Jump to Numeracy at Work or Writing at Work
Links about Work
Finding Good Information about Work and Employment on the Internet for Adult Literacy Students and their Supporters.
There is no shortage of information about jobs, work and employment on the Internet. However the volume of information and the number of sites can actually make finding specific information quite difficult. Below is a short list of sites focused on information about work and employment in Ontario. We hope this list will help you to find relevant information quickly.
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Employment Ontario
http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/tcu/etlanding.html
This is the gateway to information about employment including basic preparation for the workplace e.g. how to get a social insurance number, training, skills upgrading, and apprenticeship in Ontario. It is a complex site with a wide range of information and links, organized by region, to employment and training services across the province.
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The Ontario WorkInfoNet (OnWIN)
http://www.onwin.ca
This site provides employment and career information and links to work and career-related web sites in Ontario.
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IWIN is a portal on the OnWIN site that allows users to go straight to information specific to the region in which they live.
http://www.iwin.on.ca/
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The Ontario Skills Passport
http://skills.edu.gov.on.ca/OSPWeb/jsp/en/login.jsp
The Ontario Skills Passport is a resource that provides clear description of the skills used in virtually all occupations.
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Service Canada
http://www.servicecanada.gc.ca/en/home.shtml
This is a federal government department that helps Canadians access a wide range of the government services and benefits they need quickly and easily.
Ontario Regional Services provides information about jobs, training and Employment Insurance for Ontario .
The Job Bank is a constantly updated list of available jobs searchable by province, region and occupation.
The Workers section of the Service Canada site provides comprehensive information about labour standards, province by province in the following areas: Workers rights: Benefits; Workplace issues; Trade Unions
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Work Destinations
http://www.workdestinations.org/
This is a comprehensive source of information on regulated trades and professions, that is occupations for which specialized education and experience and a special license are required, for example electricians or plumbers. The site contains information on entry requirements in both official languages.
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Numeracy at Work
Finding Good Information about Numeracy at Work on the Internet for Adult Literacy Students and their Supporters
As you are working with students in your program to develop and enhance numeracy skills we hope that you will find these links to resources and activities useful. Each has been chosen because it contains practical and relevant information and/or activities to support numeracy instructors and that will enable students to learn about and practice those numeracy skills that they are most likely to encounter on the job.
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Essential Skills – Numeracy
http://srv108.services.gc.ca/english/general/instructor_e.shtml
A guide to the Essential Skills addressed to Adult Literacy Instructors including ideas on using the occupational profiles to find real work examples for use in a literacy program and ideas on using authentic workplace materials.
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This is the Readers Guide to the Essential Skills Profiles containing detailed descriptions and explanations of each of the nine Essential Skills. Click on Numeracy in the table of contents for a comprehensive description of Numeracy skills and activities.
Audience – Adult Numeracy Instructors
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Applications of Work and Learning
http://awal.ca/subject.asp
The Applications of Work and Learning Project is a pan-Canadian project intended to support instructors in developing curricula that incorporate authentic workplace activities and applications of the nine Essential Skills. You can search the AWAL database by skill level and Province to find teaching and learning activities that apply to particular Essential Skills. To find Numeracy related information click on Math in the database.
Audience – Adult Numeracy Instructors
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Applied Mathematics/Numeracy in B.C.
http://www.bced.gov.bc.ca/careers/aa/lessons/math.htm
A comprehensive set of math and numeracy lesson plans and ideas, linked to specific occupations, created by teachers in British Columbia as part of that province’s Applied Academics Program Skills. The lesson plans could be in the planning and development of teaching and learning activities related to the Numeracy and Problem Solving and Mathematics Essential Skills for adult literacy students at higher learning levels.
