Here are some literacy and numeracy resources to help with your professional learning and development (PLD).

If you are a tutor, trainer or instructor, your learners may have literacy and numeracy needs. This means you need to know more about how to help develop these skills. 

Also, your learners may be Māori or Pacific. This means you should also develop your cultural capability skills.

This handout provides you with a list of some of the resources you can use to upskill yourself in these areas.  In doing so, you’ll help to create the conditions for success for all your learners.

Getting started with embedded literacy and numeracy

Follow the links below for definitions and explanations.

What do we mean by literacy and numeracy?

• What is literacy?
• What is numeracy?
• What is embedded literacy and numeracy?
• What is literacy for Māori?
• What is literacy for Pasifika?
• What is ESOL?

What are the frameworks we use for teaching literacy and numeracy to adults?

• An introduction to the frameworks we use for teaching literacy and numeracy
• The Learning Progressions for Adult Literacy
• The Learning Progressions for Adult Numeracy
• Te Whare Tapa Whā
• Fonfale Pasifika
• ESOL Starting Points

Why do we have this problem with literacy and numeracy?

• What’s causing the problem?
• The impact of colonisation
• Socio-economic factors
• Cycles of poverty
• Poor teaching
• Technology

How to help with reading and writing

• Go here from an overview of the reading profiles or click here for a resource on how to understand what adult learners can do at different steps on the Read With Understanding strand. 
• Go here for an overview of the writing profiles or click here for a resource on how to understand what adult learners can do at different steps on the Write to Communicate strand

How to help with numeracy and maths

• Go here for an overview of the numeracy profile or click here for a resource on how to understand what adult learners can do at different steps on the Make Sense of Number strand.
• Go here for part one, part two and part three of ‘developing adult’s proportional reasoning skills’. 
• Go here for an approach to teaching adults about gambling and critical numeracy.  
• Go here for a session on understanding and dealing with maths anxiety.

For more, check out Damon Whitten’s Youtube channel for help with teaching maths and numeracy to adults.

Learner Centred Teaching

Download Graeme’s Smith’s free eBook on Learner Centred Teaching for those working with adults interested in how to use prior knowledge, increase motivation and develop learner agency

Māori Cultural Competency

Go here for an overview or click below to watch these five clips on how to better understand and support your Pasifika learners:

1. Te Whare Tapa Whā
2. Being Māori
3. Pōwhiri
4. Tuakana Teina
5. Poutama

Pacific cultural capability

Go here for an overview or click below to watch five clips on how to better understand and support your Pasifika learners:

1. Knowing Pasifika Learners
2. Pasifika Learners Context & Connections
3. A Pasifika Worldview
4. Supporting Pasifika Success
5. Making It Work: Knowing my learners

Pathways Awarua Online

If you’re looking for more information, you can register here as a Tertiary Educator to get full access to Pathways Awarua as a tutor or teacher. This gives you all the educator professional development pathways including:

• Embedding Literacy and Numeracy Pathway
• Māori Cultural Capability Pathway
• Pacific Cultural Centredness Pathway

Ako Aotearoa Public Workshops

Have a look here to see what public workshops are available ONLINE through Ako Aotearoa. Some workshops may include a fee per participant. These are for tutors and trainers and include:

• An introduction to dyslexia support
• Developing statistical and measurement skills
• Introduction to Pacific Cultural Centredness
• Growing numeracy
• Literacy and Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool.