Getting started in

Adult Literacy and Numeracy

DAY 4 – Session Six

AssessmentHandouts

A1. Semantic Assessment Map

A2. Getting your ideas down

A3a. Assessment Process

A3b. Types of Assessment

A3c. The Learning Cycle

A3d. Curriculum for Scotland

A3e. Examples of assessment questions

A3f. What counts as progress

A4a. Assessment/review tools

A4b. Colin Case Study

A5. Smart Goals

A6. Initial Assessment Activity

A7a. Thinking about Assessment

A7b. Role play activity

A8a. Maggie Case Study

A8b. Saleema Case Study

A8c. Scott Case Study

A8d. Young person Case Study

A9. Evaluation

A10. Words and Numbers

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Assessment – getting your ideas down and making sense of them!

Assessment – Getting your ideas down

Assessment Process

  1. Initial chat
  1. Understanding learners’ practices (uses and contexts)
  2. they are often uneven
  3. adults especially have strengths and weaknesses based on experience

Consider networks/relationships

  1. Setting goals – skills/knowledge/understanding

Plans – if goals are very general, or if the gap between current use and goals is big, then they need to be specific

Consider pace/style/voices of learners

  1. Learning and tutoring – co-assessing are goals relevant and achievable?
  1. Review and progress – what counts?
  1. Progression

“If teachers could turn their ‘passion for skills’ into a ‘passion for identity’, then learning would be transformed”

James Gee quoted in Rethinking Assessment, Marr, Helme, Tout

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Assessment

Assessment is a process that helps learners to identify their current skills and knowledge, to plan their future learning and to know how well they are doing in achieving their learning needs and goals. It can be used to recognise and record achievement and to assist in identifying how the teaching and learning process can be improved.

  • It is focussed on particular areas.
  • We will only assess what we ask about, not all that can be done.
  • It is time-bound – we assess what can be done at a given time.

Broad purposes and stages of Assessment

  • Pre-entry
  • Alerting – identifying existence of a general need
  • Placing – identifying the broad level
  • On Entry
  • Diagnostic – identifying specific learning needs and goals
  • During
  • Formative – supporting and managing the process of learning and teaching, trying out things to check the formation of skills, knowledge and understanding
  • Summative – reinforcing and embedding skills and knowledge, recognising or certificating achievement
  • Exit and Renewal

Evaluation – identifying strengths and weaknesses of processes and programmes, checking against original needs and goals, identifying new goals

The cycle of Individual Learning Planning is central to the above and to the development of effective literacies provision

(adapted from An Adult Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum Framework for Scotland – Learning Connections – 2006)

Curriculum for Scotland

Principles of assessment

1. / Assessment should be closely integrated with teaching and learning activities. Learners can learn from their assessment experiences.
2. / Having set their own learning goals, learners should regularly review their own progress.
3. / Assessment tasks should be challenging for learners and involve creativity, strategic thinking and problem-solving.
4. / Assessment tasks should allow learners to see the connections between what they are learning and the life applications of that learning.
5. / Everyone (tutors, learners, programme co-ordinators) should see clearly what is being assessed, how it is being assessed, and what the results of the assessment imply for planning future learning and teaching.
6. / Wherever possible, activities used for assessment should be chosen or designed by learners.
7. / The methods used can include portfolios of work, problem-solving scenarios, performances and computer simulations as ways of modelling the learners’ realities.
8. / Assessments should be valid so they are appropriate to their purpose, provide adequate coverage of all the elements of learning and are accessible to all.
9. / Assessments should be fair so that they provide results that are accurate for all types of learners in the system (especially in the case of summative assessment leading to certification).
10. / Assessments should be practical and not too costly, too time-consuming, or too difficult to implement with the human and material resources available.

(taken from An Adult Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum Framework for Scotland –

Learning Connections – 2006)

Examples of questions to identify strategies and confidence

Introductory questions

  • What kind of information do you need to understand?
  • When do you come across reading, writing or numeracy at the moment?
  • What kinds of situations and people are involved?
  • What do you want to change about using writing, reading or numeracy in these situations?
  • What do you hope to do in the future?

Talking about the learner’s present literacy practices

  • How do you feel about reading?
  • What sorts of things do you read at the moment?
  • Do you read with other people?
  • Do you read easily?
  • What do you do if something is difficult to read?
  • How do you feel about writing?
  • What sorts of things do you write at the moment?
  • Do you write with other people?
  • Do you write quite easily?
  • How easy do you find it to get ideas down on paper?
  • What do you do if you have something difficult to write?

Talking about numeracy

  • How do you feel about numbers?
  • What sorts of things do you use numbers or maths for at the moment?
  • Do you feel OK about numbers?
  • What do you do if some number work is difficult?

