Welcome

Tell-a-Story Event

Culture and Sport Glasgow’s North Area Services Team recently held an Adult Learning event in Maryhill Library, to celebrate learner achievements throughout the year. The event was for learners who participate in creative writing and family learning. During the event, learners took part in two writing workshops where they produced an individual piece of writing about their schooldays or wrote a ‘spooky’ Halloween story within groups. The morning session ended with the learners sharing their work with the wider group.

BBC My Story competition update - deadline extended!

The BBC My Story deadline for entries has now been extended to midnight on 6 January 2010 which gives everyone a little more time to finish off their stories over Christmas and still be in with a chance of winning a fantastic prize! Since it launched on The One Show, people across the UK have been sending in their stories to the BBC My Story competition. There have been lots of inspirational and remarkable stories submitted so far.

 

 

You can read the stories on the BBC My Story website – check out the Glasgow section and read about times and places you maybe recognise.

 

Gaelic activity in Glasgow

An assessment has recently been introduced for the 'Introduction to Gaelic' course with some thirty new learners being tested on their learning before they move up to the intermediate level.

 

 

Gaelic classes and taster events will be held in Pollok, Springburn and Easterhouse in the New Year to take Gaelic out across the city as part of SCSG's Gaelic Plan. More details will be available on the Glasgow’s Learning website as soon as they are available.

 

A Duke of Edinburgh award has been started for a group for S3 pupils at Sgoil Ghàidhlig Ghlaschu, many of whom volunteer as helpers at Sradagan, Fèis Ghlaschu and the annual Family Learning Week.

 

Attendance has been good at all classes and at Sradagan - our children's club - and Bhhuideann Disathairne - our family learning group. Sradagan is a good example of co-operative work involving CSG, Comunn na Gàidhlig - the national body for Gaelic development - the Gaelic school and parents.

 

 

Volunteer tutor training

Culture and Sport Glasgow’s Community Learning teams have used the services of volunteers in our Adult Literacies bases for many years. They provide valuable support for learners, either as one-to-one tutors or tutor assistants in a group situation. Their volunteers do a crucial job in helping adults, not just with reading, writing and numbers but with their general confidence and they are often the first step for people getting back to learning.

 

All Community Learning literacies tutors undertake an introductory training course before being placed in a base, where they have the support from permanent tutors and Community Learning Workers, including access to resources. The next course starts in January 2010 and will cover the following subjects:

 

• Exploring the context of literacies learning in Scotland and Glasgow

• The social practice model and adult learning

• Techniques for tutoring reading, writing, spelling, numbers

• Useful resources

• Taking the learning forward.

 

The course is a good starting point for people thinking about working in adult literacies, as well as for people wanting to give some of their time and skills to help others.

 

The 8-week course will run on Saturday mornings, starting on 16 January 2010 from 9.30am until 11.30am in Petershill Business Centre, Springburn. For more information, contact Jane Logue on 0141 276 0920, email jane.logue@csglasgow.org.

 

Adult Literacy and Numeracy at Glasgow YWCA  

Glasgow YWCA offers several classes to support women to help improve their confidence with reading, writing and numbers. All classes are free and they also provide a free crèche facility.

• Feeding your Baby, a 5-week integrated literacies course to help mothers with young children wean their children through the sharing of recipes, budgeting, understanding food labels, preparing healthy food etc. The course will also buddy up pregnant women with women who already have young children.

Deaf Connections: Manipulative Visual Language Pilot Study  

Manipulative Visual Language (MVL) is a tactile and visual teaching system. It employs a series of two and three dimensional coloured shapes to represent grammatical concepts. It builds and expands upon an established method first used in Montessori schools. It has been used successfully with Deaf children in the USA and Canada and has been shown to drastically improve the English skills of Deaf children by providing them with a frame of reference in which to contextualize grammatical concepts and structures.

 

In 2009, Deaf Connections arranged a pilot study of MVL with a small group of Deaf adults in Glasgow. This study was researched, undertaken and reported on by staff from Deaf Connections’ Adult Learning Project. The Deaf Connections pilot study was the first of its kind to be undertaken with Deaf adults and people whose first language is British Sign Language (BSL).

Two staff members from the Adult Learning Project attended a workshop delivered by the developers of MVL to explore how to teach literacy skills using the MVL system. The pilot study then took place over a period of 3 months from January – March 09.

 

Each learner was assessed at the start and at the end of the pilot study. Both the quantitative and qualitative results show a significant improvement in literacy levels for all participants at the end of the pilot.

 

Deaf Connections intends to implement it as a teaching strategy with its learners but would also recommend MVL to other learner groups such as ESOL learners.

 

To read the full report on the pilot study visit Deaf Connections website or you can request a copy of the report via email from enquiries@deafconnections.co.uk.

 

Gatehouse Books 

Gatehouse Books are delighted to introduce their new On The Job series of vocationally-based readers and tutor resources to support learners aged 14+ into work, into training and in their personal development.

 

In the first book in the series James, a successful young car mechanic tells us about his training, career path, day-to-day job and his ambitions for the future.

 

To support this publication, they also have tutor resources available as an eBook on CD-Rom, providing embedded literacy and numeracy activities linked to the vocational interests and the functional skills needs of the student.

 

Gatehouse is a specialist publisher of beginner readers and tutor resources for use in post-14 & adult education.

 

 

 

 

Best wishes for Christmas and the New Year from everyone at Glasgow’s Learning!

 

Storytelling and Reminiscence Programme

January - March 2010

Life Story Class

Reminiscence Workshops

Storytelling Cafe

Photography and Storytelling Project