Learning Activities

This module will review training materials to highlight how literacy can make a difference in people’s lives, encouraging learners to participate in life-long learning opportunities.

Selecting Learning Materials

Perhaps the most important aspects of training are the selection and use of learning activities. When selecting learning activities and the learning materials to support them, you need to ensure that they are appropriate. The Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework Foundations of Learning Materials describes how practitioners should select learning materials to use with activities in their programs:

“To identify learning materials that reflect the OALCF focus of being goal-directed, contextualized and linked to other services a learner may need to support her or his learning success, a practitioner chooses learning materials that

  • are suitable to adults and appropriate to the culture and language of the learner

  • are authentic, related to the learner’s program purpose, and task-based

  • reflect the way information is used and accessed in the work, learning or community environment of the learner’s goal”

To help agencies choose materials suitable for OALCF learning activities, the Ministry developed a checklist and a practical guide, How to use the “Checklist for Evaluating Learning Materials”. The checklist is a template (found at the back of the guide) that you can use to evaulate resources that you already have or that you are considering acquiring, as to how they suit the competency-based, transition-oriented approach of the Curriculum Framework. This guide walks you through an example of using the checklist to evaluate a resource.

As we have mentioned earlier, in the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework section of this module, orientation to transition-oriented programming means that learning activities should support both goal-directed and contextualized learning.

Goal-Directed Training

No matter what adult learning studies, principles or theories you consider, there is one point that always comes forth – adults are goal-directed learners. They need to see the relevance of what they are learning and how they will use it.

Learners come to Literacy and Basic Skills (LBS) programs with a goal. Sometimes they have trouble expressing what they want to do, but in order for them to learn, there must be a goal. You must be able to link your LBS training with the skills and abilities the learners need in order to move on to their goals.

When developing learning activities for LBS learners, you start with the goal in mind. You consider “What must the learner know how to do to achieve that goal?” and “What do they need to be able to do in preparation for their next steps beyond LBS?” By answering these questions you can determine what you need to teach. That is

  • what the learner needs to know how to do – the skills

  • what the learner needs to be able to do – the tasks

Where to Get Help with Goal-Directed Learning Activities

Within the OALCF, five learner goal paths have been identified: apprenticeship, employment, postsecondary education, secondary school credit and independence. Goal path descriptions were developed for each goal path (October 2011) along with an introduction to using the goal path descriptions. The goal path descriptions can help you and the learners understand the needs of their goals, select goal-directed learning activities and suggest other supports that might be necessary for learners’ successful transitions to their goals.

Over the past 15 years, in Ontario, Canada and throughout the world, many new adult literacy resources that are goal-specific have been developed. No matter what the learners’ goals, there are adult appropriate and goal-directed learning materials available. Some of these are based on or are articulated to the OALCF. Many others cover Employment and Social Development Canada’s  Essential Skills. These may be appropriate as the three OALCF Levels are informed by the same factors that drive task complexity in Essential Skills (ES) Levels 1, 2, and 3.

Several LBS Regional Networks created a number of “occupational” curricula, meaning that they were resources that contained information and activities specific to one occupation that helped to develop a learner’s OALCF Competencies or their Essential Skills. In December 2018, CLO created the publication Overview of 15 Occupational Curricula Used in LBS Programs that can be found under Resources & Webinars, Publications on CLO’s website. In 2019, CLO edited, updated and/or rewrote four previously developed curricula. These will also be available in CLO’s Publications. They are:

CLO has also developed two other curricula for use with the OALCF, which are available for free download on CLO’s website

Learning Networks of Ontario has a number of resources for instructors on their website under Resources and Publications. The Learning Networks of Ontario also have a website focusing solely on soft skills. The Soft Skills Resources offer various resources to help learners build the necessary soft skills needed gain and maintain employment.

e-Channel offers a training site for LBS practitioner entitled LBS Online Community of Practice Resources. Here, you can find links to a number of training webinars plus resources.

During the research for this Literacy Basics module, CLO conducted key informant interviews and focus groups with LBS practitioners. We asked them about activities and resources they were using for the various goal paths. Their recommendations are listed in the charts below.

Resources Recommended by LBS Practitioners

Resources suggested through key informant interviews with LBS practitioners

Goal Path: All

Goal Path: Employment

  1. PTP’s Workwrite series

  2. Essential Skills materials and resources

  3. Aztec Learning Software

  4. Breakthrough to Math

  5. Power Basics

Goal Path: Apprenticeship

  1. College Sector Committee Essential Skills Group *

  2. Industry Training Authority (ITA ) *

  3. FAST The Foundational Assessment for Skilled Trades, formerly known as Evaluating Academic Readiness for Apprenticeship Training (EARAT)*

  4. Math Sense

  5. GED prep materials

  6. Breakthrough to Math

Goal Path: Post-secondary

Goal Path: Secondary

Goal Path: Independence

Activities Recommended by LBS Practitioners

Suggested activities

Goal Path: All

  • Log on to a user account

  • YouTube and Ted Talks videos

  • using the computer to send emails, research information and/or read documents

  • set up a Facebook or LinkedIn account

Goal Path: Employment

  • do mock interviews

  • resumes (e.g., words to use, formats)

  • create a spreadsheet to track time

  • complete accident reports

  • create appointment calendar using Google Calendar

  • organizing skills

  • report writing

  • Internet searches (for job sites, etc.)

