essential skills in the classroom why am i learning this stuff?
TRANSCRIPT
ESSENTIAL SKILLS inTHE CLASSROOM
Why am I learning this stuff?
Student Success
• What do students need to know?
• What are the implications for your teaching?
• What differences or similarities do you see between traditional academic programming and an essential skills infused program model?
READING TEXT
Complexity based on:
• Text length
• Purpose of reading: extract information, compare, analyze
• Degree of inference required
READING TEXT
Examples:
Level 1 – read short text, locate single piece of information
Level 5 – interpret dense text, make high-level inferences, use specialized knowledge
DOCUMENT USE
Complexity is based on three dimensions:
• Document itself
• Demands of finding or entering information
• Complexity of information use (content knowledge prerequisites and thinking process)
Reading skills required• Skimming to understand the gist, identify
audience and purpose
• Scanning to locate information
• Working with unfamiliar vocabulary
• Navigating text and documents
• Comparing
• Identifying relevant & irrelevant information
WRITING
Complexity based on
• Purpose of writing
• Audience
• ‘Stakes’ attached to the finished product
WRITING
Common purposes for writing
• Recording information
• Making suggestions or requests
• Presenting a comparison or analysis
WRITING
Complexity based on
• Purpose of writing
• Audience
• ‘Stakes’ attached to the finished product
NUMERACY
• Money math
• Scheduling, budgeting & accounting
• Measurement & calculation
• Data analysis
• Estimation
TOWES Measure Up
www.towes.com/measureup
A self-assessment component of the TOWES web site.
Assesses reading text, document use and numeracy skills.
Users can also practice typical tasks and explore career options and skill requirements.
French & English
• National professional development project for educators.
• Participants placed in a variety of workplace environments to help them connect the curriculum they teach with how that curriculum is used in the workplace.
• Using what they learn at the workplace, participants develop relevant classroom activities
• Activities stored in an easy to use, searchable, electronic database.
Step One: Choose Subject Area(s):
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Applied Skills Language Arts
Languages Science
Arts Education Career Education
Math Social Studies
Computers Other
Step Two: Select Grade(s):
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K-3 12
4-6 ABE
7-9 Post-secondary
10 Adult Literacy
11
The Big Picture; Essential Skills for Life, Learning and Work
• A full binder with black-line masters may be ordered. Contact:Wendy Lockie, Office of Partnerships and Innovation, Waterloo Region District School Board at (519) 570-0003 Ext. 4220 or [email protected]
• Cost is $50/binder for 1 – 10 copies or $40/binder for more than 10 copies.
AWALWeb: www.awal.caPhone (250) 370-4775Fax (250) 370-4777
