Work-Based Learning for Adult Learners (Webinar and Discussion)

We hope you’ll join us for Thursday’s webinar, Work-Based Learning Resources for Adult Educators, at 2pm ET (Register here). Before the webinar, we want to hear about your experiences offering work-based learning (WBL) and encourage you to review one of the resources that will be discussed during the webinar. We’ll be engaging with the resources using the Making Connections strategy, which you can read about at https://sites.google.com/a/alaska.edu/diane-kardash/Home/making-connections.

Please post your review and share your thoughts below!

Resources (select one):

Discussion:

How does the resource you reviewed connect to your work? In what ways does it reflect the work you do? In what ways is it different?

Does your program offer work-based learning for adult learners? If so, please describe.

Comments

If so, please tell us about your WBL offerings! Or tell us about any barriers to offering WBL for adult learners. 

During Thursday's webinar, we'll be sharing some of the resources that RTI and others have developed on WBL for the CTE community and are interested in hearing from you about how they might be applied to your work in adult education. It would be great to have some examples about WBL in adult education programs to share during the webinar. Or, to understand your challenges, so we can better tailor the discussion to your needs. I look forward to connecting with you further on Thursday!

Thanks to everyone who actively participated in yesterday's WBL webinar. We heard so many great examples of how you're incorporating WBL into adult education programs, whether for specific learner populations (ELLs, corrections, adult with disabilities) and/or in partnership with other key stakeholders (community colleges, CTE programs, workforce boards, employers, and public libraries). Some examples include a high school completion course held at the work site; efforts to have learners research their preferred jobs and then tour companies of interest and shadow employees; and workplace preparation activities built into IET and IELCE programs. What a rich discussion! 

We'd like to hear more! Please share below how you're incorporating work readiness into your adult education programs. How are learners participating in WBL? Who are you partnering with? What challenges do you encounter?

During yesterday's webinar, we introduced the text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world applications of the Making Connections strategy. We reflected on how the WBL resources (see links above) reminded us of our work, other resources, and larger community connections. We invite everyone to continue this discussion: 

  • Which of the resources featured in the webinar are most applicable to your work? Why?
  • What other WBL resources have you found helpful in your work?
  • How does WBL help you meet the needs of adult learners in your community?

Thank you, Laura, for sharing the text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world applications of the Making Connections strategy during last week's webinar.   For those who missed it, or may not be familiar with this strategy, here is a brief outline of how it works:

  • Before trying this in the classroom, create a list of personal connections to the text you want to use with this strategy.
  • Explain to students that you are going to practice the comprehension strategy of making connections to find ways that they can personally relate to a text.  Try asking students to think about the following questions.  
    • Focusing on text-to-self connections:
      • What does this story remind you of?
      • Can you relate to the characters in the story?
      • Does anything in this story remind you of anything in your own life?
    • Focusing on text-to-text connections:
      • What does this remind you of in another book you have read?
      • How is this text similar to other things you have read?
      • How is this text different from other things you have read?
    • Focusing on text-to-world connections:
      • What does this remind you of in the real world?
      • How are events in this story similar to things that happen in the real world?
      • How are events in this story different from things that happen in the real world?
  • Use a think-aloud strategy to model how to make each type of connection.  Ask students to share a few quick examples of both kinds of connections, and explain why some might help their understanding of the text more than others.
  • After students have a working understanding of making connections, ask them to begin listing their own connections to the text using a journal or graphic organizer.
  • Next, students can organize and write an essay about a connection to the text using the Essay Map interactive or choose a different student interactive to use to create a project based on a connection to the text.

The webinar drew connections between this reading strategy and Work-Based Learning (WBL) partnerships and resources.  Making these connections explicit in our programs, and with learners, seems to be a key take-away.  I wonder if anyone else sees other opportunities for using academic curriculum planning strategies to connect with WBL?  

Mike Cruse

Career Pathways Moderator

michaelcruse74@gmail.com