Fantastic Quick Reads Resources My Life in Books Inspiring Adults

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Fantastic Quick Reads Resources To celebrate the launch of eight exciting new Quick Reads titles, BBC Skillswise has designed an exclusive mini-site where you can read and listen to the first chapters of the new books. You can also download text or audio versions of the chapters, so there's lots of potential for classroom use. Why not try out a jigsaw-reading or listening activity, or encourage learners to read and listen at

the same time? We will be adding more resources to the mini-site too, so please look out for those. The new titles include a thriller by Lynda LaPlante, a Doctor Who story by Jacqueline Rayner, a collection of short stories by Alexander McCall Smith and a self-improvement book by former 'Dragon' James Caan, called 'Get the Life you Really Want.' Something for everyone! You can find the resources here: Quick Reads on Skillswise

My Life in Books Anne Robinson presents the second series of My Life in Books, 10 programmes showing every weekday at 6.30pm on BBC TWO from 27th February to 9th March 2012. Each night Anne's two guests share their five favourite books and talk about the impact the books have had on their lives.

Skillswise will be offering new resources for adult learners based on the guests' favourite books, as well as specially-shot extra clips of the guests reading their favourite children's books and printable texts of the extracts. If you are looking for ideas for books to read to your kids or enjoy yourself, stay tuned, we will be adding them to My Life in Books on Skillswise after each episode is broadcast.

Inspiring adults to read for pleasure We are looking for inspiring tutors and learners who are willing to feature in a short film about adult literacy and reading for pleasure. We want to see adults enjoying their learning experience in both formal and informal settings. The result will be a series of short films which we hope will inspire other adult learners to take the first

steps into improving their reading skills. If you or your learners are interested in taking part, please download more information.

Calling all language learners Are you a language tutor? Or maybe you studied French, German or Italian at school and are interested to know how much you can remember? The BBC Languages team has just released new tests to help you find out. Visit BBC Languages to take the test.

You can also watch language programmes on the BBC Learning Zone, BBC Two, 4-6 am. Don't worry if that's a little early for you - you can catch up on iPlayer for seven days after broadcast. More details and updates are on the BBC Languages website.

Looking to engage adults through family learning? CBeebies are launching a new series of the Alphablocks programme along with an interactive phonics game for children on the CBeebies website . You can find a wealth of useful support material for parents on the CBeebies Grown-ups site and take part in a live facebook chat with the show's creator. Check it out after the show's launch on 27th February.

Six Book Challenge Your learners may be interested in The Six Book Challenge, which invites less confident readers to read six books and record their reading in a diary in order to receive incentives, a certificate and the opportunity to enter a national prize draw. Any organisation can participate and there's a chance for colleges, prisons and

workplaces to enter prize draws to win a visit by a top author. The project is run by The Reading Agency and you can find out more about how to get involved here

Share Take Care Let your learners know about Share Take Care, a new BBC campaign to raise awareness of online safety for young people. Parents and carers can download information to help keep their children safe online.

Visit BBC WebWise for more information.

An unforgettable week in Westminster Teachers and education professionals can apply to experience this intensive, informative and unforgettable week based at the Houses of Parliament.

This year's Teachers' Institute will take place 2-6 July 2012.

For more information and details of how to apply please visit the Parliament Education Service website

And finally - an update on Skillswise It's been a busy time for the Skillswise team. We're always trying to find new ways to connect with tutors and learners and to learn more about what inspires, excites and engages in adult skills classrooms. Last month we took a trip to The Prince's Trust and to Start in Salford, a local arts and health organisation. Coming up is

a trip to Salford City College where we'll be getting to know tutors and learners in the adult skills classrooms. We are still working hard to polish the new site. Bugs are being fixed and all the quizzes are being updated. Thanks for all your feedback on this. We really appreciate your patience - there have been over two thousand resources launched on the new site so far and many more in development. If you have any comments or suggestions for the new site please do let us know. We're very excited about a new series of five BBC One daytime TV dramas which deal with literacy issues. They are due to air next month and there will be lots of material to support them on the Skillswise website. Look out for more on this in our next newsletter!

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