Bulletin Archives

LR/RI homepage

Swearer Center homepage

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.

December 8, 1999

Bulletin #84

Dear Colleagues,

Notice of upcoming professional development events, conferences, meetings, and new online resources. To post information, please contact LR/RI or leave a message (863-2839). (I will be out of the office from December 10 - 15).

Thanks.

Janet Isserlis

____________________________________________________________

NOTICES

accountability: : The next meeting to work on the development of standards for adult education for the state will be held on Monday, December 27 at 10 AM, at the International Institute of Rhode Island. The meeting is open to all; weÕre working to develop draft standards to publicize and for which weÕll be seeking input by early February.

Sharing/discussion session for adult educators with an interest in ESOL Tuesday, January 11, 3 PM at the Genesis Center (720 Potters Avenue, Providence).

TONIGHT! Spaghetti dinner/holiday party will be held on Wednesday, December 8th, from 6 to 9 PM at Cranston Public Library, 140 Sockanosett Cross Road (Garden City). $5 admission ($2.50 for children under 12) will be earmarked to a fund for adult student activities and events in the state. Call Paul Arcand at 861-0815 for information and to RSVP.

The Adult Education Commission will meet on Wednesday, December 15th at 9:00 AM in Room 211 at the State House. Dr. Todd Flaherty, Deputy Commissioner for Programs and Field Services at the Dept. of Education has been invited to speak about Article 31 and the SALT survey process, and to provide information to the adult education community about the program. The meeting is open to the public.

save the date: On Thursday, January, 20, RI's New England Partnership for Adults with Learning Disabilities team will present its second workshop in a series of three based on the Bridges to Practice guidebooks. The January workshop will be on screening and instructional planning for adults with learning disabilities. This workshop will not focus on formal diagnostic procedures, but will assist practitioners and programs in ways to screen for possible learning disabilities among their learners. A third workshop on instructional strategies will be scheduled for early spring.

Basic information about Bridges to Practice (the information on which much of the LD Partnership training is based, is available online at http://www.ld-read.org. NIFL's website, too, will be a good source of Bridges information within the next few weeks: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl.

Ninth Annual Action Conference: Advancing the agenda for working familes, Saturday, January 22, 8:30 to 4:30 at the Providence Marriott. For information, contact Bill Flynn at 728-5555.

ADULT EDUCATION INQUIRY PROJECTS Inquiry project applications - 1999/2000

From: Robert Mason, Adult Education Specialist Janet Isserlis, Project Director, LR/RI

Please be advised arrangements have been completed to carry out another series of action research/ inquiry projects for personal professional development. This approach uses action research, reflection and sharing with colleagues in order to carry out systematic intentional, field-based inquiry into daily practices.

Funds are available to support up to fifteen (15) separate projects at an average cost of $700 each, which will begin in January and and continue through June, 1999. While practitioners are encouraged to identify areas of interest to themselves, priority will be given to projects in the areas of standards and technology. The RI Department of Education is interested in promoting projects that focus on standards and related standards based instruction and assessment being developed for adult education, particularly including math, reading and ESOL. The Department is also interested in projects examining the effective utilization of technology and its applications in the classroom.

Listed below are the questions which form the application for inquiry awards. Please respond to these questions (limit 4 pages per application) and submit by December 24, 1999 to: Robert W. Mason, Adult Education Specialist, Room 500 Shepard Building, 255 Westminster Street, Providence, RI 02903 Applicants will be notified by January 10, 2000, and an initial meeting of all inquiry project participants will be held at The RI Department of Education, 255 Westminster St. Room 501, on Friday, January 21, from 9am to 12 pm.

1. Please describe the problem/question you are posing, and the thinking/events that have led you to pose this question/problem.

2. What do you hope to accomplish as a result of exploring your question/problem?

3. What action do you plan to undertake in order to address your question/problem? Please include a rough timeline.

4. How will you evaluate your progress with this project?

5. How will you share the results of your work with colleagues at the program[s] in which you intend to conduct the inquiry? How will ensure that your work is considered by colleagues and others during the process of undertaking the inquiry, and once the project is finished. In addition to attendance at monthly meetings, how will you ensure that you seek feedback from peers and others best able to inform your work while in process?

6. Outline your projected budget - how will you be spending your time, what materials will you need? Please remember these projects are not funded to purchase program equipment, but funding can be used for supplies needed to enhance the project, as well as travel, release time if required, planning/reflection time and writing of findings.

Projects may be completed individually or in collaboration with others. Again priority will be given to projects addressing issues within the topical areas cited above and working closely with a partner is strongly encouraged. All participants will be required to attend three full group meetings (at the project's start and middle and at the final presentation to be held in June, and to meet monthly in smaller groups.

Interim reports are required at the project's mid-point. These guidelines in the inquiry process have been implemented in order to acknowledge the potential of practitioner inquiry to make a significant difference in adult education practice, and to ultimately benefit learners in programs. In addition to meetings participants will be encouraged to maintain contact with one another through email and phone calls. For further information contact Bob Mason at 222-4600 (ext 2180) email: Ride1555@ride.ri.net or Janet Isserlis at 863-2839 email: janet_isserlis@brown.edu

Action Research is a process in which practitioners examine their own educational practice systematically and carefully using the techniques of research. It is based on these assumptions:

- practitioners work best on problems they have identified for themselves;

- practitioners become more effective when encouraged to examine and assess their own work and then consider ways of working differently;

- practitioners help each other by working collaboratively;

- working with colleagues helps practitioners in their professional development. [adapted from http://www.madison.k12.wi.us/sod/car/index.htm Classroom Action Research]

The inquiry approach to professional development is a vehicle through which practitioners conduct systemic, intentional, field-based inquiry into their own daily practice. The approach builds on practitioners real world experience and is grounded in analytical and reflective practice. Practitioners (teachers/administrators):

a) reflect critically upon their own instructional/managerial practices;

b) review related research in their area of interest;

c) pose problems or frame questions for inquiry arising from their own settings, prior experience, and their goals for teaching, learning or program development, and

d) design analytical approaches for resolving the problem or question. In addition, practitioners develop and investigate theories about the results of their inquiry work.

[this application also appears on line at http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/inq.app99.html]

-> a number of pages have been updated on the LR/RI website. Comments, feedback, suggestions are welcome. Those considering new inquiry projects might wish to review previous work on the inquiry page, and/or review other resources available there. As well, those considering responding to this call and framing projects around standards, might wish to consult LR/RI's standards page.

funding/activity opportunity DEPARTMENT OF LABOR

Employment and Training Administration SUMMARY: The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) redefines the nature of youth and adult programming efforts within the nation's workforce development system by focusing on a systematic approach that offers both youth and adults a broad array of coordinated services. WIA provides for high quality learning, developing leadership skills among youth, and preparing both youth and adults for entry into employment, re-employment (for those who have had prior employment), further education or training, and long-term follow-up services to promote employment retention and career advancement. The primary focus under this solicitation will be to examine approaches that assure that high-risk youth and adults are providedwith quality workforce investment services that address their uniqueneeds through the WIA system. [High-risk individuals may be described as those who have multiple environmental, social and/or educational barriers to becoming employed.This population includes individuals who are homeless, recovering addicts, those who generally reside in communities of high poverty and unemployment, or who are involved in gangs or the criminal justice system. In the Conference Agreement for the Fiscal Year 1999. Appropriation for Title IV of JTPA, 'high-risk' individuals are those described as: including displaced homemakers and older workers, andthose adults or youth who are under the supervision of the criminal.] Further information is available online at : http://www.usalert.com/htdoc/usoa/dol/any/any/proc/any/fr12039901.htm

new publication

NCSALL announces the publication the first volume of the Annual Review of Adult Learning and Literacy, produced and edited by NCSALL and published by Jossey-Bass. A yearly book of commissioned articles on major issues, latest research and best practices in the field of adult basic education, the Review is intended for policymakers, scholars, and practitioners in adult literacy. In addition to commissioned articles on key topics, each review also includes an article reviewing recent events in the field, an annotated review on a particular topic, and an overview of the adult basic education system from another country.

Volume 1 includes a foreward by Archie Willard, The Year 1998 in Review by F. Tracy-Mumford, Lessons from "Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children" for Adult Learning and Literacy by C. Snow and J. Strucker, Youth in Adult Literacy Education Programs by Elisabeth Hayes, Adult Literacy and Postsecondary Education Students: Overlapping Populations and Learning Trajectories by Stephen Reder, Health and Literacy: A Review of Medical and Public Health Literature by R. Rudd, B. Moeykens and T. Colton, Perspectives on Assessment in Adult ESOL Instruction by C.Van Duzer and R. Berdan, A Primer on Adult Learning and Literacy in the U.K. by Mary Hamilton and Juliet Merrifield, Using Electronic Technology in Adult Literacy Education by David Rosen, Resources on the Use of Electronic Technology in Adult Literacy Education by Jeff Carter and Lou Wollrab. For full paragraph descriptions of each article, go to http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~ncsall and click on "Review of Adult Learning and Literacy." Look under the contents section on the Annual Review page for the title in which you're interested, click on the title to see a fuller description of the article. Volume One is available directly from Jossey-Bass Publishers for $34.95 plus shipping. Ordering information: www.josseybass.com or through the NCSALL web site. Or you can call Jossey-Bass directly to order at 1-800-956-7739 or FAX to 1-800-605-2665 .

