The Write Offs: Eight Adults Take A Crash Course In Literacy ▬ iNews

The Write Offs: What Happened When Eight Adults Who Struggled With Reading & Writing Took A Crash Course In Literacy

iNews: 9.18.2020 by Rachael Pells

One of the most embarrassing moments of Tommy Dawkins’ life happened as he arrived at US immigration in Florida ahead of a family holiday. “We were given the arrival forms to fill in on the plane and my wife was helping me,” he recalls. “But when I got to the desk at the airport they said, ‘You’ve done it wrong – go and stand over there and fill it in properly’.  

“I was with my kids and my grandchildren and I felt humiliated. It took me right back to my schooldays, having to stand in the corner like a naughty child.”

At 66, Dawkins is one of the estimated 8.5 million adults in the UK who struggle with basic reading and writing skills. This makes seemingly straightforward tasks such as writing down an address or reading instructions a huge and stressful ordeal.

The shame of adult illiteracy

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Since then, Dawkins has become heavily involved with public speaking on the subject of adult illiteracy, even earning an MBE in the process. He is also one of eight volunteers to appear in the Channel 4 documentary The Write Offs, which starts tomorrow.

Making The Write Offs

The two-part series, presented by Sandi Toksvig, follows a group of participants aged 22 to 66 as they are given a crash course in basic literacy skills and challenged to take part in some daunting everyday tasks, such as following directions in an unknown town, grocery shopping or following a recipe. In doing so, they highlight how impenetrable the world must feel to those who can’t interpret it.  READ MORE ➤➤

Episode 1  Tue 22 Sep, 9.30pm  Channel 4

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 10

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 14-15 yrs. old

(Ninth to Tenth graders)

 

 

Ken Burns Classroom Launches on PBS LearningMedia

Ken Burns Classroom Launches on PBS LearningMedia

PBS: 11.19.2019

Today, PBS announced the launch of Ken Burns Classroom on PBS LearningMedia – a one-stop online destination for free teaching and learning resources inspired by Ken Burns’s renowned documentaries. Created for 6-12th grade educators, the new hub houses a full library of classroom-ready content – aligned to state and national standards – to help students further explore the complex historical events and issues illustrated in Ken Burns’s films.

Ken Burns and his collaborators have been creating historical documentaries for more than forty years. During this time, his signature style has brought documents, images and video footage to life for viewers around the globe. These films, and the supplementary learning content on Ken Burns Classroom, encourage students to ask thought-provoking questions while introducing new ideas and perspectives. 

“It’s wonderful to see how educators across the country are using our films in their classrooms. By presenting them alongside interactive tools and lesson plans, PBS LearningMedia is helping students better understand the connection between historical events and the present,” said Ken Burns. “Through these resources, my hope is that we can further interest young people in the power of history and help them better understand the complexity of issues we face today, including the connection to the past and their relevance to the future.”

Ken Burns Classroom features hundreds of video clips, lesson plans, activity suggestions, discussion questions, handouts, and interactives to help educators integrate the films into their classroom instruction.  READ MORE >>

This Is Wiltshire

One in six adults struggle

Story & Pictures By: The Documentary You’ve Been Waiting For via SLJ

@CCBCwisc

Story & Pictures By: The Documentary You’ve Been Waiting For

SLJ: 11.03.2019 by Elizabeth Bird

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A new Golden Age of children’s literature is here. And it matters.

Emmy®-nominated Director Joanna Rudnick follows three contemporary children’s book authors and sheds a light on the artistry and industry in Story & Pictures By. (Watch O2:02)

“The stories that we read [children] are forming their worldview. They are the building blocks to how they make sense of the world and how they understand themselves. And the more diverse and expansive those stories are, the more diverse and expansive that worldview is going to be.” – Joanna Rudnick, Director

Director Joanna Rudnick is familiar with taking inspiration from her life and turning it into cinema. Her first film In the Family (PBS 2008) was a deeply personal exploration of living with an inherited risk of breast and ovarian cancer. Having survived breast cancer in her late 30s, coinciding with the birth of her two daughters, she threw herself into raising them and found that one of the most intimate experiences she had was reading children’s picture books at bedtime. This sparked a curiosity about the creators, history, and power of this often overlooked and underappreciated art form and became fodder for her current feature length film in production, Story & Pictures By.

The film explores the power of children’s picture books through the lens of three contemporary authors/illustrators: Mac Barnett, Christian Robinson, and Yuyi Morales. Together, they represent a new generation of storytellers who are working to challenge, transform, and expand the stories and experiences portrayed in children’s literature, marking a new Golden Age in the art form. From experimenting with gender identity to children visiting parents in prison—all creators, protagonists, and experiences are welcomed behind and in the pages of picture books.

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According to statistics from the Cooperative Children’s Book Center (CCBC), in the past 24 years, only 13% of children’s books featured multicultural storylines or characters. In 2002, 5% of protagonists were African American, 3% Asian American, 3% were Latinx, and 1% were American Indian. In 2018 these numbers slightly increased to 10% African American, 7% Asian, 5% Latinx and 1% American Indian. While these gains in diverse representations mark progress, we still have a long way to go. In a world where children of color continuously face increased levels of childhood trauma, it is incumbent upon children’s literature to represent their perspectives and experiences.  READ MORE >>