Please cite as: Owen, H., & Schwenger, B. Using literacy tools and strategies as a foundation to enhance students' learning and study success. Paper presented at The New Zealand Association of Bridging Educatiors: 2008 Conference. Students’ learning and study success are at the heart of education provision. A strong concern in this context is how to enable staff to assist students more effectively in their learning journey and in their participation in the community, especially those learners who are facing difficulties in engaging with the literacy and numeracy demands of their programmes. The potential gap of course demands and student skills is at the centre of a programme initiative at Unitec New Zealand, which is at the same time concerned with curriculum redevelopment and wider institutional initiatives. It has been identified that an integrated approach to combine content learning with literacy and numeracy skills enhances students’ learning and study success in terms of retention, completion and stair-casing into higher levels of learning. Capability building that engages staff and helps them to review their methodology is an essential ingredient for supporting tutors in implementing best practice into their every-day teaching strategies. Tools and strategies for integrating and embedding literacy and numeracy as part of the teaching and learning experience are available but not always accessible to teaching staff. The Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation (CTLI) at Unitec New Zealand is working closely with staff to introduce appropriate strategies and tools which can be easily integrated into courses whilst taking into account the needs identified by each school for their specific learners. This paper is based on an initiative between Automotive Engineering staff and CTLI. At this stage, eleven literacy and numeracy related tools, sourced from a variety of places, have been chosen to demonstrate best practice in collaborative and interactive contextualised workshops. The presenter will showcase three tools and conference participants are then invited to critique and discuss in small groups if and how these tools could be adapted to fit within their context of teaching and learning. Thoughts and opinions will then be collected and discussed in the large group. The theory informing the literacy tools and strategies and the workshop delivery (including the iterative cycle of evaluation and improvement of the workshops in response to participant feedback) will be shared with conference participants to conclude the session

1. Using literacy tools and strategies as a foundation to enhance students’ learning and study success Hazel Owen and Bettina Schwenger Centre for Teaching and Learning Innovation Unitec NZ

3. July 23, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger CRSP Supporting student success through ... Strategies Tools Learning in real-world contexts Transferable skills Investigational work Problem solving Small group work Analysis and interpretation tasks

4. “ Literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning to enable an individual to achieve his or her goals, to develop his or her knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in the wider society.” (UNESCO, 2003, p. 5) A continuum of learning...

5. Tools and strategies - underpinning principles Underpinning Principles Deliberate and explicit Encourage independence Using tools and best practice Purposeful Appropriate and relevant Constructivist Practitioners’ capability

6. Discipline expert Literacy expert Students (Smith, 2008)

7. Status of literature Literary canon Society & culture Family Political policies Wealth Vocational skills Literacy Freedom/ creativity Access to books Teacher training Education Pedagogy Dynamic variables affecting literacy Reading culture Opportunities to read

9. The 'tradeshow' approach

10. July 23, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger Initiated & championed by Iain Seymour-Hart, Head of Department Tradeshow 1 – 6 tools demonstrated, 10 minutes each Feedback from lecturers. What are the issues? VOCABULARY Tradeshow 2 - Teaching vocabulary Tradeshow 3 - Demonstration lessons 15 minutes each Tools Vocabulary profiler Issues with teaching Survey – reading Lesson plan Numeracy Multi-media Approaches to vocabulary: Hot Potatoes E-flash cards Numeracy On-line assessment Critical thinking An example of teaching : Vocab Reading Information literacy Numeracy (Smith, 2008)

11. July 23, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger

12. July 23, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger

16. Review quizzes

17. July 23, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger

18. July 23, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger Hot Potatoes

19. July 23, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger Hot Potatoes (cont.)

20. Keesing-Styles, L. (2008). Automotive Tradeshows - Literacy and Numeracy in Vocational Education. The VET(31), 7. Feedback

21. Keesing-Styles, L. (2008). Automotive Tradeshows - Literacy and Numeracy in Vocational Education. The VET(31), 7. Linda Keesing-Styles Feedback (cont.) This is a superb model for staff professional development, no matter what the topic. Here, a whole department is engaged in reflecting on and improving their teaching and their students’ learning.

22. July 23, 2009 Hazel Owen & Bettina Schwenger Management support Workshops Tradeshows Professional Location & food Toolbox (on-line) Individual help Specific follow-up sessions Feedback (Smith, 2008) Building Capability

26. Thank you for listening Any questions and feedback please email: [email_address] [email_address] [email_address]