Literacy Working Group Meeting DATE: Tuesday 29th October 2019 2pm - 4.30pm. VENUE: Karoo Room - State Library of NSW
Annual General meeting
1. Welcome - Kate O’Grady welcomed the group.
2. Present: Kate O'Grady - State Library Jacinta Craine – Sutherland Julie Just – Ku-ring-gai Sarah wild – Canada Bay Vanessa Isles – Reading Writing Holtline Jill Finch – Reading Writing Holtline Rachel Davis – ACT Libraries (via Bluejeans) Bernice Russell – Mosman Library
3. Apologies Abir El-Lahib – City of Sydney Christiane Birkett, Gunnedah Shire Council
4. Guest speaker - Mary-Ruth Mendel, Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation Mary-Ruth is the founder (along with Kim Kelly) and Chair of the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation which has been going for over 20 years. Indigenous and refugee communities are most in need of their services. They offer an Early Language and Literacy Program for adults who missed out on learning literacy skills when they were younger where they receive a Certificate IV on completion and then go on to on train other members of the community.
Children do most of their pre-alphabet development before 5 years old, and learn to understand the alphabet between 5 and 6 years old. Literacy training needs to be in the individuals’ first language to be effective. Technology has greatly helped literacy training. The foundation recently won a MIT Solve award in New York where their Living First Languages Platform was selected as an MIT Early Childhood Development Solver for this year’s Global Challenge. The award has helped them develop their Living First Language platform that preserves and revitalises Indigenous First Languages and turns them into dynamic, community-led and interactive digital literacy apps that enhance both First Language and English learning and development.
Read more about the ALNF:
the_australian_literacy_and_numeracy_foundation.pdf
alnf_-_early_language_and_literacy_program.pdf
about_the_living_first_language_platform.pdf
Read more about the MIT Solve award at: https://solve.mit.edu/challenges/early-childhood-development/solutions#challenge-subnav-offset
5. Matters arising from previous Minutes Strategic Plan and update of Wiki, topics 5 and 9 on the agenda.
6. Strategic Plan - comments or endorsement The Strategic Plan was updated and reviewed after the July meeting and was ratified at this meeting.
Strategic Plan Literacy Working Group
7. Wrap up of take home points from the Australian Council of Adult Literacy Conference 4th-5th October 2019 - Critical re-imagining: adult literacy and numeracy practices for sustainable development
There is a large body of people who require help to become functionally literate, so they can fully engage with their families, the community, government services and be effective and efficient in workplaces. United Nations Sustainable Development goal number 4 is Education – Universal literacy is achieved by 2030 for all youth and a substantial proportion of all men and women.
This conference was aimed at supporting and equipping language, literacy and numeracy (LLN) teachers with tools and methods to teach, from the premise of literacy to fulfil the student needs rather than from the need for skills for employability.
Funding bodies over the past 10 years have increasing only been funding programs which restrict LLN learning to those skills which directly relate to workplace situations. They have also focussed on quantitative assessment of each module and the need to be competent in each module after a specific time frame and then moving on. Funding does not allow for repeating courses. Adult literacy is so much more than a tool for economic development. The common thread through all the presentations was that when teaching is related to the need of the student this is when learning has meaning and therefore actually takes place. Connecting with individuals is the key to LLN learning. Achieving literacy and numeracy not only has benefits for the students directly but also for their communities and the broader community as their understanding of issues related to sustainable practices also increases.
My overall impression was that libraries have an important role to play in providing opportunities for one on one literacy and numeracy training, and that there are many models in this space for libraries to use, to work toward offering those with low literacy skills.
Here is the conference program with abstracts for the Keynote speakers.
I will soon complete my overview of the sessions I attended and will add that to the wiki when it is done.
8. Ideas for Seminar using the feedback survey from the 2017 seminar We discussed the possibility of running a half day seminar in 2020 if we can get enough speakers. Suggestions included the sunshine Coast Library that has a well-established literacy tutoring program, Rachel Davis from ACT Libraries and a representative from the STARTTS program. STARTTS is the NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors. STARTTS is a specialist, non-profit organisation that for 30 years has provided culturally relevant psychological treatment and support, and community interventions, to help people and communities heal the scars of torture and refugee trauma and rebuild their lives in Australia. STARTTS also fosters a positive recovery environment through the provision of training to services, advocacy and policy work. After some discussion it was decided to postpone organizing a seminar until we are sure we have enough speakers who can attend.
Rachel gave us a brief outline of the program her library service runs and it was generally agreed that she would be a good guest speaker at a meeting. Because of the distance and expense of travel both Rachel and the Sunshine Coast Library might find it easier to attend future meetings as guests through Bluejeans.
9. Wiki Updating - Resources page needs refreshing bring your lists. The wiki still needs some updating. We need to add links to:
a. Reading Writing Hotline Resource pages https://www.readingwritinghotline.edu.au/resources-for-teachers-and-tutors/
b. 26Ten: https://bit.ly/2PNp8LP a great resource from Tasmania that is a step-by-step guide to helping starting a conversation with those that struggle with reading, writing and maths.
c. Welcome to the Library a resource form City of Melton Library https://www.melton.vic.gov.au/Out-n-About/Libraries-and-learning/Libraries/Research-and-learning/Adult-literacy-resources. The ‘Welcome to the Library’ reader, video and accompanying teacher resource were developed by Djerriwarrh Community & Education Services in partnership with Melton City Council. The project was supported by funding from the State Library of Victoria.
The reader aims to raise awareness of libraries and the services they provide for the community, while the teacher resource offers a range of learning opportunities for both literacy and EAL (English Additional Language) students.
10. Sharing programs and events held in Adult Learner's week Sutherland Library held a few activities for Adult Learner’s Week. Indigenous people were invited in to do genealogy with 26 people attending. Oracle card (fortune teller card) readings were done based around book reading themes (e.g. green books, witches, poetry….) About 20 people participated in the readings which were a fun activity for those involved.
11. State Library representative report There were no major changes to report from the State Library.
12. Other business Dates were set for the 3 meetings for 2020:
Tuesday 10 March – Learning Space in Rhodes
Tuesday 18 August – Sutherland Library
Tuesday 27 October - Garling Room, SLNSW
Next Meeting: Tuesday 10 March,2020 – 2 to 4pm – Learning Space in Rhodes