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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.

May 20, 1999

Bulletin #70

Dear Colleagues,

Notice of upcoming professional development events, an employment opportunity, conferences, meetings, minigrants, adult education week .and summer programs. To post information, please contact me at LR/RI or leave a message (863-2839).

Thanks.

Janet Isserlis

____________________________________________________________

NOTICES

Learning to think: advances in cognitive psychology for adult literacy - Monday, May 24th, 8:30 to 1:00 at URI Library's Gallanti Lounge, Kingston Campus. Jennifer Cromley of the Academy of Hope (a community-based literacy program in Washington DC and a NIFL fellow) will review recent literature on how people learn and how thinking skills develop. She has developed materials designed to show how this research translates into best teaching practices. She will discuss several hands-on lessons about the learning process for adult students. Draft copies of the report on the research will be available, (lunch included). Presented by the RI Association for Adult and Continuing Education and RIDE; no fee, but please preregister by calling John Boulmetis at 401-874-4159 or email johnb@uriacc.uri.edu

Discussion/sharing session for educators with an interest in intergenerational learning and adult education will be held on Thursday, May 27th, at 2:30 PM at the Genesis Center. Practitioners returning from the National Center for Family Literacy Conference will be discussing information gathered from the conference. As well, a new report on strengthening family literacy, from the National Institute for Literacy will be available, (and/or call LR/RI).

"Proactive Citizenship for the 21st Century," a conference presented by the Feinstein Citizenship Center of International Institute of Rhode Island, at 645 Elmwood Avenue, Providence Friday, June 4, from 9:30 AM to 3:15 pm -- co-sponsored by the International Institutes of Boston, Connecticut, Greater Lawrence, and Lowell.

"Passing the citizenship test and taking the Oath of Allegiance are the first steps towards empowerment for new citizens. Registering to vote, becoming involved in civic participation and community service, being informed about issues and exercizing the right to vote provide new citizens with the skills and knowledge to participate fully in a self-governing society. This conference is about new citizens of the US and how educators can prepare them for their new role as proactive participants in our democracy." Keynote speaker is Frank Sharry, distinguished acvocate and activist for New Americans, Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, Washington, DC. Conference fee of $35.00 includes lunch and access to book exhibits.

Workshops: Integrating civic participation and community service into a citizenship program, How to plan and carry out voter education/Mock election project, introduction to Immigration Issues, Developing a Curriculum for Citizenship, Benefits of Citizenship, Managing a Citizenship Program, Multi-level citizenship classes and useful classroom strategies, and advanced immigration issues. For more information: Feinstein Citizenship Center. IIRI 645 Elmwood Ave. Prov, RI 02907 Tel: 401-84-4611 Fax# 401-467-6530 E-mail betfos@ibm.net

Discussion/sharing session for educators with an interest in technology in adult education -- Thursday, June 3rd, at 1 PM at the Swearer Center, 25 George Street, Providence.

Discussion/sharing session for educators with an interest in ESOL in adult education will be held on Tuesday, June 1st at 3:00 at the Genesis Center, 620 Potters Avenue Providence. Please bring materials youÕve worked with and like - self-made, learner-generated and/or commercially produced - to share and discuss with the group.

workshop: Friday, June 4, from 9 am to 4 pm, Principles of Effective Training workshop will be held at 260 West Exchange St., Room 206. This will be based on participatory education principles and will be presented by Darlene Goetzman of Alleghany, NY who has done work on PET as developed by Jane Vella in a number of books about training. This session will be primarily for LVA workshop leaders, but will be about general principles of training, not specifics for LVA workshops. It is sponsored by RIDE and LVA-RI and open to all. Please call Donna Sherman at 861-0815 before June 1 to register. Lunch is included.

A conference on the Workforce Investment Act and One Stop Career Centers will be held June 9 and 10 at the Hilton at Dedham Place, Dedham, MA. Registration prior to May 15 is $275, and $325 after. New regulations and the role of one stop career centers will be discussed. For more information, please contact LR/RI.

On Friday, May 21, from 1:30-3:30 PM, Arthur Peña will present a workshop entitled Grammarwords: A Grammar-Teaching Paradigm Shift, at the International Institute of RI, 645 Elmwood Avenue, Providence. He describes the workshop: As teachers of ESL/EFL, we find ourselves obliged to speak in apparent contradictions. We tell our students: 'the past is used for a hypothetical present/future' (If we won the lottery...); 'the present is used to express a kind of scheduled future' (The plane arrives at eight-o'clock tomorrow...); 'the present is used to talk about past events' (...and then he walks right up to her and says...); 'the present continuous is used to talk about future plans (We're eating out tonight...); and so on. There must be a better way.... Dispensing with abstract constructs such as "past", "perfect", and "continuos", the grammarword paradigm presents the tense/aspect/modal forms ('ed', 'have...en', 'be...ing', etc.) directly, systematically, and concretely as meaningful words (i.e. "grammarwords") in their own right. Participants in this workshop can expect to gain not only a theoretical understanding of the grammarword approach, but also the ability to use it in their own classrooms. Pre-registration preferred (not required): Just call (401) 461-5940 ext. 4604 and leave your name.

