DOCUMENT RESUME

ED 333 105 CE 057 784

AUTHOR Camilleri, Christine; And OthersTITLE An Inside Approach: Organizing Integrated Learning

Opportunities.

INSTITUTION Frontier Coll., Toronto (Ontario).REPORT NO ISBN-0-921031-09-2PUB DATE Oct 90NOTE 91p.; A product of the Partners in Learning Program.

Produced by the Cleveland Communications Group, Inc.,Toronto.

PUB TYPE Guides - Non-Classroom Use (055)

EDRS PRICE MF01/PC04 Plus Postage.DESCRIPTORS Adult Basic Education; *Adult Learning; *Adult

Literacy; Adults; Community Organizations;Educational Opportunities; Foreign Countries;*IW:egrated Activities; *Learning Activities;Learning Motivation; Participation; VolunteerTraining

IDENTIFIERS *Canada

ABSTRACTThis guide is intended to help people improve their

reading, writing, and numeracy skills within existing organizations,services, or community activities. It is divided into two sections.The first gives some background information on literacy in Canada,adult learners, and the rationale for integrating learning intoexisting opportunities. The second focuses on implementing theapproachee. Planning and organizing learning initiatives, recruitingparticipants, developing options and opportunities for improvingskills, training volunteers, and evaluating the effectiveness of anapproach are addressed in the second section. In addition, somemisconceptions about people win reading difficulties are addressed.Profiles of adult learners are included as well as approachessuitable for facilitating adult learning. An overview of theplanninT, organizing, and implementing process is provided. A rangeof options to take advantage of learning opportunities is discussed:peer learning, learning with computers, family involvement, andlearning through oral stories. Steps in planning and implementingworkshops for volumeers are outlined. A section on evaluating theprogress of learning initiatives and individuals as well as 43references complete the guide. (NLA)

***********************************************************************

Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be madefrom the original document.

***********************************************************************

Owo

0

AN INSIDE APPROACH:

Organizing Integrated Learning Opportunities

by: Christine CamilleriLise de VilliersPhilip FernandezGordon NoreBrent PoultonSarah ThompsonEd Wadley

UM. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONOffice of Educational Research end Improvement

EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATIONCENTER (ERIC)

This document has been reproduced asreceived from the person or wgenizetionoriginating it.

0 Minor changes have been made to improvereproductron Quality

Points of vow ot opinions statPd in this docu-ment do not necessarily represent officialOERI position or policy

Frontier CollegeOctober, 1990

OEST COPY AVAILABLE

2

'PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THISMATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY

TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCESINFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."

Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data

Main entry under title:

An Inside approach: organizing integrated learningopportunities

Includes bibliographical references.ISBN 0-921031-09-2

1. Literacy. I. Camilleri, Christine, 1957II. Frontier College.

LC149.168 1990 374.012 C90-095594-5

Produced by: The Cleland Communications Group Inc.Toronto, Ontario.

Copy-editor: Karen Miller, KAM Editing.

Published by The Frontier College Press,35 Jackes Avenue,Toronto, Ontario M4T 1E2,Canada.

© 1990 Frontier Coll ege.

All Rights reserved.Printed in Canada.

3

CONTENTS

Preface iii

Acknowledgements iv

Intro duc tion

Writers vii

Section 1

Section 1

0 3Section

Section 4

Section ti

Section

In So Many Words...Literacy In Canada 1

Definitions of Literacy 1

Myths and Misconceptions 5Literacy Practice in Canada 6

Profiles of Adult Learning 11

Who Are Adult Learners? 11Adult LearningA General Profile 12Student Centred Individualized Learning 16

Integrating Learning Programs Into Your Organization

A Rationale for Integrated Learning InitiativesRe-Examining Approaches to Literacy

19

1920

Planning and Organizing a Literacy Initiative 25

Planning to Learn; Learning to Plan 25Organizing 27Experiences in Integration 30

Generating Involvement 33

Recruiting Participants 33Maintaining the Morale of fly.; Group 38

Creating Learning Opportunities 43

How Do We Learn? 43Frameworks and Tools for Learning 45Integrating Skill-Building Activities 53

Section 1

Section 8

References

Notes

Developing and Implementing Workshops for Volunteers 57

Running a Workshop 57Participant Profile 60Workshop Activities 63The Workshop and the Organization 66Incorporating Different Learning Capabilities 67Follow-Up Training 67Evaluating the Workshop 68

Measuring Success 73

Ways You Can Document Success 73

74

84

ii 5

e

PREFACE

During a labour dispute at Bell Canada two years ago, managers were asked to staff theswitchboards and assist callers. What they experienced was very surprising to them, althoughit was familiar to the regular staff. They found that some callers were unable to write down thenumber they were given, some could not find information in the white or yellow pages, otherscould not read their phone bills.

"When I was on the lines," said one manager, "I had a young man call who needed to get hismuffler fixed. I directed him to look in the yellow pages ander muffler. He told me in a shy voicethat he couldn't read and asked if I would help him. He asked me to tell him on which page themuffler shops were listed. In this way, he said, he could then look at the word muffler and phonethose companies that showed that word."

Literacy is a basic right. This was stressed in the "Declaration of the Right to Learn," adoptedin 1985 at the UNESCO 4th International Conference on Adult Education: "Recognition of theright to learn is now more than ever a major challenge for humanity: the right to question andanalyze; the right to imagine and create; the right to read about one's own world and to writehistory; the right to have access to educational resources; the right to develop individual andcollective skills." The ability to communicate in a literate society provides a powerful way toinfluence and control one's future. Literacy encourages independent thinking. It expands therange of choices available and, by doing so, increases the ability to make informed decisions.

Last year Frontier College and Bell Canada launched a program called Partners in Learning.Its aim is to provide educational materals to individuals interested in adding literacy servicesto their organization or community resources. This guidebook is the main product of thatventure. We hope that the ideas presented here will inspire you to carry forward your own plansfor making learning an integral part of your organization's resources.

Christine CamilleriProject CoordinatorPartners in LearningOctober 1990

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The authors wish to thank the many people who provided their time, knowledge, experience,and expertise to help in the creation of this guide. In particular, we would like to thank ourexternal reviewers, Barbara Burnaby and James Draper of the Ontario Institute for Studies inEducation, and Elaine Gaber-Katz of the Toronto Board of Education. Their thorough reviewsand helpful suggestions were much needed aad appreciated.

Several tutors and students in the Independent Studies program at Frontier College alsoreviewed the first draft for us and offered us first-hand advice: Louise Allen, Andy Brown,David Isbister, Donna Lovell, Rod McFadyen, Ian Miller, Howard Rice, Lila Sarick, and MaryAnn Warkman.

We are also indebted to the many practitioners who offered their time and advice during theearly stages of the project: Emily Bartlett, Neighbourhood Information Post; Sharon Cameron,YMCA Edmonton; Computers in Literacy Committee of the Metro Toronto Movement forLiteracy; Jackeye Cook, Dixon Hall Learning Centre; Jessie Dubai% READ project, MusquodoboitHarbour, Nova Scotia; Peter Elson, Ontario Public Health Association; Bill Fallis, GeorgeBrown College; Joseph Passel, East End Literacy; Peter Fleming, Provincial Ministry ofAgriculture, Rural Organizations and Services Branch; Marsha Forest, Centre for IntegratedEducation; Allison Harvey; Anna Jackson, Federation Women's Institutes of Ontario; StanJones, Carleton University; Bruce Kappel, Kappel Consulting; Labourer-Teachers of 1990;Joanne Mayhew, Women's Prison Newspaper; Tracy Odell, Ministry of Luucation, SpencerOvergaard-Thomsen, Street Haven; Lorinda Peterson, Prison Literacy; Ratna Ray, Rent ReviewHearings Board; Sheila Stickwood; and Marlene Webber.

To our editor, Karen Miller of KAM Editing, and our production coordinator, Dick Clelandof Cleland Communications, we offer our gratitude.

Thanks should also go to Miria Ioannou and Mizan Ibrahim of Frontier College. Miria offeredher valuable support and editorial advice while Mizan fulfilled the seemingly endlessadministrative and word-processing duties.

A final note of thanks to Bell Canada. Without their generous financial support, this guidewould not have been possible. Their foresight and commitment have significantly contributedto the awareness of literacy in Canada and the need for action.

The Writing Team:

Christine CamilleriLise de VilliersPhilip FernandezGordon NoreBrent PoultonSarah ThompsonEd Wadley

Frontier College, Toronto

October 1990

iv

INTRODUCTION

This guide is for anyone who wants to organize effective ways to help people improve theirreading, writing, and numeracy skills within existing organizations, services, or communityactivities.

People who come together within such a community do not necessarily feel the strong senseof identification that we often associate with the term community. But, they do share a numberof things in common. Often, they share a similar interest or fate. They get to know one another,even if on a superficial level, through regular contact. They spend a certain amount of time, ona regular basis, doing something together.

This guide is based on the premise that these communities offer many natural opportunitiesfor developing reading, writing, and numeracy skills without nece6sarily creating specializedprograms. Some of these opportunities are outlined and suggestions are made on how they canbe implemented.

We are by no means suggesting that there is no place for specialized programs. Manyindividuals can benefit from the intensity provided by such programs. Nevertheless, others mayfeel stigmatized and find it difficult to participate in such a direct way. For these individuals,integrated programs may be more effective.

A recent Statistics Canada survey on the reading skills of Canada's adult population showedthat 22 percent of Canadians can use reading materials only to carry out simple reading taskswithin familiar contexts with materials that are clearly laid out. However, this group does nothave sufficient skills to cope with situations that involve unfamiliar or more complex reading.These situations have tremendous range, including, for example:

dealing with specialized services such as auto repair shops

dealing with complex forms and applications

learning new skills in rapidly changing industries

learning about rights as consumers and citizens.

Individuals who make up this group are unlikely to seek out specialized help in reading andwriting. They are, howevar, at risk of being unable to function at all in a changing society in afew short years. For this population, finding natural opportunities for increasing reading,writing, and numeracy skills is a more realistic option than expecting them to participate inspecialized programs. These natural learning oppk tunities should make it easier for individu-als to:

gain access to information

learn how to obtain information and use it

act on their desire to learn

help others in similar situations to learn.

This guide can assist people in various communities to develop and act upon such strategies.

The messages and usefulness of the guide lie in the following:

It is everyone's problem. We as individuals and organizations in communities can help oneanother learn what we need to learn. The people who want to learn are among us.

There are practical ways of addressing the problem. This guide is a primer on organizing andsustaining learning initiatives in the communities in which you live, work, and. participate.

Integration is a way of life, not a program. We all have opportunities to identify new thingswe want or need to learn throughout our lives. This is the reality of lifelong learning. Each ofus needs different kinds of places, settings, occasions, and encouragement to learn becausethis is the way we learn best. Each of us will have different difficulties in organizing our livesso that we can learn what we want to learn, then use it. This is the reality and complexity ofeveryday life.

The guide is divided roughly into two sections. The first gives some background informationon statistics, adult learners, and the rationale for integrating learning into existing opportuni-ties. The second focuses on more practical aspects of implementing the approaches describedis 'Jove. Planning and organizing learning initiatives, recruiting participants, developingoptions and opportunities for improving reading, writing, and numeracy skills, trainingvolunteers, and evaluating the effectiveness of an approach are the areas addressed in the secondsection.

Since this guide is not meant specifically for experienced practitioners whose work involvesadult learners, some background information is provided to give a context for the issue and itsrelevance. In addition, some misconceptions about people who have difficulty with reading,writing, and numeracy are addressed. Also, in order to give a face to the statistics, some profilesof adult learners are included, as well as approaches that are suitable for facilitating adultlearning.

Building on this background, we explore what we mean by an integrated approach and itsimplications. We look at how learning can be made a part of the places where we work, socialize,or use for support. An overview of the planning, organizing, and implementing process is alsoprovided. Although by no means comprehensive, this overview gives potential organizers anidea of what they can expect when undertakinr a learning initiative.

In order to take advantage of learning opportunities, a range of options is discussed. These caninclude tutoring, peer learning, learning with computers, family involvement, and learningthrough oral stories.

In addition, a section is devoted to planning and implementing workshops for volunteers.Whether the learning initiative will include tutoring situations or will facilitate broaderlearning, this section focuses on how to work with volunteers at a number of levels.

A brief final section on evaluating the progress of learning initiatives, as well as the progressof individuals, is included.

This guide is an attempt to generate more interest and exploration in the area of integratedlearning. We have provided some starting points and ideas for developing new approaches.These,however, do not begin to tap the potential that exists in natural learning opportunities. It is ourhope that organizers will implement some of the ideas included in this guide and, by doing so,begin tapping this potential.

Miria Ioannou

Bruce Kappel

October 1990

vi

THE WRITERS

Christine Camilleri is the project coordinator for Partners In Learning. She has a master'sdegree in Environmental Studies from York University, where her studies concentrated on thelinks between strategic planning, organizational development and change, and adult education.She is a consultant for literacy groups and others interested in strategic planning and programmanagement.

Lise de Villiers has worked as a literacy ead program coordinator for Frontier College's PrisonLiteracy Initiative for the past two and a half years. Prior to this, Lise worked for eight yearswith adults and teenagers with a variety of language needs in Ontario and Nova Scotia. For twoyears she was an instructor with Dalhousie University in the Department of Education'sLaboratory School. She has prepared and presented workshops on whole language, integratedcurriculum design, and learning difficulties.

Philip Fernandez is the national training coordinator for READ CANADA. He received histeacher training at Mt. Allison University, and spent over three years as a Frontier Collegelabourer-teacher in Elsa, Yukon. He has taught both children and adults in Canada, Mexico, andJapan.

Gordon Nore is a member of the Learning in the Workplace project team at Frontier College.He has participated in the development of tutor, organizer, and clear language training packagesfor workplace literacy programs. He has taught English as a Second Language, business andprofessional writing, and adult basic education. He enjoys writing about literacy and adulteducation issues.

Brent Poulton has been with Frontier College since 1985. His interest in community develop-ment and adult learning was honed by three years as a labourer-teacher, roving Canada's northand west for Frontier College. He directs training, staffing, and development for theLabourer-Teacher program. He is also an active team member at Learning in the Workplace.

Sarah Thompson, a native of Kingston, Ontario, studied Art History and Art Conservation atQueen's University and later received an intermediate certificate in cooking from the CordonBleu.She developed an interest in adult education while teaching cooking skills to adults through theToronto Board of Education. She currently works as coordinator of the Learning in theWorkplace program at Frontier College.

Ed Wadley set off for university wanting to be an actor. After discovering that acting involvedpoverty and unemployment, he enrolled at Fanshawe College in London in the Broadcast Artscourse. In 1982, Ed vnlunteered as a tutor in the adult literacy program at Frontier College. Soonafter, he was offered the job of coordinator of the Independent Studies program. He left theCollege in 1985, returning after two years to resume his duties.

vii1 0

IN SO MANY WORDS..

DEFINITIONS OF LI1ERACY

Literacy isn't very easy to talk about. Al-though we've come to depend upon theprinted word in our daily lives, as a species,we really haven't been "literate" for verylong. Still, in that short time, literacy hasmade possible change and growth of ex-traordinary proportions. Yet, according toUNESCO the United Nations Educational,Sdentific and Cultural Organization -- andother international organizations, as manyas one billion adults are not literate. (WorldConference, 1990) The truth is that we havenot even arrived at one suitable definition ofwhat it means to be literate.

However, as an organizer, you may be calledupon to explain your work to others. Youmay need to promote your project to attractvolunteers. You may need to make a "pitch"to get funding from governments, founda-tions, individuals, or companies. But mostimportantly, in order to make sure that yourbest efforts reach people most in need, youwill need to understand the complexity ofthe literacy issue.

This section will look at:

the current statistical discussions of lit-eracy

the common myths and misconceptionssurrounding literacy

the current face of literacy practice andthe pressing need for new ways to helppeople meet their literacy needs.

LITERACY IN CANADA

Literacy by the Numbers

"Does literacy make people happy? Onlyhighly literate people seem to ask (this)question. And only the well educated seemto say that it does not. They are like the richwho doubt that money makes one happy.Significantly, such doubts come only afterthey have accumulated enough money anddo not have to worry... And Po with thehighly literate."

Jeanne Chall

According to the most recent research find-ings, as many as thirty-eight percent (justunder 7 million) of Canadians between theages of 16 and 69 encounter some d'fficultywith reading activities in everyday life. Thesurvey findings that follow place literacy ona continuum, rather than saying that Xnumber of people are or are not literate.Canadians' reading abilities were organizedinto the following levels of proficiency.

Level One: Seven percent (1.2 million) ofCanadians polled found dealing with printledmaterials nearly impossible. According tothe survey, people in this group often seethemselves as people who don't read.

Level Two: Nine percent (1.6 million) wereable to identify only certain familiar p-inudwords in a simple text. Canadians la thisgroup likely see themselves as people whohave difficulty with reading.

Level Three:Twenty-two percent (4 million)used print materials productively, providedthey were clearly laid out, simply written,

Note:

In this section - and in the secAons to follow - we have tried to be careful of the words and phrases we use to describehow well people read, write, and use numbers. We have avoided using words like "illiterates." We have done thisbecause we believe that people should not be defined by how well they read, write, or use numbers. We also believethat people can improve their literacy if they are given the right opportunity. We hhm therefore chosen words andphrases like "non-reader," "people who can't read," "people who have trouble reading," and so on. While suchphrases may be, perhaps, less offensive, there is still a danger that they will be interpreted as life-defining. Whenyousee these phrases, please take them to mean: "People who have not YET learned to read, write or use numbers wellenough to meet the literacy demands of everyday life."

For many arediadne dealing with printed rrabeiello nearly inipeit716.

and involved tasks that were easy to per-form. People in this category do not neces-sarily see themselves as having readingproblems because they have structured theirlives in such a way that they can control theamount and difficulty of reading they en-counter. (Statistics Canada, 1990)

These findings come from the StatisticsCanada survey of Literacy Skills Used inDaily Activities (LSUDA, 1990). Approxi-mately 9 500 Canadians who had partici-pated in the national Labour Force surveywere polled. The participants were asked toperform a number of tasks that involvedreading, writing, and using numbers. Par-ticipants were allowed to perform these taskseither in English or French.

Following is a sample of the tasks involved:

The Numbers Game

The refusal to acknowledge those who areour sons or daughters, brothers, sisters,neighbours, fellow citizens, or former stu-dents, but whom we have relegated to statis-tical oblivion, holds some dangers that asane society would not ignore.

Jonathan Kozol

It is important to note that certain groups ofCanadians were not included in this survey:residents of the Yukon, Northwest Territo-ries and native Indian reserves, CanadianArmed Forces personnel, and people livingwithin institutions. Statisticians point outthat these people account for about threepercent of the adult population and thattheir inclusion would not significantly alter

Description of task

Sign a social insurance cardCircle expiry date on a driver's licenceLocate correct building using a signCircle the charge on a telephone billRead aspirin instructionsFind a store in the Yellow PagesFind school hours in a pamphlet

Source: Statistics Canada, 1990

% of respondents that did notcomplete the task

2

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 1 2

67

10202541

the findings. Further, proper representationwould require a number of more individu-ally tailored surveys. But these argumentsare acceptable from a statistical standpointonly. We can surmise from educational andeconomic data, and from the people them-selves, that the number of people withinthese groups who would have been placed atLevel One in the survey faf exceeds thenational average. Researchers are bound byrules of statistical fair play that make itdifficult to include all people in Canada.Practitioners need not be.

It is no surprise that many scholars andeducators have given up on trying to makesense of the numbers game of literacy. Intheir 1975 book, Adult Illiteracy in theUnited States, Carmen St. John Hunter andDavid Harmen entitled one section, "Lies,Damned Lies, and Statistics." In it they de-scribe the debate and disagreement over notonly how many adults cannot read, butprecisely what constitutes an adult thatis, at what age a person should be includedin discussions of adult literacy!

Another concern about attempts to surveyfunctional literacy on a national scale is thatthe tasks required in the surveys are fre-quently culturally, economically, and geo-graphically biased, so that not all Canadianscan relate to them. While this is probablytrue, a parallel argument must be made thatthe very fact that people have trouble read-ing and writing may be the reason why theycannot relate to these tasks and activities.Further, perhaps in a changing world , it isimportant that people be able to use literacyskills to do things they have never donebefore. Thus, surveys that challenge partici-pants with new and unfamiliar tasks maylikely produce more accurate or useful find-ings.

For example, in 1987 Southam Communi-cations published a survey of 2 400 adultsfrom across the nation, which found thateleven percent of peopie surveyed were un-able to sign a social insurance card. Statis-tics Canada reported that fewer than onepercent of people were unable to do this.The difference was the people in the Southamsurvey were required to read the documen-tation that normally accompanies applying

for a social insurance card. People in theStatistics Canada survey were simply askedto sign a facsimile of the card. Both findingsare useful. On the one hand we know thatalmost everyone can sign his or her name.We also know that many people may Liplaced in the dilemma of having to add theirsignatures to documents they may not un-derstand. (Calamai, 1987)

Attempts have been made in Canada andelsewhere to place a dollar cost on illiteracy.The Canadian Business Task Force on Lit-eracy commissioned a report in Canada in1988. The report suggetted the cost of illit-eracy to Canadian industry was in excess of$4 billion in the form of industrial acci-dents, mistakes, and increased supervisorytime. When other costs were added, likeunemployment benefits, prisons, and lostwages, the national figure came to more than$10 billion dollars. (Woods Gordon, 1988)Such findings, if not carefully presented,can easily have a backlash effect on peoplewho cannot read. Thus, when promotingyour programming, it is important to be verycareful about emphasizing negative aspectsof the literacy issue. Rather, emphasis shouldbe placed on the positive aspects of literacyfor individuals and for society.

Beyond the Numbers Game

[The right to learn) must be recognized asone of the fundamental rights. The act oflearning, lying as it does at the heart of alleducational activity, changes human beingsfrom objects at the mercy of events to sub-jects whr create their own history.

So far, we have been discussing measuresof "functional literacy" and their implica-tions. Such a discussion helps us to appreci-ate the magnitude of the problems associ-ated with illiteracy. But there is much moreto the issue that cannot be learned by lit-eracy surveys. Surveys can measure, to acertain degree of accuracy, performance andskill; they cannot measure empowerment,creativity, or self-awareness. They also can-not measure feelings of frustration, humili-ation, or defeat.

Co'urveye cannob capLure the delito your childr

There is no measure to describe the relief atraveller feels, late at night in a train station,when she finds a book in her jacket pocket toread as she waits to go home. Surveys can-not tell us anything about the joy a parentfeels during that moment of shared discov-ery when he is reading with his children.Nor can surveys measure the frustration ofnot being able to take advantage of a lessexpensive no-name product because it bearsno picture of its contents. No tool has beendevised that describes the sense of frustra-tion felt by someone attempting to locatesafe, non-prescription medication for a sickchild. The Tinute, daily triumphs that es-cape the notice of many people who readstand in contrast to the endless disappoint-ments of those who cannot.

