This Week in Literacy
Friday, June 13, 2008
In this E-News
Community Events and Information
Literacy Dates for Next Year
International Literacy Day September 8, 2008
NWT Literacy Week September 29 – October 3, 2008
National Family Literacy Day January 27, 2009
Aboriginal Languages Month March 2009
International Children's Book Day April 2, 2009
World Book Day April 23, 2009
Need a volunteer for July?
A 23-year-old commercial photographer from Toronto is interested in volunteering in northern Canada for 1-2 months this summer. She has computer skills and experience working with seniors, children and youth and in the arts. She would prefer to live and volunteer in a cross-cultural environment. She would likely require help with accommodation and meals. If you are interested in exploring this opportunity, please contact Diana Balogh Tyszko at 416-559-7337 or Dianawasabi_808@hotmail.com.
Volunteer NWT shuts down
The members of the Volunteer NWT committee regret to announce that Volunteer NWT is ending its operations immediately, including email newsletters and updates.
Volunteer NWT began in December 2003 as part of a federal program, the Canada Volunteerism Initiative. When the federal program was eliminated, The Government of the Northwest Territories (GNWT) provided one-time funding of $50,000 last year. Volunteer NWT is currently without resources to continue our activities. Volunteer NWT thanks all those people and organizations who supported our activities and attempts to find funding to continue our work.
Volunteer NWT resources, links to other resources, and other features of the Volunteer NWT website will continue to be available at www.volunteernwt.ca. The Volunteer NWT email address info@volunteernwt.ca will be shut down June 20, 2008.
Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute (CILLDI)
The University of Alberta is pleased to present the ninth annual Canadian Indigenous Languages and Literacy Development Institute over the course of three weeks in July 2008. Attached is the brochure for courses being offered.
Premier’s Award for Excellence
Doreen Reid [helen@nwtliteracy.ca] from Yellowknife received the Premier’s Award for Excellence for her work in the area of FASD. We would like to congratulate her for all her achievements!
Summer Institute 2008: ESL and Literacy
Montreal, June 26 - 28, 2008
Recent studies acknowledge that many second-language learners, including some who lack mother tongue literacy, enroll in adult literacy programs. The 2008 Summer Institute will bring together participants to meet with organizations and individuals who have done the early research. We will explore the implications of what we know for practice and policy, and propose strategies to bridge the traditional gap between ESL and literacy providers. For more info go to http://www.centreforliteracy.qc.ca/whatsnew/sli2008/index.htm
In the News
Mixed Messages: How to choose among conflicting information to support healthy development in young children
May 29, 2008
Prepared by CCL's Health and Learning Knowledge Centre
Judging from the quality of the available advice, today’s parents are better informed than any prior generation. Parents are exposed to numerous messages about healthy, active living and safety in the early childhood years. It is challenging for parents to apply these messages because they are sometimes contradictory and often difficult to incorporate into a coherent approach to parenting. In the Survey of Canadian Attitudes toward Learning, 61% of parents of young children reported finding contradictory information from different sources of health-related information. Three areas have received prominence among the many messages purporting to offer parents advice: healthy active living, hand hygiene and injury prevention. Making sensible decisions about just these three topics is likely to challenge even the most informed parent. To read more go to http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Reports/LessonsInLearning/LinL20080529
HealthyChildren.htm?Language=EN
Reading the Future
The Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) today released Reading the Future—a report that disprovesthe common assumption that Canada’s adult literacy rates will improve over time. What does the future hold for adult literacy in Canada? Our literacy future does not look promising. Currently, 48%—almost half—of all adults have low literacy skills. That proportion is expected to remain virtually unchanged over the next two decades. By 2031, we will see a 25% increase in the number of adults with low literacy skills, to a total of more than 15 million.
What is Reading the Future about?
Reading the Future is a report and reference tool for policy-makers and adult educators. The first of its kind in Canada, it helps to fill specific “knowledge gaps” related to literacy by providing:
- new detailed estimates of Canadian adult literacy levels through 2031;
- an unprecedented closer look than ever before at the “face” of low literacy; and
- effective approaches to improve literacy among six identified groups.
To complement the report, the Canadian Council on Learning has also developed:
- PALMM (Projected Adult Literacy—Measuring Movement): an interactive on-line tool that allows you to calculate adult literacy rates into the future based on variables such as location, immigrant status, age and education level; and
- success stories: first-person video profiles of adults who have improved their literacy skills.
A full copy of the report, a fact sheet, PALMM, the success stories and other resources are available at http://www.ccl-cca.ca/readingthefuture.
Resources and Websites
Web Forum: Communities Working Together for Literacy
Literacy BC has recently launched an online Literacy Community and Forum. While based in British Columbia, this forum hopes to be a virtual meeting place for literacy practitioners, learners and stakeholders to share ideas and resources. The community is attracting a wide range of Literacy enthusiasts from across Canada, and everyone is invited to sign up, create a profile and join the discussion! http://www.bcliteracyforum.ca/
FRP Canada's Resources for Parents
This website has great parenting resources for parents. The handouts are not too long, easy to read and contain practical tips for parents and caregivers. Many programs post a copy on a bulletin board or leave some on display where participants can pick them up. Others use them as handouts in their parenting groups. Some examples of handouts are: Play for Brain, Singing Through the Day, Parenting, The Big Picture… http://www.parentsmatter.ca/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.
viewpage&pageid=600&stopRedirect=1
Books for Results Inc. http://www.books4results.com/index.htm
This website has a variety of resources and materials for elementary school that you can buy and many that you can download for free. http://www.books4results.com/freeStuff.htm Some examples are: Charlotte’s Web Novel Study, Brilliant Book Reports, Question Words, Teacher Sentence Structure Part One, Story Editing Sheet, and much more.
Lisa Campbell
Resource and Information Sharing Coordinator
NWT Literacy Council
Box 761
Yellowknife, NT X1A 2N6
Toll Free: 1-866-599-6758
Phone: (867) 873-9262
Fax : (867) 873-2176
E-mail: lisa@nwtliteracy.ca
Web Site: www.nwt.literacy.ca
The NWT Literacy Council is a non-profit, non-government agency dedicated to supporting the development of literacy in all official languages of the NWT.
NWT LITERACY COUNCIL
