Learning Cities

Canadian Council on Learning Highlights Learning Communities
The Canadian Council on Learning (CCL) reports that there are estimated to be more than 300 “learning communities” around the world, the majority of them in Europe and Australia. Many Canadian cities and regions from coast to coast – including Victoria and Vancouver – have either started a learning community initiative or are seriously considering the idea. Find out more about learning communities, and how CCL has been working with Vancouver to use the Composite Learning Index to measure the city’s progress in achieving its goals and objectives as a learning community. Visit http://www.ccl-cca.ca/CCL/Reports/CLI/LearningCommunities.htm

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Poetry

Random Acts of Poetry
For one week, 25 acclaimed poets across Canada commit Random Acts of Poetry. This project of the Victoria READ Society sees 25 acclaimed poets reading poems to strangers on buses and subways, in donut shops and cafes, police stations, grocery stores, shelters, curling rinks, on city streets and country lanes. Poets will also read their poems in ESL and Adult Literacy classes. As well, they will present poetry in middle school classes, and give the students a book of poetry written by middle school students, We Can Say This. For more information about this international project, see http://national-random-acts-of-poetry.blogspot.com/

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Commuters Enjoy Poet-in-Residence
A poet in residence has been appointed to write original poetry on train walls for the Glasgow travel network. The poet, John Rice, will also run writing workshops in local schools and libraries. The Scottish Arts Council hopes to mimic the success of London’s Poems on the Underground, which have run since 1986. This article is from the Glasgow Herald, 15 August 2008 at http://www.theherald.co.uk

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Policy

Special Bulletin: Reading the Reports from Literacies Literacies
presents a critique of two recent reports that could inform public policy decisions in Canada: Learning Literacy in Canada and Reading the Future. The intention of the bulletin is to spark a dialogue within the literacy community on the reports, their meaning, and their implications for practice. Read the bulletin at http://www.literacyjournal.ca/literacies/Bulletins/reading_the_reports.pdf

In addition, you can listen to one of the authors of this bulletin, Dr Nancy Jackson, speak about literacy statistics in a CBC interview. The AlphaPlus blog highlights the issue and links to relevant sites at http://blog.alphaplus.ca/page/5/

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