Category: adult literacy

PageTurners, series 4 out now!

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy

Very exciting news! PageTurners series 4 has arrived. Anne Dunn, Chris Malakar and Moira Hanrahan have done it again, produced a delightful collection of funny and engaging stories for beginning adult readers all around the world. pageturners.prace.vic.edu.au My personal favourite stories in the new series 4 are: Can you read this? – about a woman returning to learning, Tooth Fairy – about a woman in a retirement home who loves to be helpful, and Red Dog – a true story about a wandering dog in Western Australia. The fun part Read More …

Book reviewed!! (Digital Literacies by Lankshear & Knobel)

Michael Chalk1 Commentadult literacy, research

Finally! i’ve ploughed my way through Lankshear & Knobel’s “Digital Literacies: concepts, policies and practices.” (2008) Yes i’ve been reading it all year, but the final onslaught took me 4 days of sitting inside, during my holiday from work.. when the springtime sun was shining outside. How do i always manage to forget that academic reading can be horribly difficult!! If you’re out of practice, you need to diligently take notes on every page.. or you may as well not have read it. Anyway, it’s done now, handed over to Read More …

Indigenous Australian map.. inspiring & interactive use of google maps

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, e-learning, innovation

Impressive use of google maps over at the ABC web site. Moira and i were discussing this map of indigenous Australian languages.. so i looked to find some copies online while she looked in the book-on-shelf style atlas. Snap! We got our results at the same time. Since i first viewed the map (large poster print), i’ve loved the way it gives a sense of how geography has shaped cultural and language groupings over many thousands of years. You can almost see the mountains, the desert, the rivers reflected in Read More …

ESL teacher uses "Online Banking" resource

Michael ChalkLeave a commentace, adult literacy, classroom, e-learning

Inspiring adventures from Dale Pobega of Duke St community centre in Sunshine Victoria, who has recently started using blogger to engage and educate his English as a second language (ESL) students. Great to see Dale using the tremendous resource “Online Banking“. This resource came out of Olympic Adult Education about 6 years ago, and remains one of the best online resources for adult numeracy. There’s a few broken elements on the site (eg the bulletin board no longer exists, and the sim bank doesn’t work).. but much of it works Read More …

3 free worksheet generators for the classroom

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, classroom

i admit, when i was teaching adult literacy last year, sometimes project work was too much work, and we resorted to literacy worksheets. People responded well, because they felt it matched their needs for less complex, more focussed activities. So i relied on a few websites to do the production for me. i’d take the current theme’s vocabulary list, and build up a collection of worksheets. Students can then choose which ones to do. Here are the main sites i would use: Worksheet Genius – on this site you can Read More …

Wendell on Guided Reading with Adult Learners

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, classroom

Interesting to read stories from an adult literacy worker in Canada. Wendell Dryden is “a poet, painter, literacy worker .. writing in Saint John, New Brunswick.” He’s written a few times now about using the Page Turners easy reader series in his adult literacy classroom. Just now he’s posted an interesting piece about “guided reading” .. or finding the right book for the adult learner at the right time. A good overview of which texts he uses for each level, eg: Grass Roots (canada) and Page Turners for the real Read More …

facebook as multiple literacies

Michael ChalkLeave a commentadult literacy, research, technology

Colin Lankshear and Michele Knobel’s (L&K) own chapter in their book “digital literacies” investigates the social networking site Facebook in the light of multiple literacies. Within that environment, literacies have a strong tendency to be “relational” rather than informational. Hence the “super-poke” is all about connecting with a friend or colleague rather than transmitting any particular information. Membership in “groups” signals identity, but may not involve any actual communication or participation within the group. Previous studies into social networking include: network theory, signaling theory, human geography theory, social contract theory, Read More …