: Because he wasn't very tall, evidently, when he was a young kid, right? This basketball boy kept teasing him because he was really short. And so then his mother told him--
• [00:31:39.35] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: If you put salt in your shoes, it'll make you grow, maybe. And after as those years, he started putting salt on his hands and salt in his shoes.
• [00:31:53.57] ENID SUTHERLAND: And he did grow.
• [00:31:55.63] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: He's about six something something.
• [00:31:59.80] ENID SUTHERLAND: He really did grow.
• [00:32:01.09] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: No, seven something.
• [00:32:02.25] ENID SUTHERLAND: Anyway, we've had a wonderful time. The whole first part of this year we've been reading biography. We've been reading about people. And Abdi just walks in the room, he doesn't even take his coat off, he just starts. He picks one of the books that I bring from the public library,
• [00:32:17.45] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: And then I take off my coat.
• [00:32:18.36] ENID SUTHERLAND: There's a wonderful collection of biography here, and then finally he takes off his coat. He usually just starts right in and reads, and reads and reads and reads. And that's what we're there for.
• [00:32:32.15] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: I enjoy to read.
• [00:32:33.77] ENID SUTHERLAND: Yeah. So my point is just-- it's kind of obvious. But it took me a while to realize that it helps a person to learn to read if they're reading something that interests them. I mean I personally don't do very well at reading if I'm reading something that I'm not particularly interested in, so why wouldn't that be true of the students as well? So anyway, we've had a good time doing that. And he's made great progress.
• [00:33:00.77] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Really great progress.
• [00:33:02.07] ENID SUTHERLAND: Yes, really great progress.
• [00:33:06.92] VANESSA MAYESKY: Yeah, OK, sure. Oh, one moment, sorry, we've got to let the Internet audience in on your question.
• [00:33:18.24] SPEAKER 6: Are you bilingual? Can you speak another language? And does that help you learn English?
• [00:33:27.50] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Yes, I do speak another language.
• [00:33:30.53] SPEAKER 6: What is it?
• [00:33:32.52] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Somalian.
• [00:33:36.61] VANESSA MAYESKY: Do you think that helps you in your work at Family Learning Institute or in your reading in English?
• [00:33:45.10] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Mm-hmm.
• [00:33:47.32] ENID SUTHERLAND: Do you speak a lot of Somalian at home?
• [00:33:50.50] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: No.
• [00:33:51.25] ENID SUTHERLAND: I didn't think so.
• [00:33:52.33] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: I speak English and Somalian at home.
• [00:33:56.06] ENID SUTHERLAND: Yeah. Abdi's parents are from Somalia, right? But Abdi was born in Windsor, correct? Yes. And I believe that basically your children speak English at home, right?
• [00:34:11.50] VANESSA MAYESKY: One moment, thanks.
• [00:34:13.76] SPEAKER 7: He speak English, but he understand my language 100%. But he doesn't want to speak back my language. Whenever I ask something in my language, he answers back in English.
• [00:34:28.42] ENID SUTHERLAND: In English. But he understands you?
• [00:34:30.48] SPEAKER 7: Yes, very well. Sometimes he says some sentences in my language, because I try to ignore when sometimes he asks me something in English because I want my children to learn how to speak my language. And then he suddenly says something in my language, and I say, that's good, that's what I need to hear from you.
• [00:34:56.67] VANESSA MAYESKY: I know we have a couple of questions. I want to hear from a couple more of our panelists before we get to you. Can you tell us about the English group, how that's going? If you're noticing learning anything, or maybe you're too new to the group? I'm not sure how long you've been involved.
• [00:35:14.32] ENID SUTHERLAND: Are you talking to me or to Tariq?
• [00:35:16.16] VANESSA MAYESKY: I'm sorry, I'm speaking talking to one over.
