Rhode Island Adult Education Conference May 26,2010

sessions at a glance:

ballroom / room 307 / room 422 / room 434 / Gaige 213 / Gaige 164
9:00 –10:30 / Improving Learning + Persistence
-Weisel / Teaching Alphabetics
- Alsabek / Using Women’s Perspectives
- Miller / Advocating for Adult Ed
- Collins / Setting a New Course
-Chambers
10:30 – 10:45 / break
10:45 – 12:15 / Improving Learning + Persistence
- Weisel / The Point Behind Percents
- Alba and Snead / Lessons learned
-Venator and Kelly / Communicating the Importance
- Collins / Fostering Learner Independence
- Lynn / Low Literacy Panel
12:15 – 1:15 / Lunch / ballroom
1:15 – 2:15 / College Now
-Salvadore and Gaafar / Implementing STAR Vocabulary
- Day and Sullivan / Implementing Student Leadership
- Garvin / Student Goal Setting + Self Assessment
ESOL
- Lynn / Informal Assessments Useful for Planning
- Bowen
2:15 – 2:30 / break
2:30 – 3:30 / Work the System
- Richter / Adult Ed: Learners’ POV
- Holloway + panel / Teach Vocab according to STAR
- Scott and Bourret / Working on it
- Isserlis / Contextualized Curriculum
- Adams and Bowen

9-10:30 - 1.5 hour sessions:

workshop: Advocating for Adult Education at the State and Federal level Heidi Collins

Participants will develop skills and knowledge of adult education advocacy and ways to build in advocacy activities year round within your programs.

Heidi Collins is the Coordinator of the Adult Educator and Learner Consortium

workshop: Part I: Improving Learning and Persistence: Special Learning Needs – Incidence and Identification Dr. Laura Weisel

Ever wonder what’s underlying academic and employment challenges? To find the source we need to identify what is going on between a student’s two ears! Join this session to hear the findings from screening 7000+ students from 130+ literacy, basic skill, transition, developmental education, at-risk youth, and workforce development programs in 14 states. Participate in taking four, 4-minute screenings accompanying a transformative learning process that delivers empowered students who know, ask for, and can implement the adaptations and learning strategies they need to successfully pursue education and employment goals.

Dr. Laura Weisel has over 35 years in at-risk youth, adult education, workforce development, and behavioral healthcare. Dr. Weisel’s work across the US supports individuals with learning challenges in basic skills, literacy, transition, workforce development, at-risk youth, and developmental education programs. Recent conference presentations include: Mountain Plains Adult Education Association COABE, ProLiteracy NM Adult Education Association, Correctional Education. Dr. Weisel is Past President of the National Association for Adults with Special Learning Needs and serves on NAASLN’s Executive Board.

workshop: Teaching Alpahabetics in evidence based reading instruction (STAR) Barbara Alsabek

Participants will learn how the essential reading component of alphabetics can be combined with ESOL pronunciation lessons to improve both decoding and articulation skills in adult learners. This workshop will discuss and demonstrate strategies for teaching alphabetics within the evidence based reading program, STAR. The lesson used to illustrate the alphabetics component of STAR will be the er/ir syllable type. This workshop will take participants through the steps of an alphabetics lesson geared for both ESOL and ABE students, but will also include an added pronunciation dimension (‘r coloring’) for English as a Second Language learners.

