BASIC SKILLS TOOLKIT

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Index

Basic Skills Toolkit - Guidelines..................................................................................4

Activity 1 Short Quiz....................................................................................................5

Activity 2 - The Last 24 hours......................................................................................6

Activity 3 - How difficult can it be?...............................................................................7

Activity 3a................................................................................................................7

Activity 3b................................................................................................................8

Activity 4 - Case study 1..............................................................................................9

Activity 4 - Case Study 2...........................................................................................10

Activity 4 - Case study 3............................................................................................11

Behavioural indicators of a possible basic skills need...............................................12

Written indicators...................................................................................................12

Activity 5 - Types of provision....................................................................................13

Why are Basic Skills so Important?...........................................................................14

The impact of poor literacy, language, numeracy and ICT skills...............................15

Referral process and first steps.................................................................................16

Tutor notes................................................................................................................17

Activity 6 - How difficult can it be?.........................................................................17

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Basic Skills Awareness Raising Toolkit 2011

Aim:

To equip practitioners with the knowledge required to identify individuals with a basic skills need and signpost them with suitable support and provision.

Objectives:

This toolkit will help practitioners: Understand the extent of the basic skills problem in Wales; Demonstrate an understanding of the basic skills standards

and levels; Explain how the implications of poor basic skills impacts on

individuals; and Understand the provision available for individuals with a

basic skills need.

A definition of Basic Skills is: "The ability to read, write and speak in English and to use mathematics at a level necessary to function at work and in society in general"

The Basic Skills Agency

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Basic Skills Toolkit - Guidelines

Introduce session aims and objectives and share definition of Basic Skills. Whole group intro. Try and come up with a group definition of basic skills before you share the official one.

Short quiz to establish prior knowledge of Basic Skills – paired work/ feedback to group. Mix the group up so they can start to get to know each other.

Presentation on Basic Skills – optional – probably too much information for a short workshop but good for a full day.

‘The Last 24 Hours’ Activity – instructions on the resource. Encourage individuals to think of examples from home and work. E.g. breakfast, driving, shopping, phone calls, paying for goods etc. Aim here is for individuals to realise how much we take these things for granted and to have an appreciation of how difficult life would be if they had basic skills needs.

How difficult can it be? Again this is aimed at showing how difficult everyday life can be for individuals with a basic skill need.

Case Studies – Paired/small group work. The aim is to discuss the many possible barriers to learning that face individuals with basic skills needs and crucially what strategies can be put in place to help overcome the barriers. Child-friendly hours, informal/small groups, community venues that are less threatening etc.

Behavioural Indicators of a Basic Skills need– Read through as a whole group. Important to note that these are not always ‘visible’ and are often well hidden.

Types of provision- Start with whole group discussion on the importance of accessibility and share ideas on how providers are increasingly targeting individuals in their own communities. This is followed by paired work on the advantages and disadvantages of various types of provision. Whole group feedback at the end.

Why are basic skills so important – nice way to conclude. Whole group discussion.

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Activity 1: Short Quiz

1. 1 in ? people have a basic skills need in Wales

2. What percentage of the working population in Wales has a problem with basic skills?

3. What percentage of the working age population in Wales does not have level one literacy skills (equivalent to grades D-F at GCSE)?

4. What percentage of the working age population in Wales does not have level one numeracy skills (equivalent to grades D-F at GCSE)?

5. What percentage of those in prisons or on probation has writing skills below level one?

6. Some adults with poor literacy are dyslexic, 1 in ? suffer severely from dyslexia?

7. People who have low levels of basic skills are ? more likely to be unemployed?

8. When asked, what percentage of adults in need will say that they have a difficulty with basic skills?

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Activity 2 - The last 24 hoursPart AList the tasks and activities you’ve undertaken (in the last day or two) where you’ve used literacy, language and numeracy skills

Literacy (reading & writing) Language (speaking & listening)

Numeracy

Part BList the types of tasks/activities you think people with a basic skills need would shy away from

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Activity 3 - How difficult can it be?

