Adult Literacy Core Curriculum - Nationally developed Skills for Life ...

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The Adult Literacy
Core Curriculum
writing. This reflects the mix of skills that fluent readers need to use when they read
something new. They use their knowledge of text to work out what kind of reading they
need to do; they use sentence-focus skills to understand the text; and they use wordfocus
skills to work out any words they are not familiar with.
It is critical that the adult literacy core curriculum is used in this integrated way. It is not
a list of separate and discrete activities. Text-, sentence- and word-focus elements
must all be covered, and the core curriculum includes activities which focus on specific
skills; however, in many cases, teaching and learning activities will cover more than one
aspect.
To illustrate in more detail how text-, sentence- and word-focus work inter-relate, at
each level there is an example of an integrated activity built around a text. These can
be found at the end of each level of the reading curriculum. They aim to show how
learners can be taught to apply a range of reading strategies – on the whole text, on
sentences and on individual words – from the earliest stages, to help them read with
understanding. As learners progress, the extent and sophistication of their strategies
increase, and they can apply them to more complicated texts.
In the process of reading texts in this way, adults extend their knowledge and
experience of the characteristics of different types of writing, at text, sentence and
word level. They can then apply this understanding to their own writing, and use their
increasing knowledge of how written texts work to extend their own repertoire and
range of writing skills. Thus integrated reading activities can also be used as a way into
talking about writing at text, sentence and word level in preparation for learners doing
their own writing.
The integrated activities, like most activities throughout the adult literacy core curriculum,
involve speaking, listening and discussion. In the process of developing their reading and
writing skills, adults must talk together, e.g. to complete tasks, to understand specific
features, to extend their understanding of processes, concepts and ideas.
As well as the inter-relationship between text-, sentence- and word-level work and
between reading, writing and spoken communication on which the integrated activities
are based, specific links are signalled at the end of each activity. These illustrate the
sorts of writing task and spoken communication activity that might arise from work on
these particular texts.
Reading and writing – separately or together?
Although the National Literacy Strategy sets out reading and writing in parallel, they are
separated in the adult literacy core curriculum. It is very common for adults with literacy
problems to be at a higher level in reading than they are in writing. Some of the
component skills and knowledge in reading and writing are also distinct, even though
closely related to each other.
Similarly, while speaking, listening and discussion are skills in their own right of
fundamental importance in work and social life, they are also an essential aspect of