Another UPP-date
(This picture is a Let's Read plaque that KFL&A Public Health is providing for medical waiting rooms.)







UPP Online

Susan Ramsay and Deb Wood are busy designing the online content for the UPP Online portion of the project.
UPP Online Plan

• 5 hours total course deliver time per week for UPP curriculum online.
• 2 one hour sessions per week using Centra - Deb Wood is designing the content and will instruct this portion.
• 3 hours per week of Moodle learning activities that connect to the content Deb Wood is designing - Susan Ramsay is designing the Moodle learning activities.
  

Susan and Deb have both sent me drafts of the first theme and it is excellent.
The Centra portion will be through Contact North and I'm pretty sure the Moodle portion will be through AlphaPlus.

I'm looking for a developer who will take the work Susan is doing and create the actual Moodle activities. I hope to have that sorted soon. We plan to begin piloting in January.

KL&S / CEFL Website
UPP Curriculum Online
The UPP Curriculum for practitioners on the CEFL website will be redesigned to provide more continuity between the Essential Skills piece and the curriculum thus making it easier to navigate. This work will start in December.

UPP Programs

ALSO and KL&S UPP Programs

Both ALSO Ottawa and KL&S UPP programs are up and running! The pre-assessment PDQs and questionaires have been done at both sites.

UPP Rural Program

Learning Centre for Georgina in Keswick, has signed an MoU and will our site for the UPP Program in an rural setting. It is very exciting to have this part of the project underway. The program in Keswick will focus on young parents who will be working towards upgrading their skills so they can then complete high school and beyond. The project taking place in partnership with a group called "Rose of Sharon" which is providing key childcare support.

UPP Urban Program
We have yet to contract with an urban program to provide UPP. There is one program reviewing the idea of having a program at their site right now. I hope to know soon.

UPP Research
As mentioned above, the PDQs and questionnaires have been done at ALSO and KL&S UPP Programs. LBS students at KL&S have completed the PDQs and questionnaires too. The pre assessment will also take place at the Learning Centre for Georgina.

The control group that is not involved in any parenting program or upgrading program has been very hard to recruit. I had four names on my list but as it turned out these folks were all high school graduates and so are not eligible! It is a very big request (at least 2.5 hours of rather frustrating testing, PDQ) for a very limited number of potential participants.

Some ideas:

• Provide a very large incentive ($100.00) - not sure we can afford that!


• Ask those in the existing UPP group to encourage friends to do it and provide a finder's fee


• Ask any folks who drop out, to come back and do the post test

Do you have any other ideas?

FYI - FREE PDQ Tests

HRSDC has bought 10,000 PDQ tests and will make them available to literacy programs to use for their programs for FREE. PDQs cost between $9.00 and $15.00 each, depending on how many you use. If you want to know more, email me and I'll send you the contact information at HRSDC.

Deb

UPP - Date

Deb Wood congratulates Suping, an UPP student, at KL&S Celebration of Learning in June.

Althought tt was disappointing that no programs came forward to do the UPP curriculum, it has given us the opportunity to try a more direct approach to programs. I contacted a couple of early literacy/family literacy practitioners who work directly with LBS programs in their areas. Both had ideas as to which programs might be interested and contacted them with the additional information about the project I'd sent them. I'd hoped to hear back from the programs, one rural and one urban, about doing the UPP curriculum with parents in their program starting in October. I haven't heard back yet and I'm crossing my fingers that it might be due to holidays and so on. If I don't hear back soon, I'll beat the bushes again! ALSO in Ottawa and KL&S in Kingston are both on board and will start programming in the fall, after a recruitment drive for participants.

I'm meeting with Noriyeh (our research consultant) mid-September to talk about the research pilot - how it went, what seemed to work and what didn't and so on. We'll re-jig as necessary and put the plan in place as programs start up with the curriculum. Both Isobel and Deb Wood, instructors for the UPP curriculum last year, suggested that the students do the PDQ after a couple of weeks of computer orientation so that they feel comfortable with the technology.

Late June I met with UPP facilitators, Isobel Bisby (ALSO) and Deb Wood (KL&S). Both agreed that the curriculum package had lots of "meat" to it and said they hadn't had time to complete all the learning ideas and explore the learning resources with their students. To boost the prose and document reading aspect of the curriulum, it was suggested that the UPP instructors for the project be directed to add reading activities that emerge from the curriculum and best suit the particular student or group needs. I will also create a blog or wiki (haven't decided which) so that instructors can share their experiences and their ideas with each other on a weekly basis.

I hope your summer was good. Get ready - September is here!

Deb

I'm back!

I loved the Pysanka at Vegreville Alberta!

Hi folks,

We got back from our 10,303 kms drive out west and super holiday last Wednesday. We had a wonderful time seeing this fantastic country, taking part in the Centre for Family Literacy's "Cultivating Connections" conference in Edmonton and visiting with friends and family. Now I look forward to the fall plans for the Building Family Literacy and Essential Skills OLES project.

I mentioned in my last blog that by the second week in June I'd posted the call for proposals to provide UPP in an LBS program on our website, that I'd sent it out to Ontario literacy networks to forward to their region's LBS programs and had posted it in the CLO e-bulletin which goes to all community based literacy programs.

The proposals were due July 16. I did not receive one proposal nor did I have any inquiries. At the conference Lorri mentioned that she had forwarded the call to a program in her region that she thought might be interested but I didn't hear from them. What do you think we should do? Our intention was to start the UPP programs in October.

I'm thinking that there may be a few issues:

• The children's program or childcare is not a program that LBS programs normally sustain. For most LBS programs this probably seems like a difficult aspect of this project to take on, especially if they have not made partnerships with childcare programs in the community before this.


• Most Ontario LBS programs focus on essential skills for the workplace and do not see family literacy programming as a fit for their participants.


• Ontario Works recipients do not need to attend school or to look for work until their children have entered the school system and so, are not likely to join an upgrading program so participant recruitment might be seen as a possible difficulty.
  

I met with Isobel and Deb Wood, facilitators of the UPP program at ALSO and KL&S respectively, to talk about the UPP program, how it worked for them and ideas for the future.

I received the final PDQs and questionniares from ALSO and KL&S too. I'll connect with Noriyeh soon to talk with her about the results and the best ways to move forward. Noriyeh was away for June and July.

We (Dave and I) took hundreds of photos! I might add a few to the blog now and again.

For more info about the Pysanka:

http://www.vegreville.com/sub.asp?MainID=55&SubID=106

Hope all is well!

Deb

UPP - Date

This is Shelley, coordinator of the UPP children's program and Jas, our UPP children's program facilitator with two wonderful UPP children!

The Call for Proposals for the UPP Pilot Sites has been posted on the KL&S website http://www.kingstonliteracy.com/ and the CEFL (Centre for Expertise in Family Literacy) http://www.familyliteracyexpertise.org/ website. I sent a notice to LBS programs through the CLO's May E-Bulletin and I sent the posting to Literacy Networks who work within a 500 kilometre radius of KL&S. The due date is noon July 16 2010. If you know about a program that might be interested, please let them know about this opportunity.

By the last week in June all UPP students and the very small LBS control group will have completed the "pilot" pre and post PDQ tests and the questionnaires. I am very interested to see the overall results and to think about how it all worked. I'm curious to find out if the PDQ is a good pre and post test, if the the questionniares give good information and if we are missing any other important elements.

A comment from an UPP instructor has got me thinking that it might be good to include a way to evaluate the "soft skills" that UPP participants are learning in their groups. All instructors have commented positively on the growth in self-esteem and confidence that their students have shown during the UPP program. And, these too are essential skills.
Deb

The 3 D's

The past few weeks we've been figuring out the process for the Design, Development and Delivery of the UPP on-line training modules. The 3 D's were new to us. It took a little while to get our heads around them. Design and development sound like the same thing but actually they are completely different. Design involves module content, activities and evaluation ideas. Development is the technical side where the activities are formatted into working items that students can complete on-line. Development includes creating the on-line Moodle activities and surveys, flash animations and so on. The first few times, Delivery to students is usually done by the Designer, just to make sure everything works the way they designed it to work.

Thanks to a KL&S board member, who coordinates ACE on-line at St. Lawrence College, we now have a good understanding of what needs to be done. I'll spend some time deciding on a framework that will be applied to each module. We will hire contract curriculum designers, who will most probably teachers who have already used the UPP curriuculm in a class. And we will get advise on who to hire to do the development part. The delivery will start in October.

