Week 1: Activity 1.2 Different Approaches to Addressing Literacy Difficulties
Basic Literacy - the acquisition of technical skills involving the decoding of written text and the writing of simple statements in everyday life.
Functional Literacy - is the process and content of learning to read and write to the preparation for work and vocational training.
[UNESCO quoted in Rassool, N. (1999) 'Literacy: in Search of a Paradigm' in in Soler, J., Fletcher-Campbell, F. & Reid, G. (eds.) Understanding Difficulties in Literacy Development: Issues and Concepts, London, Sage.]
With these simple definitions we can still envisage barriers to literacy being either within the individual (so need individual tuition) or beyond the individual (so need pedagogical change). If we regard literacy as a more complex cultural and social process then the complexity of addressing these barriers expand.
Literacy Programmes/Approaches
- THRASS - teaching handwriting, reading and spelling skills
Multi-sensory synthetic phonics; whole school approach; basic and functional literacy - Reading recovery
Small group/individual; basic literacy - Individual tuition
Individual, basic literacy - Small group tuition
Small group, basic literacy - Jolly Phonics
Whole school approach, some individual, synthetic phonics, basic literacy - Alpha to Omega
Specialist, individual or small group, basic literacy - Family Literacy
Small group, basic and functional literacy