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LR/RI produces a bulletin roughly every two weeks in order to inform area practitioners of news, events, and calls for participation and also as a forum for posing questions, issues and discussion topics. The current bulletin is posted below. To read previous bulletins, go to Bulletin Archives.April 26, 2001 Bulletin #116
Dear Colleagues, Calls for participation, conference announcements, information about resources on line and the usual range of notices follow. To post information, please contact LR/RI or leave a message (863-2839).
Janet Isserlis ____________________________________________________________ NOTICES
ESOL sharing/discussion group will meet on Tuesday, May 22nd
at the Genesis Center, 620 Potters Avenue, Providence, at 3:15 PM.
MATSOL Fall Conference Call for Proposals "Telling Our Stories" October 12-13, 2001 Sturbridge Host Hotel and Conference Center on Cedar Lake. Proposals must be received no later than May 30, 2001: Massachusetts Association of Teachers of Speakers of Other Languages (MATSOL) C/o Commonwealth Corporation Incubator 529 Main Street Boston, MA 02129-112 Call for proposals is online at http://www.matsol.org/whatsnew/callforprop.htm . MATSOL representatives, interested in organizing Rhode Island ESOL practitioners ? adult, K-12, higher ed, etc. will be at the Swearer Center for Public Service on May 15th, from 5:30 to 7:00 pm to meet with anyone in Rhode Island interested in learning more about possibilities of extending MATSOL to Rhode Island. Learning opportunity - fall 2001 Transition to College at Providence Adult Education Learning Center The Providence Adult Education Adult Learning Center is recruiting for its fall session. Students who are interested in learning about our program should call the center to be place on our waiting list. The Transition to College program is free, and open to students who have a GED or high school diploma, and are fluent in English. The 16-week transition program offers career-development workshops, basic computer classes, and reading, writing, math, and study skills classes to help prepare students for college. The program also offers assistance in attaining financial aid information, as well as, help filling out the college application forms. These classes are appropriate for adults who are looking to start college
or a technical program but may need to brush up on their reading, writing
and math skills. Students must also be proficient in English. The
Providence Adult Education program is located at 160 Broad St., the YMCA
building, second floor. For information, call Marie Crecca-Romero at 331-0766.
From Dionne Dobbins, Research Analyst American Institutes for Research: PRO-NET 2000's web site site provides the adult education and literacy field with up-to-date information about professional development resources, materials, and activities. PRO-NET 2000's guiding philosophy is to draw upon the field's expertise and experience to enhance the quality of professional development and to foster continuous program improvement. The PRO-NET 2000 team is in the process of developing competencies for professional development coordinators. We would like to build on your expertise to guide us. Register now (http://www.pro-net2000.org) and take a few minutes to respond to PRO-NET 2000's REQUEST FOR FIELD INPUT on professional development competencies. Your input is very valuable as we continue to develop materials for the adult education community.
Bridging the Gap 2001 - learning support for all - a 5-part series of workshops being presented by RI' s Bridges to Practice team . The series, Bridging the Gap, consists of five 3-hour workshops, scheduled for February 2. March 2, April 6, May 4 and June 8. All sessions will be held at URI College of Continuing Education, Shepard
Building, Providence. For more information, please contact Elaine
Stafford (elaine_stafford@yahoo.com), 245ó1467; to register, contact LR/RI.
There is no fee for this series of workshops.
The RI Bridges to Practice team presents a 5-session continuum of best
strategies for working with adult learners who have difficulties succeeding
in a traditional classroom. These workshops will consist of multisensory,
practical, direct teaching activities that can immediately be applied in
an learning environment.
