THE ALTA PROGRAMME

THE ALTA APPROACH

The ALTA Programme is primarily designed to teach literacy to adults, but can be used with anyone from age 10 who has difficulty with reading and writing.

ALTA’s approach to literacy teaching was pioneered in its free community classes. It combines the structured, sequential approach developed for teaching dyslexics with the learner-centered approach of adult literacy with its emphasis on engaging student interest and using material relevant to the student’s life. The aim is to equip students to function independently in their society.

As such, ALTA teaches reading and writing within the context of topics of relevance and interest to adults in the Caribbean. A variety of real-life reading material is used, including simplified newspaper articles, information leaflets on health and disaster preparedness, food and medicine labels. The use of familiar, real-life material helps the students to feel more comfortable in class, and the structured teaching of literacy skills, with built-in reviews, gradually improves their reading and writing. Each workbook lesson includes phonics, sight words (Beginner and Level 1), word structure and comprehension. Use is made of walk-around and group activities, as well as card games. Well-known games like Rummy, Pairs, and Suck the Well are adapted to play with word or letter cards.

To complete one ALTA level requires a minimum of 150 contact hours. In ALTA's free community classes, the ALTA literacy programme is taught twice a week, for two hours, over an academic year. In sponsored or workplace projects and private tuition, the ALTA programme can be adapted to suit other time periods and, for quicker results, taught more intensively. (See Workplace Education Programme). Teaching four hours daily, five days per week, completes a level in less than eight weeks, i.e. within two months.

Download the list of locations for free ALTA classes

All persons who would like to teach the ALTA Programme must go through the six-day training course and the volunteer teaching in ALTA classes. The volunteer teaching acts as the teaching practice component of the training.

TEACHING MATERIALS

ALTA has developed and published over 60 literacy books, as well as the first and only local educational board games, the ALTA Caribbean 6-in-1 Game Pack.

ALTA publishes workbooks for students at four levels – Beginner, Level 1, Level 2 and Level 3. These have accompanying Tutors’ Books and sets of cards for student review of phonics, sight words and rules for reading, spelling and grammar.

The range of Phonics Cards, Sight Word Cards and Rule Cards used in teaching

ALTA has also published Beginner Readers and Predictable Readers, which are easy-to-read books that can be used by students with minimal literacy skills to support the skills learnt in the Beginner or Level 1 ALTA classes. The ALTA Spelling Dictionary is a useful reference for anyone who has to stop to think about spelling or grammar when writing.

The ALTA Spelling Dictionary. Click here to view some sample pages.

STUDENT/TEACHER RATIO

The optimum student/teacher ratio is 5-8 students per teacher, and should not exceed 10 per teacher. In the Beginner level where absolute beginners need a lot of individual assistance, the student/teacher ratio should not exceed 6 students per teacher.