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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.

June 5, 1998

Bulletin #45

Dear Colleagues,

This bulletin carries new notices, legislative alerts, staff development and mini-grant information, and notice of upcoming meetings, events and summer courses. For details, or to post information, please contact LR/RI or leave a message (863-2839) (IÕll be away from June 9 to 15).

Thanks.

Janet Isserlis

____________________________________________________________

NOTICES

Adult Literacy Council will meet on Tuesday, June 9th at LVA on West Exchange Street, at 1 PM. A new slate of officers is being nominated; self-nominations are welcome and greatly encouraged for both chair and secretary of the council. Questions? Call Louise Moulton 455-8041.

A breakfast meeting will held at the Genesis Center on June 16, from 8:30 to 10:30, with the goal of bringing businesses and educators together to work collaboratively to address curriculum guidelines that serve language and communication needs of learners, business and manufacturing communities. Please call Beth J. Pastore at the Genesis Center, 781-6110, to confirm your attendance.

Sharing/discussion group for educators with an interest in ESOL in adult education will be on Tuesday, June 16th, at 3 PM at the Genesis Center, 720 Potters Avenue, Providence.

LD: Sharing/discussion group for educators with an interest in learning disabilities in adult education will be on Wednesday, June 17 , 3 PM at the Swearer Center for Public Service, 25 George Street, Providence.

Sharing/discussion group for educators with an interest in women's issues in adult education will be on Wednesday, June 24 , 3 PM at the Swearer Center for Public Service, 25 George Street, Providence. Please join us in contemplating and planning for a half-day conference concerning women and learning next fall, and to continue our conversations about women, literacy and learning.

MATH share? Are you interested in participating in a meeting of practitioners working with and/or wanting to learn more about numeracy instruction? Please contact LR/RI if you'd like to facilitate and/ or participate in such a session late in June, and/or during the summer. A math web site well worth checking out (at Eastern LINCS) is http://Hub1.WorldEd.org/TEACHERS/Maththing/ny1home.htm

TUTOR STILL NEEDED for a 39 year old man, dually diagnosed and living in a residential care facility in North Providence, is in need of a tutor to learn to read and write. Please contact Cheryl Bautista at Northridge Residential Care, 726-2131.

Literacy Volunteers of America-RI professional development activities: while designed primarily for LVA board members, tutors and staff, the following workshop is open to all interested participants. Please contact LVA-RI at 861-0815 to reserve your place: - Outcome evaluation: Claudia Horn will identify and discuss the core components of an outcome evaluation system. This session has been moved from June 15th, 9 - 4:30 to Monday, June 29th.

SUMMER COURSES:

International House of Rhode Island, 8 Stimson Avenue, Providence will be offering summer classes in ESOL.

Advanced Conversation classes meet Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 A.M. to 11 A.M. and Monday and Wednesday from 4 to 5:30 P.M.;

Beginning Conversation classes meet Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 to 11 A.M.

Advanced Beginning Conversation classes meet from 10:45 A.M. to 12:15 P.M. and

Intermediate Conversation classes meet from 11 A.M. to 12:30 P.M. on Tuesday and Thursday.

An Advanced Beginning Grammar class meets Tuesday and Thursday from 9:30 to 10:30 A.M. and the

Advanced Grammar class meets Thursdays from 11 A.M. until Noon. Learning English through Video for intermediate and advanced level students meets Mondays from 10 A.M. to Noon. Individual tutoring sessions are also available -- times are flexible but sessions are 1 and 1/2 hour per week for 4 weeks and are $40 for six hours. Fees are normally $30 per month for classes that meet twice a week; $15 to $20 per month for classes that meet once a week. Phone: 401-421-7181, FAX 401-751-9733

If you're aware of any summer programs for adult or intergenerational learners or practitioners that have not yet been announced in the bulletin, please contact LR/RI

Summer Institute: A professional development event in adult education and employment

August 19-20, University of Hartford, West Hartford, CT. Advanced workshops for teachers, ESL series, family education and support, new teacher orientation, school to career exemplary programs, technology integration, and workshops for directors and administrative support staff are featured. Registration deadline is July 24, (late deadline July 31 with a $10 late fee). One day, $50, two days, $90. CEU's can be earned; for full schedule, contact LR/RI, or Elizabeth Kaflik at (860) 524-4046.

