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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.August 28, 2001 Bulletin #124
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). Thanks.
Janet Isserlis ____________________________________________________________ NOTICES
ESOL sharing/discussion session will take place on Tuesday, September 25 at 3:00 pm at the Genesis Center. We will be thinking and talking about, among other things, project based learning and about themes and topics of focus for the coming academic year. A survey about resources for ESOL activities, developed by Debby Venator, is available online. We request that teachers complete the survey and send their responses to LR/RI as sson as possible. On September 6th, practitioners (program directors, teachers, literacy/adult education workers) are invited to an open meeting to discuss changes to the Inquiry process and to explore new models of pursuing inquiry/teacher-based research in the state in the coming academic year. Further details will appear in coming bulletins. We look forward to exploring new options and expanding our ability to learn from our own research as part of the process of strengthening learning opportunities for adults in Rhode Island. (please note:this is a meeting that had originally been scheduled for September 6th (at the RIDE building, downtown, Room 501 from 9 am to noon). Refreshments will be provided, and parking validated, if you park in the Convention Center garage. Refreshments will be provided, parking will be validated, if you park in the Convention Center garage. If you plan to attend, please contact LR/RI ? registration is not required, but would be helpful for planning. http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources//inquiry.html
To: RI Adult Education Programs From Donna D. Sherman LITERACYPRO SOFTWARE DEMONSTRATION Thursday, September13, 2001 10:30 - 12:30 260 West Exchange St, Rm 206 This year when it was time to fill out our annual statistical reports for RIDE and other funders, we just clicked on the reports button on our LiteracyPro software system, and out came the reports, set up in the formats we needed and ready to submit! What a relief that was! In November, 2000, LVA-RI and our 7 affiliates started using LiteracyPro to record and compile all of the statistical information for our students and tutors. And we found that LitPro can do all that we need it to do! Please join us on September 13 for a demonstration of LiteracyPro software presented by Karen Siegel, trainer for LiteracyPro Systems, Inc. Karen is the trainer who has taught us to use LiteracyPro, and I know that you will enjoy meeting her and will find her presentation very informative. We are interested in developing a LiteracyPro users' circle here in RI so that we can share our experiences and expertise. We are still learning how LiteracyPro can benefit our programs, and we would be very interested in having some partners in this adventure. If you have any questions, please call me or Yvette (she knows more about LitPro than I do!) at 861-0815, and please RSVP to us at that number or to lvariyvett@aol.com. Hope to see you in September!
Volunteer opportunties - Volunteer tutors needed for RI Family Literacy Initiative. Tutors work twice a week for two hours each time at library-based ESOL Family Literacy Program. Sixteen different sites available across RI (mornings, afternoons, evenings, Saturdays). Tutors work with adults or children in small groups under the guidance of teaching staff. We especially encourage retired teachers and college students interested in education/international relations. Call Kristen McKenna at 455-8066 or Denise DiMarzio at 455-8041 for more information. Training session held on August 29, 6:30-8:00 pm at the Providence Public Library, 225 Washington Street, Providence. employment opportunities ESOL/WORKFORCE ADULT EDUCATION TEACHERS: Part-time positions available for dedicated and enthusiastic individuals
to teach ESOL to adults who are seeking to enter the workforce or who are
attempting to advance their careers through improved English. Position
includes 6 hours of classroom teaching and 3 hours of paid prep time. Classes
meet Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings from 6:00 - 8:00 PM.
Start date: Sept. 11, 2001 Please contact Leanne Ovalles at 781-6110 Ext.