Life Without Print

Emphasize our capabilities, not our dis-abilities; give us the chance to learn, don'tlabel us as problems.

literacy workshop participants

When preparing this guide we were cau-tioned quite eloquently by a learner to becareful when describing the condition of

4

hb of madioj

people who have trouble reading, writing,and using numbers. She reminded us of howeasy it is to portray people who can't read ashelpless and unfulfilled. Indeed the tradi-tional definition of literacy, according toUNESCO, describes literacy in terms of in-dividual participation in the community ofone's choosing. The implication is danger-ous: people who cannot read do not partici-pate. We should say here, then, that the lackof literacy skills makes full participationmuch more difficult, that it sets up addi-tional barriers, that people who cannot readmust find alternate ways to achieve fullparticipation.

We were also reminded that people usewhat resources they have at their disposal.People who cannot read have not been prop-erly recognized for this. They are frequentlydepicted in the media as people who "blufftheir way out 3f difficult situations." Otherdescriptions tell us that people "devise in-genious strategies" to cope in daily life.Both perspectives are problematic. The firstsuggests that the prime function of peoplewho cannot read is to deceive those whocan. The second assigns almost supernatu-ral powers of intelligence and memory.

14

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Neither recognizes the capacity that is withinall of us to survive, to work from ourstrengths, to meet challenges one at a time asbest we can.

We will continue this discussion with anadditional word of caution. This is a book,created by writers. You are a reader, receiv-ing messages, making interpretations andthinking about future actions. This is a partof what we call literacy. Literacy is not aswitch. You cannot turn it off at will. You, asa reader, cannot know what it is like to beunable to read. You can make comparisons,such as being in a foreign country where thelanguage is unfamiliar to you, but you can-not separate your adult life and experiencesfrom your literacy skills. This fact shouldnot prevent us from discusOng illiteracy.But there is a difference between experienceand expertise. Only from a partnership ofthe two can responsive and accessible pro-gramming result.

MYTHS AND MISCONCEPTIONS

Introduce the topic of literacy in a discus-sion in your community, and you will get aflurry of opinions and some heated debate.Almost everyone will have an idea of whatliteracy is, the literacy skills people need toget by, and why they didn't learn to read andwrite in the past. It is not the intention of thissection to prove which opinions are right orwrong, but to contribute to their discussion.The following are some thoughts to help youguide discussions around the issue:

,The Dimensions of the Issue

People will frequently ask why there are somany people who have difficulty with read-ing Fnd milting. There is not a simple an-sw r,i. to this question. Many hteracy practi-tioners say that the number of reasons equalsthe number of people who cannot read.There are, however, some patterns worthexamining: it is relatively safe to say that themore schooling one has had, the more likelyone is to be literate. But this is not always thecase. Some achieve enormous powers ofliteracy with very little schooling. For oth-ers, the reverse is true. Literacy, the intsrac-tion of people and printed ideas, does not

5

just take place in school. We become literatebecause we have had meaningful opportu-nities to do so. For some, unhappy experi-ences in early life interrupted learning. Oth-ers had to leave sch joi to go to work or towar, and did not have the opportunity torenew their relationship with print. Stillothers have been getting along just fine, butchanges in their lives have created newliteracy challenges for which they are notprepared. Finally, others, segregated fromthe mainstream because of a debilitatinglabel, have simply been cut off from oppor-tunities to learn.

The Role of Learning Disabilities

What is it about our edumtional and socialsystems that allow early verdicts to youngchildren about their adult potential? Whyshould a handicapping condition be used asa rationale for slanting the curriculum awayfrom academic subjects? Why do we spendless time teaching those who need the mosttime to learn?

Tracy Odell

Inevitably, the question of learning dis-abilities will enter the discussion. There isenormous confusion and debate about theextent of learning disabilities. Part of thisstems from the fact that many educatorscannot agree on a suitable definition. Cer-tainly there are people who possess physi-cal disabilities, such as impaired vision orhearing, which make learning to read inconventional ways more difficult. However,advances in computer technology, specialneeds devices, and additional training foreducators nullify any argument that a dis-ability can interfere with learning. Theproblem, in fact, is not the person with thedisability, but our tendency to segregatepeople who have different needs. Thus, wecreate an entirely segregated setting in whichpeople who need more help and more timeto learn receive less of both and are deniedinteraction with people who can read. Whileit is true that everyone learns differently,and that individual strengths vary, the fact isthat everyone can learn.

The Responsibilities ofSchools and Parents

Invariably, discussions of addlt literacyissues turn to children and schoois. Whileour educational system may not meeteveryone's needs, at the same time, it wouldbe unfair to suggest that our education sys-tem is in complete ruin. Thousands of Cana-dian students graduate high school evelyyear and go on to college, university, skilledjob training, or other continuing education.Indeed, we must say in fairness that we havean education system that serves those whoare college and university bound very well.Tt ' s those who are not college or universitybound whose needs are less often met. Theseare the people on whom we should mincen-trate. Another fact is that many people didnot get the chance to go to school. Schoolsare only equipped to supply an education tothose who attend them.

While on the topic of children and schools,your discussion may enter the area of paren-tal responsibilities. People may questionwhether it is the responsibility of the par-ents to ensure their children overcome diffi-culties with reading and writing. There aretwo problems with leaving it up to the par-ents to ensure children get a good education.

j'°irst,it automatically excludes adults who

have difficulty with reading, writing, andusing numbers. Second, literacy and illit-eracy are frequently passed along throughthe generations. People who cannot readshould not be blamed for not supplying theirchildren with literacy skills, which theythemselves were denied. This kind of think-ing also places unreasonable demands onpeople whose lives are overtaxed by pov-erty, work, child care, and other concerns.

Literacy and Social Problems

People are not always poor because they areilliterate, but they are far more apt to beilliterate if they are poor.

Carmen St. John Hunter

What may have been middle-class folkloreis now national ideology; that ideologydepends on experts proving that the poor

6

are incompetent, and that is why they arepoor.

Kathleen Rockhill

Discussions of related issues in the livesof people who cannot read may lead toinaccurate and ill-conceived notions ofcause and effect. It is true that there tend tobe higher rates of illiteracy among isolated,dispossessed, and disenfranchised popu-lations of people (e.g. many of the peopleexcluded from literacy surveys). However,their challenges with respect to literacymay be a co-factor or result of their circum-stances and not a direct cause of them. Youcan balance this argument by asking others

and yourself how they would feel ifdefined only by their ability to read andwrite, or only according to challenges theyface, not their abilities to overcome them.

I'd like to be able to read some of the booksabout asthma. My youngest has asthma,and he gets real bad when the pulp mill isheavy. My husband got these books fromthe doctor but the words are too hard forme. I keep them on the shelf.

Susan, a survey participant

The same is true of health matters. A 1989report published by Frontier College andOntario Public Health Association exam-ined the link between lower levels of lit-eracy and poor health and poor healthpractices. While it found that people whocould not read tended to be less healthythan those who read well, the reasons forthis relationship were far from simple. Itfound that people's health and safety werenot placed at risk by a lack of literacy, norby a lack of information, but by a lack ofaccess to information. Indeed, many peopleunderstood the need for healthy and safepractices at home and at work, but were un-able to use them, not because they couldn'tread, but because information was pre-sented in ways that did not reflect therealities of their everyday lives.

LITERACY PRACTICE IN CANADA

Programming concerned specifically with

1 6

helping adults to become more literate is arelatively new idea. Laubach Literacy Ac-tion, an international organization based inSyracuse, New York, has had programmingavailable in Canada since the mid-seventiesAlthough literacy has always been a compo-nent of Frontier College programs, formalacknowledgement of the issue as a focalpoint for programming did not come yntil1975 when the College launched New Fron-tiers in Literacy, a literacy program for in-mates in Manitoba Correctional Facilities.More free-standing, community-based pro-grams and agencies followed. Throughoutthe 1980s, small programs, designed to meetthe needs of people within their communi-ties and neighbourhoods, popped up hereand there throughout the country. Manysuch organizations and programs operateunder tight budgets, with a small staff andlimited resources, and they frequently de-pend on volunteers to carry out at least partof the instruction and administration.

Funding for community-based literacyprogramming is generally administeredprovincially and locally. Such programs donot always fit easily into the funding formu-las of their provincial governments, whichcontrol educational expenditures. At thesame time, much of federal funding of latehas been earmarked for national program-ming. This has left many community- basedprograms in a delicate financial state, hav-ing to depend on fund-raising activities andannual grants from government departmentsand foundations to sustain themselves. Whilefunding has increased significantly, so havethe pace, size, and demand for programs.

Coalitions like the Movement for CanadianLiteracy and various regional, territorial,provincial, and local umbrella groups haveappeared throughout the eighties to buildawareness in the community, link togetherexisting services, and lobby for funding andsupport from various levels of government.Many coalitions and community-based ini-tiatives make it a policy to have learners ontheir boards, advisory committees, and taskforces. In 1990, a national network ofliteracy learners was organized in

Saskatchewan.

Canada's participation in adult literacywork has received quite a high profile formany years. Frontier College was honouredby UNESCO for "meritorious work in adul'literacy" in 1977, as was the SouthamNewspaper group in 1989 for its 1987 lit-eracy survey. Along with France and India,Canada was a coordinating country for In-ternational Literacy Year. The federalgovernment's five-year commitment of$110 million to literacy, launched in 1988,is to date the greatest per capita dollarcommitment made to the issue by anyWestern country. Yet as of 1987, literacyprogramming throughout the countryserved at best two percent of the people inneed.

The Future of Literacy

As public awareness and, to a lesser ex-tent, funding have increased, literacy pro-grams have been split into a number ofsubgroups. Increasingly, there is an inter-est in prevention programs for children,such as Frnntier College's READ CANADA.Family literacy programming is also be-coming more popular. Throughout thecountry, the last few years have seen anincrease in funding for "workplace lit-eracy" programming, operated by tradeunions, voluntary agencies, communitycolleges, and school boards. More indi-vidualized, self-operating literacy pro-gramming is also being created to meet theneeds and interests of native Indians,francophone communities, and people inrural settings.

This widespread variety of interests inliteracy has sparked concern. Will pro-gramming for those already employed takeprecedence over programming for unem-ployed, economically disadvantagedadults? Will "prevention" take the place ofprogramming for older adults? Will upbeatpromotional activities attract more fund-ing and support than programs that serveisolated and less influential people? Willshort-term saturation of the issue in the

7 17

media create the mistaken belief that theproblem has been solved?

Literacy and Lifelong Learning

I don't know any ...(people who can't read)...who want to compete with the Japanese.They want to read to have some power, tohave some potency, to know the past, tojudge the present, to transform the future.

Jonathan Kozo!

Almost everything that we know and everybias we have about people who can't read isbased largely on our knowledge of the rela-tively few people that literacy programshave been able to work with. Yet, theSoutham survey revealed some interestingfacts. The survey reported that as many ashalf of the people considered not literatesaid that they do not see themselves asbeing held back by a lack of reading andwriting skills. Ten percent reported thatthey would not participate in a literacyprogram.

In the few short years that individuals andorganizations in Canada have committedthemselves to literacy programs, we haveonly scratched the surface in terms of find-ing ways to meet people's literacy needs. Ifpeople who cannot read say that they do notneed or want to be in literacy programs, thatis their right. This does not mean, however,that they do not want to learn. It certainlydoes not mean that they cannot learn.

Public perception of how literacy program-ming works, however, has been narrowedby the way it is promoted in the media. Thefollowing is a typical scenario:

1. An adult who cannot read becomesfrustrated after years of hiding his orher disability.

2. He or she takes a brave step and comesforward and admits to being unable toread or write.

3. On the advice of a friend, the personenrols in a local literacy program, findsa tutor, and learns to read.

Certainly this has happened. We have seen

8

many such adult iiteracy "success stories."And this happens often enough within lit-eracy programs that we should believe weare on the right track in helping people tolearn how to read and write. But we alsoknow that adults who cannot read shouldhave a variety of options. Must the desire tolearn how to read come only from repeatedfailure and disappointment? Does a personhave to "admit" to not being able to read?Must a person always have to place his orher literacy needs to the forefront of life inorder to begin learning?

Clearly this model is not for everyone.Free-standing literacy organizations mustcontinue to exist, not to meet all people'sliteracy needs, but to meet the needs of thosewho wish to use that service. Further,in many communities we have visitedthroughout the country, this kind of pro-gramming is not always possible. In smalldeveloping communities in the North, forexample, the voluntary sector is frequentlystretched to its limits. In others, there is nutthe money nor the demand for a free-stand-ing service. In others still, people who woulduse this service cannot spare the time.

An Integrated Approach to Literacy

The desire to learn and the desire to functionand participate exist within all people, re-gardless of their literacy skills. For manypeople, participating in a literacy program isa low priority among many other goals andresponsibilities: seeking employment, car-ing for children, locating needed financialassistance. Yet literacy and learning canplay a role in each of these desires and more.Indeed, many free-standing literacy pro-grams that use student-centred learning ap-proaches rely on students to express suchgoals so that they can build a curriculum.

The Next Step

People for whom literacy and academicskills are not the first priority deserve to betaken seriously. Literacy skills may be animportant component for their futurewell-being, but their diagnosis of need notoursshould be the basis for program de-velopment.

Carmen St. John Hunter

1 8

The following sections of this guide offersuggestions for carrying this model one stepfurther. Rather than creating stand-aloneprograms, this guide suggests that opportu-nities for increasing reading, writing, andnumeracy skills ought to be integrated intothe services that people use. With this op-tion, literacy becomes a resource, a tool formeeting the real-life needs that people have.

Before we can understand why this is so,we must be able to recognize and under-stand the people who will benefit from anintegrated program. We already know a greatdeal about reading and writing, and perhapsabout how to teach reading and writing. Weneed to know more about people.

9

PROFILES IN ADULT LEARNING

WHO ARE ADULT LEARNERS?

To the sociologist, economist, politicianand demographer, adult learners are manythings, most of which have little to do withthe actual life experiences of the adult learn-ers themselves. The following biographicalsketches and composites give, we hope, aclearer idea of what a cross-section of learn-ers would be like.

Andre

Andre was labelled a "slow-learner" atelementary school. He completed grade tenand soon found plenty of job opportunitiesat a local lumber mill. Without planning along stay, he soon found himself settled intohis well-paying position and was busy raisinga family. His wife has done most of thefamily paperwork (finances, mostly) but hasbeen too busy with her own job and thechildren to coach Andre in these areas. Atwork, Andre must bid for a supervisor'sposition soon or face unemployment, be-cause the mill is laying off people. Thoughhe has seniority, he cannot do the statisticsand write the reports that are required forthat position. Andre initially visits your freejob-counselling service inquiring abouttraining programs for supervisors, but yourrelaxed approach soon enables him to con-fide what he really wants to do is to improvehis reading and writing skills.

Louise

Louise, a 40-year-old woman, already hada family to care for at age 19. She had to leaveschool before getting her diploma, and thebreakup of her marriage a few years later lefther alone, in low-paying restaurant jobs.While she always had a knack for numbers,Louise had to memorize menu items to pro-cess orders in her jobs. Her own childrenhave now left home and Louise is tempo-rarily off work with a back injury. She comes

11

to your agency as a participant in a job-skillsprogram for social assistance recipients. Sheis anxious to improve her reading and writingskills, and thinks she can also be a mathtutor while she waits to get back to work.

Dan

Dan has worked at the same job in thewarehouse department of a large manufac-turing firm for fifteen years. He has led afascinating life, you think, with his workacross Canada. In the aftermath of a marriagebreakup, only his youngest child still liveswith him, and he is determined to help thisdaughter excel at school, as neither Dan norhis oldest child had. You are a local BigSisters agency staff person who first meetsDan when he applies for a big sister for hisdaughter. Dan is concerned that he doesn'thave the reading skills necessary to help hisdaughter, having left school after gradeeight. You also discover that his companywill soon become fully computerized, a factthat makes Dan worry about his future there.

Eleanor

Eleanor has just turned 70, a milestone thatwould be more of a celebration if she hadmore family to share it with. Unfortunately,she finds herself mostly alone in a smallNova Scotia town, and her mobility has beenlimited in recent months by two hip op-erations. She hopes to have a specialwalker soon to assist in getting around townagain. You meet Eleanor as a Meals on Wheelsvolunteer. After her latest operation, Eleanor,fiercely independent, has insisted on takingcare of herself at home, with a little outsidehelp. On occasion, Eleanor has asked you tohelp write letters to her great-niece inVancouver, as well as a complaint to herlocal MLA. She has expressed a great inter-est in w orking on the literacy skills shenever developed as a homemaker in a smallcoal-mining town. She'd like to write her

20

own letters, and would be delighted to be atutor some day for people working at thefish plant nearby, where she understandsthere is a literacy program.

Mohammed

Mohammed is a new Canadian, a youngperson educated in Asia to high schoolcompletion, but with no English until hearrived here. His work requires only a littlepaperwork, but what is necessary is bothcrucial and complicated. He plans to getmarried next year. Unfortunately, becausehe didn't understand the union biddingsystem used at his company, he failed tomaintain his seniority on a well-paying job,and has seen his earnings cut by over fortypercent, and he is now on the 'bottom rung'or seniority again.

This has all put Mohammed in some tightfinancial straits, and he has approached yournon-profit credit-counselling service forassistance. He has never, until now, had tobudget, and seems to be intimidated at theprospect of doing so. He wants to be able tofully understand and participate in this typeof information and process at work, and hasalso expressed an interest in reading in En-glish to the children he soon hopes to have.His spoken English is excellent, but he hasalways had difficulty with reading and writ-ing, largely because he has rarely been calledupon to develop those skills.

Adult learners cut across all socio-economic and cultural barriers. Perhapsone further profile will illustrate this fact:

My Story:

I am in a coordinating position for a smallcommunity agency in . I havatruly enjoyed the work, mostly with peoplewith concerns, but Iwould like more recognition and pay, not tomention more government resources. I havehad a fairly happy life, with the advantagesof the middle clas5 (more or less), and acollege education inSometimes I feel unfulfilled and wonder ifthere will be opportunities to learn more inlife, while I still have the chance to put it to

12

use. I've been thinking that one good pros-pect might be to seek a promotion at myagency. A position will soon be open, butwill require the kind of , budget-ing, and computer skills that I have neverhad. I sometimes think I should take theplunge and get the prerequisite high schoolmath course that will help pave the way fora real shot at this interesting new opportu-nity. But then I suddenly feel a chill, realiz-ing that the night class, the only local op-tion, is probably full of smart-aleck teenag-ers who would be able to write equationsaround me in circles!For many of us, at different points in our

lives, we could put our own name in MyStory, and it would read quite accurately.We do well to remind ourselves that if wetruly adhere to the principles of adult learn-ing (see the following outline), we shouldnot forget that we are all adult learners. It istoo easy to think of adult learners as "them."If we can see ourselves in My Story, we willhave made a fundamental step in becominga successful facilitator or learner in any kindof adult learning context. What unites alladult learners is their desire to learn andtheir individual and distinct li fe experiences.

Most formal education programs now rec-ognize the value of life experience by grant-ing credits in some fashion. Communityorganizations rarely have the authority to doso. They do, however, have the ability, andthe responsibility, to show respect for thelife experience adult learners have had. Ifwe can't see a part of ourselves in everyadult learner, we are doomed to repeat themistakes that formal education systems havemade throughout the years.

ADULT LEARNING A GENERALPROFILE

It may seem obvious to you, but is worthrepeating: adult learners are not just likechildren who are learning to read and write.Ask a twelve-year-old boy to describe him-self, and he will probably start with, "I'm ingrade eight..." Few adults will define them-selves by their learning. No matter howeager they are to learn, this initiative is onlya small part of their lives. Also, for adults,the consequences of "mislearning" are often

Aciu IL6 are idetireed by aexpertem ,ce9.

considerable. These can include impacts onincome, health, workplace safety, and ca-reer prospects.

Adult learners sometimes bring more bag-gage with them than the previous biogra-phies implied. As it has with all of us, lifehas given them both happy memories andscars from hurts past. Many of the painfulmemories of adult literacy learners are asso-ciated with schooling, with education it-self. These memories are often of failure,and, more often still, of name-calling andlabelling.

Depending on their perFpective, profes-sional or personal, others in our lives oftenplace labels on us, some harmless, othershurtful and limiting. It is common to hearadult learners say they have been describedwith labels such as dyslexic, neurotic,perceptual-motor problems, developmentaldelay, loner, dumb, drop-out, underprivi-leged. People are very efficient at absorbingthe world's perception of themselves. Donot be surprised if learners express faith inthe accuracy of these labels.

wide variety of rol,tize aridp.

13

Traditional Teaching vs. Adult Learn-ing

To be successful, the facilitation of adultlearning needs to be different from the styleof learning most of us are familiar with,whether in primary or higher education. Inparticular, literacy learning needs to beself-directed. Adults rarely have the luxuryof time that children do, to sit in a class formonths and years, absorbing a wide varietyof material whose relevance is determinedby others. Adults have goals in mind, thingsthey would like to learn, skills they wouldlike to improve upon. And the acquisitionof these goals must be juggled with othergoals and responsibilities like work, chil-dren, housework, and so on.

It is only in this century that educatorshave truly acknowledged the need for adultlearning programs. It has been barely sixtyyears since the first faculty of adult educa-tion was established in a major NorthAmerican university. Compared to centu-ries of educational theory, adult learningreally is the "new kid on the block."

2 2

AdulL have to juggle leornirg with their dailyrepffligibilites

Traditional teaching:

assumes learner is dependent

operates from institutional needs

motivates through reward and punish-ment

tests frequently

makes little use of students' past experi-ences

uses formal authority and competitiveframework

is evaluated for success by teacher

follows course guidelines step by step

transmits knowledge and wisdom

strives for teacher-determined goals

Adult learning...

uses curiosity for motivation

is based on leamer-centred needs

involves mutually determined goals

uses goal reaching to measure success

sees experience as valued resource

is informal and mutually respectful

follows projects of inquiry

assumes an increasingly autonomouslearner

(adapted from Malcolm Knowles, 1975)

What is obvious to someone paying closeattention to recent trends in education isthat the descriptions of adult learning arenow being heralded as necessary ingredi-ents for any successful learning endeavour.If that is your perception too, the list can be

14

used as a reminder of the inadequacies oftraditional teaching and the fact that ourapproach to teaching adult learners is evenmore important than our teaching content.

