This Week in Literacy
Friday, May 16, 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
It is never too early to start planning. We encourage you to start planning for NWT Literacy Week now. We will be organizing a NWT Literacy Week committee for Yellowknife in the next couple of weeks. Some of our plans include bringing up an author and distributing resources for NWT Literacy Week to all NWT communities by the end of August.
Family Literacy Funding
The NWT Literacy Council has family literacy funding available for communities. Communities are eligible for $3,000. Projects must have trained staffed to run the programs. For more information contact Jill and Marianne at the NWT Literacy Council - jill@nwtliteracy.ca or marianne@nwtliteracy.ca.
Canada Post Community Literacy Award nominations open – Deadline May 23rd
The Canada Post Community Literacy Awards nominations close on May 23, 2008. For the awards booklet, write to: 2008 Canada Post Community Literacy Awards, 2701 Riverside Dr Suite N0020, Ottawa ON K1A 0B1 or go to http://www.canadapost.ca/personal/corporate/about/community/literacy/literacy_awards/default-e.asp?ecid=ln080025.
Premier's Council of the Federation Literacy Award – Deadline May 30th
Literacy skills are crucial to daily living, employment, citizenship, personal advancement and enjoyment. In order to bring recognition to literacy achievements, the premiers of Canada created the Council of the Federation Literacy Award. The 2008 Northwest Territories Council of the Federation Literacy Award will honour the achievements of a learner who has overcome obstacles and demonstrated outstanding progress in the pursuit of literacy skills in any of the NWT official languages. NWT learners of all ages who have excelled in literacy achievement, improved personal literacy levels and helped others to improve their literacy levels are eligible for nomination. The learner must have been enrolled in classes within the past 18 months. See below for information and nomination form.
• Call for Nominations (pdf - 32k) • Nomination Form (pdf - 38k)
Ministerial Literacy Awards – Deadline May 30th
Do you know an educator or an organization in your community that has excelled in promoting literacy and helping others to improve their literacy levels in any of the NWT's official languages? See below for for more information on how to nominate someone or an organization for the Ministerial Literacy Awards.
• Call for Nominations (pdf - 17k) • Nomination Form (pdf - 32k)
In the News
Reading First Needs Parents' Support
ProLiteracy: U.S. must address adult literacy to improve children's literacy
May 6, 2008, Syracuse, NY
The leader of the largest adult literacy organization in the United States said today that President Bush's $1 billion a year Reading First program failed because “it does not take into account the literacy skills of parents.”
“Learning to read doesn't take place in the classroom alone. It begins before a child enters school and continues at the end of the school day when parents and caregivers reinforce the reading and comprehension skills developed in school,” said David C. Harvey, president and CEO of ProLiteracy. “And in many cases, the children who need special reading programs have parents who are struggling readers.” To read more go to http://www.proliteracy.org/news/index.asp?aid=288
Getting the Blokes on Board: Involving fathers and male carers in reading with their children
This new National Literacy Trust magazine, aimed at professionals who work with parents, contains lots of ideas for getting fathers and male caregivers reading with their children. If you've never worked with dads before, or would just like a few extra ideas, Getting the Blokes on Board is for you. Please note that this publication is not aimed at dads themselves, but at staff who work with them, or would like to.
Hard copies of the magazine are no longer available. Electronic pdf copies can be downloaded from
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/familyreading/Blokes.html.
Resources and Websites
Playing With Words: Any Child Can by S. Celia Jaipaul, 2007
This book helps parents teach their children by playing with words. Parents do not need any special skills, materials or money. It does not matter if parents are teenagers, single or divorced, have a low income or low education, or speak English as a second language. This books gives good ideas for teaching children about literacy and words. http://www.nald.ca/library/learning/jaipaul/playing/cover.htm
Proposal Writing Guide by the NWT and Nunavut Literacy Councils, 2008
A step-by-step guide to writing proposals. http://www.toolsforcommunitybuilding.ca/propwrit.htm
What Really Matters in Family Literacy? A Saskatchewan-based, Interorganizational Research Project, Saskatchewan Literacy Network, 2008 http://www.nald.ca/library/research/whatmatt/cover.htm
Laubach's Literacy Ontario's Compendium of Websites
The Laubach Literacy Ontario Compendium is a collection of websites that provides students, tutors, and all who are interested with a relevant and organized listing of websites. These sites have been found useful to adults who want to improve their reading, writing, math and essential skills and to tutors and trainers who work with these motivated learners. The compendium also provides brief descriptions of each site that is listed. http://www.laubach-on.ca/Trainingpost/compendium/index.html
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