  • form filling

  • self-assessment of traits of a good employee

  • being on time and calling in sick

  • getting along with others

  • interpret WHMIS symbols

Goal Path: Apprenticeship

  • use real tools such as a measuring tape and measure things in a room or how much flooring to buy for a room

  • create invoices

  • job-specific math

  • health and safety activities

  • WHMIS

  • form filling

  • trades math

  • write an entry in a log book

  • research apprenticeships www.earnwhileyoulearn.ca

Goal Path: Post-secondary

  • multiple-choice tests for CAAT prep

  • essay writing

  • Internet research and study skills

  • self-management

  • reading a detailed course description

Goal Path: Secondary

  • paragraph writing

  • essay writing

  • find and use information on the Internet

  • social media – Twitter, Facebook

  • reading a detailed course description

  • identify the main theme in a story

Goal Path: Independence

  • reading a newspaper

  • banking

  • counting money

  • budgeting

  • buying a birthday card

  • calendar of appointments

  • kitchen math

  • health and safety

  • financial management

  • social media – Twitter, Facebook

  • using bus maps online

  • using Google Maps to identify stores/resources in the community

  • completing forms

  • writing notes

  • write an advertisement for the upcoming bake sale

  • compare costs and make simple calculations using a grocery list and flyers

  • calculate change from a purchase

  • digital storytelling (Microsoft Photos and PowerPoint)

Contextualized Learning

You want to teach in the best way to enable the learners to use and retain the information and skills. How can you do this if the learners can’t see the relevance? Contextual learning can help you address these concerns.

Often, literacy learners have trouble understanding academic concepts (such as math concepts) when they are taught in the abstract or taught separately. Even though the learners know they will need these skills as they move to their goals of employment, further education or independence, they struggle to make the connections to using them outside the classroom.

However, learner interest and achievement improve significantly when they can put learning into their own frame of reference. They need help to make connections between

  • new knowledge and experiences they have had

  • new skills with skills they have already mastered

  • the concepts they are learning and practical applications for using those concepts in the real world

“Relating instructional content to the specific contexts of learners’ lives and interests increases motivation to learn”

Dirkx and Prenger, 1997

Some examples of contextualized learning are:

  • Learners identify forms that they need help understanding or completing, such as, bills, leases, tax forms and work documents.

  • Practising job search skills, such as, viewing job postings and determining what would be needed to apply, creating a resume, etc.

  • Using a piece of equipment safely, i.e., a photocopier for work, a sander or drill for home or work, etc.

  • Attending a talk on tenant rights and responsibilities.

  • Learning study and test-taking skills to prepare for further schooling. Examples might be taking sample GED tests, employment tests or mature student college entrance tests.

You might be interested in viewing the report done in 2018 by Community Literacy of Ontario, HANDS ON, SKILLS UP! Employment-Related Experiential Learning in Literacy and Basic Skills Research Report. This resource may be found in the Resources & Webinars, Newsletters section of CLO’s website.

Some programs are running workshops specific to contextualized learning. Some examples are cooking, writing fiction, creating crafts, simple carpentry, working with digital pictures to make gifts, getting your G1 licence, etc. All these workshops are based on a platform or in the context of a “special interest” to the group of learners, but they are learning OALCF-based competencies/task group tasks, as well.

 

It’s Not Skills vs. Tasks, It’s Both

“The OALCF:

  • supports the development of task-based programming

  • helps practitioners focus on strengthening the learner’s ability to integrate skills, knowledge and behaviours to perform authentic, goal related tasks”

from OALCF Overview

The above quotation shows that LBS learning within the Curriculum Framework is task-based, but it also includes the integration of skills, knowledge and behaviours. An exploration of four aspects of literacy learning takes place in OALCF Foundations of Assessment and the OALCF Selected Assessment Tools (also see Literacy Basics Assessment Module, Assessing Different Aspects of Literacy to Determine Goal Completion). The four aspects of literacy learning are:

  • Skills Development

  • Skills are discrete descriptors of literacy and numeracy development, such as decoding, recognizing sentence structure, and locating information.

    • Task Performance

    • Tasks emphasize more than skills, as they consider purpose, context and culture to reflect actual use.