Activity 3a

hcus htiw esohT .tekram ruobal eht ni deulav ylhgih era slliks cisaB

evitcudorp erom ,krow ni eb ot ylekil erom raf era sl l iks

fo seitinutroppo boj eht taht naem segnahc labolG .diap retteb dna

.detimil ylgnisaercni emoceb lliw smelborp slliks cisab htiw esoht

Read the text

Discuss with the person next to you and note:

the strategies you used to decipher the text

the reasons why it was so hard to make sense of the text.

How did you feel when you first looked at this text?

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Activity 3b

1.

43161244 ____ 5560

2.

42421435 +____6010

3.

331123 -____205

Q1 Is this sum addition, multiplication, subtraction or division? How do you know?

Q2 The answer is correct. Why?

Q3 The answer is correct. Why?

How did you feel when you attempted this activity?

Discuss your answers with your partner.

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Activity 4 - Case study 1

Debbie is 38 years old. She has tunnel vision and has difficulty reading small text. Her eyesight has deteriorated for the last 10 years. She now has to wear very strong glasses and uses a cane to support her while she is out of the house. She will not travel far from home alone because she cannot drive and she finds travel on public transport daunting, as her vision is so poor.

She left school at 16 with no qualifications. She married at 18 and had two children who have been given extra support at school because they have been diagnosed with dyslexia. She has recently split up from her husband and has found this a very traumatic time. She has lost confidence in herself as she feels that her disability has caused this split.

Debbie has been asked to help with a voluntary group who support people with visual impairments. They have a telephone helpline and Debbie will take calls. She is worried about her poor spelling, which has always been an issue for her, because she will have to take notes. She wants to join a literacy class to improve her spelling, but is not able to travel into the main college over 10 miles away. Barrier Strategy for overcoming barrier

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Activity 4 - Case Study 2

Tina is 40 years old. She was only diagnosed as dyslexic when she was 36. She had some difficult experiences at school. Although she wanted to try to answer questions, when attention was turned on her, she froze and stuttered a great deal, which caused her a lot of embarrassment. Her classmates labelled her as ‘thick’. In the end she stopped trying to join in and became withdrawn and quiet. Her one great skill was drawing and she gained some friends because of that.

She left school with no qualifications and when she started work it was as a domestic in a care home. Over the years she has progressed and is now about to start NVQ 2 in Care. She is worried about her spelling as she writes phonetically and she has to write a short report as part of the qualification. She is terrified that the tutor or her classmates will pick on her again as they have done in the past. She has not got any idea how to start to structure a report. Barrier Strategy for overcoming barrier

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Activity 4 - Case study 3

Maria is 25 years old. She had left school at 15 as she was pregnant and never went back, so gained no qualifications. Her parents died in a car crash when she was 18. This had been a very difficult time for her and she had suffered from depression. Although this has improved, she still can have bouts of depression if she becomes stressed.

Her oldest son is now nine and she feels that she cannot help him very much with his homework because of her lack of skills. She also now has three year old twins, but split up with her partner and so has no support to help her with the children. She does not have much spare time in the daytime as the children are not in fulltime nursery yet. They attend a nursery twice a week. She loves using the computer and often uses the internet to keep in touch with friends when the children have gone to bed.

She would love to work with children when her own children are a little older, but she knows that her lack of qualifications will hold her back. Barrier Strategy for overcoming barrier

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Behavioural indicators of a possible basic skills need

Attitude Poor eye contact; poor concentration Over confident or defensive Aggression: shouting, swearing, walking out, violence Unresponsive, apathetic Refusal/reluctant to give details Not wanting to stay long; arms folded

Anxiety Fidgeting; looking around Nervousness; nail biting

Written indicators

Spelling Sequencing (letters in the wrong order) Reversal (letters the wrong way round) Telescoping (letters starting off large and getting smaller) Phonetic or bizarre spelling Misspelling simple words More than three spelling mistakes on a form

Handwriting Untidy; immature; deteriorating; shaky Mixture of lower and upper case in one word

Comprehension of questions Incorrect/illogical answers Correct answers with poor spelling

Punctuation Little/none at all or incorrect Accuracy tailing off Problems with copying Signature – printed/immature Problems with writing numbers – reversal

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Activity 5 - Types of provision

Type of provision Advantages Disadvantages

Further education Good facilities

Imposing building

Work base

Training agencies

Learndirect or other on-line learning

Family literacy, language and numeracy

Prison/probation

Complete the table showing possible advantages and disadvantages of each type of provision.

