Reading and Writing CoP Sept Newsletter!

LINCS Reading and Writing Community of Practice
Newsletter
September 2015


From http://www.you-can-be-funny.com/FunnyKidsCartoons.html

yesWelcome New Members!

In August up to Publication Date: Andy Nash, Beverly Strayer, Holly Love, Kathy Held, Lucianna Ramos, Nicole Selvaggio, Paul Heavenridge, Rebecca Eller, Virginia Dugan. Go to the Introduce Yourself Forum and welcome all new members while introducing yourself as well!

From Your Profile: Beverly Strayer is a retired public school teacher who is currently tutor coordinator at York County School of Technology. Any other matches to Beverly’s profile out there?

Please take a few minutes to complete your profile in LINCS so that we can get to know you better. I would like to summarize your information in our next newsletter!

yesFeatured Resource/ Article

http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/pdf/digitalaccess-problemsolving.pdf - Integrating Digital Literacy and Problem Solving into Instruction accelerates learning for adult students by improving their use of technology to solve problems and communicate with others, while increasing their digital literacy and access. The project-based lessons can be adapted for use in most ESOL or ABE classrooms and used to provide reading and writing as well as speaking and listening practice while students improve their 21st century skills of problem solving, technology use and teamwork. By Steve Quann, World Education, Inc, 2015.

yesTopics Summary

Below you’ll find a list of topics that we have covered in our discussions of late. Those topics remain open, so feel free to comment on any of them by clicking in the Discussions Tab, and then on the topic of your choice.

Would you like to open a new topic? We need your participation and interaction as we build our little learning community to serve your needs and interests! Post a problem you are facing. Post a case study. Post an activity that you recommend for engaging adult learners in your practice. Post a question, a resource, an idea, a reference. Whatever your preference to interaction and dialogue, post! This community is here to serve you. Let’s get to know each other and share our experience and knowledge. Deal?

In August, we covered the following topics and resources:

  • ThugNotes: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=thug+notes
  • Can Your Read This? An image to reflection on our language.
  • Learning Out of Class ideas
  • Cultural Factors in Learning
  • Multifactor Placement for Adults
  • Are You Teaching Graphic Literacy? Should You Be?
  • ·The African Griot: Study Finds Storytelling Is the Key to the Literacy of Black Preschool Children
  •  Adjusting a Reading That is Just Too High
  • Crossword Activities
  • Ready to Change? Comments by a Devil’s Advocate
  • Having Students Read Aloud – Continuation on comments from April
  •  Join the Collage! – An invitation to add your collage in a community PowerPoint slide. Lots of fun. The link is still open. Let’s see ourselves portrayed in images!
  • LINCS Scavenger Hunt – Want to know more about what LINCS offers you? Post your two cents in response to the items listed.
  • Socio-Emotional Skills – Are they important?
  • Formative Assessment Tools

In September (to date), we covered the following topics and resources:

  • Building Cross-Cultural Dialogue
  • You Are Invited! – Announcement of this month’s guest=-speaker event. (See notice below.)
  • National Health Literacy Month – call for writing activities
  • Join by Doing not by Knowing More about It!
  •  Katrina Featured in Communications Activities
  • Paired Texts – a site with good ideas and resources
  • Harnessing Technology to Serve Adult Literacy – an invitation to share tools from your experience
  • Literacy List’s New Home
  • Preparing for Our Event – Resources to help you get ready for our guest-speaker in another week!

What were your favorite topics? What topics would you like to add?

yesLINCS News

LINCS provides a long list of self-paced, PD courses that are open for those who want to expand their knowledge around issues relating to adult learning. I have just completed the “Differentiated Learning” course, which I reported to you in our discussions. It is filled with great ideas on differentiation, which include assessment issues and models.

The “Designing Contextualized Instruction” Course, “helps teachers understand contextualized instruction and its supporting research base, use the contextual model of instruction to develop Adult Career Pathways (ACP) courses, and identify and overcome common challenges in developing contextualized instruction. The course is self-paced and features three modules: (1) Understanding Contextualized Instruction; (2) Building Contextualized Lessons; and (3) Overcoming Development Challenges.

To access the course, sign in to the Learning Portal, and register for this free course under the Career Pathways section. When you complete the course, please share your experience with the rest of us in our discussion area!

yesTips for Encouraging Reading and Writing Practice

One of the constant requests that I have from adult ed instructors is to find ways to teach students how to understand and interpret political cartoons. It’s more than a social-science issue. It’s a critical-thinking issue that is very related to communication skills.

Interpreting political cartoons requires knowledge of the events that led to the image. This site allows free use of political cartoons, with lesson plans and worksheets to support their interpretation. Free for classroom use! Go to http://nieonline.com/aaec/cftc.cfm  and thrive! The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists: Cartoons for the Classroom, September 2015 - America's gun culture insane? Common Core State Standard RL.CSS.2/4 Grades 6-12

yesFeatured Link

http://edsitement.neh.gov/feature/back-school-literature-and-language-common-core#node-29776 : From the National Endowment for the Humanities, EDSITEment: Back to School: Literature and Language for the Common Core

  • American Literature: Classic stories, drama and poetry and art by American authors and artists who capture the language of place and render the ethos of their time.

  • World Literature: A wide variety of writers and poets who represent cultures across the globe—Africa, Central and South America, Russia, Ireland and Britain—as well as ancient Rome:

yesSocial Media Tips

If you want ideas on how to use social media or other online tools to engage learners in collaborative projects where many learn best, check out this incredible site!

http://c4lpt.co.uk/social-learning-handbook/100-examples-of-use-of-social-media-for-learning/  : 100+ examples of use of social media for learning, by Jane and Hart, Founder of the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, 2009 (with updates in her Social Learning Handbook, 2014). I notice that bubbl.us.com is listed for collaborative mind mapping. I hope you’ll find the instructions for joining the mind map that I started for our community on bubbl.us.com a few weeks back. The map has had only one contribution beyond mine. Try it. You’ll like it! So will your learners!

yesBrain Games

What phrases do the images represent? If you solve the “word puzzles,” post your answer in this forum. Otherwise, wait until next month’s issue for the answers.

1.     AALLLL Puzzle  2.LOV Puzzle

yesUpcoming Events

Circle the following days on your calendars: M, T, W, September 21, 22, and 23. During those days, you will be treated to a guest speaker, Cindy Higgins, who will be interacting with you in our Diversity and Literacy, and Reading and Writing Communities of Practice.

Cindy Higgins (M.A. in Reading), is a Navajo professional who grew up and currently lives on the Navajo Reservation. She is the Senior Educational Specialist at Utah State University, Eastern in Blanding, Utah. She administers the USU Four Corner's Teacher Education Outreach, for individuals who are interested in a obtaining a degree in Teacher Education and Administration. USU-Eastern serves predominantly Navajo and Ute Mountain Ute student populations.

Please explore the resources posted last week in the Discussion “Preparing for Our Event.”

Let’s give Cindy Higgins a hearty welcome as she allows us to pick her brain on this important issue of how to engage Native Americans and other diverse groups of similar cultures in reading and writing! See you next Monday, the 21st in our community forum!

You are invited to comment on the usefulness of a monthly newsletter. If you would like to post a section, just send it to me, and I will include it if the group would like to continue this practice.

To respond to any of the items in this newsletter, simply add a comment below, as with all discussion threads.

See you in the forum! Let’s talk some more! Leecy

leecy@reconnectioncompany.com