Audience – Adult Numeracy Instructors & Adult Numeracy Students at higher learning levels with some support ____________________________________________________
The Learning Edge – Ontario
http://www.thewclc.ca/edge/index.html
The Learning Edge is a very well known Canadian online newspaper (produced by the Wellington County Learning Centre in Ontario) designed specifically for adult literacy students. Of the 8 issues of The Learning Edge published so far 3 are focused on workplace issues and activities. Issues 6 and 7 contain items that are particularly relevant to adult literacy students and instructors working on Numeracy. Issue 6 has features on how to check the accuracy of a pay cheque and how to evaluate Pay Day loans. Issue 7 has a feature on Money Math focused on the Essential Skills used by taxi drivers.
Audience – Adult Numeracy Students at all learning levels with minimal support
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Basic Money Math – Canada
http://www.funbrain.com/cashreg/
Funbrain is a site created by Pearson Education Inc. with a variety of learning games. The change maker section allows users to choose type of currency and offers activities a four levels of difficulty from basic to advanced
Audience – Adult Numeracy Instructors & Adult Numeracy Students at all learning levels with minimal support
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Skillswise – U.K.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/
Skillswise is a content rich site developed by the BBC in England. The numeracy section is excellent providing a wide range of activities for all learning levels, covering Whole Numbers, Measures Space and Shape, Fractions Decimal and Percentages and Handling Data. Each learning activity has a Factsheet, Quiz, Games and a printable worksheet. This is a very useful site for instructors and students providing easy to use learning activities for all learning levels. The only caveat is the money math section which is not appropriate for Canadian students as it based on the currency of the U.K
Audience – Adult Numeracy Instructors & Adult Numeracy Students at all learning levels with some support
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Numeracy Teaching and Learning in Australia
http://www.dest.gov.au/archive/ty/litnet/numeracy/home/nh_0000.htm
This is an excellent numeracy resource site from Australia. It is intended for use by students in vocational training programs and offers practical, clear, easy to use printable resources. The site is also a source of material for lesson planning, the language of the site presents a slight challenge, e.g. the use of “maths” for math – but this is largely compensated for by the high quality of the content.
Audience – Adult Numeracy Instructors & Adult Numeracy Students at higher learning levels with some support
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Australian Adult Numeracy and Maths On-Line Project (ANAMOL)
http://www.saalt.com.au/numeracy/anamol/index.htm
This site was developed to make teaching ideas and materials available to numeracy instructors online. It contains a range of resources created by experienced instructors and also has particularly interesting Conversations about Teaching and Teaching Ideas sections.
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Writing at Work
We all encounter a wide range of documents and require a range of writing skills in the workplace.
Download PDF
“Writing at work” involves a spectrum of writing skills, e.g. spelling, grammar and punctuation, and a range of document use skills, understanding the purpose of documents such as reporting forms, logs, and timesheets.
We have divided the web sites below into 3 broad categories: Background (links to research findings about workplace writing and document use); Authentic Workplace Documents (where to find them and how to make best use of them) and Writing Mechanics & Fluency (Spelling, Grammar, Punctuation and Writing Practice). These categories reflect the complexities of teaching writing for the workplace. As you are working with students in your program to develop and enhance writing skills we hope that you will find these links to resources and activities useful. Each has been chosen because it contains practical and relevant information and/or activities that will enable students to learn about and practice those writing skills that they are most likely to need on the job.
Background
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An excellent summary from the (SkillPlan Document Literacy Guide) of Research into Document Use at Work and the implications for teaching and the use of Authentic Workplace Materials.
http://skillplan.ca/pdfs/DocLit_Sample_Pgs.pdf
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This is the Readers Guide to the Essential Skills Profiles containing detailed descriptions and explanations of each of the nine Essential Skills. Click on Writing in the table of contents for a comprehensive description of Writing skills and activities
http://srv108.services.gc.ca/english/general/readers_guide_whole.shtml#19
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This is the Readers Guide to the Essential Skills Profiles containing detailed descriptions and explanations of each of the nine Essential Skills. Click on Document Use in the table of contents for a comprehensive description of Document Use skills and activities
http://srv108.services.gc.ca/english/general/readers_guide_whole.shtml#14
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A comprehensive review entitled Research in Writing: Implications for Adult Literacy Education from the Annual Review of Volume 2 (2001) published by the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy in the U.S.
