Creating Learning Partners: A facilitator’s guide for training effective adult literacy tutors

Section 1 What Does Literacy Mean?

This section will give tutors the opportunity to explore literacy in their daily lives and review the latest statistics about literacy.

Activity A

Literacy in our daily lives

Reflection, discussion, drawing
Materials and equipment Flip chart and markers Blank paper STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS Ask tutors to briefly state what they think the word literacy means. Write their answers on the flip chart. You will use these responses in the next activity, so keep the flip chart handy. Give tutors a blank sheet of paper and markers and ask them to draw the literacy activities they participated in over the last 4 hours. Allow a few minutes for tutors to work on their drawings. Those who wish to do so can share their drawings with the rest of the group. From the drawings, point out the different ways we use literacy in our daily lives. Ask tutors if they became aware of other uses of literacy skills from this activity. Ask tutors how they felt doing the activity. Were there some who felt uncomfortable with their drawing skills or tried to avoid doing the activity? Did some feel anxiety about doing the drawing correctly? Point out that those with inadequate literacy skills often experience some of these same feelings when confronted with text.

Reflection, discussion, drawing

Materials and equipment

Flip chart and markers
Blank paper

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

Ask tutors to briefly state what they think the word literacy means. Write their answers on the flip chart. You will use these responses in the next activity, so keep the flip chart handy.
Give tutors a blank sheet of paper and markers and ask them to draw the literacy activities they participated in over the last 4 hours.
Allow a few minutes for tutors to work on their drawings.
Those who wish to do so can share their drawings with the rest of the group.
From the drawings, point out the different ways we use literacy in our daily lives.
Ask tutors if they became aware of other uses of literacy skills from this activity.
Ask tutors how they felt doing the activity. Were there some who felt uncomfortable with their drawing skills or tried to avoid doing the activity? Did some feel anxiety about doing the drawing correctly?
Point out that those with inadequate literacy skills often experience some of these same feelings when confronted with text.

Variation

To bring a particular focus to daily literacy activities, you could ask tutors to think about everything they have eaten over the last 24 hours and to create symbols or simple drawings of all the ways in which they needed literacy skills to be able to eat that food. If they need an example, you can suggest using a car or the bus to shop, reading labels while shopping, handling money or following a recipe.