Literacy Facts & Resources
| What is Literacy? | Why Literacy and Essential Skills? | Literacy Levels across Canada and in the Yukon |
| Literacy Facts from the CLLN | What are the territorial, national and international events that celebrate literacy? |
| How does literacy affect health? | What is family literacy? - What can I do as a parent? | Literacy Resources |
What is Literacy?
International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS)
According to the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS), literacy is defined as “…the ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities, at home, at work and in the community — to achieve one's goals, and to develop one's knowledge and potential.” This definition is found at:
http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/cs/sp/hrsd/prc/publications/research/2001-002538/page06.shtml
Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (CLLN)
CLLN has adopted the definition of literacy put forward by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO):
“Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society.” UNESCO
Yukon Government
In the 2001 Literacy Strategy, the Yukon Government states that:
“Literacy is a person’s ability to understand and use information and basic technology in daily activities at home, school, work and in the community in an attempt to reach personal goals and develop individual potential.” You can find this definition at:
http://www.education.gov.yk.ca/advanceded/pdf/yukon_literacy_strategy.pdf
First Nation perspective on literacy
Aboriginal concepts of literacy are holistic, rooted in culture, involving the spirit, heart, mind and body.
Why Literacy and Essential Skills?
The Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (CLLN) gives a great explanation for linking literacy and essential skills:
“Increasingly, you will often hear the term “Essential Skills”. Essential skills are the foundational skills required to learn all other skills. Everyone needs literacy and essential skills to be able to function effectively at work, at home and in the community. Essential skills are adaptable to all situations. Essential skills help people to be more productive and to more easily learn new tasks.”
http://www.literacy.ca/?q=literacy/literacyinformation#fact
There are nine essential skills:
- Reading Text
- Working with Others
- Continuous Learning
- Thinking Skills, which include:
- Problem Solving
- Decision Making
- Critical Thinking
- Job/Life Task Planning & Organizing
- Significant Use of Memory
- Finding Information
- Computer Use
- Document Use
- Numeracy
Writing- Oral Communication
These skills are connected with each other. For example, working on the computer means you are also probably working on reading text, finding information, writing, and oral communication when you say “help! this darn thing stopped working!”
Literacy Levels across Canada and in the Yukon
“Literacy, numeracy and problem solving are essential to function in today’s world … they are strongly associated with individual outcomes and enable people to participate in their communities, make wise consumer decisions, and construct social networks”. This quote is from page 11 of the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS) 2003, available at www.statcan.ca.
According to this important survey, 48% of adults over 16 years of age – 12,000,000 Canadians – perform below Level 3 on 2 important scales: prose and document literacy.
This means that almost half of Canadian adults “are likely to face real challenges coping with the emerging skill demands of a knowledge-based economy” (p.35). In practical terms, this means that almost every other adult faces challenges understanding print in editorials, instruction manuals, job applications, bus schedules, and food labels.
In the Yukon, our literacy, numeracy, and problem solving scores among adults “are significantly higher than the national average” (p. 108). Higher proficiency scores for 46-55 year olds (30 points higher than Canadian average) helps explain the high scoring of the Yukon (p. 39).
We are keen to address the literacy needs of the 33% of our Yukon population who have prose literacy scores at Levels 1 and 2 (p. 109). At these levels, people have difficulty reading and have few basic skills or strategies for decoding and working with text.
The social and economic implications of low literacy are phenomenal.
- Over half of unemployed Canadians have document literacy scores below Level 3 (p. 73). In the territories and Quebec, “around 70 percent of the unemployed have less than Level 3 literacy” (p. 75).
- About 50% of Canadians with Level 1 prose literacy take part in community activities. Involvement in the community increases as literacy levels rise (p. 96).
Literacy is the foundation for a healthy community and a necessity in developing a strong workforce.
Literacy Facts from the Canadian Literacy and Learning Network (CLLN)
Check out CLLN’s website for some wonderful information about literacy and essential skills. We particularly like their Fact Sheets, which can be found at http://www.literacy.ca/?q=literacy/literacyinformation#fact
What are the territorial, national and international events that celebrate literacy?
To find out the dates - click on Celebrating Literacy
How does literacy affect health?
See Health Literacy
What is family literacy? What can I do as a parent?
To learn more - click on Family Literacy
Literacy Resources
Check out the following links for some terrific book titles, activities, and ideas too many to mention!!!
- A variety of resources from the Northwest Territories Literacy Council:
- Resource Page (Book resources)
www.nwt.literacy.ca/nwtliteracyresources/index.html - Family Literacy Resources
www.nwt.literacy.ca/famlit.htm - Adult Literacy Resources
www.nwt.literacy.ca/adultlit.htm
- Resource Page (Book resources)
- A variety of resources from the Nunavut Literacy Council
www.nunavutliteracy.ca/english/resource/resource.htm - A variety of resources from the National Adult Literacy Database
http://library.nald.ca/