• [00:35:25.04] TARIQ: I do fine with them, my English group. I actually I came to United States since five months ago, so I'm still new in the country also. I come with a broken language-- English language, sorry, I can't speak English. So I suffering I go to the shopping from the grocery. I don't know the name of the things actually. I know a little bit of saying how to-- I know that is a water, but I don't know the names of the fruits, of the vegetables, some kind of-- a lot of things at the grocery. So I don't know how to-- when I went to put a few in my carriage, I suffering to hear the prices. How things going -- when I joined the classes, my group, I learn a lot of things. Even how I learned words, to speak, how to do the things. I still suffer from my language, but I'm improving. [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. I'm know a lot of things now, I can communicate with others, I can speak, I can ask, I can get answers. I understand the people around me. When I go to rent my apartment, I suffered when I want to read the contract. So I didn't know the details of the contract. So that helped me to understand the contract. But I think--
• [00:37:15.42] VANESSA MAYESKY: So you were able to bring your rent contract to the group? Is that what you're saying, or that what you learned then helped you when you were looking at the rent?
• [00:37:24.63] TARIQ: What I am learning that help me to understand what's going on around me.
• [00:37:29.52] VANESSA MAYESKY: That's great.
• [00:37:31.12] TARIQ: I'm improving. Now I understand a lot of things, I can speak, I can communicate. That is the important thing for me right now. When I joined recently the TOEFL classes and their group and the language, so I would like to continue to apply for a TOEFL in order to join the university. So I try to be more just to strength my language. So my son now speaks the language, see, he has come with me for five months, he speak now English better than me because he going to school. And he did learn also Spanish there, so he's speaking in Spanish and he has been speaking French. In our country we speak Arabic and French, so now I think he speak four languages. z it's better than I am, [UNINTELLIGIBLE]. So to do like my son is doing.
• [00:38:38.99] VANESSA MAYESKY: How about any stories from Young People's Project?
• [00:38:44.71] NATALIE ERB: I think that-- so math literacy, a lot of time people don't really know what is math literacy, and we've all found a different answer for what math literacy is depending on what our experiences with the program. I think one of the most important things that we want our students to get out of this is first of all, overcoming that fear of math, that math is a scary thing, that it's your least favorite class. Do you like math?
• [00:39:14.49] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: 50-50.
• [00:39:15.72] NATALIE ERB: 50-50? Yeah. So that it's not intimidating and that it is something that you use every day, when you're buying groceries or-- do you do math? You're looking at me funny. Maybe not?
• [00:39:33.23] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Yes.
• [00:39:34.61] NATALIE ERB: And I think, too-- a personal story. I always hated word problems when I was in high school. There was always two or three word problems at the end of the chapter, and I never did them because I didn't really understand how you're supposed to turn words into numbers. And I think that is really the big connection between traditional literacy, reading, and math, and bridging that gap. It really helps students understand how these weird equations are applicable in real life situations. Yes, thanks.
• [00:40:13.11] VANESSA MAYESKY: I know we have a question up here. We have one here, and then we'll get you guys, and I think we had another in the back, too.
• [00:40:23.58] SPEAKER 8: For the math program, a couple of questions. One, how are learners assigned to your groups?
• [00:40:32.73] NATALIE ERB: So our high school students are-- we recruit school-wide. So anyone can join. Students who are good at math, or if they're not good at math. And then the middle school students we work at, we're targeting the lowest quartile. But again, we don't turn anyone down. So we have students who are very good at and love math, and students who are struggling as well.
• [00:40:57.11] SPEAKER 8: And what kind of games do you use? For example, would you use the game Battleship as a precursor to certain trig or pre-cal?
• [00:41:09.45] NATALIE ERB: Yeah, actually the curriculum we're doing right now is called road coloring, and we actually used Battleship as one of our games. So we've done things like that. We've modified existing games, we've come up with games ourselves, and then the models that we use are a whole series of other games as well.
• [00:41:31.49] SPEAKER 8: Thank you.
• [00:41:32.00] NATALIE ERB: You're welcome.
• [00:41:33.98] VANESSA MAYESKY: OK, but up here?
