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

Activity C

Reasons for low literacy

Video, discussion, reflection
Materials and equipment Overhead 5.1: Reasons for Poor Literacy (2 pages) Overhead projector The book Jeremiah Learns to Read by Jo Ellen Bogart or another story about an adult learning to read Flip chart paper and markers Preparation Read the book Jeremiah Learns to Read. Prepare overhead. STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS Give each tutor a piece of flip chart paper and ask them to create a pie chart that shows, in proportion, the main activities in their lives at this time: for example, being a parent, volunteering, working in a paid job, shopping, cooking, being the home fix-it person, travelling and so on. Ask tutors to brainstorm with a partner the ways in which low literacy would affect each of those activities around the pie. After asking tutors to share some key ideas with the full group, discuss the strengths literacy learners use to get around having poor literacy skills. (Think back to the skills used in the video you watched). How could they learn more from learners about those strengths? Ask tutors why an adult might have poor literacy skills. Discuss the overhead Reasons for Poor Literacy. Read aloud to tutors Jeremiah Learns to Read or another story about an adult learning to read.

Video, discussion, reflection

Materials and equipment

Overhead 5.1: Reasons for Poor Literacy (2 pages)
Overhead projector
The book Jeremiah Learns to Read by Jo Ellen Bogart or another story about an adult learning to read
Flip chart paper and markers

Preparation

Read the book Jeremiah Learns to Read.
Prepare overhead.

STEP-BY-STEP PROCESS

Give each tutor a piece of flip chart paper and ask them to create a pie chart that shows, in proportion, the main activities in their lives at this time: for example, being a parent, volunteering, working in a paid job, shopping, cooking, being the home fix-it person, travelling and so on.
Ask tutors to brainstorm with a partner the ways in which low literacy would affect each of those activities around the pie.
After asking tutors to share some key ideas with the full group, discuss the strengths literacy learners use to get around having poor literacy skills. (Think back to the skills used in the video you watched). How could they learn more from learners about those strengths?
Ask tutors why an adult might have poor literacy skills.
Discuss the overhead Reasons for Poor Literacy.
Read aloud to tutors Jeremiah Learns to Read or another story about an adult learning to read.

Facilitation tip

It’s quite powerful to think about the impact of poor literacy skills on various aspects of people’s lives, and the resourceful ways people have of getting by with poor literacy skills.