CHAPTER VIII


 TECHNIQUES AND MATERIALS FOR THE ELEMENTARY STAGE


 Millions of adults have reading skills that are comparable to
those of children in grades four, five and six. These people know the
great majority of the 1000 most frequently used words. They know most
of the running words in the average book, magazine article, and news-
paper. They know most of the words in this paragraph But to gain
meaning from adult level materials, they need to develop the ability
to instantly recognize a stock of thousands of less frequently used
words. At this point in their reading development, students need to
develop greater meaning vocabularies, study type reading skills, and
critical reading ability. They need to develop fluency and versatility
in reading.

 If students are brought to this stage of reading competency and
then abandoned, they will often regress to complete illiteracy. In the
past, most literacy campaigns stopped before students completed the
elementary stage. Moreover, some adult schools provided training only
to the elementary stage. ..Educationally, this was a great mistake. It
resulted in personal disasters and failed to relieve the economic bur-
den of the sponsoring communities.

 Some of the techniques for contacting students at the introduc-
tory stage are appropriate with this group. However, the appeals should
be more subtle. Some of these people consider themselves adequate
readers. It offends them to be told that they cannot read on an adult
level. By suggesting that they can increase their reading speed and
their reading ability in vocationally oriented materials, these students
can be recruited. The approach must be positive. It must protect the
ego of the prospective students.

 Employers can help to recruit students by issuing house organs
 (company newspapers) written in simple language. These can describe
 special courses for "slow" or "careless" readers. They can point out
 the increased reading demands upon various types of workers. Many
 industries sponsor their own reading programs.

 Employment agencies can help to recruit by pointing out opportuni-
ties and the reading ability needed to take advantage of them. They can
also make known the existence of vocational re-training programs where
fundamental education skills are improved while students gain marketable
skills. United States Employment Offices now have short reading tests
available for their own administration.

 Teaching procedures at this stage will probably involve less use
of the textbook approach and of the experience method than they did at
the introductory level. Here, individualized reading may be the basic


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