On May 23, Rhode Island hosts its sixth annual State Adult Education Conference, supported by the RIDE Office of Adult Education, at the Radisson Airport Hotel in Warwick. The conference aims to bring together a range of voices and knowledge and to further opportunities for area adult educators to share ideas and learn with one another. We look forward to your being part of this process.
The deadline for registration is May 5th. To register for the conference, please contact Jessica Ortiz at (401)456-2838, or email jortiz@ric.edu. The registration fee is $25 per person; scholarships are available.
- Janet Isserlis and the conference planning committee - Michele Rajotte, Nancy Fritz, Jill Holloway, Carol Altreuter and Howard Dooley.
conference program:
Morning sessions: 9 - 10:30
workshop: The Politics of Adult Education, Art Ellison, Bureau of Adult Education
The interactive workshop will focus on the skills that adult educators need to be successful advocates for their programs and students at the state and federal levels. Each workshop participant will receive a 50 page handout package that includes examples of materials used in successful adult education advocacy campaigns around the country.
Art Ellison is the State Director of Adult Education in New Hampshire and Chair of the Policy Committee for the National Council of State Directors of Adult Education
workshop: Learning Culture: Communication and Empathy in the ESOL Classroom, Katherine Meyer
Participants will experience hands-on activities to raise awareness of the cultural adjustment process, foster cultural negotiation in the ESOL classroom, and, ideally, reduce fear of difference. Handout will include lesson plans and other resources.
Katherine Meyer teaches at the Institute for Labor Studies and Research and is a PD consultant for the Refugee Resettlement and Education & Training Departments at the International Institute. She has a Masters in TESOL from the School for International Training.
workshop: Learning Disabilities: Ralph Orleck, Barbara Bown, Nancy Fritz, Susan Grislis, Lynn Landi, Kathleen Young
Adult Educators and administrators with an interest in adults with learning disabilities have gotten together to continue this workgroup initiated by RIDE to serve as the RI Adult Education Learning Disability Advisory Committee. The Committee's functions are to : Provide Information on appropriate instructional methodologies for adults with learning disabilities; Gather resources useful for adults with learning disabilities and instructional programs providing services to adults with learning disabilities; Provide training recommendations for teachers; Support LD awareness for new teacher training; Promote the use of the LD screening tool; Collaborate with RIDE to encourage the implementation of the recommended Pathway for Adults with Learning Disabilities.
The purpose of this session is to describe these functions, what the Committee has accomplished to date and solicit feedback from participants as the Committee plans its work for the coming year.
Ralph Orleck, has served as the Principal/Special Education Director for the Rhode Island Department of Corrections Education Unit since 2000. He was a special education teacher for the Connecticut Vocational Technical School System for 14 years as well as a part time and full time teacher for the RI Department of Corrections from 1978 to 2000. Ralph has served on the Governor's Adult Literacy Task Force and is currently Vice-Chair of the Rhode Island Special Education Advisory Committee and chair of the Correctional Education Association's Special Education Special Interest Group.
Barbara Bowen, Literacy Specialist, RI Professional Development Center has over 27 years in public education of all grades K-12 and experience in teaching developmental reading in community colleges. As a committed lifelong learner, Barbara embraces opportunities to collaborate with educators whose goal it is to support adult learning and social responsibility on behalf of the greater community. She is a certified reading specialist experienced in the classrooms of life, and educated through several institutions including Long Island and Cornell universities.
Nancy Fritz is the Adult Education Director at The Genesis Center. She has been working in adult education since 1987. She has an M.A. from Brown University in ESL/Cross-cultural Studies.,/p>
Susan Grislis is the co-founder and Executive Director of Project LEARN, Adult and Family Literacy Programs, Inc. In the early 1990's, to address the need of adults with a diagnosed or suspected learning disability to have a specialized reading program, Susan implemented the Wilson Language System. This successful, multi-sensory reading program has been the cornerstone of the evidence-based methodology used by a cadre of Project LEARN teachers since 1996. Susan also serves on the Rhode Island Adult Education Advisory Council and is the co-leader of the Rhode Island Student Leadership Group.
Lynn Landi is a Senior Rehabilitation counselor in the Office of Rehabilitation Services and special liaison to the Department of Human Services who coordinates the learning disability project. She received her BA in Psychology from RIC and MA in Rehabilitation Counseling from Assumption College and has worked in the field of education, health, social services and rehabilitation for 34 years.