Summer courses: Karen Karten, Coordinator for Woonsocket Education Department and ESL instructor (secondary and adult) brings a practical approach to all the theory behind second language acquisition and TESL methodologies, teaching Second Language Acquisition and Content-Area ESL at Providence College this summer. The courses both begin on June 22, will be starting at 7:45 am and 9:45 am respectively for six weeks. Registration has begun-please call by June 12. For more information, call the Graduate Education Department at PC, at 865-2247.

Summer computer class will start at International Institute of Rhode Island on Saturday, June 6, for 8 weeks. The tuition is $100, textbook is not included. Information? call Moin at 784-4610.

You are invited to attend a reception with Charles Kernaghan, Director of the National Labor Committee in Support of Worker and Human Rights on Thursday, June 18 at 5:30 PM. Bell St. Chapel, 5 Bell St., Providence. (Bell runs north at the corner of #517 Broadway, near Tobey St.). The reception is free and open to the public. The National Labor Committee (NLC) has brought inter-national attention to the issue of child labor and sweatshops in the manufacture of clothing in the US, Haiti, Central American, and China, and has gained headlines by targeting well-known manufacturers and retailers such as Wal-Mart's Kathie Lee Gifford label, the Gap, and Walt Disney Co. On June 18, Kernaghan will announce the beginning of a national campaign calling for Corporate Disclosure/The Public's Right to Know in which countries and under what kind of labor conditions companies produce their goods.

Following the reception, Kernaghan will be the keynote speaker at the Institute for Labor Studies' annual Labor Education Awards Dinner at 6:30 at the Westin Hotel. The theme of the dinner is the "Fight for Workers' Rights;" several RI organizations will be honored including the United Workers Committee/Progreso Latino, RI Jobs with Justice/Workers' Rights Board, RICOSH, the Brown Student Labor Alliance, Students Against Sweatshops, the Bell Street Chapel, and several union organizing committees. Tickets for the dinner are $40. Information: 463-9900.

resource available: The Journal of Basic Writing , a semiannual publication, produces two issues yearly. Subscriptions: 1 year, individual, $15.00; 2 yrs, individual, $28.00 1 year institutional, $20.00; 2 yrs, institutional, $38.00;

to subscribe, contact Office of Academic Affairs, The City University of New York, 535 East 80th Street, NY, NY 10021. Phone: 212-794-5779, Fax: 212-794-5706; Please make checks payable to CUNY--Journal of Basic Writing.

The Spring, 1998 volume includes: P. Gay: Dialogizing Response in the Writing Classroom: Students Answer Back; S.Stan and T. G. Collins: Basic Writing: Curricular Interactions with New Technology; C. Spigelman: Taboo Topics and the Rhetoric of Silence: Discussing _Lives on the Boundary_ in a Basic Writing Class; E. Bruna,et al : Assessing Our Assessments: A Collective Questioning of What Students Need -- and Get; H.S. Wiener: The Attack on Basic Writing -- and After; I. Shor: A Response to Karen L. Greenberg and Terence G. Collins.

Participants sought for heath and literacy survey: The Practitioner Dissemination and Research Network is looking for practitioners who are interested in completing a short, 39 question survey for a NCSALLstudy on the use of health related issues in literacy learning environments. Any practitioners who have used health-based lessons in their ABE or ESOL classes or who are interested in doing so can obtain a copy of the survey and description of the research project by contacting David Hayes at PDRN RI@aol.com or by phone at 331-9261.

Health resource available: (from John Comings, NLA list June 1/98) from The National Health Law Program: "Ensuring Linguistic Access in Health Care Setting: Legal Rights and Responsibilities" is now available. The Executive Summary can be found at www.healthlaw.org or call 800-656-4533, ask for publication 1362.

