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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 4, 2003 Bulletin #162
Dear Colleagues, Calls for participation, employment, funding, and conference and workshop opportunities, online and other resources. To post information, please contact LR/RI or leave a message (401-863-2839).
Janet Isserlis
NOTICES
Statewide conference LR/RI is organizing a statewide conference to be held on May 15th, at the Sheratin Providence Airport Hotel. Read more about it here, $20 Early registration deadline: May 1st; $25 thereafter.Ý Scholarships available. What's up at Smith Hill? To track adult education legislations, go to http://dirac.rilin.state.ri.us/BillStatus/WebClass1.ASP?WCI=Index&WCE=callBillStatus&WCU&; and search for these three bills by number: Senate Bill No.429, Senate Bill No.502, Senate Bill No.862.Ý If you're unfamiliar with Bill Tracker, on the state website, or have difficulty accessing it, please contact LR/RI, and/or see LR/RI's advocacy page at http://www.brown.edu/lrri/advocate.html ESOL sharing/discussion session will take place on Monday, April 28, 2:30 pm at the Genesis Center - post TESOL sharing session. Please join us to share feedback from the annual TESOL conference - and/or to share other ideas, materials and concerns. (Please note date change from 4/21)) 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 soon as possible.
CALL FOR ARTICLES for the next issue of The Change Agent THEME: HOUSING Educators and Adult Learners: We are looking for lessons, activities, and student writings that reflect on how having/not having ideal housing affects our lives, as well as how teaching about housing affects our classrooms. Some questions for students and teachers to think about: What happens when the topic of housing emerges in the classroom? What do you learn from introducing housing into the curriculum or class? What activities, resources and approaches have been most successful? Which literacy skills get tapped into and practiced? Describe and reflect on your current living situations-life in a temporary shelter, life on the streets, anxiety about losing a home, living with violence in the house\neighborhood, or the "perfect" housing and living situation. Describe and reflect on your housing dreams. How do you advocate and make change to bring about better housing conditions? All articles must be received by April 15, 2003. All articles will be considered. Final decisions are made by The Change Agent Editorial Board. Please send material (by email or PC disk) to: Deborah Schwartz c/o Angela Orlando, World Education, 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210 phone: (617) 482-9485 fax: (617) 482-0617 email: aorlando@worlded.org
Minigrant presentation - will be rescheduled - time/location TBA Please join Brenda McGill as she shares findings from her minigrant project on Students actively constructing their own knowledge. Brenda will share the definition of constructivism, its relevance to curriculum development, 5 Principles and clarifying questions. Her outline also includes: The Challenge, Cross references with Bloom and Critical Thinking Skills, Instructional design that supports Constructivism a) Guided Exploration, b) Cooperative / Collaborative Learning, c) Inquiry or Problem-Based Learning, Cross referenced with LD appropriate instruction and The Challenge revisited. A bibliography is included as well. The session will be held at the Providence (Liston) Campus of CCRI , Room #158 /Professional Devmt & Training (1 Hilton Street - directions at http://www.ccri.cc.ri.us/about/Campuses.shtml or call 455-6000. To learn more about Brenda's project see http://www.brown.edu/lrri/mingrants2002.html
From Miriam Burt, Associate Director, National Center for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE): Teachers have questions about how best to help students decode and comprehend the written word. How do reading models (bottom-up, top-down, interactive, and learner's internal) apply? What about the reading skills (phonological processing, vocabulary recognition, syntactic processing and schema activating)? A teacher of adult English language learners has even more questions: Will learning to read be different for her students because they are adults and know how to read already in their own language? What effect will this have on their learning to read in English? And will the speed and ease at which they learn to read in English be different for the students depending on their proficiency in English? What about their first language literacy, will that help or hinder them? Will Anya's reading skills in her native Russian, which uses the Cyrillic alphabet, transfer to English? What about Lilly? Will her ability to read Chinese logographs serve her well in decoding English words? Surely Liana's reading ability in her native Spanish, should help her with English, another Roman alphabet language, shouldn't it? And what about Khalid? Will he have troubles reading left to right because of his facility in reading Arabic, a right to left language? Finally, what about Toua Vu, who never learned to read in Hmong, and is just now finally able to attend class. Will his lack of literacy skills mean different instruction is needed for him? There's been a lot of talk about using scientifically based research