Kathleen Young, ABE teacher at Project Learn, is Wilson and Orton-Gillingham certfied, and has been teaching for over 25 years. She taught children with learning disabillities in public schools and adults with learning disabilities in literacy centers. Kathleen has been with Project Learn for seven years. Before that she taught reading, comprehension, and written expression at the Mashantucket Pequot Reservation. She uses multi-sensory approaches to teach reading, comprehension, and written expression.
workshop: GED As Project, Al Alba, PdD.
This workshop will focus on presenting an overview of the Rhode Island Reading Content Standards and will then introduce the GED as Project program. The GED as Project program, developed by educators in the state of Virginia, incorporates inquiry activities to promote meaningful learning. The Project uses the Steck- Vaughn Predictor Test PA questions as a springboard to generate lessons. The presentation will focus primarily on the reading comprehension strand. The presentation will introduce instructional techniques that facilitate reading comprehension. The various question types on the GED reading comprehension exam and how to best answer the types of questions will be discussed. Teachers will engage in solving several of the reading comprehension questions on the GED PA practice exam.
The presenter will give each participant a copy of the GED as Project, Volume 3 LA Reading workbook. In addition each participant will be provided with sample GED writing essays and the corresponding scoring analysis that the presenter has found effective to prepare students in writing an effective essay for the GED. A copy of the PowerPoint presentation will be distributed to attendees. Standards-based activities and supplemental resources that support the inquiry model of instruction will also be introduced.ÊParticipants will receive a user friendly handout to communicate simple Spanish phrases with Spanish speaking students.
Albert Alba, PhD. has instructed secondary mathematics in juvenile corrections for 10 years, and has been an Academic Teacher at the RI Department of Corrections for the last 9 years.
break:10:30 - 10:45
Morning sessions:10:45 - 12:15
"Why, of course! Students need to learn how to formulate their own questions!" Luz Santana and Pat Nelson
What does it mean if we do not explicitly teach students to formulate their own questions? Will they be dependent on us to figure out questions for them? We can help adult learners to become more effective, self-directed learners by buliding their capacity to generate, prioritize, and categorize their own questions. Participants will experience The Right Question Projec''s question formulation methods and will identify ways to integtrate the teaching of question formulation into their lessons.
A co-founder of The Right Question Project, Luz Santana's life experience reflects our fundamental belief in all peopleÕs ability to think and act on their own behalf. She has raised her family on welfare and by working on the factory floor, gone back to school and then committed herself to helping other people learn to take action on their own behalf. She has worked as a housing advocate and community organizer and is nationally recognized for her design of innovative participatory educational programs and her superb facilitating skills. She has been a Community Fellow at M.I.T and has a Master's Degree in Human Services.
Pat Nelson is the Coordinator of the NH Literacy Resource Center and a consultant to the Right Question Project in Cambridge, MA.
workshop: Case Study: Even Before the Basics: Working with Pre-Literate Liberian Adults, Jean Marrapodi
Americans are immersed in a culture of words. When an immigrant arrives in the US with no experience with paper, pencils, books, or English, what does it take to get him or her to even begin to read or write? Join us on our journey as we share our discoveries and best practices, and come prepared to share yours. Several of the Liberians students from the PAG-LC will join Jean for the presentation.
Jean Marrapodi is the director of the Providence Assembly of God Learning Center, the state tutor trainer for LVA-RI and a corporate trainer for Mimeo.com
workshop: The 44 Sounds of English and how they grew: Demystifying English Orthography for Reading and Spelling, Lisa Roseman Bead
Do you struggle to explain to your students why English words are so frustrating to spell, or how there can be so many homophones in English? Wonder no more!
With only 26 letters to spell more than 44 sounds, English presents a torturous problem for those acquiring English as a new language, as well as for native English speakers with language processing difficulties. To explain why, Lisa Roseman Beade will take participants on a short & entertaining journey through the history of the English language. And then we will explore how this richest and most complex soup of a language, without the aid of pronunciation markings, has burdened its 26 letters with describing all the sound patterns inherited with its linguistic borrowings.
Handouts detailing letter/sound, sound/letter correspondences, (for reading and writing), will be provided and some rules for making distinctions in spelling or pronunciation choices will be explored. This is an interactive lesson fueled by questions from the participants.
Lisa Roseman Beade has taught ESL, GED & literacy within the adult community for the last 15 years and also tutors adults and children with learning disabilities. She is a member of the Orton Gillingham Association of Educators & Practitioners.
workshop: Sharing Best Practices in Literacy Instruction Barbara Bowen
During this workshop we will focus on clarifying shared terminology in reading and literacy, identifying and utilizing some research-based instructional strate-gies, and developing and sharing lessons with each other.