NEW ON LINE

Gladys Dumas' statement, supplementing the inquiry project report written by Kathy Guglielmi, and reflecting on her experience as a peer mentor to adult GED learners, is online at http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/crans.html

LR/RI's practitioner survey is also online; the deadline for completion has been stretched to the end of the millennium.

also online - A resource page is being developed to address issues surrounding violence and learning, as part of a fellowship from the National Institute for Literacy. Information about the fellowship itself and a growing list of resources is available at http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/screen.html and http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Swearer_Center/Literacy_Resources/proposal.html

National Assessment of Adult Literacy 2002 Home Page http://nces.ed.gov/naal/ The National Center for Education Statistics has posted a new Webpage devoted to the National Assessment of Adult Literacy 2002 program which will assess the current status of the English-language literacy skills of adults in the US. The site offers a description of the purposes and goals of the program; posted and forthcoming working papers on adult literacy assessment; and previews of the published reports the program will produce over the next 3 years, including data on national, state, and inter-national comparisons of literacy, results by major population subgroups, and relationships between background variables and literacy attainment. The site also provides links to related literacy sites and a link to the full text of the 1992 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, which includes an overview of all of the program's adult literacy statistics and conclusions about long- and short-term literacy trends.

from David Rosen: I have created a new Web page on advocacy for adult literacy/basic education/ESOL. It includes Web links to good resources for national adult literacy public policy and advocacy, and some information from two states: Massachusetts and RI...[I]f you have suggestions for additional links or advocacy articles or materials useful for adult literacy advocacy, please e-mail them to DJRosen@ world.std.com. I am especially interested in online or digital format articles about adult literacy advocacy from other states, or materials useful for adult learners and teachers as advocates. If you send me suggestions on Web pages to link, please send me the specific Web address for the advocacy materials, not the general Web site address. The highlights of the Advocacy page now are the public policy pages on NIFL LINCS, the LR/RI Web pages, and some information on advocacy for adult literacy in Massachusetts. The Massachusetts and Rhode Island pages include materials by and for adult learners as well as teachers. The Web address of the Advocacy Page is http://www2.wgbh.org/mbcweis/ltc/alri/advocacy.html

call for substitute teachers - LR/RI substitute teacher roster needs updating. I would like to be able to post the list on LR/RI's website so that program administrators have independent access to the information. This means that if you would like to add yourself to the list of teachers to be called to substitute on an as-needed basis, your phone number and general information (what you teach, hours available) would be public knowledge. If this is a problem, we can revert to the former system of responding to calls from program directors and acting as a clearinghouse for information. Please call or email, letting me know if you want to be on the sub list, and also, if you'd prefer that the list be posted on line or not. Either way (on line or not), the list will be maintained in an ongoing manner.

- LR/RI's list serv does not require membership, and eagerly welcomes additional participants. To join the list, please send your email address to janet_isserlis@brown.edu. Anyone with an interest in adult learning is encouraged to join.

ALSO ON LINE

New discussion groups on Alphaplus: Learning, work and gender equity. Six discussions have been started on these topics: A future for women's literacy? impacts of trauma on learning; Technology and women's learning; Supporting women's learning and Older women learning and changing. To register for the discussions please go to http://alphaplus.ca: Follow the steps to register. After you have registered, choose "AlphaCom discussions". Click on "English Public" for a list of all the English-language, public discussions. Choose the title of the discussion you want to join. (These instructions also appear on LR/RI's women and literacy page).

conferences

Cancer, Culture and Literacy 2nd Biennial Conference May 4-6, 2000 Clearwater Beach, Florida.

Please join us as we focus on cancer communication strategies for a demographically changing population. Our goal for this unique interactive conference is to assist health professionals to develop effective cancer communications that are multicultural, multilingual, and literacy appropriate. Healthcare professionals interested in developing effective cultural and literacy appropriate cancer prevention and cancer control programs and messages; health educators, nurses, physicians, researchers, community leaders, outreach workers, faculty, students/ trainees, policy-makers, literacy specialists and other healthcare professionals. Topics include: Literacy and cross-cultural aspects of multicultural and low-literacy populations, Cancer, culture, and literacy research and educational initiatives, Importance of health care providers' cultural and literacy sensitivity, Appropriate methods of developing cancer communications fornon-English speakers, Integrating emerging technologies in cancer communications, Building partnerships to develop effective community outreach programs for cancer education and promotion.Information: Moffitt Cancer Center Education Program: Susan Easter, M.S. (813) 632-1775 [seaster@moffitt.usf.edu] http://www.moffitt.usf.edu/Promotions/ccl/index.htm Conference brochures and on-line registration available January 2000 Jointly sponsored by the University of South Florida and the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Cancer Institute, National Institute for Literacy and Cancer Research Foundation of America

Bet on a Better Future: LDA 2000 and Beyond. International conference of the Learning Diabilities Association of America, February 16 - 19, 2000, Reno Nevada. For information, please contact LR/RI.

Commission on Adult Basic Education National Conference - COABE Conference 2000 March 5-8, 2000, Chicago, Illinois. Conference registration and hotel information will be available online soon at http://cait.org/iacea/coabe/ .

TESOL 2000 will be held in March, in Vancouver, BC. Information is available online at http://www.tesol.edu.

relatively new on the website:

- 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:

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).