RAPP: Reading and Parents Program: the multicultural collection developed by the Family Literacy Centre of Kingston Literacy & Skills; Anne Jackson, Jenna Willoughby, eds. (2011)

The Reading and Parents Program (RAPP) pack was developed to encourage family reading and help parents support their children’s emergent literacy skills development. This resource, the sixth in the RAPP series of manuals, presents instructions for producing and using RAPP packs, and specific material for producing RAPP packs for parents whose first language is not English (although the material is suitable for all parents). The manual includes reading and language hints, a craft idea, a selection of poetry based on a book’s theme, and children’s fine motor activities for each of 12 titles.

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Today’s featured resource is:

Workbase.

This New Zealand-based organization has a wealth of information available on adult literacy, numeracy, and its effects in a workplace context. They specialize in providing training within the workplace to help adults with literacy difficulties. They also have a YouTube channel with videos on health and safety and literacy in the workplace.

This video features the impact of Workbase’s literacy training on health and safety, productivity, and employee absenteeism at a timber processing site.

A short course in teaching reading: practical techniques for building reading power. 2nd ed.
Beatrice S. Mikulecky. White Plains, NY: Pearson Longman, 2011.

This book begins with an overview of the theory and practice of teaching reading, with special emphasis on meeting the needs of students with limited English proficiency. The second section focuses on individualizing student extensive reading for pleasure. And, the final and largest section explains an approach to teaching reading comprehension. Reading exercises that enable students to strategically apply reading skills are included. The principles apply to teenage through adult learners who already have basic decoding abilities.

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Assessing student learning: a common sense guide. 2nd ed. by Linda Suskie (2009).
This resource is “designed to summarize current thinking on the practice of assessment in a comprehensive, accessible, and useful fashion for those without formal experience in assessing student learning. Short on background and theory and long on practical advice, this is a plain-spoken, informally written book designed to provide sensible guidance on virtually all aspects of assessment …” xxiii.

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What is Clear Language and Design?

Clear Language and Design is a way of writing and laying out documents that puts the reader first. Clear Language and Design considers all elements of a document from word choice and punctuation to the physical size of the words on the page.

The goal of Clear Language and Design is to make sure the reader can easily find, understand and use the information in a document. For example, Clear Language and Design asks:

• Does the reading level of the document make sense for the audience?
• Are unfamiliar or technical terms clearly explained?
• Are the key points easy to spot?
• Does the design of the document, including font, spacing, layout and use of colour, make it easy to read?

These, and many other questions and principles, create clear, useful documents that effectively communicate the writer’s message to the reader.

Decoda’s Work with the Ministry of Justice

The Ministry of Justice creates program materials for inmates of correctional centres and individuals bound by community supervision orders, as well as facilitator materials for the corrections staff who deliver these courses.

Statistically, individuals who experience conflict with the law are likely to have low literacy levels. According to policeabc.ca:

• Offenders are three times as likely as the rest of the population to have literacy problems.
• 79 of 100 people entering Canadian correctional facilities don’t have their high school diploma
• 65 of 100 people entering correctional facilities have less than a Grade 8 education or level of literacy skills.

Materials meant to reach these individuals must be at their reading level; otherwise, the educational and life-skills programs designed for them will not be as effective as they could be. More urgently, if instructions and signs are too hard for them to understand, they may not follow directions, potentially leading to a disciplinary situation.

In order to ensure that the Ministry of Justice’s materials are as effective as possible, Decoda revised several existing documents and also created new materials.

Throughout this project, Decoda and the Ministry of Justice are seeking new ways to engage people with low literacy. For example, using a collaborative approach, Decoda worked with a team of probation officers to revise and create documents, including a literacy toolkit. The toolkit helps probation officers understand low literacy, identify those who struggle with literacy, and communicate effectively with people who have low literacy levels.

The project will be completed in September 2012.

Wash With Care.

Pesticide sprays are in common use on farms, and workers’ clothes can end up covered with the chemicals. SFU worked with members of the BC farming community to develop the Wash With Care project – public service announcements regarding the safe handling of clothes that have been worn where pesticides are used. The website details the project and the people involved. The first videos they created evoke the style of Bollywood to convey information to farm workers, and are presented in Punjabi.

You can view the initial PSA here: PSA video. There is also a video which details proper washing instructions here: washing instructions. You can find PDF versions of the instructions here: available in Punjabi and English.

If you’ve got a few extra minutes, enjoy the extended dance mix version of the PSA.

WorkSafe BC YouTube channel.

WorkSafe BC maintains a YouTube channel where they post videos relating to health and safety in the workplace. Videos are on such topics as ladder safety (series of 5), the role of nurse advisors on the job, starting a conversation with employees who may be experiencing domestic violence, and many others. Some videos are also offered in languages others than English, such as the video on pesticide storage (available in Spanish and Punjabi).

They also have videos detailing anecdotes of unsafe behaviour at work, such as this one on an excavation site:

Common Ground : English in the workplace, by Douglas Parsons and Paul Holmes (2010).

The training manual for Common Ground presents a ten module curriculum that is designed to help workers from outside Canada understand Canadian workplace safety policy, practice pronunciation clarity, learn about working in multicultural organizations, and expand industry-specific and idiomatic vocabulary. Each module contains suggested activities and handouts. The facilitator’s manual contains advice to English in the Workplace facilitators – both new and experienced, including working with ESL learners, lesson planning, and adapting coursework to individual needs. This resource combines the training manual and facilitator’s manual. The manuals are available as PDFs here: training manual; facilitator’s manual.

Being Safe at Work: Workplace Health & Safety Guidebook in Plain Language, by Literacy Partners of Manitoba (LPM) and SAFE Work Manitoba (2011).

Directed at Manitoba residents, but with information that’s relevant to anyone interested in workplace health and safety, this is a plain language introduction to issues in OH&S. Topics include maintaining a safe workplace, the role of discrimination and harassment in creating an unsafe work environment, and suggestions for avoiding injury. Available as a PDF here: Being Safe at Work.

Farmworker Health and Safety: Challenges for British Columbia, by Gerardo Otero and Kerry Preibisch (2010).

Farm labourers in British Columbia face a number of workplace health and safety challenges. Some of the barriers they face which can make complying with OH&S standards include low literacy and difficulties with English. This report highlights the difficulties workers can face on BC farms, and offers suggestions on addressing these issues. Available as a PDF here: Farmworker Health and Safety.

All signs point to yes: literacy’s impact on workplace health and safety, by Alison Campbell (2008).

A literature review on the connection between employee literacy skills and workplace health and safety records. The preliminary stage of a larger research project. Available as a PDF here.

What you don’t know can hurt you: literacy’s impact on workplace health and safety, by Alison Campbell (2010).

The follow-up to All signs point to yes. This report summarizes the results of a two-year research project that examined the impact of literacy skills on health and safety in the workplace. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected and analyzed through a literature review, a  national survey, stakeholder interviews, and case studies. The findings aim to demonstrate—in cost-benefit terms—the connections between literacy skills and workplace health and safety. Available as a PDF here.

According to the survey, 76 per cent of respondents identified literacy as a major issue among Canada’s workforce, with a quarter indicating that a “significant” proportion of his or her employees have low levels of literacy.

Communications problems were identified by executives as the biggest result of poor literacy and essential skills among workers.

Increased friction in the workplace, loss of clients and a decrease in profits were also cited as concerns.
Yet, when asked what actions were being taken to address the situation, 42 per cent of respondents said nothing was in place.

Only nine per cent of executives said his or her company runs its own literacy and essential skills program.

Read more: Inadequate literacy skills plague Canadian workplaces

Useful links for more information

Find the complete report, ABC Literacy Workplace Literacy Study, here.

Find more information from ABC Life Literacy Canada about Workplace Literacy and Essential Skills

Visit the Decoda Literacy Library for research, resources and help from our skilled librarians, as well as materials lists on essential skills and workplace literacy.

To learn more about Decoda’s work, please browse this website or contact us.