http://www.ncsall.net/?id=561
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A publication from the Equipped for the Future initiative in the U.S. entitled A Contextualized Approach to Curriculum and Instruction that provides a coherent description of the background to and uses of a contextualized approach to support students in developing skills that can be transferred to the workplace.
http://eff.cls.utk.edu/PDF/03research-practice.pdf
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Authentic Workplace Documents
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A collection of HRSDC Authentic Workplace Materials (forms, tables, graphs, brochures, regulations, etc) that are in use in many jobs across Canada. The collection can be searched by Occupation, by type of material, by Essential Skills and by Keyword and National Occupational Classification (NOC) code.
http://srv108.services.gc.ca/english/general/Auth_Work_Mats_e.shtml
Audience –Adult Literacy Instructors
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A searchable database of the HRSDC Authentic Workplace Materials focused on the Essential Skills of Reading Text, Document Use and Writing. This database was developed as part of the ESPORT (Essential Skills Portfolio) basic Skills assessment and planning tool, created to support people who are preparing for entry level occupations.
http://www.esportfolio.com/esport/english/AuthenticMaterials/Index.cfm
Audience –Adult Literacy Instructors & literacy students at higher learning levels with some support
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A useful hand book for instructors entitled Creating Authentic Materials and Activities for the Adult Literacy Classroom developed by National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy in the U.S
http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/teach/jacobson.pdf
Audience –Adult Literacy Instructors
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This is a link to information about the ever-popular WorkWrite series – a collection of instructional workbooks and teacher’s guides focusing on the functions and features of workplace documents. You can see sample pages at this web site:
http://www.ptp.ca/teaching_materials.htm
Audience –Adult Literacy Instructors
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Writing Mechanics / Fluency
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From the BBC Skillswise in the U.K. This is a very well organized, easy to use, site with an array of activities for students working on writing. There may be some issues with UK vocabulary but these are outweighed by the quality of the site.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/
Audience -Adult Literacy Students with support
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Another excellent area of the Skillswise site focused on writing – including sections on Paragraphs, Planning Your Writing, Proofreading and Format and Structure. Each section has a Factsheet Worksheet and Game to introduce, explain and practice the skills.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/words/writing/
Audience – Adult Literacy Students with support
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A set of online grammar exercises and quizzes to practice the basic ruled of English Grammar
http://classroom.jc-schools.net/basic/la-grammar.html
Audience- Adult Literacy Students with support
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Teaching literacy through creative writing is a program in Missouri in which students are coached and encouraged to express themselves through writing and then tutored to edit their own writings. This site describes the program and provides exercises, tips and examples of student writings.
http://www.lift-missouri.org/resources/curricula/writing/writingtoc.html
Audience- Adult Literacy Instructors
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An excellent set of tips, lessons and resources on writing from Eastside Literacy in Bellevue, Washington
http://www.eastsideliteracy.org/tutorsupport/RW/RWTips.htm
Audience –Adult Literacy Instructors
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A post with some very creative and interesting ideas ( for example, Shape Writing, Crazy Questions) on teaching writing and inspiring fluency from a Blog called Literacy Source – A Community Learning Center in Seattle.
http://literacysource.wordpress.com/
Audience –Adult Literacy Instructors
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Writenet is a Canadian online community with the goal of promoting the use and value of writing in adult literacy programming. This site offers writing ideas and resources and a place for writing instructors to meet and share ideas.
http://writenet.ca/about.htm
Audience –Adult Literacy Instructors & Adult Literacy Students at higher levels with support
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DIGG http://www.digg.com/
Del.icio.us http://del.icio.us/
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To comment on these links, to suggest links and to tell us how you are using these activities in your programming contact us at info@alphaplus.ca.