The willingness to learn implies an ac-ceptanc s? of the inevitability of change. Any

23

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

real learning involves, to some extent, thebreak-up of our past world and its recon-struction in light of new information. To besure, new ideas and approaches add to exist-ing foundations of knowledge, but some-times they challenge those old beliefs too,some of which we feel are crucial to oursecurity and sense of self. Human beings areall anxious to make sense of the world aroundthem. When cherished opinions of the worldare challenged, we can feel embarrassed andvulnerable. We are at the crossroads ofchange. Too many of us will turn back tosecure beliefs and the status quo; we allhave experience in doing this. To be a truelearner, in any sense, means forging aheadin spite of fears.

Adult learners, without exception, havebravely opened themselves up to the possi-bility of unprecedented personal change.The role of the tutor is to help facilitatechange, as well as learning.

Facilitators and tutors need to be able toreduce the factors that drive learners toresist change, without cajoling or intimida-tion. They must ensure that learners have anequal share (at least!) cf control over thechange that will be tolerated. If they can

facilitate positive change by being open andhonest in all their interactions with thelearner they can build trust. They shouldalso be open to, and prepared for, changethemselves.

The Scope of Adult Learning

The scope of adult learning isall-encompassing. It goes beyond the skillsneeded to read and write. Once these doorsare opened, the learners have a new perspec-tive and means ofjudging their lives and lifearound them. The kind of learning that oc-curs on both sides of a tutor/learner rela-tionship not only changes those individu-als, but it impacts upon their familias,communities, and societies as well.

For example, if, as an indirect result ofliteracy learning, an adult learner begins tothink about the environmental danger ofover-consumption, or learns to invest infinancial markets to secure his or her family'sfuture, where does one draw the line be-tween what is basic learning and what ishigher learning?

Once again, by underlining the indivisiblecontinuum of learning, from basic skills to

What CD* more to a learrir Ehatiotterinj your *rne and yourseft ?

BEST COPY AVAILABLE24

ideals to actions, we can see the impact thatlearning can have on adults.

The Learning Relationship

To many, the idea of teaching adults isintimidating. The feeling of control andsuperiority may comfort a primary schoolteacher, but can have no role in this learningrelationship. Also, as was mentioned ear-lier, adult learners are not like empty vesselswaiting to be filled with the knowledge we,as tutors or facilitators, can offer. They willhave their own ideas about the structure ofthe class, the content, and your role as well.

A first-time tutor may wonder if his or herteaching skills and credentials are adequate.Do I have enough to offer? You can offeradult learners yourself, a learning relation-ship together, and your time. What cruld bemore valuable?

Because the curriculum is built aroundthe learner, and because everyone is dif-ferent, no one can be an expeA on the topicof adult learning. What tutors offer is facili-tation, a helping hand in enhancing andnourishing existing abilities and pointingout hidden abilities. In this endeavour,adequate orientation (see the following sec-tions on this subject) can provide tutors withsome measure of "expertise" in facilitation.

Facilitating learning between equals,between two people knowledgeable aboutthemselves, is obviously different from mostof the learning we have experienced. Thefirst requirement is to establish and supportthe relationship between the two people (orthree, or four), for everything else will de-pend on that relationship. To facilitate thelearning relationship we need to:

Accept learners as they accept themselves.Tutors are not there to cultivate disciplesor change a learner's values.

Involve learners in all aspects of the learn-ing endeavour this is merely a respect-ful and courteous way to treat a peer.

Try to keep the relationship and the ses-sions connected to the context of a learner'severyday experience. Timing, locale, andsubject matter/learning aids have pro-

16

found influences on potential success,and can either affirm or deny the value ofthe learner's experience.

Allow opportunities for success for both(all) of you, early on and frequently.

Make tutoring comfortable and enjoyable.

Be honest and respectful in giving feed-back.

Encourage equal and active participationand responsibilityfor success.

Don't ask for more than you're willing togive.

Be yourself.

None of these tasks should be particularlydaunting. None require specific technicalskills. For some people, these tasks involveunlearning some of their own traditionalapproaches to learning. For all of us, thelearning relationship requires that we relin-quish control, and accept partnership.

STUDENT CENTRED INDIVIDUAL-IZED LEARNING

SCIL is simply an approach to learninbthat embodies the principles that are dis-cussed in this section. SCIL is a way ofcollecting and organizing the elements of arespectful, adult-centred approach to learn-ing into a recognizable whole. There arehooks that describe SCIL, but its essence isnowhere entombed in a book. It is not a text,there are not prescribed SCIL exercises orlevels, and there is no SCIL graduation cer-tificate. SCIL is based, ultimately, upon therelationship between a learner and a facili-tator, a relationship that uses the needs andgoals of the learner to define itself. SCIL caninvolve one-to-one tutoring or small groups.

SCIL is a point of re-entry for adults whowant to improve their reading, writing, ornumeracy skills. SCIL aims to help learnersbuild both practical abilities andself-confidence. SCIL presumes that every-one can learn under the correct conditions.

Through SCIL, adults can develop the skills

25

and confidence necessary to acquire thenext step. For many, that next step ofteninvolves returning to more formal "main-stream" education classes. That is accept-able, as far as SCIL is concerned, as long asthe goal remains the learner's.

Lifelong Learning in Focus, in Context

Adult learners have pressing concerns intheir lives, whether at work, finding work,financial concerns, or family issues. Someof the issues that bring adults to communityorganizations like yours are, in themselves,extremely stressful,

Adult education is about empowerment,but adults must be empowered as wholepeople, or not at all. Progrums for adultlearners must take into consideration all theneeds that may impinge on progress, notmerely the learning needs. If your group isone that deals with a variety of adult needsbesides literacy, this technique will comenaturally.

You may find, however, that it is not pos-sible to respond to all the other needs. It isquite reasonable to decide, as well, not tobecome involved as a personal advocate foran adult learner, either for personal or prac-tical reasons. Where advocacy impinges onthe ability of community-service providersand facilitators to nourish and renew theirown energy and commitment, it is cleFrlycounter-productive.

Given the perennial understaffing andunderfunding of most community agencies,as well as the limitations on the time and

17

effort that staff and volunteers can devote,personal advocacy beyond the call of dutywill simply not be an option for many. Thatis a fair derision to make, and not at all adisservice to leamers.

Learning will take place if there is goodwill and honest effort. Real learning rela-tionships are based on respect and under-standing of the individual lives, and theywither without those qualities. If a relation-ship between the learner and the tutor is toflourish, it must respect the individual needs,choices, and preferences of both people.Like all of us, the adult learner is part of acomplex web of relationships.

The literacy learning relationship is aspecial one, though, in its ability to nurtureand support all the other relationships inthe web.

The Next Step

Given the situation of most adultstheirbusy schedules and overwhelming respon-sibilitiesand given the stigma attach.,c1 tospecialized programs, an integrated ap-proach to learning, one :slat in effect makesthe learning of reading, writing, andnumeracy a part of what we normally doevery day, seems to be a logical option foradults.

To convince others of this fact, others whomay have doubts and apprehensions, youwill need a well-developed rationale andplan that can be presented to thedecision-makers, workers, and participantsin your program.

2 6

3 INTEGRATING LEARNING PROGRAMS INTO YOURORGANIZATION

A RATIONALE FOR INTEGRATEDLEARNING INITIATIVES

Our [Frontier College's] challenge is notinternalto double and quadruple our pro-arams and to "dominate" a sector. Badstrategy. Rather, we challenge school boards,community colleges, business, labour, com-munity groups and every citizen to look atwhat is possible. Take a risk. Do something.It can be small or large. Just start.

Jack Pearpoint

In the first section we presented an over-view of the facts about literacy in Canada:the numbers of people who have difficultyreading and writing, the effects on qualify oflife, health, employmentwhic.ILTOpula-lions are more likely to have difficulty read-ing an0 writing, and so on.

Reading and writing, not surprisingly, arenecessary skills in everyday life. Peoplewith poor roading skills experience isola-tion from society because they do not oftenshare in human contact through the printedword.

As the first section implied, the problem istwo-fold. The need for programs far exceedsthe supply, and the people who need toimprove their reading and writing skills areinhibited from coming forward by variousfactors. There are many ways to includepeopleways that are not confined to thewalls and chalkboard of a classroom. In thissection we will discuss how integratedlearning programs, by their very nature, areless threatening to individuals who want tolearn. The stigma of specialized programsis removed because, ideally, learning toimprove reading and writing skills will be-come part of everyday activities. Moreover,the integrated approach extends the owner-ship and responsibility for literacy skillsdevelopment to the community: people ina position to join and help the movement to

increase literny in society.

A Need For Integration

As the statistics in the first section indi-cate, adult literacy programs are unable tomeet the numbers of people who needassistance. Recognizing the problem,community-based literacy programs beganto appear about ten years ago. Now there arehundreds of community-based literacy pro-grams and other specialized programs acrossCanada. Once again, however, the need sur-passes the supply. Together, these groupsstill only reach a small portion of the peoplewho need to improve their reading, writing,and numeracy skills. If we develop learningopportunities as part of everyday activitiesin places where people gather to work,socialize, or seek support, chances are thatthe acquisition of skills will be much moresuccessful. Learning, therefore, becomes amore spontaneous and natural act.

By integrating literacy learning opportuni-ties into existing community resources, wewill be reaching people who may need toimprove their literacy skills, but will nottake part in a structured program. TheSoutham and Statistics Canada surveysshowed that among those who have diffi-culty with written material are people whoare employed, who have received a highschool education, and who choose not toread. Also, many of the children who are notreceiving homework assistance from par-ents, or who do not learn the value of writtenlanguage, are more likely to become adultswith reading difficulties later on.

Adult Learning

Program dev elopment also needs to takeinto accothe adult learners' daily lives. Theirroles are various and often involve too muchresponsibility and too little time. They canbe parents, spouses, tenants, workers, care

givers, benefit recipients, and so on. Skillbuilding is one among many goals that viefor attention in the lives of many adults. Tobe successful, a learning strategy must takeinto account the various roles and responsi-bilities that affect a person's everyday expe-riences; it cannot be isolated from theseother realities.

Obstacles to Improving Literacy Skills

Personal and social obstacles inhibit manypeople who want to improve their literacyskills from coming forward. Feelings of em-barrassment or inadequacy resulting from alack of reading and writing skills can act asa significant barrier to other learning.

After a woman has been at the shelter for afew days, we sit down with her and togetherset out a plan of action that usually includesfinding employment and housing.

I recall one woman was always skimmingthe newspaper, but there was somethingdifferent about what she was doing. As Iwatched her each day, I realized it was whatshe wasn't doing. She would read veryintently, turn the pages, but would never

write anything down. She seemed to bemaking no effort to get a job, yet she was ahighly motivated person. Some of us beganto see her as perhaps lazy, unmotivated, andlacking self-confidence. Yet, this was baf-flingduring discussions with her she waskeen and interested. Finally, she asked oneof our volunteers where "I-I-I-Isling-t-t-on"Avenue was, pointing at an ad and readingwith difficulty. Then we understood herproblemshe had difficulty -eading andwas not able to tell us this. Now we have unew awareness of the problem and how itaffects the work we are trying to do with ourprogram participants.

a director of an emergency shelter forabused women and their children.

RE-EXAMINING APPROACHES TOLITERACY

There are two main thrusts to any nationalliteracy endeavour prevention andremediation. The work of adult educatorsand activists has been to concentrate on thelatter thrust, that to enable adults withlow literacy skills to seek help they need to

STIGMA 31:ip

Many CopMiahs are Paced. With hurdles when4,1ey Wait Lo ieh pram their Jiteticy 6kill5.

28

function more competently in their roles asworkers, parents, and citizens.

Audrey Thomas

To be truly integrated, a program must facethe challenge of moving beyond teachingadults the basics of reading and writing.Integrating literacy into existing facilities,agencies, services, programs, and so on,means adding something that enhances andworks together with what's being done. Thefollowing pages will re-examine the defini-tion of literacy by considering the "ollowing:

Literacy learning can involve more thanjust adults who, for whatever reason, neverlearned to read or write.

Literacy learning can move beyondone-to-one tutoring.

Perhaps society's weakest link isn't thepeople who can't read and write, but ratherthe inability of those who can to commu-nicate their messages clearly.

This section will then illustrate how toinclude and integrate learning strategiesinto everyday activities where people gatherand meet, in the hope of reachii.g morepeople.

Beyond the Adult Learner

The practitioner who defines literacy as aset of skills or as the ability to use skillswithin work, community, or cultural set-tings is in danger of placing the entire bur-den of change on the individual adult learner.The people with limited skills become thefocus of needed change. On the other hand,when literacy is seen in the context of socialrealities, then social, political, and economicstructures are identified as the focus forneeded change. Access to knowledge andthe power to create and use social knowl-edge become the crucial issues.

Carmen St. John Hunter

Along with focusing programs on helpingadults to read and write through tutoring,literacy development stiould focus on thedifferent ways that skills development canbe achieved. Opportunities are limited onlyby lack of creativity.

21

Integrated literacy programs can involvemany different types of learning, dependingon the way the programs are delivered, thevarious meanings that students give to them,and the perceptions of the organizers. Con-sider the following scenarios. These ex-amples have been chosen to show an exten-sion of the way we traditionally think ofli eracy programs.

Example One:

"I didn't realize that I could begin readingto my daughter at such a young age," amother said while her daughter playednearby. "When I had my baby shower," shecontinued, "I received lots of books. I putthem away thinking that I would have towait until she is older to read them to her."

a mother at a home for single mothersattending a family literacy program

For the child whose mother understandswith fresh insight the importance of booksand reading to her daughter, life will be richwith the joy of discovery, the vital connec-tion with a parent, and the fun of readinglong before she begins school. The motheris not being tutored to read and write, butshe is being encouraged to develop a posi-tive attitude toward books and learning withher daughter.

Example Two:

"This particular area has a lot of lightindustry, factories, and older homes. Somepeople hae lived here all their lives. Re-cently, developers are showing an interestin this area and the residents here are notpleased. We will be trying to set up an oralhistory project, which will involve learnersand tutors going out into the community tointerview residents and putting together adescriptive report of their findings."

a literacy coordinator

In this example, literacy development hasbecome linked to advocacyunderstand-ing what the community is about so thatpeople can recognize and appreciate whatthey are protecting. An oral history project

is a literacy program but also has the poten-tial to be a vehicle for social change if thefindings can be included in a report to thelocal planning council. Through these ac-tivities, people feel a sense of empowermentand can see the impact they have on theircommunity.

Example Three:

"We've noticed a trend in the last couple ofyears that has taken us by surprise. Moreand more of our volunteers are coming fromethnic groups. This has been wonderful.However, there have been problems withcommunication. One fellow, for instance,was recently putting boxes that had justbeen delivered back on the truck. Often,too, the words we use at the hospital are noteasily understood. What we need as part ofvolunteer training is a sensitivity to com-munication problems across cultures, and apresentation of commonly used terms andwhat they mean."

a volunteer administrator at a North Yorkhospital

The hospital example points out the need

for a communication system that empha-sizes plain language. The problem is notjust the fact that the volunteers have diffi-culty with English, but also the fact that thecommunication system is poor.

Communication is a Two-Way Process

People who are acquiring new skills needa climate of sensitiiity and openness, andthe use 'of language that is clear. Here's ahypothetical example:

Picture a typical scene in a mechanic'sgarage. Sean is a successful accountant butknows little about cars. He has entrusted hiscar to his mechanic, Dave, who knows ev-erything about cars, but little about how tocommunicate his knowledge. Here is theconversation when the mechanic explainswhat is wrong:

Da (mechanic):

Looks like you've got weak breakerpoints. They're going to need adjustingto the gap they're supposed to be at.

Sean:

Uh, O.K. What about the engine rattle

00 L.

ar.

Aci711,11 .4111A1 ,

;3+ Al

Clear conimunicaEion mvvEs wick both partie.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 3 ()

I keep hearing?

Dave:

Oh, that could be a lot of things. I'mgoing to check the timing and the heatvalve, but I suspect it's the condenserwhich may need replacing. If it's thedistributer unit, wow, you really haveproblems.

Sean:

(a slight note of panic in his voice)Well, I suppose if you have to do allthat, it's got to be done.

The point of the example is to help youexperience , as much as you can, what aperson who has difficulty reading and writ-ing faces in circumstances where choicesand decisions need to be made.

In the example, two obstacles preventedSean and Dave from communicating. Seanfound himself faced with the same obstaclethat people who can't read and write faceevery day. In the example, Sean is compa-rable to a person who can perhaps read andwrite basic works, but often has troublecomprehending much of the material hesees every day. Like Sean, this person mayfeel inadequate, as if he should know more.The reasons Sean didn't ask the mechanicmore questions (Can I see the worn con-denser? How long will the old one last? Willit damage my car?) are similar to the ob-stacles to learning found in the illustrationon page 18.

1. The mechanic knows what he is doing. IfSean asked too many questions it wouldlook like he didn't trust Dave's knowledgeand judgement. (Similar to a worker whodoesn't understand why his dentist billwasn't covered by insurance, but can'tread the benefits booklet. He may notwant to give the people in personnel theimpression that he does not trust themby asking too many questions.)

2. The unfamiliar words were coming toofast for him to question. (Text often hasunfamiliar words.)

3. Because Sean believed he was the onlyone in the service area who didn't know

23

what the mechanic was saying, he chosenot to assert himself and ask the questionshe needed to ask in order to make aninformed choice. (Most people knowhow to read and write; others will knowyou can't if you ask for clarification.)

Literacy Development Encourages:

self-esteem

confidence in personal change

freedom; a sense of choice

critical thinking

greater ability to communicate clearly

learning about the world

knowledge about how to act and survivein the world

The other obstacle that prevented Daveand Sean from communicating was Dave'sinability to communicate a message. Whatwe are advocating in this guide is that com-munication is a shared responsibility and atwo-way interactive process that peopleuse to understand one another.

In the example, Sean could not understandthe mechanic. However, the weakness inthe link was not just Sean's lack of knowl-edge about cars, but also the mechanic'sinability to deliver the message. In terms ofreading and writing, this obstacle can beovercome by re-examining how we commu-nicate to people. The use of jargon or diffi-cult words can diminish the communica-tion process. If a person's goal is functionalliteracy, the means to that goal will dependon that person's willingness to learn andalso on the ability of the teaching source tocommunicate the necessary knowledge.

Programs That Teach More Than Readingand Writing

Literacy is enabling, illiteracy is disabling.

Audrey Thomas

An ability to make informed choices, to

31

exercise independent thinking, and to ob-tain needed information to make decisionsare all part of being fully literate. Among themany things that assist people in becomingparticipating members in our society, lit-eracy development is a powerful one.

If a program is to be truly integrated, thecontext of the learning must be real lifeconcerns and needs. Reading and writingdevelopment goes beyond one-to-one tutor-ing to decipher words. It should also pro-vide people with ways to understand theworld around them and how it affects them.The learning content needs to include botha structural level of learning, and a deeper,more critically meaningful one.

An integrated literacy program would ana-lyze learning material in two ways: in thecontext of structural learning (semantics oflanguage, grammar) and in the context ofmeaningful learning (analyzing content,meaning, dilemmas, solutions). The fol-lowing sentences, then, would be analyzedin two ways:

"Add 1 litre of water to evely 5 ml ofsolution. If this formula is not diluted ac-cording to instructions, your baby's healthmay be at risk."

Structural learning Meaningffil learningfocuses on: focuses on:

spelling

punctuation

grammar

sentence structure

an understanding ofthe problem

3ts significarce

a recognition ofpossible solutions

(adapted from Botkin, et al, 1979) ,A learner, encouraged to exercise mean-

ingful learning, reads the words and goesbeyond the structural level of the sentenceto compare the information to other things.A tutor could ask the learner:

1. Are there other potentially harmful thingsin a baby's world that you may not beaware of? (medication, toys, cribs, etc.)How can you find out about them?

24

2. What have you learned? Based on thisnew information, will you now be morelikely to check all labels you come across?Will you tell other mothers about yourexperience?

3. What about your own health? Are therethings you need to be aware of at yourwork or at home?

When reading and writing developmentgoes beyond structural learning to includemeaningful learning, or critical thinking,learners quickly achieve more autonomyand self-reliance.

Autonomy also involves the assertion ofone's right to belong to the whole, and canincrease a person's capacity to enter intowider human relationships, to cooperate forcommon purposes, to make linkages withothers, to understand larger systems, and tosee the whole of which one is part.

No Limits To Learning: Bridging the Hu-man Gap

When we think in terms of meaningfullearning, questions move beyond "What doesthis sentence say?" or "How do I completethis form?" to "How do I become a success-ful participant in this workshop?" or "Whatwill it mean for me if I can't find affordablehousing?" Meaningful learning becomes animportant and vital way of addressing in-equalities that occur in society. The task ofensuring that everyone has an opportunityto learn becomes a social issue, part of thecommunity's responsibility.

The Next Step

Approaches to integrated literacy programsshould go beyond the direct one-to-one in-struction of adults, to include others, suchas parents, children, groups of people withcommon interests, and so on. There isn't amagic line a person crosses whereby sud-denly they have passed between non-literateand literate. The process is gradual andcontinual. The possibilities for literacy de-velopment expand when you begin to seeliteracy as part of the means to an end, not anend in itself.

32

PLANNING AND ORGANIZING A LITERACY INITIATIVE

PLANNING TO LEARN; LEARNINGTO PLAN

Planning allows you to control what you'redoiqg and to create an initiative within afixed framework of time, money, staff re-sources, space, and so on. Organizing setsthe process in motion by enlisting others tohelp and by setting priorities and param-eters for the project.

To help you think about how to set up yourown service within your agency, organiza-tion, volunteer group, or community, con-sider an existing model that provides lit-eracy services, and extract the wisdomof years of experience from it.Community-based literacy programs havebeer established for over ten years now andhave found, through trial and error, an ef-fective system to teach reading, writing, andnumeracy skills.

What is a Community-Based LiteracyProgram?

Examining the characteristics ofcommunity-based literacy programs can helpyou become aware of how the communitycan be used, how the acquisition of newskills can help people become more confi-dent, and how shared involvement of vol-unteers, learners, and organizers can makeyour initiative come alive.

A good way to understand whatcommunity-based literacy programs are allabout is to examine the word community asthey see it.

Community means:

a geographic location

a set of common values

shared involvement

Setting Boundaries

Geographic location refers to both wherethe community is situated and its bound-aries. Often, in order to preserve its identityand mandate to serve a specific population,a community-based program will exercisestrict boundaries from which it will drawnot only its learners, but also tutors, staff,board members, and resources. Your ser-vice or program may have similar boundaries.Once you have established the boundaries,you will be able to anticipate your program'sneeds and project whether you can meetthose needs.