Barbara Piccirilli Alsabek, MED TESL, has taught adult and post-secondary ESOL since 1992. Her research interests include persistence and curriculum development.

workshop: LOL: Laughing Out Loud to Reduce Stress in the ESOL Classroom Lenore Balliro

This workshop is cancelled because of illness, but will be rescheduled as a stand alone, extended workshop later this summer.Chronic stress and anxiety impedes the learning process, limits retention, and isolates students from one another. This interactive workshop will take participants through a variety of activities intended to lower students’ learning anxiety, promote authentic language practice, and elicit laughter and camaraderie. Activities include movement, improvisation, and the viewing of film clips. A brief overview of the debilitating effects of anxiety and stress on learning will be offered as a context and rationale for the activities.

workshop: Using Women’s Perspectives with Women and Men across Literacy Levels Mev Miller

WE LEARN developed the Women’s Perspectives Student Writing Initiative to showcase writings by adult literacy/basic education students across all levels. Each year, students write about issues related to a theme using pre-writing activities and lesson plans provided by WE LEARN. Participation in Women’s Perspectives has supported learners in their literacy and basic education, and encouraged their engagement and leadership in broader activities. Many teachers embrace it as a positive forum for their students’ voices, as well their writing development. WE LEARN would like to encourage more RI-based teachers and programs to participate in this powerful and empowering experience.

Though over 400 students from over 50 North American programs have participated, only a handful of students from RI have done so. When assessing the reasons for this, we have heard a need for professional development. In 2009, WE LEARN developed Teaching & Learning with Women’s Perspectives: A Resource Kit to respond to the many concerns noted above. In this workshop, participants will have an opportunity to explore several of the practical tools made available in the kit. Photos, video, and stories of student writers published in past issues will also be shared. In this workshop, I will outline experiences and successes for both students and teachers who have participated in Women’s Perspectives, and demystify some of the process of both student and teacher participation in future issues of WP.

Mev Miller, Ed.D., Director of WE LEARN (Women Expanding Literacy Education Action Resource Network), has edited and produced several volumes of ABE student writing.

workshop: Setting a New Course to Intensify Programs in Achieving Post-Secondary Success

Donna Chambers

This workshop will discuss how to efficiently and effectively meet post-secondary readiness goals. Suggestions for implementing change will be presented along with current proven methods of instruction to illustrate what works; differentiated instruction, blended instruction, formative assessment, Understanding by Design, Depth of Knowledge. Participants will:

  • Discuss and consider change in methods of teaching and learning that will facilitate program intensity to assure success in meeting post-secondary goals.
  • Learn how to apply principles of formative assessment to be sure learning happens.
  • Learn current proven and effective methods of teaching and learning.

Donna Chambers is the coordinator for the RI National External Diploma Program through Project RIRAL.

10:45 – 12:15 1.5 hour sessions:

workshop: Communicating the Importance of Adult Education Heidi Collins(see bio above)

RI adult learners and practitioners will learn various strategies and tools that can help you develop and communicate your message to a variety of audiences.

workshop: Part II: Improving Learning and Persistence: Service Delivery Changes that Drive Incredible Persistence and Outcomes Dr. Laura Weisel (see bio above)

Building persistence, empowering students, and offering learning communities all sound like they should be doable. But, building these critical aspects into an education system takes more than standard curriculums, great PD, and knowledge of ‘best practices’. This session will offer a quick review of basic brain functions that support persistence research, a demonstration of techniques that build vibrant learning communities, and an opportunity to rethink service delivery leading to greater persistence and long-term outcomes.

panel: Emergent Literacy Demonstration Project

Jora Ehrlich, Harriet Holder, Kim Dodge, Kelley Tinaro and Bernice Morris

A panel with teachers, case managers and program coordinators from the RIDE funded No/Low Literacy Demonstration project offering beginning literacy classes for speakers of English with emergent literacy skills.Learn about this 4-month pilot project, running from March through June, offers classes, case management and outreach to emergent literacy adult students who speak English and test below 190 on CASAS reading. This panel will be an opportunity for project staff to provide some and answer questions on the literacy project, English-speaking, adult learners with emergent literacy skills and best practices for working with this community.

Jora Ehrlich has worked with the IIRI’s Refugee Skills Department as a teacher and a case manager, since 2007. Jora is the Community Outreach Specialist for the Literacy Demo Project.