May 4: Down to earth grammar June 8: Math and Beyond: Integrating Content Areas All sessions will be held at URI - College of Continuing Education - Shepard Building, Room 328, Providence, from 1:45 to 4:45 pm. To register, contact Janet Isserlis at 863-2839, or janet_isserlis@brown.edu For more information contact Elaine Stafford at 245-1467 or elaine_stafford@yahoo.com Parking will be validated; refreshments will be served. Bridges to Practice presents these workshops in collaboration with the RI Department of Education. save the dates Thursday, May 24, 1-4 pm Cassandra Drennon, who has worked with practitioners around the country on issues related to practitioner research, will present a workshop focusing on teacher inquiry, its possibilities and ways in which we in Rhode Island might consider utilizing this valuable professional development vehicle. In June, current inquiry project participants will share their findings - meanwhile, information their work is available at http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/inquiry.html Details forthcoming soon about Cassie Drennonís workshop and about the inquiry project share. and Friday June 1. Extended ESOL/LD workshop with Robin Schwarz In this workshop, participants will learn about how learning disabilities affect a second or other language learner. Then they will learn a procedure for tentatively identifying students with learning disabilities. Finally, the participants will discuss some ways to help the students suspected of having learning disabilities in their efforts at learning English. Robin Schwarz, M. Sp.Ed., has been an ESOL teacher for over 30 years, 22 of those at American University, Washington, DC. In addition, she worked with LD students for over 25 years at the Lab School of Washington. For the last 12 years, she has focused her attention on ESL students with learning disabilities. She recently began a Ph.D. in ESL/LD at Lesley University. This workshop is a part of the RI Bridges to Practice work for 200- 2001. The workshop will likely be held in the late morning through afternoon,
but details will appear in the next bulletin.
Resource available: 2001 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT FACTBOOK on April 9, the 2001 Rhode Island KIDS COUNT Factbook tracks progress of 43 indicators, across five areas of child well being: Family and Community, Economic Security, Health, Safety and Education. New indicators this year include: Racial and Ethnic Disparities, Secure Parental Employment, Children's Mental Health, Juveniles at the Training School, Children in Out-of-home Placement, and English Language Learners . The Factbook contains information for all 39 cities and towns and the state as a whole. The Factbook is currently available online in PDF format athttp://www.rikidscount.org <http://www.rikidscount.org> . The Factsheet for Providence is available at http://www.rikidscount.org/ct01.html . For a hard copy call (401) 351-9400. The Annie E. Casey Foundation announces the launch of the redesigned
KIDS COUNT section of its website. All of the information and functionality
of KIDS COUNT has been retained, but with a more up-to-date, user-friendly
portal design. KIDS COUNT has also compiled data on children from the 2000
U.S. Census into an easily-navigated interactive database.
You can quickly view profiles and download these raw data for states,
counties, cities (population greater than 100,000), and congressional
districts. KIDS COUNT compiled Census data, online databases, publications,
special reports, and more are available at http://www.aecf.org/kidscount/
.
Applications available for Brown Summer High School July 2-27 Applications due June 1 Brown Summer High School offers area students entering grades 9-12 the opportunity to build critical-thinking skills through hands-on experiences and teamwork. This summer the program will offer four different courses. Each will focus on an essential question around which discussions, experiments, presentations and skits are developed. Students select two courses from the following: From the page to the stage: How can we bring words to life? (Arts/Literacy) Students will use music, acting and drawing to bring stories to the stage through polished performances as well as workshop performances. "Is that your final answer?" How do we know whose history is "the truth?" (History/Social Studies) Using a wide variety of sources, this course will examine how history is made and written, and whether those might be two different events. Why should we be concerned about animals becoming extinct? (Biology/Science) Students will explore the affects of animals disappearing and why the rate of extinction has risen in recent decades. Why do people disagree? (English) Students will investigate the causes and consequences of disagreements in the school, home, community and nation. The arts/literacy course is led and taught by local artists; the other three courses are taught by teams of students in Brown's Master of Arts in Teaching program, who are led by mentor teachers from local schools. The program costs $100. A limited amount of financial aid is available. To receive a brochure and application, telephone Brown Summer High School at (401) 863-1677 or e-mail Michelle_Steingart@brown.edu with your name and mailing address in the body of the e-mail. The brochure is available in Spanish. Enrollment is limited. The cost is $100; a limited amount of financial aid is available. Training opportunity The Elmwood Community Center is offering a