A Little Hiccup

The "UPP Curriculum Pilot" call for proposals for Ontario LBS programs who are interesting in piloting the UPP curriculum, will be posted soon.

We had a little hiccup getting the call for proposals ready. Anne, Carynne and I will review "the call" tomorrow and then have it proofed. I'll send it to the Advisory Committee for review early next week. I expect the call to be posted on the KL&S and the Centre for Expertise in Family Literacy websites mid next week. The due date for proposals will be June 25.

The Project Steams Ahead!

Call for Proposals

Kathy, Anne and I met on Monday to discuss the content for call for proposals. Kathy will write up a draft call and send it to me early next week and I’ll send it to the advisory committee for comment. It will be posted on May 17, so if you know a program that might be interested please let them know.

To give programs a “heads up” about the project, we are sending a short notice about the call to CLO so it can be posted in their next monthly e-bulletin. The project does not have the funding to travel to far reaching places or for program staff to come to Kingston. Hence we need to limit the geographic range for programs within a 500 kilometre radius of Kingston. We’ll also send the notice to networks within that range.

There is funding to provide instructor support (about 3 hours per week) for three rural programs. This will be our way to provide service to more rural locations.

Online Course Designer

On Friday, April 23 we are interviewing three candidates for the Online Course Designer position. We had a number of applicants, but not many who have the background we are looking for. Let’s hope one of the candidates we interview is “the one”!

Facilitator’s Manual

I’m working on the Facilitator’s Manual. Lesley Hamilton is reviewing the themes with an essential skills lens. This is very helpful for me because I don’t have much experience with essential skills and I want to make sure it’s correct and worthwhile for instructors.

Reminder about Quarterly Reports

I’ll be sending the quarterly report forms out to those who have “in-kind” arrangements with KL+S for this project towards the end of next week. They’ll need to be returned by May 15.

Deb

Outreach information

Dear All
I am adding a list of all the outreach that I carried out for the UPP program.

Outreach for UPP
Began to connect with community organizations week beginning 22nd February

Better Beginnings:
Visited Parent and Toddler group, Teen Moms group
Left fliers and talked to staff about promoting the program to their clients

Rideau Heights PS:
Sent fliers home with all JK and SK children
Posted fliers on notice boards
Included fliers in school readiness RAPP packs

J.G.Simcoe PS:
Talked to all school readiness parents and sent fliers home with the RAPP packs
Posted fliers on notice boards

Frontenac PS:
Talked to the principal at the CRNC meeting and gave flier for sending out to parents

Wally Elmer Community Hub:
Posted fliers, left fliers on the table
Information posted on the Wally TV screen

NK Community Health Centre:
Spoke to staff and left fliers for distribution
Kingston Community Credit Union:
Spoke to staff and got permission to leave fliers and information at the bank for two weeks

Pathways:
Talked to staff and left fliers for distribution to clients

No Frills, Division Street:
Made a new display board advertising the program.Took fliers, bought candy and talked about UPP to many shoppers entering the store on Saturday 6th March

Canadian Tire:
Gave out fliers- Saturday 6th March
Native Friendship Centre:
Talked to staff and arranged to attend the lunch on Monday 22nd March

Food Bank:
left fliers having talked with staff 16th March

Compton and Daly Street:
Delivered fliers to each household and talked one to one with people we encountered 16th March

Correctional Services:
Talked to staff and gave out fliers

Kingston & Frontenac Housing Corporation 17th March:
Gave out fliers which staff agreed to post in the various apartment buildings

Elizabeth Fry Society:
Sent flier electronically

Native Friendship Centre:
Lunch on 22nd March talked about the program to participants

Outside Rideau Heights/ Wally Elmer:
Made bright poster advertising the program and placed balloons on the doors offering coffee to any on dropped in to find out about the program from 8:00 to 9:00 am on Monday 22nd ,Tuesday 23rd and Thursday 25th March while parents were taking children to school.
Left poster outside the Wally Elmer all morning on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and will do for following two weeks

CRNC:
A group of agencies who serve north Kingston.
Attended the 23rd March meeting and passed out information and fliers about the program
Made a button advertising the program and inviting people to ask about UPP which I wore when I was in the area

Reach Out!:
The parenting workshop booklet.
Advertized the program in this booklet which is also available online

Car:
Placed fliers in car

Update March 22

The Building Family Literacy and Essential Skills Advisory Committee met on March 10, 2010.

