Over the course of several months, I observed a student, Ismael, a former refugee. Ismael had studied for nine months in our General ESL classes. He was one of the students who never seemed to advance at the same pace as the others. He had remained at our l00 level (literacy) class for 2 three-month cycles and had just advanced to the 150 level class. My class was an intensive 8 hours a week, 5-week course open free of charge to refugees with low literacy skills. Ismael was in a multi-level class of 6 students. Attendance was very sporadic, as many of the refugees were busy in the afternoons with doctor's appointments, finding housing, and other immediate concerns. Because of the class size, I was able to give him the attention he needed and to learn more about his personal background and how it applied to the educational challenges he was facing.

Ismael is a 68-year-old man from Somalia with no formal education. His oral skills were much higher than his literacy skills. He was a clan leader and successful farmer in Somalia, but he lost everything to the war. During the war, he had been shot five times and was a victim of a bomb blast. As a result, he suffered traumatic brain injury and injury to his eyes from the shrapnel. He also had trouble walking, because his legs had been severely broken. In spite of all this, Ismael attended class every day and demonstrated a great eagerness to learn.

In a large-class situation, Ismael had trouble filtering the background noise. He could not focus on one voice. He said it was sometimes like "cars on the road. Too loud." He liked working one-on-one with a teacher or in small groups. Because of his eye injuries, he was very sensitive to light. He preferred to have the lights low in the room. He also said that he often got headaches when writing and reading from the whiteboard in the classroom. Reading from a blackboard did not produce this effect.

I often had one or two students in the class, and I was able to take them to the Adult Learning Center, a computer lab then housed at Wilson Adult Center. Ismael enjoyed the intense focus that computer learning provided. I was able to control the noise and light in the lab to better suit Ismael's needs. We used a program called Eye Relief with great success. Eye Relief is a word processor with adjustable sizing and screen color. We were able to work with the background and lettering colors until we came up with a combination that was most comfortable for him. I used the Language Experience Approach, where we carried out activities, discussed them, and read about them, to utilize Ismael's oral skills in aid of his reading.I also typed stories from our reading text into Eye Relief, which enabled him to read with greater ease and to keep up with his fellow students.

We also used English Express on CD for vocabulary building. With the program, Ismael could hear a word, see a picture of it, repeat the word, and compare his speech to the computer's and to mine.

Ismael studied with me for three five-week cycles. During that time we were able to explore many learning alternatives. He was willing to try anything new and was never discouraged. The other students looked to him for inspiration in their studies, even though his skills were somewhat lower than theirs. This attitude, combined with a class situation that allowed flexibility and adjustment, allowed Ismael to continue to make progress at his own pace. (Almanza,, Singleton, & Terrill, 1995-1996, pp. 2-3)