• [00:41:42.17] SPEAKER 9: The thing I want to tell the audience is tonight, I am one of the parent for the second language, but I don't speak English. I speak Somali, but I understand. I have children grow up on Canada and here. But before my children go to school, I didn't know how to help, how to read, how to write. But until my children, I took this organization to see what the coaches are doing with the kids. Then I try it myself, to copy them or to try to do what they do. Then I get idea how I help my children. And I really love it, and I tanks for this program FLI.
• [00:42:35.39] VANESSA MAYESKY: Thanks. Did you have a question? We can come back to you while you think. The gentleman in the back, did you have one? And I see you folks over here, too. Did you have your hand up earlier, sir?
• [00:42:58.03] SPEAKER 10: One of my experiences-- and I wanted to iterate this, right-- it's not a learning experience blockage. And anybody can have a blockage. I can pick up something and I can read and do the math. But some parts of that problem, I have a blockage, and I have to go to somebody and say, how do you do this? And they show you, and once you've looked at the way they do it, then it goes away. So we all have a blockage. They call it something like-- they give it a different name, but it's kind of, your brain's not ready to accept that part of the problem. So you have to have somebody who doesn't have that problem in their curriculum, and they can explain to you to get past that little block. And you can read, but if you run into a problem that you're not used to, or your brain haven't developed a pronunciation for, ready to deal with it, you're not going to get that right there.
• [00:44:06.46] VANESSA MAYESKY: Thanks, we've definitely heard that echoed a few times tonight. We have some folks over here, and I know Amy had something, too.
• [00:44:17.85] SPEAKER 11: I have a question for Natalie. So you help the high school students out with basic math skills of middle school substance, or is it just high school subjects in total?
• [00:44:30.35] NATALIE ERB: Yes. So the curriculum that we use that helps high school students and middle school students. So they use the same curriculum. And it's not necessarily based on what you'd be doing in class. So it's not what you'd be learning in your algebra class or your geometry class, it's kind of more basic algebra concepts all kind of tied in. So that helps you with-- all the things that we do in these games at YPP will kind of pop up in your classes. So you might not learn how to graph a parabola, but you learn things. You'll do the games that you do, you'll develop the skills that when you do have to go graph a parabola, it'll make more sense. Does that make sense?
• [00:45:15.53] So there are things that middle school students can benefit from, high school students can benefit from, college students can benefit from. I know I really improved my GRE score, which is like the college SAT, just from doing this YPP stuff, which is the same games that the middle school students do.
• [00:45:40.75] SPEAKER 12: I have a statement to say. You say you like learning English like a second language, and your kids are born here, or they're raised here, and they know English. They could help you-- I speak from experience. My mother when she is trying to learn some new stuff from English, I help her sometimes to get it. So if you have any kids who can help you learn English, if you just know anybody in general, you can just go to them.
• [00:46:14.68] VANESSA MAYESKY: I think there's a response from our panelists.
• [00:46:18.69] ENID SUTHERLAND: I hear various members of this lovely family speaking here tonight, the family of this young gentleman. And I just want to pay tribute to their mother. There are five children in this family, and she does everything a parent could do to make sure that they all are doing their very best at everything. And she represents all the parents, I think, that are involved in our program and probably other programs as well. But the parents are so involved and so helpful and concerned about their children, and that is just so incredibly important to the success of our program and to our children's futures.
• [00:47:11.06] VANESSA MAYESKY: All right. Amy?
• [00:47:14.09] AMY: Well in regards to Family Learning Institute, another one of the real keys to success is the one on one that we have. So Enid is Abdibassid's one and only coach. And so when the commenter before was talking about a blockage, I just can't get this concept. For our students, they have their coach behind-- you know, one on one, in their own room, where they can ask any question. Where if they were in a classroom, they would possibly be made fun of, they would reveal that they didn't know. So this one on one relationship makes all the difference in the world. Just like the other commenter said, you just need one person that you can really rely on to go to.
• [00:47:56.64] And the other comment would be that Abdibassid is also in our math program, just like YPP has the high school at the college, high school and middle school, our math program is for second to fifth graders. So we're hoping that the earlier intervention will prove to be the best thing for the students to catch up automatically. So Abdibassid has two things going, he's got our math and our reading going.
