Tag Archives: literacy

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Teaching Strategies for LLN Teachers

There’s an excellent article written by Sue Ollerhead in the latest edition of the Literacy and Numeracy Studies journal, which will be very interesting for any teachers working with ESL students with low level literacy skills.  It looks at the results of traditional teacher-led classes compared to less structured classes, which develop more according to what’s going on in the classroom.

You have to register for the Literacy and Numeracy Studies journal, which takes a couple of minutes, but it’s well worth it.

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New feature: In the media

It’s about confidence and trust in teachers

Emma Alberici on ABC TV’s Lateline talks to Pasi Sahlberg, director-general of the Ministry of Education in Helsinki, about why Finland consistently beats most of the rest of the countries in the OECD in maths, reading and literacy at all levels of primary and high school. The secret, according to him, is to be found in Finland’s highly educated teachers.

Teaching in Finland is a respected and prestigious profession, and it’s paid accordingly. Gaining entry to study teaching is extremely competitive, and nearly every teacher in the country has a master’s degree.

Video and transcript at   http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3441913.htm or available as a Vodcast from the ABC website archives.

 

Reporting teacher performance using student scores

20 March 2012

The  article, Teacher Performance Abusers of Statistics,   was written in response to the recent publication of the names of teachers and their “performance scores” by the New York Post (February, 2012).

 

 

 

 

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Assessing ALLS vs ACSF

If you’re familiar with adult language, literacy and numeracy concepts then NCVER needs your help!

Language, literacy and numeracy are critical for greater workforce participation, productivity and social inclusion. Being able to measure how skilled people are, and any changes in their level of skill, is important for getting a sense of how well language, literacy and numeracy programs are working for learners.

The federal government uses the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALLS) survey to measure an outcome in the National Agreement for Skills and Workforce Development. But this data is only obtained every 10 years. The Australian Core Skills Framework (ACSF) is also being used to provide information on adults’ literacy and numeracy skills in a range of contexts.

Both the ALLS and ACSF have five performance levels and it’s sometimes assumed that these levels are equivalent. But are they? The National Centre for Vocational Education Research, together with Victoria University and Educational Measurement Solutions are running a short online survey to find out whether the levels are equivalent.

They’re asking teachers/tutors/lecturers familiar with adult literacy and numeracy concepts to anonymously rate a student, whose literacy and/or numeracy levels are most familiar to them, against statements and sample tasks aligned with the ACSF and ALLS frameworks.

Every completed survey has a chance to win one of six Apple iPads (3rd generation 32GB Wi-Fi) valued at $649 (RRP) each. Go to http://literacymap.com/s3/ to enter the survey. You can also access the survey from the NCVER web site: go to the ‘Quick Links’ section.

Contact: Michelle Circelli

Senior Research Officer, Research Management Branch

National Centre for Vocational Education Research (NCVER)

T +61 8 8230 8646 F +61 8 8212 3436 E michelle.circelli@ncver.edu.au

W www.ncver.edu.au

And of course, you are welcome to post your comments here about your  experience of the survey or even about the likelihood that ALLS and ACSF can be successfully equated!

 

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Issue 1 – Free downloadable resource – a wordsearch activity

Introduction

It falls to me (JoHart – one of the current ALaN facilitators) to “kick off” our “Free downloadable resource” feature that we hope will become a regular part of the ALaN Newsletter. The intention is to share a small downloadable resource in each issue.

We invite YOU to contribute  a favourite small Adult Literacy/Numeracy resource that you have developed. We hope that each feature will provide; context in which the developer uses the resource; the resource itself; one or two tips/ideas on how to develop/generate similar resources.

Today’s Resource

Currently I am teaching CGEA entirely online. However I find that many of the small resources (especially games and puzzles) that I used in paper form are easily adapted to the online environment, particularly things like wordsearches. Here is today’s resource  as I use it in Elluminate/BlackboardCollaborate.

Originally this was a WordDoc ” Wordsearch Activity 1” just click on the title to download.

I have  a variety of wordsearch puzzles and other similar activities that can be used to help students with spelling and or vocabulary. This is just one of a number that use one of the reading age type vocabularly lists to source a large number of appropriate words. I have created most of these activities using the free wordsearch puzzle maker on the Discovery Education website. The site has several other free puzzle makers and lots of other useful ideas and resources.

Please comment on the resource and share ideas you may have for its improvement, use or extensions of the activity.

Jo Hart