This video was extremely touching. I found it incredible that a man at 50 years old was able to go through life without being able to read. It made me sad for him that he has lived in a world that was not accessible to him. It made me disappointed in his education because his teachers let him pass by and did not stop to help him and really work with him. This is a fear and danger that we as teachers must desperately try to prevent.
Robin started from the very basics. He initially learned letter, letter sounds and the different phonemes in a word. He had to go back to the basic because he had no initial knowledge higher than that. An example they showed during the movie was him doing letter-box lessons, practicing how to combine letters to make a word. He became very observant in his "chunking" ability. He was able to recognize that "at" was in "hat" for example. This was a good tool that he was taught. He would practice his writing to make sure spelling was correct and eventually grew out of the leveled readers and tried to read street signs or the newspaper.
I think what was most helpful to Robin was his steady progression and determination. At his age it must have been a frustrating process, but the reward of reading his birthday card for the first time I can imagine made it all worthwhile. So he studied and utilized typical reading techniques which allowed for him to master one level and then move higher up to eventually be on his way to being fully literate.
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