11 for more information or send your Resume to Leanne Ovalles at The Genesis
Center, 620 Potters Ave. Providence RI 02907, Fax: 401-461-8788
Director System for Adult Basic Education Support (SABES)
TRAINING OPPORTUNITIES
CASAS - It's more than just a test - Howard L.Dooley, Jr,
Brother Joseph DelGiorno, Doreen Perry
Further trainings are also scheduled for the fall; see upcoming bulletins,
or the HRIC website
online English Literacy and Language Minorities in the United States is an NCES report which provides an in-depth look at adult residents of the US who were born in other countries or born in the US but spoke a language other than English as young children. The report explores the English fluency and literacy of this population, their fluency and literacy in their native languages, and their employment patterns and earnings. To download, view and print the appendices as a pdf file, please visit: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2001464 From Barbara Garner, editor, Focus on Basics A new issue of Focus on Basics is online at http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/fob/2001/fobv5ia.htm The topic is first level learners, often called "beginners" or "0-4" level students.The teachers writing in this issue know about teaching reading to first level learners. Ashley Hager, in Massachusetts, Gladys Geertz, in Alaska; and Anne Murr in Iowa found that very structured classes, with direct instruction in specific subskills such as phonological awareness, word analysis, and sight word recognition, among other skills, provide the best results. The beginning learners in MaryAnn Cunningham Florez's English for speakers of other languages (ESOL) program had valuable feedback to share about the strengths and weaknesses of their instructors. Included in their list was the suggestion to "talk to us about learning and the learning process." Florez shares her students' complete list of suggestions, and her techniques for getting such input from students. Drs. Sally and Bennett Shaywitz, in an overview of the neurobiology of dyslexia, explain that an inability to segment the written word into its underlying phonologic elements results in readers having difficulty in decoding and identifying words. But, they remind us, the phonologic deficit is "domain-specific." That is, other cognitive skills are intact. This is important information for the teaching of first level learners. It explains the paradox so often encountered of otherwise intelligent people who experience great difficulty reading. Judy Alamprese provides an overview of recent research into reading for adult basic education, focusing in on the research she is conducting in beginning level classes across the country. Sondra Cuban shares findings from her research on ABE learners' reading interests, which indicate that reading for pleasure motivates many women learners to read more. A list of resources is also included. What makes distance learning effective?: Support mechanisms to maximize the impact of distance learning in adult education. Report by Dr. Paul Porter and Liz O'Connor; part of Mass Interaction. From Roger Hooper, NLA list, Aug. 23/01: This report includes a review of current research, a study of lessons learned from the MA ABE Distance Learning Project pilot Ö, and recommendations for further study and possible "anywhere, anytime" program standardsÖthis new report is a step forward in documenting and evaluating our work to help ABE practitioners, funders, and policy makers create effective 'anywhere, anytime" learning opportunities via use of technology so (someday) no potential learner need wait for a classroom slot or sit un-served behind any of the numerous barriers to participation in adult basic education classrooms. http://www.massinteraction.org/ABE/publish.html . (The site is also linked to LR/RI's technology and literacy page).
EL Civics : in anticipation of funding which will be made available soon, LR/RI has begun assembling resources addressing EL Civics education; I welcome suggestions and resources to add to the site, as well as practitioners' writings, lesson ideas and other material relevant to English Language/Civics education for adults. http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/elcivics.html RIDE is in the process of developing a request for proposals for grants which will augent existing ESOL classes to expand and/or enahnce English Literacy/Civics instruction and content. These grants will be starting in late October of this year. As part of this process, RIDE is planning a full day event on September
17, at the International Institute of RI, featuring workshops and brief
presentations on preparation for the citizenship examination, use of Crossroads
Cafe and /or Common Ground videos, integration of internet based materials
in adult ESOL and other relevant topics. Following the workshops,
Robert Mason, director of adult education, will hold a bidders' meeting
for those interested in submitting proposals for ELCivics grants.