Kim Dodge is the Beginning Literacy Instructor at IIRI with the Literacy Demo Project. She joined IIRI after teaching English to recently resettled refugees in San Diego.

Kelley Tinaro is an ABE Literacy Instructor at Dorcas Place. She has taught at Scituate High School, RI Training School and the RI Department of Corrections-Women’s Division

Harriet Holder is a case manager with the Literacy Demo Project at Dorcas Place.

Bernice Morris is the Education & Training Coordinator at the Providence Housing Authority. She has been working in Adult Education since 1999; first as a case manager at The Genesis Center where she worked closely with the Liberian community. She has been involved with the Low Literacy project since its beginning and coordinates its Advisory Council.

workshop: The Point Behind Percents and Benchmark Fractions Dr. Albert Alba and Mary Snead

Participants will examine how to solve percent problems used in everyday life and will consider why percents are important. 100 block grids will be used to show percents of a whole. Benchmark fractions and their application will be explored. We will also examine the generation of Benchmark fractions using our monetary system with manipulatives and drawings. We will discuss the 3 primary types of percent problems through the examination of the formula: Percent x Whole = Part. The formula will be used to solve a number of problems. The method of using the 10% solution will be used to find the percent of numbers for percents that are multiples of 5% or 10% of a given number. Participants will be given an individual pre-assessment and post assessment that will allow them to see the efficiency of the strategies discussed. We will utilize materials from TIAN curriculum, manipulatives, and small group exercises.

Dr. Albert Alba has been an instructor for the state of RI for over 20 years. He has worked as a Secondary Mathematics Instructor and as a High School Equivalency instructor, and has taught computers and mathematics for CCRI and Johnson and Wales University respectively.BSME - URI. Life Certified Secondary Math Instructor - URI, Master In Administration – Certified Secondary Administrator - RIC, Doctor of Curriculum and Instruction – Mathematics Education– UCONN, Highly Qualified Correctional Educator – Correctional Education Association, TIAN Participant.
Mary Snead, a full-time teacher at the A.C.I., has worked for the Providence School System as a secondary science teacher, and for the State of RI as a registered nurse. Mrs. Snead was recently hired as a Special Education teacher in an ABE class. She has an MA in Special Education and is certified to teach adult students with special learning needs. She was a charge nurse, an Assistant Director of Nurses at the I.M.H. and a Public Health Education Specialist/R.N. She has worked with doctors by triaging at the prison for patients with infectious diseases; coordinating clinics; teaching staff and inmates and designing discharge plans for at-risk clients and co-authored articles written by the medical team on the relationship between discharge planning and a reduction in recidivism. Mary has raised five children and is busy with community work. She has a Special Needs child and was always interested in teaching so she returned to school to obtain a degree in Special Education.

presentation: Lessons Learned Through a Unique Collaboration Between a Genesis Center ESOL Class and a Gordon School Spanish Class Deb Venator and Tricia Kelley

This presentation will present the details of a highly successful “Intercambio” or exchange between adult English learners and 13 and 14 year old Spanish learners. Details will be given about how this project was conducted, from its inception as a pen-pal project to culminating get-togethers. Handouts will include examples of interactive activities used in this project which can be easily adapted to other classroom settings. Time will be allotted to brainstorming ways to adapt this model to other classes.

Deborah Venator has been teaching Adult ESOL for 20 years, including the last 9 at Genesis. She currently teaches an extremely multilevel RI Works class of native Spanish speakers.

Tricia Kelly has over 15 years teaching experience ranging from bilingual elementary education to university teacher preparation courses. She is currently teaching middle school Spanish at the Gordon School in East Providence and is a volunteer at the Genesis Center.

presentation: Fostering Learner Independence with adult ESOL students Sarah Lynn

How do we encourage our students to become self-directed and independent learners? Many of our students need stronger organization skills and study habits so they can become more effective learners in the classroom and more independent and persistent learners outside of school. This presentation shows how to teach students to: navigate their textbooks; organize their papers; identify their learning styles; employ learning strategies for more effective learning; develop good study habits; and advocate for themselves when they encounter obstacles to their learning.

