Resources
Adult Literacy and Numeracy (ALN) Curriculum Framework for Scotland
Part Two: Practice
2.4 Resources
What can be used as resources?
Anything and everything can be a resource for learning and it’s important to think
imaginatively about what is available. All resources need to be approached critically and seen in their context.
Below are just a few of the things that might be used:
Resources should include visual (using photographs, colours, ICT, mind mapping, videos) kinaesthetic (drawing/modelling, concrete resources, role playing) and auditory (video, speakers, discussion, CDs) so that a range of learning preferences can be catered for.
Where necessary, resources should be adapted to accommodate learners with visual or auditory impairment, physical or learning disabilities, for example by installing a hearing loop, using voice software, text enlargement, speaking scales or offering sign language support. Resources for teaching and learning should also include accommodation, which should be fully accessible, suitable for adults and be of a standard which will contribute to the learner’s feelings of self-worth.
Choosing Resources
Developing the learning programme is a joint activity between learner and tutor; so too is the provision of resources. Tutors should always encourage learners to bring along the texts, forms, calculations and tasks that they want to tackle for themselves. Sometimes the tutor can provide or organise resources like tape
recorders, computers, and flipcharts. Often the most useful resources will be a person or a facility outside the usual learning environment. But between them they can collect resources which:
- reflect the learner’s own uses of literacy and numeracy
- are relevant to the learner’s interests
- are appropriate to age and skill level
- promote respect for diversity and difference
- promote self determination
- use a variety of learning media
- are well produced.
In choosing resources, tutors may find the following checklist helpful:
- Relevant to the learner
· Is it appropriate for adults?
· Will the learner find it interesting and relevant?
· Are you using real life materials?
· Is it up-to-date eg forms, timetables?
· Does it relate to materials suggested or supplied by the learner?
- Relates to learning needs and learning goals
· Is it at the right level?
· Does it relate to the learner’s goals?
· Does it link with his / her preferred learning style?
· Are you able to adapt it if necessary to make it easier or more challenging?
- Difference and diversity
· Does it take account of your learner’s values and culture?
· Is it reinforcing stereotypes – eg by choice of picture?
· Does it include any sexist or racist language?
- Layout
· Does it look attractive?
· Is layout good – not too much on one page?
· Are the instructions clear?
· Will your learner be able to read it easily?
· Is it word processed or typed?
· Would bigger print or an enlarged photocopy help?
· Does it need a title?
· Does the learner need space to write the answer?
Once the resources have been selected then the tutor can encourage the learner to reflect on each item used, to express an opinion about the resource and to use this knowledge when choosing new resources to work with. Together, learners and tutors could build up a bank of questions to consider when discussing resources. Some starting points might be:
- How does this resource relate to my learning goal?
- Did I come away from it understanding more?
- What did I like/not like about it?
- Why is it like this?
- Did it reflect my experience?
- What would make it a better resource?
- Would I recommend it to others?
Learners in a numeracy group redesigned a worksheet, having decided that a published resource didn’t really help them. The group was working on percentages and had a worksheet with 30 questions, which used a mixture of units of measurement such as centimetres and metres, pence and pounds.
In the course of discussion to evaluate their work, the learners decided that it would be easier at this stage to do the calculations if all activities referred to the same units of measurement, so that they could concentrate on the process involved. They designed a worksheet displaying the formula they were using at the top, plus information about the units of measurement they were working with – that is, the relationship between millimetres, centimetres and metres.
The learners’ hypothesis was that by the time they reached the end of the worksheet, they would have to refer less frequently to the information at the top of the page.
Resources which fit the purpose
Once the learner’s goals have been established and the programme planned, tutor and learner can choose the resources from the domains which interest them and which suit their purposes. So, to develop literacy and numeracy skills they might turn to pen and paper, skills practice worksheets, both commercially published and home made, practical equipment for weighing and measuring, calculators, word processors or software packages. To build knowledge of literacy and numeracy, they might seek exemplar material of layouts and styles for reports, websites, timetables and letters, reference sheets, short stories, multiplication tables and bank forms.
One college has developed a non-certificated pack that covers everyday English. The pack was developed to support community based IT learners to develop literacy skills. It is integrated with IT programmes, has links to BBC Skillswise, Yellow Pages online, etc. Learners can dip in and out of the pack to support their learning needs, and having used it can choose to progress to an appropriate certificated course if they wish to.
Developing an understanding of literacy and numeracy might call for a selection of texts, text messages, videos and screen pages for discussion and comparison as well as catalogues and adverts.