to teach reading. How much research is there on adult English language
learners learning to read? What additional factors need to be considered
for them? What else do we know? Two new pubs from NCLE address these
questions. The first is a 4-page brief on Reading and Adult English Language
Learners: The Role of the First Language. It's available from NCLE at address
below, or online at http://www.cal.org/ncle/digests/reading.htm
The second is a 56-page report, Reading and Adult English Language Learners:
A Review of the Research. In addition to discussing the role of the 1st
language it talks about the role of other factors, and reports on research
done with adult English language learners specifically. It's also free
from NCLE. To order it, click on http://www.cal.org
ELA Scholarship Application Online The Ethel Louise Armstrong Foundation, Inc. (ELA) announces that the 2003 ELA Scholarship application is available in the scholarship section of the ELA website at http://www.ela.org. The Scholarship provides financial assistance to women with physical disabilities who are enrolled in a college or university graduate program in the US. Scholarship awards are based on merit and given in an objective and nondiscriminatory basis. Each applicant is required to submit an application packet including an application form, college transcript, two letters of academic recommendation, a medical verification form and an essay outlining how they will "Change the Face of Disability on the Planet." Scholarships range from $1,000 to $2,000 per year; application deadline is June 1, 2003. The vision of the Ethel Louise Armstrong (ELA) Foundation, Inc. is to "Change the Face of Disability on the Planet". Our mission is to promote, through grants and scholarships, the inclusion of people with disabilities in the areas of arts, advocacy and education. Horace Mann offers scholarships for educators taking college courses; deadline May 15. The Horace Mann Scholarship Program offers funds to help public and private school educators attend college. The 2003 program will offer 36 scholarships totaling $30,000. Awards include: one $5,000 scholarship; fifteen $1,000 scholarships; and twenty $500 scholarships. Horace Mann will pay scholarships directly to the college or university of each recipient's choice for tuition, fees and other educational expenses. To be eligible, an applicant must be an educator employed by a U.S. public or private school district or U.S. public or private college/ university planning to enter a two or four-year accredited college or university. The applicant must have a minimum of two years teaching experience. http://www.horacemann.com/html/news/nw1%7E02-03.html and https://www.horacemann.com/edscholarship/
Advocacy: Omnibus Literacy Legislation/WIA Reauthorization This February, a four-page Policy Brief will be delivered to every Senator and Congressperson. This document provides an overview of adult education in the United States and summarizes NCL policy recommendations for FY'04 Appropriations as well as for the reauthorization of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families and the Workforce Investment Act. Feel free to use it in meetings and communications to policy-makers. The National Coalition for Literacy (NCL) is spearheading efforts to produce an omnibus literacy bill in the U.S. Congress. Such a bill would call for changes in nine public laws that impact adult education and family literacy in this country. http://www.nifl.gov/coalition/omnibus.html Also: On January 21, 2003, the NCL issued an action alert to protect funding for FY'03 funding in the soon to be completed omnibus appropriations bill. To read amd act upon this appropriations alert, go to http://www.nifl.gov/coalition/appropriations.html Rhode Island Special Interest Group of MATSOL The Rhode Island SIG is a group of professionals in ESOL and Bilingual
Education organizing under the auspices of MATSOL, in order to meet the
professional needs in the field in Rhode Island. Our purpose is to
recruit ESOL and Bilingual Education professionals in Adult ESOL, Higher
Ed, Workplace Ed, Elementary, Secondary, and Low-Incidence programs serving
English Language Learners in Rhode Island, to determine advocacy and professional
development needs. If you are interested in joining or learning more
about the Rhode Island Special Interest Group of MATSOL, you can contact
Jenifer Giroux by e-mail jgiroux@ric.edu or at 456-8794.