A community-based literacy program ac-tively promotes community involvement inwhatever way is appropriate. The commu-nity can share in the responsibility for pro-viding literacy development to local adultsby offering resources to the program. Forexample, a local library may offer space tothe program, the local press will contributeto the publishing of learners' stories andpoems, a local board of education may pro-vide funding, a local campus may help torecruit tutors.

Establishing Values

Often, a set of common values are sharedby those who are involved in the program.Values translate into operating philosophies,such as ideas about how adults learn best,what people need in order to learn, the placethat empowerment has in literacy work, andthe role that society plays in assisting literacyskills development.

Clear articulation of your program's valuescan help you make difficult decisions. Forexample, one of your values may be that allpeople should be given an equal opportunityto learn. When a person you've just trainedbalks when you suggest they work withsomeone who has a physical disability, you

2533

need to go back to your values and use themas a basis for a decision. Is this personupholding your program's values? Is he orshe appropriate for your program?

ou are responsible for the quality controlof your program, and the people you want tohelp need to be provided with supportiveexperiences. A person who contravenes yourprogram's values can harm not only theperson with whom he or she is working butthe entire operation as well.

When it becomes necessary to remove aperson from the organization under thesecircumstances, a current list of volunteeragencies (literacy as well as others) willassist in helping you to redirect the personto a suitable agency.

They may want to know why they are beinglet go, and at that point you must tell them.You should always be prepared to defendyour program's values.

When you are planning to add a literacycomponent to an existing facility, think aboutyour current values by asking: what's im-portant to us in our work, in the way werelate to each other, the people who use ourservices, the way that decisions are made?

Begin to examine what literacy means toyou and the people who use your services.Will the people involved benefit from one-to-one tutoring? Do you feel a family literacyinitiative, which would encourage parentsand children in your community to readtogether, could become part of your currentprogramming? Perhaps you see iiteracydevelopment as a group of volunteers youcoordinate to read to older adults at a seniors'care facility. Whatever your ideas, theyneed to be congruent with the rest of yourorganization's values.

Next, you need to communicate programvalues to your volunteers.

Some suggestions for how to do this in-clude:

Have a video or slide show depictinglearners and tutors discussing what theprogram means to them. Then ask yourvolunteer group what they think the pro-gram stands for, based on what they have

just seen. The ensuing discussion willdrive home your philosophy.

Ask active program participants to comeand talk to the group. Tutoring, familyliteracy, peer learning it really doesn'tmatter what form your program has taken,the people in your program will speak foryou.

Shared Involvement

The third characteristic of a community isshared involvement. This means memberslearn together and actively participate in thelife of the program. People will often meetin groups, allowing for the program to beused as both a social outlet, as well as a placefor learning. Among other things, a commu-nity-based literacy program's strength comesfrom the feelings shared among participants.Feelings of commitment and involvementare generated by a structure that enables allmembers, if they choose, to involve them-selves in the day-to-day activities, decisions,and long-term goals of the program.

The line between learners and tutors oftenblurs in community-based programs becauselearners are encouraged to become volun-teers in their own program. Since involve-ment is so high, people share feelings offrustration when funding efforts fail. Theyshare in each other's small triumphs, storiesof overcoming difficulty, and feelings of losswhen people move on. For people withreading and writing difficulties, getting in-volved in the program is part of their learn-ing and helps to boost self-confidence. Extrahands are also useful when staffing andfunding never seem to be enough.

Go to the People.Live with them,

learn from them,love them.

Start with what they know,Build with what they have.But with the best leadersWhen the work is done,The task accomplished,The people will say,"We have done this ourselves."

Lao Tsu, 700 B.C.

2694

Evaluation

Much of the success of community-basedprograms is linked to their constantself-evaluatio'n and self-criticism of phi-losophy, methods, and activities. Again, thefocus is on shared involvement; ideas comefrom both volunteers and program partici-pants. Program organizers look to otherprograms as a source of new ideas and po-tential improvements. Committed staff, vol-unteers, and learners provide a constantsupply of ideas for improving the program.

"We are constantly asking ourselves andeach other whether what we're doing isworking. If it is, we ask, "Why is it working?"and "How can we use that knowledge else-where?"

a literacy coordinator

A committee to explore potential initiativescan be set up Li include people from all partsof your organization. They can brainstorm

ideas, recruit participants, and so on. Tointegrate learning initiatives into existingresources, it is important to involve peoplefrom all areas so that every idea or approachis then diffused throughout the organiza-tion. In this way, literacy skills developmentbecomes linked to other activities and is notnecessarily seen as a separate thing.

ORGANIZING

Organizing is not a mysterious process.Like many things, it involves skills that canbe learned and developed. Moreover, youprobably have many of the skills necessaryfor effective organizing. In the past, you mayhave planned a get together with friends,your child's birthday party, a school fund-raising event, a street garage sale, or a localfair. We plan and organize all the time. Welearn by trying out our ideas, watching whathappens, thinking about what went welland not so well, and why, and then changingour actions so that next time success is more

Or9anizin3 is like, detective work.

27

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 35

likely. This is the basic process of all learn-ing.

Organizing is like detective work. You tryto find out how you or your group's idea willbe received, who can benefit, why it has notbeen tried before, and if it has been tried,what happened. As you learn more, youbecome a vital advocate. More importantly,as you organize, you get people involved inthe planning process, an important factor inthe eventual success of your initiative.

General Steps In The Organizing Process

1. The "gap", (a shortcoming, absence inthe system) is identified.

2. Someone, something, or some group willbenefit if the gap is filled.

3. At this point, as far as you know, nothingis being done to fill the gap. You find outif your understanding is correct.

4. You think that your interest and enthu-siasm can help to change the situation.You may also feel you have someknowledge in the area, and you are will-ing to learn more.

5. You speak with others who may be af-fected by the gap, and you find out if theywould be willing to support your efforts.

6. Depending on the situation, you mayvisit key professionals, other commu-nity groups, academics, and any otherpeople who are able to provide insightsand information. You can make a check-list of community resources, noting thecontact person, what the service oragency provides, and its possible link-age to your program or idea.

The Importance of a Needs Assessment

When you have completed the detectivework, you conducted what's called a needsassessment. A needs assessment is eitherthe formal or informal collection of data,which tells you who you think will benefitfrom your program, their educatIonai needs,and any other factors that are relevant to thesuccess of your initiative.

It is important to find out what needs yourparticipants have. There is one effectiveway to find nutask them and others in-volved. Speak with people at all levels ofparticipation so that you receive many dif-ferent perspectives. Both volunteers andthe people who use your program, service,or facilities will welcome the chance to beincluded in a new initiative, paving the wayfor greater involvement as the program getsstarted.

A needs assessment of your community ororganization will provide you with informa-tion about the age of the people who useyour facility, where they live, their ethnicbackground, income level, any specific needsthey may have, and whatever else you feel isimportant to know.

After you have gathered this information,you will be ready to begin speaking withiadividuals. Two approaches can be used:one-to-one interviewing nr ei focus group.Which one you use will depend on yoursituation. Where people may feel intim:-dated, one-to-one interviewing may be best.A focus group brings different people in thecommunity or organization together (orga-nizers, volunteers, participants) and issuesare brought out and their relevance assessed.The information gathered is used to plan theintegrated learning initiative. For both ap-proaches, ask questions that focus on theextent to which reading and writing is usedin everyday activities; whether people arehaving difficulty reading your program lit-erature; awl whether they, or anyone theyknow, wouid he interested in learning moreskills for reading and writing.

By asking these questions you are begin-ning to involve people. By involving peoplein the planning phase, you are giving themownership of the idea. A fully integratedprogram is characterized by a group effort inthe coordination, planning, and creation ofthe program. Everyone who is interestedcan be involved. If you can point to a"literacy room" where "literacy stuff" goeson, or to one person who does the "literacypart of our program," then the program is notfully integrated into everyone's day-to-dayactivities and thinking, and not integrated

28 36

Interview6 help you plan -the learninginto your existing organization.

There are several good reasons for con-ducting a needs assessment:

When you know specifically where theneed is, you know where to focus yourefforts.

The recognition of needs helps to articu-late objectives and evaluate the program.

Participation in the planning stages bypeople in your organization will encour-age a favourable attitude to your program;inclusion invites success.

Data that outlinea the need in your organi-zation will be useful when you seek fund-ing and administrative support.

Establishing Objectives

Setting objectives helps to focus your ac-tivities and provide a basis to refer to whenyour program encounters new challengesand decisions. Objectives guide you, but canbe changed as your program develops. Toknow where you are going, you need toknow the purpose of your program, what

participants will get out of the program, andwhat the expected results are for your or-ganization and the volunteers.

Your program should have its own defini-tion of what literacy and other learninginitiatives mean to you. You may view lit-eracy as storytelling, deciphering govern-ment forms, one-to-one tutoring, and so on.You may also want your initiative to dealwith banking tips, income tax, the processfor filing complaints to government agen-cies. The definition you use should reflectyour existing organizltion or service and theneeds of those in your group. The purposeof your initiative needs to be realistic andspecific. A poor description of objectiveswould be:

"The purpose of this program is to helppeople improve their literacy skills." Abetter example is:

"XYZ Centre, a home for young offenders,provides literacy development as part of itslife skills program, recreational activities,and parenting program. The approachesused are one-to-one tutoring, group learn-ing, reading for pleasure, and providinginformation on reading to children."

29

37

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Your list of objectives should includelearner outcomes, that is, what you wantparticipants to achieve through the program.Part of this will come from your overallneeds assessment. Since you are integratingyour program into an existing organization,you will already know what benefits partici-pants gain from the organization; now youneed to consider how your integrated pro-gram can support and supplement thesebenefits. Examples of learner outcomes are:

Through an integrated approach to devel-oping creative writing skills, this programintends to provide participants with ex-periences and opportunities that will fa-cilitate their personal growth, encourageself-confidence, and convince participantsof the importance of personal experiences.

As a result of this program, parents willunderstand the importance of reading totheir children, and the children will en-joy the closeness and attention they re-ceive from their parents during the read-ing sessions.

Your objectives can also include a descrip-tion of the volunteers' role:

As a result of this program, our volunteerswill be able to provide one-to-one tutoringto clients during the time they spend atour facility.

As well as a statement of results you wantthe community to experience:

This program intends to raise publicawareness at the local, business and mu-nicipal levels of the needs of people in ourconununity who experience difficultieswith reading printed material.

EXPERIENCES IN INTEGRATION

An understanding of how communitybased literacy programs have approachedliteracy building can lead to an integratedprogram that incorporates much of the wis-dom and experience from these programs.The early stages of your venture are impor-tant. Here is an example of an integratedlearning program. As you read it, make amental note of what elements were success-

30

ful in the program and what you would dodifferently.

ABC Centre is located in Toronto and is ahome and care facility for young pregnantwomen and mothers. Many extra-curricularprograms are available to those at the centreand to the community. Programs includedinner and social evenings, life skills train-ing, employment program, and recreationalactivities.

Partners In Learning, a program created toproduce educational materials for organiz-ers interested in adding literacy to existingservices, helped to initiate a joint partnershipwith the centre whereby literacy skills de-velopment would be introduced and even-tually integrated into their programming.With the help of a volunteer, a series of threeone-hour informal workshops were run foryoung mothers and their babies. The work-shops were aimed at teaching the mothersthe importance of reading to their childrenat an early age, and the bond that language,song, and closeness can create betweenparent and child.

Before the first workshop, flyers announc-ing the program were distributed inside thecentre. The heading was Books for Babiesand said "Come learn about reading to yourchildren at an informal get together." Therewas no mention of literacy.

At the first session the room was filled, butthe air was thick with tension; no one spoke,the mot!'.ers looked uncomfortable. The fa-ciljtators proceeded anyway, by askingquestions such as, "Do you remember beingread to as a child? What did you like aboutit?" and writing down responses on a flipchart for all to see. By the end of the sessionthe air had cleared. When they left the ses-sion, the facilitators noticed a chalkboardmessage that read: "Reading program today,mandatory attendance for all mothers." Nowonder there were so many participants!After speaking with the coordinator, thefacilitators were assured that the followingtwo sessions would not be mandatory, yetall the mothers were present. During thecourse of the prcgram three mothers cameforward who wanted help with their readingand writing skills.

38

e

O

meding group aL a waneilts ciltom.This example points out several important

things to be aware of as an organizer ofliteracy-related events. To learn effectivelyand enjoyably, people need to participatevoluntarily. What if no one shows up? Do allthat you can to tempt them:

Ask people if they would be interested inattending a session and find out what timeis good for them.

Find out what interests people, what theyneed.

Offer something: snacks, buttons, books,coupons, or a small token that highlightsthe event.

Get people to sign up and leave theirphone number. That way they will feelthey're committed. If they have saidthey'll come and don't show, ask a volun-teer to call each one back saying, "Wereally missed you last night." This makesthem feel importer,' to the group.

The example also shows ways to allowpeople who may have difficulty reading andwriting to come forward and participate in anon-threatening event. A stigma is a mark

31

that sets someone apart from the rest. Boththe words "literacy" and "illiteracy" carrysuch a mark. Just as language and thoughtcan be used to integrate, they can be used toseparate. People may shy away from work-shops that use the word literacy. Name yourevent or activity in a way that broadens themeaning of literacy. Programs like People,Words, and Change, Independent Studies,Neighbourhood Language Project, East YorkLearning Experience, Learning in the Work-place, Beat the Street, bring to mind notionsof communication, relationship, empower-ment and equality, while avoiding the wordliteracy.

A facilitator at a life/work skills program atFanshawe College shares how she helpsthose in the group who have difficulty read-ing and writing, without calling attention tothem or treating them differently:

Leave them alone until they feel comfort-able volunteering to read.

Use flipcharts to list simple words; al-ways avoid jargon.

Encourage people to "buddy up" and helpeach other.

BEST COPY AVAILABLE 39

For small group work where participantsin the workshop write their own ideas out,allow people who have difficulty readingand writing to use tape recorders. Whenthe information is presented to the largegroup, the taped message can be writtendown by the facilitator in simple lan-guage.

Simplify theories and models by remov-ing the idiom, but retaining the meaning.

An integrated approach to literacy reflectsthe needs of those who participate. Sinceneeds and circumstances change over time,it is not surprising when an activity naturallyflows into another related activity. An ex-perience at Common Ground, a women'sdrop-in centre, illustrates this evolutionaryprocess.

A series of informal workshops were set upto encourage mothers to read to their childrenwithin their daily lives. The first of severalsessions was well attended by a small groupof core people with their children. As theweather outside got warmer, however,people started coming sporadically andparticipation began dropping. The time waschanged to link it with a lunch programwhere a meal was prepared and shared.Since there were fewer children present,and only a few of the core mothers left, thegroup collectively decided to drop the par-ent/child reading time and become a moth-ers' reading group. After lunch the mothersread to each other, passing the book fromhand to hand as they tire, (not all read, somejust listen), and the session lasts from anhour to an hour-and-a-half.

Another example of approaching literacydevelopment from the context of the par-

ticipants is a group of homeless people who,through a workshop, began to feel that theirpredicament was not made very clear to thepublic by the media. They decided to writetheir story about what it's like to be home-less, and presented the article to a localnewspaper. During the process, they learnedabout writing and research (structurallearning). They also came to a betterunderstanding of the context in which theylive, a shared perception among themselves,which helped them deal with their feelingsdanger and resentment, and how they couldgain some control over their lives by advo-cating on their own behalf (meaningfullearning),

Your literacy initiative doesn't have to be amassive effort or make a "big splash." More-over, you don't need to do it alone. Involvepeople; ask for help from both within yourorganization and from the literacy programsthat exist in your community. You may besurprised at the resources and assistancethat are available. To plan and organize aliteracy initiative as an integral componentof your organization, agency, service, and soon, you require some basic knowledge and alot of common sense.

The Next Step

Although the initial stages of this initiative(learning about the issue, rationalizing in-tegration, introducing the concepts to col-leagues) may be completed by one indi-vidual, from here on a group effort mustbegin. Enthusiasm is contagious; the moreeager you are to make this concept of inte-g ation a reality, the more successful youwill be in recruiting volunteers and partici-pants.

34 0

GENERATING INVOLVEMENT

RECRUITING PARTICIPANTS

Recruitment is USER oriented. For an of-fering to be worthwhile to others, it must beperceived as valuable by them. Only thenwill it motivate positively.

Sue Vineyard

When the groundwork of an integratedlearning program is completethe topic hasbeen researched, the need for integrationestablished, the policies and philosophychosenthe next stage is to get people in-volved: to recruit.

This is the point where the project is aboutto be launched. It can be a very interestingand satisfying experience if the preparationhas been thoughtful and systematic. Essen-tial to this process of recruitment is therecruiter's ability to "market" the idea ofintegrating literacy within his or herorganization's seevices. To do this well, therecruiter has to have a clear idea of the aimsand goals of such an initiative, and be able toexplain why integrated learning is of suchimportance in the organization's services.He or she will have to pitch the idesi to theconstituents within the organization.

If the ream iter is able to sell the idea tosuperiors, colleagues, and service consum-ers, a major step forward will have beentaken in the recruitment campaign, by in-volving them at the very inception of thegrand scheme.

Before proceeding r. y further, perhaps itwould be useful to look at some of thecharacteristics that make a good recruiter. Ingeneral, a good recruiter is someone who:

thinks clearly and is well organized

has boundless enthusiasm

is able to use common sense in dealing

33

with problems

has researched the topic of literacy

has good communication skills and en-joys working with people

has excellent networking skills to drawsupport and resources for the literacyproject

is persistent and can work through theproblems that occur with any new ven-ture

has a good sense of humour.

Even if your recruiter, whether it is you orsomeone else, does not possess all the abovetraits, don't be discouraged. People learnthrough experience. Besides, you will get alittle help from your friends in the steeringcommittee.

The Literacy Steering Committee

The purpose of a literacy steering com-mittee is to oversee the functioning of theproject, including the task of recruitment. Itshould be organized early, and be composedof representatives of all the potential partici-pants within your organization. Such a com-mittee will generate more ideas and enthu-siasm than just one person. More impor-tantly, the ownership of the proposed lit-eracy initiative can be shared among theparticipants of the steering committee.Shared ownership is one important way toensure that the project is successful.

An example of a steering committee thatwas very successful was the one whichlaunched the Book Show, which later be-came READ CANADA, Frontier College'schildren's literacy program. The steeringcommittee for the Book Show included achildren's book author, the owner of achildren's book store, several children, and

41

The siterirs cornmitbe bteirgs .tcsether peopie Whorepresent, differee

two members of the Frontier College staff.After three months of weekly meetings tobrainstorm and plan, the Book Show waslaunched. The diversity of members on thesteering committee ensured that a variety ofgroups, views, and values was representedand considered whenever a decision wasmade.

Do not be surprised if you are elected oreven appointed chair of the steering com-mittee. Since you are the person who tookthe initiative to read this guide, you are,most likely, the best person for the job.

Choosing a Recruiter

Of the characteristics that describe a goodrecruiter, we will focus on the first foursince these are the ones that will help youget started in your endeavour.

1. Thinking clearly and being well orga-nized are crucial to the recruitment pro-cess. If you are going to convince poten-tial participants, whether they are vol-unteer tutors or learners, you have to bea clear thinker. Since organizing a lit-eracy program takes time, it is importantto be organized and to use your time

efficiently. After all, you already have afull-time job to do.

2. Nothing can take the place of enthusi-asm. An enthusiastic person can moti-vate and energize others. This is pre-cisely what you meant to do when settingout to make literacy a part of yourorganization's services.

3. It may be stating the obvious, but it stillbears mentioning that when you estab-lish a literacy component in your organi-zation, common sense is essential. Morethan a few literacy programs have usedleaflets to recruit participants, whichread something like: "If you have troublereading and writing, call this number orcome and see us at this address." Clearly,if the people they are addressing havetrouble reading, they will not be able todecipher the leaflet. In such cases, an-other method of recruiting is needed,such as placing a community message onthe radio. Most of the small problemsthat come up when trying to integrateliteracy into a service can 1'13 solved byusing common sense.

34 42

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

4. It is important to be knowledgeable aboutliteracy and its social implications if youare to be a good rb. -iiter. Read up on thesubject.and think about how it applies toyour organization. Having read the pre-vious sections in this book, you are al-ready more knowledgeable about literacythan the average Canadian.

When you have appointed (or self-appointed) an appropriate recruiter, youwili be ready to act. But, before going too far,it is important to think again about thecontext within which you want to act. Forthe sake of brevity, let's call this context acommunity.

Your Community

This community can be a union, a churchgroup, a prison, a Native Friendship Centre,an ethnic or multicultural organization, awomen's shelter, a community drop-in cen-tre, Big Brothers or Big Sisters, an advocacygroup for disabled persons, a storefront or-ganization for the homeless, a collective, ora coalition. In fact, it can be almost anyplace where you are working with people,providing them with some sort of service.Each community has its own culture itsown organizational structure, mandate, re-sources, and ways of thinking, acting, andbeing. It is important for the recruiter tounderstand thoroughly the culture of his orher community,

As a member of your community, you cantake the lead in conducting a needs assess-ment. The needs assessment (which wasdiscussed in section three) is an indispens-able part of the recruiting pocess. Not onlycan it be used to ascertain what type oflearning initiatives are needed in your com-munity, it can also be used to find out whoyour immediate allies are, those you can callupon to assist the steering committee inimplementing the ideas.

Your allies should include your profes-sional co-workers, the people who workwith you and, like you, can see the necessityof incorporating learning strategies into ser-vice delivery. rr"qa people may make upthe bulk of your volunteer facilitators at theinitial stages of the project.

35

The people in your community who havedifficulty reading and writing and who willbe potential participants in your integratedservices are also your allies. These allies arekey because without their support, the planwill not be successful. Finally, it is impor-tant that the director of your communityunderstands the need for integrating learn-ing initiatives into the community's currentservices. The support of this person can seta positive tone as you embark on this plan.The director's involvement and supportshould also motivate others to become in-volved. It is also a good idea to gain thesupport of the board of your community, ifyou have one. It can be a source of moral andmaterial support.

The next important step will be recruitingyour voluniaers. It is best to enlist and traina group of volunteer tutors before gatheringlearners. However, once the tutors aretrained, they should be working with thelearners as soon as possible. Otherwise, theywill lose motivation. The training of volun-teer tutors is dealt with in some detail insection six.

Recruiting Volunteer Tutors

Men wanted for hazardous journey. Smallwages, bitter cold, long months of completedarkness, constant danger, safe returndoubtful. Honour and recognition in case ofsuccess.

Ernest Shackleton, explorer

Unlike Shackleton's task, your task of re-cruiting will be easier because you are al-ready working within a specific, familiarcommunity, and success for a well-organized, motivated recruiter is almostguaranteed. However, like him, you willneed to be bold and creative in your ap-proach to recruiting.