First World Conference on Non-pharmacological therapies for ADD, ADHD, Learning and Developmental Delays : A 2-day weekend event .Speakers will discuss Alternative Solutions and Therapeutic Strategies June 19 - 20, Westchester County Center White Plains, New York (30 minutes from Midtown Manhattan). Information: call (212)-769-2457

Providence Public Library's Language Exchange will be starting in July. Call Heather Zorn at 455-8066 for more information about this one-to-one summer tutorial program.

(from the NIFL-family listserv) Gifts in Kind International - access to product donations: Through Gifts in Kind, 501(c)(3) organizations can access donations ranging from software, new and used computers systems, office equipment to books, education and recreation products, toys, personal care items, and building supplies at significant savings. For example, Microsoft Office Pro 97, retailing at $599, is available through Gifts in Kind for only $65. To receive donations, 501(c)(3) charities must register with Gifts in Kind International. Registration fees for 1998 are: $125 for organizations whose previous year's total revenue was under $1 million, $250 for organizations whose previous year's total revenue exceeded $1 million. Information, call Barbara Florence, director of quality assurance/human resources, 703/299-7570; web site: http://www.GiftsInKind.org.

Members of the RI adult education community are working to support legislation around workforce literacy and funding for adult education.Texts of proposed legislation can be found at the Secretary of State's website: http://www.state.ri.us/ A list of proposed legislation, organized by subject, can be found at http://www.state.ri.us/WWWSUBJT.HTM To follow the progress of a particular bill, click on Bill Tracker. This will tell you what's been done, what hearings are scheduled, etc. For assistance with/access to the web, please contact LR/RI, or check in at any public library with internet access (during the time IÕm away - June 9 - 14).

from Bill Raleigh, Laubach Literacy, on the NLA list: A national coalition of education organizations is sponsoring a national education call-in day to members of Congress on June 10 to stress the need for adequate funding for education. The House and Senate are considering budget proposals that would significantly cut education funding, despite the existing and projected budget surpluses. The House Budget Resolution would cut up to $100 billion in domestic spending over the next five years, including more than $4 billion from education spending. The Senate Budget Resolution cuts education spending for FY99 by $1.1 billion. These budget resolutions will serve as guidelines for House and Senate appropriations committees when they meet to allocate funds for FY99. Adult education has always been woefully underfunded. If Congress follows the priorities of the Senate and House budget committees any increase is in jeopardy. On June 10, please make four phone calls: One to each of your US Senators, one to your US Representative, and to one other person in your state and ask them to do the same.

The message to members of Congress is simple. Tell them why adult education is important in your state and community. Note that we spend less than $300 per student per year---far less than almost any other education program. Ask them to support the following FY99 appropriations: $500 million for adult education state grants $12 million to support volunteer literacy networks through the national programs account $6 million for the National Institute for Literacy $150 million for the Even Start Family Literacy program. You can reach any member of Congress by calling 202-224-3121.

World Education has two positions opening in Guatemala on a literacy program, one is research and evaluation the other is literacy coordinator. Spanish speakers who would be interested should contact David Kalher at 617-482-9485.

SUMMER professional development opportunity: Internet drop-in sessions will continue this summer, beginning Friday, June 26th from 9 am to noon, and continuing on Fridays through August 7th. During these sessions, practitioners and/or learners are invited to come to the Swearer Center for Public Service at 25 George Street, Providence, to learn more about using computers generally, and word processing and the internet particularly. If Friday mornings are not convenient, other times can be arranged by appointment. Please call LR/RI if you'd like to participate.

Are you interested in participating in other forms of professional development activity during the summer months? Please contact LR/RI - possibilities range from discussion groups, focused workshops, reading groups. Is there a time of day or day of the week that works best for you? Particular areas of interest? Formats (discussion groups, workshops, reading circles)? Please - you tell me.

employment opportunity: Adult Education and Literacy Technology Specialist, at Virginia Commonwealth University, Division of Educational Studies, Adult Education Program, Virginia Adult Education and Literacy Centers. Deadline, June 22; details - call LR/RI.