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Why are Basic Skills so important?

Literacy and numeracy underpin virtually all the other skills we need in our daily lives – be that at work, in the family or in leisure and other activities. Without reading skills, people cannot make much use of books, newspapers, the internet or other new technology - which makes it very difficult to acquire new knowledge and skills.

Without good speaking skills people cannot participate fully as part of a team at work. Difficulties over writing or spelling make it tough to complete a good job application form. Problems over the use of number mean it’s a struggle to manage home finances, let alone to contribute in the workplace.

Most people with poor basic skills will cope to a degree, in their own way. They will often avoid situations that require these skills and therefore miss out on so much. The worry and stress of it can diminish their quality of life as well as their physical and mental health.

Poor basic skills can affect people's health in other ways, too, for example by reducing their ability to take on board information about how to look after their health and to follow treatment regimes. The Strategy therefore has an important contribution to make to Health Challenge Wales as well as to the fundamentals of lifelong learning across the board.

Society as a whole suffers from basic skills deficits too. Productivity at work and business competitiveness are lower than they should be. Our cultural life is affected. The children of parents with poor basic skills are more likely to struggle at school.

There is also an association with crime and unemployment – over half the prison population has poor basic skills as do many of the unemployed and economically inactive.

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The impact of poor literacy, language, numeracy and ICT skills

On the learners themselves:

Children are likely to have larger families more likely to have children who also struggle with basic skills are less able to help their children if they have problems

Health and housing less likely to be in good health more likely to be homeless less likely to own their own home more likely to live in a household where both partners are not in paid employment

Education/Training less chance of training or promotion at work have restricted access to further education and training

Employment more likely to be in unskilled/semi-skilled jobs more likely to be unemployed or out of the labour market more likely to have low earnings/be on benefits more likely to be made redundant or sacked

On the community: less likely to be a home owner less likely to have involvement in public life or community organization less likely to vote more likely to be involved in crime

On the economy: cost to industry skills shortages lower global competitiveness costs of benefits/health service/prison service

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Referral process and first steps

1. Contact the basic skills provider

2. Arrange an informal interview with a basic skills specialist

3. Client attends the informal interview and is briefed about the course

4. Client undertakes an initial assessment to determine overall level of ability Entry level 1, entry level 2, entry level three, level one or level two

5. Client undertakes a diagnostic assessment to determine skill level Reading, writing, speaking & listening for literacy Number, handling data & measure shape and space for numeracy

6. The tutor selects a qualification matched to the needs of the client

7. Tutor & client complete an Individual Learning Plan based on ability & need The long term goal is identified The short term targets are negotiated The client records work covered & resources used on the ILP at the end of

every teaching/learning session The plan is reviewed & a new set of targets are identified every six weeks

8. The client works towards achieving the qualification(s) By attending classes regularly By working through Learndirect units (optional)

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Tutor notes

Activity 3- How difficult can it be?

The aim of the activity is for learners to experience some of the difficulties encountered by learners with poor skills.

Two example activities are given here. Other activities include:

writing using the non-dominant hand eg if the learner is left-handed they should use their right hand.

writing with eyes closed

reading Urdu script

listening to a foreign language

Answers for Activity B

Q1 The first sum is addition.

Q2 Emphasise there is no need for learners to understand this explanation; it is enough for them to understand how a basic skills learner feels.

The second sum uses base 7. Thinking of weeks and days may simplify this:

5 days + 2 days = 7days

7 days is one week so carry 1 (week) and write 0 in the days column.

4 + 3+1 = 8 As above 8 days is 1 week and 1 day so write 1 and carry 1

2 + 4 + 1 = 7 so write 0 and carry 1

4 + 1 + 1 = 6 so write 6

Answer is not 6 thousand and ten but 6010 to base 7

Instead of hundreds, tens and units the columns are 49s, 7s, and units

Q3 The third sum uses base 7. Thinking of weeks and days may simplify this:

If there is only 1 we can not take 3 away so ‘borrow’. Instead of borrowing 10, borrow 7 as the next column is the 7s column. 7 + 1 =8 so the sum is 8 – 3 = 5

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