THE ALTA STUDENT

Tutor, Felicia Aleong with a student at the ALTA Cascade class

ALTA CLASSES

ALTA offers free literacy classes to persons over 16 years old. ALTA uses churches, community centres or schools to conduct its classes.

DURATION AND FREQUENCY

ALTA classes start in September and follow the school year, ending in mid-July. There are three terms with a three-week break at Christmas and a two-week break at Easter. The classes are held for two hours, twice a week.

Most ALTA classes are in the afternoon but there are a few morning classes to accommodate non-workers, retirees and night workers.

Download the list of locations for free ALTA classes

REGISTRATION

ALTA's national student registration takes place once a year in September at the main Public Libraries on Tuesday and Wednesday (9am-6pm) of the week in which schools reopen.

The procedure is simple.

• You go to the library near to where you want to attend a class.
• ALTA tutors at the library tell you the days, times and venue of ALTA classes in the area.
• You select one class and give the tutor your name, address and telephone number to enter on the list for that class.
• At the start of the week after registration, you go to the class selected, taking $15.  This is your contribution towards your ALTA books and materials.

Libraries where prospective students can register for an ALTA class:

• Arima Public Library  -  667-3370

• Chaguanas Public Library  -  665-9058, 672-2239

• Couva Public Library  -  636-0073

• Mayaro Public Library  -  630-8048

• Point Fortin Public Library  -  648-2337

• Port of Spain (National Library of T&T) - 623-9673, 623-6962, 623-7278, 624-4466)

• Princes Town Public Library  -  655-5448

• San Fernando (Carnegie Free Library)  -  652-3228, 653-9912

• San Juan Public Library  -  638-2179

• Sangre Grande Public Library  -  668-2328

• Siparia Public Library  -  649-2930

• Tunapuna Public Library  -  662-7037

ASSESSMENT AND STUDENT PLACEMENT

At the first ALTA class, the tutors conduct a 5 to 10-minute individual assessment of each student's literacy. Based on this, students are placed in Beginner, Level 1 or Level 2. Level 1 and Level 2 classes start the week after registration, and the Beginner class starts one week later. Not all ALTA venues have a Beginner level, so Beginner students may have to change venue from that originally selected.

ALTA STUDENT LEVELS

Beginner

The Beginner level is defined by students who display some or all of the following characteristics:

• Cannot say the entire alphabet.
• Cannot identify or write all the letters in both common and capital form.
• Does not know the sound of each of the 26 letters.
• Cannot write his/her name correctly.
• Reads only a few words, if any words at all.

Level 1

Struggles with any reading except perhaps infant texts (reading age 5-6 years) and is characterised by one or more of the following:

• Does not know all the sounds of the individual letters of the alphabet.
• Has a very small 'sight' vocabulary, i.e. whole words recognised instantly on sight.
• Does not know many of the high-frequency words, e.g. this, should, want.
• Has a low comprehension level.
• Writes very little, only a line or two, without punctuation, Standard English grammar or spelling.

Level 2

Reads and writes, but slowly with errors and gaps. Their literacy level does not enable them to fill in forms completely, read and understand with ease newspapers or texts related to their work and interests. A Level 2 student:

• Recognises all letter shapes, but may show confusion between some upper and lower case letters and differential letter proportions.
• Knows individual letter sounds, but not combinations of letters.
• Recognises most high-frequency words, but has poor syllabification skills.
• Writes but not accurately, in terms of punctuation, Standard English grammar and spelling.

Level 3

Level 3 is not offered as a starting level. Students move into Level 3 after successfully completing Level 2, when they read and write quite fluently. They still have difficulty with some multi-syllabic words, spelling and Standard English grammar.

COSTS

ALTA's community classes are free. ALTA workbooks, readers, the ALTA Spelling Dictionary, phonic and sight word cards needed for the class are supplied to students at a subsidized rate of $15 per term.

CERTIFICATION

ALTA awards certificates to students based on the end-of-level evaluation submitted by their tutor. Through continuous assessment within specific ALTA guidelines, the tutor grades the student's skills. Students who are not awarded a certificate repeat the level to master the skills.

ALTA READING CIRCLES

ALTA Reading Circles offer current and past students an opportunity for one-on-one or small group reading practice in order to:

• Build upon the skills taught in the ALTA class and support students who need extra help.
• Promote reading fluency with material of student's own choosing.
• Inculcate a lifelong reading habit in graduates.

Reading Circle guides are either past ALTA tutors or volunteers who have attended ALTA's one-day training in how to foster reading. ALTA supplies Reading Circles with a range of hi-lo books (content at adult interest level but written at an easy reading level) or students bring along their own books,  manuals, magazines, etc.  

Reading Circle Venues:

ALTA STUDENT WRITING

To increase awareness of the factors leading to poor literacy and foster understanding of literary issues, ALTA published an anthology of our students' writing: 'AT LAST: Adult Learners Write'. Click on the cover of the book to read a few sample pages.