NCLE needs our help: Because the National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education (NCLE)Õs continued operation depends on secure funding beyond December 1998, it is important that potential funders know the extent of the clearinghouse's benefits to the field. State directors of adult education need to hear our opinion of the need for such a national adult ESL resource center, because they may have a role in determining NCLE's future. Please contact your state director (in RI, Bob Mason) by phone, mail or e-mail during the first two weeks of June. NCLE produces digests, documents, provides web access to information that has been used widely for years. Questions? contact LR/RI.

MAILING LIST: In order to update the mailing list, to ensure that the bulletin is going to people who want to read it, please let me know by July 6 if you wish to continue receiving the bulletin in hard copy, and/or if you would prefer to receive it via fax or email. If you donÕt call by July 6th, your name will be removed from the mailing list for hard copies. Email and fax lists will remain unchanged unless those receiving the bulletin by email or fax ask to be removed from the list.

MINI-GRANTS AVAILABLE:

DESCRIPTION OF GRANTS

Four grants of $400 each are available for practitioners wishing to explore a particular idea, reflect upon a problem, develop a teaching strategy, work on curricula, research a particular aspect of learning and/or teaching, deal with program design, implementation, assessment - you decide. The parameters of the grant are deliberately broad to accommodate your particular interests. The project should be something that impassions you, and that enables you to develop some tangible thing - a curriculum, a report, lesson plans - which can be shared with others in the field.

GOAL OF GRANTS

The overall goal is to think about and somehow change one's practice, and to enable practitioners to invest their time and energy in carrying out useful and creative staff development and program development projects. The ultimate beneficiary of the grant is the learners in your program. This is not necessarily an inquiry grant but rather an opportunity to take some time to think about pursuing a thread and developing something that will help your own teaching and can be shared by others. You might: - produce a series of lesson plans with a clear rationale that you can share with others through workshops, meetings and/or email; - refine an assessment process; - reflect upon what's worked within your program/classroom in terms of retention, attendance, learner motivation, progress and document your reflections so that others may draw on your learning.

The project should be small in scope - that is, it should look closely at a particular task - but go into some depth around that subject/task/idea.

ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible, you need to have been teaching for at least a year, be reasonably sure of employment in adult education in the fall and commit to participating in a mini-conference late in the fall during which time project outcomes and processes will be shared with the field. A written report will be submitted, to be posted on Literacy Resource/RI's web site, and to be disseminated as part of a collection of occasional papers both in hard copy and on-line.

GUIDELINES

--Up to $100 of the grant can be used for postage, supplies, consumables (film, tapes), photocopying and the like.

--Most of the money is intended as an honorarium for the practitioner's time in developing the project.

--Grant recipients should complete their work by late fall and present at a mini-conference sometime before the end of the calendar year.

TO APPLY: Fill out the form below (or write a two-three page narrative responding to the questions), and mail your application to LR/RI, PO Box 1974, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912 or email to janet_isserlis@brown.edu

For this project, I would like to ......

- BECAUSE.....

- THIS IS HOW I WANT TO DO IT......

- THIS IS WHAT I HOPE TO LEARN OR GAIN FROM THE PROJECT.....

- HERE'S A PROPOSED ROUGH BUDGET

- THIS IS HOW I THINK IT WOULD BE BEST TO COMMUNICATE MY PROJECT'S OUTCOMES TO THE FIELD

For more information, and/or to check on whether an idea is appropriate for a mini-grant, please contact LR/RI. (863-2839, fax: 863-3094, or email) Deadline July 1, 1998.

planning ahead: International Institute of RI announces fall classes

English Language Center

To learn to speak, understand, read and write English as a Second Language (ESL) September ~ June 9:00-12:00, Mon ~ Fri. 7:00-9:00, Mon ~ Thur. $65/month for morning class, $35/month for evening class For non-native English-speaking adults. Call in August for information about September registration at 461-5940.