CCRI noncredit programs

Conversation and Vocabulary - Sat 9AM - 12:30, 12 meetings, 5/22 - 8/14, $90.00

Advanced Writing - Tues/Thurs. 5:30 - 8:30 PM, 15 meetings, 6/1 - 7/20, $90.00

Computer applications and intro to windows95 Sat 9AM - 12:00, 10 meetings, 5/22 - 8/14 $100, Tuesdays 5 to 8 PM, 5/25 - 8/10, 12 meetings, $80.00. Registration will start on Friday 5/7. at CCRI in Lincoln.

Registration and placement testing will take place Monday through Friday 5 - 7 PM and on Saturdays at 9:30 AM until May 21. All new students interested in Conversation and Vocabulary must take the placement test at registration, at the Office of Community Services in Lincoln. (Registration for Conversation and Vocabulary cannot be accepted on the first day of class, so please register before classes start). Course fees payable by check or money order only - cash can not be accepted. For additional information please call Cecilia Londono at 333-7074 after 4 PM or Saturday morning, 8 to noon.

other summer programs? If you know of adult education classes being held this summer, please notify LR/RI so that we can let others know about learning opportunities.

LR/RI will offer computer drop in sessions again this summer. Please contact me if you think you'd like to participate; although registration is not required, this will help in planning for the sessions.

New on line:Mike Kelly, moderator of an on-line workshop on Computers and Learning invites participants to join the workshop from May 12 to June 11. The Computers and Learning seminar will: encourage programs to share their best practice ideas with each other; allow us to look at what has been happening in other jurisdictions; encourage literacy students to say what has worked best for them; raise important issues, hopes and fears that emerge from this work, and develop a list of interesting web sites and resources. To join, go to http://www.alphaplus.ca and follow the prompts to join the new discussion Computers and Learning.

AFL-CIO's "Working for America Institute" annual conference, addressing implementation of the WIA and other pertinent issues including work-linked training programs for immigrant communities. June 12-15, Las Vegas, NV [http://www.workingforamerica.org] The AFL-CIO has created the Working for America Institute to support labor-led strategies for building skills and raising living standards in communities. The conference will address the implementation of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) with Department of Labor representatives, one-stop centers, state and local planning, and fiscal administration. Connections between schools, skills and work will be explored through workshops on skill standards, school-to-work, worker rights, worker-centered learning and basic skills. Learn about innovations in coalition building and integrated strategies for reaching new immigrant communities with work-linked training programs. For a small fee, conference attendees can register on-site to earn professional development education units (CEUs) through the National Labor College of the George Meany Center for Labor Studies. AFL-CIO Working for America Institute, 1101 14th St., NW, Suite #320, Washington, DC 20005 Telephone:(800) 842-4734 FAX: (202) 783-6536 E-mail conference99@workingforamerica.org

Galaxy II Conference -- Action Strategies for Lifelong Learning October 12-17, San Antonio, TX -- to share opinions/views about lifelong learning and develop action strategies for the future. The first Galaxy Conference was convened in 1969, to determine 6 imperatives for action: 1.prepare each person to understand and cope with the issues of the day; 2.remedy educational deficiencies; 3.provide for equal opportunity; 4. enable learners to function more effectively as workers, parents, neighbors, and citizens; 5. improve the quality of life; and 6.share the meaning, values, purpose, and power for ourselves and others around the world. Galaxy II would strive to address the following questions: 1.In the past 30 years, has the field achieved these imperatives? 2.How has the field changed? 3.Are there new imperatives to be addressed? 4.What are the implications of lifelong learning on the family, education, the workplace, economic development, and the community? 5.As the new millennium arrives, what issues face adult education? 6.What are the priorities for the country and the field? 7.What role will adult education organizations play? 8.What strategies will require collaborative action by these organizations? 9.How do these compare with a global perspective? 10.What will be the role of adult education leadership and what strategies, skills, and collaborative actions will be essential? Information: http://www.albany.edu/aaace/conferences/annual.html

EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY - Education Coordinator, YouthBuild Providence YouthBuild is a non-profit organization focused on addressing the needs of low-income young adults. The program consists of four components: academics, job readiness, leadership development, and construction training. The position includes teaching responsibilities, curriculum development, and the coordination of curriculum implementation across program areas. Experience with ABE and GED is desired. Competitive salary and benefits package. Resumes to: Search Committee, 114 Delaine St., Providence, RI 02909.

