Section
2.3: The Needs of Adult Literacy Learners
Literacy
students will generally fall into one of two basic "streams"
based on their reasons for wanting to improve their literacy
skills:
- General Improvement - These learners have a desire to improve their literacy skills for
everyday living or quality of life issues. For example, they
may desire to feel less dependent on others to help them with
banking, shopping, etc. They may want to be able to better
help their children with homework, or they may want to pursue
a better job.
- Academic Upgrading - These learners want to upgrade their skills to a level appropriate
for undertaking a GED/high school diploma program (Grade 8
in the public school system). They may have dropped out of
school early on and now want to return to get their diploma
in the hopes of obtaining better employment or going on to
university or college.
While
the formal education system (i.e., Kindergarten to Grade 12,
college, university) involves a fairly neat sequential progression
through the various grade levels, adult literacy programs that
service students in the general 'stream' are generally a much
more 'messy' affair. As discussed in Module One, there are three
learning stages in Manitoba. Most adults, however, don't fit
neatly into a stage and instead arrive with varying abilities
in the various core skills. That is, a learner may be at Stage
Two in terms of their reading, writing and the computer, but
be at Stage One in spelling and Stage Three in numeracy. Another
learner may be at Stage One across the board, while yet a third
learner may be at Stage Three in reading, writing and spelling,
but Stage One in numeracy and computer. Thus, tutors can expect
to work with individuals with multi-level skills and multi-level
groups. This requires flexibility above all on the part
of the tutor. Although always necessary in education, this is
much less the case with learners who are working toward going
back to school or obtaining their GED. The curricular standards
and the associated skills and knowledge needed for these are
well documented and specific, allowing tutors to design a fairly
structured individual/group learning plan.
Resources:
On to Section 2.4
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(Page updated
23-Sep-2002
)
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