Sarah Lynnhas taught adult ESOL for over twenty years and has led professional development workshops throughout the U.S. She has contributed to numerous books including Future: English for Success.

lunch and greetings from Andrea Castaneda, Chief of Accelerating School Performance, RIDE

1:15-2:15 one hour sessions:

workshop: Implementing Student Leadership Activities in your Program Wes Garvin

RIDE’s Request for Proposals for adult education programming has suggested that programs implement student leadership activities, specifically ways that programs can use student consultants/part time workers in building their organizations’ capacity for student voice and leadership. The presenter will discuss what this implementation of design could look like in your program: hiring student consultants, involving them in student orientation, conducting the Student Satisfaction Survey, creating student councils, placing a student or alumni on the Board.

Wes Garvin is Director of STAND (Students Taking Action Now w/Determination)

workshop: Informal Assessments Are Useful for Planning Instruction Barbara Bowen

Using the NRS/EFL categories to define the range of student skills, we will talk about the expectations in these levels and the appropriate assessments to determine the instructional needs of students in each of these levels, ESL included. We will review the assessments for the 4 reading components, how to analyze results and how to use those results to plan instruction. In addition, two other lower level assessments will be introduced for readers below GLE 3. When using writing as an assessment, we will talk about prioritizing target skills to improve student writing and reading of different text genres. There will be handouts and activities to become familiar with the ease and techniques of these assessments.

We can use the CASAS score to further direct our assessment of the successful skills and needs of our adult learners in oral language (listening and speaking), reading and writing. We will look at the reading assessments used by the STAR Initiative as well as additional surveys useful in clarifying needs of lower readers. Samples of written work will be analyzed for assessing student skills as well as prioritizing targeted instruction for further development in composition. As with any new skill, practice is required. This is an introduction to alternative informal assessments for literacy, and may require additional support, if requested.

Barbara Bowen is the Literacy/Reading Specialist at the RI Professional Development Center, and invites and relies on the professionalism and intelligence of her colleagues throughout the adult education field to cooperate and collaborate to bring the light of literacy to learners in our language-laden society.

workshop: College Now – How to use dual enrollment with high school and GED students in order to prepare learners for college and careers. Naglaa Gaafar and Angela Salvadore

In 2007, CCRI sponsored a College Now program offering dual enrollment for high school students. The program allows high school students to take college level classes for high school and college credit. All students must take LRCT 1020 College Success as one of the duel enrollment classes. Students are provided CCRI class instruction with college wrap around services, tutoring in the classroom, and meetings with a CCRI Advisor.

In 2009, the College Now program expanded to include students working on the GED at CCRI. This expansion allows students without a high school credential to participate in a GED class as well as a 3-credit college class (LRCT 1020- College Success). The program also incorporates career exploration, college wrap around services, college knowledge, tutoring, and case management. Learn more about the program during this informative session. The presenters will describe the two programs, their successes, and ways of implementing this work in Adult Education programs.

Naglaa Gaafar has been with the Community College of Rhode Island for six years. She is the former Coordinator of the Student Success Center at the Providence Campus. Naglaa is currently the Coordinator of Student Retention Studies in the Office on Institutional Research and Planning at the Warwick campus. Naglaa implemented the successful College Now program for high school students in 2007 and has worked extensively with high school students from Central Falls and Westerly preparing them for college.

Angela Salvadore has been in adult education in Rhode Island for over 20 years. She is the Transition Pathways Coordinator at the Community College of Rhode Island, Center for Workforce and Community Education at the Providence campus. Angela started the “College Now” program for GED students in September 2009 and has been a member of the RI Transition to College Partnership for the last 3 years. Angela previously worked as an instructor and counselor at Warwick Adult Education for 15 years.