Destination Literacy - Informal assessment model

The informal assessment is a series of activities that practitioners can use with learners to determine learner strengths and struggles. The results give a better understanding of the learners, help the practitioners to determine the possibility of a learning disability and help to develop an effective program. The assessment will help to indicate strengths/areas of need in learners' processing skills: attention, language/auditory, memory and visual-spatial abilities.

Areas of assessment include: reading, written expression, spelling and mathematics. An attention/self-esteem observation checklist is included to help guide the practitioner's observations while conducting the informal assessment.

At the end of each task section there are two checklists:

• A summary of learner responses that can be used to record answers
• A summary of observations that can be completed after the tasks in each section are finished

The manual also provides comprehensive teaching skill strategies information based on the assessment results. Destination Literacy: Identifying and Teaching Adults with Learning Disabilities (1999) is available in French and English and can be purchased for $50 directly by telephoning the Learning Disabilities Association of Canada at : 613-238 -5721, www.ldac-taac.ca or Grass Roots Press at 1-888-303-3213, www.literacyservices.com