Tag Archives: Adult Literacy and Numeracy

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PD coming up from November 2014

Webinar 28/11/2014

Coming up on November 28, 2014 (time  10:00am West Australian time 11:30am ACST, 1:00pm AEDT) there is an ACAL webinar. “A remote solution to strengthening workforce capacity in LLN”   For more information and to register your interest visit the ACAL website

The presenter is Ros Bauer was the 2013 Australian Training Awards Winner – Excellence in Adult Language Literacy Numeracy Practice. She is currently working with Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse learners in the remote Northern Territory community of Yuendumu where she is delivering the Develop Foundation Skills in Vocational practice Skills Set. Ros is delivering to 3 trainers in community, who work with Warlpiri adult learners and young people

Teach Me Grammar 2015

Teach Me Grammar is available again for next year if you are interested in Teach Me Grammar checkout the GoogleGroup or visit Teach Me Grammar Program 2015 to get more information and the application form.

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Seeking your input!

Introduction

Surveys give us the opportunity to input into future developments, so if you can find the time it is always worth completing any that are relevant. Yours could be the response that tips the balance towards a change that you favour rather than one you will hate! There are two surveys seeking input at the moment – one is a local WA survey for a CAVSS Local Leaders project and the other is a national NCVER survey relating to delivery of Foundation Skills.

1. Please help by completing the CAVSS Teacher’s Survey

The Department of Training and Workforce Development has funded this project to produce resources that will provide additional support to CAVSS Managers. When you respond to this survey, you will be helping us:

  • identify the skills and knowledge that are key to undertaking the CAVSS Manager’s job
  • gather practical ideas for solving common problems
  • design accessible and well-targetted training resources that will assist new CAVSS Managers.

There are two Surveys: one for CAVSS Managers and one for CAVSS staff. We would really like it you can find time to fill in a survey.

Please complete the survey by 14 November 2014

Link to CAVSS Teachers’ survey – please pass this on to any other CAVSS staff who may not have access to the GoogleGroup or this newsletter

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CAVSSTeachersSurvey

Link to CAVSS Managers’ survey – please pass this on to any CAVSS managers/potential CAVSS  managers who may not have access to the GoogleGroup or this newsletter

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CAVSSManagers

2. NCVER survey of practitioners involved in Foundation Skills delivery

NCVER has released a survey for Foundation Skills. The information you provide will be invaluable in shaping the future of Foundation Skills, so please take a moment to read the information and fill out the questionnaire. This is part of the National Foundation Skills Strategy Project. Further information and the survey are available at “Who is delivering Foundation Skills”

 

 

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LLN Practitioner Scholarships Programme

The LLN Practitioner Scholarships Programme is a competitive initiative. The Programme provides scholarships of up to $5000 to individuals seeking to undertake approved study towards an adult LLN qualification. Up to 50 scholarships are awarded annually.

Applicants must successfully complete and submit their application on the Department’s online application system by midnight Wednesday, 12 November 2014, AEDT

More information and the online application can be found at the “Language, Literacy and Numeracy Practitioner Scholarships Programme“

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Infographics – what are they and how can we use them?

Introduction

The word is itself a contraction of “Information graphics” and describes a visual representation of data, information or knowledge. Wikipedia has a comprehensive article on Infographics.

Using infographics

Infographics are a great way of sharing information in a visual way that makes it easier for most people to understand than a written text. For example NCVER have produced a range of infographics about the VET Sector including this one:

This infographic from the National Centre for Vocational Education Research   www.ncver.edu.au

 

Students and courses

We can use infographics with students in a variety of ways some that I have used in the past include asking students to: explain in writing or orally parts of an infographic; compare two infographics with similar topics; find and critique infographics relating to their own interests; research information/find data and produce an illustrative infographic. For me infographics are a good way of integrating numeracy and literacy.

There are lots of online tools that you and your students can use to create infographics these include: “easelly”,  “infogram”, “Piktochart” and “visually”. Most of these need you to sign up to use them and they have both free and paid versions. However you don’t have to use one of the online tools, it is possible to make excellent infographics  using Powerpoint. Using Powerpoint makes it easy to incorporate graphs/charts created with Excel.

The two infographics below were made in easel.ly and Powerpoint for some PD I delivered a while ago.

Infographics

Participants all preferred the one on the right created using Powerpoint. They found it more engaging because of the graphics used and the greater use of colour. I also found the Powerpoint one much easier to create, this was partly because I am very familiar with Powerpoint. However I also found that consistently selecting and moving shapes to the right places more difficult with the other application.

