(Most current posting listed first)

Click here to return to RIB homepage.

Click here to email questions or postings.

This discussion page is an evolving process.  Besides responses to the initial question, several questions/comments may be posted in relation to many of the professional development activities that have recently occurred for Montana ABLE.  The goal is to make this page more user friendly.  Therefore, you will see a chart (below) at the top of each of the main postings for the month.  All you need to do is click on the topic you would like to read more about.  Then just scroll up to read the postings in sequential order on that topic.  If you want to see discussions that have taken place in past months, just click here on Archives.

Reading Connections and Evaluation:  June

6/16/08

Montana ABLE Funding Update

During one of the Billings ABLE staff meetings, discussion was held about state funding.  An email was sent to Margaret Bowles which asked for clarification of the state and federal funding for Montana ABLE.  Click here to read the response about Montana ABLE Funding.

6/16/08

Content Standards Discussion Posted

Haven't had a chance to read the Special Topics Discussion on Content Standards?  Go to http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2008/date.html to read all of the postings.

6/2/08

ESL Website

If you and your students have Internet access, here's a website that has very short current news items:

http://www.simpleenglishnews.com/

Click a category in the left column.  Click the play button to hear the story while you read.

Donna Price

VESL/Tech Resource Instructor

San Diego Community College Continuing Education Program

Taken from English Language Discussion List

6/2/08

MT ABLE in the News

Montana ABLE programs have been in the news lately.  If there are any more articles about other programs, please forward that info on to MT LINCS.  Thanks!

 

GED Online

Click here for Billings Gazette article, "Program Expands Availability of GED". 

Adult Education Graduation

Click here for Billings Gazette article, "At Any Age They Are Graduates".

Click here for video of Billings Adult Education Graduation Faculty Award Winner, Leslie Baldwin.

6/1/08

Numeracy

Don't forget the final National Mathematics Advisory Panel final report is available at http://www.ed.gov/about/bdscomm/list/mathpanel/index.html. I would encourage every ABLE program to visit the site to order a copy of the report. As with the National Reading Panel Report,  recommendations in this report will undoubtedly impact instruction in adult education. 

Margaret Bowles, Adult Literacy and Basic Education Specialist at OPI

6/1/08

Numeracy - Focus on Basics

The new issue of "Focus on Basics" (Volume 9, Issue A) is now available at www.worlded.org .  Published by World Education, the theme is Numeracy.

Articles include:

• using part-whole thinking in math
• the importance of numeracy in adult basic education
• designing instruction that addresses all of the components of numeracy
• techniques for introducing new types of activities into the math classroom
• the cultural aspects of mathematics
• teaching algebraic thinking in lower level mathematics classes
• TIAN: a professional learning model for ABE math teachers

Kaye Beall, Project Director, World Education

6/1/08

Content Standards Discussion

Beginning on Monday, June 9th, and continuing through Friday, June 20th, on the National Institute for Literacy Special Topics list, we will discuss the implementation of state adult education content standards. Experts from several states have been invited to talk about the opportunities and challenges they have experienced as they work with teachers, administrators and others who are developing curriculum, and designing and teaching lessons that reflect their state's content standards. Our guests include: Miriam Kroeger, from Arizona; Raye Nell Spillman, from Louisiana; Karen Lisch Gianninoto, from Maryland; Judy Franks, from Ohio; Pam Blundel, from Oklahoma; Philip Anderson, from Florida; and Federico Salas, from Texas.

 

I hope you will join us for this discussion. You will find background information on several of our guest experts below.

To subscribe to the discussion, go to: 

 

http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/specialtopics

 

You can unsubscribe later by going to the same web page or, if you prefer, you can stay subscribed for the next discussion.

Background on Discussion Guests

 

Pam Blundell has been involved in Oklahoma's development and implementation of content standards since 2002-2003 when the state held its first discussions around the possibility of introducing the Equipped for the Future (EFF) teaching and learning system to the field. Pam was given the task of overseeing the state's first EFF pilot project in 2003-2004. During the EFF pilot year, the state decided to expand the EFF training and officially adopt EFF content standards statewide. At that time, Pam was asked to coordinate this long-term process. Pam has continued to be directly involved in the implementation and oversight of the integration of content standards into the adult education classroom. This process has involved the development of new tools and training processes and most recently, leading the state's Standards-In-Action (SIA) team. Prior to coming to the state, Pam worked as an adult education teacher integrating EFF standards into instruction.

 

Judy Franks is currently on staff at the Ohio Literacy Resource Center as a Literacy Projects Coordinator. She was involved originally with the Equipped for the Future (EFF) Standards-based System Reform Initiative, coordinating the Ohio Research Field Sites and training as a Certified State Facilitator. Judy has had experience developing and working with the standards at the program, state, and national levels. As a veteran instructor of training and development courses, Judy's background in adult basic education since 1992 includes family literacy, GED classroom instruction and the development of a workforce training program.

 

Karen Lisch Gianninoto's involvement with the Maryland Content Standards for Adults ESL/ESOL began when she was working part-time as an ESL instructor. She "was one of the teachers complaining from the field that we needed standards". As a full time high school teacher, she knew how helpful standards were in guiding instruction. Not long after, she was appointed to the ESL Workgroup that developed the content standards document.
 

Four years ago, she became the ESL Specialist for the Maryland State Department of Education. When she took the position, she was "grateful the content standards were finished. Little did I know that my work was just beginning. Over the past four years, the content standards have been revised three times, the ESL content standards have been implemented in all of Maryland's programs, state trainers have completed a training process, and a training manual was completed. Yet, there is more to learn about standards. Maryland has been most fortunate to participate in the CAELA and SIA Projects funded through OVAE. These projects have helped Maryland refine our training and provided instructors with the tools to understand content standards."
 

Miriam Kroeger has been involved in Adult Education as a volunteer, teacher, coordinator, administrator and specialist since 1972 and in Arizona since 1978. She has taught adult English learners and adults studying for their secondary school credential at a variety of locations including elementary and secondary schools, community colleges, jails, and prisons; she works with K-12 and adult educators, and has visited teachers throughout the state of Arizona. Miriam has served on state, regional and national committees; on the boards of the Arizona Association for Lifelong Learning, the Mountain Plains Adult Education Association and Arizona Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. She has been on national working groups involved with adult education standards and teacher development and was an original team member in the development and implementation of Arizona's Standards for Adult Learners. She was also a member of the Standards Specialist/Resource Teachers team that assisted programs and instructors in the implementation of the standards. As an Education Program Specialist in the Arizona Department of Education, Adult Education Services unit during the past six years, one of her responsibilities was to spearhead the revisions to the Reading, Writing, Math, Science, Social Studies and ELAA (ESOL) Arizona Adult Education Standards. These revisions were published in December 2007, and the training process in understanding and utilizing the standards continues.
 

Raye Nell D. Spillman has worked in the Louisiana State Department of Education, Office of School and Community Support, Adult and Family Literacy Services for four years. Ms. Spillman holds an undergraduate degree from Louisiana State University in the field of education. She has taught in the K-12 public education system and served on numerous committees to advance the education of children and adults. After the approval and adoption of The Louisiana Adult Education Content Standards in October 2006, Ms. Spillman was instrumental in introducing the standards to adult education instructors across the state in collaboration with the Louisiana Association for Public, Community and Adult Education. The following summer, Louisiana applied for and was one of six states accepted to participate in OVAE's Standards-in-Action (SIA) project. Ms. Spillman headed the Louisiana team who accepted their charge to pilot test training materials for implementing adult education standards use in the classroom. Again this year, Ms. Spillman and the Louisiana team are looking forward to participating in Part 2 of the Standards-in-Action project. 

David J. Rosen

National Institute for Literacy

Special Topics Discussion Moderator

Djrosen@comcast.net

6/1/08

Evaluation Response #1

I utilize MT Lincs and NW Lincs whenever I need to give a student a website for skill development.  I know I can trust the content and appreciate the organization.  As a teacher, I would be lost without the help I've received for ESL and reading from this site lately.  Thank you!
 
My only criticism is that sometimes I get overwhelmed by everything that's out there and how little time I have to deal with it.  Thanks for making it easier by sifting through it all!

Melinda

Melinda Lynnes
MCC Center for Academic Success
 

Reading Connections:  May

5/26/08

NIFL Newsletter:  Catalyst

Catalyst, the Institute's first newsletter in more than a decade, is here!  The inaugural issue is packed with news and information about the Institute's programs, people, publications, and services. Take a look:

http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/publications/Catalyst5-08.pdf

5/23/08

Content Standards for Montana ABLE

Information about applying to be a part of the Montana ABLE Content Standards writing team has now been posted on MT LINCS.

Click here for more information.

5/21/08

How the Brain Learns to Read Can Depend on the Language

A colleague of mine sent me the following link to an interesting article from the online Wall Street Journal dated May 2, 2008. 

Rochelle Kenyon, Moderator of NIFL Learning Disabilities Discussion List

Click here for the article.

5/18/08

MPAEA 2009

The Mountain Plains Adult Education Association Conference will be held March 1-4, 2009 in Las Vegas, NV.  Please submit your sectional ideas as soon as possible to assist the planning committee and plan to visit Las Vegas next spring!!! 

Start saving your pennies and let’s have a great conference in Las Vegas next spring!!!  I can’t wait to see you all there!!

Suzette Fox, MAACE Board Chair

Click here for access to the Call for Presenters form.

5/18/08

Highlights from ELL Discussion (access for complete discussion below under 5/16)

#1  Thoughts from Heidi Spruck Wrigley, Facilitator for ELL Discussion from       5/12 to 5/18

... I wanted to start us off with the two or three things we know for sure from research in reading (though not necessarily from research with adult English language learners – we don’t yet have research that speaks directly to this population).

Heidi Spruck Wrigley 

1. You learn to read just once (this is also known as “breaking the code”; once you have developed phonemic awareness in one language and you know to decode one language), you don’t need to start all over with developing phonemic awareness in another language – you just need to absorb the rules of the new system – that is, you must learn how English works, not how literacy works.

2. Knowledge from the first language transfers to knowledge about the second language but transfer is not automatic. You may need to draw your students attention to certain common features of the language.

3. We make sense of the world by connecting prior knowledge with new knowledge.  We gain meaning from print the same way. So if your knowledge of the world does not match the knowledge of the world that the writer assumes, the text is likely to be confusing to you even if your reading skills are ok.

4. Reading is an interactive process between the reader, the text, and the writer.  The situation in which you read and write and your purposes for doing so play a role as well (think about opening a letter from the INS – now USCIS or a note from your ex-spouse).

5. When we read, we activate two types of knowledge – what we know about meaning making (top down processes) and what we know about language (bottom-up processes).  It’s important to keep in mind that the purpose of reading is comprehension.

6. Although control over bottom-up processes is important for learning to read, it does not follow that new readers must have mastered all sub skills before they can focus on comprehension. Using sub skills effectively enhances comprehension, but control over sub skills does not automatically lead to comprehension.

7. Language proficiency and reading comprehension are closely related. One way of increasing the reading skills of literate learners is to build language skills.  One way of building students comprehension of (pre) academic texts, is to present such information orally (mini-presentations) and visually (through PowerPoints or video clips) so you can build understanding of concepts without your students getting mired in print.

8. Vocabulary knowledge is one of the key determinants of reading comprehension. Increases in vocabulary means increases in background knowledge and in reading comprehension, the same as in everything else, the more you know – the more you know

#2

Seven Habits of Successful Readers by Heidi Spruck Wrigley

Click here to access the list.

#3

Reading Time

While the jury may still be out on the benefits of Sustained Silent Reading (SSR), there is a good NCSALL study on using SSR with adult ESL adult learners that shows that “free reading” fared no worse than other reading instructional strategies in terms of student performance on standardized tests.  This may not sound like a ringing endorsement of SSR, but it certainly suggests that it does no harm in comparison to other approaches.  What you are doing in your class seems to fall right in line with this research.  I could also see the benefits of using “free reading” time in a multilevel class where the teacher could assign reading to intermediate and advanced students, while addressing the speaking and listening skills of beginning literacy students.    As I recall, the benefits applied to lower-level ESL students as well.  The bottom line:  read on!

Eduardo Honold, Far West Project GREAT Coordinator, El Paso, TX 79927, www.farwestgreat.org

#4

Literacy Problems in Native Language

Here’s another free resource for ESL literacy, now posted on the CAELA site. It’s a copy of a handbook that I wrote as a result of a federally funded study on Promising Practices in Adult ESL Literacy (a national demonstration project) – (Gloria Guth was project director)  I tried to highlight connections between theory and practice along with promising practices from 7 programs that popped up as having classes that focused on adults who struggled with literacy both in the native language and in the second language (English) and employed instructional strategies that reflected what we know about language and literacy learning.

The book includes a chapter on Native Language Literacy and on Assessment and several lesson plans developed by teachers in these programs. 

For those of you who need some practical information right away, check out Tips for ESL Literacy Teachers in chapter 2.  Here is the link

http://www.cal.org/caela/esl_resources/BringingLiteracytoLife.pdf  

 Heide

5/16/08

ESL Discussion on NIFL's Adult English Language Learners Discussion List

A great discussion began on 5/12 on the above discussion list.  Although its main focus has been adults learning English as a second language, much information has been covered .

Go to http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/englishlanguage/2008/date.html to access the archives.

5/11/08

MT LINCS RIB Statistics

Interested in just how MT LINCS RIB has evolved?  Click here to look at a comparison of 10/07 to 4/08.

5/10/08

Content-based Lessons from Oregon

Adult Ed Teachers at Sea in Oregon

Adult education teachers are participating in research missions with ocean scientists to develop real life, content-based lessons in reading, writing, math and science, thanks to professional development activities supported by the Oregon System of Adult Education and Workforce Development.  Teachers create or adapt curricula linking ocean sciences, math, technology, critical thinking and communication skills, and disseminate lessons to Oregon’s adult education providers.  Lessons engage adult education students in learning about Oregon’s employment, environmental and economic concerns.  The program also matches ocean scientists with local adult education classrooms through site visits.

Taken from OVAE Notes, 5/8/08

5/9/08

MAACE Summer Conference Cancelled

May 9, 2008

 

Dear MAACE Members and MAACE Supporters:

 

The MAACE Board has decided to cancel the 2008 MAACE Conference in Polson, Montana, June 25-27, 2008.  With approximately 30 people attending, the conference would not serve our members effectively and would lose money. The Board felt MAACE funds will be used more effectively by sponsoring advocacy for adult education in Montana at the local, state, and federal levels.   Thanks to those who already registered.  We will be returning registration fees to you as soon as possible.  Please send Steve McCoy a hearty thanks for all of his work and the work of his staff to plan and put together this spectacular event for us.  By pulling together, we will all heal from this disappointment. 

 

Thanks to those who submitted proposals to present as well.  We appreciate your willingness to share your expertise with your colleagues in the field.  Please re-submit your ideas at a later conference, possibly for the MEA-MFT Educators Conference in Missoula this fall.  We also want to thank Margaret Bowles for securing a contract with our keynote speaker and for being willing to support us in this training endeavor.  A huge thank you goes out to Norene Peterson who has graciously posted our announcements, updated, and maintained our presence on Montana LINCS as well.  Please acknowledge Norene’s diligence and hard work when you get a chance. 

 

Since the Board felt MAACE funds would be put to better use by sponsoring advocacy for adult education, we will be developing a strategic plan for advocacy at all levels this summer.  We invite you to serve with us and share your expertise in this matter.  We may be surveying the membership for ideas and inspiration to help us build the best plan for our organization and our state.  Please assist us with this project and we will present the results at our Annual Business Meeting, Awards Banquet, and Installation of New Board Members held in conjunction with the Data Quality Institute September 16 &17, 2008, in Helena. 

 

Thank you, Margaret, for suggesting that we hold our meeting in conjunction with the Data Quality Institute in September.  We are planning to hold our annual business meeting the evening of September 16 in Helena.  Stay tuned for time and place.  We also hope to arrange a fun evening for socializing and networking with colleagues across the state.  The MAACE Board feels this is imperative to the health and welfare of our organization.  Please mark your calendar and plan to attend the Data Quality Institute and the MAACE Business Meeting/Dinner Function September 16!

 

As always, you may contact me or any member of the MAACE Board with ideas, enthusiasm, questions, or concerns.  We always look forward to discussing adult education with our colleagues. 

 

Sincerely,

Your MAACE Board: 

Suzette Fox (foxs@billings.k12.mt.us), Jack Eggensperger (j.eggensperger@bresnan.net), Darrel Hannum (hannumd@hrdc4.org), Steve McCoy (steve_mccoy@skc.edu), Yvonne Hauwiller (yhauwiller@yahoo.com), and Jean Lemire Dahlman (literacyrosebud@rangeweb.net)

5/9/08

Response to Counting Dropouts

For determining Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), the Montana graduation formula has always counted the GED recipients as dropouts. However, OPI also employed a completer formula that included all students receiving a high school diploma and a GED. The completer formula was not the formula used for AYP purposes, but was for a variety of reporting purposes. In the fall of 2007, the Office of Public Instruction sent a notice to all school districts to clarify the definition of a high school graduate, reminding them that according to our state definition of a high school graduate, there are no other high school completers.  If a student doesn't graduate with a regular diploma, they are a dropout.

Margaret Bowles, Adult Literacy and Basic Education Specialist at Office of Public Instruction

5/7/08

Counting Dropouts and Graduates:  Still More People Left Behind

Colleagues,

Under a new federal effort to standardize how high school graduation 
rates are calculated nationwide, students who leave school and later 
graduate from adult education programs will still be considered 
dropouts. "In an effort to get a true picture of the nation's high 
school dropout crisis, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings 
announced last week that she will require all states to use a single 
federal formula to calculate graduation and dropout rates, forcing 
some states to completely revamp their data processing systems. 
Spellings did not release the specific formula she will require but 
referenced the National Governors Association's graduation rate as a 
model...."

Would such a regulation affect funding for adult education in your 
state? Would it affect how people view the GED or an adult diploma 
awarded by a public high school?

This would increase the national dropout rate, reported recently in 
the America's Promise Alliance study as 30% on average, 50%  in 
cities. If GED and adult diploma holders are counted as dropouts that 
would increase the dropout rate more.

Several years of  "No Child Left Behind"  appear to be leaving many 
more people behind.

http://www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080407/
NEWS03/804070336

Short form of Web Address:
http://tinyurl.com/5xk7e2

David J. Rosen
Adult Literacy Advocate
DJRosen@theworld.com

5/6/08

Nevada Adult Ed Newsletter Ideas

Colleagues,

I gleaned the following web sites from the Nevada Adult Ed newsletter.  Thought maybe you would find them interesting.

 www.teachingperspectives.com – Take the TPI and summarize your teaching perspectives.

 http://dww.ed.gov – Doing What Works for education.  The literacy part of this site has not been developed yet!

Suzette Fox, Adult Basic Literacy Education Computer and Business Instructor, Billings

5/5/08

MPAEA Thought

Inclusion of all academic experiences beyond secondary as post secondary  is a paradigm shift for adult education. This is going to require professional dialogue and reflection on instructional delivery, curriculum, and student transition. Montana ABLE is up to the challenge!

Margaret Bowles, Adult Literacy and Basic Education Specialist at Office of Public Instruction

5/4/08

ESL Website on Body Parts

Oops!  Kathy Jackson of Billings sent this website a month ago!  Sorry for not posting this sooner!

They advertised this site as a good esl learning activity.
Kj

Shortcut to: http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/words/activities/body01.html

Ferlazzo's Best ESL Websites

Go to http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/29/the-best-resource-sites-for-eslefl-teachers/
 

Ferlazzo's Best Civic Participation and Citizenship Websites

Go to http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/01/16/the-best-websites-for-learning-about-civic-participation-citizenship/

5/4/08

Reading and Using Technology

On the Learning Disabilities discussion list this past week there has been a fascinating discussion initiated by Glenn Young. He has proposed that it is time to focus on helping adults with learning disabilities learn to read using technology. By this he means having computers and hand-held devices read text out loud, with new readers focusing on their getting meaning, not on learning how to decode text. The archives of this discussion will be found at 

http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/learningdisabilities/2008/date.html 

 

David Rosen

Taken from NIFL Assessment Discussion List

5/4/08

Biology Interactive Websites

The research department at Children's Hospital Boston has developed a series of web-based Flash tutorials to present complex medical and biological concepts in an interactive, user-friendly format. These free science "interactives" are useful for students and educators ...

eSchool News

Click here for more information.

5/4/08

Reading Connections to Content Materials

Many years ago, I worked with a high school student who had a significant learning disability in reading (I was actually tutoring him in math). After many unsuccessful interventions, his parents resorted to reading his homework aloud to him. The result was that rather than receiving Ds and Fs in such subjects as history and English, he was able to maintain a C average.

SUSAN KIDD

ABE Professional Development Coordinator

State Board for Community & Technical Colleges, Washington

Taken from NIFL Assessment Discussion List

5/4/08

Reading in the Workplace

In thinking about the dialogue we had about the reading levels required for WorkKeys, our discussion, after further research, this might be a good discussion topic for Montana RIB Update.

Woody Jensen, Director                                                                            Billings Adult Education Center

5/4/08

MAACE Professional Opportunities

Summer Conference at Polson

IMPORTANT MAACE MESSAGE

 

Margaret Bowles has informed us that Lt. Governor Bohlinger has expressed a strong interest in providing the keynote address at our summer conference in Polson in June!!!

 

This is a perfect opportunity for us to advocate for Adult Education and to demonstrate to the Governor's Office that we are successfully serving adult learners and are an economic anchor in our communities as we help adults complete their GED and assist them in preparing to enter post-secondary training.  However, in order to do this, we need a strong showing at the conference in June.  We need everyone who possibly can to attend this conference, build a network of professional relationships with others in the state, and share best practices while demonstrating our passion for and commitment to our profession. 

 

PLEASE email Suzette at foxs@billings.k12.mt.us right now to let her know if you are coming to Polson in June.  We need to know who will be represented and how many of you plan to attend.  

 

PLEASE call a friend or colleague serving in adult education right now and encourage them to ride with you and/or room with you.  Have them email Suzette as well!

 

Join your fellow Adult Educators in Polson in June for our annual MAACE conference and training!  We'll see you there!!

 

Don't forget to email Suzette!!!

Suzette Fox, Billings Adult Education Center

MEA-MFT

The annual MEA-MFT Educator's conference will be held in Missoula October 16 & 17, 2008. 

 

MAACE will once again maintain a presence for professional educators who wish to attend this conference and MEA-MFT has agreed to allow our members to register as members for this conference. 

 

We will once again share a hospitality room and resources with the Math group.  Rose Steiner and Kathie Daviau have once again been instrumental in scheduling sectionals and setting up this opportunity for MAACE.  Thank you Kathie and Rose!!!

 

Each presenter for the MEA-MFT conference in October is paid $30.00 and we need sectionals to help defray the cost of our presence.  If you will be attending the MEA-MFT Educator's Conference in Missoula in October, a presenter's stipend would help with gas money!!  Please sign up to share your best practices with other educators by clicking on the following link and signing up for one or more sectionals THIS WEEK!!!

 

http://mea-mft.net/

Suzette Fox, Billings Adult Education Center

5/2/08

MPAEA Thoughts

Congratulations!

Congrats to the MPAEA Board (Montana Board members Suzette Fox and Jake Gustin plus Detlef Johl, MPAEA treasurer) and Utah for providing an excellent MPAEA conference.

Special congratulations to Detlef Johl for receiving the MPAEA Award of Excellence for Montana!

MPAEA Notes

ABE Moves to Higher Ed

Troy Justesen, Assistant Secretary of Vocational and Adult Education at the Department of Education, reminded MPAEA participants that there has been a "paradigm shift" and that in federal policy, Adult Education is now higher education.  Yes, the GED is now considered post-secondary!  He said that this was partly done so that ABE would have more a feeling of self-worth and inclusion. 

Open-entry Versus Fixed Entry Develops Community 

Robyn Rennick, President of National Association for Adults with Special Learning Needs (NAASLN), reminded participants that open-entry programs may want to consider changing to fixed entry points so that students can develop a sense of community and feel less isolated.  She encouraged adult ed professionals to ask the following question: 

How is the setup, activity, and my behavior providing an environment of success and community?

 

Reading Connections:  April

4/27/08

Civics and Citizenship Toolkit

Greetings!  Just got back from MPAEA where I attended a sectional by Barbara Melton of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.  Have you received your free toolkit? 

"The collection comprises immigration and civics publications, handbooks, multimedia tools, and a quick start guide with ideas for use."  U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services

Go to http://www.citizenshiptoolkit.gov/ to register your school for the kit.

You might also want to check out www.WelcometoUSA.gov.

NP =)

4/22/08

Freerice.com Website

I had heard of the freerice site for vocabulary before, but totally forgot about it.  It's great for our college prep students! (www.freerice.com).

P.S.  I couldn't stop myself once I logged onto it until I reached 2000 grains!

Melinda Lynnes
MCC Center for Academic Success

4/20/08

Auditory - Sound Learning

Looking for ways to ensure your students are doing quality research from credible sources?

Sound Learning is a launching point to Minnesota Public Radio's content on the Web. This site is designed exclusively for teachers to access timely text and audio clips for use in the classroom. It's your entry into the quality and reliability you have come to expect from MPR.

An integral part of this site are the instructional strategies in English/Language Arts, Social Studies, Music, and Family and Consumer Science. Browse these subject areas for tips and techniques for bringing MPR into your classroom. You're welcome to download and reproduce the ideas that fit the needs of your students.

Taken from MPR website

Click here to access Literacy and Sound Learning:  Strategies for Thoughtful Learning

4/20/08

Digital Video

Visual Learning:  How the Rise of Digital Video is Transforming Education

Taken from eSchool News

“The curriculum is the key—not the media. We’ve fallen into this trap of considering that the use of technology is going to be an automatic silver bullet that’s going to make kids learn more, be more motivated.  But we forget that it’s not the technology, not the media. It’s the content, and it’s the way those media are used. In other words, it’s the pedagogy, it’s the message, it’s the design—it’s the approach—that is the critical element.”

—Michael Simonson, Professor, Instructional Technology and Distance Education, Nova Southeastern University

Click here to go to the article on eSchoolNews.  Then go to p. 25.

4/20/08

Visual Resource III - Hotchalk

NBC News offers teachers access to video archives online

http://www.hotchalk.com/index_global.html

… teachers have free online access to a video vault featuring more than 60 years of historic news and information, thanks to a partnership between NBC News and HotChalk, an online learning management system for K-12 education. To provide primary-source multimedia content that far exceeds what is available in traditional textbooks, NBC News has made available more than 5,000 video resources that can be used to supplement instruction in a wide range of courses. History students can watch the civil-rights movement as it happened and view interviews with key players; science students can see recreated footage of the Ice Age or watch today’s arctic shelves disintegrate into the ocean; and government classes can have access to the latest news on immigration, the presidential race, or international relations …

Taken from eSchool News

4/19/08

Visual Resource II - Graphic Organizers

... Teaching story structure using graphic “maps” is one of the research-supported comprehension strategies (in the Report of the National Reading Panel). Graphic organizers (in general) are also one of the categories of research-based comprehension strategies. You might create a map to make the structure/organization of expository text more “visible.”

Susan McShane (as posted on NIFL's Family Literacy Discussion List)

Here are a couple of websites with  free graphic organizers.

1. www.edhelper.com

2. www.freeology.com

4/18/08

Visual Resource I - Another Adaptation

Google Earth Lessons

"Google Earth Lessons" is a free public resource created by teachers, for teachers, to give educators tools and ideas for using the free Google Earth software in their classrooms. Using the ideas and resources found on this site, teachers of all subjects and grade levels can incorporate Google Earth into their curriculum.

eSchool News

Click here for free lesson plans:  cross-curricular, social studies, math, science, and language arts.

4/17/08

Visual, Auditory, and Blending:  The Three Drills

My experience as a certified O-G tutor and trainer from the Michigan Dyslexia Institute (1990) is that persons with reading difficulties who are able to learn the sound/symbol correspondences have the biggest problem with blending them together.  For those with
dyslexia, that is often where the language processing and decoding breaks down.

The Three Drills (visual, auditory, and blending), have worked well for me in addressing both these areas.  They need to be used at every lesson, adding new phonemes/phonograms to the drills as they are introduced to the student. I have the instructions for doing these drills if anyone is interested.

Betsy S. Gauss  (as posted on NIFL's Learning Disabilities Discussion List)
Lake Wales Literacy Council Tutor Trainer
Lake Wales, FL 33853

Click here to access a copy of the Three Drills activity.

4/12/08

Story Structure/Story Grammar

I think story grammar is often used to refer to narrative story structure—those elements a reader can expect to find in a story. Narrative story structure would include many types of stories, i.e., fiction, fairy tales, mysteries, plays, and real life adventures.

The following explanation of story grammar comes from an ERIC Digest article, “Strategic Processing of Text: Improving Reading Comprehension of Students with Learning Disabilities,” by Joanna P. Williams.

“Probably the most effective of strategies has been teaching story grammar to use as an organizational guide when reading. Story grammar refers to the principal components of a story: main character, action, and outcome. This technique has been applied by using story maps and by asking generic questions based on story grammar. It has also been used to move beyond the plot level of stories to teach students with disabilities to identify story themes, a more abstract comprehension level than is typically taught to students with learning disabilities.” 

You can access the article at  http://www.ericdigests.org/2001-4/reading.html

Expository structure has to do more with informational texts, such as content area material, i.e., science and social studies. It would involve how the text is organized to help readers identify key ideas and make connections between ideas. This is where using skills, such as reading headings and subheadings, reading graphic information, and understanding sequence, comparing and contrasting and classification would come in handy.

The idea is that understanding the structure of stories or expository text increases comprehension ...

Gail J. Price,Multimedia Specialist, National Center for Family Literacy

National Center for Family Literacy

4/11/08

Inside the Hidden World of Dyslexia and Attention Deficit Disorder

Click here to check out this incredible video!  Many of these students attend Montana ABLE programs.

4/8/08

Activities in Great Falls

This year Jackie is using the local newspaper to a greater extent.  She cuts out the political cartoon and we (individually or in group) discuss it.  She uses the cartoon strips to show real life vocabulary connections. She also uses the paper  to get graphs that are printed and incorporates  vocabulary from suggested articles. There has been a great deal of reading and discussion connected to the elections.

Science and social text, as well as fiction and nonfiction, are used.

Steve has used math vocabulary to embellish fun math games we have done in our group, as well as reading strategies for math story problems.

For recreational reading ideas, we occasionally will take a portion from a book and read it in the group activity time.  We welcome others to discuss some of the things they have enjoyed reading. We hope to get the students interested in some of the books. We also keep an abundance of different kinds of magazines on hand for students to read.

In English, students read short stories and then summarize the key concepts or rewrite portions of the story line. Unfamiliar vocabulary in the GED book is identified in order to define.

Vicki Mattingly, Great Falls
 

4/7/08

Understanding Purpose Activity

I was wondering how I can access the paragraph that goes with the purpose for reading (activity in 4/6 email) or is it copyrighted?

Mellinda Lynnes, Miles City

Response to Understanding Purpose Activity

Melissa, thanks for the great question!  In the 4/6 RIB email, the following information about an activity was given:

Worksheet:  Understanding Purpose crosses over into all content areas.  Click here to download an idea taken from Cris Tovani's book, I Read It But I Don't Get It.

The technique refers to a paragraph and asks a reader to circle what he/she thinks is important.  Then the reader is asked to reread and identify what may be important to a robber.  And finally the reader is asked to reread and identify what is important to a home buyer.  The point is to show the reader that he/she probably had more trouble the first time - without the purpose for reading being expressed.

Actually, any paragraph will work, but you will need to adjust the reader, i.e. robber and home buyer, to make sense with the paragraph. 

For example, I have used an article, "Woman Surrenders Alligator", from the Billings Gazette at http://billingsgazette.net/articles/2007/05/29/news/wyoming/70-alligator.txt. 

Then I did the following:

• Read the article.

• Circle what you think is important.

• With another color, circle what you think might be important for a law officer to know.

• With yet another color, circle what you think might be important for someone from the SPCA to know.

If someone has other ideas, please send them on!  NP =)

4/6/08

Ferlazzo's Recommendations for Best Websites

The following information was taken from Larry Ferlazzo's posts on NIFL's Technology Discussion List.

• Math:  http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2007/12/25/the-best-math-sites-for-english-language-learners-2007/

• Science:  http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2007/12/24/the-best-science-websites-for-students-teachers-2007/

• Social Studies:  http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2007/12/23/the-best-social-studies-websites-2007/

• Vocabulary:  http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/2008/04/06/the-best-websites-for-developing-academic-english-skills-vocabulary/

4/5/08

The Joy of Reading

Roger Sutton of Read Roger talks about the reward of reading.  Do Montana ABLE students ever feel this reward? 

Young readers are put in this position all the time, meeting words, sentence structures, and extra-textual references for the first time. It's salutary for those of us concerned with their reading to put ourselves in their shoes, a circumstance more likely to occur for us in reading books for adults. Hard books, the definition of which being completely self-determined. When we hit a patch of French in a novel, we--at least those of us not educated to the standard Eliot expected of her readers--can look it up or shine it on, but either way we're challenged by a text that doesn't give itself up easily. That choice comes more easily to the veteran reader than to the neophyte who's still underlining each word with a finger. Learning how to skip is just as important to reading as learning how to persevere.

But reading difficult books is not just a reminder of how hard it is to learn to read. The sentences in Middemarch are often enormous but also enormously dense--Eliot uses an awful lot of words but few seem extraneous. You really have to pay attention, especially with the audiobook--let your mind stray for a few seconds and you're lost. But the reward of such required concentration is absorption, a rare and welcome state in a clamoring world.

By Roger Sutton of Read Roger at http://www.hbook.com/blog/labels/Reading%20for%20pleasure.html

4/5/08

Book Titles for Adult Literacy - Picture Books

Just saw another resource for book lists!  This one provides some great titles of picture books.  NP =)

Literacy Connections provides a wealth of information on reading, teaching and tutoring techniques, ESL literacy, and adult literacy. We recommend resources that are useful for teachers, volunteers, and directors of literacy programs. Topics include the language experience approach, phonics, word study, and the best in children's literature.

Click here to connect to Literacy Connections.

4/2/08

Material List

Here is our list of materials for Language Arts ...  I am willing to share materials which I have made up. 

Cathy Smyers, Missoula

Click here for the list of materials.

Reading Comprehension:  March

3/29/08

Response to Book Title Request

OMG!  As I began thinking about Cathy Smyers’ request regarding book titles, I once again realized that sometimes I get so caught up with teaching skills that I forget my long-range goal of getting people to enjoy reading.  So I started looking for some booklists that others have recommended.  Of course, that led me on a great trip