Breaking down the complex capabilities of ALN

Adult Literacy and Numeracy (ALN) Curriculum Framework for Scotlandpart2

Part Two: Practice

3. Breaking down the complex capabilities of ALN

Sometimes it is helpful to break down the complex capabilities of ALN to see what is available to be learned and taught. For this reason further ideas about the skills, knowledge and understanding that are involved in using literacy and numeracy are listed below. These complex capabilities are adapted from Literacies in the Community. They are not intended to be a checklist, nor are they meant to suggest any order in which things should be taught. The lists are too unwieldy for use with learners and are intended for tutors to use as a reference tool for their lesson-planning. Tutors can pick and choose the appropriate learning activities for their learners’ goals, mixing activities for working on skills with those which explore knowledge and understanding about literacies. It can be useful to record ideas for lesson plans on a spider diagram (see, for example, Appendix 1).
 
For ease of use, skills, knowledge and understanding have been teased apart. However, all three capabilities overlap so that working on a skill (eg skimming a text ) will inevitably involve knowledge of how texts are structured and what clues to look for, while the tutor’s skill may be needed to prompt discussion of who constructed the text, and why they wrote it that way.  All learners can be engaged with all three of the capabilities whether skimming a poster, a website or an academic article. Similarly skills knowledge and understanding can all be woven into composing a group letter or email arranging a group outing, or an individual’s letter to school.

Literacy Skills

The skills of:
Reading
  • recognising signs, symbols and social sight words (eg push, fire exit)
  • matching letters and sounds
  • using strategies for reading unfamiliar words
  • using pictures and graphic clues to recognise texts and find information         
  • using layout and headings to navigate through a text      
  • skimming and scanning      
  • reading for particular purposes eg reading for particular information, to get the gist, for enjoyment
  • reading for understanding
  • reading critically
  • reading aloud
  • using alphabetical order
  • using reference material to find meaning of unfamiliar words
  • accessing a variety of reference material ( eg the Internet, magazines, textbooks, library collections). 
Writing          
  • using layout, paragraphing and headings to navigate through a text
  • using sequence and links to make meanings clear
  • using language to express attitudes, opinions and degrees of certainty
  • using sentence length and complexity appropriate to purpose
  • using language appropriate to intended purpose/reader
  • word-processing and texting -

                              using word-processing facilities for planning, drafting, composing, editing and proofreading

  • spelling -  

                             choosing and using strategies for learning spellings and working out how to spell words

  • punctuation - 
                  choosing and using appropriate punctuation, upper and lower case letters
 
  • handwriting
  • using dictionaries, a thesaurus and spellcheckers. 
Knowledge of Literacies
The knowledge that:
  • we do not have to read a text from start to finish but can use headings, or select particular pieces according to our purpose
  • sometimes we need to read a text in detail
  • using our knowledge and experience together with cues and clues from the text can help us work out the meaning
  • in English, letters or groups of letters may sound differently when combined into different words
  • spoken and written language are different and that we need to organise them differently, including choosing punctuation
  • we use language differently in different contexts, eg formal letter, text message
  • different kinds of text have different structures, eg menus, chapters, "pages"/layers in hypertext
  • there are many sources of information that can be accessed in different ways, eg Internet, library, individuals
  • there is a process to writing that includes:
- thinking what we want to say, why we want to say it and who will be reading what we write
- planning, organising and sequencing our meaning
- making decisions about the length and detail of text
- selecting the language and style appropriate to purpose
- drafting
- editing so that:
     the writing achieves its purpose
     sentences make sense
     the writing is grammatically appropriate for purpose and audience, eg subject and verb agree and tenses  
     are consistent
- proof reading. 
  • English has evolved from a mixture of languages: this can be both a help and a hindrance in spelling it
  • there are some patterns and rules which can help us work out how to spell word
  • it helps to use visual, auditory and other memory methods as well as repetition when learning to spell
  • it helps to develop personal dictionaries and lists of keywords for our own purposes
  • we can write impersonally and in a detached way or we can address the reader directly
  • we can use language to achieve different purposes eg to inform, amuse, persuade, etc
  •  there are some writing conventions, eg for a narrative, for a report, for instructions or for emails, which can be learned and used.
Understanding Literacies
 
Understanding that:
  • it is important to work out who wrote a text and why in order to evaluate its message
  • it is useful to test what the text says against our own knowledge and experience of a topic
  • sometimes the writer’s message may be explicit and sometimes implicit or both
  • what is left out of a text is sometimes as significant as what is included
  • sometimes it is important to read and write accurately and perfectly and sometimes it is not: it depends on the context
  • writing is constructed according to conventions and the writer can choose whether or not to follow these conventions. Sometimes, however, in certain environments there are set formats to be used, eg timesheets, job sheets, birth certificates or, in the workplace, business letters
  • IT and other technologies (such as texting) are increasingly changing the ways people use literacy
  • different people at different times have used literacies in different ways
  • writers need to consider choosing presentation tools which are appropriate to the purpose, for example a pen or word-processor for business letters and job applications.
 