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ALaN WA Newsletter – August 2014

Welcome to edition 13 of the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Network of Western Australia Newsletter!

Views expressed by contributors to the newsletter are their own and, unless expressly stated, do not reflect the opinions of their employers/organisations.

This contents page links individually to each article enabling you to go immediately to those of your choice. Alternatively, if you go to the main blog link, you can access the articles by scrolling down the page.

We welcome your comments and contributions to our newsletter. If you are an Adult Literacy/Numeracy practitioner in Western Australia or indeed, anywhere in the world, we invite you to subscribe and comment. If you are interested in joining the GoogleGroup for our network, please visit our “How to join” page and complete the online form.

Contents

1. WA Adult Literacy Council AGM Information

2. Community focused activities for Initial CGEA learners

3. New numeracy workshop offering

4. Making our voices heard

5. New ALaN Network projects 2014-2015

6. WA curriculum update August 2014

7. Useful links and resources – August 2014

8. Conferences update August 2014

 

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Community focused activities for Initial CGEA learners

The Centacare Employment and Training course “Skills for Education and Employment” (SEE) caters for adult learners from a wide range of ages and diverse backgrounds. Currently many of our clients include people with limited schooling who may be learning to read or write for the first time.

Clients attend classes seeking to improve their English and obtain the skills and language necessary to find a job. Their learning is often affected by factors such as:

  • dealing with trauma and loss due to fleeing from war
  • limited literacy in their own language
  • anxiety and depression
  • separation from family members
Many students, despite having perhaps lived in Australia for some time, do not interact with those from outside their own   language groups other than during their time in class. Our trainers often develop learning programmes that aim to enhance learners’ community involvement and help them to interact with a wider range of cultures. Centacare Init 1

 

Centacare Init 2Centacare Init 3
One of these programmes enabled students to work alongside Samaritan’s Purse, a community organisation that is responsible for “Operation Christmas Child”. Operation Christmas Child delivers shoeboxes full of essential items and gifts to children living in impoverished conditions. Centacare Init 4

The programme consisted of a number of activities and stages. The teacher created tasks to cover aspects of the Initial and Introductory CGEA curriculum. The activities included:

  • Reading about what to pack in the boxes: VU21286 Engage with short simple texts to participate in the community
  • Shopping for items using a donated budget: VU21291 Recognise numbers and money in simple, highly familiar situations
  • Reading a class book about the shopping excursion: VU21286 Engage with short simple texts to participate in the community
  • Graphing amounts of money spent in each store: VU21312 Work with and interpret statistical information in simple, familiar texts
  • Volunteering at the Operation Christmas Child processing centre
  • Writing a recount about the volunteering experience: VU21290 Create short simple texts to participate in the community
  • Writing a thank you email to the Processing Centre Supervisor: VU21290 Create short simple texts to participate in the community

Students’ recounts were then compiled and displayed in the lunch-room. This gave the students the opportunity to have their work ‘published’ for other classes to view and provided a conversation point around the coffee table at lunch time.

The project was a great success as it enabled students to contribute something towards the community, interact with new people and work together as a team. The supervisor at the processing plant was kind enough to respond to each student’s email, giving them a sense of pride in their efforts.

Other classes have participated in a variety of community projects which I am happy to write about in the future.

If you wish to know further details about this or other projects we have done, feel free to ask questions through the Google Groups CGEA Network.

 

Claire Willis

 

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New ALaN Network projects 2014-2015

The Adult Literacy and Numeracy Network  continues to be supported by the Department of Training and Workforce Development (DTWD) with the task of fostering collaboration and professional learning between adult educators in Western Australia.

Network facilitation

Jo Hart will offer support to the online functions of the ALaN Network including acting as editor for this Edublog ALaN WA. Her expertise in online learning will continue to offer us access to new ways to collaborate as professionals and to use these tools with our students.

Claire Willis takes over from Dani Murray as membership manager, offering assistance to practitioners to gain and maintain access to our members only facilities and to make the best use of them.

CAVSS Leaders Projects

A new initiative this year will be the development of a CAVSS Leaders Network. C. Y. O’Connor Institute of Technology and Durack Institute of Technology have offered to start us off with some products to share with the objective of creating much wider understanding of the CAVSS model across organisations and how to make it work.

Adult numeracy projects

The new adult numeracy projects build on the great start we made in 2013 and early 2014.

Phil Hart will maintain the Edublog What’s in a number?  that resulted from our 2013 round of projects. This provides us with a dedicated numeracy and mathematics space to share teaching and learning ideas online as well as access the great work done over the last two years.

