This short learning module guides practitioners through the steps for using ARB resources to create a learning plan, including setting learning goals, selecting specific content to teach and choosing teaching strategies.
Deciding how to teach reading is made easier using the Alberta Reading Benchmarks. By following a few basic steps you can create a learning plan specific to a learner’s reading skill level and skills. The ARB resources will help you identify the skills and knowledge for learning and give you strategies for teaching reading at each ARB level.
Making a plan for learning:
Assess learners’ reading skills
Using the ARB, assess the learner’s reading skills. You can do an informal assessment on your own or use Read Forward. The assessment will identify the reading level and areas for growth.
Set learning goals:
Become familiar with the content of the ARB level identified in the assessment using the videos and the” ARB for Adults (2nd ed.)”. Then you can identify reading tasks, skills and knowledge to be taught by selecting from the descriptors listed at that level. These become the learning goals for a learning plan.
Identify content to be taught:
Each ARB level highlights specific content and learning habits that will support learning the reading tasks for that level. Choose content and habits that support the learning goals. Along with the tasks, skills and knowledge, these help clarify what you will be teaching. You will find level-specific links to the “ARB for Adults” under the Learn tab to learn more about the content and habits for learning reading.
Select teaching strategies:
Once the goals and content for learning are clearly identified, then you can find teaching strategies specific to what you will be teaching. The ARB has a set of teaching strategies to use alongside the ARB. Check each level of the ARB under the Learn tab for level-specific teaching strategies.
Record all of this information and date it. This will become a learning plan and will be a guide for learning and teaching. It will also be a “snapshot” of a specific point in the learner’s journey that you and the learner can use as a reference point to track learning progress. Once the goals for this learning plan have been achieved then you can create a new learning plan with new goals for reading.