Whether or not your agency is planning to bid on such a grant, we hope
that you will consider joining us for this day-long event. We hope this
first round of EL Civics workshops will help us celebrate our skills and
knowledge and will also help guide future professional development events
focused on EL Civics; To attend, please contact
resources: As part of its new web site, the Department of Children, Youth and Families provides a list of licensed day care providers in the state: http://www.dcyf.state.ri.us/cgi-bin/dcyf.cgi (This link has also been added to LR/RI's literacy center page, for easy access. The executive summary of a new NCSALL research report has just been posted on line at http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu and will be available in hard copy at the end of the month. "Toward a New Pluralism in ABE/ESOL Classrooms: Teaching to Multiple 'Cultures of Mind'" provides a summary of the research conducted by Robert Kegan and his team at Harvard (the full report will be available later but is quite long). This research applied Dr. Kegan's theory of adult development to participants in ABE and ESOL classes. I believe this report will provide adult educators with a new lens with which to look at their students, understand why students sometimes prefer teaching approaches different than those we employ, see the value of group learning, and understand the transformation adults make in our programs. - from John Comings, director, NCSALL
From Thursday Notes, August 23, 2001
Young Wins NAASLN Award -- OVAE's expert on disabilities, Glenn Young has been nominated as one of three recipients slated to receive the Distinguished Service Award from the National Association of Adults with Special Learning Needs (NAASLN). The award marks Young's "significant contributions to resolving the challenges faced by adults with special learning needs." Young receive the award at NAASLN's national meeting in Milwaukee this fall. Congratulate Glenn at glenn.young@ed.gov
The RI Workforce Literacy Collaborative is updating its directory of adult education programs (online at http://www.riwlc.org/). Many of you have received requests to update your information, which needs to be in by August 31st. If you know of any additional programs that should be added to the Directory or if you need additional information, please contact Donna Sherman at 861-0815 Thank you for your assistance with this project. With your help we will have the new copies of the Directory available by the end of October. The National Institute for Literacy (NIFL) is in the process of updating and restructuring several of its databases, including our mailing list and the National Literacy Hotline. For those already listed in our databases, please watch your mail and/or e-mail this month for a letter requesting that you and/or update your information. In order to continue receiving NIFL mailings and/or referrals from NIFL's toll-free hotline, you must respond to this request even if your contact information is correct. We would be extremely grateful if you could take a few minutes to respond to our request by August 24. If you do NOT receive a letter asking you to update your NIFL information by August 31 and you wish to join NIFL's mailing list, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/join_mailing_list.html to sign up. Please be assured that NIFL will not sell or make our directories available to vendors. We plan to launch an on-line version of the National Literacy Hotline, called America's Literacy Directory (ALD), this fall. The ALD project will make available via the Internet the same information callers can find by calling the Hotline. For more information about America's Literacy Directory, contact LeAnna Marr, ALD project manager, at 202-233-2036 or e-mail: lmarr@nifl.gov . Thank you in advance for your cooperation. Sincerely, Andrew Hartman, Executive Director, NIFL 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/ From Taylor L. Willingham: Help me make the voices of Adult Literacy Students Heard! The literacy community has been invited to participate in developing a discussion guide on health. This guide is being developed by a network of people who participate in National Issues Forums (NIF), which bring together citizens to discuss important public matters. The NIF network wants to hear your thoughts on health so that we can write a discussion guide that reflects how you and your friends and family are experiencing health-related issues. We will produce a discussion guide that will be written at an easy-to-read level that teachers and tutors can use in lessons and that adult learners and students can use in their study and personal growth. Please copy these questions, share with learners and return your response to the email address below. If access to email is a problem, a regular mail address is also included: 1. What do you value (or what really matters to you) about your own
health and health care?
Please send your responses to me at taylor@austin-pacific.com .Thank you! Taylor L. Willingham Austin-Pacific Consulting Co. PO Box 1255 Salado, TX 76571 254.947.3793
conferences - conferences are listed chronologically and are updated with each bulletin
The National Association for Adults with Special Learning Needs - NAASLN, in conjunction with the Greater Milwaukee Literacy Coalition and the Milwaukee Area Technical College, is sponsoring an international conference, Forging the Future, September 13 -15, 2001, in Milwaukee, WI. Over 50 sessions will be presented offering you the most up-to-date research, policies and legislation, technology, and best practices to successfully support adults with special learning needs in attaining their goals to become successful workers, parents, and integrated members of our communities. Visit http://www.naasln.org for an up-to-date listing of sessions and conference information. COABE May 6 - 11, 2002, Charleston, South Carolina- http://www.coabe2002.org/ ; the call for presentation is on line at http://www.sclrc.org/coabe2002/Presentations.htm and proposals are due on December 1st.
