Reading and Writing January 16 Newsletter

LINCS Reading and Writing
Community of Practice (CoP)
Newsletter
January 2016

You may download this newsletter in Word from the Documents tab.

Welcome New Members!

From the last issue up to this January publication Date: Esther Prins, Nancy McFadden, Jason Nelson, Lucy Samuels, Robert Wessel, and Troy Wiggins. Welcome one and all to this community of like minds, interested in how to engage adult learners in reading and writing!

From your Posted Profiles:

Troy Wiggins is the Adult Learning Coordinator at Literacy Mid-South. Troy earned a MPA in 2012 from the University of Memphis. He served at other nonprofit organizations in Tennessee, including Knowledge Quest, WriteMemphis, and Tennessee State University.

Esther Prins is an Associate Professor of Adult Education at Penn State; Co-Director, Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy and Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy of Adult Education at Penn State; Co-Director, Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy and Institute for the Study of Adult Literacy. Her interests include adult & family literacy; adult basic education; health literacy; social inequality; and  participatory, sociocultural, & critical approaches to adult education

Also, please introduce yourself in the “Getting to Know You” or in the “Introduce Yourself” forum, listed toward the top of your Discussions page.

Hot Topics: LINCS Reading and Writing CoP

Following is a list of topics that we have covered in our discussions from the last publication to this one. 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. Help serve your community! Let’s get to know each other and share our experience and knowledge. Deal?

From our last publication date to this one, we covered the following topics and resources:

1. 2016 MOOC Update
2. Book Inside Me-From Facebook
3. Books, Videos, Films and TED Talks that Inspire...
4. Community Project Circle
5. Free online tutoring for adults: advantages and...
6. GED/Prep Alternatives to Teaching the Five-...
7. How to Avoid, and Teach Avoidance of, Gender Bias...
8. Immigrants and WIOA Services Factsheet
9. Influenza, 1918: Summarizing informational text
10. Is the Digital Divide now Widening, no longer...
11. Jigsaw Reading
12. LINCS Reading and Writing Community of Practice...
13. More on the new GED®
14. Online Course: Differentiated Instruction and...
15. Procrastination-Proofing Students
16. Reasoning Anxiety
17. Reminder: HSE Survey deadline 1/8/16
18. Software that Enables a Family Member or Friend...
19. Student Resolutions
20. Top Barriers
21. Update of Harnessing Technology Reading, Writing...
22. What is your experience with the various HSE...
23. Wrapping Up the Session or Semester
24. Your professional interests or needs that LINCS...

We have had some wonderful and insightful dialogues around several of the topics raised to date.

New discussions opening in this period with the most comments entered were “Is the Digital Divide Now Widening…,” and How to Avoid, and Teach Avoidance of, Gender Bias...“ both posted by David Rosen in several LINCS CoPs,” followed by two topics of specific interests in this community: “Community Project Circle” and “Reasoning Anxiety.” Drop in and add your two cents to those dialogues. The Community Project Circle” forum invited you to participate in a collaborative project with other members around a topic of interest. Di and Robert responded, and we are having a good discussion that has shared several practices on using alternative methods to instructing through the five-paragraph essay. Join us. Add your ideas!

You, who are reading this, please help us continue to learn from each other! Add your views to those already shared or open a discussion on a topic of your choice. Contribute to your community. Your voice is needed!

What were your favorite topics? What topics would you like to add? Open a new discussion in the Discussion tab and start your own thread. We need your voice, your opinions, your presence!

To access and join any previous discussions listed in our newsletters, click on the Discussions tab; scroll to the bottom and click on the page numbers listed. Previous discussions show up as you click back.

LINCS News

Are you using the recently added, fantastic resource for Adult Learners? The LINCS Learner Center connects adult learners to free online resources to reach life goals in areas such as improving reading, math, and science skills, learning English, building job and job search skills, becoming a U.S. citizen, and finding an adult education, child, family, and digital literacy program. Check it out! The LINCS Learning Portal is a treasure chest of self-paced courses! Read the descriptions of the long list at http://lincs.ed.gov/learning-portal.

