Introduction

As we come up to the end of year for our students and the holiday break for many of us I was thinking about our network and particularly about the links to free online resources for students that have been shared this year. So I thought it might make a good article for the newsletter to re-share some of these all in one place.

This is not necessarily an exhaustive collection of all the links shared. If you shared a link this year and it isn’t included it could be for one or more of the following reasons: I missed it; the link is broken, site moved, several links on the page not working & so no longer accessible; there is a cost associated with using the resource; it is a list of other resources rather than a resource itself; it is a link to a site for purchasing a book.

Reading

• Levelled readings for adults – the source of these is the USA but nonetheless there are topics of interest to Australian readers

http://resources.marshalladulteducation.org/reading_skills_home.htm

• Easy to read stories for beginning adult readers

http://pageturners.prace.vic.edu.au/index.php

Reading and writing

• An online graphical dictionary that shows relationships between words and their part of speech.

http://www.visuwords.com/

• This resource has a focus on ESL learners but  nonetheless has content usable with a wide range of literacy students.

http://a4esl.org/

• Language Garden uses colours to distinguish between parts of speech in sentences creating attractive visual representations of language.

http://www.languagegarden.com/

• A useful site if you have vocationally oriented students with an interest in hospitality/catering. The site provides introductory resources to the language of food safety introducing some of the more complex words and their meanings.

http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/lesson/lessons.html

Maths

• Numeracy resources from the Manufacturing Skills Australia website – MSA has developed a series of tool kits for VET Trainers to use. Great potential for use if you have students with interests in vocational areas.

http://www.mskills.com.au/online-products/product/Putting-the-Jigsaw-Together

• The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has an extensive collection of downloadable resources related to money management on their MoneySmart page.

https://www.moneysmart.gov.au/tools-and-resources/publications?referrer=fido.gov.au#managing

• If you teach any statistics then this is a useful resource for information on sampling and on some of the ways we represent data graphically.

http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMT668/EMAT6680.Folders/Brooks/6690stuff/Statistics/Statistics.html#anchor322474

• The updated version of the VALBEC “Building Strength With Numeracy” resource from Beth Marr has a great variety of maths activities and tasks including consideration of attitudes to maths and their impact on developing maths skills.

http://www.valbec.org.au/building-strength-with-numeracy/index.htm

• This site from Annenberg Learner has a range of information and activites about the use of maths in daily life.

http://www.learner.org/interactives/dailymath/

• A useful resource for algebra contextualised for electrotechnology

http://mitac.org.au/algebra/

• The MoneyBusiness Course has a great range of resources on managing money and also templates for recording savings and spendings. The focus is on Aboriginal learners but the content is much more broadly applicable. Some students might need help with the level of language used as some of this is a bit complex.

http://www.fmrsu.com.au/training-courses/moneybusiness-course/

• A downloadable financial literacy handbook from Canada focussing on Aboriginal learners and becoming financially “fit”

http://fnbc.info/sites/default/files/documents/POST-Final3%20FL%20Handbook.pdf

• A range of practical problems using maths from the UK National STEM Centre.

http://www.nationalstemcentre.org.uk/elibrary/resource/88/gaim-activities-practical-problems

Basic computer skills and digital literacy

• This resource is more about computer skills than digital literacy and the focus is on assessment. One of the great strengths is that there is accompanying audio which explains how to answer the questions.

http://digitalliteracyassessment.org/index.php

Across the streams!

• These Health and Safety resources from Studyladder provide great potential for use across the CGEA streams.

http://www.studyladder.com.au/guides/safety

• The Goodwill Community Foundation has a wide range of learning resources including basic reading and maths as well as a variety of technology resources. Be aware that the counting change activity uses USA coinage!

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/

• A USA site which focuses on health literacy for ESOL learners – some of the information is USA specific but there is also more generally relevant information. The links here are for learners but the site also has educator links.

http://www.valrc.org/toolkit/learners.html

ACSF and similar “testing”

• This bank of tasks has been developed by Precision Consultancy with funding from the WELL program.

http://www.precisionconsultancy.com.au/acs_framework

• The Australian Apprenticeships and Traineeships Information Service has posted a variety of Practice Aptitude Quizzes that might help students in deciding on future directions

http://aatinfo.com.au/Career-Resources/Practice-Aptitude-Quizzes

Conclusion

A lot has been shared this year! These links don’t include those related to professional development of which there were many. They are only the ones to free online (sometimes downloadable) resources. I would just like to say KEEP ON SHARING! Link up with colleagues to share and to co-develop resources. Online networks make this easier than ever before.