From Paul Jurmo, an advisor to/supporter of VALUE ONE WAY TO SUPPORT LEARNER LEADERSHIP I urge all who recognize the important role that learners can play as advocates in our field to consider helping one or more learners to go to VALUE's national Adult Learner Leadership Institute to be held in Tampa , June 25- 27. (Go to the VALUE Web site for more information.) To give you an idea of the costs, here is an estimate of what it would take to send one learner to the Institute from NYC: Hotel for 3 nights = $225.00 Conf fee (includes meals)= 175.00 Airfare (LaG to Tampa)= 250.00 Ground travel = 40.00 Meals en route = 25.00 TOTAL: $715.00. Organizations might consider doing a fundraiser (organized by other learners) or offer a matching grant (paying part of the cost and asking another organization to pay the remainder). This strategy has the advantage of broadening local awareness about and investment in learner leadership. Each organization can decide for itself which learner it would support. In some cases, organizations already have an in-house adult learner group (e.g., a student council) or an external learner group (e.g., a statewide adult learner organization) which can choose its own representative. In other cases, an organization might invite nominations from the local literacy community and set up a panel to review the nominations. It is also important to consider how that learner would be supported when he/she returns from the Institute. This will ensure that the learner is actually able to use what he/she learns at the Institute. If you want some guidance on how you might support an adult learner to get training in leadership skills, contact the VALUE office at 610-876-7625. The VALUE Web site also has many examples of how adult learners have gotten involved in leadership roles around the U.S. The Susan Green Award, designed to recognize adult learners who exemplify the spirit of literacy advocate Susan Green [1944 - 2002] wil be presented at the conference. Deadline for nominations is April 18; to learn more: http://literacynet.org/value/whatsnew/2003_01/award.html
learning opportunities The Genesis Center will offer an on-line Citizenship Class on Monday evenings for 10 weeks beginning April 7, 2003. The classes will be held in the Genesis Center Computer Lab from 6-8 PM. The instructor will assist students with computer skills as well as the Citizenship material. The classes are free of charge and open to immigrants with Intermediate level English and basic computer skills. Registration will be held on Monday evening, March 31st from 6-8 PM. For more information, call Nancy Fritz at 781-6110. 2002 minigrant projects - read about the projects being undertaken at: http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/mingrants2002.html The three minigrant recipients will present their work in the fall. what do you think? LR/RI has had an online survey on its site for months. Previously, those who may have come across the survey were asked to copy and paste it into an email message, or to print it and complete it. Thanks to the brilliant technical support and inservice learning provided by Brown University, the survey can now be completed on line. I'd be grateful if you could please take the time to complete it. While occasional word comes back about the work LR/RI has done, this survey attempts to be somewhat more systematic in considering the work that's done and the work that needs to be accomplished. Please complete the survey at http://www.brown.edu/lrri - scroll down and click on the link to the survey. If you lack web access and wish to complete the survey, please contact LR/RI to receive one via snail mail or fax. funding opportunities - large and less large The Technology Opportunities Program (TOP) awards grants through an annual competition. The deadline for submission is Wednesday, April 23, 2003. TOP's Notice of Availability of Funds (Notice) was released in the Federal Register on March 17. The Application Kit for FY 2003, including Notice and Guidelines for Preparing an Application-FY 2003, provides information on the program, rules for applying, suggestions for preparing an application, and the standard forms you need to prepare a TOP application. The Application Kit is available atÝ http://www.ntia.doc.gov/top Completed applications : postmarked no later than April 23, 2003, or hand-delivered to the Department of Commerce no later than 5:00 P.M. April 23. TO apply, visit the TOP website to determine the eligibility of your project. For information or technical assistance, please contact the TOP staff at (202) 482-2048 or email top@ntia.doc.gov. The Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) announces another round