In Your LINCS Resource Collection

·      Reentry Education Model Implementation Study: Promoting Reentry Success through Continuity of Educational Opportunities. This report examines the implementation of the Reentry Education Model at three demonstration sites and identifies key lessons for linking correctional and reentry education programs. http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ovae/pi/AdultEd/reentry-education-model-implementation-study.pdf

·      KET - The Interview - Workplace Essential Skills - Help students make a great impression at their next job interview with this lesson from KET's Workplace Essential Skills series. This self-paced lesson includes videos from a professional career counselor, interactive practice opportunities to get them thinking about their strategy, and more activities they can try at home on their own. ttp://ket.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/ket-wesint-01/ket-wesint-01/

·      Innovative State Approaches to Implementing CCR Standards Webinar - The webinar, Innovative State Approaches to Implementing CCR Standards, was produced by StandardsWork, Inc. as part of the CCR Standards-in-Action (CCR SIA) project, under contract to the U.S. Department of Education (Contract # ED-VAE-13-C-0066).  The CCR SIA project was funded to develop and disseminate professional development and advanced-level supports for implementing CCR standards sustainably and at-scale. https://youtu.be/Afv-ecFnk1E

Announcements

Now Recruiting: LINCS is looking for Community Members to Review Online Formative Assessment Tools - LINCS is assembling a small cohort of users tasked with identifying and reviewing online formative assessment tools for adult education classrooms. Formative assessment tools are defined as instruments that allow a teacher to adapt their teaching strategies based on the data they collect. Assessment expert, trainer, professional developer, and classroom teacher Marie Cora will be leading this activity.

Click here to register for the orientation webinar.  For more information: https://community.lincs.ed.gov/notice/now-recruiting-lincs-looking-community-members-review-online-formative-assessment-tools

Circle It on Your Calendar!

Event: Promoting Greater Latino Participation in Career Pathways! The Diversity and Literacy, and the Career Pathways LINCS communities will be sponsoring a critical discussion around the topic of the under-representation of Latinos in the US workforce. A panel of experts will be leading the discussion, February 22-26, with the option of continuing the dialogue after that. Get ready. You will be receiving additional information so that you can prepare to join us in one of those CoPs!

Featured Resources/Articles

Have a resource recommendation for this newsletter? Please send me the information, and I’ll post it in our next issue, with credit given. (leecy@reconnectioncompany.com) Alternatively, and even more highly recommended, post a discussion in our community and start a new dialogue!

If you have followed the discussions that are being shared this month with other CoPs, you have learned about many tried and true resources offered by members that include best practices, technology tools and applications, Websites, and more. The advantage of benefitting from what other members have to suggest is that they are in the field and can recommend what works among adult learners. Don’t miss out on learning from others in our community, and kindly contribute suggestions from your experience. We are rowing the same boat! Think of how you can add a little muscle to the experience!

·      The Washington Post will allow singular ‘they’- http://www.poynter.org/2015/the-washington-post-will-allow-singular-they/387542/ - What do you think?. David Rosen opened a discussion on that issue. Drop in and share your views! Personally? I’m kicking and screaming and hoping that English can invent a new pronoun to cover that issue.

·      http://smago.coe.uga.edu/SL/Writing_Tips.html - I don’t advocate teaching grammar out of context, but it’s always nice to have helpful references, especially from other teachers. What references do you advocate? Share those in our CoP!

·      You can start your own robotics program! Lego robotics is a hands-on, collaborative, authentic learning experience, and Mark Gura wants you to give it a try. Gura, the author of the ISTE book Getting Started with Lego Robotics, understands how daunting it can be to start a robotics program from scratch. That’s why he wants to help other educators like you by sharing information you need to get started. He’s one of three guests presenting “Creative Technology Use in K-12,” a webcast hosted by School Library Journal in partnership with ISTE.