How a learner might broaden learning from concentrating on skills to working on knowledge and understanding as well
 
When Marion first went to a dedicated literacy class it was "Just my spelling, really" that she wanted to work on. Knowing that it’s important to have a context for working on spelling, the tutor asked what sort of writing Marion did at present and what she wanted to spell and write. This took quite a lot of teasing out, starting from "nothing in particular" to a short list of shopping lists, benefit forms, texts to a soldier son and letters to school for a daughter’s absence. 
 
Marion agreed to start with a template letter to school which could be used to adapt to all sorts of illnesses. They would use that to look at the spelling.
 
To get it down on paper in the first place, however, took quite a lot of prompting and discussion, which covered more than just spelling skills. They talked about what to say and the order it needed to be said in, the right sort of tone and the right layout for her purpose.
 
The tutor encouraged Marion to "just write it down and we can sort the spelling later". But it was still difficult for Marion to start so the tutor asked her just to speak out what she wanted to say. The tutor repeated it to Marion and she wrote some of it down and the tutor wrote the rest. Then they read it back and changed some of the language to make it more formal. This approach to letter writing, with all the literacies knowledge that it involved, was new to Marion who said she usually just signed what her daughter wrote. She was, however, still keen to get to the spelling!
 
The tutor asked her to identify any words she had misspelled and, working with the dictionary and a spellchecker, they set some of them right. Together they discussed how Marion might learn them and tried a few memory techniques to see what might work for her.
 
The next week they took the draft and talked about how to rewrite and present it neatly. The tutor offered to show her how to lay it out and type it up on the computer for her if she wanted, but Marion really wanted to know why, a hundred years after the phone was invented, school still wanted absence and other sorts of notes. They talked about who saw them at school, what happened to them after they’d been read and instances they knew of when the note had been important.
 
The discussion of the legal status of some bits of writing and their importance as a record of a transaction led Marion to mentioning other letters she wanted to write, particularly one to complain about the repairs to her house not getting done.
 
  
Numeracy skills
Using the following skills to accomplish everyday tasks:
  • recognising numbers
                  - spoken words
                  - written figures
  • concepts and language for time, weight, distance, comparison and measurement
  • counting, in 1s, 2s, 5s and 10s (eg with money and five-minute intervals on the clock)
  • using number bonds
  • addition, including larger numbers and addition with carrying; subtraction, including larger numbers and subtraction by decomposition
  • place value (understanding two and three figure numbers and the significance of zero in them)
  • multiplication (times two and ten, tables, methods to use with larger numbers, decimals and fractions)
  • division (as the opposite of multiplication, sharing, using tables to divide)
  • how and when to use a calculator
  • decimals (recognising and understanding decimal money, using addition and subtraction and understanding their relationship to fractions)
  • fractions (recognising and understanding them in real situations, how to write them and recognise equivalent fractions and recognising their relationship to decimals)
  • percentages (recognising that they are fractions of a hundred and identifying percentages in real situations and knowing the value of some more common amounts)
  • estimation and approximation
  • ratio and proportion
  • probability and statistics within context
  • graphs, charts and tables
                  - making sense of them (reading, understanding and using)
                  - constructing them
                  -  measurement
                  - measuring using different tools
                  - choosing the appropriate units of measurement
  • recognising, drawing and constructing simple shapes
  • using formulae, for example in spreadsheets
  • comparing numerical information, eg loan offers
  • operating a bank account
  • budgeting. 
Knowledge of numeracy
Knowledge that:
  • maths has its own language and sometimes processes and relationships are shown by symbols
  • maths has its own vocabulary and different words can be used for the same processes (eg subtract, take away, minus
  • informal methods may work as well as formal pen-and-paper ones in real life
  • our common sense can often tell us when a calculation is incorrect
  • we don’t always need to be absolutely accurate - it depends on the circumstances
  • estimation and approximation are useful in certain circumstances, for example to get a rough idea of quantities or cost
  • some calculations, like long-division and manipulation of fractions, are rarely used in real life
  • some calculations are better done on a calculator
  • charts, tables and graphs are important and common ways of communicating numerical information.
Understanding Numeracy
Understanding how:
  • numbers work, eg place value or the relationship between multiplying and dividing
Understanding that:
  • new ways of showing numerical information are developing all the time
  • numerical information needs to be presented appropriately for the audience, and there are conventions for doing this
  • different people at different times have done maths in different ways
  • sometimes getting the exact answer and using a particular method matters and sometimes it doesn’t depending on the context
  •  we need to understand a problem fully before we can decide which of the four operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) we need to use to solve it
  • mathematical calculations can be used to come up with an answer to a practical problem, eg calculating how much paint to buy or how much a car journey will cost
  • numbers are used for different purposes and we need to ask how and why people are using them before evaluating them
  • sometimes what is left out of numerical information is as significant as what is included - advertisements are a good example of this
  • in maths, as in real life, we have to use it or lose it.
Putting them back together again
The lists that have been detailed above are shown to illustrate how the skills, knowledge and understanding involved in using literacy and numeracy can be broken down. Of course most tutors are working on all these separated parts together in response to the wishes of their learners. Section 3.6 shows how working on skills, knowledge and understanding in a context relevant to the learner's goals can be linked to assessment, and in Appendix 5 there is an example of a possible framework for recording progress. The rest of this document shows how tutors can think about learning and individual learning planning in ways that are responsive to learners and their learning contexts.

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