of education reform grants in areas of social science research. PRACC is particularly interested in issues such as high classroom turnover/mobility and its disproportionate impact on low-income, minority, and farm worker students. However, other issues will be considered as well. To apply, send PRRAC a proposal outlining the planned research and methodology, the advocacy work it is designed to support, a budget, timeline, and qualifications of the researchers. Maximum grant: $10,000. No application deadline. http://www.prrac.org/grants.htm Funding Solutions for Small Nonprofit Organizations A collection of resources to help small nonprofit organizations fundraise including ways to motivate your board, sample fundraising letters, phonathon advice, and tips to improve your direct mail solicitation. http://www.nonprofit-innovations.com/
employment opportunities Goodwill Industries of RI has 10 openings in their work based ESOL offering. The class will begin on Monday, April 21st, 2003. The class runs for 15 weeks, 30 hours per week. Due to the funding stream, students must also be FIP recipients. Job internship and job placement services are offered at the conclusion of the instruction. Referrals should be made immediately to Natalia Montoya at 861-2080 ext. 127 as a CASAS test must be administered prior to the start of class. CCRI; ESL instructor for a class that will meet Wed and Fri evenings from 6:30 - 8:30, beginning end April or early May. Resumes can be emailed to lmgell@ccri.edu or mailed to 1 Hilton St., Providence 02905, attention: Leslie Gell. Or call 455-6059Ý National Institute for Literacy: links to employment in adult literacy, at: http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/whats_new/job_announce.html Rhode Island Community Jobs (RICOMJOB) is a public e-mail announcement list that seeks to raise the profile of meaningful work in Rhode Island by helping non-profit and public interest employers publicize openings effectively. Anyone seeking a job that makes a difference in Rhode Island can join the list. Any non-profit, government or private sector employer advertising a paid position related to the public interest or community concerns can post a free job listing. Positions must be paid but may be part-time, full-time or temporary. To join the list as a job seeker or to post a job as an employer go to: http://www.ricommunityjobs.org Rhode Island Community Jobs is supported by the Swearer Center for Public
Service at Brown University and the Rhode Island Campus Compact.
If you have questions about this service, please contact us at ricomjob@brown.edu
online / resources from Charles Bazerman and David R. Russell, editors: a new free electronic book: Writing Selves/Writing Societies: Research from Activity Perspectives, edited by Charles Bazerman and David Russell. The collection is published solely in electronic format by The WAC Clearinghouse (writing studies) and Mind, Culture, Activity (cultural psychology). This collection brings together fourteen new empirical studies of writing as it is used in a range of activities-educational, workplace, civic, and personal. Our goal is to show the commonalties in research on writing and activity, and to spark interdisciplinary dialog among researchers who use activity approaches to writing. The collection also launches a new, non-commercial academic publishing venture, to provide-free of charge-important new research on writing in the Perspectives on Writing series from The WAC Clearinghouse. These online books will cross disciplinary boundaries and offer research that commercial academic publishers are increasingly unwilling to support. To access Writing Selves/Writing Societies: Research from Activity Perspectives, (html and pdf versions), go to http://wac.colostate.edu/books/selves_societies/ PS We would very much appreciate it if you would email your acquisitions librarian and ask that the book be put in your institution's electronic library catalog (this is also free of charge). Library catalog listings will make the book much more widely available. Publication Information: Bazerman, Charles, and Russell, David. 