Reading materials

Developed by the NWT Literacy Council, this workshop presentation focuses on the variety of resources available for family literacy in Canada’s northern region.

This fact sheet provides the highlights of an evaluation of the Good Book Bins project, in which bins filled with gently used children’s books are placed in locations where parents and children spend time waiting together.

The evaluation showed that the bins were popular with families. At locations where the bins were available, many families also accessed other literacy information, like program brochures and library schedules.

This book focuses on Louisa, an immigrant from Jamaica working as a domestic in the home of the Montreal family who sponsored her. The reader follows Louisa as she becomes a landed immigrant and decides to improve her education so she can find a better job.

The central character of this short book is Flo, a middle-aged woman who works nights as a cleaner while also caring for her husband and three children. It follows her progress in finding a better job and deciding to go to school in her spare time to earn her high-school diploma.

This short book, divided into nine chapters, is written in simple language and is aimed at adult new readers at Level 3.

It tells the story of Sarina, who used plants and roots to treat illnesses. Sarina is also able to talk to animals. In the past, Sarina used her skills to cure the Queen. Now, the King has given Sarina a new challenge: to help his son, the Prince, become a better person.

There are different purposes for reading leading to various levels of complexity. Complexity is based on how much processing of information is required to arrive at an accurate outcome. These levels range from level 1 (the least complex) reading relatively short texts to locating a single piece of information to level 5 (the most complex) interpreting dense and complex texts and making high-level inferences and using specialized knowledge.

You may already be using the materials that are available for download at no cost at the website How do your skills Measure Up? Approximately 80 occupations are represented, however, these occupations may not suit your instructional setting. You may be considering developing your own materials.

This book is a collection of stories by adult learners in the Rabbittown Learners' Program. It was produced by learners and tutors in the Rabbittown program and is used as reading material for learners in other literacy programs.

This text, developed by the NWT Literacy Council for a basic English course, contains five "photo stories." The stories can be used to initiate discussion on northern topics like dog racing, fishing, sun dogs, the Arctic Winter Games, and crossing the Mackenzie River on a ferry. The instructor can select the handouts needed to teach or reinforce different concepts.

Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival is a great novel for the 120 level. It is approximately at the Grade 6 reading level according to the Fry readability score. In this story, the author recounts a story about hardship and triumph that has been passed on from mothers to daughters for many generations.