• [00:48:24.90] VANESSA MAYESKY: You're a a busy person. So I'm wondering from our panelists if there is anything else you want to share with our audience here tonight, or if you have any words of encouragement? If anyone would like to get involved as a volunteer or as a student, we'd love to hear that. Why don't we go right down the line here.
• [00:48:46.34] NATALIE ERB: Well I guess I can ask you guys, you look like you're in-- are you in high school? You two? OK, where do you go to school? Skyline? OK.
• [00:48:55.81] So I'm working at Huron this semester, and the rest of our schools are in Ypsilanti. But hopefully, fingers crossed, we'll be in the rest of the Ann Arbor public schools starting next year, so you can look out for YPP at Skyline. We're kind of expanding now, so hopefully we'll be-- we have a few community events each year, so if you're interested in getting on our email list and learning more, you can definitely talk to me after. If you want to come observe YPP in the classroom, we'd love to have you. So yeah, I guess that's all I have to say.
• [00:49:29.70] VANESSA MAYESKY: Thanks. Any last words? No pressure.
• [00:49:41.25] ABDIBASSAD ISSE: Family Learning Institute is a great thing for me and my two siblings.
• [00:49:55.17] ENID SUTHERLAND: Well I think all I could say is that I would suppose that the Family Learning Institute is always happy to welcome more coaches, right? Hopefully there will always be plenty of students that need our help. And so if any of you, or if you known other people who would like to do this, I can recommend it very highly as a very satisfying thing to be spending your time on.
• [00:50:27.17] TARIQ: Actually, I found a very good thing in the United States that they do a lot of volunteer jobs here. It's a very wonderful thing, we don't have it in our country, actually. So I would like to do a volunteer in the future. That's my last word.
• [00:50:50.47] OSHAY: Yeah, I'd like to say if there's anybody who'd like to tutor adults, we need help. It changed my life, I still have to pinch myself when I'm in college. It would have never happened if it wasn't for Washtinaw Literacy Program. My life just would've went a totally different direction. And since that, I've been volunteering every since. So I give of my time freely because someone gave something to me. That's all I have.
• [00:51:21.40] VANESSA MAYESKY: Thanks. Are there any more questions from the audience? No? OK. It looks like maybe?
• [00:51:34.37] SPEAKER 13: I'm so sorry, I forgot your name.
• [00:51:36.38] OSHAY: Oshay.
• [00:51:37.10] SPEAKER 13: Oshay, OK. So as a teenager growing up with dyslexia, how did you face life driving, and taking buses, just like not being able to read items? How did you deal with that?
• [00:51:56.23] OSHAY: It was tough. But it's really weird, because if anyone in here loses their right arm, they will learn how to use their left. And that's the same thing I did. I can't really explain how I got around, but I got around. I mean, I drove from Michigan to Florida by myself. So I can't really explain to people how I did that, but I had confidence that I would make it, so I made it. It's like going to a foreign country. You can't read the menu to eat, but you will adapt to that environment. That's what I did, I adapted. I think we all have that capability in us to adapt to situations. So that's hard to actually answer, but I can't tell you exactly how I did that.
• [00:52:57.10] SPEAKER 14: You went to Florida from Michigan, that means that you knew how to read books. You had to have something, you wasn't just totally couldn't read.
• [00:53:06.55] OSHAY: I had a map. Yeah, yeah, I-- yeah. You know, 75 takes you all the way to Florida. Once I get on 75-- my fear was getting off 75. Then what do I do? So that fear was always there, and I have to really pay attention that I don't go off, because I could go off and not really know. Yeah. But there's fear behind what I'd do it, because I can't read my way back, you know? Yeah, I got my license. I got very good sense of direction, too. Very good sense of direction.
• [00:53:47.54] SPEAKER 14: Well you got your license, and that's the one big step, to get your license. When you passed that license, you had some basic reading skills.
• [00:53:55.83] OSHAY: Somebody read the test to me.
• [00:53:58.67] SPEAKER 14: Somebody read it to you? I didn't know they'd let you do that.
