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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.

October 6, 1998

Bulletin #53

Dear Colleagues,

A number of calls for participation, upcoming professional development events and meetings are described in this bulletin. To post information, please contact me at LR/RI or leave a message (863-2839).

Thanks.

Janet Isserlis

____________________________________________________________

NOTICES

Please join us for an informal discussion with Lee Weinstein on Thursday, October 15, from 2:30 to 4:00 PM at the Swearer Center for Public Service, 25 George Street, Providence. Lee, a co-founder of Voices Magazine, is currently working on literacy and writing with developmentally disabled adults in British Columbia. The discussion is intended to encourage participants to share information about learner generated writing generally, help us learn about Lee's work with developmentally disabled adults, and also enable us to give Lee a picture of the work we're doing in RI.

A Pronunciation Workshop for educators with an interest in ESOL in adult education will be facilitated by Nancy Fritz and Sandy Jacobi on Tuesday, October 20 at 3 PM at the Genesis Center. The workshop will address techniques for teaching that were presented at the TESOL Academy in San Antonio this summer. Excerpts from an audio course on accent reduction , "The Sound and Style of American English" by David Allen Stern, Ph.D., will be used, as well as clips from a video entitled "Pronunciation for Success". The workshop will be held in lieu of October's discussion session for ESOL practitioners. Please join us.

Sharing/discussion group for educators with an interest in learning disabilities in adult education has been scheduled for Thursday October 22, at 3:30, location to be announced.

Practitioner publishing - Brown bag lunch from 1 to 2 at the International Institute of RI, November 6 . Please join Lenore Balliro, editor of Bright Ideas, a quarterly journal of writing for and by adult educators in Massachusetts, to share ideas, and explore writing and learning through the writing of other practitioners. Past issues of Bright Ideas have examined citizenship education, family literacy, technology and more; the best of Bright Ideas is online at http://www.sabes.org/b2intro.htm

How to buy a home in the United States: A Curriculum for New Americans Workshop, November 6 at IIRI 3:00-5:00 Lenore Balliro will facilitate the free workshop, also being held at IIRI. Lenore will work with us in using the Fannie Mae curriculum designed to assist new American first time home buyers. The workshop will provide an overview of the FannieMae Foundation's How to Buy a Home in the United States, and also explain why teach home buying, how to use the Curriculum in Your Class, and next steps. Participants will receive a copy of the 2-volume Fannie Mae curriculum: a wirebound teachers' guide and student book.

Sharing/discussion group for educators with an interest in women's issues in adult education will be held Thursday, November 12th, at 1 PM at the Rochambeau Branch library on Hope Street, in Providence. Please join us in as we continue planning not only for a half-day conference concerning women and learning to be held in March, but also to continue our conversations about women, literacy and learning and to plan a smaller workshop for the end of this year.

NETWORK '98 Massachusetts Coalition for Adult Education (MCAE) 1998 conference, October 28-29 at the Royal Plaza Hotel, Marlborough, MA. Workshops in the areas of health, math, civic/economic literacy, curriculum innovations, GED/diploma programs, technology, ESOL, family literacy and workplace education, as well as plenary sessions and exhibition hours. Early registration due by October 2; $45/day MCAE members, $65/day for non-members; $75/day after 10/2/98. For more information, contact LR/RI or MCAE at 1-800-339-2498.

For information about MATSOL (Massachusetts ESOL) professional development events (held on Saturdays) contact LR/RI, and cover workplace learning, standards and assessment, bilingual and ESL education. Registration is required; events are held at various locations throughout Massachusetts.

New Hampshire Conference for Adult Educators - Saturday, October 24, Concord High School. Developing Skills for Civic Participation, includes a keynote address on civic participation, workshops on Equipped for the Future, politics for adult educators, curriculum for political literacy, citizenship, and an afternoon with the Right Question Project, a Massachusetts-based organization that has worked for years to help people build skills to get involved in issues that affect them. Information/registration forms are available through LR/RI, registration is due by October 17th.