      • Social Practice

      • Understanding literacy and numeracy as a social practice involves consideration of what people are doing, feeling and thinking when they are engaged with actual print and numeracy activities.

        • Change

        • People respond to change and make changes in their lives and the lives of others when they participate in a literacy program.

LBS learning helps learners

  • acquire skills to be used to complete tasks

  • complete tasks

  • put the skills and task completion ability into everyday practice

  • respond to change and make changes in their lives and in the lives of others

But do you teach the skills or the tasks first? It is somewhat like the chicken and the egg dilemma. The learners need the skills to complete the tasks, but they also need to understand the task and know they can’t complete it, before they will see the value in learning the skill. So, it is often a back and forth activity.

skills tasks
teach the skills or the tasks first?

Because a learner has the ability to do skill “x” does not mean the learner is able to use that skill in completing a task. Competency or skill-based training may give the learner all of the individual skills such as reading, writing or math, but it does not effectively integrate these skills into a whole task that may be required in the real world.

Task-based learning, on the other hand, allows the learner to see from the beginning where each piece of the puzzle fits into the overall picture. It allows the learner to fully integrate each skill into the performance of the task.

In task-based instruction you start by looking at the whole task and then breaking it down into a series of smaller and smaller tasks. You then work your way down until you get to the mini-tasks, the performance/task descriptors and skills that work together and build on each other. Each mini-task is introduced separately and the learner masters the skill(s) involved for that task. As new mini-tasks are added, the learner practises the previously learned skills as part of a bigger picture. The learner continually works toward mastering each skill while getting a sense of how that skill fits into the larger task and life/goal situations. This is called a scaffolding approach.

This approach allows you to concentrate on presenting and developing the new skill sets while allowing for the repetition of previous skills as part of the process. You provide more assistance as you introduce new or difficult tasks. While the learner masters the skill/task, you gradually decrease your support and shift the responsibility for learning to the learner.

Developing Goal-Directed, Task-Based Learning Activities

Let’s start with the tasks rather than the skills. Say you have a learner with a secondary school credit goal. One task the learner may need to accomplish is writing an essay. This task includes smaller tasks that require three different competencies.

We’ll look at the Communicate Ideas and Information competency in more detail. The skills involved in the task group Write Continuous Text are

  • Mechanics – punctuation, spelling and grammar

  • Style – voice, vocabulary, formality and sentence structure

  • Organization – sequencing, order

  • Visual Presentation – structure, legibility

  • Purpose and Form – writing for various purposes

Example tasks the learner could work on that would be relative to their secondary school credit goal path and that could be used to practise or demonstrate the skills are:

  • Write a short note to your instructor to explain the topic for your essay (Level 2)

  • Write an email or a post to a wiki or blog to explain to others how you sequence and organize paragraphs in an essay (Level 3)

As the learner tries the various tasks, you assist them with any parts of the task they have difficulty with. You provide instructional support with skills, as necessary. When the learner is ready you suggest increasingly more difficult tasks that allow the learner to build on their success.

The important thing to remember is that you don’t teach skills in isolation. To be motivated, adult learners need to understand how the skills will be used to complete tasks necessary to their goals. They also need to apply their skills to perform authentic or real-life tasks that are appropriate to their lives and to their goals.

Why Is Completing Tasks Important?

Task-based learning has several benefits, especially when it is learner-centred, contextualized and goal-directed.

Skills are better retained when they are applied rather than segregated. To complete tasks in life you combine multiple competencies.

Learning occurs most effectively when related to an individual’s real-life tasks. Learner-centred, goal-directed learning uses tasks that are personalized and relevant to the learner. Authentic context enhances the learning experience.

Learning meets the specific needs of the learner. The skills explored arise from the learner’s need to complete the tasks. This need dictates what will be covered in the lesson rather than a decision made by an instructor or coursebook. Learning materials are selected on the basis of the learner’s needs and interests.

Learning is more collaborative and there is more learner independence. Including the learner in the discussion of what tasks will be required =for their goal and which tasks to work on will help the learner take =control of their learning. Task-based learning offers the learner both =action and reflection. The learner can become more self-directed. They can independently undertake a task and make judgments without the direction of a teacher. You can instead assume the role of facilitator.

Task completion draws on the learner’s knowledge and experience. This allows for “scaffolding” or building upon and linking new skills with what the learner already knows and can do.

Task-based activities require a variety of learning styles. There is more learner participation and less time spent just watching or listening.

As we have said in the earlier section, Where to Get Help with Goal-Directed Learning Activities, there are many goal-related resources with built-in activities to help you work with learners. However, as not all of these resources have task-based activities, you may want some help finding tasks to use or adapt to the learners’ needs.

