This section of the manual is devoted to the 16 lesson plans used in Get Set Learn. It includes:
This section will provide you with lesson plans that you can implement as is, or expand according to the needs of the clients who attend your program. The curriculum has been developed for parents who have low literacy skills. For example, these are parents who may not have finished high school. That does not mean that parents who have a post-secondary education may not take part in this program. Some parents who have a lot of education do not have high functional literacy skills. You will notice that there is a section in each lesson plan entitled “Special Notes and/or Extensions.” This section will provide you with ways to extend or modify your classes should you encounter parents who have different literacy skills than those for which this curriculum has been created and tested. The coordinator can use the telephone screening tool to determine whether the program will meet the parent’s literacy needs and whether any modifications to the lesson plans needs to be considered.
Get Set Learn is a holistic family literacy program that provides a foundation for families with literacy challenges to experience successful lifelong learning
The majority of parents who have taken GSL in the past, fall within the three lowest levels of “Literacy and Basic Skills,” according to the Ministry of Training, Colleges, and Universities (MTCU) (Essential Skills Level 1). These levels are based on a matrix of learning outcomes in five domains. The matrix is focused on helping adults work on developing skills, knowledge and behaviours embedded in the tasks associated with their long-term goals (Working with Learning Outcomes, 1998). In many cases, parents enrolled in GSL have the long-term goal of getting a job. Therefore, in keeping with the vision of GSL, the GSL facilitator needs to provide opportunities for that parent to utilize some of the language of work and refer that parent to a local literacy program to determine the most appropriate program following GSL. Reasons for attending GSL vary but the majority of parents attend for the following reasons: