Cant read ,cant write Channel 4

[Beauregard]

Anyone else watching?

well I think some aspects are BUT we don't get to see the whole picture - only snippets. It's still interesting to see how he's going about it tho'

He's just making it up as he goes along though. What is the point of that? One thing that shouldn't be happening is putting them in a position where they are failing - he does just that. Good for the cameras.

Sorry I don't know her name but the woman who was reading for her mother, is it any wonder she has had difficulty learning to read?

Her mother is horrendous! Puts her down all the time and called her a silly bitch for nothing, and then all the poor woman wanted to know was do you think my mother liked that? Do you think she was impressed? She obviously got no support from hr mother when she was at school.

I can't watch it anymore because it's ALL about Linda when James is really the one in need of the most help.

Yes that situation really annoys me. They could quite easily have got someone into help him, but they'd clearly rather have him 'fail' for a bit longer. Shots of him holding his head in his hands in despair make better TV than him learning at his own pace.

Its all a bit like big brother. Do you think that Linda is hoping for a meeeeedia career and prehaps a place in the next big brother house.

Poor James just wants to sit his plumber exams. I wish that I had the time, ablity and the connections to help James.

Its really sad.

Thank god someone else said what I was thinking about Linda.

I appreciate that she finds it hard etc etc, but does she think she is the only
one in the group or what ? She is so rude and selfish.

Whenever I see James I want to Mother him and help him learn in the same way as I do my dcs. Anyone know where these people are?

i'd love to help someone like James!

i used to help adult literacy teachers with their students, doing stuff like the exercises James was doing.

it would mean so much to have someone reassure him that he's worth believing in.

He just needs to work at his own pace. I thought he started off with too many letters.

he needs someone to help him with his confidence, too. because he has none, due to his experience, mostly.

BUMP - on now

I'm going off to watch this now, but last week's made me want to weep with frustration as it was so obvious that he hadn't really talked to early years teachers about teaching reading and writing, apart from a quick foray into letters and sounds. I so want to see James succeed, but last week's programme was so awful as Phil was not properly equipped to teach the.. he is blatantly an upper junior teacher.

i'll find out from you all if it's just another All About Linda episode.

Check out his website:

here

What a knob.

I think he's a secondary teacher. He sadi himself that he didn't help the children that came into his classes with reading difficulties at all. So why is he doing it? I don't understand the point of the programme. If they wanted to show that adults with reading difficulties can be taught to read and write with specific techniques why didn't they choose a specially trained teacher? I've no doubt that in future episodes James will begin to read but why the fuck did they put him through the humiliation of failing on national TV to begin with?

From his wanky website 'He looks like a rock star' LOLOLOL!!! Wanker.

He is a secondary teacher. He won a teaching award.

Yes - that is mentioned at the start of every programme.

I would really like to do this - teach adult literacy. Does anyone know how to go about it, what qualifications you need etc? (Sorry for hijack.)

There are courses available for adults with low literacy and numeracy skills. Most colleges in most towns have basic entry level lit/num courses, and most are free too.

Wether they are widely advertised and easy to access is another thing, but they are available.

I come acorss many adult men who have such problems with literacy and numeracy, especialy literacy. In the prison most of our men have literacy levels of entry level 3 and below. This means most of our prisoners (in my prison anyway) work at no higher than an 11 year olds level. Many are far below this, and some are unable to read/write at all, with no letter sound awareness even.

We have a policy of having all prisoners work towards adult literacy level 2, which is what the Government see as the required working level for an adult in the UK. We have fully qualified and trained teachers to deliver this. However we can not enforce the requirement to do the classes, and many chose not to address their literacy skills at all. But it is lovely to see those that do give it a go and succeed, very warming.

Jux - you would need to do some form of teaching qualification, aimed at working with adults.

Arrgghh- I feel so frustrated. Did the students really need to do exams? Surely they could have measured their achievement and progress in ways more meaningful to the individual?
I never saw the really dyslexic one getting any specialist help- even using coloured overlays might have been a start.
Whilst it was really moving to see the progress made in both basic literacy and self esteem, I feel that yet again, James has been denied the quality of teaching he so rightly deserves. Is it just me?

Thanks Hulababy. Just getting on to the Gov website.