Task-Based Activities for LBS is an excellent source of sample task-based activities compiled by the QUILL Learning Network. The activities are all aligned to the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework (OALCF). The database is searchable by stream, goal path and level, and activities are downloadable in Word and Acrobat (pdf).

For those learners on an employment or apprenticeship goal path, both the Essential Skills Profiles and How Do Your Skills Measure Up? are good sources of task-based activities. The Essential Skills Profiles describe how workers in various occupations use each of the key Essential Skills. As well as a brief description of the occupation, the profiles have examples of how each of the skills is used to complete tasks in that job. How Do Your Skills Measure Up? has work-related, task-based activities to practise or test learners’ Essential Skills of reading text, document use and numeracy. There is also a downloadable resource with examples of how to develop work-related materials into learning activities that practice these three Essential Skills.

If you have learners on the Independence goal path, you might find that Community Literacy of Ontario’s Foundations for Independence Framework is a good resource to help you and the learner plan tasks. The Foundations for Independence Framework organizes sub-goals into four broad areas or goal sets: 1) Managing basic needs; 2) Managing health; 3) Managing personal issues and relationships; 4)Participating fully as a member of the community.

An excellent tool to help you break tasks down into their foundation skills is the Embedded Skills, Knowledge and Attitudes Reference Guide for Ontario (ESKARGO). ESKARGO is a part of the OALCF Implementation Strategy Resource (ISR). Information and resources are available on the  LBS Practitioner Training website and on the ESKARGO Resources page of the Ontario Native Literacy Coalition. Ontario Association of Adult and Continuing Education School Board Administrators.

The ESKARGO, the ISR and the LBS Practitioner Training website were developed by CESBA, the Ontario Association of Adult and Continuing Education School Board Administrators.

The Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities has developed a number of OALCF supporting documents.

More detailed descriptions of these and other resources may be found in the Resources section of this module.

In the Sample Forms section of this module, we have included three formats that are being used to help learners and practitioners deliver goal-directed, task-based training.

 

Task Levels

In the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework section of this module, we discussed the OALCF Levels of Performance. Basically, the OALCF uses three performance levels, which use the same complexity factors as the first three levels of Canada’s Essential Skills (ES). Like the Essential Skills, to determine complexity, the OALCF considers how individuals will use their skills to accomplish tasks outside of a learning context.

The OALCF uses two factors in interpreting a learner’s developing proficiency – Task Descriptors and Performance Descriptors. The Curriculum Framework advises that the description of both the task and the learner’s performance need to be considered together.

Accurately levelling tasks is somewhat complex and considers a number of factors. It also takes some experience. Examining, considering and comparing both the Task and Performance Descriptors of the three levels of a task group can help you determine the level of some task activities. Also, take a look at the example tasks provided at the end of each task group of the Curriculum Framework; you may be able to select similar tasks that apply to the learners you are working with. Another resource, as mentioned earlier, is the Task-Based Activities for LBS collection of tasks.

As the development of the OALCF was informed by the same complexity factors as the Essential Skills, you may find either the Readers’ Guide to the Essential Skills Profiles or the example tasks in individual occupation’s Essential Skills Profiles useful. Both can be found through www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/programs/essential-skills.html.

Task-Based Activities and Milestones

Milestones are one assessment aspect of the Ontario Adult Literacy Curriculum Framework (OALCF). Almost all learners will complete at least one milestone during their Literacy and Basic Skills training. In fact, if a learner does not complete a milestone within a fiscal year, they do not count as a learner towards your contractual learner count objectives.

Preparing learners for milestones makes the assessment less stressful and increases the chances for success. Completing task-based activities as part of the learners’ training helps to prepare them for successful milestone completion. Here are some other hints from programs

  • explain from the beginning of programming that milestones are steps to successfully completing their goal

  • create activities that are similar in nature and skill level

  • develop tasks that are modelled on the design of the milestones to be sure learners are comfortable with the format

  • become familiar with the learner’s next planned milestone, so you will know when the learner is prepared for success

  • provide related tasks to tutors to support learner preparation

  • ensure that you don’t teach to the milestone content

Questions and Activities for Reflection

  1. Try evaluating a resource (learning material) that you use or that is available at your learning centre using the How to Use the” Checklist for Evaluating Learning Materials”

  2. One of the principles of adult learning is that it “focuses on problems and the problems must be realistic.” When developing or choosing learning activities, what can you do to ensure that they connect to problems or needs that are real to the learner?

  3. Choose a task that one or more learners might need to do in order to transition from LBS to their goal. Break this task down into mini-tasks. Include the skills the learners will need to do in each of the mini-tasks.

  4. Look at one of the task-based activity resources with which you are not already familiar. How might you use this resource as a source of learning activities for some of the learners in your agency?

Next in the Module > Learning Supports

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