Job Training & Placement

For people who want to work, October ~ May 9:00-1:00 for English Some afternoons for vocational training, Free if you meet the eligibility requirements. Nominal book fee. Eligibility: Residents of Providence or Cranston; 22 years or over; low income; work permission, intermediate English. Sign up now; you will receive a letter in late July. Call for more information at 784-4602.

English for Work

To improve your English for work, September ~ June, 9:30-11:15am, Mon ~ Thur, 6:30 - 8:30pm, Mon - Thur $35 per month. For non-native English-speaking adults who need to improve English for work.If interested, call Julie Fischer at 784-4607.

Citizenship/ESL

To prepare for the citizenship examination, September ~ June 9:00-11:00am, Mon, Wed, Fri. 6:00-8:00pm, Tue, Wed, Thur. 9:00-12:00, Saturdays, Free for weekday classes $25 for Saturday class. Eligibility: Four years residence in US; some English fluency. Sign up now. We will call you when space is available. Call for more information at 784-4611.

Family Literacy/ESL

To learn to read for adults and pre-school children, September ~ June § 9:00-11:00am, Free. Eligibility: Less than five years of formal education or native language has non-Roman script or no native language literacy. Sign up now. We will call you when space is available. Call for more infomation at 784-4614.

Computer Training

To learn Windows95, Word, Excel, Saturday sessions year-round, 9:00am-11:50pm, 12:00pm-2:50pm, 3:00pm-5:00pm, 8-week sessions: Tuition: $110 (registration, lab and textbook fees are included) Shorter sessions: Tuition to be announced, some English fluency is needed.

Call: 784-4610 morning class infomation; 784-4612 afternoon class information

REMINDERS:

Stats resource available: The State of Literacy in America: Estimates at the local, state and national levels, is now available, free of charge from the National Institute for Literacy. While the use and abuse of statistics can be daunting, the volume is of interest - it projects literacy abilities and problems on local levels using the National Adult Literacy Survey (NALS) as a basis for these estimates. For a copy of the publication, call 1-800-228-8813.

Resource available: Teaching and Learning with Internet-based Resources, by Susan Cowles, is available in hard copy or on line at http://www.nifl.gov/susanc/inthome.htm From the on-line introduction: "Literacy students, instructors, program administrators, and other life-long learners are all in the group moving along the information superhighway. Some people have been running for a while; others are just starting down the road. Beginning to use the Internet can sometimes seem as grueling as participating in a marathon. This short course is designed to make the journey as informative and enjoyable as possible." To order a hard copy of the document, please call 1-800-228-8813. Susan Cowles is a Literacy Leader Fellow for 1996-97; this document is her fellowship report to the National Institute for Literacy.

from previous bulletins:

LEGISLATIVE INFORMATION ON-LINE (from Fran Keenan at the Center for Applied Linguistics): http://www.StateServ.hpts.org provides current and exclusive state legislative information on welfare reform & immigrants. The 1996 welfare law rewrote the rules for immigrants, originally cutting $24 billion in cash, medical, and food stamp benefits. Although $12 billion in SSI benefits were restored in 1997, states are still challenged by the cost shifts from federal to state and local safety net programs, and are determining whether and how to serve particularly vulnerable immigrant populations. State legislation is summarized by cash assistance, medical assistance, nutritional assistance, and naturalization. Also available on-line are the Project's popular new series of issue briefs "Welfare Reform & Immigrants." Currently posted are briefs on: State Trends, Nutritional Assistance, and TANF. The website was launched by the Health Policy Tracking Service at NCSL. StateServ also provides information on state policies and legislation in the areas of adolescent health, HIV/AIDS, and youth access to alcohol. The website is supported with grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Ford Foundation. For more information on StateServ, call The Health Policy Tracking Service at 202-624-3567 or e-mail them at: info@hpts.org.

For more information on Welfare Reform & Immigrants, contact Ann Morse, Immigrant Policy Project, (ann.morse@ncsl.org) or Jeremy Meadows (jeremy.meadows@ncsl.org). We welcome your comments. (The IMMIGRANT-NEWS-L distribution list is a service of NCSLnet, the Electronic Information Network for State Legislatures. National Conference of State Legislatures. For information on NCSLnet services send a blank e-mail message to: NCSLnet-Info@ncsl.org).