The best way to start is to recruit a fewpotential volunteer tutors from among yourco-workers. If you have done a reasonablygood job marketing the idea, you shouldhave no trouble finding several potentialvolunteer tutors from among your col-leagues. If your colleagues become volun-teer tutors, you will reap two distinct

4 3

1ecrth1lif9 Can Eatit wifin +he pe:pl& you work wdb.advantages: one, they understand the cul-ture of the community; and two, they aremore likely to work hard to ensure that theinitiative is successful.

For example, in Native Friendship Cen-tres, organizers of reading circles recruitvolunteer readers from among the other staffat the centre. Thus, as employees of thecentre, they are motivated and feel a sharedsense of responsibility for the success of theproject.

Another example is the READ project inMusquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia. It wasorganized by staff of the Eastern Shore De-velopment Commission, a rural develop-ment organization working with a popula-tion spread over three hundred kilometres.When it was discovereei that many of thosewho used the commission's social servicescould not read or write, some members ofthe staff decided to organize the READ projectto try and improve the level of literacy.

In these two examples, the initial recruit-ing of volunteers was done by word of mouth.This method, according to research, is thebest way to find volunteers.

Some communities use a combination of

methods for volunteer recruitment.

For example, the Prison Literacy initiativein Kingston, Ontario, which began in 1983,is a one-to-one tutoring project that servesapproximately one hundred inmates fromeight correctional institutions in the area.The project was developed within the pris-ons, with the cooperation and assistance ofprison officials and inmates. Approximatelyforty percent of the volunteer tutors areinmates themselves. Inmate volunteers arerecruited in a number of ways:

referred by school authorities within eachinstitution

enlisted at the initial orientation for eachnew batch of inmates at each prison

word of mouth

posters displayed in each institution

the inmate liaison appointed in each in-stitution.

Sometimes, you will have to go outsideyour specific community to recruit volun-teers. An example of this is the Literacy for

36 44

BEST COPY AVAILABLE

Youth program of the YMCA in Edmonton,Alberta. The organizers of this program,which serves the needs of youth aged 16 to24, used a variety of methods to recruitvolunteer tutors. At least 75 pement of thevolunteer tutors had to be under 25 years ofage. Therefore:

They inserted ads soliciting volunteers invarious college and university newspa-pers in Edmonton. The response wasoverwhelming.

They made several presentations to localhigh-school and college students.

They used the services of the VolunteerAction Centre in the city.

By taking these steps, they were able toattract many potential volunteer tutors, themajority of whom met the age requirement.Other places to recruit volunteers include:

local service clubs

church memberships

parent associations

senior citizen's organizations.

The potential sources for volunteers arelimitless. It is always a good idea to start outsmall, recruiting by word of mouth amongyour peers, before looking elsewhere. Re-member, if you don't ask, people cannot sayyes.

Recruiting Learners

Since you are already working within aparticular community, and since this com-munity is the focus of your integrated pro-gram, the recruiting task will be easier thanif you had to go outside your community tofind learners.

When you do your needs assessment, youwill no doubt come across potential learn-ers. When you do, discuss with them yourplan to implement a literacy componentinto the services they already receive. By

37

doing a good job of selling the idea, you willhave won their approval and, quite possi-bly, recruited your first group of learners.

It is a good idea to hand-pick the initialgroup of learners to ensure control and suc-cess. A small group of six to eight studentswill make it easier to structure the program.It is also wise to choose the most enthusias-tic and motivated people. This may seemcold and calculating, but control is impor-tant in the early stages of the initiative inorder to ensure success. Once the structureand logistics of the program are in place, youcan increase the number of participants.

By hand-picking the first students, youwill have better odds for success. Success isvital during the initial steps of the programand will make the program easier to market.Satisfied volunteers will bring in other vol-unteers; similarly, satisfied learners willhelp recruit other learners.

For example, the Independent Studies pro-gram of Frontier College began with sixlearners a decade ago. Six carefully trainedvolunteer tutors were paired with these sixlearners in the initial program. Success wasalmost guaranteed. Word got around andsoon there was a waiting list for both learn-ers and volunteer tutors. Today, there areabout 100 active pairs of tutors and learnersin the program.

Success will:

generate more enthusiasm from the vol-unteer tutors

generate more interest from potentiallearners in the community

help incorporate literacy into the cultureof the community

impress everyone from the executive di-rector to the consumers.

A successful literacy program, whethercommunity based or integrated within somesort of service, will sell itself, ultimatelygenerating more participation and supportfrom all parties within your community.

4 5

MAINTAINING THE MORALE OF THEGROUP

Organizers of successful literacy initiativeshave to be concerned with maintaining themorale of both tutors and learners.

Morale will be high if the various needs ofboth groups of participants are being met.Therefore, understanding the motivation andneeds of participants, and meeting theseneeds, is crucial to the success of your work.

Motivation and Needs

Volunteer tutors from within your commu-nity will join the project for a number ofreasons:

They see the importance of reading andwriting skills as they relate to the needs ofthe consumers in the community.

They have some time to spare and wouldlike to make a worthwhile contribution tosociety.

They have a need to work with people ina creative way.

They want to learn new skills.

They would like some recognition fromthe community.

They feel volunteering will help them intheir professional careers.

They want to be with their friends andperhaps make new friends.

They like you personally and would liketo help.

Similarly, learners within the communitywill enrol in an integrated literacy initiativefor their own reasons:

They like the concept of an integratedprogram.

They feel compelled to participate.

They want to feel a stronger sense ofbelonging to the community.

They want to build up their self-esteem.

Their friends are participating and theywant to be with their friends.

They want to fill their time in some con-structive way.

They would like to get a job or a promo-tion.

They want to become a better reader.

They want to fulfill a New Year's resolu-tion.

They were persuaded by your marketingpitch.

If you understand the needs of each learner,and meet these needs, you will encourageothers to enrol as well, thus making theintegrated program productive, worthwhile,and successful.

Ownership

Recruitment of volunteers and, more im-portantly, learners, will be much easier ifboth groups of people feel a sense of owner-sLip toward the literacy initiative. This isparticularly true of the learners. It is, afterall, for them that the literacy initiative isorganized in the first place.

Clearly, if the learners in your communityfeel a keen sense of ownership toward theinitiative, they are more likely to put greatereffort into realizing its success. If they do nottake ownership, the program will be medio-cre at best.

The other members of your rommunity,whether they are directly involved or not,should also feel a sense of ownership to-ward the project. This is significant becausetheir support and efforts are also importantto if e success of the project. For instance, adirector who sees the value of improving thereading, writing, and numeracy skills ofpeople within his or her community is morelikely to create a positive atmospherefor success than one who does not.

The steering committee you organized inthe conceptual stages of this initiative can

38

4 6

now be seen as an inspired idea. The steer-ing committee was the first stage at whichthe various constituents of the communitytook control of "their" project. Ownershiphas to be encouraged and fostered so that apositive attitude prevails in the communitywith regard to this initiative.

Participant Appreciation

If the participants, both volunteers andlearners, within an initiative feel appreci-ated, motivation and interest will remainhigh. In fact, one of the main reasons partici-pants drop out of a program is that they donot feel appreciated.

Thus, it is not surprising that all volun-teer-based groups organize some form ofvolunteer appreciation event to acknowl-edge the participation and contribution oftheir volunteers.

Within the context of yuur community,there should be some form of event to ac-knowledge the involvement of both volun-teers and learners.

Such events will help to keep morale high.The goodwill generated on such occasionscan often act as a catalyst in generating

interest and in drawing more participantsinto the program. The events tell volunteers,learners, and other participants that they arevalued.

It is a relatively simple matter to organize"participant appreciation" events.

The steering committee should set a dateand get:

a room

decorations; maybe a banner

food and drink

music

a guest speaker such as a local writer

buttons, pins, certificates, or some othertoken of appreciation.

That's it. Keep it simple.

As an example, about two years ago, theBeat the Street program in downtownToronto organized a major event to celebratethe successes of students and tutors. TheBeat the Street program encourages streetyouths to help each other improve their

Appreslation events ared vital to ibhe, life of fdhe

reading and writing skills. The event itselftook place at the Beat the Street Centre onGerrard Street on a Saturday afternoon.

Long before the event actually began,participants began to filter in. Most weredressed in their best clothes. Learners whonormally wore blue jeans and a T-shirt ap-peared in suits and dresses.

The early birds helped to organize therefreshments and put up decorations. Thesedecorations included examples of learners'work, which were pinned up on the walls,along with streamers, balloons, and paperhats. Everyone was in a festive mood. Thecelebration was officially kicked off by themayor of Toronto, who said a few wordsabout literacy and the importance of theBeat the Street program. He also handed outcertificates to those who had successfullycompleted their course of studies. Speecheswere made by the students. The event wasvery emotional. It takes incredible courageto enrol in such a program and see it throughto completion. After that came music, danc-ing, and food. The celebrations went onuntil the early hours of the morning. Theseevents should be organized two, three, orfour times a year. They are critical to the

success of the literacy initiative you areorganizing.

Celebrating Success

It is important to celebrate success. Beyondthe participant appreciation events, thereare other ways to celebrate success in lit-eracy:

Publish learner's writings in a book ornewsletter. For example, the READ projectin Musquodoboit Harbour produced anewsletter called Readmore which wasfilled with students' writing and sketches.It was a fine way to show appreciation forthe efforts of the learners.

Organize a reading tent at a local event.For example, in your community, eventssuch as the Fall Fair, Canada Day,Hallowe'en, Potato Festival or a FolkFestival can provide opportunities for yourown community to organize a readingtent. All that is needed is a tent or someother type of shelter, a few blankets, books,and participants. You can profile learn-ers' work. Invite the local press.

Invite special guests such as authors, local

READING TENT-ALL VIELCOME

IR'eadin6 tent6 coNni uvai eveMG draw you III avid

heroes, or politicians to come to yourcommunity and celebrate the importanceof words and literacy.

These are some of the ways in which tomaintain the interest aad morale of the re-cruits. Be creative.

In this section, a few ideas have beenpresented to assist you in recruiting volun-teers, learners, and participants. Naturally,you will have ideas of your own. The task ofrecruiting may seem daunting, but withplanning, thought, and organization, it can

be done successfully. There is an old Chi-nese proverb: A journey of a thousand milesbegins with a single step.

The Next Step

Once you've generated involvement andenthusiasm, your volunteers will need somedirection to get started. The organization,community, or group you belong to presentsmany opportunities for learning activities.Knowing where to look and what to look forare the keys to success.

41 4 9

CREATING LEARNING OPPORTUNITIES

HOW DO WE LEARN?

As children, many of us were taught to readand write using an approach that began fromthe bottom up. That is, for the most part, wewere first shown the symbols and soundsthat made up our language. As we pro-gressed, we started to work with words andsentences. Gradually we began to read. Liketight-rope walkers who did not look pasttheir own feet, we approached the wordsone at a time.

Think about the word surprise. What comesto mindbirthday parties, paper hats,coloured balloons, a flat tire on Mondaymorning? Now think about the letters thatmake up the wo:d. S-U-R-P-R-I-S-E. Whatcomes to mind new? Not much, likely. It isnot the individual letters that make a wordmeaningful, but rather the experience andcontext that the reader brings to the text.

In fact, we learn to read in much the sameway that we learn to speak. What we hear orsee gradually increases in meaning as ourunderstanding of the language grows. Weuse context clues found in the structure andorganization of the language to create mean-ing. Take for example the following sentence:

The frazzlesnog diggered a twiddle for gru.

What did the frazzlesnog do?

Why did the frazzlesnog digger a twiddle?

We are able to answer questions about thissentence even though we can only be sure ofthe words the, a, and for. This is because, asreaders, we understand the structure of thesentence provided by these context clues.They provide us with grammatical informa-lion so we know that frazzlesnog is a noun,digger is a verb, and so on. Many adults whoare learning to read are not aware of theimportance of, or their ability to recognize,context clues. They believe that learning to

read is about sounding out words. Readingskills develop more rapidly when learnersmove beyond this view. For this reason, theway in which an adult reader sees the activ-ity of learning to read should be taken intoconsideration when co-designing theirlearning with them.

We don't have any people who don't readat all. People don't read enough and theyfeel that you know more than they do. Theidea is to make them confident enough inthemselves to display what they know andmake them feel like part of the team.

- a literacy tutor

Looking at the Small Pieces First

Basically, there are three approaches usedto help adults learn to read. The first two arelike those approaches we experienced aschildren, methods that start from the bot-tom. Phonics and word recognition assumethat reading comprehension is built slowly,by looking first at the smallest pieces, lettersand sounds, and slowly progressing to words,and so on. In both, reading is defined as"naming words." (Brooks, 1976)

Phonics takes words and breaks them intoletters and sounds. Students either learn theindividual sounds of each letter first andthen put them together, or they learn severalwords that begin with the same letter andthen determine which sound each word hasin common. (Askov, 1989)

Word recognition builds listi of words andrequires that the learner memorize and learnto recognize them. Sight-word lists may belearned for several reasons. They can beused to introduce new readers to words likewhere, when, what, the, a, and so on, or toteach word patterns such as make, cake,bake, so that learners know the first word ofthe series and then build on their knowledgeto read and learn the others. Sight-word lists

4350

can also be used to teach words withirregular spellings. (Colvin and Root, 1987)

Both of these methods rely on the condi-tioning aspect of learning, that is, learningthrough repetition. They both stress recog-nition of letters, words, and sounds. Wordsare then put together to create meaning.Approaches to increasing reading skills thatbegin from the bottom put the onus on thetutor to pass on skills to the learner. Tutorsusing these methods take on greater respon-sibility in choosing materials and buildingcurriculum. (French, 1987) Many non-read-ing adults may have had difficulty withword recognition and phonics techniqueswhen they were children. Using these tech-niques LI second time may bring back thenegative feelings and memories that charac-terized the first encounter. These techniquesoften confront the new reader with whatthey don't know instead of building on andvaluing what they already know.

We go on field trips and then we wc_rk ongroupingthe activities into sentences. Peoplebecome aware of their comprehension needswhile we're working on stories together.

a literacy tutor

Beginning with Meaning

he third method that is used to tea'adults how to read is to have the learnerdictate his or her ideas to the tutor while thetutor writes them down. The written pas-sage becomes a source of words that can beused to practise reading, writing, and spell-ing, or as a basis for further discussion. Thisapproach is called language experience.

One opportunity to use language experiencebegan when a learner told her tutor that shewould no longer be able to meet her in theevenings because her brother now had anight job and wasn't available to drive her.The tutor suggested they work on a storyusing the learner's situation. Once they hadwritten the text, the tutor read it out loud.The learner wanted to talk about how theycould continue their sessions and so, to-gether, they listed all the ways in which shecould travel. In this way, the learner notonly got the chance to tell her own story (arare occurrence for many people), but wasalso given the opportunity to improve thesituation by discussing other ways of gettingto the sessions. The learner also decided thatshe would learn how to use the bus. Fromthe dilemma, then, the learner acquired

C

Language experietice, 6itorie &re. Valuable- faidsth Iewehln9.

several new words for her reading vocabu-lary.

Language experience can be based on thereactions or thoughts readers bring to a pieceof text (Rigg, 1981) The ideas in the storiesalso assist the learner in becoming moreaware of a situation. At Street Haven, ahostel and drop-in centre for homeless andmarginally housed women, they are encour-aged to use their stories to discuss commonexperiences of homelessness. This helps toreduce their sense of isolation.

As children, we first learn to speak thewords that have the most meaning to us. Thelanguage experience method is based on thetheory that we learn to read in the same way.It is an approach that gives the learner theopportunity to say "I already know that."From there, tutor and learner decide how tobuild on that knowledge. It stresses think-ing over memorization. By encouraging thenew readers to voice their own text, thismethod gives them more responsibility andadds additional value to air experience.The learners are more active in the learningprocess because they have a large role toplay in creating learning materials andchoosing goals.

Many adult literacy programs combine allof the methods described above in an ap-proach called whole language. They beginwith what the students want to learn or learnabout. Material for sessions comes from thelearners' stories, or tutors and learners gatherwritten materials such as newspaper ar-ticles, bank deposit and withdrawal slips, orother forms, depending on the learners' in-terests and needs. A variety of instructionaltechniques, including phonics and wordrecognition, are used to supplement learn-ing. Automatic word recognition is veryimportant to many adults who are learningto read because it helps to increase their self-confidence. Word recognition skills can betaught in a suitable context and as the needis identified by the tutor or learner.

FRAMEWORKS AND TOOLS FORLEARNING

11110Many of us learned to read in classrooms.

This structure when used alone, is not gen-erally successful in teaching adults to read,for a number of reasons. One of the mostobvious is that people who are learning toread as adults have had difficulty as young-sters learning in these environments. Per-haps they had a hearing or sight disabilitythat went undetected, perhaps they were toohungry to concentrate, or too disturbed bytheir life at home. Classroom situations donot work for everybody because these situa-tions favour the kind of learner who does notneed a great deal of individual attention. Italso favours those who have the ability andconfidence to apply their lessons beyond theconfines of the classroom. This is not to saythat classrooms cannot be used but that theiruse should be supplemented by other ap-proaches that can provide a greater degree ofindividualized instruction.

Tutoring

One of the most common ways of provid-ing individual attention and encouragingpeople to take greater control in their lives isthrough the use of a tutoring model. Tutoring,whether in groups or on a one-to-one basis,meets the needs of adult learners in a numberof ways. It places an emphasis on the learningrelatimship, the relationship between thetutor and learner(s) and, in small groups,between the learners themselves.

Through regular sessions with a commit-ted and supportive tutor, aduit learners havethe opportunity to increase their readingand writing skills and, with time, adopt thekinds of behaviours required to he a goodtutor to somebody else. Tutors are able toprovide immediate feedback. The tutoringsituation provides learners with an oppor-tunity to start where they believe they needto start, to be the creators and pianncrs oftheir own curriculum. It teaches them to setgoals and to work at their own pace. If theseskills are fostered, the motivation of thelearner will naturally increase. This kind oflearning environment is invaluable to manypeople who are trying to grow and makechanges in their lives.

Tutoring can take place on a one-to-onebasis or in small groups. Although it varies,

45

5 2

depending on the cultural context in which,you are working, one-to-one situations usu-

- ' ally work best for those who are in theearliest stages of reading. One-to-one is alsopreferable where those people you wish toserve do not share common goals or interestsor when privacy or low self-esteem are is-sues for them. Your ability to provide thiskind of individualized service will be lim-ited by the number of volunteers you haveavailable. Where small groups and class-rooms are being used, one-to-one tutoringcan act as an additional support for learners.

Tutoring in Small Groups

Group situations are an alternative whereisolation is seen as a negative factor. Smallgroup tutoring (ouu tului and two or threelearners) is another way of providing indi-vidualized instruction. These situationswork well when the individuals share com-mon goals and when learners have enoughconfidence to work and learn with others.Small groups provide opportunities forlearners to interact with others who, whilethey may have common learning goals, donot necessarily share the same beliefs andvalues. Small groups can create the kind ofenvironment that encourages tolerance andacceptance of the values of others. Thegroups should be small enough to ensurethat close contact between the tutor andindividual learners remains possible. Thisis essential in order to ensure ongoing as-sessment and immediate feedback.

The relationships that exist in group tutor-ing (tutor-group, tutor-learner, learner-learner, and learner-group) all serve to pro-mote the learning process. (Moore andPoppino, 1983) As the learners begin to setgoals and work on projects together, thedistinction between the tutor and the learn-ers becomes blurred.

Peer Learning

Implicit in the tutoring model is the ideaof peer learning. From the time we are veryyoung, we learn from our peers in all kindsof situations. In reality most of us can re-member times when we learned something

46

from someone whom we saw as an equal.Not all experiences of peer learning arepositive.

We were instructed to write letters in ournotebooks in rows. One day a girl fromanother class came into our room with hernotebook. She was asked by my teacher toshow everyone her book and she walked upand down the rows of desks showing eachone of us a page of her work. She had a goldstar at the top of the page and, unlike mine,her letters ran in neat rows. I rememberfeeling ashamed of my work and thinkingthat her neat rows were not important. Butfor some reason or other, they made hersmarter than me.

a literacy worker

Others are positive

I once had a woman enrolled in one of myevening cooking classes who had difficultyreading the recipes I handed out each week.She was always very quiet and kept a lowprofile in her group but she seemed to enjoywhat she did and she never missed a class.I was concerned that she rarely seemed to doany of the actual cooking, although shewatched closely and did various prepara-tion tasks like chopping vegetables andbeating eggs. Rather than approach heraboutit, I continued to watch the group she waswith. Together they worked on the recipes,everyone helping in their own way to preparethe food. After the last class, as we all saidour goodbyes, she thanked me and said thatshe had enjoyed herself. She seemed to havehad a good experience working togetherwith the others and learning in her own way.

a cooking instructor, Toronto Board ofEducation

People working together in low-pressuresituations can relax, exchange knowledge,and learn in a way that is most comfortablefor them. Peer-learning can be used effec-tively, when established and encouraged ina positive environment, to increase any typeof skill. In the example above the studentpicked up some of the cooking skills sheneeded by watching the others in her group.Peer-learning opportunities are always pos-

5 3

Peer learmn9 anurs in all Voids of- 4ituablerin5.

sible, whether it be co-workers helping co-workers, seniors helping seniors, or mothersassisting other mothers. One of the mainadvantages of peer learning is that it can takeplace almost anywhere.

The concept of peers learning construc-tively from each other has been used in theBeat the Street programs in Toronto,Winnipeg, and Regina. These programswere designed to teach practical skills suchas reading and writing to young people wholive or make their living on the street, both asa means of helping them cope more effec-tively and providing them with some of theskills they would need to leave the street.Working in different cultural settings (theprogram in Winnipeg, for example, pro-vides most of its services to the urban nativecommunity), Beat the Street programs areopportunities for young people who live onthe street to tutor and learn from each other.Those who visit the centres can, throughtraining and practice, become tutors or sim-ply take advantage of the literacy servicesavailable.

Tutors do not have to be peers in the waywe have described here. Often tutors areother people from the community. The Rent

47

Review Hearings Board in Toronto is devel-oping an in-house initiative in which tutorsfrom the organization will be trained towork with both their co-workers and thosewho use the services of the board. Tutorsfunction in an equal partnership with theirlearners and this includes situations in whichthey may not necessarily define themselvesas peers.

Computers in Literacy

Most literacy programs eventually arrive ata point where the use of computers, educa-tional software, desktop publishing, andcomputer networks is considered, and oftendebated. Computer technology can offer agreat deal in aid of adult learning, but alsohas some pitfalls that one should consider.