Literacy Volunteers of America, Octobe 17-20, Albuquerque, New Mexico http://www.literacyvolunteers.org/conference/ Speakers have been scheduled and information appears online. The American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE) Adult Educators From the Margin Through the Mainstream: Annual Conference October 17-20, 2001 Baltimore, MD http://www.aaace.org/ Laubach Literacy Action Biennial Conference will be held in San Diego May 30 - June 1, 2002. Presentations are being solicited that reflect the theme, Literacy for All. We are particularly interested in presentations on collaborative efforts, reaching the hard to reach, accessibility, diversity and advocacy. Proposals are due by August 31, 2001. We hope to have the conference reflect the wide variety of practitioners and stake holders in the literacy field. If you would like a presenter form to be sent to you, please contact Mary Kuppinger mkuppinger@laubach.org or Pam Alger at pcalger@usa.net. - Pam Alger. MCSE. Adult Education and Literacy Services, City of Azusa 729 N. Dalton Ave Azusa, CA 91702 (626)812-5267 http://www.laubach.org/USProgram/biennial.html
The Project for Research on Welfare, Work and Domestic Violence (sponsored by the Center for Impact Research and the University of Michigan School of Social Work Center on Poverty, Risk, and Mental Health) invites you to its 3rd Trapped by Poverty/Trapped by Abuse Conference Friday, October 26 to Sunday, October 28, 2001 at The University of Michigan League Ann Arbor, Michigan Please visit the following website for registration materials, as well as list of speakers and preliminary presentation titles: http://www.impactresearch.org/documents/42.pdf MATSOL October 12-13, Sturbridge, MA. Pre-registration deadline is September 21. Full information is available at http://www.matsol.org/whatsnew/matsol.pdf, or contact LR/RI. Call for proposals http://www.oise.utoronto.ca/CASAE/cnf2002/call2002i.html 21st Annual Conference May 30-31 & June 1, 2002 Ontario Institute for Studies in Education University of Toronto Due: November 30, 2001 Adult Education and the contested terrain of public policy: Public policy has been experiencing extensive transformations in the context of the privileging of the market by the state. Western democratic states endorse public policies which advance the interests of the private sector over the public sector, individuals, and non-state entities. In the last three decades, the state and the market have strengthened their alliances. The delegation of all power to the market has been associated with a widening gap between the rich and the poor. There is, at the same time, a growing global mobilization against privatization of publicly provided services. In this context it seems timely for educators/learners/practitioners to rethink the relationship between adult education, public policy and civil society. The core questions are: How have adult educators/learners/ practitioners participated in developing, implementing, resisting, and changing public policies globally, nationally, and locally? How has adult education been implicated in the dismantling of public policy? How adult education theories and practices have been inspired, informed, and evolved through public policies? How have adult education theories and methodologies been affected by or have influenced public polices? What are possibilities and opportunities for adult educators/learners/ practitioners and the field to contribute to alternative policy making? Proposals may address some of the following public policy areas or issues: Anti-racism, anti-colonialism, citizenship, employment/ unemployment, equity, environment, housing/ homelessness, health, human rights, labor, literacy/ language, land and self-governance, mass media, multiculturalism, training/learning/skilling, the arts, trade unionism, violence, war and peace, welfare/poverty, and workplace. Submissions may also take account of the ways multiple power positions (race, gender, class, sexuality, age, or disability), the experiences of domination and colonialism (Aboriginal People; North/South divisions, urban/rural differences), or growing global capitalist exploitation are implicated in these policies. Proposals must be received by November 30th , 2001. Neither faxed nor e-mailed proposals will be accepted.
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. 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 |
