Overview—Goals

The second phase of Winnipeg Volunteer Reading Aides’ Parent Literacy Outreach and Support Project was designed partly to continue the activities of the first phase, which offered parents or caregivers with low-level literacy skills opportunities to meet on a weekly basis with other parents, and to work individually with a tutor to improve literacy skills. It also helped them gain confidence in their own ability to learn.

Our chief focus during Phase Two was on refining the curriculum which had been produced during the first phase.

Certain additional needs had become apparent during Phase One: we were aware that we are the only program in the City Centre which accepts very low-level literacy learners, but we were not anticipating the number of parents whose skills are virtually zero. Nor had we taken into account the extent to which they required socialization skills, if they were to work in a classroom setting. Our student population in this class was now predominantly Aboriginal (eight out of nine), and this also affected curriculum focus and delivery in terms of cultural interests and preferred learning styles. In addition, a number of the parents had, we suspect, been affected by their own mothers’ alcohol consumption, and/or had children with FAE/S (Fetal Alcohol Effect/Syndrome), factors which have obvious implications for teaching methods and learner expectations.