Kia ora and welcome…!

Let’s pause for a very quick review. From here on you’ll need to be hands on with your learners in order to complete the coursework and assessments. But it’s good to reflect on what we’ve covered.

So far in this course, you have:

1. Learned about the context for adult literacy and numeracy in relation to your own programme and learners.
2. Discussed some of the relevant approaches for adult teaching and learning. This includes approaches from Te Ao Māori.
3. Learned how to apply the Learning Progressions as a tool to map and analyse the literacy and numeracy demands of your programme.
4. Developed some broad strategies and more specific learning outcomes for embedding literacy and numeracy.

Ok…! Moving on to where you are up to now. This is the fifth of seven collections covering the knowledge and skills you need to teach better by embedding literacy and numeracy into your training.

By the end of this fifth section, you will have covered:

• What you need to know about literacy and numeracy assessment tools and processes including how to use these for diagnostic purposes.
• How to analyse your learners’ results, identify strengths and needs, write literacy and numeracy-focused learning plans, and reflect on what’s working for you.

The overarching theme here relates to work that you might need to do before you teach your learners. But keep in mind this happens on at least two levels.

Sometimes there’s work that needs to be done before your learners arrive in your programme. This might include things like a broadly focused diagnostic assessment such as the TEC’s Literacy and Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool.

And sometimes there are things that you need to do literally just before you want to teach some new piece of content. This could include doing very specific and contextualised diagnostics that you’ve created yourself.

Different organisations manage these processes in different ways. Some tutors do all of this themselves. Regardless of which approach your organisation takes, we’re going to cover it all here.

This next content area breaks down into five modules. Here’s what’s ahead:

5.1 What are our tools and processes?

• Here we’ll look at the kinds of assessment tools and processes appropriate to your learners. This includes a look at different kinds of assessments including diagnostic. We’ll also talk about how to how to create a more positive environment for assessing your learners.

5.2 Just do it: Diagnostic assessment

• This is where the rubber starts to hit the road. We’ll set you up for this, but you’ll need to conduct literacy and numeracy diagnostic assessment of your learners. We’ll look at a range of different tools you can use and adapt.

5.3 What does it all mean?

• In this module, we’ll cover what you need to do to make sense of your learners’ literacy and numeracy diagnostic assessment results. This includes mapping your learners and working out any implications for teaching. You’ll also need to review some aspects of how you administered the assessments to your learners.

5.4 How do you write learning plans with a focus on literacy and numeracy?

• You’ll learn how to write up learning plans showing goals, strengths, and needs.

Stay tuned for an overview of assessment tools and processes next.