AIDS RESOURCES ONLINE

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention1s national AIDS clearinghouse is located at http://www.cdcnac.org. It's Up to Us: An AIDS Education Curriculum for ESL Students and Other English Language Learners, by Henry Lesnick, is available on line at http://www.hostos.cuny.edu/homepages/lesnick/AIDS. AVERT, AIDS Education and Research Trust, a British site, is at http://www.avert.org/ World AIDS Day is observed on December 1st, but the need to work on appropriate educational strategies around HIV and AIDS prevention education persists year round.

PROJECT BASED LEARNING AND ACCESS TO THE INTERNET

How is the internet being used in adult education? What are some helpful uses, and how do we sort through the huge amount of material available on line? Susan Gaer is interested in helping programs link to one another, and has been doing so through an email project homepage on-line, at http://www.otan.dni.us/webfarm/emailproject/email.htm. If you have or know of similar learner work on line, please contact Susan at SusanG2@aol.com. As well, David Rosen (who in addition to advocacy work, has done a great deal of work on and research into using the internet) has asked that we have a look at the inquiry maps on the Adult Literacy Resource Institute1s home page. As he explains, "[a]n Inquiry Map is a group participatory research process on a topic of high interest to the group. Participants (in this case, adult learners) make their own questions, and then set about finding answers to them. The Inquiry map is a process which is never finished. Many of the questions go unanswered, are only partially answered, or have only one answer given where other points of view are possible. So, there is room for other participants to join in the process at any time, to add their answers, their comments on the answers already given, and questions which they might also choose to research." Questions, answers and comments can be posted to David Rosen <DJRosen@world.std.com>, and he'll add them to the inquiry map. So, it keeps on being an inquiry process with each new person who reads and adds to it. He welcomes additions of questions and answers; as you may know, many internet sites run threaded conversations on a variety of topics. The ALRI sites are: http://www2.wgbh.org/MBCWEIS/LTC/ALRI/I.M.html and http://www2.wgbh.org/MBCWEIS/LTC/ALRI/IM3.html (How to make inquiry maps). The LR/RI website has added a page about technology and learning as well. The page consists of the beginning of a discussion about the ways in which technology can be used interactively -- is the screen just a big flashy workbook, or is there more to it? Your comments can be sent by email, fax or regular mail, and will be added to the page to continue the conversation.

and also from previous issues:

Workshops available - During the past few years I've worked with a team of women from around Canada, through the Canadian Congress for Learning Opportunities for Women, on Making Connections: Literacy and EAL Curriculum from a Feminist Perspective. The curriculum was developed for learners in basic education and English language programs. A series of workshops have been developed and are available to anyone in the area with an interest in learning more about incorporating the curriculum and its approaches into their own work. Please contact me (Janet) at LR/RI for more information and/or to schedule a workshop. Information about the curriculum is also available online at http://www.nald.ca/canorg/cclow/EAL.HTM. While the cost of the curriculum document itself is $20, there is no charge for the workshops.

ERIC/ACVE continually collects written materials on all aspects of adult, career, and vocational education to be considered for inclusion in the ERIC database. Research reports, annotated bibliographies, conference papers, instructional materials, position papers, program descriptions and evaluations, curriculum guides, proceedings, lesson plans and teaching guides, and resource guides, are for the database. If you have a document or documents you would like to submit, contact Steve Chambers, acquisitions coordinator at chambers.2@osu.edu or call 1-800-848- 4815, ext 47642 or send your documents to: Acquisitions Coordinator, ERIC/ACVE, 1900 Kenny Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1090.

Materials are evaluated by subject specialists according to the following criteria: significance, relevance, timeliness, applicability, authority of author, comprehensiveness, clarity of presentation, reflection of emerging trends, capability of meeting users' needs, and generalizability. Every item submitted is given careful consideration. If an item is not selected for ERIC, the author is given an explanation of why it did not meet the selection criteria.