Beth Marr will continue her work in offering a range of professional learning options that develops teacher skills related to using collaborative learning in the context of teaching adults numeracy. This will include:

  • A repeat of the three block series piloted in 2014 Collaborative Numeracy
  • A two day workshop for those unable to commit to a longer course see item 2
  • creation of videos and a PD leaders guide based on the pilot workshop and designed for in house use by RTOs
  • working with Centacare Employment and Training staff to develop an adaptation of collaborative activities to support numeracy development for low level ESL students.
  • Delivering an initial Practical Strategies workshop in  Geraldton (co-funded by Durack Institute of Technology will partially fund  for their teachers to avoid the cost of sending teachers to Perth).

Other projects

Gerard Laumen from Challenger Institute of Technology will share his experiences in using free Google applications with students building literacy by creating a Google Circle focused on this topic.

Watch the newsletter and the Google Group for more information on all these projects in the next few months.

Cheryl Wiltshire
ALaN Network Coordinator

 

 

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Useful links and resources August 2014

Service Skills Australia has a new webpage “Taking the Lead” which it describes as a “one-stop shop” for information on the development of core LLN skills in the service industries.

Several of the Industry Skills Councils have developed resources relating to Foundation Skills in their industry areas. These may be useful to anyone delivering LLN in an industry context eg CAVSS, USIQ or WELL (soon to be replaced by the new Industry Skills Fund). They include the following free resources:

Construction and Property Services – Foundation Skills Resources for CPC08 and CPP07

Agrifood Skills Australia – Two LLN resources “From the Ground Up” and “The Get Real Factor”

Community Services & Health Industry Skills Council – a series of videos on LLN Awareness & Foundation Skills Implementation

Government Skills Australia – a series of videos on Foundation Skills in a government and community context

 

 

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Conferences Update – August 2014

Australia

NB there is no Western Australian Adult Literacy Council state conference this year see the earlier article in this newsletter for information about the AGM. The next WAALC conference is planned for April 2015.

The 2014 conference of the International Applied Linguistics Association is being hosted by the Applied Linguistics Association of Australia and takes place from the 10th to 15th of August in Brisbane.

This year’s ACAL Conference “Literacy: a learning spiral for life” is on October 2nd to 4th at Surfers Paradise in Queensland. Keep up to date by registering an expression of interest on the ACAL website.

Australian Council of TESOL Associations – International Conference 2014 with the theme “Meeting the Challenge” takes place from September 30 – October 3 2014 in Melbourne. For information available to date check out the website.

A little further afield

Coming up in New Zealand the 37th New Zealand Literacy Association Conference “Surfing the Literacy Wave” in Tauranga 28th September to 1st October

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ThingLink – a different way to share!

In one of our regular webinars a couple of weeks ago someone mentioned “ThingLink”. Over the follwing weekend I spent a bit of time exploring this tool.

ThingLink is described as a tool that helps you share content using images. The idea is to use an image and to add “tags” which link to content. The tool has been developed so that you can add many different types of content link including audio, video, webpages and polls.

Here are a three different ones that I have created – these are fairly simple and just link directly to content relevant to the spot in the image where the tag is positioned. The images can be easily embedded in websites and blogs. If you don’t see the links on the images immediately then move your mouse onto the image, you should then be able to checkout the content links.

The scene from Gooseberry Hill

 

  A “Toon” for introducing e-pedagogy


Free E-tools for teaching and learning

For me this has immense possibilities for use in literacy/numeracy contexts. Here is just a very quick “off the top of my head” list of some of the possible uses:

Students making their own “ThingLinks” to evidence their own understanding and research eg in “Current Issues”

  • Students developing their own audio, visual or written explanations of maths concepts and linking to them via tags
  • Students making ToonDoos eg related to Internet safety and linking to the source of their information
  • Students collecting a series of images recording project progress with tags linking to videos of different project activities and/or other project documentation
  • Language of shapes with links to audio files and or text glossary items.
  • Maths concepts with links to practical applications of the concepts in the real world
  • Managing student web access in exploring a topic to ensure that the sites they visit are of suitable quality
  • Writing prompt images with related information links as tags in the image

One of the reasons that I liked this tool straight away is that basic use is very quick and easy to learn. So it makes a great addition to the repertoire of quick and easy to learn tools that can be used by students while also having potential for developing engaging learning resources.

If you explore and try this one out please let us know by commenting on this post – we would love to know how you use it and what you and your students think of it!

Jo Hart (April 2014)