Computers can certainly be motivating fora learner. People from all walks of life usecomputers. Those who are proficient oncomputer systems are admired by others,and this mystique rubs off, to some extent,on anyone who sits before a computer key-board. Learners who think computer skillsare worthwhile and appealing will be moti-vated by a literacy program that employs

5 4

computers. Good software programs can al-low the student a good deal of control overtheir own learning and even the design oflearning programs. The process is also moreprivate, and good software programs have agentle and supportive way of deliveringfeedback when errors are made.

Computers, once understood, can assist inediting written work, and can enable learn-ers to produce printed copies of work thatare clear and professional in appearance.This is especially helpful for learners whoseabilities may not enable them to producehand-written text.

Costs vary depending on the hardware usedand software purchased. Integrated systems,sometimes using video or laser disks, areusually considerably more expensive andless flexible. Decisions on orhat to purchaseand use will naturally stai /Rh a survey ofrecommended software. Computer hardwareis an important consideration, but a second-ary one. (See the software evaluation re-sources listed in the reference section of thisguide.)

Anyone who has been a beginner on acomputer system knows about thatrollercoaster ride. Learning to use comput-

ers can either open new doors of opportu-nity or sink even the most educated amongus to new depths of self-doubt. The risk ofthe latter, when applied to unassisted lit-eracy learners whose self-confidence is of-ten in need of support, is unaccentable. Acoach, guide, or tutor is essential. Ultimately,computers can lessen the demands placedon tutors by allowing more efficient, inde-pendent study. They are not a replacement,however, for sensitive, well-trained tutors.

Setting Up

Questions to ask:

What role do you want computers to playin your program? (It's usually better tothink of programming as computer as-sisted, rather than computer based)

How many computers will you have? Howmany can be used at once, given your staffsituation? How will these considerationsshape your programming?

Do your Lamers have special needs thatshould be considered when choosinghardware and software? (e.g. screens andsoftware that allow print to be magnified,

cornpu ber does no6 replace a pod Eubor.

5)

braille, touch-screen technology, etc.)

Do you want to connect with other lit-eracy organizations using computers,through telecommunication links? (seeresource list in reference section for fur-ther details)

What types of computers do you have?Most software is currently made for theApple II series, the IBM compatibles, andthe MacIntoshnot all software is inter-changeable. Buying "clones" can certainlyreduce costs, but often requires more in-dependence and knowledge from staffwhen breakdowns occur. It's always wiseto obtain a service contract at the time ofpurchase.

What software do you intend to use? Whatcost factors are you faced with? Do yourcomputers have the necessary disk drives,memory capacity, monitor type andgraphics capability to run the software?Many public domain and shareware pro-grams can be "downloaded" (copied fromanother data base) over telephone lines, orobtained inexpensively elsewhere. Bearin mind, though, that such programs areusually the most vulnerable to computerviruses, which have caused great havoc inrecent years.

Do you have a printer? Dot matrix printerswith more than eight pins (the printingtools of the printer) are your best choicethey are economical, produce good letter-quality type, and can aiso be used forgraphics. Is the printer easy to use andmaintain for both staff and learners?

Have you developed a plan for trainingvolunteers in the use of your specifichardware and software?

Have you thought of how to evaluate yourcentre's use of computers? Don't forget totake note of learners' attitudes in yourevaluations.

Have you planned to guide learners inacquiring "computer literacy," i.e. thespecific knowledge/skills necessary tooperate a computer? Many tutors observe

ruefully that they spend more time dis-cussing disks, keyboard instructions, andreassuring people that they really can't"break" a computer, than they do assist-ing the intended learning. All computernovices need to be shown quickly andclearly how to get computers turned onand working, how to ask the computer forhelp, proper use of disk drives, keyboardbasics, how to save what they've written,and how to adjust the monitor. Plan toorient learners just as you would staff.(Jagger, 1990)

Software The Heart of Any System

The software evaluation guides listed inthe reference section will be a good source ofinformation for you to consult. However,your own experience and intuition, and thatof learners and colleagues, will soon be yourbest guide. The only sure rule about soft-ware for literacy is "buyer beware." Someprograms claim to be literacy software butare not student-centred and intended foradults. Good software programs have anumber of things in common:

They ask for genuine interaction, notmerely the filling in of blanks or pressingof one or two keys alternately.

They suit the socio-economic, age, andcultural background of learners in areassuch as idioms, role models, voice synthe-sis, and geography.

They are simple to start up, and don't slowdown progress with technology roadblocksalong the way.

They have authoring capabilities such thatthe learner can create his or her ownmaterials, and use these as the templatefor the program activities (e.g. certaincrossword programs).

They parallel and complement tutoringactivities that tutors and learners are us-ing.

They allow learners to control the pace oflearning and the amount of reinforce-ment

49

56

They are often in a tutorial format, in-creasing interaction between learner, tu-tor, and software. (Some word processingtutorials are particularly good in this re-gard.)

They encourage learning and skill devel-opment in a wide range of areas: memory,math. budgeting, creative writing, groupproblem solving, computer-based skillssuch as word-processing and desktoppublishing. (adapted from MTML, 1990)

Many software programs currently in ex-istence for literacy learning are programsbased on a specific course i.e. pre-packagedprograms that place the goals of the programdesigner ahead of those of learners, requir-ing step-by-step completion of pre-deter-mined tasks.

Some software thai is not commpnly pro-moted as learning software is really quitegoodsome word processing programs,games, and data-management programs.However, no program exists that can be usedto replace the facilitator. Facilitators whoare familiar with the program and the com-puter are essential, even though they may beneeded only periodically.

Computer technology presents some mar-vellous opportunities for learning enhance-ment, and the future promises even brighterdevelopments, as more and more programsprovide authoring capabilities. Costs con-tinue to decrease while computing powercontinues to grow with each new generationof machines. It is easily within the capabil-ity of a very small organization to investigatecomputer options and implemcat some typeof computer-assisted programming. Yourinvestigation may conclude that computersare inappropriate for your program. Com-puters are merely toolsalbeit powerfulonesthat complement but do not replaceeffective literacy programming.

Oral History

Do you think the porter and the cook haveno anecdotes, no experiences, no wondersfor you?...The walls of their minds arescrawled all over with facts, with thoughts.

50

They shall one day bring a lantern and readthe inscriptions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Having grown up in a literacy-based cul-ture, most of us have an ingrained biasagainst accounts of reality that aril not re-corded in the printed word. For many lit-eracy learners, however, the printed word isnot an accessible means to knowledge, andso memory, shared stories, conversation,and even folklore must take its place. Forliteracy workers in the community, these allpresent rich resources for learning, if fullyappreciated.

We are naturally speakers, not writers.

Eric Havelock

Many anthropologists and linguists willsuggest that orality, not literacy, , is really thecore of our culture. Few, if any, will suggestthat literacy operates without reference toorality. What this all points to is the need toremove our natural biases against oral cul-ture, to accept fully the value of ideas andexperiences not framed by paper.

Programs that focus on enhancing readingand writing skills can use learners' storiesand experiences as reading material while,at the same time, providing a means forpreserving and enhancing the oral culture.With the use of a tape recorder, stories can berecorded and transcribed.

Don't be surprised at the complexity of thewritten product. Oral culture partakes of allbut the most abstract of written culture. Onthe other hand, oral history is often pep-pered with real anger and indignation overthe life experiences of those marginalizedby society. One needs to be attentive to thepotential emotional and political undertonesof even the most ordinary of anecdotes.There remain, though, many practical waysin which to use and support oral history incommunity literacy efforts and good rea-sons for doing so.

First of all, we all understand the need fora variety of activities in literacy work. Story-telling provides an excellent alternative to

57

One way to etory-tell IG quilt makine.traditional written work. Almost all of ushave warm memories of being read to whenwe were children. There is a level of inti-macy cleated, often from these same recol-lections, any time we are read to in later life.This can help bring down barriers and re-duce the formality in literacy activities.

People involved with the Oral Historyprogram of the Literacy Branch, OntarioMinistry ofEducation recently demonstrateda number of ways to incorporate storytellinginto programs. These include:

Song writing. With a little music instruc-tion, individuals and groups can writeand p9rform pieces based on their stories.

Puppetry. Combining arts and crafts withliteracy, puppet plays can be a creativeway to act out stories.

Mural Painting. Storie. can expand toinvolve colours and symbo' , and manycan participate in the creation of the finalproduct.

Quilt Making. One suggestion was to haveeach person contribute a quilted square todepict his or her favourite story. The final

quilt can then be "told" by all involve-1This activity need not require quiltingskills the quilt can be made of drawingson paper or from scrap material pasted ona square.

There are a variety of things that can bedone to recora stories. Cassette tapes arealways useful. If storytellers are shy, theycan recount their tales to others, who canmake the tapes for the group. Stories can bewritten on flip charts and then performed inparts by group members. Videotapes canalso be employed, especially if the partici;pants choose to act out stories.

It may be difficult to get stories from learn-ers. There is nothing wrong with compilingbits of real life from many people to create afictitious story. Also, learners with sharedbackgrounds may enjoy contributing to alarge, familiar story in small parts. In othercases, a learner may simply want to tell astory to one person, who will transcribe it.Once transcribed, oral histories are open toa full range of potential learning activities.

One important final note: good storytellingrequires good listening. Most of our listen-ing skills have become rusty in modern life.

51 5s

Good listening skills are necessary for bothtutor and gn;up participants. Good listen-ing requires:

respect for the speaker's right to speak

a caring, supportive atmosphere

appropriate responses (e.g. eye contact,questions, paraphrasing, "uh-huhs")

concentration, absence of distractions.

It is important for the facilitator to create asuitable storytelling climate, by establish-ing with learners the framework for thesepotentially rewarding and intimate activities.

Family Literacy

Family literacy offers an approach to in-creasing learning skills in the context of thefamily. For most children, learning beginswith the family unit. The Southam survey of1987 examined some of the reasons thatchildren grow up to be non-reading adults.Their findings indicated that non-readingadults usually do not remember being readto as children and they do not rememberbooks and reading being a part of their up-bringing. These findings reinforce the ileathat an intergenerational cycle exists for basicskills; that is, if parents lack certain skills,such as reading or numeracy, they will beunable to pass these skills on to their chil-dren.

Family literacy programs encourage alltypes of learning processes in the home sothat the intergenerational cycle will take ona new meaning: a cycle of learning. It is anapproach that acknowledges that the parent,or prime care giver, is the child's first teacher.In many ways, the parent is also the child'sbest teacher.

When children first try to stand alone,parents wisely smile and praise their efforts.If the children start to fall, parents do notscold them for making mistakes...Parentsalso seem to realize that all children learn towalk in different ways and at different times.

joy Wilstead

52

Family literacy helps parents ti ke the wis-dom they use when helping their childrenlearn those important nay tasks of standingand walking, and apply it when teachingtheir children other important tasks such asreading.

Family literacy programs are useful be-cause they appeal to adults who would nototherwise consider taking part in a struc-tured learning program. A recent companypicnic at Esselte Pendaflex Canada Inc., apaper products manufacturing firm withabout 400 employees, included a familyreading tent. Although the company wascurrently running a workplace learningprogram, the tent attracted many peoplewho were not participants in that program.Parents and children gathered to read to-gether. Books and balloons were given awayto children who visited the tent.

In designing program offerings for parentinvolvement, it is important to consider theamount and kinds of stress the parent isexperiencing, the parent's developmentlevel, and the range and types of programactivities that might meet the parent's needs.

Elizabeth Landerholm, Jo Ann Carr

Family literacy programs can offer a vari-ety of options to children and parents. If achild-care facility is set up, parents canleave their children in safe hands while theyattend the adult learning programs. Otherclasses can be developed to teach parentshow to work effectively with their childrenor to teach young adults child-care skills.Informal tutoring in the home is anotheroption for reaching those who may not beable to go out to take part in programs. Homeactivities are also encouraged through thedevelopment of lending libraries.

Family literacy programs offer a wide vari-ety of ways in which to get parents andchildren working together and on their own.Workshops on this topic use a combinationof activities and techniques such as readingtogether, learning songs and games, watch-ing demonstrations, practising tips for read-ing with children. Family groups work on

Oh your walk, Icok cor things 64 can e ued jr1earni.making up their own stories and producingtheir own books. These written materialscan be helpful to other child-care programs.In one corner of a room, adults work togetheron reading a book or telling stories, while inanother corner, children learn a song; thenthey get together again to share and practise.Activities are linked to meaningful familypatterns such as having a story at bedtime.Many programs attempt to get peopleinvolved in family literacy as soon as chil-dren are born.

Talk to your baby. Talk to your baby whenyou feed it, change it, give it a bath or dressit. Talk about anything. Just talk!

Push Literacy Action Now (PLAN Inc.),Washington, D.C.

The Ottawa Board of Education's familyliteracy programs link youth and adult lit-eracy activities by holding homework pro-grams for teens while parents attend up-grading classes.

Family literacy activities contribute to theliteracy skills ofboth adults and children. Inaddition, they improve the self-esteem ofthe parent and create an opportunity to

increase communication skills within thefamily. (Thomas, 1990)

Reading Circles

Reading circles are becoming a popularway to get the message across to children,youths, and parents that reading is fun.They rely on the energy and imagination ofvolunteers to find a suitable location, pro-mote the idea in the community, and comeup with good ideas to get children in thehabit of reading. The circles meet once aweek for an hour or so. Children gather andselect their books and then go off for half anhour on their own or in pairs to read. Latetthey gather together to share a story.

INTEGRATING SKILL-BUILDING AC-TIVITIES

Take a walking tour around the area inwhich you propose to begin this program,whether it be your office, meeting area,church hall, community centre, or schoolroom. Pretend you are experiencing it forthe first time. What do you see? Noticesnear the main door, magazines in the lounge,forms and booklets providing health infor-

mation, hymn books, display boards? Whatdo you hear? Heavy mrithinery, music, aphotocopier, birds, livestock? What aboutsmells? Fresh coffee, lunch, printers' ink,garbage? All the information you gatherduring your tour can be turned into poten-tial learning opportunities for yourself andothers.

For example, many buildings are furnishedwith fire equipment. A fire extinguisherforms the basis for a variety of learningactivities that would appeal to differentlearning styles. It might be relevant forpeople to reflect on all the possible locationswithin a facility where fires are likely tostart. What possible fire hazards can befound in these areas? What is the best pro-cedure to follow when there is a fire? Howdoes the fire extinguisher work? You coulduse these questions and activities as a basisfor learners and tutors to work on a variety ofreading, writing, numeracy, and problem-solving skills.

One of the areas in which literacy skillbuilding is gradually being integrated intoother existing activities is in the workplace.This approa ;h is based on the assumptionthat in order for everyone to benefit equallyfrom training activities, they must be de-signed and presented in a way that makesthem accessible to adults with a wide rangeof literacy abilities, including those whomay not read at all. In many companies, themost common form of training involves on-the-job learning with a buddy. The buddysystem can become a positive peer-learningenvironment.

Think about ways in which your organiza-tion may already be providing people withthe skills they need to function in that envi-ronment, skills which may also be appliedto other areas of their lives. For example, theFederated Women's Institutes of Ontario(and across Canada) provide women in ruralcommunities with the opportunity to learnabout and practise parliamentary procedure.Among other things, 4-H Clubs focus onlearning and developing group and socialskills.

Organizations and groups have a numberof options to choose from when considering

54

ways in which to integrate skill-buildingactivities into existing services. Volunteersor employees who work directly with thepeople you wish to serve can be trained toincorporate a skill-building component intodaily group activities. For example, if mealsare prepared through a cooperative effortbeti veen employees and volunteers in a grouphome, recipes and cooking provide a com-mon content focus and can be used to developand encourage reading, improve basic math,and understand metric measurement. Thebenefits of this kind of integration are two-fold. It fosters the ability of adults to workcooperatively, and also builds the individualskills they will need to support themselvesand their dependents.

A group of women (residents and staff) atStreet Haven, known as The Butterflies, haveplanned and arranged for a library in thebasement of the building.

The literacy program has brought somepolitical aspects to the surface here. Thelibrary was originally undesignated space,and the Butteiflies went through the properchannels and claimed it. It's not the samespace now. They have shown other groupsthat they can keep ring.

a literacy coordinator

Visibility of literacy initiatives in your or-ganization raises everyone's awareness ofthe issue. Linking skill-building programswith other activities and events in yourorganization can be a vehicle for gettingsupport from the larger community. TheLiteracy Council in Parry Sound agreed toplan and organize the local winter carnival.Learners were involved in writing letters toobtain funding and community support,talking with people, and helping to organizethe event. The carnival brought the commu-nity of Parry Sound closer to the literacyprogram and gave the project a lot of freepublicity.

There are as many ways to approach andinclude skill building in existing activitiesand services as there are types of people andorganizations. Whether you want to encour-age the growth of specific skills or simply

6 1

promote an environment for learning in yourorganization or community, these are justsome ideas and examples of ways in whichit can be done. Perhaps you have your ownideas.

All it takes is your time, determination,and a sense of wonder.

Chairman, Rent Review Hearings Board

The Next Step

Your next challenge will be to pass on yourideas and enthusiasm to volunteers whowant to help and to people who want tolearn.

55

DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING WORKSHOPS FORVOLUNMERS

RUNNING A WORKSHOP

There will come a time, after you haveidentified a need within your service, putstaff in place, and recruited volunteers, whenyou will be faced with the prospect of leadinga workshop. More than likely, the majorityof your volunteers will never have workedwith adult learners before and are going tolook to you to provide them with back-ground and confidence.

Even if your own teaching experiences arefew at best, as long as you feel enthusiasticand dedicated to the program, and are will-ing to learn yourself, you can consideryourself well equipped to run a workshop.

The Workshop Format

As the organizer of an integrated learninginitiative, you will find that the workshopsserve a larger purpose than just teaching

emoting an Optimum Group Loambtg Situation

volunteers how to instigate your program.Workshops will also help you, the organizer.After a while you might find that the personalsatisfaction that comes from seeing peoplelearn to read, write their first story, or balancea chequebook will begin to wane and willneed to be reinforced. Workshops are thebest format for creating a forum for reflec-tion, mutual exploration, and personal3rrrowth.

While there are definite advantages to thetraditional approach to teaching (i.e. theteacher stands in front of the class and lec-tures students, who must raise their hand orawait their turn if they have something tosay), the approach is rarely appropliate withadult participants. The traditional approachto teaching is designed so as to issue fullcontrol to the teacher. Adult educators andworkshop facilitators should be thinkingabout control also, that is, how to relinquishit.

SharedControl

Purpose

Shared Values

Communication

Peer Support

Group Wisdom

Goal Clarity

interdependence

Practice and Application

Successful Experimentation

Supportive Climate

Personal Feedback

Facilitators actively involve participants in groupproblem solving

01)

respect or value forcontribution of participants

Pabriacmipae onntstopfrocritotFacilitators show little

TotalParticipant

Control

btal FacilitatorControl

CommunicationBreakdown

63

It will take some degree of structure, guid-ance, and leadership on the part of the facili-tator. The workshop format allows the fa-cilitator to tap into the group's wisdom be-cause the audience is involved in the prob-lem-solving process. This method, of course,shows considerable faith in the !;roup. Inreturn, participants will respond when theyfeel they are being respected and valued.

Relationship Building

All the participants adopt the role oflearners and have an equal opportunity tosolve problems and make decisions.

Participants work out their own personalstudies and concerns both independentlyand cooperatively; other participants, re-source people, and workshop facilitatorsare available to give assistance and sup-port.

Participants relax and socialize with oneanother as they share individual experi-ences and insights, and articulate a groupvision or wisdom.

Workshops used effectively:

deal with both theoretical and practicalissues

develop good communication practicesand strong relationships

cause individuals to examine and per-haps change their own beliefs, attitudes,and views

allow for considerable flexibility and rangeof learning styles and needs

enable participants to express strong con-viction, work through contentious issues,and resolve conflicts

provide incentives for further learning

give participants recognition, member-ship, and ownership of the initiative suchthat the responsibility for its spirit, focus,and direction is mutually shared

give information on teaching methods forall aspects of communication and lan-guage (reading, writing, speaking, listen-ing, and math)

7mmonc=::=:sweA good workop irclud6s q)ecific eleitierr6S -Or4Sliccee5.

6 4

keep the literacy initiative alive, critical,and creative.

The challenge of the workshop facilitatoris to encourage volunteas to meet regularlywith other peers for mutual development.Learning should happen naturally so thatparticipants are comfortable enough to bethemselves and to participate freely. En-courage experimentation and the discoveryof new freedoms of thought and expression.The involvement of the participants is keybecause it may lead to changes in the view-points of the participants, and, as a result,changes in the way they do things.

If you have come to help me, you arewasting your time. But if you have comebecause your liberation is bound up withmine, then let us work together.

Lilla Watson

A Workshop Checklist

Make sure the session has:

adequate space: preferably a large, openarea, well-ventilated, quiet, attractive, withgood lighting

moveable chairs and fold-up tables toaccommodate different furniture arrange-ments for different workshop activities

information resources: videos, over-heads, films, flipcharts, handouts

an agenda of what you intend to do andwhen; leave time for registration, ques-tions, and evaluations

guest speakers: experienced learners, tu-tors, or volunteers

breaks that are well spaced and long enoughto allow for interaction

a minimum of two facilitators (offers vari-ety and reduces the workload)

snacks: tea, coffee, muffins, juices, before,during, and after the workshop

pacing (can be accomplished with differ-ent speakers, media, activities.)

59

The Facilitator

The role of the facilitator is crucial to thesuccess of the workshop. Steps to being aneffective facilitator may include the follow-ing:

Recognize and accept your own limita-tions.

Keep a journal for the purpose of self-reflection.

Record all your contacts with others in theinitiative.

Assess your own values, biases, needs,expectations, strengths, and weaknesses.

Realize that you are an adult learner work-ing with other adult learners.

Be aware of your own needs for control andreluctance to share control with others be-cause of pride or insecurity. Ask yourselfsome hard questions. Do you want to be theonly expert on the scene? Do you resentothers questioning, changing, or modifyingyour agendas? Do you discourage othersfrom using decision-making and problem-solving processes other than your own? Doyou encourage others to fully participate indiscussions to address a literacy problem,but stop short of letting them try out theirown creative solutions in a real life situa-tion? Organizers who work in isolationquickly lose perspective. The er.d result iscommunication breakdown; workshops be-come a tool for indoctrination to only onepoint of view.

The Facilitator's Responsibilities

Know where your responsibilities beginand end. You should expect and be preparedto complete the following tasks:

Set the initial mood of the training.

Facilitate discovery (clarify individual/group purposes).

Organize and provide available learningresources.

65

Remain alert to expressions of deep orstrong feelings on the part of the partici-pants.

