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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.November 20, 2001 Bulletin #129
Dear Colleagues, Calls for participation, employment and conference opportunities, resources. To post information, please contact LR/RI or leave a message (863-2839). Thanks.
Janet Isserlis
NOTICES
Please know that effective immediately, all visitors to the RIDE/URI extension building can only enter from the Washington Street side of the building and must sign in and out with security there. The Westminster Street door can be used for exiting the building only. Discussion/sharing session for adult educators with an interest in issues of learning disabilities will be held on Friday, November 2 at 2:00 PM at the Swearer Center for Public Service, 25 George Street, Providence. ESOL sharing/discussion session will take place November 27 at
2:15 pm at the Genesis Center; we'll be focussing on assessment, but as
always, any topics and discussion are open as it the session.
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. Providence GED Test Center Mentor, Inc. 160 Broad Street (YMCA Building 2nd Floor) Providence, RI 02903 (401) 272-8462 The Rhode Island Department of Education has asked Mentor, Inc to continue
operating the
Official GED Practice Testing will take place every Tuesday at 5:00 PM.( Individual arrangements may be made for Official GED Practice Testing if needed.) This FREE service is available to adults 16 years and older who would like to determine if they are "ready" to take the Official GED exam. Any interested adult may make an appointment by calling 272-8462. The Official GED Testing will take place as scheduled below. All examinees may make an appointment by calling 272-8462. Official GED Registration will take place every Thursday from 4pm-7pm.
Those registering for the GED exam for the first time must go in person
to the GED test center to fill out an application. All registrants
must bring A form of picture identification and A $15 money order
(The fee will be waived for those receiving public assistance.)
Saturday Sunday Monday Closed Tuesday
Official GED Testing 6:00 PM
Wednesday
Thursday
Official GED Testing 6:00 PM
Friday
Official GED Testing 10 AM Adults who have begun their testing at the YMCA on Broad Street or adults who are looking for a testing site can access these testing services. We are also offering Official GED Practice testing to people who want to determine if they are ready for testing. Those who are ready for official testing can make appointments to do so; those who need remediation will have to look for classes. If agencies have available space in their adult ed programs, we would appreciate having this information. We can then make referrals. The information about class availability can be sent to me at patriral@ids.net, our you may call Lourdes Pichardo at the Providence GED test center 272-8462. Thanks - Pat Bellart your input is needed: Is your program exploring new approaches, developing curriculum, generating materials, or otherwise engaged in work that you'd like to share with others? In addition to various sharing sessions (most notably ESOL, with the hope of others forming around other topics), this bulletin and the LR/RI website provide two vehicles for sharing your work with a larger community of adult educators. As well, LR/RI's site has a page devoted to learner writing and information relevant to adult learners. Please, if you have internet access, take some time to explore the LR/RI site (http://www.brown.edu/lrri) and send feedback, suggestions about existing information as well as other sites that youíve seen that LR/RI could add to the site. Especially consider contributing content ? a lesson plan thatís worked, a reflection about your practice, related news or information about the communities in which we live and work. To get started, if you havenít already, have a look at the current round of inquiry projects, posted on the site . Practitioners are working through developing the proposals youíll see on the site and beginning to collect evidence that will help them examine the questions and concerns they've raised through their projects. Your responses to their work, as well as to anything else on the site, are welcome. Questions? Contact LR/RI ? (401) 863-2839; janet_isserlis@brown.edu
volunteer opportunity Destiny House: Here's an opportunity to help folks who are providing support and education to adults and teens affected by domestic violence. A newly established Domestic violence advocacy organization, Destiny House, is in need of some technical assistance in getting some recently acquired computers up and running. If you are interested in helping them become fully operational, please contact Ms. Eleanor McSwain Destiny House, 461-6521 Federal funding for community technology in jeopardy ? [11/19/01] The major Federal grant program for community technology centers may, within the next several working days, be deleted from the FY 2002 budget. That, combined with the threatenedd reduction in the Commerce Department's TOP program, would signal a dramatic decline in government support for innovative uses of technology to connect communities and opportunities for residents of low-income communities to learn and utilize computer-related skills. Until a week or so ago, it looked like the community technology center grant program (http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/CTC) would be expanded from last fiscal year's $64.95 million up to $80 million for FY 2002, while being shifted from the Department of Education over to HUD. But we've now been informed by HUD and Department of Education officials that a Congressional appropriations subcommittee has decided not to include any funds at all for a community technology center grant program at HUD. And it appears that within the next several working days the decision could be made to either sustain the program at the US Department of Education or to eliminate the program entirely. If the latter, that would abruptly terminate many truly outstanding community technology programs part way through their grants. If you would like to receive a fact sheet providing background and outlining
one quick action (perhaps 10 minutes of your time) that you might take
to ameliorate the situation, would you kindly send an email message with
the subject line: "Fact sheet request" to info@ctcnet.org. (note: Congressman
Patrick Kennedy is one of the people you are asked to contact). Since both
the Bush administration and the Senate have earlier this year supported
an expansion of the community technology grant program either at HUD or
the Dept. of Education, the House/Senate conference committee may be persuaded
to continue funding grants for community technology, but that is unlikely
to happen unless they hear from citizens that equitable access to computer-related
learning opportunities in low-income communities is an issue that continues
to merit government attention. Please do drop a line to info@ctcnet.org
requesting the fact sheet. Thanks!
From Thursday notes, November 15, 2001: Health Literacy Proceedings Out If you missed our August Health Literacy Symposium, here's your chance to get key information, including content notes, copies of overheads and presenter biographies as well as contact information. Ask for Health Literacy: Implications for Seniors Symposium Proceedings at:rickie.gallmon@ed.gov The 2002 edition of the Directory of Adult Literacy Programs in Rhode Island is now available through Literacy Volunteers of America-RI. The book is free and may be obtained by calling LVA-RI at 861-0815. For multiple copies, please make arrangements to pick them up. Thank you. LR/RI website: a shortcut. The URL for Literacy Resources/RI's website has not changed; you can now get to it more quickly by using this new address: http://www.brown.edu/lrri/ -- with thanks to Kath Connolly and Bill Dennen at Brown University for making it so. The PEN Weekly NewsBlast is a free e-mail newsletter featuring school reform and school fundraising resources. The PEN NewsBlast is the property of the Public Education Network, a national association of 66 local education funds working to improve public school quality in low-income communities nationwide. Some links in the PEN Weekly NewsBlast change or expire on a daily or weekly basis. Some links may also require local Web site registration. To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit: \ Although focused largely on K-12, the newsletter often includes information relevant to community development, welfare and other related studies and developments. from Susan Cowles: As project director for the Science & Numeracy Special Collection, I am delighted to tell you about this resource: http://mathforum.org/teachers/nonenglish.html This is a collection of numeracy resources in Spanish, French, and German from the wonderful math people at the Math Forum. The Math Forum is a good example of a specialized resource; I have not checked out all these resources, but I trust the people at the Math Forum to have checked out the resources they advocate. I'd be very pleased to have feedback about this site from those of you ESOL instructors who teach math. A new Q & A from NCLE, Beginning to Work with Adult English Language Learners: Some Considerations, by MaryAnn Cunningham Florez and Miriam Burt addresses these issues is available online on NCLE's Website at http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/beginQA.htm http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/011102/neffns1_3.html Applications for the 2002 Talbots Women's Scholarship Fund are available in all Talbots stores and on the Company's website. Now in its 5th year, this unique $100,000 scholarship program annually awards 5 $10,000 scholarships and 50 $1,000 scholarships to women seeking a bachelor's or associate's degree later in life. Since 1997, Fund has awarded college scholarships to nearly 220 women ranging in age from their mid 20's to their early 60's. The 2002 Board of Judges selecting the five $10,000 scholarship recipients will include Blythe Danner, Caroline Kennedy, Marlee Matlin, Joyce Carol Oates, and Deborah Roberts. Applicants must be women currently residing in the US who earned a high school diploma or GED at least 10 years ago; be seeking a degree from an accredited 2 or 4 - year college, university or vocational-technical school, and have at least two full-time semesters or 24 credits remaining to complete their undergraduate degree. Eligible entries must be postmarked no later than March 4, 2002. To download an application, please visit www.talbots.com/about/scholar/scholar.asp . Change Minds with The Change Agent by Angela Orlando Next time you're looking for interesting reading or math exercises, consider using The Change Agent. This biannual, 24-page, theme based newspaper is published twice a year by the New England Literacy Resource Center at World Education. Especially designed for use in the adult education classroom, the paper offers a variety of writing; graphics and cartoons; and lessons and activities that help teachers incorporate social justice issues into their classroom curriculum. Each issue of the paper focuses on a different topic that is relevant to adult learners' lives. The paper is intended for use in intermediate-level ESOL, ABE, GED and adult diploma classes. The Change Agent also has a great website! Check out on-line learning activities about topics ranging from media literacy and immigration to economic justice. One activity encourages students and teachers to read an on-line article about the economic situation of three families then follow up with a math activity in which students chart and compare each familyís expenses and income. Interactive activities also include fill-in-the-blank vocabulary exercises, crossword puzzles, reading comprehension activities and web quests. All activities can be printed or done right on the computer. You can also print some articles for use right in the classroom and learn about and get involved with our upcoming issue. As always, current and back issues of the paper can be downloaded or viewed in PDF format. Print off a subscription form and try us out for a year, itís only $5.00. Check us out at: www.nelrc.org/changeagent. Angela Orlando is the editor of The Change Agent at the NELRC. Please contact her with questions by email (aorlando@worlded.org) or by telephone (617-482-9485).
Laubach Literacy International is accepting grant applications for its National Book Scholarship Fund, which distributes New Readers Press books and educational materials to qualified US adult literacy providers. Organizations that receive books from the Scholarship Fund use these books to provide men, women, and children with the literacy instruction they need to learn to read. Education-al materials from Laubach Literacy are specifically designed to meet the unique learning needs of adult literacy students, tutors, teachers, and trainers. The Fund helps literacy organizations expand current programs or initiate new efforts. First priority is given to applicants working with parents and children to improve literacy skills. Grants are also awarded to ESL and adult basic education initiatives. For information about the NBSF or to apply, visit the NBSF Web site at www.nbsf.org. The grant application will be online until November 30; the deadline for applications is December 6, 2001. For additional information, please contact Mara Roberts, project administrator by phone 315-422-9121, extension 345, e-mail mroberts@laubach.org or by writing to the National Book Scholarship Fund, Laubach Literacy, 1320 Jamesville Avenue, Syracuse, NY 13210. The College Reading Association is looking for submissions for their on-line journal, Exploring Adult Literacy. These submissions are peer reviewed and, if accepted, are published on-line in the journal. To see previously published articles visit the site at http://literacy.kent.edu/cra/ To submit an article contact Laurie Ellish Piper, Northern Illinois University, Graham Hall 19, DeKalb, Illinois 60115-2854 From Jon Randall -- Input Wanted by Thanksgiving For New Federal Literacy Legislation The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) is spearheading efforts to produce an omnibus literacy bill in the U.S. Congress. Such a bill will call for changes in a number of public laws that impact adult and family literacy in this country. The concept paper for this bill can be found at http://www.natcoalitionliteracy.org . Click on Commitment 3 on the Policy and Legislation page. Then click the link to the Omnibus Literacy Legislation page. Please look over the concept paper and forward suggestions. Pass it along to others in your organization's network and urge them to make recommendations. Convene focus groups to review the paper and make suggestions. The NCL will accept input until, November 22nd. Please send your input to OLL@fedstrategics.com. We're asking for input from adult education and literacy programs at every level, individuals, researchers, corporate supporters, grant-making entities, government agencies at every level, labor unions, and others. We want to lay the groundwork for a piece of field-driven legislation like the National Literacy Act of 1991. -- Work on this omnibus literacy bill provides every sector of the literacy field the opportunity to have its unique policy needs addressed legislatively ? to advocate for solutions based on experience. Local programs, putting their heads together with similar entities at the state or national level can recommend legislative provisions to improve funding equity and to improve the federally funded programs under which providers operate. By Thanksgiving, please contribute your thoughts and improvement suggestions
on things already in the draft concept paper. Also send us recommendations
for additional provisions. We're not looking for legislative language,
just the CONCEPT and the RATIONALE behind the recommendation. If you can
identify the law that should be amended, that's great. If you can't, that's
okay. The NCL will review the recommendations received, and add to the
concept paper those that it feels can be supported by all constituencies.
Not everyone will agree with all of the provisions. This legislation must
meet the needs of multiple constituencies. Therefore, we must think as
broadly as we can and oppose only those things with which we absolutely
can't live. The National Coalition for Literacy includes 45 public- and
private-sector agencies with a national focus on adult and family literacy.
Many of them have national networks of individual and organizational members.
NCL strives to forge a unified, proactive voice for the literacy field
in this country and lead advocacy efforts for sound public policy and increased
resources. Check us out at www.natcoalitionliteracy.org.
[for full text of this message, please contact LR/RI.]
LAC AND COABE SEEK 9/11 TEACHABLE MOMENTS ? The Literacy Assistance Center and the Commission On Adult Basic Education have joined together in a project to collect teachable moments from adult literacy classrooms and programs across the country relating to the September 11 attacks and their aftermath. We invite you to visit the LAC website (http://www.lacnyc.org/resources/wtc/resources.htm) for an extensive resource list of materials relating to the attacks, including alternative media resources, teaching materials, and social service providers. We also encourage you to join our discussion board where practitioners have been sharing their classroom experiences since shortly after the event. Results collected before March 1, 2002 will be published in hard copy and electronically for distribution to participating programs and will be presented at the COABE conference in the spring. Please post your thoughts/ experiences/lessons on the discussion boards or forward them directly to the LAC mlukes@lacnyc.org.-- Elyse Barbell Rudolph, Deputy Director LAC, 212.803.3302 elyser@lacnyc.org other news and information resources: http://www.nytimes.com The New York Times http://www.projo.com The Providence Journal http://www.globeandmail.com The Globe and Mail, CanadaÇs National Newspaper http://www.thenation.com The Nation, news weekly http://www.google.com/news/ -News and information about attacks in US; links to news sites and support resources related to the terrorist attacks on the US assembled by search engine google.com The Spring Institute for International Studies has written a document for teachers of adult refugees, entitled "Tips for Teachers in Times of Trauma" Co-written by Myrna Ann Adkins and Erik Harper of the Rocky Mountain Survivors' Center (with assistance from other Spring Institute staff including Burna Dunn, Pamela Herlein, Erika Taylor, and Chris Tombari); covers how to balance the need to provide information while maintaining class content, gives ideas for debriefing with teaching and other staff following times of crisis, offers suggestions on caring for oneself, discusses cycles of a crisis, and concludes with contact information for Treatment Centers for Trauma Victims http://www.springinstitute.com/pages/whatsnews.html Also, for information on cross-cultural materials, including fact sheets on Afghanistan and the Pashto language, check http://www.cal.org/front/911.html - From Miriam Burt, at NCLE www.cal.org/ncle
Free movie rentals from Women Make Movies As the nation collectively responds to this horrific event, we have become increasingly concerned with the violence against Arab-Americans and Muslims, as well as the alarming trend toward racial profiling. We believe it is of the utmost importance to sensitize people about the culture and traditions of the Arab and Muslim community, both abroad and in the United States, in order to avoid further prejudicial attacks and denouncements of any one ethnic group. To accomplish this feat, we believe it is vital to share educational resources that teach tolerance and an appreciation for cultural diversity. Women Make Movies has chosen to contribute to this effort by providing FREE rentals on selected titles on the Middle East and Arab culture through December 31, 2001. We ask that those who accept this offer pay the minimum shipping and handling fees. It is our sincere hope that this gesture will assist to humanize the Arab-American and Muslim community and demonstrate the vast sources of alternative educational media available to the viewing public. To find out more about the films, please go to http://www.wmm.com . You may also email orders@wmm.com; Please refer to code 500G when placing your order.
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. DUE to recent events, this conference was canceled. Check its website to learn when/if it will be rescheduled. Visit http://www.naasln.org for an up-to-date listing of sessions and conference information. Center for Popular Education and Participatory Research ? 2nd annual conference; February 1 ?3 , 2002. 4501 Tolman Hall #1670, UC Berkeley Berkeley, CA 94720-1670 phone: (510) 642-2856, fax: (510) 642-3425 mailto:cpepr@yahoo.com website: http://www-gse.berkeley.edu/research/pepr The PRO-NET2000 National Professional Development Conference will be held on February 21 - 22, 2002 in Washington, DC. http://www.pro-net2000.org/ ; email: Renne Sherman rsherman@air.org
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. Laubach Literacy Action Biennial Conference will be held in San Diego May 30 - June 1, 2002. http://www.laubach.org/USProgram/biennial.html
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: Heritage Languages in America: Second National Conference Washington, D.C. October 18-20, 2002 The first day of the conference will be an invitational research symposium at the University of Maryland,. The final 2 days will be a public meeting in Tysons Corner, VA. The conference is being organized by the Center for Applied Linguistics and the National Foreign Language Center, with support from the University of Maryland. Building from the foundation of the First National Conference in 1999, the conference will seek to further the aims of the Heritage Languages Initiative, a national effort to develop the languages of our heritage communities. It will bring together heritage language community and school leaders, representatives from pre-K-12 schools and colleges and universities, researchers, and federal and state policymakers. The goal of the heritage languages initiative, and this conference, is to continue to make manifest the economic and social benefits to our nation of preserving the languages spoken by those living in this country. In addition to general sessions, participants will have opportunities to meet with special interest constituencies, based on instructional settings, language, and other common concerns. As with the first conference, there will also be poster sessions. The call for poster session proposals will be made in the spring, 2002. Information about the conference will be disseminated on a regular basis through the heritage languages listserv, heritage-list. Individuals wishing to subscribe to that list should contact Scott McGinnis at the National Foreign Language Center (e-mail smcginnis@nflc.org; phone 301-403-1750 x18; fax 301-403-1754). Also check the heritage languages website, http://www.cal.org/heritage Joshua Fishman, Yeshiva and Stanford Universities from previous bulletins: REMINDERS, RESOURCES: The ERIC File, newsletter of the ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education, is available at http://ericacve.org/docs/ericfile-fall01.htm and in paper copy. If you are not already on our mailing list and would like a paper copy, send your request to ericacve@postbox.acs.ohio-state.edu (include your mailing address). This issue includes articles on ALADIN, ERIC's 35th birthday, trends in adult, career, and vocational education, and tips on searching the ericacve.org website. Judy Wagner / wagner.6@osu.edu ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education 1900 Kenny Road / Columbus OH 43210-1090 USA 614/292-8625; 800/848-4815 (ext 2-8625); FAX: 614/292-1260 TTY/TDD: 614/688-8734 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. 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
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 |