CALL FOR ARTICLES The Change Agent wants teachers' and learners' opinions, ideas and experiences in and out of the classroom on the theme of Working Across Differences, and looks for different kinds of writing: learning project descriptions, sample lessons, book/movie reviews, personal stories, interviews, dialogues, plays, poems, math activities, cartoons, drawings, graphs, photographs. The Change Agent's mission is to provide news, issues, ideas and other teaching resources that inspire and enable adult educators and learners to make civic participation and social justice related concerns part of their teaching and learning. Please send writing (on PC disk, if possible), pictures or drawings to: Marie Horchler [email: mhorchler@worlded.org] or to NELRC/World Education, (address, phone, fax as above). Please let us know your intent to submit by 10/31. All articles will be considered and must be received by 11/20/98. Final content decisions are made by The Change Agent Editorial Board; referrals to people/ programs working on projects related to the theme of this issue are welcomed.

The current issue of the Change Agent focuses on work, and is available through LR/RI. If you have not yet received a copy, and would like to, please contact LR/RI. A few copies of past issues are available, and are also online on the Eastern LINCS website http://easternlincs.worlded.org/TEACHERS/ChangeAgent/

Adult Learning: The Essentials of Building Community and Defining Direction: The American Association for Adult and Continuing Education 1998 Conference November 18-22, Phoenix, Arizona. For information, contact LR/RI, or http://www.albany.edu/aaace/ to register online.

reminder: Adult Literacy Council membership is renewable each year and is due on September 30th. If you haven't received information about membership, please contact LR/RI for information.

International Conference on Women and Literacy January 24 -26, 1999, Atlanta, Georgia. The conference is designed to bring researchers, practitioners and policy makers together to pose problems and develop an understanding of linkages between women's lives and their literacies. Issues for discussion include women and literacy as they relate to: welfare to work, health, ethnicity and domestic violence. Participants will examine research, policy issues, applied practice and learners' perspectives. Early registration fee is $100. Hotel information: $105 per night, single or double occupancy, Renaissance Atlanta Hotel 590 West Peachtree Street, NW, Atlanta, Georgia 30308 Reservations: 1-800-228-9898 For more information, or an application, please contact Sandy Vaughn at 404-651-1400 or alcsvv@langate.gsu.edu

soon to be released: New Inquiry Project applications should be ready to mail within the next week or so. Inquiry Projects will be starting in November and will continue through next June. Applications will be sent to programs and will also be available on LR/RI's web site. If you wish to apply and don't receive an application by mid-October, please contact LR/RI.

Substitute teacher list - LR/RI maintains a file of teachers who are available to substitute, so that programs looking for substitute teachers can find those teachers easily. LR/RI does not contact agencies or make placements, but can share information about available teachers. If you would like to add your name to that list, please phone or email LR/RI, telling times of day you're available, areas of the state in which you're able to teach, and the areas you teach (ABE, ESOL, GED, etc.).

The newest issue of Focus on Basics, the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy's quarterly publication, will be available soon. The theme of the issue is Change. You can download FOCUS ON BASICS from NCSALL's website http://hugse1.harvard.edu/~ncsall, order printed copies from Kimberly French, World Education, 44 Farnsworth Street, Boston, MA 02067, e-mail: <KFrench@WorldEd.org>[Single copies are $2.00 each; one year subscriptions (4 issues) are $8.00; rates can be negotiated for bulk orders], or request a copy from Bob Mason.

Included in this new issue:

Why is Change So Hard? Theories and Thoughts about the Organizational Change Process by Marcia Drew Hohn, a director of the Massachusetts state literacy resource center, who reviews organizational change from a theoretical perspective and offers some suggestions based on her years of work facilitating change processes. How Teachers Change by Virginia Richardson examines what motivates teachers to change, and relates staff development models to differing views of teacher change. Dinosaurs and Upstarts: Organizational Change at CASA Latina by Hilary Stern, founder and current director of CASA Latina, who grapples with a common problem in many ABE programs: high turnover. How can a capacity for change be cultivated when teachers are leaving at the end of the year? Hilary provides some strategies. A Story of Improvement by Jane K. Cody, James D. Ford, Kathleen B. Hayward. The authors are affiliated with a literacy program in Knoxville, TN, that has embarked on an ambitious change process. Their program is the Malcolm Baldridge process to determine stakeholder needs, find gaps in their operation, set standards of quality, improve processes, and measure accomplishments. Facilitating Inquiry-Based Staff Development by Jereann King. Staff developers are in the business of facilitating change. Jereann King, a staff member at Literacy South, found herself working with a group of literacy practitioners who approach literacy work in a very different way than she does. She writes about how she examined her assumptions as she helped others examine theirs, and provides concrete suggestions about facilitating inquiry-based staff development projects. An Unexpected Outcome by Edith Cowper. Sometimes the impetus for change comes when you least expect it. Edith Cowper, an ESOL Coordinator at Wake Technical Community College in North Carolina, was participating in a team working together to develop a set of curriculum framework when she realized that her understanding of what it meant to be learner centered was changing considerably. She writes about the elements necessary for change to occur at the individual level. NCSALL Research Finding: results from a survey of state ABE directors on health and literacy are provided, as is a description of NCSALL's staff development research.

New on the website - the Advocacy page has been updated with links to US Tesol's action alert and advocacy network, and to the Right Question Project, which will be presenting workshops at the New Hampshire adult education conference on October 24th. (see page 2). http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/advocate.html

THE COUNCIL FOR ADULT AND EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING 1998 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE - LEARNING IN THE FAST LANE: Any time, any place, anywhere November 5-7, 1998, Crowne Plaza, Phoenix, Arizona.

New technologies are revolutionizing educational and training institutions, putting the adult learner in control and challenging educational providers to rethink curricula, instruction, assessment, support services, quality, and costs. The Conference will focus on Technology, an area addressed by Recommendation III from the report engendered by the Commission for a Nation of Lifelong Learners. Sessions will focus on: Prior Learning Assessment (PLA) technological support for students, Workplace learning, Interactive and asynchronous learning strategies, On-line and computer-based services, Lifelong learning implementation, Public policy and PLA, Cultural diversity and lifelong learning, Adult learning theory and assessment. Contact 1-888-734-CAEL (2235) for more information (until October 30, 1998),or online: HTTP://WWW.CAEL.ORG/CONFWORK/INDEX.HTM

GRADUATE SCHOOL TUITION HELP FOR NEW AMERICANS

November 30 is the deadline to apply for graduate tuition help from the Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans (online at http://www.pdsoros.org). Eligible candidates must be between the ages of twenty and thirty (not older than 30 as of November 30, 1998.); candidates must hold a Green Card or have been naturalized as a US citizen or be the child of two parents who are both naturalized citizens. Information is available by contacting Soros Fellowships at: 400 West 59th St., NY, NY10019; Phone: 212/547-6926; Fax: 212/245-8381; email: pdsoros_fellows@sorosny.org.

relatively new on the website:

- An update on VALUE, the national learner organization, (go to learners), new postings on the links, women and literacy and inquiry pages, as well.

- Research Agenda for Adult ESL The National Clearinghouse for ESL Literacy Education, in collaboration with National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy and with additional sponsorship and support from Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages, has published a Research Agenda for Adult ESL. Its objectives are to provide funders with clear priorities for funding; to provide researchers with support for proposing specific projects; and to provide a focus for dis-cussion about how to improve adult ESL programs. The document incorporates feedback from learners, instructors, program administrators, policymakers, and researchers, and is available, free, from NCLE, 4646 40th street NW, Washington, DC 20016; (202) 362-0700 extension 200, or can be downloaded from NCLE at http://www.cal.org/ncle (and is also linked to LR/RI's ESOL page).

