Functional Literacy Guest post by Sasha Long.

 Functional Literacy

by: Sasha Long, MA BCBA

There is a misconception that academic and functional skills are mutually exclusive. We for some reason got stuck in this thinking that tells us that instruction and activities are either academic or functional but cannot be both. When our students get older and we begin to transition to more functional tasks – that doesn’t mean that we are leaving academics behind. It’s our responsibility as late elementary and high school teachers to ensure that our academic instruction has a functional component since that looming 22nd birthday isn’t far off. So let’s talk about our academics and functional skills can live together in perfect harmony.

We can still challenge our students and teach them important academic skills while preparing them to be independent adults.

Selecting literacy goals for some students is easy or obvious. Some students are following some type of skill sequencing and we can quickly identify where to go next. For other students, it can get trickier. For some students that we have had for many years, we sometimes get stuck in a rut on where to go next. In late elementary or high school, you may feel a pull between continuing to teach academics or switching to a more functional focus. It’s hard to know how to balance these two components.

How do we identify literacy goals?

We need to consider the current skill set of the student and their age. Age is just as important. We need to make the most of every minute our students have in school as we get them ready for independent living, getting a job, and participating in the community. We need to consider the age of our students when selecting goals because we want all goals to be functional and what is functional will depend on the age. Long term objectives will change/evolve over time.

What does functional mean?

Functional means designed to have a practical use and used to contribute to the development or maintenance of a larger whole. What is functional for each student will change depending on their age. For a 6-year-old to learn letters it will be functional because it will help him learn the larger skill of reading. 

Functionality and High Expectations

During the process of selecting goals – continue to have high expectations for each student. Just because they can’t read now doesn’t mean they won’t. Consider what is the best use of that child’s time. Think efficiency. We want to teach the best skills in the least amount of time so the child can learn more and more.

What to consider when selecting functional literacy goals:

learning history {has the student had a teacher the last 4 years that never gave him the chance to target basic academic skills?}

strengths

interests

long term opportunities.

Think about working on academics with a functional twist.