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K-12 Education Sphere (Grades 7-12)
Counselling and Career Services
Professional Development for Teachers
Skills Assessment and Recording/Portfolio Development
School to Work Transition
Resources for Teachers
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Counselling and Career Services (K-12 Sphere)
Essential Skills Research at the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board
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With funding from HRSDC, the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board has integrated Essential Skills Research in
many areas of their curriculum, from Special Needs to School to Work programming.
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The Co-operative Education program in this district has
adopted Essential Skills to aid students with Special needs in identifying
placements and in goal setting, as well as developing a Co-operative Education
Personalized Placement Learning Plan – in which all co-op students and
supervisors address the Essential Skills displayed on the job.
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Guest speakers, career fairs, and career panels are a part of the student experience, and students and teachers alike make use of the “Clipboard” and Essential Skills Assignment that were developed by the school board in partnership with the Georgian Bay Career Centre a couple of years ago. This tool is now a part of programming for grades 7/8 through to grade 12. Additionally, a team of teachers has been working to roll out the REAL GAME and the BE REAL GAME for students to participate in as of January 2002.
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Other current activities surrounding Essential Skills
Research include the development of an Academic and Career Portfolio in
partnership with TRACKS in the Collingwood area, where Essential Skills
will play a critical role as School to Work planning for students
continues.
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For more information, please contact:
Judith Gatt
Secondary Program Coordinator
Bus:(705) 722-3559
E-mail:
jgatt@smdcsb.on.ca
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Professional Development for Teachers (K-12 Sphere)
Applications of Working and Learning (AWAL)
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Do you want some new ideas for classroom activities that get your students involved in the learning process? Do you ever wish you knew more about how what you teach is applied outside school when students ask, “Why should I learn this?” Then perhaps it’s time to go AWAL!
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AWAL assists educators to connect the curriculum they teach in the classroom with how that content is applied in the workplace. It takes them “Behind the scenes” in a business or industry of their choice to learn how what they teach is used there. From this experience, they get ideas for hands-on learning activities to bring the curriculum to life in their classroom, as well as answers to that recurrent student question, “When and where will I ever have to use what I’m learning?” Additionally, AWAL also provides educators with the opportunity to learn more about the labour market conditions their students will face.
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When teachers go AWAL, they have an opportunity to visit a workplace in an industry of their choosing. There, they interview both management and a frontline employee, using an interview approach based on HRSDC’s Essential Skills research methodology, and tour the work site in a one-day professional development activity. The educators complete the day by reflecting on the use of the Essential Skills in that workplace and then creating two hands-on classroom activities that they can use with their students. These activities are collected and posted at
http://www.awal.ca/ to make them accessible to teachers across the country.
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AWAL was conceptualized and developed in British Columbia with funding from HRSDC and the BC Ministry of Education. HRSDC is now funding BC’s Centre for Curriculum, Transfer and Technology to promote AWAL nation-wide. With this funding, the Centre can provide assistance to those in other provinces and territories that are interested in adopting AWAL.
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AWAL days have been held in several provinces. Participants include middle and secondary school teachers from a broad array of disciplines, pre-service (student) teachers and teachers from the adult education sector.
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For more information, please contact:
Wendy Magahay
AWAL Project Manager
Bus: (250) 370-4775
E-mail:magahay@camosun.bc.ca
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Skills Assessment and Recording/ Portfolio Development (K-12 Sphere)
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Ontario Skills Passport
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The Ontario Skills Passport program provides each student in Ontario with a record of the skills they have demonstrated in their various co-op and other work placements. It records which Essential Skills have been demonstrated, the level of complexity of the tasks in which those skills were demonstrated, and the student’s level of competency in performing the tasks. The Ontario Skills Passport is currently being piloted in various locations across Ontario. Its objective is to facilitate successful school to work transitions for students.
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For more information, please contact:
Chantal Locatelli
Ontario Ministry of Education, Secondary School Project
Bus: (416) 325-7886
E-mail: chantal.locatelli@edu.gov.on.ca
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ESPORT - Essential Skills Portfolio
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ESPORT is an Essential Skills assessment and planning tool developed with funding from HRSDC's Office of Learning Technologies. ESPORT uses Essential Skills information to help learners assess their skills, analyze what skills they need to strengthen in order to perform particular kinds of jobs and develop resumes tailored to the skill requirements of those jobs. Users can record personal information such as their education and job history, identify occupations that interest them, compare their self-assessment results to the skills used in those occupations, prepare a record of their skills and experience and locate additional learning resources to aid in skills improvement. ESPORT was designed for use by learners in adult basic education literacy classes, but may also be used in K-12 classrooms. The ESPORT Project is a pan-Canadian demonstration.
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Essential Skills Self-Evaluation Tool
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Developed by SkillPlan with funding from HRSDC, this self-assessment tool is available through the “ How Do You Measure Up?” section of the TOWES web site. It consists of a set of activities that may be used by an individual to test their skills in Reading, Document Use and Numeracy. The activities are based on real workplace tasks and involve the use of Authentic Workplace Materials. Full step-by-step solutions are also provided for those who want to turn this into a learning tool.
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Two parts of this site
may be of particular interest to secondary school students. “Test Your
Skills” is an informal test that allows test takers to get an idea of
their level of ability in these three skills. Each test activity
illustrates one of the skills (Reading, Document Use or Numeracy) at a
particular level of complexity. The site also provides the correct answer
for each activity. Thus, test takers can get an idea of the level of task
complexity they can handle well. They can use this information about their
abilities when reviewing HRSDC’s Essential Skills profiles, to reflect on
whether they have the skills they will need to do what they want to do.
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The other part of the
site of particular interest to secondary school students is “Explore
Careers”. Here, individuals can try their hand at typical workplace tasks
in any one of 25 occupations, to test their skills using tasks from a
particular occupation of interest to them. Again, each activity
illustrates a particular complexity level of one of the three skills
(Reading, Document Use or Numeracy), and answers, including full
step-by-step solutions, are provided. |
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School to Work Transition (K-12 Sphere)
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Ontario Skills Passport for School to Work
Transitions |
The Ontario Skills
Passport is being developed to facilitate successful school to work
transitions for students. Please see the above section on the OSP for
further detail. |
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Resources for Teachers
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Workplace Numeracy Workbook
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Currently under development by SkillPlan, with funding from HRSDC, the Workplace Numeracy Workbook will contain contextualized learning materials for use in developing learners’ skills in Numeracy. This resource will utilize Authentic Workplace materials and Tasks (problem sets). Problem sets contained in the workbook will illustrate the use of numeracy in the workplace within the four types of math identified in the Essential Skills Research: Money Math, Budgeting, Scheduling and Accounting Math, Measurement and Calculation Math and Data Analysis Math.
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For more information, please contact:
Lynda Fownes
BC Construction Industry Skills Improvement Council (SkillPlan)
Bus: (604) 436-1126
E-mail: skillplan@telus.net
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Writing: An Essential Skill at Work
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Currently under development by SkillPlan, with funding from HRSDC, the publication Writing: An Essential Skill at Work will be a reference for use by educators and workplace trainers in developing in learners the skills associated with writing in the workplace. It will utilize Authentic Workplace documents and Tasks that progress in complexity, and reflect the complexity levels of the Essential Skills Writing Complexity Scale. It will include “notes” explaining the thinking required to complete each task. Additionally, this resource will outline instructional techniques that help learners acquire and transfer their writing skills.
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For more information, please contact:
Lynda Fownes
BC Construction Industry Skills Improvement Council (SkillPlan)
Bus: (604) 436-1126
E-mail: skillplan@telus.net
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