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Introduction
The choice of reading material for use with your Student is an important decision, and one, which will have a significant impact on the progress likely to be made. Click on the links below to go to the paragraph you need:
There is a need for balance, the material must not be too hard, or too easy, but above all, it must be of interest to the Student. If the Student is not interested in the material, or not motivated to read it, then little progress will be made whatever the quality or commitment of the tuition.
Adults learning to read are remarkably resilient when it comes to choice of material, almost being resigned to the fact that if they are at the beginning, then they might as well put up with "Janet and John" type books. When we first started back in the early 1970’s that might have been the case, but today the range of specialist basic learning material available specifically for adults is much greater, (although still not as wide as we would wish). Although easier that it used to be, finding just the right material for your Student can still be a problem, whether is be a book, literacy game or computer programme.
It is in this context that the strength of Amity’s one-to-one tuition comes to the fore. With one-to-one tuition, the Volunteer Tutor is always present; they can fill in the more difficult or unknown words leaving the Student to tackle and reinforce the words they do know, maintain the momentum and retain the sense of the sentence they are reading. Using this approach therefore, students can tackle text which would otherwise be too difficult, but which they are interested in, and strongly motivated to read. Depending on circumstances, this might range from a job application form to a letter from the Council; an article about a favourite pop star, to the Highway Code. Over the years, we have built up a wide range of material for use by our Volunteers and Students, BUT, we always emphasise motivation. Find out what interests your Student and base your material on that. With one-to-one tuition you can fill in the gaps on some improbable material, but if you are sure your Student is motivated to read it, then you are half way there.
If we don’t have the appropriate material needed by a Student and their Volunteer in stock, then we buy it in. There are many different publishers and suppliers, but in the first instance one of the best places to start are the Catalogues of material equipment and software, published by the Basic Skills Agency. Their catalogues contain reviews of materials, and will swiftly lead you to a wide range of suppliers. After a few telephone calls, you will quickly have a shelf of suppliers’ catalogues and brochures, be on new mailing lists, probably have some demonstration material; and with a bit of luck, you may also have what you wanted. You will certainly have learnt a lot in the process. You can contact the Basic Skills Agency at: In the months ahead, Amity plan to publish its own reviews of the material, equipment and books used by our volunteers and students on a daily basis. Updates will be published on the latest news page.
You may still want to check the level of difficulty of the material you have chosen. The Basic Skills Agency recommend application of the SMOG test as follows:
Sentence LengthOne further thought on readability level. Sentence length is also a factor. Longer sentences are more difficult to understand even if the words themselves are simple. The problem is the need to remember an increasingly complex structure as the sentence length grows. Keep sentences under 10 words for most Students (and it’s a good habit anyway for conveying information reliably). Lastly, if you are still searching for that elusive piece of material, you could do worse than consult the pages on this site which publish the writing of some of our Students.
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