Are You Open? Join the R&W OER-Team!

I am looking for a handful of committed adult educators who will join to collaborate in developing an Open Educational Resource in Reading and Writing for adults reading at approximately the 4th-6th grade level. We will form the Reading and Writing O-Team.

I suggest that we follow the WIPPEA format to create a short activity/plan to appeal to learners interested in preparing to enter the field we select. Pick an activity from the menu below or suggest one of your own:

  • Health
  • Industrial Trades
  • Business
  • Digital Technology
  • Your Choice

WIPPEA refers to the activity's development: Warm Up, Introduction, Presentation, Practice, Evaluation, and Application. It would be great to match activities to CCR Standards.

If enough of you wish to participate, I will open a discussion called R&W (Reading and Writing) O-Team. The "O" stands for Open, as in Open Educational Resources (OER). The discussion will be limited to 4-5 participants who will work together on completing the project.

  • We'll start the discussion by examining OER definitions, licenses, and repositories.
  • We will agree on a topic, schedule, and format.
  • Each of us will assume a role in developing the resource.
  • We will share content for each section of the activity.
  • We will match the content to CCR Standards.
  • We will publish our activity on OERCommons and share the resources among our networks!

Our activity will be designed to appeal to low-level adult readers (5th-6th grade reading level) seeking employment in the occupation that we select. Activities will engage adults with different "intelligences," learning preferences and abilities, and cultural backgrounds.

Interested? Respond here and let’s get started. Leecy

Leecy Wise, Moderator, Reading and Writing CoP
leecy@reconnectioncompany.com

Comments

I was thinking that I want to focus on math but the truth is that I already have a *lot* of activities for readign and reading comprehension... so if the topic & tasks are a match at all, count me in.   (If I'd have to create from scratch, then I'll stick to the math...   if you go to my website at www.resourceroom.net and look under "reading comprehension" you'll find a few thigns...) 

Wonderful, Susan. You and I are a start. Let's see if we can recruit 2-3 more folks. I think that this could be a lot of fun, for us and for students!

And thanks for the link to your site. Great!

In terms of developing something together, I am reminded that LINCS has a lesson-planner at https://lessonplanner.lincs.ed.gov/. We can use that as our shared format!

As far as academic skills, if we focus on one of the areas for interest, like an occupation, we can include all sorts of math, reading, and writing activities to support occupational interests. I'm a super advocate of always having students practice reading and writing skills in math classes, and vice versa. They all require higher cognitive abilities related to real life. Leecy (leecy@reconnectioncompany.com)

If you know of others who might join us here, please invite them to the team!

I'm thinking that we could set up a lesson with a theme  --( which, already, I'm not able to come up with on the tip of my tongue)  that would be helpful for whatever goal we're aiming for (GED prep? Then maybe it could be "finding main idea" or "building vocabulary"?).

Once we've got a lesson, then in true OER fashion, others could adapt the exact lesson into a slightly different context for a different part of the career.  

Our whole adult ed is going toward career prep because that's where funding is, too (unless the twerds do something today about a budget -- it's yet another deadline, but they're more concerned with whom they owe political favors to for November's election than paying for things like education, so we seriously might have K-12 schools closing come the fall).   

So I am already pulling up what we've got on our website at http://www.iccb.org/data/?page_id=111     for math, and looking at the exercises they provide and trying to make some lessons in math to teach how to actually *do*the stuff... in a way that will teach number sense as well.  So, for instance, they have to fill out a mileage log based on driving between different places on the map;  I'll include some exercises with putting numbers on number lines, and calling 'em miles... ("if this is 300 and that is 900, where would 800 go?")   

I'm thinking the same could apply to reading and writing.   

So, if we can get some more folks on board right now, great... maybe we'll have something we could share with people who sign up for an instructional design MOOC in the fall...

Love all of the ideas, Susan. I'll have to see if we can all contribute to the LINCS template. If not, we can post the template here and take up each item as we go along.

My preference would be to target ABE learners who are hoping to eventually pass their GED to get a job. There is so very little out there to appeal to low-level readers!

We can pick an occupation and describe both the occupational skills (technical vocabulary, how-to's, projects, etc.) and then describe the academic skills we want to embed into the instruction: math, reading, writing, computers, listening, etc.

For example, if we target CDL (truck driving license), there is plenty to read about, problems to solve, formulas to apply (gradient % and ratios), paragraphs to describe and define, on and on. If we target basic health occupations, we could work on case students, report writing, graphs, measurements, on and on.

If you and I end up developing something here, maybe others can jump in and contribute. I'll post a tentative template, and we can take an item at a time. Fun! Maybe someone would jump in and illustrate the activity for us! Maybe someone could add a video, a problem, a case study, a cartoon, and more. Let's keep talking! Leecy

The modules on the Illinois site have some nicely developed contexts for lessons ... I'd want to tackle the CDL  angle because I suspect it will be easier to find somebody to adapt it to health careers than to find somebody to adapt a health career one to CDL.  (That could be because we have lots more people in health right here -- the college w/ more CDL is down the road a ways). 

    Now I'm just trying to get into the productivity zone w/ the math... 

 

My thinking is that if we can set up templates, then people can follow along and then seize opportunities to make contributions.   It will mean materials that are consistent so teachers &students don't have to figure things out, and mean that we get a good variety.   THanks :) :)  

Susan and Di, we are now three! That's a start. I believe that the WIPPEA template is a pretty solid model. We could add specs to it. I'll come back here tomorrow and suggest items that we might want to consider. My vision is to keep things brief, to the point, and geared to low-reading levels. Maybe geared to low math levels, too?

Also if we divide the project into easy parts, no one has to spend much time developing. We can take small pieces, one at a time. More mañana when I'm back in the saddle. I'm excited! :) Leecy

Hi, Team. Following is a suggestion for creating a plan together, following the WIPPEA model (link below to resource).

Here's what I'm thinking. There is very little material available to help teachers work with adults in ABE programs who have low reading and, probably, math levels. We know that adults learn in relation to the extent that content relates to their goals, experiences, and interests. I have drafted a plan that we can certainly change, just to get us started. I selected construction (building a short stairway), which would require learners to complete a project which practicing valuable math, reading, and writing skills.

What do you think? Please comment as we begin to work together.

BASIC INFORMATION

Program Area/Audience: Adult Basic Education (5th grade reading level)

Life Skill: Occupational: Construction

Title: How to build a short stairway

Academic Skills Practiced:

  1. Reading and writing instructions
  2. Measuring Gradients (ratios and percentage) and converting amounts
  3. Purchasing materials and tools
  4. Creating a budget in Excel (computer)

Number of Sessions: ???

Brief Description: Learners will create a cardboard model or actual wooden stairway as an entrance to a mobile home, camper, or other structure. In the process, they will practice related academic skills and apply critical thinking in solving problems or designing new structures.

Objectives: In completing this project, learners will...

  1. List ways in which gradients must be measured in everyday life.
  2. After researching recommended sites (at low reading levels), list materials and tools needed to build a stairway .
  3. Develop a budget for building a stairway of their choice in real life.
  4. Complete measurements for building a short stairway, either as a model or for a real structure.
  5. Apply effective reading and thinking skills to solve gradient word problems.
  6. Cut and join materials to create a stairway.
  7. Write and illustrate instructions for creating a wider and taller stairway for a bigger structure.

In completing each objective, learners will practice effective reading, writing, and math basic skills as they develop the project.

Once we agree on the basic information on the plan we want to develop, we can then assume roles in creating the plan, following the WIPPEA Model described at http://lincs.ed.gov/sites/default/files/8_TEAL_Lesson_Planning.pdf . This document is listed with an interactive template with instructions in our Resource Collection at https://lessonplanner.lincs.ed.gov/. Once we create the plan, we can fill in the blanks on LINCS. We will also post the plan in the Adult Ed Repository on OER Commons.

What do you think? Will this template and approach work for you, Sue? I'm assuming that you will develop most of the math sections and Di might take on the communications instruction, along with me and others who might join us...I hope.  Let’s have some fun!  Leecy