Information about previous learning experiences

  • How did you feel about school?
  • Did you get any certificates there or later?
  • Have you done any learning recently? At work/training/on the computer/night classes?
  • How did you feel about that?
  • Was there anything that you particularly enjoyed or found effective?

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What counts as progress?

In many areas of education success or progress is measured by passing tests or gaining a certificate. In Community Based Adult Learning we work from the learning goals of students to design the curriculum and so our understanding of progress is rooted in students’ and tutors’ descriptions of the difference being a literacy or numeracy student has made to that person’s life. This list should never be treated as exhaustive because change is unpredictable. The changes listed should be seen as examples of possible markers of progress that students might experience.

CHANGES EXPERIENCED AS AN ADULT LEARNER

1.Personal affective changes

  • Feeling safe, feeling at ease
  • Willingness to take risks
  • Longer attention span
  • Ability to identify personal learning goals
  • Ability to address personal problems affecting learning

2.Social changes within the learning group

  • Acceptance/understanding of ground rules
  • Increased self direction of learning
  • Increased participation
  • Ability to evaluate own participation
  • Ability to help and support peers
  • Ability to express opinion or disagree
  • Ability to take on new roles within the group
  • Ability to reflect on group dynamics
  • Effective interaction with others in the group

3.Social changes outwith the learning group

  • Participation in community activities, organisations
  • Participation in other learning opportunities
  • Using community resources
  • Assisting/supporting others in the community/family
  • Increased self advocacy
  • Acting as advocate for others in the community/family

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Colin

Colin is 23 years old and profoundly deaf. He was born deaf and therefore unable to acquire language in the way hearing children do. He is single and lives at home with his parents who are unable to sign.

From the age of 3 until 16 he attended a school for the deaf where he lived during the week. The school’s policy was to teach pupils to communicate orally. Oral communication was the only way of instruction at the school, and all manual communication was actively discouraged. For Colin, this meant that most things passed him by.

Since leaving school he has learned to use British Sign Language (BSL), which he uses in conversation with other deaf and hard of hearing people.

Because the structure of BSL is different from that of the English language, Colin tends to experience problems with sentence structure when it comes to writing English. He might, for example, write “home went” for “I went home”. He has limited vocabulary and sometimes signs a concept or idea without knowing the word for it. When it comes to reading he can recognise some key words and can read some sentences if they are simply constructed. He uses reading and writing mainly for form filling, but otherwise avoids it.

Colin works as a packer in a factory, but the job does not demand much of him. Because of his deafness, his contact with other workers is minimal. He is keen to go to college, get some qualifications and work in an office.

Colin comes to a group for Deaf and hard of hearing adults who want to improve their understanding of written English. He has made friends in the group and his confidence is growing.

SMART Goals

The acronym SMART has a number of slightly different variations, which can be used to provide a more comprehensive definition for goal setting:

S - specific, significant, stretching

M - measurable, meaningful, motivational

A - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented

R - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented

T - time-based, timely, tangible, trackable

SMART Goals
Specific
  • Well defined
  • Clear

Measurable
  • Know if the goal is obtainable and how far away completion is
  • Know when it has been achieved

Attainable
Realistic
  • Within the availability of resources and time

Time Based
  • Enough time to achieve the goal

Initial Assessment Activity

  • After mapping the learner’s practices, what SMART goals could the learner choose?
  • Discuss two possible learning activities.

Progress

  • How would the learner know s/he has made progress?
  • What changes would occur?

Thinking about Assessment

Prior to Assessment Session

  • Think of a client you have worked with in the past or are currently working with who may have had or has literacy and numeracy goals/needs.
  • Be prepared to maintain the client’s confidentiality at all times.
  • Draw up a half page information sheet which will give other’s in the group enough information to take the role of that client in a short practice session, if required. Give them a name, age and fill in some basic details for your colleagues in terms of their background, their interests, their possible goals and future aspirations, and areas for working with literacy and numeracy, including any issues which may act as barriers.

As part of our discussion on Assessment

In your trios, look at the examples of the three clients you have each provided.

Discuss how you would begin to interact with the clients to assess literacy and numeracy starting points, goals and curriculum. Share ideas and expertise.

  • What information would you need?
  • What questions would you need to ask?
  • How would you raise issues and explore ideas with the client?
  • What would be possible activities and areas for working with the client?
  • What issues do you have about this process?

Role Play Activity – Assessment Process

In this activity you will have a go at applying what you know and what you’ve learnt about the assessment process, focussing on the literacy and numeracy of the learning.

We have given you an example of a scenario to get you going.

