The level
of literacy and numeracy of students differs a lot individually at tertiary
institutions. Some of them are good in reading but cannot extract the theme of
the text they read. The tertiary educators dealing with literacy and numeracy
should understand their learners’ skills of literacy and numeracy and
accordingly plan their strategy to enable the learner to meet the demand of the
course.
I would
like to mention the teaching session on reading by Pariya Williams at Language Learning Centre. The learners were
diverse in terms of age, gender and understanding. Among the male learners some
were mature adults and three of them were young adults. Among the females also
two were mature and others were young adults. They were from China and other
South East Asian countries.
Rebecca (2011) mentions in her blog the
following techniques for reading.
1. Show
and tell
2. Tap
into Prior Knowledge
3. Give
time to talk
4. Pre-teach
Vocabulary
5. Use
visual aids
6. Pause
, ask questions , pause , Review
I observed some of the techniques in Pariya’s
class. She used different scaffolding
techniques to develop their reading. She divided the whole text into small
pieces and told them to read a small part. She also applied the differentiation technique and
facilitated those learners who were struggling with vocabulary. She emphasized
on ‘Think Aloud’ technique in which
the students discussed in groups the topic sentence and tried to understand the
theme of the passage. She started with the topic sentence of the passage and
the students understood that the theme of the passage is to find the causative
factor of shortage of teachers in the United Kingdom. She gave them time to talk and was taking pauses and asking questions after a
little pause.
Similarly
the other constituents (writing and speaking) of literacy can be developed
through scaffolding and differentiation techniques. The educators should try to
develop their lesson plans keeping in mind the context and culture of the adult
learners because these are the two essential elements to engage the adult
learners.
The New Zealand Ministry of
Education (2010)
launched various numeracy projects which provide guidelines for students, parents
and facilitators. The online material to learn numeracy is organized. Numeracy
can be best developed in the context. The best way to start with is learning
about numbers by counting the objects. The selection of objects to be counted
should of their interest for example an
adult farmer can be asked to count the number of sheep in the pictures. Gradually
they should learn the recognition of number from 0 to 9. This can be done by
displaying charts and cards. Initially the number should be written in order. Later
on cards with jumbled numbers should be given to them and they should be asked
to rewrite them in correct order. In this way using scaffolding and differentiation
techniques the facilitator should teach them large numbers, add, and subtract,
multiply and numerical word problems. The statements of the word problems
should be selected with utmost care. For example: “Martin went to the
supermarket. He had $25. He bought a packet of bread for $2, 1 kg. cooking oil
for $6, two packets of biscuits for $1.15 each. How much did he spend in all?
How much money had he left with?” The problems should be related to their daily
life. I would like to give the example
of a numeracy project launched by the local govt. for the farmers in my home
town. It was held in the grain market in 2006. The facilitators enabled the
illiterate farmers to learn about numbers by counting the sacks of wheat. They
were practicing numeracy orally. How many sacks were packed each day? How many
of them are loaded into the trucks? How many of them are left? After getting
oral practice, they were taught to recognize the numbers through cards and
feedback was taken by asking them questions about the numbers written on
different objects in the market. The next step was to write the numbers and the
practice was given through a number chart and they were told to count the
number of sacks packed per hour and note down the number on paper by looking at
the chart for each hour. They also learnt to prepare a bill for the crop sold
in the last two days. The facilitator took the copies of the bill and enabled
them to practice. Initially they calculated for small amount and with practice
they learnt to prepare the bill for large calculation.
Alber,
R. (2011). The six scaffolding strategies to use with your students. Retrieved
from http://www.edutopia.org/blog/scaffolding-lessons-six-strategies-rebecca-alber
on August 31, 2013.
The New
Zealand Ministry of education. (2010). Numeracy Projects. Retrieved from http://nzmaths.co.nz/numeracy-projects
on August 31, 2013.