Fourth Annual YALD Spring Lecture Series Free / Open to the Public -- Adult and Adolescent Reading and Learning Disabilities--Sponsored by the Mass. DOE Young Adults with Learning Disabilities Project, the Community Learning Center (Cambridge), SCALE (Somerville), the Adult Literacy Resource Institute (ALRI) andthe Boston Region of SABES

May 21,3:30 - 5 pm Dyslexia and its Implications for Teaching Adults; Insights from the Connecticut Longitudinal Study Bennett A.Shaywitz, MD Sally E.Shaywitz, MD Yale University Medical School

May 28, 3:30 -5 p.m. "Analysis of Characteristic Spelling Errors of Reading Disabled Students and Implications for the Teaching of Spelling; Insights from the NICHD Early Interventions Project" Louisa C. Moats, EdD.at The Central Square Library 45 Pearl Street, Central Square, Cambridge (Adjacent to Municipal Parking Garage) For information and travel directions please call: Ashley Hager, Community Learning, at (617) 349-4482 Refreshments will be served before each lecture from 3:00 to 3:30

You are invited to the Institute for Labor Studies and Research's annual dinner, with keynote speaker Linda Chavez-Thompson, Executive Vice President of the national AFL-CIO. Wednesday, June 9, at 6:30 p.m. Westin Hotel, Prov. Tickets: $40. Theme of dinner: Building the Future of the Labor Movement. Honorees include: RI Organizing P

roject; Progreso Latino; Laborers' International Union's Labor-Management Trust and Health and Safety Fund; RI AFL-CIO's District Activist Committees, Organizing Roundtable, Retirees and Dislocated Workers Programs; Council 94 AFSCME and MHRH Labor-Management Cooperation Program; RI Human Resource Investment Council; RI Building Trades Council; RI Women's Institute for Leadership Development (RI WILD); RI AFL-CIO/United Way Community Services Department and Union Counselors Program; Rank-and-File Union Organizing Committees; Workplace Rights/ Labor in the Schools/School-to-Career Program; and the National AFL-CIO. For information, call (401) 463-9900.

Adult Education week

Government in Action - May 17 and 19: groups of adult learners will participate in mock legislative sessions at the invitation of Senator Mary Parella, Chair of the RI Adult Education Commission. If you've not received a mailing about this activity and want more information, please call LR/RI.

Adult Education Day at the State House, May 20, 2-5pm - Learners, teachers and staff from adult literacy will be at the state house to display program information and to talk with their legislators. If you haven't already done so, please contact LR/RI to confirm your attendance if youÕd like table/ display space made available. If you have them, please bring agency banners to display from the banisters. We will gather at 3:30 in the Governor's State Room for a short speaking program, including recognition of significant events in adult education during this past year.

9th Annual Walk for Literacy, Saturday, May 22 - (registration 8:30 am State House), sponsored by the Providence Journal Charitable Foundation/United Way Literacy Fund. Seven adult literacy agencies will raise monies through the 5K walk through Providence, India Point Park and the east side.

MINI-GRANTS AVAILABLE again for summer/fall 1999: Following last year's successful work, another round of grants are available, with a few slight changes to the process:

DESCRIPTION OF GRANTS Five 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. As well, if you're currently working on an inquiry project and have a plan for extending that work, you can apply for funding under this process. 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 time and energy in carrying out useful and creative staff development and program development projects. The ultimate beneficiaries of the grant are the learners in your program. The grant is designed to provide 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, do a literature review on a particular topic and write an annotated bibiolgraphy, critical review and analysis. 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 in adult education for at least a year, be reasonably sure of employment in adult education in the fall and commit to sharing your work through 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 their work sometime before the end of the calendar year.

TO APPLY Please write a two-three page narrative responding to the questions below, and mail your application to LR/RI, PO Box 1974, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912 or email to janet_isserlis@brown.edu by June 1.

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

Please provide contact address (email or regular post), phone number and best times to call. 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, email: janet_isserlis@brown.edu)

conferences

Workplace Learning Conference - Milwaukee, May 16-18. Bringing together teachers, program planners, funders, union representatives, business people, and governmental agency representatives, sessions will be offered across four tracks: Partnerships and Linkages; Program Design and Evaluation; Resources and Technologies; and Trends Affecting the Workplace and Workers.Information: http://www.cew.wisc.edu/workplace or call 608-265-3542.

"A Woman's Place Is...in the Curriculum" conference, August 1- 5, 1999, Rohnet Park, California, focusing on multicultural approaches to incorporating women's history into the k-12 curriculum. Contact: National Women's History Project, 717-838-6000 or nwhp@aol.com .

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).

from previous bulletins: 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.

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).

women and literacy listserv.

To participate, subscribe by sending an email message to: LISTPROC@LITERACY.NIFL.GOV with the following request in the body of the message: subscribe NIFL-Womenlit firstname lastname Substitute your first and last name spelled exactly as you would like it to appear. For example, to subscribe to the NIFL-Womenlit list Sue Smith would type: subscribe NIFL-womenlit Sue Smith There should be no other text in the message (e.g., your signature block). It is recommended that the subject line be left blank if possible.

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.

David Rosen has asked that we have a look at the inquiry maps on the Adult Literacy Resource Institute's 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).