Ensure that each participant has the op-portunity to contribute to the activities, ifhe or she chooses.

Plan sessions thoroughly (choosing ap-propriate learning activities, content pre-sentation, timing to fit the needs of thesituation or group).Design a workshop that is relevant to theneeds of your organization.Evaluate and change your workshops inresponse to criticisms and comments fromprevious participants. (adapted fromRenner, 1983)

During the workshops you will have toserve four separate functions:

1. emotional catalyst

2. personal support

3. sounding board

4. time-keeper and pace-setter

You are only partly responsible for anylearning or growth that takes place. You are

60

responsible for making the informationavailable, thereby facilitating learning, butthe actual learning is the responsibility ofeach participant. The more the participantstake responsibility for themselves, the morethey will learn. A new group of volunteerswill face problems as they try to take onmore responsibility for planning their owninitiatives. You, as the facilitator, can nameand address these issues openly in the groupas you become aware of them, but you arenot expected to solve the problems nor an-swer the questions alone.

PARTICIPANT PROFILE

At first, participants may not feel any con-nection to you, the others in the initiative, orthe supporting organization or group. Theyneed to identify with the goals of the sup-porting organization or group. They need toidentify with the goals and purposes of thewhole initiative. How committed individu-als are to an initiative depends on the degreeto which they can exercise creative freedomtoward achieving a meaningful, commonpurpose.

A new partUpant may want to attend aworkshop to:

meet and get to know the othm partici-pants in the initiative and decide whetherhe or she wants to join

II Who ruf6 Elms a lizatico?zErign pinvtVed? X wait to gebout arid meth 6obieipeopl like myse(f akzido 6oryiethiv4 us (

-poe. otheiestri

retired pensioner, 73 years old

66

e allay fears about competence and gainconfidence

invest a specific amount of time in someactivity unrelated to everyday life

11I'Ve Dever fried -fet Jianyone to rezdI don't know b&able to do I1 rigeitYhousewife and mother, 45 years old

"My wife aki I thought-Wed like tz.ale ilvavedin sale Volurtmer worLove. vitsht a week. 0/tedcliose +.0 joioSis+erse &AI I c0414.ffbusinessman , 29

learn content and gain skills as an educa-tor

explore the situation and context of theliteracy work

"I'm interested in the criminal justice sys-tem. I want to volunteer in the prisons. Ithought of the Queen's Visitation programbut this seemed more constructive."

law student, 26

get involved in a process of learning for itsown sake

"I'm always looking for ways and opportu-nities to learn new things. This soundedinteresting and it didn't cost me anything."

unemployed teacher, 33

The participants will bring to the wo-k-shop a wide range of experience, skills,needs, interests, knowledge, and degree ofcommitment. just as every individual isunique, every group is unique. Remain sen-sitive to and respectful of the different livingand working situations and cultures repre-sented by the lumbers.

In response to the stated and unstated ex-pectations of the participants, you will wantto enable them to:

62

grfil thinking ateachers collyear% artef-thi seelike .45 good way

gettiog 6bnie-eleperiencea head- elf bime.irstudent, 23

gain the competence and confidence theyneed to become effective literacy workers

apply these skills to real life situations

form new attitudes and behaviours in re-sponse to a successful experience in lit-eracy work

develop their own personal, educational,and social values, and choose their ownpriorities and alternatives

actively participate in the initiative

share their thoughts and feelings aboutwhat they are experiencing. (adaptedfrom Grabowski, 1986; Margolis and Bell,1989; Renner, 1983)

Through active participation in the work-shops, the participants can name and makesense of their experience, gain in self-es-teem, and relate to one another with trustand honesty.

Obstacles to Participation and Learning

Participants will r perience difficultylearning in a workshop if they are not in-volved and participating. Obstacles to par-ticipation and learning are the result of

6

Obstacles To Participation and Learning andHow To Overcome Them

Obstacles to Participationand Learning

L.djusting to a New Learning_Model

lack of direction

poor information sharing

little peer support

Overcendence on Facilitators

self-doubt

distrust

reluctance to risk or take responsibility

low self-confidence

Overbearing Facilitation

tension

nervousness

boredom

anger/irritation

fear

confusion

hurtresignation

projection of blame

Strategies toOvercome Obstacles

Ongoing Support and Development

peer support system

questions of authority amwered

experimental learning

Shared Facilitation

objectives/standards set

interdependent relationships

self-responsibility

focus on strengths

Change in Facilitator's Approach

from a didactic to an interactive facilitat-ing style

from playing a role to being a person

three factors:

overbearing facilitators

overdependence on the facilitators

adjustment to a new learning model.

Facilitators can overcome the first obstacleby radically changing their approach andmanner of dealing with participants. Byusing a number of different strategies, facili-

63

tators can help participants address andovercome the last two obstacles.

WORKSHOP ACTIVITIES

To increase the interest of the participantsand to encourage active participation, a va-riety of different workshop activities can beused. Before you use an activity ask yourselftwo questions:

Does the activity suit the purpose?

69

Would I and the other participants becomfortable using it?

1. Planning activities can help you get anidea of who will be attending your work-shops, what they want to get out of theworkshops, and the extent of their com-mitment. These include:

Personal Inteiviews: Get to know eachparticipant individually and be preparedto answer any questions.

Expectation Survey: Before you prepareyour workshop, find out what the otherparticipants want to get out of it. You canconduct an expectation survey throughprepared questionnaires or blank sheetsof paper and open-ended questions.

Learning Contracts: To recognize differ-ent degrees of commitment and differentlife situations, negotiate agreements withindividual participants. These agreementsmight include their specific goals, theamount of time they can commit to prepa-ration and participation, and their ownlearning projects.

2. Getting started activities can help you geta feel for the group, and will enable eachparticipant to meet the other participants.These include:

Naming Exercise: Introduce yourself andlet the group members introduce them-selves in a manner with which they feelcomfortable. Make name tags to wear.

Information Sharing: Tell the other par-ticipants about the initiative, the purposeof the workshop, workshop proceduresand structures, the location of the libraryor washroom, the agenda for the session.

Self-Disclosure Exercise: Break intosmaller groups and ask the participants toshare something about themselves. Choosesubjects that are non-threatening.

Put Yourself on The Spot: Before you putthe participants on the spot in the largergroup, let them put you on the spot. Havethem formulate standard interview ques-tions in small groups to ask you when they

64

get back to the larger group.

Get Acquainted Activities: To increase thelevel of trust and belonging in the group,give participants the opportunity to talkin pairs or small groups about their lives.

Workshop Goals: Ask each participant torecord his or her workshop goals anony-mously and then to pass them on to you toshare with the whole group.

First Session Evaluation: Leave time toconduct a written or oral evaluation.(Renner, 1983)

3. Learning activities should encourage theexpression of personal and differentviewpoints, allow for genuine dialogue,enable problem-solving and decision-making, foster attitude change, inspiredetailed study, and stimulate creativity.

Brainstorming: Given a subject, the par-ticipants present all possible ideas, withno thought as to their practicality. Onefacilitator encourages uninhibited re-sponses while the other facilitator recordsthe responses on a flip chart.

Buzz Sessions: Participants divide intosmall groups of four to six members for alimited time to discuss their ideas about agiven subject. One person makes sure eachmember has an equal chance to contribute.Another person reports back to the maingroup. The facilitators record all the pointsfrom each of the groups. This activity haswide applications, from determining ar-eas of special interest to formulating arange of questions to explore.

Case Study: A detailed account is given ofan event or series of related events. It ispresented to all the participants orally, inwritten form, in a film, or in any combina-tion of these forms. Details of the casestudy are studied as they pertain to lit-eracy. A problem-solving discussion im-mediately follows the presentation.

Critical Incident: This is a variation of thecase study except that it is especiallydesigned to relate theory and practice,and to prompt participants to analyze past

7 o

(1)

situations in light of workshop content.

Open Interview: The open interview is apresentation by a guest speaker or speak-ers. Two workshop participants ask theseresource people to answer some preparedquestions while the rest of the group watchand listen. This is followed by morequestions and a general discussion. Theguests can vary from authors and tutors topoliticians and other public figures. Youmay also know of a learner who would bewilling to speak at your workshop.

Lecture or Speech: A lecture or speech isa carefully prepared oral and formal pre-sentation of a given subject by a qualifiedspeaker. At some point in the workshops,the participants are encouraged to give ashort lecture or speech on a topic of theirchoice. This can be a response to outsidereading, a presentation of a personal viewon a controversial subject, an account of apersonal experience, a piece of factualinformation, a funny story to entertain orinspire the other participants, an intro-duction to the topic of the day, or anattempt to stimulate thinking and furtherstudy of a favourite interest.

Field Trip and Field Project: A visit by someor all of the workshop participants to anobject or place of interest is arranged forthe purpose of first-hand observation andstudy.

Forum: Each individual is given an op-portunity to voice his or her views abouta given subject.

Panel: A group of four to eight partici-pants holds an orderly conversation on anassigned topic in front of the other partici-pants.

Panel Debate and Panel Forum: Two sidesof a controversial issue are debated for-mally in front of the other participants.

Circle Response: Participants sit in acircle. In turn each person is asked torespond to an issue in 30 seconds or less.

Circle Paraphrasing: This is a variation ofthe circle response except tha each par-

65

ticipant must paraphrase what the pre-ceding person has said, before saying whathe or she wants to say. This is useful as acommunication exercise.

Learning Institute: Participants agree toorganize the next workshop or series ofworkshops on a given topic. They dividethis topic into subtopics for groups of twoor three people to explore and study out-side the workshop. They report theirfindings and share materials and resourceswith the other participants at futureworkshops. This activity encourages par-ticipants to work together apart from thefacilitators and outside the workshopsituation.

Demonstration: Participants are shownhow to use a teaching procedure by thetwo facilitators. The participants thendivide into pairs to try out the procedurethemselves. The facilitators circulateamong the participants to offer assistance.A discussion of the procedure follows.

Directed Discussion: Time is taken to de-liberate and discuss in the large group asubject of mutual concern. Plans of actionthat involve the whole group are devel-oped. This activity can also be used todetermine group consensus.

Committee: A small group of participantsis selected to perform a task that could notbe done efficiently by an entire group or asingle person. This committee can plan asingle activity like a future reading circle,act as an advisory group, study a particu-lar problem, promote or publicize a par-ticular event, plan a learning conferenceor convention, start a newsletter, or makea film, slide show, or display.

Reaction Team: Three to five participantsreact to a speech from another participant.They may interrupt the speaker at anytime to clarify points for the other partici-pants.

Listening Team: The same procedure isfollowed as with the reaction team exceptthe team waits until the end of the speechbefore they react to what the speaker says.The team takes notes during the presenta-

71

tion and then questions or summarizeswhat has been said. The listening teamthen encourages interaction between thespeaker and the other participants.

4. Assessment activities help participants toassess their own learning together withother participants. They include:

Learning Journals: Encourage each par-ticipant to keep a journal to record par-tici pati on and invol vement in theworkshops and to record events and de-velopments in the ensuing program forthe purpose of self-refleution and assess-ment.

Learning Partners: Encourage partici-pants to select a learning partner to workwith before and after the workshops. Thispartner can then offer support and con-structive suggestions.

THE WORKSHOP AND THE ORGANI-ZATION

As discussed in section two, one of the firsttasks involved with organizing an integratedprogram is establishing goals and values.Workshops are an ideal opportunity for reit-erating and implementing these goals andvalues. In doing so, you will also be remind-ing participants why the inevitable confu-sion, problems, and triumphs that they willexperience with learners are important andessential. They will see that the outcome oftheir work is, in fact, fulfilling their ownvalues and the values of the organization.

Conflict will occur in your workshop ifthere is a lack of consensus about values, ifgroup goals are unclear, unattainable andunacceptable, if leadership is not sharedequally among the participants, and if youand the other participants are uninformedand uncooperative. (Tiberins, 1990)

Negotiating Workshop Goals, Objectives,and Learning Agreements

Just as your program requires pre-deter-mined goals and objectives, so too will yourworkshop. Workshop goals are a general set

66

of desirable learning outcomes that answerspecific problems or questions. Objectivesare specific goals that raa attainable duringa workshop session. Learning agreementsare a result of ongoing discussions betweenworkshop planners, facilitators, and partici-pants. They include jointly negotiated rulesand guidelines for the workshops. They aremade aft-r individual learning styles andpreferences have been identified and avail-able resources have been evaluated andgathered. They can be formal or informal,depending on the desires and expectationsof the other participants.

After we had a chance to introduce our-selves and we were all comfortable andrelaxed, I asked them to brainstorm every-thing they wanted to get out of these sessionstogether. My partner recorded all their goalson a flip chart and then displayed themaround the room. I then asked them to breakinto smaller groups to discuss w:iich goalsthey thought were attainable in the groupsetting, and which goals were attainable byindividual effort. A spokesperson from eachgroup reported back to all of us when wereassembled. We discussed all the findings,separated the goals into workshop goals andpersonal goals. Once again we broke intosmaller groups to discuss the workshop goals.We wanted to establish priorities for thesegoals according to whether or not they couldbe applied to the literacy situation. Wetransferred these goals into specific work-shop and on-site objectives we could realis-tically meet. This new list of objectives wasagain recorded, typed up, and distributed toevery participant. I now had enough mate-rial on which to base a whole series ofworkshops. We all agreed to post the objec-tives on the wall and to cross them out anddate them as we achieved them. Someonesuggested that meeting one objective mightraise other issues to consider. We agreed togenerate new goals and objectives on a regu-lar basis.

group facilitator for a large company

To incorporate personal goals into a frame-work like the one above, you could askindividual participants to share the progressthey are making toward achieving their own

72

personal goals before and after every work-shop. This would give them a chance toname some of their own concerns, needs,and interests, and find support from theother participants.

Once you have clarified workshop objec-tives and personal goals, you can begin toplan for individual workshop sessions thatinclude planning objectives (such as tim-ing), learning objectives (such as agendas),and process objectives (such as overcomingfears). In the end, your workshops are at-tempts to bridge the real or perceived gapsbetween what participants feel they need toknow to integrate literacy work in a givensetting and what they already know.

INCORPORATING DIFFERENTLEARNING CAPABILITIES

Much has been written about the need tofacilitate successful learning experiences ina group with varying learning capabilities.The degree to which we deliver workshopsas whole people, sensitive to the needs andresponses of other whole people, is the de-gree to which any learning will transformreal life situations. Workshops can be inter-esting, realistic, and practical, and, at thesame time, can allow for a full range oflearning capabilities. Some of the methodsused to achieve this are to:

allow for the experience, articulation,and acceptance of both negative andpositive emotions

allow for individual needs; participantsneed time to work alone, reflect and besilent, and time to share and talk withothers

allow for physical considerations; deliverworkshops that make vivid use of all fivesenses in a relaxed and pleasing manner;note body reactions and low energy levels;incorporate movement, stretch, and re-laxation exercises into your workshops

allow for a full ;Inge of rational and intel-lectual activitiesexperiments, research,and discovery learning

include artistic exploration and experi-

67

mentation as part of your workshops; en-courage creative expression; encourageparticipants to challenge conformity andto deai with the unknown

allow for the spiritual element of learning,remain true to the whole or larger groupwisdom; participants need to clarify theirown vision constantly, to feel their con-nection with one another, to remain opento wonder, and to believe in the potentialof what could be for themselves and oth-ers. (adapted from Virginia Griffin, 1988)

FOLLOW-UP TRAINING

When your first workshop is complete, andthe proram is in place, a demand for futureworkshops will most likely be heard beforeJong. Follow-up training can progress toinclude both learners and tutors. The fol-lowing suggestions will be of interest to bothparties:

Guest Speakers

From your local community or area youcan probably get someone to come in free ofcharge to speak on any number of issuesracism, handicaps, rent control, affordablehousing, public health issues, human rights.Simply look at your program, evaluate itsmost pressing needs, and ask someone totalk about it.

Films

Your follow-up sessions do not necessarilyhave to be acadeif. in nature. There are anumber of feature films that deal with theissue of literacy. (Stanley and Iris, BluffingIt) Documentaries and news programs arealso good sources. Discussions can follow.

Workshops

These fall into two categories:

1. The traditional workshop would deal withtopics such as writing (have the groupparticipants %tete or dictate a personalexperience and share it), math (budget-ing, money, banking, comparison shop-ping), and family literacy (parents read-ing to their children).

\lournal 16, one way of 8r-Jecirtg how thirgs.av sung .

2. Creative workshops move beyond basicliteracy issues to topics such as an elec-tion preparation course. Perhaps a candi-date from your riding or ward could talk toyour group about platforms, policies, andgeneral issues. Another idea might be atax information session. Revenue Canadawill, with enough notice, provide a speakerwho will attempt to explain income tax toyour group.

Reading Evenings

This is a simple concept that affords anopportunity for group bonding and interac-tion. It is also very easy to lead. Simply askyour program learners and tutors to bring afavourite piece of writing to read to thegroup. This could be a personal piece ofwriting or something that they have read.Perhaps the readers could answer a fewquestions about the piece after they havefinished reading. You don't have to identifywho is the learner and who is the tutorwithin this arrangement. Indeed, you'll findthat the lines begin to blur.

Play Workshops

Many literacy program coordinators have

68

found that plays are a good teaching tool fortheir one-to-one tutoring sessions. Plays areoften colloquial and the dialogue has a flowand responsiveness that lends itself to easyreading.

Ideas ExchangeThis is a round-table session where learn-

ers and tutors come and share what is work-ing in their sessions, what isn't, and why.This is a good exercise if you, as the groupleader, are anxious to see the participantssolve their problems without your assis-tance.

This is also a good time for participants topresent any useful resources they have ac-quired since the group last met: spelling tips,new reading material, exercises, handouts, andso on.

EVALUATING THE WORKSHOP

You can evaluate whether or not you haveachieved a specific objective very easily.You can also evaluate how a workshop isgoing by building in evaluation time afterevery workshop session.

74

Other evaluation techniques include per-sonal interviews, questionnaires, ratingscales, and anecdotal information. You canget a feel for whether or not your workshopshave been successful from the demonstrateddegree of participant satisfaction and in-volvement. Keep detailed self-reports, ob-servations, and written records.

Work with an advisory planning commit-tee or a participant learning circle. Use theseother learners/advisors to check out yourown personal, educational, and social val-ues. Use them to make sure your spokenideals are consistent with your actions. Learnabout the needs of the other participants, theneeds of your organization or community,the various methods and techniques of lit-eracy instruction, and the location andavailability of good resources. Continuallydevelop your corninunication and listeningskills. The more efforts you make to assessand reassess your own theory and practice,the more effective your next workshop willbe.

Evaluate yourself based on how effec-tively you designed and implemented agiven workshop, and what happened as aresult of the workshop. Were there any im-provements made as a result of your work-shops? Did you achieve the purpose of yourworkshops? Did you pay enough attentionto practical and ethical considerations? Didyou select the best possible resources to use?Did you attempt to redefine and clarify your

O

own values? Did you learn anything? Wereyour workshops equally useful to partici-pants, administrators, bureaucrats, planners,and employers?

Conduct formal evaluations with the par-ticipants at the start, in the middle, and atthe end of a series of workshops. The bestevaluation tools are acceptable to the par-ticipants and capable of being shared withother organizers. Included are samples ofevaluation questionnaires.

Developing and implementing workshopsfor volunteers is only the beginning of anylearning initiative. More specific trainingmay be necessary depending on ttle type ofinitiative that is being carried out. If a tutor-ing approach is to be used, then tutor train-ing should be implemented.

This type of training can be easily ob-tained from local literacy groups. In addi-tion, resources on training literacy tutors areavailable from provincial governments andlocal groups.

The Next Step

No matter which route is taken, or whattype of specific training is given to volun-teers, it is important to keep track of howthe individuals involved are doing. Thenext and final section of this documentlooks at some ways of evaluating the effec-tiveness of your approach.

69 75

PARTICIPANT WORKSHOP EVALUATION FORM

WORKSHOP TITLE:

WORKSHOP DATE:

RESOURCE PERSON(S):

SPONSORING ORGANIZATION:

To help us improve future training sessions, please answer the following questions and returnthis form to the facilitator.

1. Overall, I found the workshop to be:

2. The most useful aspect of the workshop for me was:

1 The workshop could have been improved in the following ways:

4. I felt the presentation of the workshop was:

7076

5. I felt the organization of the workshop was:

6. I would like to see the workshop followed up by:

7. Overall I would rate the workshop:

(1-low, 10-high)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

71 77

(Bram Fisher, 1990)

EVALUATION FOR IMPROVEMENT:HOW ARE WE DOING?

1. My understanding of the purpose and goals of this program is:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

confused clear

2. My understanding of the plan and methods of this program is:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7confused clear

3. The progress I made today in meeting my own goals is:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7discouraging rewarding

4. The climate of our meeting today was:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7inhibiting freeing

5. My feeling of openness and trust toward the members of this group are:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

low high

6. The contribution I made today was:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7ignored heard

7. In relation to the expressed goals, I find the planning of this program to be:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

a total t:onnected andmystery relevant to the goals

7872

MEASURING SUCCESS

WAYS YOU CAN DOCUMENTSUCCESS

It has been made fairly clear throughoutthis guide that the progress learners make inany of the endeavours described should notbe documented through any type of stan-dardized testing. However, as an organizer,you want to know if your approaches areworking and if individuals are successfulin achieving their goals.

If you are working with tutors, who are inturn working with individual learners, youwill want them to keep track of the kind ofwork they are doing. For example, if alearner has identified the goal of improvinghis or her writing, then it is a good idea forboth learner and tutor to keep samples of thelearner's writing in order to compare earlywriting samples to later ones. A journal is avery useful way of determining the progressmade.

Another way of evaluating the success Gfan approach is the movement of the learn-ers. That is, are any moving on to otherlearning opportunities? These may includea course, a community actir,.,y, or any otheropportunity that they may not have takenadvantage of previously.

Most importantly, are learners meetingthe goals they have identified for them-selves? Aze these goals realistic? Does thetutor need to help the learner set more

attainable objectives? These are questionsthat can form the basis of a relevant evalua-tion process.

As far as learning initiatives are concerned,similar questions can be expanded anddeveloped to determine the success of aspecific initiative. If you are an organizer inan agency, are you noticing improved read-ing, writing, and numeracy skills amongparticipants? Are colleagues noticing a dif-ference? Are participants more interested inreading for fun? Are you seeing the type ofcarry-over described in an earlier sectionwhere a parent and child reading circlebranched off into an adult reading circle?

No doubt as an organizer, you may haveyour own definitions of success and maywant to set these out before embarking on aninitiative. It is important to remember thatsmall achievements are just as relevant asmajor ones; if you are able to encourage atleast one person to make progress, then it isworth the effort.

