Literacy: Learning Activities

Learning Activities

Reading

Extensive reading (for pleasure): Focus on learner autonomy in choosing what to read based on interests - n fiction (novels or short stories), poetry, drama, comics, magazines, internet sites, etc.
Authentic materials: horoscopes, flyers, menus, recipes, maps, schedules, posters, job postings and applications, forms, college courses, community programs/events, etc.
Graded readers: Texts are graded according to difficulty and can be chosen to meet learner needs. These are used frequently in EAL (English as an Additional Language) programs. Publications such as Decoda Literacy's Westcoast Reader newspaper are useful as well.
Base text selection on current needs and future goals - increased motivation
Use engaging activities; have a clear start and finish to the task so productivity and progress are evident; link to course outcomes; although learning may happen when "learner is not looking" make learning explicit with concept-checking questions.
LEA (Language Experience Approach): This is the basis for many literacy programs. Learners dictate their ideas to a tutor/instructor who writes it either verbatim or as a summary, and learners therefore read their own stories.
English language exams: KET/PET/FCE/CAE, IELTS, TOEIC and TOEFL have a wealth of practice test as well as communicative preparation activities that can be done independently or collaboratively in groups. These are tailored and targeted to specific skills and levels.
Cloze/fill-in-the-blank exercises, missing sentences/paragraphs, text reorganization, heading/paragraph labelling, titles, multiple-choice and short and long answers are all useful activities to assess reading skills.
Reading aloud either with a tutor/group is useful to practise reading, although negative affective factors such as anxiety and low confidence may affect performance.
Find your dream holiday, job, home, film, etc. This can also develop online information search skills, which are key as reading nowadays is often online and requires additional tech and digital/media literacy skills.
Solve a mystery, puzzle or problem using information in the text.
For higher order skills such as applying and evaluating, learners can use frameworks such as rules/laws, concepts/theories or logical fallacies to assess case studies/scenarios.
Ranking activities: learners can rank what they have read based on their preference or more specific, formal criteria.

Writing

Writing should be process-based (versus product-based) in that it should include pre-writing, drafting and revising (editing and proofreading). A job application or publication or writing within the class or in the community has a target audience, and this can be a form of positive pressure. Peer editing can be useful but this needs to be supported with learner training and guidelines/expectations
Creative writing: stories, plays, poetry, play/video scripts, songs, etc. Sometimes, it can be daunting to start from scratch, so learners could rewrite an ending or use characters from other plays. I use cards with lists of characters, props, settings and events to help with creativity. Learners pick a number and this determines which they will use. Constraints such as this can increase creativity.
Project Based Learning: Learners can research (integrating reading and writing skills) and create posters or even websites on topics of interest/relevance.
Tech use: how to communicate by phone (text, contacts and calendar), email (letters - personal and professional), forms, future education/employment
Grammar revision: Matching, concentration/memory/pelmanism, TPR (Total Physical Response) - "Four Corners" - learners are shown sentences and must vote with feet about correct version by moving to area of room, create quizes for one another, cut up words and reorganize to make new sentences or identify/group parts of speech,
Vocabulary: graphic organizers, Scattagories, Pictionary, Wordle, apps, word Yahtzee, Scrabble, etc.