ESSENTIAL SKILLS in THE CLASSROOM Why am I learning this stuff?

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):

Leave all subjects unchecked to display all available data.

  Applied Skills Language Arts

  Languages Science

  Arts Education Career Education

  Math Social Studies

  Computers Other

Step Two: Select Grade(s):

Leave all grades unchecked to display all available data.

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