Barbara Bowen is Literacy Specialist at the RI Professional Development Center. Full bio above.
lunch 12:15-1:15
Afternoon sessions: 1:15 - 2:15
presentation: Moving to Standards Based Learning, Teaching and Assessment: Implications for the Deaf Adult Learners - Earnest Okwara, M.Ed., MS Deaf Literacy Program
The state of Rhode Island is now moving towards Standards based learning outcomes for its adult learners. With new ideas, come new challenges. These new standards bring new challenges to those in the field of Adult Education in Rhode Island. For teachers of Deaf adult learners specifically, the challenges that come to mind deal with how these new standards impact the teaching, learning, and assessment of English by people who cannot hear the language.
Some researches show that there is not much difference in the way Deaf and non-English speakers acquire English Skills. My presentation will try to enumerate the challenges and barriers faced by Deaf adult learners as they try to learn to read and write effectively while trying to navigate these new standards. Furthermore, it is hoped that by the end of this presentation, possible reasons for these challenges and barriers will be explained, turned to strengths that can then be used to help.
Earnest Okwara teaches at the Rhode Island School for the Deaf. He is a founding member of the Deaf Literacy Program at Brown University. He has Coordinated this program since 1998. Certified as a Middle and High School Principal, and Curriculum and Instruction, he has a Masters in Education Administration from Providence College and Instructional Design from Gallaudet University.
workshop: Voter Education Registration and Action (VERA) 2008: Let's Get Out the Adult education Vote! - Kristen McKenna, Patricia Bellart, Sheri Lupoli
This interactive workshop invites you to learn more about the non-partisan Voter Education, Registration and Action campaign (VERA) aimed at mobilizing adult literacy learners and program staff to vote in the 2008 elections and become advocates for themselves and Adult Education. The workshop presents specific classroom strategies and program practices for engaging adults in the democratic process while building academic and critical thinking skills. The workshop will also focus on how to use the adult education magazine, The Change Agent to develop learner leadership , civics education strategies with many ideas and tools for ABE practitioners.
Kristen McKenna is the New England coordinator for VERA. Patricia Bellart and Sheri Lupoli from RIRAL are the co-organizers for VERA in Rhode Island.
workshop: Using Simplified Input with English Language Learners, Barbara Piccirilli Alsabek
This workshop will present elements of 'simplified input' needed when instructing beginning and intermediate ESOL learners. How can teachers communicate so second language learners will understand us? By demonstrating the features of simplified input (including pausing between subject and verb phrase, 'recasting' information in different ways, and expanding vocabulary through word families) the presentation will offer ESOL teachers a format for providing comprehensible communication to beginning learners of English.
Barbara Piccirilli Alsabek. MED TESL, is an ESOL Instructor at Genesis Center and teaches ESOL and teacher training at Rhode Island College.
workshop: Potatoes, Patterns, Predictions, Carol Altreuter
Come ready to think algebraically with the help of visual and tactile activities a la the TIAN project (Teachers Investigating Adult Numeracy). Go away with materials and questions to try out in your classrooms. PS: Please bring to this workshop the description of one "good idea" math activity that has worked for you and your students (or one that you have heard about from a math teacher you know.)
Carol Altreuter teaches at the Education Exchange (formerly the Washington County Adult Learning Center). She enjoys working with adults at several skill levels, from those needing basic literacy instruction to others seeking help in transitioning to college. After teaching 8 years in the K-12 system in Philadelphia, PA, Carol has focused on working with adult learners for 21 years.
workshop: PD Center's Workforce Development Goals and Purpose, Robin Adams
The goal of the workshop is twofold: First, it is to provide an overview and status of the PD Center's Workforce Development Goals and Purpose for FY09. Secondly, the facilitator will offer possible Next Steps to Workforce Integration for providers as they plan next year's program activities and outcomes. Participants will discuss how the PD Center's goals and purpose align with their program goals and needs for the coming year and offer input regarding top priorities. This discussion will influence priorities for the coming year regarding workforce integration.
Robin Adams is the Workforce Development Professional at the RI PD Center. She has a bachelorÕs degree in Business and over 20 years experience in business administration and operations in the public and private sectors. Her background includes providing technical assistance and professional development to staff, community organizations, and entrepreneurs, and has worked directly with learners and practitioners in adult education / workforce readiness for the past several years.