What to do

1. As a group, plan your role play together – who is doing what? what will you cover?

2. Decide what roles you are taking and practice it

Roles

1 person plays the worker

1 person plays the client/service user

1 observer looks for what works well

3. Present it to others

4. Get some feedback

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Overall Evaluation

Name:

1 Overall has the training achieved the aims and objectives listed on your information sheet ?

yesnopartially

Comments:

2 Which of the activities were most useful in preparing you to develop literacy and numeracy work in your organisation?

3Which were least useful ?

4Please make any suggestions for improving the training – content, style of delivery, length, amount of time between sessions

Thank you

An initial screening tool to ask adults about their reading, writing and numbers
User Guide
Front line advisors and outreach and development workers are often in contact with young people and adults who may have the need to develop their skills in reading, writing and the use of numbers.
As a result, the workers are ideally placed to play a key role in identifying and supporting potential new literacies learners. However, this can be difficult, as workers can struggle to find useful assessment frameworks which enable an early identification of need and levels of skill. Words and Numbers aims to help with this process.
Acknowledgement: Words and Numbers has been developed from a screening tool published by the Basic Skills Agency in England.

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Contents

What does Words and Numbers do?
Who may find Words and Numbers helpful?
What do we mean by Literacies?
Why is it important to identify Literacy and Numeracy Needs?
How does Words and Numbersfitin?
The Learning Cycle
Steps
Using the Words and Numbers
Words and Numbers questionnaire
Contact details

What does Words and Numbers do?

  • Helps identify literacy and numeracy needs in 1:1 interviews
  • Takes only TEN minutes to complete
  • Gives a reliable and user friendly approach to assessment
It is not a detailed diagnostic assessment but it can help to identify those who wish to become more confident in their reading, writing and numbers.
Who may find Words and Numbers helpful?
Anyone who is involved in providing advice and guidance to adults and young people would find Words and Numbers helpful. It can be used (and freely photocopied) by:
  • Community learning and outreach programmes
  • Personal advisors e.g. in Job Centre Plus
  • Those supporting homeless people, offenders, people with mental health difficulties or substance misusers
  • Careers advisors
  • Young People’s support workers
  • Voluntary Organisations
  • Development workers in housing, health and capacity building projects

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What do we mean by Literacies?

Sometimes you will find Adult Literacy and Numeracy described as “basic skills” or “Adult Basic Education”. This tool uses the term “literacies” to emphasise the dynamic and diverse ways in which adults encounter and use words and numbers in their written form. (Literacies in the Community: Resources for Practitioners and Managers, 2000)
In Scotland, we are working to a definition of Literacies (encompassing Numeracy), which has emerged from much work in this area and resulted in the Adult Literacy and Numeracy In Scotland Report, published in July 2001 (the ALNIS report). This report sets out the Scottish Executive Strategy for raising literacy and numeracy levels across Scotland using a social practices approach.

A Scottish Definition of Adult Literacy and Numeracy

The ability to read, write and use numbers, to handle information, express ideas and opinions, make decisions and solve problems, as family members, workers, citizens and lifelong learners ( ALNIS, 2001)
This definition tells us that:
  • Literacy and numeracy are not just about mechanical skills of encoding and decoding symbols but also the skills, knowledge and understanding that enables us to do what we want to do in all areas of our lives
  • These key life areas and social contexts in which we use literacy and numeracy are important in deciding what is to be learned
  • Such skills are almost always employed for a purpose – such as making decisions or solving problems or communicating effectively with others. Therefore, their use is closely linked with social practices that have their own social purpose and meaning
(Adapted from “An Adult Literacy and Numeracy Curriculum Framework for Scotland”, 2005)

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The approach in Scotland therefore puts the learners, and the contexts in which they choose to use their skills, knowledge and understanding, at the centre of the process. The learning curriculum, then, stems from the everyday literacy and numeracy events in their daily lives rather than being presented as a set of functional, decontextualised and mechanical manipulations to be mastered or as something that they lack (a deficit model).

Why is it important to identify Literacy and Numeracy Needs?

Research has documented the links between lack of educational qualifications, and especially difficulties in literacy and numeracy, and the experience of:
  • poverty
  • higher risks of unemployment
  • offending
  • poor health
  • poor housing
  • less likelihood of being involved in public and community life
(National Research and Development Centre for Adult Literacy and Numeracy (2005) Does Numeracy Matter More ?)
Many individuals operate to their current satisfaction and aspirations within the contexts of their daily life until they identify a particular goal that they wish to achieve or problem that they feel they now need to solve. Front line workers often come into contact with people at a point of transition or difficulty during which it is an ideal time to discuss Literacy and Numeracy as an integral part of moving forward, achieving new goals and tackling difficult situations in their everyday lives.

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