non-profit job training program to Rhode Island residents. The program was created by the Elmwood Community Center and is called ElmforceOne. This initiative was made possible through a legislative grant introduced by Senator Robert Kells of Providence and is administered by the Department of Human Services. In addition to social services training, Youth program training, and seniors program training, the executive assistant component consist of Microsoft Office 2000, PowerPoint presentations, desk top publishing, internet training, introduction to six sigma, total quality management, customer relations, conflict resolution, cultural diversity, non-profit agency marketing, and business English. The program is also providing internships at non-profit agencies. If you know of someone that may be interested in this free job training program, please have them call me at 461-7940 as soon as possible for an interview. Dennis Tabella Executive Director Elmwood Community Center Funding opportunity Progressive Technology Project Accepting Applications for Spring 2001 Grants Pool Deadline: May 16, 2001 The Progressive Technology Project [http://www.progressivetech.org/] works to raise the scope and scale of technology resources available to grassroots organizing groups working for environmental, economic, and social justice. Through its Spring 2001 grants cycle, PTP plans on making 15-20 grants of up to $10,000 to support the use of technology by grassroots organizing groups to advance specific aspects of their community-organizing efforts. Grant pool funds can be used for training, technical support, consulting, needs assessment, planning, hardware and software, designing applications, and setting up systems. To be eligible for funding, organizations must be able to demonstrate that they are increasing the capacity of people to impact public policy and hold decision-makers accountable locally and at other levels of government; seek to address the underlying causes of social, economic, and environmental problems; engage in leadership development with people traditionally excluded from civic decision-making processes; be directed by and accountable to their members/constituents and make decisions democratically; and work strategically to empower low-income people and communities of color. PTP will only accept proposals from organizations focused on and based
in the United States. The program will not fund organizations it has funded
within the past two years or that primarily engage in the following
activities: scholarships/fellowships, technical service provision,
direct services, technology projects unrelated to grass- roots social-change
efforts, child-care programs, emergency shelters, medical services, books,
publications, capital improvement, and job training or readiness
projects. For complete guidelines and a proposal cover sheet, visit the
PTP Web site. Contact: Progressive Technology Project
1436 U Street, NW, Suite 201 Washington, DC 20009 Tel: (202)
387-9660 Fax: (202) 387-1852 RFP Link \
Eastern LINCS and the Electronic Classroom Announce a Field Test of the New Understanding LINCS Online Course Understanding LINCS is the title of a new online course developed by Eastern LINCS in cooperation with The West Branch Technology Center's <http://www.wbtc.ciu10.com/eclass/index.htm> Electronic Classroom project -- a program designed to bring timely and relevant professional development using a flexible delivery system to adult education and literacy practitioners. Understanding LINCS has been designed for practitioners within the Eastern
LINCS region, allowing them to learn more about the LINCS system and how
to use its many features. The course has been designed using a course development
tool called Blackboard.
GED 2002 - Information for Administrators
Do you work with Adult Literacy (ABE, ASE, GED, ESL) students? Are you an administrator (director, coordinator, etc.) of an Adult Literacy program? If so, PLEASE REVIEW the Florida GED 2002 Web-based Training
It's got GREAT INFORMATION, and even helps you develop a "To Do" list
to
Have you ordered - or downloaded - your GED 2002 posters?
and so on . . . Visit this site. Work through the lessons. Get the information that your teachers and students need to know NOW! Victoria
Victoria Hoffman, Ph.D.
For the second straight year, the National Center for Family Literacy will provide content for the International Literacy Day Tabloid, a newspaper supplement offered to daily newspapers across the U.S. by the Newspaper Association of America Foundation. How can the Literacy Day Tabloid help your family literacy program? Team up with local newspapers to provide Tabloid articles of local interest. Use the Tabloid as a great resource for Parent and Child Together (PACT) Time activities. Promote your program to potential students, volunteers, community partners, etc. One way to promote your program using the Tabloid might be to invite your Congressperson to your program for a site visit and as well as newspaper contact to cover the story or take photographs. Your newspaper might also be interested in running a human-interest story about a family in your program. The Literacy Day Tabloid . . . Provides dozens of newspaper activities for parents and children to
do
When you ask if they're running the Tabloid .refer to it as "the International
Literacy Day Tabloid that runs in celebration of International Literacy
Day (Sept. 8) mention that its been produced by the Newspaper Association
of America Foundation for the last four years.