Afternoon sessions: 2:30 - 3:30
workshop: Persistence: Nancy Fritz, Barbara Al-Sabek, Christopher Bourret
This workshop will provide an overview of the topic of Persistence, how it relates to specific programs and classrooms, and what's currently going on in Rhode Island to address the issue. The discussion will begin with a presentation of the latest research on the subject of adult learners' persistence. Two Rhode Island programs that are participating in the New England Persistence project will then describe their work and what they hope to accomplish. The workshop will conclude with an opportunity for participants to share ideas about what they are doing in their programs to promote learner persistence.
Nancy Fritz is the Adult Education Director at The Genesis Center. She has been working in adult education since 1987. She has an M.A. from Brown University in ESL/Cross-cultural Studies.,/p>
Barbara Piccirilli Alsabek. MED TESL, is an ESOL Instructor at Genesis Center and teaches ESOL and teacher training at Rhode Island College.
Christopher Bourret has been an ESOL teacher with RI Family Literacy/Cranston Libraries since 2001. Before that, Chris spent 5 years as a teacher-trainer with US Peace Corps in Poland. He first became interested in teaching adult immigrant students when he started volunteering with RIFLI and Genesis Center back in 1994.
workshop: PD Center's Workforce Development Goals and Purpose Robin Adams
The goal of the workshop is twofold: First, it is to provide an overview and status of the PD Center's Workforce Develop-ment Goals and Purpose for FY09. Secondly, the facilitator will offer possible Next Steps to Workforce Integration for pro-viders as they plan next year's program activities and outcomes.
Participants will discuss how the PD Center's goals and purpose align with their program goals and needs for the coming year and offer input regarding top priorities. This discussion will influence priorities for the coming year regarding workforce integration.
Robin Adams is the Workforce Development Professional at the PD Center. She has a bachelor's degree in Business and over 20 years experience in business administration and operations in the public and private sectors.
roundtable: CCRI Transitions to College Program - Sharon Hoffman, Karen Johnson, Angela Salvadore
The roundtable discussion will focus on the efforts of the Transitions program at the Community College of Rhode Island, in collaboration with Dorcas Place and RIRAL, to serve as a conduit for students who have received their GED and wish to enter college or high demand training in the state of Rhode Island.
Through group and one on one interactions, students are encouraged to attend workshops and learn about the resources available at CCRI as well as the Bridges program at Dorcas Place and the Transitions program at RIRAL. Discussions will focus on the efforts and outcomes of these workshops as well as the progression of students as they complete the process of applying to CCRI and enrolling in classes. The main goal of this roundtable is to increase awareness of the Transitions program across agencies and discuss ways to help future students move forward into higher education.
Sharon Hoffman is Director of Adult Education/Literacy for the Division of Lifelong Learning at CCRI. She was previously a program director at The Education Partnership, and coordinated CCRI's GEENA Project.
Karen Johnson is the Transitions Statewide Integration Coordinator at CCRI. She previously worked as Graduate Admissions Counselor at Salve Regina University, where she also taught at the undergraduate level and served as a student advisor and mentor.
Angela Salvadore has been working in Adult Education since 1991. She has worked as a counselor and instructor at Warwick Adult Education. Angela is currently the Transition Pathways Coordinator at the Community College of Rhode Island.
workshop: Cognitive Development Software to Improve Problem-Solving Jean Welsh
Lexia Cross-Trainer is an interactive software program that helps strengthen thinking, memory, and problem-solving abili-ties that improve performance in reading and math. The program uses a game controller with rich graphics that are espe-cially motivating to young adults.
Jean Welsh, EdD represents Lexia, My Reading Coach, Fluent Reading Trainer and Symphony Math and provides tech-nology training to programs throughout Rhode Island.
publishers' sessions: Choosing the right textbook by asking the right questions, Caitlin Driscoll Heinle ESL Sales Consultant
With so many materials on the market, it's difficult to decide on one core series that meet the needs of both teachers and students. During this important decision-making process, teachers and administrators must work together and ask themselves the right questions that set their classroom priorities, determine year-end goals, and establish the appropriate classroom content.
In this one-hour workshop, participants will learn to ask the questions that lead teachers to these important answers, and ultimately make their textbook decision easy and clear.
exhibitors at the conference (confirmed thus far)
Lou Karger, Alta Book Center Publishers
Tom Benz, Harcourt Achieve/Steck-Vaughn
Jean Welsh, Lincoln Learning Solutions LLC
Lainie Flipp, McGraw-Hill
Leah Peterson, NELRC/World Education and the National Institute for Literacy
Melanie Greitzer, Pearson Longman ESL
Donna Sherman, Proliteracy
Caitlin Driscoll, Thomson Heinle
2007 conference; for previous years' conferences, scroll down