After years of vacillating between low-wage, labour-intensive, irregular jobs and receiving social assistance, Vince has nervously enrolled in a literacy program. Vince's total prior experience with formal education consisted of six years spent at a residential school where he was separated from his family who remained on the reserve. Now in his late 30s, Vince is self-conscious about not properly learning either Cree or English.

Vince's story is typical of many First Nations people of his generation. Many First Nations people have been left marginalized, feeling that they do not belong on the reserve and that they are not adequately prepared to function in mainstream urban society. For them, school has been a place of fear, isolation, and failure. Ironically, after years spent drifting between reserve and city, and after periods of time spent incarcerated, Vince's healing journey began after he became involved with Elders who taught him about sacred songs, dances, and his dignified heritage. It is this knowledge, together with his past experience, that Vince brings to the literacy classroom.

Every learner's narrative creates opportunities for literacy practitioners to bridge the gaps between the learner's primary culture and the mainstream culture. Vince's learning activities could include:

• sharing Cree words that match the new vocabulary he is learning
• learning to write, spell, and pronounce English words from his story
• finding out more about residential schools and the high incarceration rates for Aboriginal males. There are videos that tell this story
• sharing knowledge about residential school survivors
• telling his own story alongside others
• finding examples of how history books treat Aboriginal experiences in comparison to the experiences of mainstream society
• learning about Cree protocol when learning sacred knowledge, and then sharing an example of this protocol while learning mainstream sacred knowledge
• sharing a sacred song with other learners
• leading the group and sharing his knowledge during a group trip to a First Nations cultural event

All of these activities are designed to help Vince become actively involved in his learning. They focus on enhancing valuable Lifelong Learning and Interpersonal Skills while Vince achieves a variety of Communications Benchmarks.

Benchmarks assume an end point. However, there really is no endpoint for these two quadrants of The Circle of Learning. Lifelong Learning and Interpersonal Skills are not limited to Levels 1 and 2 literacy learners; this learning is developmental and becomes more complex as learners become more self-reflective and other-centred. The learning outcomes reflect some of the essential skills individuals need to cope in today's world. They are not exhaustive or universal. It is assumed that different communities will adapt or add to the learning outcomes within their own contexts. This approach respects the dynamic nature of The Circle of Learning.