Application forms for this year's Hands-on English ESL Minigrants
competition are
online Research to Practice is the theme of the newest issue of Focus on Basics, now available on the web: http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu -- click on the "Newest issue of Focus on Basics" box. Contents include myth-shaking findings from the Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning, findings from the Literacy Practices study on what teaching approaches are more likely to result in increased literacy activity at home, and the sad state of conditions under which ABE teachers labor. Post responses to these articles and questions to the researchers on FOBís electronic discussion list; to subscribe or read archives, go to http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/nifl-fobasics/focus_on_basics.html Language and Literacy is a Canadian on-line journal for educators interested in a broad range of literacy issues encompassing research and teaching in multimedia, print, and oracy. Available at http://educ.queensu.ca/~landl/ Literacy on NPR - National Public Radioís Morning Edition recently focused attention on literacy. See the links they chose to support these programs and hear them online at http://www.npr.org/programs/morning/features/2001/mar/010319.literacy.links.html
Walk for Literacy - Saturday, May 5th. If you need information about the Walk, please contact LR/RI. As well, information will be available soon about Adult Education events planned at the State House.
Call for Articles for the Next Issue of The Change Agent
The Change Agent is a biannual newspaper published by the New
England Literacy Resource Center of World Education. The mission
is to provide news, issues, ideas and other teaching resources that inspire
and enable adult educators and learners to make civic participation and
social justice related concerns part of their teaching and learning. Each
issue of the 24-page newspaper focuses on a different social justice topic.
Some of the past issues have been about the changing world of work, environmental
health, immigration, and media literacy. The Change Agent includes a mix
of articles and activities that are of interest to both teachers and students
in adult education programs (GED, basic literacy, English as a Second Language).
The newest issue of The Change Agent, Focus On The Media And
You, is available and contains a variety of articles including: What Do
You Think...Does The Media Promote Violence, The Corporate Curriculum,
"Making A Killing" ---- The Marlboro Man Rides On, Media Activism: Learners
Turn The Tables With Grassroots Media Projects, Students For Sale, Who
Owns The News, How To Detect Bias In The News Media, and Fake News.
The Change Agent is available in hard copy through LR/RI, online at www.nelrc.org/changeagent
; and through subscription ? contact NELRC/World Education, Attn:Kerline
Tofuri, 44 Farnsworth St., Boston, MA 02210. F individual copies can be
obtained from Art Ellison <aellison@ed.state.nh.us>. Please include
a mailing address if you would like a free paper copy. The Change
Agent in the Classroom ? resources to accompany Change Agent articles óas
well as The Change Agent itself -- are online at http://www.nelrc.org/changeagent/.
Educators and Adult Learners:
conferences - conferences are listed chronologically and are updated with each bulletin The Ninth Annual Conference on Serving Adults
with Literacy Disabilities will be held on May 24th at the Hartford Marriott
Hotel in Farmington, Connecticut. For information, please contact
LR/RI, or go to http://www.crec.org/atdn/workshops/ldconf.shtml
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and PIRI invite you to the LEARNING & THE BRAIN CONFERENCE, a meeting for teachers, administrators, Learning specialists, and psychologists, May 3-4, in Washington, D.C. Learn how to improve teaching, learning, and child behavior through brain-compatible curriculum, instruction, and assessment. A distinguished faculty of neuroscientists paired with leading educators will help you translate the remarkable findings of brain research into practical strategies for your school or work with children. Earn up to 14 continuing education credits. Groups rates and student discount rates available. For program information and online registration: http://www.EDUPR.com Email: piricc@mail.com Topics include: LD, ADHD, the arts, behavior, memory, cognition and
emotion, instruction/ assessment, gender differences, child and brain development,
temperament, brain-based teaching,
from previous bulletins: REMINDERS, RESOURCES:
Stop the Hate, http://www.stopthehate.net/index1.htm - provides numerous resources of value to anyone working in adult education, community development and/or hoping to consider viable ways in which to approach social change. LD/ESOL resources: ESL Instruction and Learning Disabilities, the new digest from the National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE) by Robin Schwarz and Lynda Terrill is available from ncle@cal.org, from (202) 362-0700, ext. 200, or can be downloaded at www.cal.org/ ncle/digests/LD2.htm NCLE is also unveiling a new feature: a resource collection. The title of this first collection is Learning Disabilites and Adult ESL and is posted at www.cal.org/ncle/whatnew.htm The Resource Collection contains articles, reports, books, websites, organizations, electronic discussions, policy materials, ERIC documents, and other resources that address the featured topic. NCLE welcomes your comments, suggestions, and recommendations for additions to the collection.