Sign up for the Jan. 27 web event  (https://event.on24.com/eventRegistration/EventLobbyServlet?target=reg20.jsp&partnerref=SLJSPNSRiste1160127&eventid=1114054&sessionid=1&key=E02CB9F79830BB3EFC8C3B1FC58798DC&regTag=&sourcepage=register ) to learn how you can teach coding to people of varying ages, abilities and learning styles, and find resources and tips on student-designed robotic projects. Gura will be joined by Colleen Graves, a teacher-librarian from Denton, Texas, and Sharon Thompson, the CEO and founder of Dream Workshop.

Journals

·      http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/TETYC/0432-dec2015/TETYC0432Forget.pdf - “Forget What You Learned in High School!”: Bridging the Space between High School and College, Melissa Dennihy (Teaching English in the Two-Year College, Vol. 43, No. 2, December 2015) - This essay considers the contexts and constraints that shape high school and college teaching and limit opportunities for faculty at both levels to collaborate; it then offers suggestions for how to bridge the space between these two institutional cultures and make students’ transitions from one level to the next more seamless and successful.

·      http://www.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/Resources/Journals/TETYC/0432-dec2015/TETYC0432Students.pdf - Students as Storytellers: Teaching Rhetorical Strategies through Folktales, by Jeffrey Howard. (TECYC 2015) ”An instructional note on one method of using folktales as texts in the composition classroom to help students gain a basic understanding of agenda and the way objectives and ideologies can shape information. “In my composition classes, I have struggled at times to find content that appeals to my students. I want them to read texts that invite their interest and draw on their past cultural experiences… I have taken to using texts from folklore, such as fairy tales or folktales, to help my students develop critical thinking skills that heighten their awareness of the value of those individual experiences as part of a larger narrative tradition.”

Tips for Encouraging Reading and Writing Practice

Di, Robert, and I have been sharing alternatives to teaching the five-paragraph essay. The thread in the Reading and Writing CoP is called Community Project Circle, where I invited members to comment on a topic of interest so that we could develop a Project-Based Circle to collaborate on ideas and activities. Only Di and Robert responded, both commenting on alternatives to teaching the 5-paragraph essay. Great ideas are being shared. Add yours!

Story-telling is among the ideas shared for having students practice writing as an alternative to the five-paragraph essay. Story-telling is a universally-engaging way to build communities and to maintaining traditions in most, if not all, cultures. Do we allow students to tell their stories and share in writing? In not, why not? Even rank beginners can tell their stories, using approaches like the Language Experience Approach. Following are a few resources, in addition to those shared in the discussion. (See journal article above, as well.)

·      Prezi – I still use PowerPoint extensively to make points. It is a powerful tool that allows for many types of interaction and activities. Prezi, in my view, is an alternative to PowerPoint, which provides amazing tools for delivering content. Students can have a ball using it. It is a free online tool unless you want to upgrade. Among the projects suggested in the above discussion is a Prezi developed on how to use storytelling as a way to encourage writing. No matter what our culture or background, we humans love good stories. Check out this Prezi at . If you enjoy the tool, create a Prezi on your own to learn, and then share the tool with your students. What a great alternative to boring writing instruction! See link below.

https://prezi.com/lvln-7xg-tr6/the-storytellers-secret/?utm_source=prezi&utm_medium=email&utm_content=16777836&utm_campaign: The best storytellers all share something in common - "Presentation expert Carmine Gallo has created an amazing prezi about how some of the best storytellers do what they do. From Richard Branson to Malala Yousafzai, these charismatic leaders tell stories that inspire their audiences to act. See his Prezi to find out how you can do the same."

·      Voki – I have used Voki for years to add variety to announcements in my online classes, to make people laugh through emails, to have native and non-native English speaking students create and share short stories about themselves, and more.

o   http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11902732&height=267&width=200 - This Voki invites you to use the tool.

o   http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=11372829&height=267&width=200 - This Voki is created by a student learning to speak English.

Sometimes students don’t want to use their voices, which is an option in Voki. Instead, they can choose from several different speakers who will read the text they create.

