Curriculum/Interests Questions

12) What learning styles seem predominant with your youth clients?

• Active, visual, hands on, kinesthetic
• need to learn at own pace
• individual assessment and goal setting

13) What youth needs/interests seem most pressing? Any thoughts on how these needs/interests might translate into learning activities?

• technology, internet, apprenticeship
• employment focus is needed
• look at survival skills, independence ups and downs
• interpersonal skills combined with literacy and numeracy upgrading
• transferable skills

14) What do you think would turn youth off of participating in an upgrading program?

• program labels (use of "literacy", "school", "life-skills")
• long hours - need breaks every hour
• having to "answer other people's questions in other people's structures"
• location, especially connected with high school.

15) You have contact with youth every day. What seems to be cool/interesting right now for this group?

• snowboarding, skateboarding
• music (hip-hop, ska, industrial) but not radio
• Internet, EMail chatgroups
• apprenticeship learning
• pagers

16) With a partner, briefly discuss and describe what you think an ideal youth literacy program would look like/would offer.

(i.e. where would you hold it? how many hours, how many days per week? how much structure? what types of activities?)

Suggested Locations:

• Recreation Centres, YMCA
• Downtown
• storefront
• mall
• a youth decorated cafe/ coffeehouse with cool colours/ comfy furniture and lots of technology (computers w/ high speed internet access)
• library