Ideas generated by the committee:

• Keep connected with Project Read (through Lorri) so as to not duplicate curriculum ideas between the two projects,
• Write an UPP facilitator’s manual,
• Make sure the participatory approach is a key element for facilitators to include in program development
• Examine and build up the Essential Skills components of the curriculum where necessary
• Set up a theme format so levelled Essential Skills activities are easy to use/find (e.g., like an SRA box).

I’ve started writing the Facilitators’ Manual and hope to have a rough draft (very rough) by the end of this week. I’m thinking about the Essential Skills activities idea. I need to figure out an easy way to do this!

Anne and her team (Shelley and Deb) have been doing lots of outreach in North Kingston. It is hoped that this will encourage parents to join the UPP program at the Wally Elmer Community Centre. We have three definite participants and a few more who have said they are interested. We are hoping for a vibrant group.

In a couple of weeks we will approach a few of these UPP participants as well as some LBS students from our North Kingston site to do PDQ and the parent questionnaires. We know how difficult testing situations can be for students. We want to learn more about how to design the testing process so it is the most positive experience for students. We hope that by doing a few tests now, we will see where the difficulties lie in terms of the way we present it and do it, on the testing day. We will change our approach if necessary for our fall groups.

I’ve had a couple of requests for the link to the PDQ. Here is a link to use. From here you can take a mini test (very mini) to get an idea of what it’s like. You may need to temporarily allow pop-ups. I need to do that each time. When you are on the page, scroll to the bottom and to “start the demo of some sample items”.

http://www.ets.org/portal/site/ets/menuitem.1488512ecfd5b8849a77b13bc3921509/?vgnextoid=f509af5e44df4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD&vgnextchannel=0992e3b5f64f4010VgnVCM10000022f95190RCRD

If this link doesn’t work for you, Google ETS Testing and choose the American ETS link. The Canadian site sells only ESL testing. When on the ETS site, go to tests (tab at the top) > ETS Literacy >Test Preparation.

We re-posted the On-line Course Developer position on the HRSDC Job Bank and Kijiji. We have had many responses from the Job Bank and one from Kijiji. Fortunately one applicant in this grouping definitely has (on paper) what I’m looking for. That makes at least two because there is one from our original call who what looks like the right background.

The annual exercise of “year-end” book keeping is in full swing at KL&S. Please, save our trusty book keepers from pulling out their hair -- send your remittance forms for the Advisory Committee meeting to KL&S if you have not done so already.

Cheers,
Deb

Family Literacy and Essential Skills Update March 3

Next week will be busy for Building Family Literacy and Essential Skills (BFL&ES).

1. The first face to face Advisory Committee meeting will take place on Tuesday evening and Wednesday.
2. Some ALSO - Ottawa participants will be pre-tested using the PDQ online test and the two questionniares that have been developed by our researcher, Noriyeh Rahbari.
3. ALSO - Ottawa will begin using the UPP curriculum in their program.
4. Anne Jackson will begin outreach in North Kingston to recruit UPP participants for our program in that area.
5. Job ads have been placed for an Online Course Developer and we are hoping many good applications will arrive at our main office (Community Learning Centre Kingston) by March 12.

A few of the details that needed attention to get this far are:

1. Finding a researcher and setting up the contract for that work.
2. Setting up the contract with ALSO.
3. Setting up the Advisory Committee for the project.
4. Organizing the Centra meeting and the face to face meeting.
5. Setting up the in-kind reporting mechanism.
6. Deciding on the pre and post test format (PDQ) and purchasing the tests.
7. Figuring out our best schedule for UPP delivery and testing.
8. Beginning arrangements with potential control groups (LBS and "no-program" groups).
9. Reporting to OLES -- we have remained in good contact with our OLES reps.
10. Learning how to create a blog!!

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to add to the blog. It will be a pleasure to see you next week.

I've made dinner reservations for 6:00 pm on Tuesday at a restaurant called Olivea. It is a couple of blocks from the Holiday Inn. We will have lunch at CLCK on Wednesday. I'll send an email with this information later this week.

Deb

First Blog

Hi folks,
I've set up this blog as a communication tool for the Building Family Literacy and Essential Skills Kingston Literacy and Skills and OLES project. I plan to post an update about the project every two weeks.
Best regards,
Deb