Once you create a Voki, you can either share the link, as I’ve done here, or embed the code given into a Website or email. Try it. You’ll love it! So will your students!

When you are ready to share your Voki with us, open a new Discussion. Call it something like “Sharing My Voki.” Add the link, and let’s start talking! Share what your students create. Let’s have some fun!

·      EBooks – Students across the board love creating ebooks. You can create an ebook with Word, PowerPoint, or even Excel! A collaborative ebook allows students to tell different stories in different ways: one writes, another edits, another illustrate, and another compiles. Students can their own stories, stories for their children, recipe stories, and more. They’ll think of something.

o   http://www.creating-ebooks.com/ - A step-by-step guide to creating an ebook in ePub and mobi formats, complete with ebook template, and a useful style guide for authors.

o   http://www.pcworld.com/article/253618/how_to_use_microsoft_word_to_create_an_ebook.html - How to Use Microsoft Word to Create an Ebook, from PC World.

o   http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/how-to-create-ebooks-free-templates-ht - Free templates and a step-by-step guide.

o   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENpj0jAjI-0 - How to Create A Successful eBook in 4 Steps, YouTube video by Nacie Carson Pereira. Very useful, with tips that can be used by advanced or beginning writiers. Imagine the different applications for your students, including how they might make some extra $!

Social Media Tips

50 Ways to Use Twitter in the Classroom, by Samantha Miller – “Many critics of Twitter believe that the 140-character microblog offered by the ubiquitous social network can do little for the education industry. They are wrong.” http://www.teachhub.com/50-ways-use-twitter-classroom

Please open a discussion in our community and share your tips for using social media for instruction, especially among adults.

Member Contribution

This section is awaiting your contribution. Share a practice, a resource, a tip, anything that you would like featured in this section! Email me, and you’ll be in our next newsletter!

Brain Games and Fun Things

What phrases do the images represent? Share them with your students!  If you solve the “word puzzles,” post your answer in this forum. I will no longer post the answers in the newsletter.

1.            2.

Possible solutions to last month’s challenges: 1. Lie in wait  2. Too bad

I will no longer be posting solutions in the next newsletter. Instead, open a discussion like, "Solution to January Puzzes," and enter your ideas about what the images mean!

3. I strongly advocate puzzle activities as a fun way to encourage vocabulary development, contextual meanings, and many other language-related skills. Try this site, and if you like it, send your students there. http://www.kappapuzzles.com/

4. And speaking of fun, have you and your students tried Free Rice? http://freerice.com/#/english-vocabulary/1399. For every right answer, the site donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Program. Be sure to check the many options for difficulty lever, topics, and more. Warning! This site is addictive.

Upcoming Events

Be sure to drop in weekly to review the exciting announcements on our LINCS Home page,  https://lincs.ed.gov and on our Community page, https://community.lincs.ed.gov/https://community.lincs.ed.gov .

Be sure to drop in weekly to review the exciting announcements on our LINCS Home page,  https://lincs.ed.gov and on our Community page, https://community.lincs.ed.gov/https://community.lincs.ed.gov .

A. COABE 2016 –Registration for the 2016 COABE/TALAE National Conference in Dallas, Texas on April 10-13, 2016 is open! Get registered early and save $!

B. ISTE 2016: “The learning and collaboration at ISTE 2016 can spark big transformations — but it takes more than one person to sustain it. You have the chance to learn together, experience opportunity and support each other as you implement the new ideas you’ve learned. When your group hits 10 registrants, you receive the super early bird rate — no matter when you register for the conference.” San Antonio, Texas, June 25-28, 2017. Website:  http://bit.ly/1O0yWpO

Comments

Need help becoming more active? LINCS provides you with “how-to” links to video tutorials when you click the HELP link from your Community page (https://community.lincs.ed.gov/page/help) , along with a “Contact Us” link at the very top of the LINCS window. Just as I am sure you tell your students, “When you don’t know how to do something, ask! My email is posted below.

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

See you in the forums! Let’s talk some more! Leecy
leecy@reconnectioncompany.com