Manitoba Reads 2008 , a calendar for literacy, will be launched at 8:00pm in the Prairie Ink Restaurant at McNally Robinson Booksellers, Grant Park ( 1120 Grant Avenue ). Join Lorri Apps, Executive Director of Literacy Partners of Manitoba, and special guests from the calendar in celebrating our commitment to raising literacy levels in the province.

The calendar makes a great gift. Call us at 947-5757 to purchase your copy today!

Literacy Partners of Manitoba is pleased to offer Plain Language Training in February 2008. Please secure your spot by December 14, 2007. Questions? Contact Rob Sarginson at (204) 954-3856 or rsarginson@mb.literacy.ca.

Studies have shown that literacy learners are tremendously disadvantaged in the health system. Our goal is to get Going to the Doctor - a readable resource that helps learners navigate the health system and advocate on their own behalf - into the hands of learners across Manitoba .

Going to the Doctor was adapted from a Yukon Learn publication and “Manitobanized” by LPM. It fits well into Stages or into CLB criteria as a plain language reader. An instructor’s guide created by Joan Mollins and Chris McInnis is included.

As an early Christmas present, a classroom set of our Going to the Doctor classroom readers to programs in rural areas. LPM has mailed classroom sets to each provincial literacy program. We hope that practitioners will use this authentic and useful little book with their classes to inspire discussion and solutions.

More copies of each are available at no cost. Feel free to pass them on to other interested individuals or groups. You can also order other sets.

If you represent a program not on our mailing list, please email communications@mb.literacy.ca.

At an event on November 5, 2007 , Gail Fishman had an opportunity to publicly thank Zella Vermeulen for her years of dedication and service to the Stevenson-Britannia Learning Centre.

Along with being an advocate for literacy, Zella also worked as a literacy volunteer who helped adult learners further their goals. Zella served as a board member and chair person, contributing her clear vision to supporting the successful development of the program. Her legacy for the Stevenson-Britannia Learning Centre is one of a commitment to best practices and a clear, considered and respectful approach.

The Lieutenant Governor’s Medal for Literacy recognizes achievement in literacy by honouring literacy practitioners, volunteers, instructors, teachers, researchers, projects and programs that reflect excellence in the field of literacy.

Applications are currently being accepted in two categories: Leaders in Literacy Education and Partnership for Literacy. The Honourable John Harvard, the present Lieutenant Governor, established the Partnership for Literacy Medal in 2007 to recognize the impact partnerships have on literacy. This award will be presented for the first time in 2008.

Monika Feist and Jan Graham at the LPM display in Brandon on November 8 and 9.

Jan Graham and Monika Feist attended the Manitoba Public Libraries Conference in Brandon on November 8 and 9 as exhibitors at the tradeshow and conference participants. Here is Jan’s report:  

"Igniting Innovation" was the name of the conference. Remarks by the first keynote speaker, Robert J. Sawyer - a futuristic and science fiction writer - ignited a great deal of debate. He told a room full of librarians that books were going to become obsolete.This sparked spontaneous debate at our table and most other tables, prompting comments such as, "Can you imagine cuddling up with an e-book to share with your grandchildren?"

Sawyer predicts libraries will become the archives for bound books and will begin to shift their focus to assisting patrons in research and in finding suitable e-books in the vast array of possible choices.  

We attended the presentation by Linda Lalonde, Executive Director of the International Centre of Winnipeg. Linda had us look at the changing cultural landscape of Manitoba and pointed out the need for fast, accurate settlement services. Linda told us that immigration (immigrants 86% - refugees 14%) is integral to Manitoba's population growth. In 2006, 11,500 immigrants arrived in Manitoba. By 2011, immigration will account for 100% of Manitoba net growth. The Canadian born workforce is shrinking and the demand for labour is growing.

As exhibitors, Monika and I made contact with 38 rural libraries that agreed to put up our poster advertising the LEARN Line. This was an invaluable connection. Libraries are a mainstay of the literacy movement and many are Literacy Partners. We hope that many additional libraries will soon become members.

We’re pleased to include a link to the Adult Secondary Education Council’s new publication Journal for Adult Education in Manitoba. An added feature is an introduction by Dawn Romanowski to her paper Literacy – Expanding the Definition to Create A New Kind of Adult Literacy Classroom:

If literacy is indeed found in interaction, interaction among students is essential to effective literacy teaching. In this narrative account I focus on the implementation of New Literacy Studies, Critical Literacy and Socio-Cultural Historical Theory into a small adult literacy classroom consisting of students working at about level one, who had previously been relegated to individual work in the classroom. Through field trips, hands on activities and meaningful, purposeful engagement in social action, the students were brought together and out into the community where they gained awareness of their own strengths, and of the effect that they could have on their world. Too often students working at this level become career students, never realizing their full potential. Literacy is more than paper, pens and comprehension questions. It is found in interaction, in communication; it is taking part in daily life. Through expanding our student’s notions of literacy, we can help them to become actively literate, expanding their self esteem and, ultimately, their influence on the world.

Contact Point (www.contactpoint.ca) is a practitioner-driven website dedicated to providing practitioners in career counselling and related fields with resources and information to support them in their work, research, and professional development.

The Canadian Education Association is proud to release its Public Education in Canada: Facts, Trends and Attitudes report, which contains the results of our Public Attitudes Toward Education survey. 

And a couple of website to peruse about technology and literacy: http://alri.org/harness.html and http://www.altn.org/techtraining/.

To read an article from the Sacramento Bee about a Family Literacy Project that provides home computers and digital connection for immigrant families, please click here.

Helen Osborne, M.Ed., OTR/L was interviewed on a NPR/affiliate radio show. To listen to her hour-long interview on health literacy, please visit http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wamc/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1182746&sectionID=851 and click on mp3.

If you haven’t already updated your address books, please note the following correct email addresses for LPM staff: