COABE 2016 Take-aways

Colleagues,

The COABE 2016 Annual Conference, in Dallas, has ended. Despite the large turnout, at least 2,000 people I was told, this wonderful opportunity for professional development was only available to a small number of people from our field. I would like to ask our colleagues who attended to describe for those in the LINCS community who could not attend the conference what you learned, loved, and think you will benefit from. Let’s share what we learned.

To get the ball rolling, here’ s a free professional development tool for reading tutors and teachers of adults called Tutor Ready developed by a partnership with LINCS, Portland State University’s Learner Web, California Libraries, and supported with funding from OCTAE at the U.S. Department of Education.  

To access Tutor Ready, create an account.

Unlike other adult basic skills professional development approaches I have seen, Tutor Ready is  “just-in-time” PD. Although it is steeped in many years of research on how to teach adults to read, it is not a course, workshop or webinar.  It is an asynchronous, online system built on authentic questions that adult reading tutors often ask, usually after they have received an initial 15-20 hours of face-to-face training, and after they have been matched with adult learners. When working with adult learners, all kinds of pressing questions and issues emerge, and for many volunteer reading tutors there are not always opportunities to get help with them.

A tutor who has questions like these,

  • How can I know if my learner needs phonemic awareness practice?
  • How can I help my learners connect how words sound with how they’re spelled?
  • How can I help my learner read with appropriate phrasing and expression?
  • How can I help my learner to build up her background knowledge so she can understand how vocabulary words relate to larger concepts?

or any of over 50 more questions about phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension, can get help from carefully chosen Tutor Ready articles; excellent short, authentic tutoring videos; audio files; and other resources.

In a field where more than 80% of the paid teaching force is part-time, and where volunteer tutors are very part-time and unpaid, having a research-based, user-friendly PD resource like this is enormously useful. I wish a free, just-in-time professional development model like this also existed for English language volunteer tutors, and perhaps for other content areas where volunteer and part-time tutors and teachers of adults are: eager to offer help, have limited pre-service face-to-face or online course professional development, have limited time, and who are faced with real and compelling challenges in helping adults learn.

I hope that Tutor Ready may be so useful and engaging that some reading tutors and teachers will become interested enough to also pursue some of the many in-depth reading courses and other resources that are referenced in Tutor Ready, on the LINCS Learner Web Portal, and elsewhere in LINCS.

Thanks to Kathy St. John for a terrific presentation on Tutor Ready, and to her, her colleagues at Learner Web at Portland State University, and at the LINCS Region 4 Professional Development Center who created this terrific resource.

I hope I’ll have time in the days to come to tell you about some of the other great resources I learned about at the COABE annual conference. I also hope that others who were there will review sessions that they found inspiring, and provide links to the resources they learned about if they are not yet uploaded to the COABE Adult Educator Resources pages at http://adultedresource.coabe.org/

David J. Rosen

Moderator, Technology and Learning, and Program Management CoPs

djrosen123@gmail.com

 

Comments

Hi David, and All,

David, you're quick on the draw! I was thinking the same thing this week, as I was unable to attend COABE. Each year in the EBPD Group, we share (to varying degrees) what our key takeaways are from national conferences like COABE. I'm glad to hear it was such a success. But what did others take away from it? Which presentations or resources did you find particularly valuable, and why?

I look forward to living vicariously through your experiences. Please share!

Best... Jackie

Jackie Taylor, Moderator

Evidence-based Professional Development

On Twitter @jataylor10

jackie@jataylor.net

Di Baycich shared "Evidence-Based Principles and Practices for Writing Instruction" at COABE this week, from Improving Adult Literacy Instruction: Developing Reading and Writing (National Research Council), housed in our LINCS Resource Collection. Earlier this month, Di posted the link to this resource earlier this month: https://lincs.ed.gov/professional-development/resource-collections/profile-188.

Although directed to English Language Learners, the ten principles advocated by research apply just as much to ABE or even ASE learners in our Adult Ed Programs, summarized as follows:

  1. Differentiate instruction for adults who vary in English language and literacy skills
  2. Integrate grammatical instruction with the use of language to communicate for specific purposes
  3. Develop vocabulary and content knowledge to foster reading comprehension and learning.
  4. Provide opportunities to practice understanding and using language in varied contexts
  5. Provide materials and tasks that are relevant to learners’ real-world activities.
  6. Provide frequent and explicit feedback.
  7. Match instruction to the learner’s existing level of knowledge and skill.
  8. Leverage knowledge of the learner’s first language to develop skill in English.
  9. Offer writing instruction in both traditional and digital media.
  10. Provide instruction in many modes, including speaking, reading, writing, and visual presentations.

Included in the presentation were also several advocated practices for writing instruction.

More to come.

Leecy Wise, Moderator, Reading and Writing, and Diversity and Literacy CoPs
leecy@reconnectioncompany.com

 

It would be great to hear from others who were at the COABE 2016 conference in Dallas about what you learned, and what presentation(s) you would recommend. In addition to reading, writing, ESL/ESOL, professional development. nonformal education, program management, and technology and learning presentations, it would be great to hear about what you learned from other content area sessions such as science, health literacy, numeracy/math, career pathways, and other areas.

Please share what you learned, even if it's only one session that you especially found interesting or useful, especially for those who were not able to attend COABE this year, but also for those of us who couldn't get to all the great sessions.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

There were several really great sessions on advocacy at the COABE conference. Amanda Bergson-Shilcock and Ashley Shaw provided an excellent outline of practical activities and actions that adult educators can take to influence policy. Margie McHugh described issues related to the WIOA legislation and strategies for addressing those as states develop and implement their adult education plans. Also, a shout-out to Silja Kallenbach for her informative and inspiring session on immigrant integration and adult ed. I only wish that I could have been in two or three places at once -- I had to miss some sessions that I really would have liked to attend!

Hello again Deborah,

It occurred to me that some LINCS members whose focus is on teaching and learning basic skills, or managing programs, may wonder why you and others attend adult basic skills advocacy sessions at COABE. For those who may have that question, would you mind telling us what drew you to the sessions and what you learned or gained as a result? What is the connection for you between public policy advocacy and other kinds of advocacy and what you do directly with students?

Thanks.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

There were several great sessions on Career Pathways (CP) at COABE this year.  One that I think others here might find especially useful in building robust CP programs was, "Dark Matter:  Career Pathways, Competency Models, and How Critical Thinking Holds it All Together".  The presentation was lead by staff from The Ohio State University and the Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE).  

The session was framed around the following questions:

  • What is the current landscape of adult education and workforce development?
  • What are the in-demand skills employers are looking for in job candidates?
  • What are the implications for adult education programs?
  • How can adult educators prepare students for success in both the classroom and the workplace?

The presentation brought the Employability Skills Framework, CCR Standards, and Career OneStop Competency Model into play when thinking about new ways to develop critical thinking into CP programs.  The presenters also highlighted the need for creating authentic learning experiences and using Webb's Depth of Knowledge with CCSS.  The presenters offered several excellent rubrics for reflecting on your CP program, and considering ways to build stronger and more deliberate connections to critical thinking, rigor, and academic as well as workforce demands.

The full presentation and materials are available here.

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com

Mike, thank you for sharing this summary. The combination of Webb's Depth of Knowledge with ESF, CCRS, and Career OneStop Competency Model is a powerful set of tools people could use to develop critical thinking. 

In reviewing the presentation materials, there are lots of good justifications for why critical thinking is so important for our learners. Although there was some attempt to help direct or inspire creation of experiences that build critical thinking, I feel most teachers in the field do not feel there is time, support or resources locally to allow for creation of experiences or activities of this nature. The commercial offerings for sale often do not vary from past practice enough to offer much support in developing critical thinking as suggested in the presentation. Was there similar concerns shared during the session and if so were there suggestions offered?  I find that many in the field "buy in" to the concept but feel there is no time to develop activities and no resources to purchase materials that meets these goals well. I would love to hear creative ways people are setting the stage for teachers to have the time and support to create critical thinking based experiences. 

Ed, you make a great point about commercial offerings not always varying from past practice to support critical thinking.  I agree that teachers need time to develop activities and funds to purchase resources.  While there was agreement in the room on both fronts, there wasn't time dedicated to sharing how people are "setting the stage for teachers to have the time and support to create critical thinking based experiences".  

In speaking with the presenters after the session, I learned a little bit about a statewide curriculum standards re-alignment project, designed to support adult educators in aligning old and new curriculum to current targets.  I believe that there may be some good lessons to share from this statewide initiative and hope to work with the presenters on a LINCS sponsored event to share both the materials from this presentation, and best practices to come out of the standards re-alignment project.

Stay tuned to the Career Pathways CoP for more information on this future event.

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com

Great news! The PowerPoint presentations from many of the GED Testing Service sessions are now available online. I'll leave the links below for anyone interested. (Each title is a hyperlink.) Enjoy! It was great meeting so many of my news LINCS friends in Dallas! Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth.

Using the GED® Test’s High Impact Indicators to Drive Instruction 

A “Mini” Scoring Workshop:  Using the Educator Scoring Tool to Score RLA Responses

What’s Behind the Curtain? An Update on GED® Test Data and Performance 

Using Data to Make Program Decisions

GED® Test Outcomes and Research 

 

David, Great to see you at the NJALL conference earlier this month!  Your post about Tutor Ready brings to mind the conversation we had there about online professional development, particularly Tutor Training.  We talked about the work Literacy New York (LNY) has been doing for the past several years developing online tutor training called Intake to Outcomes or I2O. It includes workshops to train potential tutors in basic reading (ABE) and English language learning (ELL).

 

As we discussed, volunteer literacy programs face a number of barriers in providing current, high quality, research-based, tutor training when using solely a face-to-face model of 3 or 4 sessions that are a few hours each over a period of several weeks.  Often, a potential volunteer will express interest in getting involved, but when told that the next training session won’t be for several weeks (or even months!), the person finds another place to donate his or her time.  In addition, trainer turnover, staff responsibilities, updates to research, and volunteer schedules can create additional issues when training tutors face to face.  

 

Literacy programs in the LNY network that have elected to transition from face-to-face to online training have done so for a variety of reasons including: consistency in the quality of training, providing flexibility with regard to tutors’ time, cost, logistics, data collection, and expanding the pool of potential tutors. LNY created the user-friendly I2O system to train the tutor who may or may not have an educational background and/or experience in teaching adults, using clear language, step-by-step instructions, tutoring resources, and videos of actual tutors demonstrating strategies. In addition, the tools such as videos and resources are retrievable once the tutor is matched with a learner, especially to answer questions that come up subsequently during tutoring sessions, which fulfills the “just in time” aspect of professional development. So far, programs using I2O for the past year or so have experienced much success.

 

Though a “free” product sounds appealing, building, maintaining and constantly improving an online platform requires resources. Programs already spend a substantial amount providing face-to-face tutor training, with books, handouts, trainer time, staff time, training space, and other costs; professional development should not be short-changed in the interest of saving money.  Well-trained, well-supported volunteers require and deserve the investment.

 

We are continuing to expand and refine I2O and I will periodically post results.  This is an important topic-- thanks for the conversation, David.

 

Kathy Houghton

Director of Program Services

Literacy New York

 

Colleagues,

A useful takeaway for the overflow crowd in the COABE session I did on blended learning, based on a free online guide, Blended Learning for the Adult Education Classroom , were the slides, and a handout with a link to the guide.  

They are also available on the COABE Adult Educators Resources site.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

Ed and others,

The link to Blended Learning for the Adult Education Classroom on the COABE Adult Educators Resources page has been fixed.

My colleague, Amy Girardi, has also uploaded our slides on Competency Based Education in the adult education and higher education contexts.

I hope others will post here where we might look at slides and handouts from their COABE 2016 presentations.

If there are questions about the content of these presentations perhaps some of the presenters would be available to answer them here.

David J. Rosen

djrosen123@gmail.com

Laura Sherwood, in her session “Building Reading Fluency for Intermediate Adult Basic Education (ABE) Students,” suggested an activity called “Paired Timed Repeated Reading.” Learners are given a reading passage that is well within their ability levels but is long enough that it would take at least a few minutes to read the entire passage aloud. In pairs (in my class, we did groups of three because I had an odd number of students), students take turns reading.

Person A reads for one minute. When the timer goes off, he or she marks the passage at the point he/she stopped reading. Person B starts over from the beginning of the passage, reads for a timed minute, and again marks the passage. Then Person A reads again from the beginning of the passage.

In general, with each successive reading, students are able to read more smoothly, more accurately, and more quickly because they have already heard the passage. I tried this with my upper-intermediate ESL class this week, and they responded extremely positively. I first read the passage for them in order to model phrasing, and then they read in groups.

I was concerned the students might get bored with the repetition, but far from it! They were intensely focused, and being able to mark the passage each time they read a little more than the previous time was a huge boost to their self-confidence. Afterward, I told them to look at how much their reading had improved in just fifteen minutes, and they were highly motivated to continue learning!

This is definitely an activity I will use again. My thanks to Laura!

 

~Susanna Lee

susanna.lee@witcc.edu

Hello colleagues, Thanks for sharing about the re-reading session at COABE, Susanna. As you note, students develop fluency when they re-read. I think re-reading aloud is especially beneficial to English learners. I have found, as Susan points out, that students are rarely bored with re-reading.

In addition, "close reading" requires that students re-read for different meaningful purposes.

I like this quote from Justin Slocum Bailey,  “From the perspective of language acquisition, the only way to waste time reading is to read a text exactly once” indwellinglanguage.com

I'm convinced there are many benefits that come with re-reading.

Cheers, Susan Finn Miller

Moderator, AELL CoP

Technology Toolbox for Professional Development, presented by Cynthia Bell and Nell Eckersley

I have long admired these two pros in the field of Adult Ed, especially in math and ESOL instruction, and technology. In this presentation, Cynthia and Nell enthusiastically demonstrated how trainers and "users" can use technology tools in the delivery of professional development as well as for their own development as pros.

All of the tools discussed can also be used by teachers and students! Major tools presented were Weebly, YouTube, Twitter, and Google, along with a few references to other ways to enjoy technology for learning. Learning about Paper.li was a joy fto find. As I understand it, the Paper.li site allows you to enter current topics of interest in PD, which it then collects into a newsletter for your easy access! Cool. I haven't tried it yet, but it's on my list. I would love to hear if others have used the site and what they think.

Cynthia claimed that although many educators resist using Google drive, she is a huge fan of all of its tools, sharing tips and creative ways to apply the site in PD.

This COABE presentation is featured on its site at http://techtoolboxpd.weebly.com/, with links to the tools discussed. Leecy (leecy@reconnectioncompany.com)

 

Here are two sessions Tim Ponder and I worked on and presented at COABE. 

Reboot Your Digital Strategy!
http://adultedresource.coabe.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/RebootYourDigitalStrategyCOABE2016-2.pdf

Description: In this workshop, learn how your program and students can take advantage of national developments in digital literacy and access. Presenter will demo helpful resources, websites, and tools to get your teachers, tutors, and students “connected.” Bring your own device (BYOD) to get a hands-on experience.

Integrating Digital Literacy and Problem Solving into Instruction
http://adultedresource.coabe.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/IntegratingProblemSolvingCOABE16.pdf

Learn how you can help adult learners improve digital literacy skills and access to technology thereby accelerating learning. Ideas will be shared on how to use technology enhanced project-based learning activities to help adult students improve their solving problems skills while offering practice with reading, writing, speaking and listening.  

Any questions, feel free to contact me. 

Steve Quann