• [00:54:02.45] OSHAY: Yeah, but I knew how to answer the questions, though.
• [00:54:05.61] SPEAKER 14: I know, you're very intelligent, I ain't saying-- that's why I said, I can pick up on where you're coming from.
• [00:54:14.42] VANESSA MAYESKY: Looks like we've got another question up front here.
• [00:54:26.59] SPEAKER 15: So I'm just trying to ask, like, what is dyslexia? What type-- I understand it's like a mental problem, like you just can't interpret certain letters and numbers, but I'd like to hear from a dyslexic person.
• [00:54:46.57] OSHAY: Well there's many different forms of dyslexia. Some people, letters change around, a B turns into a D. Some people, the letters fall off the paper, some people need certain colors over the words so they can make sense. But I think my dyslexia is, when I see a word, I see the beginning, I can see the end, but everything in the middle, for whatever reason, just doesn't make sense to me. Like this just doesn't make sense to me. You can pick out those different sounds and everything, but my brain sees something different.
• [00:55:37.19] VANESSA MAYESKY: So we've got a follow-up and then we've got another question over here. [INTERPOSING VOICES]
• [00:55:40.52] OSHAY: I just don't see the same things.
• [00:55:43.13] SPEAKER 15: So if I were to write a word on the wall, you'd just see the beginning?
• [00:55:49.28] OSHAY: Well that's the way it used to be.
• [00:55:52.13] SPEAKER 15: So do you take medication for it?
• [00:55:53.79] OSHAY: No. Just hard work.
• [00:56:02.97] VANESSA MAYESKY: I think we've got one here and then one there.
• [00:56:12.24] SPEAKER 16: Looking back, how did your work with Washtinaw Literacy-- objectively now, what was it that helped you personally? What was it that clicked with you so that you learned to read?
• [00:56:30.59] OSHAY: Well there was a combination of a couple of things. One, actually, the motivation behind it, like this one lady was talking about, my tutor gave me something to read that I wanted to read. And that played a really big part. At the time in my life, I wanted this information so bad that I was willing to just push myself. And then everything started to make sense, but my tutor actually taught me the word families-- you know, the STs and the INGs, and the phonics of reading. And I started breaking the words up like that. I'd take pieces of words and then put it all together. And when that started to happen, I realized I just read a word. It was a light bulb going off. The it became an addiction, now I want to know more, I want more. And I kept pushing myself to learn more. So yeah, I was motivated, and the literature I was reading was something I really wanted. If that literature wasn't there, I don't know if I would've stuck with it. I probably would've got bored and went in another direction.
• [00:57:42.52] SPEAKER 16: I was just going to add that now I work with a geriatric population. And pretty much I guess 70 to 102, one of my clients. And it's fascinating to watch how the brain does begin to age and how thinking changes. And we all know-- I mean, the classic thing everybody is aware of is beginning to forget names. Maybe be in your 60s or so, occasionally. And that stress really makes a tremendous difference in our mental capacities. But I keep coming back to the whole idea of each of us being individual and our lives unfolding. I mean I have-- in my experience, some people hold onto their mental capacities really long, and some don't. And even with my medical training, there's not real rhyme and reason to it. So you just work with what's there in the present and keep it up.
• [00:58:49.66] I mean, I think I would like to become involved because I think it's a new stimulation and a new direction for my own brain as I age. Because I put my pedal to the metal and was an honors student in nursing school in my 50s. And I loved it, it was very stimulating. It was a lot more stimulating and interesting than sitting and watching a lot of TV, in whatever different things people-- you get in a rut. But really continuing to use your mind is really exciting.
• [00:59:19.45] Does the Family Learning Institute work with older people? I'm just curious.
• [00:59:26.31] ENID SUTHERLAND: No, no. It's strictly working with children in the public schools from the second grade through the fifth. But fortunately there are all these other lovely programs for other age groups.
• [00:59:40.42] VANESSA MAYESKY: We definitely have a place for you. We can get you involved. Are there any other questions or thoughts? You've got to talk into the mike, though so we can hear.
