Carl was suspended for the last two weeks of school when he was about 13. He found a job up north and has been working ever since. He’s worked in mining and construction and has run his own businesses. Most recently, he fixed and sold used appliances.
Carl says he can read just about anything he has to, if he can take his time. He uses his background knowledge to figure out what something is about, even if he can’t get all of the words. He can often figure out a word from context, but he doesn’t know other strategies for identifying words that he can’t figure out that way. Even when Carl has trouble with the words, he can read something and remember most of what it is about.
Carl says that spelling is his real problem. When asked to spell a word, he tries to remember what it looks like – you can see him try to see the word in his head. If he can’t remember the word, he doesn’t try to spell it. When encouraged to spell words the way they sound, Carl could do so. However, he had a hard time telling the difference between sounds. Because of his difficulty with spelling, Carl avoids writing.
Carl tells a good story and is happy to share tips about fixing washing machines. He likes to keep up on the news – he watches it on T.V. and looks through the newspaper most days.
Norton, M. (1990). Preparing literacy tutors: A trainer’s manual. Cold Lake, Alberta: Lakeland College. ISBN 0-980683-10-X. Used with permission.
Handout 4.9