Concluding Remarks

The aim of this guide has been to provide aframework for individuals to begin takingtheir own initiatives in the places wherethey live, work, socialize, and receive sup-port. Our hope is that we have encouragedyou to take that step to make somethinghappen in your communlly.

7 3

79

1 IN SO MANY WORDS...LITERACY IN CANADA

REFERENCES

World Declaration on Education for All and Framework for Action to Meet Basic Learning Needs.Documents adopted at the World Conference on Education for All, "Meeting Basic LearningNeeds." Jomtien, Thailand, March 5-9, 1990.

Chall, Jeanne. New Views on Developing Basic Skills with Adults in Kozol, Jonathan. Illiterate America.Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York: 1985.

Statistics Canada. Survey of Literacy Skills Using Daily Activities ILSUDA1. The National Literacy Sec-retariat, Ottawa: 1990.

Kozol, Jonathan. Illiterate America. Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York: 1985.

Hunter, Carmen St. John and David Harman. Adult Illiteracyin the United States. McGraw-Hill, NewYork: 1979.

Calamai, Peter. Broken Words: Why Five Million Canadians Are Illiterate. Southam Inc., Toronto: 1987.

Woods Gordon. Estimating the Costs of Illiteracy in Canada. The Canadian Business Task Force onLiteracy, Toronto: 1988.

UNESCO. Declaration of the Right to Learn. Paris: 1985.

Gayfer, Margaret, ed. Literacy workshop participants in Literacy in Industrialized Countries: A Focuson Practice. ICAE, Toronto: 1988.

Odell, Tracy. "An Open Letter to Literacy Practitioners," in Lifeline to Literacy: People With DisabilitiesSpeak Out. TV Ontario Education Communications Authority, Toronto: 1989.

Hunter, Carmen St. John. Adult Basic Education in North America: Issues of Policy and Context.Commission on Adult Basic Education Conference, Montreal: 1985.

Rockhill, Kathleen, "The Other City Where No One Reads" in Literacy and Women: Canadian Wornen'sStudiesiournal. York University, Toronto: 1989.

Calamai, Peter. Ibid. Interview with Susan.

Literacy and Health: Making the World Safer and Healthier for People Who Can't Read. Frontier CollegePress and Ontario Public Health Association, Toronto: 1988.

American Newspaper Publisher's Association and the Education Writer's Association. Kozol, Jonathan."What's Next for Newspaper Involvement?" Proceedings of conference, Washington: 1990.

Hunter, Carmen St. John. Ibid.

FURTHER READING

Calamai, Peter. Broken Words: Why Five Million Canadians Are Illiterate. Southam Inc., Toronto: 1987.

Prior to Statistics Canada's LSUDA survey, the Southam survey was the largest survey offunctional literacy undertaken. The book includes stories and interviews with literacystudents and practitioners across the country. For more information, contact SouthamNewspaper Group, 150 Bloor Street West, Suite 900, Toronto, Ontario, M55 2Y8.

74

So

Harman, David. Illiteracy: A National Dilemma. Cambridge Book Company, New York: 1987.

Harman's book provides a sobering overview of the literacy problem and looks at the originof literacy in the U.S.

Hunter, Carman St., John and David Harman. Adult Illiteracy in the United States. McGraw-Hill, NewYork: 1979.

A thorough and scholarly report to the Ford Foundation on the dimension of illiteracy andthe programs available.

Kozol, Jonathan. Illiterate America. Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City, New York: 1985.

A highly controversial treatise on illiteracy in the United States. Kozol links adult illiteracyto school segregation and poverty and outlines a national strategy.

Lifeline to Literacy: People With Disabilities Sneak Out. TV Ontario Education CommunicationsAuthority: 1989.

The resource book accompanies two videos, "Lifeline to Literacy" and "Double Jeopardy,"also produced by TVO. For more information contact TV Ontario Customer Service, Box 200,Station Q, Toronto, Ontario, M4T 2T1.

Literacy and Health: Making the World Healthier and Safer for People Who Can't Read. Frontier CollegePress and Ontario Public Health Association, Toronto: 1989.

A look at the relationship between low levels of literacy and poor health and poor healthpractices. For more information contact Ontario Public Health Association, 468 Queen StreetEast, Suite 202, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 1T7.

Literacy and Women. Canadian Women's Studies Journal. York University: 1989.

Contains a variety of articles about the issue of literacy and women in Canada and around theworld.

Rutherford, Jane. Illiteracy and Older Can.adis: n Unrecognized Problem. One Voice/La Voix, Ottawa:1989.

A review of existing literature on literacy and older adults. Includes a useful bibliography.

Statistics Canada. Survey of Literacy Skills Using Daily Activities. Ottawa: 1990.

The most complete national survey of literacy ever conducted. To date Statistics Canada hasa nuniber of products available from the survey for further reading or research. For moreinformation contact Household Surveys Division, Statistics Canada, Ottawa, or NationalLiteracy Secretariat, Department of the Secretary of State, Ottawa.

Sticht, Thomas, and Barbara MacDonald. Teach the MotherReach the Child. UNESCO, Paris: 1990.

A fascinating statistical analysis of the education of women as the primary means to ensurequality education for the young.

75

8.1

2 PROFILES OF ADULT LEARNING

REFERENCES

Knowles, Malcolm. Self-Directed Learning. A.P. Follett, Chicago: 1975.

OTHER SOURCES

Boshier, Roger. Towards a Learning Society. Learning Press Ltd., Vancouver: 1980.

Carpenter, Tracy. The Right to Read: Tutor's Handbook for the SCIL Pro2ram. Frontier College Press: 1986.

Dewey, John. Experienceducation. Collier MacMillan, New York: 1983.

Forest, Marsha and Bruce Kappel. It's About Learning. Frontier College Press, Toronto: 1988.

It Works Both Ways: Teaching Reading and Writing to Adults. ACCESS Media, Calgary: 1985.

McGee, Gayle, ed. Labourer-Teacher Manual. Frontier College Press, Toronto: 1981.

Norton, Mary. lourneyworkers: A nroa_p_,..,iterac With Adults. ACCESS Network, Calgary:1988.

FURTHER READING

Boshier, Roger. Towards a Learning Society. Learning Press Ltd., Vancouver: 1980.

An excellent collection of papers on the interplay of educational theory and practice.Produced in 1980, it gives an interesting perspective on where adult literacy is now, in 1990,and where practitioners thought the field would be.

Carpenter, Tracy. The Right To Read: Tutor's Handbook for the SCIL Program. Frontier College Press,Toronto, 1986.

Full of useful background on the reasons for the student-centred approach to adult learningand demonstrations of how to do it. Includes examples of how to build activities based onmeaningful materials from the lives of adult learners.

Frye, Northrop. On Education. Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Toronto: 1988.

For those interested in the relationship of adult literacy to formal academic training, thiscollection of essays spanning several decades is illuminating. While Frye's approach ischallenged by many educators, he is especially interesting when he discusses the importanceof language and literacy.

Knowles, Malcolm, 5elf-Directod Learning. A.P. Follett, Chicago: 1975.

A classic in the field of adult learning, this work provides some good background anddefinitions for the key elements of literacy work today.

ostman, Neil. Amusing Ourselves to Death. Viking Penguin Inc., NY: 1985

Postman iiluminates the relationship of learning with modern culture in this sometimespolemical work. It's quite valuable for making educators and learners alike more aware of thegreat cultural distractions we face in pursuit of real learning opportunities.

76

3 INTEGRA'1,NG LEARNING PROGRAMS INTO YOUR ORGANIZATION

REFERENCES

Pearpoint, Jack. "Frontier College at 90: Historical Anomaly or Futuristic Vision?" in Cananian Asso-ciation for Adult Education. Vol. V. No. 3, May 1990.

Thomas, Audrey. "The Social and Economic Costs of Illiteracy" in Prospects. Vol. XIX, No.4, 1984.

Hunter, Carman St. John. "Literacy: What Do The Definitions Tell Us?" in Literacy in the Industrializedcc_Lunkig.LA__Ftactice. Margaret Gayfer, ed. The International Council for Adult Education.

1987.

Botkin, James W., Mahdi Elmandjra and Mircea Malitza. No Limits to Learning: Bridging the Human Gap.A report to the Club of Rome. Pergamon, Oxford: 1979.

FURTHER READING

Canadian Council on Social Development. Taking Down the Wall of Words: Community Agencies &Literacy. Ottawa: 1990.

A series of books on how to integrate literacy skills into community agencies. Available fromJohn Howard, Canada. 55 Parkdale Ave. Box 3505 Station C, Ottawa, Ont. K1Y 4G1. (613) 728-1865

4 PLANNING AND ORGANIZING A LITERACY INITIATIVE

OTHER SOURCES

Barry, Bill. Spreading the Word: A Handbook for Setting Up a Community Based Literacy Pro-gram. Newfoundland and Labrador Association of You-th Servicing Agencies: 1989.

Barry, Bryan W. Strategic Pluming Workbook for Non-Profit Organizations. Amherst H. Wilder Foun-dation, St. Paul, MN: 1986.

Mayer, Steven E. Guidelines for EffWive Adult Literacy Programs. B. Dalton Bookseller, National Lit-eracy Initiative. Minneapolis: 1987.

FURTHER READING

Barry, Bryan W. Strategic Planning Workbook for Nonprofit Organizations. Amherst H. Wilder Foun-dation, St. Paul, MN: 1986.

A thorough, practical, easy to understand aid to planning and implemeriAng a strategic planfor your program or organization. Numerous worksheet id examples.

Mayer, Steven E. Guidelines for Effective Adult Literacy ProE qs. B. Dalton Bookseller, National Lit-eracy Initiative, Minneapolis: 1987.

An excellent resource guide for planning and managing adult literacy programs. Topicscovered include community assessments, staff resources, inkruction and support, programrecords, and evaluation.

77 83

Wilson, Marlene. The Effective Management of Volunteer Programs. Management Assoc tes, Boulder,Colorado: 1976.

A guide to applying management theory to volunteer programs. Included are sections oninterviewing and placing volunteers, organizational climate and its effect on volunteers andstaff, motivation, designing jobs, and planning and evaluation.

5 GENERATING INVOLVEMENT

REFERENCES

Vineyard, Susan. "Recruiting and Training Volunteers: No Gimmicks, No Gags!" in The Journal of Vol-unteer Administration. Spring, 1984.

OTHER SOURCES

Brown, Kathleen M. Keys to Making a Volunteer Program Work. Aiden Publications, Richmond, Cali-fornia: 1982.

Lynch, Richard. "Preparing An Effective Recruitment Campaign", in Voluntary Action Leadership. Winter,1984.

FURTHER READING

Kozol, Jonathan. Prisoners of Silence. Continuum Books, New York: 1980.

A highly readable general interest book, it presents a plan to utilize the youth of America insolving the American literacy crisis. Inspiring ideas which may inspire the reader as well..

McCurley, Steve and Sue Vineyard. 101 Ideas for Volunteer Programs. Heritage Publishers, Illinois: 1986.

A book of practical ideas and tips for people working with volunteers. Includes topics suchas recruiting, motivating and supervising volunteers. An easy to read volume for the noviceand the seasoned literacy organize!.

Moore, Larry F., ed. Motivating Volunteers. Vancouver Volunteer Centre, Vancouver, B.C.: 1985.

A book which looks at how to motivate volunteers and keep their interest high, it givesconcrete suggestions based on the Canadian experience.

United Way of Greater Toronto. A New Era for Volunteerism. United Way, Toronto: 1986. Proceed-ings of a conference held in Toronto, June 1-3, 1986.

A book of papers given at the conference touching on various aspects of volunteerism inCanada providing useful oneral information.

6 CkEATING LE^. RNING OPPORTUNITIES

REFERENCES

Brooks, E., Kenneth Goodman and Meredith Robert. Language and Thinking in School. Holt Rinehart &Winston, New York: 1976.

Askov, Eunice. "Approaches to Reading Instruction for ',adult Beginning Readers" in Adult LiteracyPerspectives. Maurice Taylor and Janos Draper, eds. Culture Concepts Inc., Toronto: 1989.

78

84

Colvin, Ruth, and Jane Root. Tutor: Techniques Used in the Teaching of Reading and Writing. LiteracyVolunteers of America: 1987.

French, Joyce. Adult Literacy: A Source Book and Guide. Source Books on Education, Garland PublishingInc., New York: Vol. 14, 1987.

Rigg, Ppt. "Beginning to Read in English the LEA way" in Recommendations for ways by which the GeorgeBrown College of AAman better serve the undereducated adult f the City of Toronto. Kingshott,Adult Literacy Project, Toronto: 1981.

Moore, David Price and Mary A. Poppino. Successful Tutoring: A Practical Guide to Adult Learn-ing Processes. Charles C. Thomas, Springfield, Illinois: 1983.

Christina Jagger, Laubach Literacy International. How_to Integrate Computers Into Adult Basic Education.From a presentation at the Adult Literacy and Technology Conference sponsored by The AdultLiteracy and Technology Project, San Ramon. Minnesota: July, 1990.

The Computers In Literacy Committee. Position Paper on tlwL1mdComts in Adult Literac . MetroToronto Movement for Literacy, Toronto: 1990.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo in Kozol, Jonathan. Illiterate America. Anchor Press/Doubleday, Garden City,New York: 1985.

Havelock, Ibid

Wilstead, Joy. "Parents Are Children's First Teachers," Reading Today. December-January, 1989.

Landerholm, Elizabeth, and Jo Ann Karr. "Designing Parent Involvement Program Activities to Deal WithParents' Needs." in Lifelong Learning. American Association of Adult and Continuing Education.Vol. 11, No. 5, 1988.

PLAN Inc. (Push Literacy Action Now) Reading and Learning Tips for Parents. Washington, D.C.: 1988.

Thomas, Adele. "Family Literacy In Canada" in Movement for Canadian Literacy Newsletter. Spring:1990.

FURTHER READING

Adult Basic Literacy Curriculum Guide and Resource Book. Ministry of Advanced Education and JobTraining, Ministry of Education, Victoria, B.C.: 1987.

A practical hands-on book that examines the language experience approach in depth, thengoes on to show a step-by-step course design based on themes such as family law, parentalcommunication, stress and health, and so on. Completing the guide is a section on workingwith adults. To order, contact Publication Services, Ministry of Education, 878 ViewfieldRd., Victoria, B.C., V9A 4V1, (604) 387-5331.

Fingeret, Arlene, "Adult Literacy Education Current and Future Directions," ERIC, Columbus, Ohio:1984.

An examination of individually focused and community focused programs. Includes sec-tions on current literature, underlying issues, program aspects and models. Concludes withrecommendations for improving literacy education.

79 85

Goulding, P., M. Tumpane, and A. Watkins. cmpjaullsistes Iieffliing_ansilhe Ontario Basic SkillsELogram: Part 2Teaching Methodology, Annotated Software Evaluations and Publishers' Info?,illation. George Brown College, Toronto: 1988.

A helpful survey of a cross-section of software used in adultbasic education, with six ratingscategories for each program.

Kidd, doss and Nat Colette. Tradition for Development: Indigenous Structures and Folk Media in Non-Formal Education.

A wide-ranging, international examination of non-traditional learning. Fullof ideas on whathas been done to nurture -md build upon oral culture.

Literacy and Orality. Proceedings from the 1987 conference at the McLuhan Institute of the Universityof Toronto.

Also made into a radio program for CBC "Ideas" program; periodically available in transcriptform. A very philosophical approach, the conference proceedings provide a thoroughgrounding in the positive and constructive realities of oral culture.

Verduin, James, Harry Miller and Charles Greer. Adults Teaching Adults. Learning Concepts, Austin,Texas: 1977.

A detailed and cc Ase overview of the principles and strategies of adult education. Includessections on foundations for adult learning and instructional processes and procedures. Eachchapter concludes with a selected bibliography.

SOFTWARE EVALUATION RESOURCES

Organizations

CMEC Database for Educational Software Information, c/o Nuzhat Jafri, Council of Ministersof Education, Canada, 252 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5S 1V5, (416) 964-2551.

The Learning Centre, c/o Kevin O'Brien, 108 Rideau Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 5X2, (613)239.2687.

On-Line Resources

OBS (Ontario Basic Skills) Software Evaluation Project, c/o Peter Goulding/CAL Centre,George Brown College, 160 Kendal Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M5R 1M3, (416) 944-4640.

York On-Line Services , c/o Ronald Owsten, York University, Faculty of Education, 4700 KeeleStreet, North York, Ontario, M3J 1P3, (416) 736-5019.

Other Sources

Adult Literacy and Technology Newsletter, California. Contact PCC Inc., 2682 Bishop Drive, Suite 107,San Ramon, California, 94583, (415) 830-4200.

Computers for Literacy Committee, The. Position Paper on the Use of Computers in Adult Literacy. MetroToronto Movement for Literacy, Toronto: 1990.

Evaluations: Microware. Provincial Education Media Centre, Ministry of Education, Richmond, B.C.,Province of British Columbia: 1982.

80 66

Manitoba Cou:seware System: Courseware Evaluator's Handbook. Department of Education and Train-ing, Educational Technology Program, Infotecb Manitoba, Winnipeg: 1988.

Micro-Courseware Profiles and Evaluations. EPIE & Consumers Union, EPIE Institute, New York: 1983.

Software Evaluation: Criteria for Educational Computer Software Evaluation. Council of Ministers ofEducation, Canada, Toronto: 1985.

Software Reports: The Guide to Evaluated Educational Software. Allenback Industries, Carlsbad, Cali-fornia: 1983.

7 DEVELOPING AND IMPLEMENTING WORKSHOPS FORVOLUNTEERS

REFERENCES

Watson, Li lla. Tightwire. Joanne Mayhew, ed. Prison for Women Press, Kingston: Spring, Vol. 23, 1989.

Renner, Peter Franz. Th9 Instructor's Survival Kit: A Handbook For Teachers of Adults. Training As-sociates, Vancouver: 1983.

Grabowski, Stanley M., and Associates. Preparing Educators of Adults. Jossey-Bass Publishers, SanFrancisco: 1981.

Margolis, Frederic H., and Chip R. Bell. Understanding Training: Perspectives and Practices. UniversityAssociates, Inc., San Diego: 1989.

Tiberins, Richard G. Small Group Teaching: A Trouble Shooting Guide. OISE Press, Toronto: 1990.

Griffin, Virginia, R. "Holistic Learning/Teaching in Adult Education: Would You Play a One-StringGuitar?" in The Craft of Teaching. Barer-Stein, Thelma and James A. Draper, eds. Culture Concepts,Toronto: 1988.

Fisher, Bram. "Participant Workshop Evaluation Form". Literacy Link of Eastern Ontario, Kingston:June, 1990.

OTHER SOURCES

Anderson, Jane, Bonnie Longion, and Marguerite Gillis. Instructional Guide. Cambridge, New York: 1983.

Barer-Stein, Thelma and James A. Draper, eds. The Craft of Teaching. Culture Concepts, Toronto: 1968.

Boyd, Robert D., Jerold W. Apps and Associates. Redefinin The Disci line of Adult Education. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco: 1980.

Brundage, Donald E., and Dorothy Mackaracher. Adult Learning Principles and Their Application ToProgram Planning. Ministry of Education, Toronto: 1980.

Buskey, John H. Designing and Implementing Effective Worksho. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Fran-cisco: 19F 4.

Calamai, Peter. Broken Words: Why Five Million Canadians Are Ill'terate: The Southam Literacy Report.Southam Inc., Toronto: 1987.

Center for Literacy, Inc. Basic Literacy: Tutor Handbook. Center for Literacy, Philadelphia: 1986.

Daloz, Laurent A. Effective Teaching and Mentoring: Realizing the Transformational Power of AdultLearning Experiences. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Framisco: 1981.

81

87

McLagan, Patricia A. Helping Others Learn: Designing Programs For Adults. Addison-Wesley Publishing,Don Mills: 1978.

Moore, G.A.B., and M.W. Waldron. Heiping Adults Learn. University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario: 1979.

Office for Disabled Persons. Statistical Profile for Disabled Persons in Ontario, Vol. II. Queen's Printer forOntario, Toronto: 1990.

Ontario Literacy Coalition. Strategies for Change: A Position Paper on Literacy. Ontario Literacy Coali-tion, Toronto: 1990.

Sork, Thomas J., ed. 9esigning and ImTlementing Effective Worksho_ps. Jossey-Bass Publishers, SanFrancisco, 198,

Smith, Frank et al. L'nderstanftg Reading. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York: 1978.

Smith, Robert M. Learning How To Learn: Applied Them For Adults. Cambridge, New York: 1982.

Winterowd, W. Ross. The Culture and Politics of Literacy. Oxford University Press, New York: 1989.

Wlodkowski, Raymond J. Enhancing Adult Motivation To Learn. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco:1986.

FURTHER READING

Barer-Stein, Thelma and James A. Draper, eds. The Craft of Teaching. Culture Concepts, Toronto: 1988.

This book contains a series of papers written by leading experts in the field of contemporarypedagogy. All aspects of adult education are discussed in depth. This is an excellent book foranyone thinking of designing, implementing, and evaluating an adult education program.

Renner, Peter Franz. The Instructor's Survival Kit: A Handbook For Teachers of Adults. Training As-sociates, Vancouver: 1985.

This book is a how to manual for delivering adult training workshops. It contains the newestdiscoveries in adult pedagogy, and practical instruction techniques. This book is essential forany facilitator.

Sork, Thomas J., ed. Designing and Implementing Effective Workshops. Jossey-Bass Publishers, SanFrancisco: 1984.

Containing a series of essays on the design aria implementation of workshops, this is anexcellent resource for anyone wanting to learn more about the workshop format.

Tiberius, Richard G. Small Group Teaching: A Trouble Shooting G. le. OISE Press Toronto: 1990.

fhis book contains an extensive exploration of potential conflicts and problems which mightarise in workshop delivery. Practical solutions to these conflicts and problems are suggestedin detail.

Wlodkowski, Raymond J. Enhancing Adult Motivation to Learn. Jossey-Bass Publishers, San Francisco:1986.

This book discusses the whole issue of adult motivation. It contains suggestiono forenhancing your own and other learners' motivation.

82

88

8 MEASURING SUCCESS

FURTHER READING

Barnsley, J., Diana Ellis and Helga Jacobson. An Evaluation Guide for Women's GrouDs. Women's Re-search Centre, Vancouver: 1986.

A method called participant focused evaluation is presented in which the participants'interests and perspectives are central to the evaluation. As a guide to group and individualself-evaluation, the book looks at designing the evaluation, collecting and analyzing data, andimplications for future work.

o

83

;e4a.

NOTES

Name of Organization

Who to Involve in the New Initiative

What Kind of Learning Needs Do We Have?

Our Vision

8 0

e

Objectives

Action Steps

Evaluation

91