• [00:59:52.91] SPEAKER 17: I'm talking to that guy.
• [00:59:55.05] VANESSA MAYESKY: Go right ahead.
• [00:59:56.83] SPEAKER 17: Like, what does it feel like to have dyslexia? What does it mean to have different words jumbled in your head?
• [01:00:05.57] OSHAY: What does it feel like? It's very frustrating. It's a very frustrating thing. For a long time I thought I was the only one. I didn't think anybody saw when I saw. I thought I was very unique. Then I found out I wasn't. A lot of people suffer from what I have. That made it a little bit easier. But I'm a very highly motivated person, I always have been. I guess if I wasn't, I could have been on the pity pile, say woe is me and let life pass me by. That's not the route I took. I guess I just overcame, you know? Just overcame. I'm not in fear anymore, I don't feel ashamed. It's a part of who I was, a part of who I am today, and I'm OK with it.
• [01:01:07.79] VANESSA MAYESKY: One more question here, it looks like?
• [01:01:13.37] SPEAKER 18: The gentleman from Jordan, when you are speaking to Americans, what's generally the response you get if they have trouble understanding you? Are they patient, are the impatient, or understanding? Or how do they react to your English at this stage?
• [01:01:35.67] TARIQ: Actually most of them, if I give-- they ask me to repeat the question or to repeat what I said. But most of them now mention that they are fine to understand me. I don't find any problem. But I feel that I have-- I need more, I need to learn more in order to catch up what'e-- to speak just like the native speakers. Mine is not that good, but it's carried me to survive.
• [01:02:23.72] VANESSA MAYESKY: It looks like another question here?
• [01:02:38.88] SPEAKER 19: What was your name, sorry?
• [01:02:41.58] TARIQ: Tariq.
• [01:02:42.90] SPEAKER 19: OK, Tariq. So when you got into a lottery program to get into the United States, how did you find a job? Did you get family's help or, like how? Just curious. Like friends?
• [01:02:58.68] TARIQ: Actually I'm looking for it over the Internet. I have [UNINTELLIGIBLE] in managing projects, so that's what I do. I do it in many cities in my country. So I travel out to different places. When I move here, I think there are a lot of projects here. There's a lot of need for those projects. I found on the Internet a lot of company asking for a project coordinator, project specialist, project managers to do that on IT projects, actually. So there's a job here. But I said I need to improve to communicate. My job needs a lot of communication, so I need this part. That's the hard part for me. It's not ready to learn knowledge or skills, I have the knowledge and skills. But the communications, that's what I miss now.
• [01:04:18.57] SPEAKER 20: Tariq, the best-- your name is Tariq, right?
• [01:04:21.92] TARIQ: Tariq.
• [01:04:22.36] SPEAKER 20: Tariq. The best advice that I am giving you to practice your English or to improve your English, but to help yourself, make a friend with American student if you are a student in the University. Make a friend, and make a practice for your English to speak to them. And then a little bit, don't communicate for people from Jordan, give a break for a month. Then you will see improvement.
• [01:04:56.11] TARIQ: Well I hope so. I don't have any friend here yet. I have friends in Canada, so I go into Canada [UNINTELLIGIBLE], but nothing in the United States. I did also have a relative here, so it was--
• [01:05:12.50] SPEAKER 20: [INAUDIBLE]
• [01:05:17.45] TARIQ: So actually I didn't speak to anybody here. I spend most of my time in home or at the library. So I am moving sometimes to places that I get from the Internet, I find a place that provide or need a help. So I go there. I apply for a lot of-- I apply for school to be a volunteer there. But most of them, I also say to be a volunteer. I ask them to work without any peace. But most of them, I don't know what's going on. And I think I sent my application, so-- I know that it's tough to get a job here at this time, but I hope that it has to be sold in the future, and so in future. I hope to know a lot of people, so I try to make friends. But still, it's is hard to me to-- I don't know how to make friends here.
• [01:06:32.90] VANESSA MAYESKY: Do we have any more questions? All right. Well thank you, everyone, for coming, and thank you very much to our panelists.