2003. Writing Selves/Writing Societies: Research from Activity Perspectives. Perspectives on Writing. Fort Collins, Colorado: The WAC Clearinghouse and Mind, Culture, and Activity. ISBN 0-9727023-1-8. Library of Congress Control Number: 2003100499 Books in Print (Bowker) Number: 8343039 New Americans Newsletter: - provides the latest information on grant opportunities, producer notes, broadcast updates from PBS, as well as details on outreach resources and community planning across the country. To subscribe to the email newsletter, log onto http://www.itvs.org/outreach/newamericans/subscribe.htm The Access Project and the National Health Law Program have developed a Language Services Action Kit (available in May) for advocates and others working to ensure that people with limited English proficiency in their state get appropriate language assistance services in medical settings. The action kit includes materials that explain relevant federal policies, describe how states secure federal funds to help pay for language services in their Medicaid and SCHIP programs, provide information to demonstrate the need for language services, and offer resources and suggestions for undertaking advocacy efforts. The action kit will be available in May 2003. If you would like to be notified about obtaining a copy, please send your contact information to LEPactionkit@accessproject.org Thank you. Meg Baker The Access Project, 30 Winter Street, Suite 930 Boston, MA 02108 (617) 654-9911 mbaker@accessproject.org http://www.accessproject.org New NCSALL Occasional Paper: Expanding Access to Adult Literacy with Online Distance Education. This monograph, funded by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Vocational and Adult Education, examines the potential of online learning to meet the educational needs of adult learners. It identifies a number of issues central to making distance education succeed in adult education. To download a free copy or to order a bound, printed copy of this publication, please visit the NCSALL website http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu . New Practice Application Briefs from The ERIC Clearinghouse on Adult, Career, and Vocational Education , available as an e-mail message, as a PDF attachment, or in paper Volunteer Development (#26) by Sandra Kerka describes successful practices in volunteer development to help organizations make the best use of their volunteers. The Image of Career and Technical Education (#25) by Bettina
L. Brown presents strategies career and technical educators can use
to present a new image of CTE as a viable strategy for education and work,
including proactive approaches to enhancing the reputation of CTE programs,
bringing parents up to date on labor market information, marketing CTE
to the local community, and working with media to recognize exemplary programs
and outstanding student achievements. To request copies, please email ericacve@osu.edu
and indicate the format you prefer. If you want paper, be sure to include
your mailing address.
From Sally Waldron, World Education: The Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education announces a new advocacy resource for adult literacy programs: Your Government, Your Taxes, Your Choices, a curriculum for ABE/ESOL/GED students that addresses services the state provides, taxes people pay and issues of fairness, and advocacy. Developed by two ABE/ESOL teachers, Diana Satin and Nancy Sheridan, the curriculum is intended primarily for Massachusetts adult basic education learners but it also provides a model for other states. The language in the curriculum is geared for mid-beginning ESOL learners, and it also appropriate for students at higher language levels. Each lesson also contains ideas for adapting the curriculum for students at beginning and more advanced levels. Activities are varied. http://www.mcae.net/curriculum/ A feedback form will also be available. If you use parts of the curriculum, please send your comments and feedback to swaldron@worlded.org. We hope to revise and refine the materials next summer. A new issue of Focus on Basics is available online at http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu/fob/2003/fob_6b.htm. The topic: "Isms" -- classism, racism, gender bias, and bias in all the other categories that can differentiate people from the majority in society. Follow the eight year transformation of a New Orleans program into an antiracist program; Refresh your knowledge of multicultural educational theory; Read about how an ESOL program in Oklahoma created a new venue for classes in which traditional Muslim women could feel comfortable; See how two basic education educators who thought they were non biased recognized and moved past their own limitations; Share the self recognition a teacher trainer felt when she realized her practice was not as empowering as she thought it was; View the field from inside out as an African American teacher and professional developer reflects on her growing awareness of the need to address issues of bias in her practice. A new issue of the Change Agent is also available; focusing on issue of language and power, the issue provides food for thought for learners and practitioners. For hard copies, contact LR/RI or go to http://www.nelrc.org/changeagent.
UnderstandingPrejudice.org, a web site for students, teachers, and others interested in the causes and consequences of prejudice. In these pages you will find more than 2,000 links to prejudice-related resources, as well as searchable databases with hundreds of prejudice researchers and social justice organizations. http://www.understandingprejudice.org/ The National Budget Simulation: You control the budget ? website providing simple simulation should give you a better feel of the trade-offs which policy makers need to make in creating federal budgets and dealing with deficits. http://www.budgetsim.org/nbs/ OVAE Review is a biweekly update from the Office of the Assistant Secretary at the Office of Vocational and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education (ED). Dr. Carol D'Amico's column appears monthly. The full text of OVAE Review : March 21 is avai;able at http://www.ed.gov/offices/OVAE/news/orev032103.html . topics include: Adult Education and Literacy, WIA Legislative Update; High School, Postsecondary, and Career Education, New Report Calls for Better Coordination between High Schools and Colleges, CSU College Remediation Prevention Program , Are For-Profits a Threat to Public Postsecondary Institutions? and Trend Watch - Rate of Students Considering Dropping Out Resource available Take on the Challenge: A Source Book from the Women, Violence, and Adult Education Project-by Elizabeth Morrish, Jenny Horsman, and Judy Hofer A project of World Education. Funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Women's Educational Equity Act (WEEA) Program. This new resource with photos and original artwork is primarily for teachers, but will useful for all educators and activists interested in anti-violence work. It is an analysis of the effects of violence and a practical collection of ideas and activities, with examples from teachers working in GED, native language literacy, ABE, ESOL, welfare-to-work, corrections, and shelter settings. It shows how they successfully changed their curriculum and learning environment to address the impact of violence on learning. Based on the foundation of Jenny Horsman's research, practitioners focused on well-being and incorporated counseling and creative arts - collage, quilting, movement, and meditation - into the classroom. Each chapter includes a general introduction, tools for programs, and teachers writing about the changes they made. Chapter One explores our understanding of violence, its impacts on learning, and first steps that programs can take. Chapter Two - Build a Web of Support -- describes how establishing program and community support and taking care of yourself are key to doing this work. Chapter Three - Reform Programming examines possibilities for changing curricula and creating conditions for learning with detailed descriptions from each teacher. For ordering information, please contact Sabrina Kurtz-Rossi at: World
Education, Inc., 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02210. Tel: (617) 482-9485,
Fax: (617) 482-0617, and E-mail: skurtz@worlded.org
The Office of Vocational and Adult Education of the US Department of Education will be sponsoring the Adult Education Program Study (AEPS), which will provide the first-ever nationally representative information on the literacy and numeracy proficiency of participants in federally-funded adult education programs. This information will be gathered from adult learners across the country using assessments and many adult education programs will be asked to participate. Programs are being contacted now. If your program is contacted, please assist in this important effort. The AEPS will also collect national-level information on adult education program characteristics. Some 1500 programs across the country received questionnaires late in 2002 and were asked to respond. Many programs have not responded and we need their input in order to ensure the survey is repre-sentative of all programs. If your program was selected, please fill out the questionnaire and return it using the address information provided. If you aren't sure if your program was selected, have lost your questionnaire, or have questions, information (and copies of the questionnaire) are at http://www.nces.ed.gov/surveys/all/aeps.asp or call the study hotline at [1]888-689-3991 or contact aepsprogram@westat.com. Your state director of adult education should have information on the programs in their states which were selected. - Mariann Lemke, NCES e-literacy: The National Institute for Literacy's electronic newsletter is online (new and archived issues) at http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/eliteracy/archive.html NIFL also maintains an online calendar of events at http://www.nifl.gov/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar_world.cgi search LR/RI - the search function at http://www.brown.edu/lrri has been improved so that the LR/RI website is now searchable. Please try it. Let me know what you think.. Thanks to Bill Dennen at Brown for his assistance in getting it to work. Free education publications are available from ED Pubs, the U.S. Department of Education's Publications Center. To order free books, brochures, videos, and more, visit the ED Pubs Web site (http://www.ed.gov/about/ordering.jsp) or call ED Pubs toll-free at 877/433-7827. 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. conferences and workshops - conferences and workshops are listed chronologically and are updated with each bulletin
Rhode Island - Training/events around employment issues for people with disabilities http://www.ric.edu/uap/training.html COABE Natrional Conference, Portland, Oregon, Aril 26-30 http://www.coabe03.org/ NAASLN: People and Partnerships First! Advocating and Partnering for Access, Quality and Outcomes, March 16 - 18, 2003. Columbus, OH. http://www.NAASLN.com or contact NAASLN, c/o CEA, 4380 Forbes Boulevard, Lanham, MD 20706, 800.496.9222 for more information. Project Read Written Expression Training April 4, 5, 25, and 26 at 8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m., The Ray Conference Center at Butler Hospital, Providence, RI The Rhode Island Project Read Collaborative is pleased to announce a 4-day course in teaching sentence structure and writing, called Written Expression. The Written Expression curriculum, part of the Project Read series, is designed for learners in Grade One through adult levels, and features multisensory strategies, materials and activities to help students master: Sentence structure,Paragraph development, and Essay organization. Instructor Nancy Raskin is a national consultant for the Language Circle, publishers of Project Read". She has been a Project Read" trainer for the past four years and has taught twenty-one years at the Carroll School for students with learning disabilities in Lincoln, Massachusetts. $550 for early registration (before March 1) and $600 after March 1.
