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Essential Skills

Essential Skills. f or Learning and Life. Dee Goforth and Sandi Hennessey. Essential Skills for Learning and Life Agenda. Setting the stage Skill Building Activities Essential Skills Tasks ES Tasks in Instruction . Essential Skills are the skills needed for work, learning and life. .

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Essential Skills

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  1. Essential Skills for Learning and Life Dee Goforth and Sandi Hennessey

  2. Essential Skills for Learning and LifeAgenda • Setting the stage • Skill Building Activities • Essential Skills Tasks • ES Tasks in Instruction

  3. Essential Skills are the skills needed for work, learning and life. Research tells us that Essential Skills: • provide the foundation for other learning • are transferable skills • enable people to evolve and adapt to change • Are dependent on task

  4. Skill Building Activities • explicitly incorporate learning • develop skills • build competency (practice) • demonstrate understanding • often focus on discrete skills

  5. Skill Building Examples • Calculate the following percentages: • 10% of 793= _____ 14% of $22.38= _____ • 50 is what percentage of 200? _____ • Underline the subject in the following sentences. • High in the sky, the harvest moon shone brightly. • Kittens and puppies are hard to resist!

  6. Essential Skills Tasks • tasks or activities that are performed in the real world • have a purpose • are authentic (respond to real world demands) • require explicit application of Essential Skills* • usually involve more than one Essential Skill • often require more than one step to perform the task • demonstrate the transfer of skills from task to task and context to context

  7. Essential Skills Task Examples Write a note for your son/daughter outlining the chores you would like them to do and when you would like them done by. The college has informed you that tuition, which was $2,203.00 when you first researched your program, will be increased by 2.8%. The annual residence fee of $6,420.00 will increase by 1.5%. Adjust the budget for these items in your financial aid application.

  8. Essential Skills Tasks in Instruction Determining it is an ES Task: • Does the task allow the learner to apply previously learned skills and knowledge to the task? • Does performance of the task require application of one or more of the Essential Skills? • Is the task authentic, i.e., model a real world task and is meaningful to the learner’s life and relevant to the learner’s goals?

  9. Task Descriptions • Fill the 7-day pill box with your grandmother’s four prescriptions ES • Complete the page of addition and subtraction problems SB • Determine the costs for tuition and textbooks for the first semester of your postsecondary program to decide how much you need to save ES • Total your annual heating bill to decide whether the equal billing plan would be a better payment option ES • Write a paragraph about something you like to do SB • Scan the college map to find your way to the bookstore ES • Double the recipe to serve 12 ES

  10. ...Task Descriptions • Make a list of sale grocery items you need and the sale prices ES • Read the bus schedule to find which bus will take you to the doctor’s office ES • Read the memo and answer the questions that follow SB • Read the classified ads and circle jobs you want to apply to ES • Fill in the blanks in the following sentences SB • Compare the size and cost of two cans of tomatoes and determine the best buy ES • Make a list of all the documents you read today SB

  11. Identifying the Essential Skillsin the Task Why? • links “what I’m learning” to “how I’ll use it”, connecting classroom learning to real life • easily linked to learner goals • demonstrates the use and application of skill sets • informs instruction • helps learners and practitioners assess skill development and skill gaps • assists learner understanding of skill transfer

  12. Identifying the Essential Skillsin the Task Definitions: HRSDC publications: • Essential Skills Readers’ Guide – includes ES definitions http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca/eng/workplaceskills/essential_skills/general/home.shtml • publication “Defining Essential Skills” Ontario Skills Passport: http://skills.edu.gov.on.ca/OSPWeb/jsp/en/faq.jsp?announcer=FAQs#32) • context-free, plain language definitions

  13. Task Analysis • Determine the Essential Skill “key” to completing the task. • Identify the steps or components required to complete the task. • Decide which Essential Skills support the completion of each component.

  14. Task: Compare the size and cost of two cans of tomatoes and determine the best buy • Find price on shelf or product. • Find size on cans. • Determine cost per unit. • Compare cost per unit. • Decide which is the best buy.

  15. Task: Compare the size and cost of two cans of tomatoes and determine the best buy • Find price on shelf or product. FI, DU • Find size on cans. FI, DU • Determine cost per unit. M&C • Compare cost per unit. DA • Decide which is the best buy. CT, DM

  16. Essential Skills Complexity Ratings ES complexity charts available in the Essential Skills Readers’ Guide at http://www.hrsdc.gc.ca, Understanding Essential Skills

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