• A formal and/or informal intake assessment or evaluation which also seeks to identify impediments in the learner’s life-experience which may hinder the acquisition of literacy skills

• Benchmark opportunities for learners to measure their progress, and formal rewards or recognition to learners as they proceed along the learning path

• Initiatives that continue to provide motivation for learners, such as program community activities, outings, buddy-systems and access to literacy practitioners, community and family-support activities

• Group rather than individual or work-alone learning experiences

Before reviewing a number of these characteristics in greater detail, it would be appropriate to review some of the excellent work done to date across Canada which has attempted to capture what Aboriginal educators consider to be the elements of an effective Aboriginal literacy program.

Let us first consider a review of the literature that resulted from International Literacy Year, 1990, and that were national Aboriginal initiatives. They included:

• The Native Literacy Research Report,
  Rodriguez, C. & Sawyer, D., Native Adult Education Resource Centre, Salmon Arm, BC (1990). The authors of this report developed a questionnaire which was administered to Aboriginal literacy practitioners, and that was aimed at identifying barriers to education for Aboriginal Peoples. As well, they researched Aboriginal literacy programs, primarily in British Columbia and Ontario. The findings from both sources formed the basis for recommendations about what was considered to be an effective literacy program.

• You Took My Talk: Aboriginal Literacy and Empowerment, Standing Committee on Aboriginal Affairs, House of Commons, Ottawa, Canada (1990). The committee is permanent, and reports to Parliament. It solicited written and verbal submissions from Aboriginal Peoples across Canada who had an interest in Aboriginal literacy. An analysis of these submissions resulted in recommendations to Parliament on Aboriginal literacy.

• Aboriginal Literacy Action Plan, A Literacy Practitioner’s Guide to Action, Saskatchewan Indian Institute of Technologies, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (1990) Six working-groups of people involved in the delivery of education services to Aboriginal Peoples across Canada met to discuss Aboriginal literacy, and to formulate a national strategy.