(This includes lunch and $160 worth of materials)
Adult Numeracy Network Math Institute and 9th Annual Meeting Saturday, April 12, San Antonio, Texas Come join this full-day institute, designed for experienced as well as novice teachers and staff developers who work in ABE, GED, ESOL, and developmental college programs. The meeting will focus, in a hands-on way, on critical math classroom issues as well as different ways of thinking about and doing math. The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) will hold its annual conference from April 9-12, At NCTM, there is a wide range of excellent workshops during the days preceding the ANN meeting on how to teach every math topic more effectively from K-12 and beyond. The ANN meeting is an opportunity for ABE, GED and other teachers of adults to spend some time with colleagues and also join the wider math education community. on the agenda of the April 12th ANN Institute and 9th Annual Meeting: Instruction and Best Practices and a Practitioner Forum. Special Guest: Dave Tout sharing adult numeracy practices from Australia A variety of materials and methods. Focus I. Multiple Paths to a Solution Other ways of teaching math that validate what learnersalready know, Building understanding rather than imposing rules, Emphasis on problem solving-the focus is on the process not just the answer. Focus II. Working in Groups-Hearing About Other Ways to Do Math Communicating about math leads to deeper understanding of other strategies, Hearing the math develops confidence in the math and understanding of the vocabulary Focus III. Your Best Practices Participants will share their best practices in round table groups of 20 minutes duration. guest speakers and the ANN Annual Business Meeting. The Adult Numeracy Network is a voice for those who teach math to adults.
We are a volunteer professional organization of teachers, curriculum developers,
researchers, and others interested in mathematics literacy for adults.
Many of us work in GED, high school equivalency, ABE, ESOL, workplace,
family literacy or developmental mathematics programs. We communicate
with each other via the newsletter (The Math Practitioner), an electronic
listserv called the Numeracy list (To subscribe, write to: majordomo@world.std.com.
In the message, type subscribe numeracy).
The ANN Institute will convene Saturday, April 12, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in San Antonio. A continental breakfast and lunch are included in the registration fee. Please apply early, as space is limited. Pre-registration is required for the full-day institute. Complete the ANN Meeting registration form available on the website and mail or fax by March 21. Please accompany each registration with a $60.00 check made payable to Adult Numeracy Network. To register for the NCTM meeting or for lodging information, go to http://www.nctm.org. Popular Education and the Immigrant Workforce: Organizing for Language,Literacy and Worker Rights The UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education and the Center for Popular Education and Participatory Research will host a conference and workshop on April 25th and 26th, designed to bring together labor and ESL educators, community groups and union members and staff who are interested in applying popular education and participatory research to their work with immigrants. The April 25th conference will consist of a morning plenary and two sets of roundtable discussions, which will be open to participants. The roundtable discussions will include the following issues: How can participatory research or education within a union or community group be an organizing tool? How can you make an education program participatory? How can an organization or union set up and fun an education or research program among its members?How can popular education and participatory research methods be applied to ESL and literacy classes? How can workers' rights be taught within ESL & literacy programs? The Friday conference will be followed by workshop on April 26th.
