Problems with the links in the email?
1. Montana ABLE Professional Development Survey – Deadline Friday, February 12
Click here http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K2PD76X to let Montana OPI know what your wishes are for ABLE Professional Development.
The state has spent
the last three years focused on building infrastructure through providing data
workshops, developing content standards, implementing distance learning, joining
the CAELA network, creating the PEP Talk process, and supporting the Leadership
Academy. These strands have been developed and explored in order to position
your programs for reauthorization and to strengthen Montana’s adult basic
education delivery system.
It is now time to develop a strategic plan that will tie these strands together
and define our future professional development delivery system. Your responses
to this survey will guide the state in planning for the future. Together we will
enhance our ability to meet the needs of programs and students.
Thank you for your time!
Margaret Bowles
Adult Literacy and Basic Education Specialist
Montana Office of Public Instruction
2. Distance Learning and PEP Talk Project Grants Available for Montana ABLE Programs
Click here http://www.nwlincs.org/mtlincs/opi/opiableupdates.htm#Distance Learning and Pep Talk Grants for more information about grants. Deadline 2/26/10.
3. MABLE ConnectPro Minutes
Click here http://www.nwlincs.org/mtlincs/opi/connectpro_minutes_1-22-10.doc to access minutes from ConnectPro MABLE meeting.
4. Montana University System Writing Assessment (MUSWA) Training
Click here for more information about MUSWA and to register for training: http://mus.edu/writingproficiency/index.asp .
5. WIA Reauthorization Community Conversations Transcripts and Summaries
Go to MTLINCS Email Archives and click on 1/28/10 to access transcripts and summaries. In the meantime here is one more summary that had not yet been posted.
· Professional Development – Moderator Jackie Taylor: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Responses_to_PD_Questions
6. Math Resource: SABES Math Bulletin
Click here http://www.sabes.org/resources/publications/mathbulletin/math-bulletin-dec2009.pdf to access the Massachusetts SABES Math Bulletin:
In this issue, we discuss the value of good classroom questioning (p. 4),the development of algebraic reasoning by fostering the “habit of not knowing” during early stages of arithmetic learning … Tricia Donovan, Ed.D., Editor
ProfessionalStudiesAE.org, a partnership of ProLiteracy and World Education, is pleased to announce the launch of two new online professional development courses that are part of a six-part series of online courses focused on effective adult numeracy instruction.
For more information and to register, look for the Numeracy topic at: www.professionalstudiesae.org. If you have questions, e-mail prodev@proliteracy.org.
Teaching Reasoning and Problem Solving Strategies |
|
Course Dates:
March 1 - April 9, 2010 Course Description Numerate adults do more than calculate figures. They think about the relationships between mathematical concepts and real-life situations. They look for patterns, make predictions, and evaluate their conclusions. They can form problems, represent them, and solve them. They apply critical thinking skills. As an instructor, you stimulate their numeracy development by choosing appropriate problems and guiding students as they try out new reasoning and problem solving strategies. This course examines mathematical reasoning and problem solving strategies and provides numerous teaching strategies and activities that you can apply to your teaching right away. By the end of the course, you will be able to:
Course Format and Schedule: facilitated, online. Throughout this course you will engage in self-paced activities and readings, as well as asynchronous discussions with the facilitator and course participants. Course Facilitator: Barbara Goodridge Estimated Completion Time: approx. 2-3 hours per week; 12 hours total Prerequisite: Foundations of Teaching Adult Numeracy or equivalent experience |
Number Sense: Teaching About Parts and Wholes |
|
Course Dates:
April 12 - May 21, 2010 Course Description Teaching students how to use estimation, mental math, benchmarking, and calculators will enhance their conceptual understanding of numbers and what numbers represent. This course focuses on helping adult students develop number sense by addressing two key questions: When is it necessary to have an exact answer, and when is an estimate sufficient? When calculation is necessary, which tool is appropriate to use? This course examines how students develop and apply number sense and provides numerous teaching strategies and activities that you can apply to your teaching right away. By the end of the course, you will be able to:
Course Format and Schedule: facilitated, online. Throughout this course you will engage in self-paced activities and readings, as well as asynchronous discussions with the facilitator and course participants. Course Facilitator: Jean Stephens Estimated Completion Time: approx. 2-3 hours per week; 12 hours total Prerequisite: Foundations of Teaching Adult Numeracy or comparable experience |
Kaye Beall
Project Director
World Education
Online Course: College Transition Math
Introduction to College Transition Math
March 1-April 16, 2010
Reflect on your own and your students’ math backgrounds, examine and experience
the college placement test your students take, try out math activities and
exercises you can use in your classrooms, and explore the math knowledge and
skills you will want to present to your own college transition students. Fee:
$249
http://professionalstudiesae.worlded.org/index.html#ctmath
8. Reading and Writing Resource: MakeBeliefsComix.com – Free Website
MakeBeliefsComix.com Unveils New Features to Help ESL and Literacy Students Write, Read and Tell Stories Online
MakeBeliefsComix.com has launched a new version of its educational comics web site with added features to enrich the experience of students as they write, read and tell comic strip stories online.
· We have increased the number of diverse fun comic characters to 20. Each character has four different emotions – happy, sad, angry, worried --that can be deployed in stories, for a total of 80 different faces and expressions. Users can select the ones they want and write words for blank talk and thought balloons to make characters talk and think.
· We have added a new function that displays 25 objects and environments that can go with the characters as stories are created. These objects include foods, hobbies, toys and sports equipment. In addition, there are trees, flowers, buildings, sun and moon. By adding these objects to the comic panels, students can create more complex, interesting stories and in so doing, practice new words. Seven languages, including English and Spanish, can be used on the site, and a teacher’s guide is provided.
· We have linked MakeBeliefsComix.com to our other free web site, http://www.billztreasurechest.com , which features many activities and idea prompts to help reluctant writers express themselves.
Click here http://www.makebeliefscomix.com/ to access MakeBeliefsComix.com.
9. Reading Discussion
Click here http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/assessment/2010/date.html to read an interesting discussion about reading that is taking place on the Assessment Discussion list. Here are just a few snippets taken from comments by John Sabatini, Senior Research Scientist at the Educational Testing Service.
RE: Assessment
K12 reading assessments tend to correlate with each other in the .5 to .7 range, depending on sample and study. So, it is not adult literacy comprehension measures alone that are measuring slightly different things/constructs. In fact, TABE, CASAS, and GED are intended to measure different constructs and their item and task designs reflect these differences. Consequently, there are implications for what proficiencies learners need and what instruction would support those proficiencies.
RE: Spelling
But it is important to remember that the English language is also morpho-phonemic (or morpho-graphemic, if you wish). That is, there is a preservation of spelling (and sound patterns) that serve as clues to the meaning. English is a polyglot of language influences with borrowings from around the world. [Have you ever noticed all the cognates when one learns Spanish, German, or French?] When the words are or were adopted, there were often shifts in spelling and shifts in sounds. But there is remarkably a great deal of consistency at this level. The most important influence for many of the content words of academic English and information content reading from 4th grade level on out are of Latin-Greek origin. There you have the classic prefix, root, suffix structure (e.g., structural, constructive), which allows you to identify the syllable structure, form and manage in working memory a fluent pronunciation of often long, multi-syllabic words (indefatigable), infer meanings of similarly structured vocabulary, determine syntactic role (hence read more fluently), etc. So, once you know ‘general’, you can generalize. Generally. True, roots and affixes can be deceiving and inconsistent as well (e.g., flammable, inflammable), but now you have students studying the language, not merely spelling or phonics. And that’s a key to vocabulary growth and reading skill.
Norene Peterson
Adult Education Center
415 N. 30th
Billings, MT 59101
norenehp@bresnan.net