Annotated Bibliography: Learning Disabilities, Literacy and Technology

We will also be producing an annotated bibliography for the Institute. A draft copy will be included in each participant’s binder, and a final document will be available in September 2001.

Staff introductions

Maureen Hankin joined The Centre as Office Manager this winter. She brings years of experience in the not-for-profit sector, most recently running a large medical clinic at a major Montreal hospital. We welcome her to the team.

Grassroots: Community Writing 2001

The Community Writing workshop that we sponsored this year in collaboration with the Blue Metropolis Literary Festival focused on literacy and homelessness. Betsy Trumpener, author of a well-known study on the subject, opened and closed a session at Blue Met as well as the workshop. Street writers from Toronto, Halifax, Edmonton and Montreal offered singular perspectives about writing on the street. Highlights of the discussion and excerpts from stories and poems read at the sessions will be in a special report in the next issue of Literacy Across the CurrculuMedia Focus.

The Centre for Literacy

News from The Centre
WINTER/SPRING 2001

The first phase of the project is a Background Paper outlining the current state of health literacy initiatives in Canada and outside, and providing the rationale for this study. It contains thumbnail descriptions of related programs and projects across Canada in the literacy and health sectors. A draft of this Paper will be posted on our web site with an invitation to comment and fill in gaps. We would like this work to be as comprehensive as possible, and know that we may have missed some worthy models. Our researcher will write the final draft of the Paper in June incorporating the information and feedback from colleagues. Check our web site by May 7 under Health Centre Project.

Last year, through the generosity of a donor, the NFB, in partnership with The Centre for Literacy, was able to distribute 160 copies of A Mind of Your Own to literacy and learning disabilities organizations across Canada. The donor hoped that this video, that profiles three children who have developed strategies for working around their learning disabilities, would be widely shown to teachers, parents and students. We are in the midst of collecting evaluations from the organizations that received the videos and will post a final report on our web site later this summer. In the meantime, we can tell you where the videos have gone by request.