- The Key on line - Monthly newspaper for adults in Wisconsin's basic education and ESL programs.  http://www.keynews.org/ (and is linked to LR/RI's learner page).

Legislation - the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (HR 1385) - has been linked to LR/RI's homepage. Information about finding texts of legislation is on the home page as well as a direct link to HR 1385.

ESOL - links to ESOL sites around the web, as well as teaching ideas from an area practitioner.

Making Connections across culture: Critical reflection on a feminist adult education resource - by Arlene Wells. A report on a research project that examines the way in which one feminist literacy resource does and doesn't accommodate the needs, strengths and cultures of women learning and teaching in adult literacy programs. The report moves beyond an analysis of one curriculum document into a careful reflection of the ways that race, class, and gender (among other things) interlock and contribute to helping or hindering women's learning. The welfare reform page has been updated, as have other pages around the site. Please contribute your input and feedback to the site.

REMINDERS, RESOURCES:

The National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy has recently released a set of informative fact sheets outlining for practitioners and others the projects with which NCSALL researchers are currently engaged. Project histories, plans, and implications for practice are all highlighted in the fact sheets. Projects include studies of Learner Motivation, Impact of Literacy Programs on Adult learners, Adult Multiple Intelligences, Home Literacy Uses, Adult Development and Literacy Learning, Staff Development, Assessment, GED Impact, Health and Literacy, and Reading Diagnostics, Anyone interested in reading about one or all of the projects or anyone who may be interested in project participation information may receive copies by contacting David Hayes at (401) 331-9261. (The PDRN bulletin, including a link to the NCSALL fact sheets is also available online.

From a July 13 NIFL press release: New Report Explores Connection Between Low Literacy and Poor Health

Incorporating health education directly into literacy programs could be an important step towards helping low literate adults improve their health. Research has found a close connection between low literacy and poor health.  A key factor is that health education materials are generally written at the 10th grade reading level or beyond, so adults with low literacy levels generally do not benefit from the information.

The report, Empowerment Health Education in Adult Literacy: A Guide for Public Health and Adult Literacy Practitioners, Policy Makers and Funders, identifies ways of incorporating health education into literacy programs and includes suggestions for how to best bring information on early detection of breast, cervical, and testicular cancer into the adult literacy classroom.  Ideas for incorporating family violence issues into the curriculum are also included. The report is the result of a 2-year participatory action research project conducted by Marcia Drew Hohn, Ed.D., SABES Director at Northern Essex Community College in Lawrence, MA, and is available at no cost by calling at 1-800-228-8813. Dr. Hohn conducted the research and produced the report as part of a Literacy Leader Fellowship award from the National Institute for Literacy.

From Jan Richter, KidsCampaigns Outreach Specialist, Benton Foundation jan@benton.org on the NIFL-family listserv: I am the Outreach Specialist for KidsCampaigns, a comprehensive web site (http://www.kidscampaigns.org) providing information and tools for people to act on behalf of kids, from volunteering to voting. One of my duties is to compile and write the KidsCampaigns Weekly, a weekly email newsletter that briefs kids' advocates on what's in the news about kids' issues and what's new on-line to inform and engage KidsCampaigners -- advocates, concerned citizens, parents, service providers, etc. If you're interested in subscribing to the KidsCampaigns Weekly, you can sign on by sending an email to listserv@cdinet.com, with the message subscribe kids-weekly YourFirstName YourLastName

list servs:

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

Welfare to work listserv: from Glenn Young - For those interested in the subject of welfare reform and learning disabilities, there has been a listserv created through NIFL. To sign up, please send a message to: listproc@literacy.nifl.gov write in the body of the message subscribe nifl-wtwld and your name. Do not write anything in the subject line and do not use any dots or dashes other than between nifl and wtwld. (Click here for more information on listservs).

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.