list servs: LR/RI listserv: As some of you know, Literacy Resources has a list serv - an email discussion group available to anyone with access to email in the state (or beyond, as interest warrants). To learn more about the list, or to subscribe, please send an email message to janet_isserlis@brown.edu. To date, about 30 people have joined the list. Its purpose is to provide a forum for local educators to discuss policy, practice, resources, issues and news related to our work with one another. Unlike the bulletin, which arrives as email, the list is interactive - when you respond to message from the discussion list, everyone else on the list receives your message -- and the conversation, we hope, continues and grows. VALUE e-list: VALUE has established a valuelearners mailing for email users, hosted by the Western/Pacific Literacy Network, part of the National Institute for Literacy Information and Communication Network System (LINCS). This "e-list" is a way for adult learners who are members of VALUE to communicate with each other. Only adult learners who are members of VALUE can subscribe to this e-list. VALUE is the national organization for adult learners (current or former participants in adult basic skills programs) in the United States. VALUE provides training and other supports to adult learners who want to be more effective leaders in their education programs, communities, and states. This e-list is being managed by members of VALUE's Communications Committee. Subscribers are encouraged to communicate about information, ideas, questions, or problems of interest to them. If you are a member of VALUE and need help subscribing, please contact LR/RI. If you're not a member, but would like to become one, contact LR/RI or visit the VALUE website at http://literacynet.org/value.
LEARNER is intended primarily for adult learners. LITERACY is a general list for adult literacy practitioners and others. Information on these electronic lists is below. LEARNER To subscribe to LEARNER, send an email message to: listserv@nysernet.org Skip the message header and in the body of the message, type: subscribe LEARNER Yourfirstname Yourlastname All submissions to LEARNER should be addressed to: LEARNER@nysernet.org Questions regarding the list should be sent to: Beverly Choltco-Devlin Moderator, LEARNER bdevlin@dreamscape.com LITERACY To subscribe to LITERACY, send an email message to: listserv@nysernet.org Skip the message header and in the body of the message, type: subscribe LITERACY Yourfirstname Yourlastname All submissions to LITERACY should be addressed to: LITERACY@nysernet.org Questions regarding the LITERACY list should be sent to: Beverly Choltco-Devlin bdevlin@dreamscape.com
Professional development initiative: In 1998, I spent time at the RI Dislocated Worker Program, facilitating classes for teachers there so that they could have an opportunity to observe one another's classes and to reflect on their learning and teaching. (The full text of their reflections is available on the LR/RI web site at Writing from the Field - or contact LR/RI for a hard copy). Please let me know if you would like to participate in this process of professional development. All that's required is your willingness to share your reflections about the observation/learning process for others. I hope to build a block of writing and thinking about this and other forms of our own professional development both through the bulletin and the web site.
Please contact LR/RI if you have information, questions or announcements to share with adult educators in Rhode Island. Bulletins go out at least twice a month; more frequently when there's more to share. To submit information for the next bulletin, please contact LR/RI by phone (401-863-2839), mail (PO Box 1974, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912) or email. back to LR/RI home |