The workshop will be tailored for English as a Second Language instructors
interested in writing immigrant workers' rights curriculum based on student
experience. For more information, e-mail Laura Nicodemus of the Center
for Labor Research and Education at: nicmail@pacbell.net
May 1-3 Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill Washington, D.C. Immigrant Rights Conference 2003 Conference Goal: To help set a national agenda on issues affecting low-income immigrant communities, focusing on workers' rights, access to government benefits, and immigration rights. http://www.nilc.org/dc-conf2003 The Social Security Administration (SSA) Ticket-to-Work Program is designed to provide employment services and jobs to persons with disabilities. The SSA has been holding information sessions around the country to explain how Ticket-to-Work will operate; one such session will be held in Providence on May 20th. Information: http://www.yourtickettowork.com/calendar?select=May2003#May2003 or contact LR/RI. Thursday, May 22 - 11th Annual Conference on Serving Youth and Adults with Learning Disabilities Hartford Marriott, Farmington, CT http://www.crec.org/atdn/disabilities/ Event: The Maternity Care Coalition (Momobile) provides outreach prenatal and early infant support/care for at-risk families in the greater Philadelphia area. The panel will bring an interesting set of perspectives to the table. Health Literacy and Effective Communication: Building Blocks to Healthier Families June 3, 8:30 am-12:30 pm Moore College of Art and Design 20th Street & The Parkway Philadelphia, PA Understanding the language of health is necessary to process information, obtain services and make appropriate decisions. Educated consumers are best equipped to pursue healthy lives, yet 40% of Americans do not comprehend the phrase "not on an empty stomach." Creating effective health messages is a challenge that depends on understanding the lives and culture of diverse groups. What are some innovative ways to increase health literacy? This session will explore strategies to enrich communication in maternal and child health programs and improve health status by enhancing literacy levels of mothers. Ian Bennett, University of Pennsylvania Health System, Terry Davis, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, Janet Ohene-Frempong, JO Frempong & Associates, Moderator, Christina Zarcadoolas, Brown University Continuing education credits available. For more information or to register, call Lila Slovak at (215) 972-0700 or visit http://www.MOMobile.org June 17-21 Research in Practice in Adult Literacy Institute, Saint John's, Newfoundland, Information available at http://www.mun.ca/educ/adult_literacy or contact LR/RI. Read about previous summer institutes at http://www.brown.edu/lrri/inquiry.html 44th Adult Education Research Conference from June 5-8;prelimanary program brochure, posted atÝ http://www.sfsu.edu/~educ/AERC/aerc.html other events and conferences http://www.nifl.gov/cgi-bin/Calendar/calendar_world.cgi
from previous bulletins: REMINDERS, RESOURCES:
SABES Resource Lists Available. From Carey Reid [full message here]: As you might know, Massachusetts now has a rigorous, stand-alone ABE teacher's license. SABES, the System for Adult Basic Education Support, is a state-wide staff development system funded by MassDOE. Ö[S]months ago I asked if NLA subscribers were interested in helping SABES build resource lists, by standard, in support of teachers seeking the new license here in Massachusetts. Many of you helped out, thank you, and we've also worked with small groups of people locally to build these 29 lists, now with over 150 resources--books, articles, websites, and videos. The lists are now available on SABES's license support website at http://www.sabes.org/license. You can get quickly to the lists by clicking on the "new resources added" link under What's New, or at any time by using the resources link on the bottom of every webpage. When you arrive at the chart listing the 29 standards, click on any standard to go to the resource list we've compiled for it. The lists are annotated; with the annotations, teachers who wish to improve their knowledge and skills in respect to a particular standard can be more assured they're getting the resource they want or need. If the resource can be viewed or downloaded on the Net, we've provided a link. Additionally, we want to improve these lists, so please email me
if you'd like to suggest additions or changes. BTW, the full list
of resources is also collected in a ProCite bibliography file, so if you
use that software and would like to have your own "instant" database, let
me know and I'll email you the file. As stated earlier, SABES is funded
by the Massachusetts Department of Education. To avoid confusion,
the website is not an official DOE site but rather one of SABES's means
of supporting license-seeking teachers in our state. Links to Massachusetts
DOE webpages, however, are provided on the site.
breathe - everyday yoga at your desk. http://www.mydailyyoga.com/yoga/everyday_yoga.html 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.
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 |