One partnership made a video for awareness-raising. It was not aimed at learners but at other agencies. The idea was to make explicit a learner’s journey and to show the range of learners and their successes. Four volunteer one-to-one learners were brought together from different places and different tutors. The organiser went over the questions she would ask and invited comment and discussion. The learners, previously strangers to each other, opened up. It was, she said, ‘a brilliant session’ in which the enthusiasm and stories ‘just poured out’. She attributes its success to the clear focus on telling a story through a video and the learners’ awareness that they alone could narrate it.
When problem solving, the tutor may choose resourcesthat support learners to use literacy skills in real-life activities. These might include job application forms and the help of an interviewer, a cookery room with weighing scales, timers and cookers, a selection of timetables and a trip to the train station to study the arrivals and departure boards, or a session surfing the net for answers to a particular question. Recording and building on learners’ ideas and opinions may require flipcharts, pens, word processors, video- or tape recorders. And while the ideas of the group members themselves are a major resource for promoting critical awareness, resources like the Internet, public and private texts, speakers, trips to public meetings, photographic and graphic material can all be used to get people thinking and arguing.
Decoding a photograph: surveying issues in the community
A group of male learners was asked to look at two photographs: one of young people loitering in a local subway as a lone woman was walking towards them, and the second of a group of young people drinking outside the leisure centre.
The tutor led the group through a series of planned questions to stimulate discussion; responses were recorded on a flip chart.
What are all the things you see in the pictures?
drugs, graffiti, lights, alcohol, gangs, stairs, subway, woman, adverts, bottle, teenagers, trees, nightlife, litter, trainers, rucksack, jeans, baseball cap, handbag, trousers, sports centre, Fountainbridge Complex
Some words were about abstract ideas rather than things:
fashion, apprehensive woman, muggings
How is the woman in the picture feeling?
The group talked about a lone middle aged woman coming through a subway with a group of young people drinking and loitering:
intimidated, worried
What are the young people doing or feeling?
There was a lively exchange about young people and all the men expressed fears with regard to groups of young people. Some of the words generated included:
bored, loitering, shifty, mixed up + drink = violence, hash, fear of young women, media
Why do young people behave like this?
bored, poor, angry, hanging out, fun, growing up
The group was then asked to write on a strip of paper a statement that they would like to make with regard to the discussions, in a phrase or a sentence. They were asked to work in pairs and help each other, and the tutor and volunteers also helped the men make their statements, as follows:
‘In the subway was standing about mixed up teenagers’
‘The woman was heading towards the teenagers and to her they were looking a bit shifty’
‘Drink is the main cause of violence in Scotland’
‘Teenagers spend too much time loitering on the streets’
‘Woman is worried going through the subway’
‘Young people smoke hash to get high’
‘Why do people feel intimidated by young people who are just hanging out’
‘Fashion makes us slaves’
Decoding these images and writing the statements took less than an hour, and provoked a very lively discussion where everyone contributed. In this session the group did not get on to interpretative questions, such as ‘Why are the young people hanging about?’, ‘Who owns the leisure centre?’, ‘Who uses the leisure centre?’, ‘Why is the woman afraid of young people?’, ‘How does the media depict young people and why?’. Other questions would help the participants to reflect on their own lives and connect with the issues being raised. From these sorts of discussions the learners become animated and motivated to express their own ideas and feelings through writing, and begin to see the value and process of saying their own word, while simultaneously increasing their technical skills.
By engaging in group debate they practise the social skills required to make themselves heard effectively.
Finally,to have some fun with literacy learning and encourage working with others, groups have used games and play readings, shared leisure activities, and planned video-making, social events and visits to local amenities.
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A mixed ability group used the local library to research places of interest in the neighbourhood. Each learner chose a place of particular interest to research and write up, using this writing as the focus of her literacy learning. At the end of term the group had an outing round the neighbourhood, and each learner acted as a tour guide for the particular feature that she had researched, using her written work to remind her of key points.
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It’s often helpful to go on visits outside of the usual context, either to practise recently learned skills in a real-life context (post offices, shops, train stations), to provide material for future work (storytelling workshops, council offices) or at the end of a particular topic.
Knowing what is available
There is a vast amount of material that has been specifically produced for use in an adult literacies context. If you would like to see and evaluate some of the commercially produced resources, Learning Connections has a number of resource bases across Scotland (currently Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Paisley/Glasgow) that stock a wide range of books, journals, software, multi-media resources, videos, software and concrete resources. The collections are expanding rapidly, and you are welcome to borrow any text-based or multi-media items for up to a month. ICT resources can be used on-site and practitioners, managers and learners are all welcome to try things out and find what works for them. The stock includes practical resources, theory and research, tutor-training packs, programme support and more! Please look at the Learning Connections website for more details.
