As you probably gathered from your invitation to join the PIAAC Literacy Circle, we are an active group whose purpose is to (1) discuss practices related to Amy Trawick’s Using the PIAAC Literacy Framework to Guide Instruction, 2017 and (2) collaboratively create reading and related writing activities to be used to accelerate literacy development among adult learners in ABE, HSE, Family Literacy, and, possibly, ESOL programs in the United States. Following are a few guidelines to direct your participation.
By participating in discussions and development in the next few weeks…
- you agree to read Using the PIAAC Literacy Framework to Guide Instruction, by Amy Trawick, available in the LINCS Resource Collection. Amy is participating in our weekly discussions, so feel free to consult her on any aspect of the Guide, which will serve as the foundation for discussions in our PIAAC Literacy Circle.
- you agree to participate in weekly discussions, and motivate dialogue and interaction among all members, directly related to posted discussion prompts.
- you agree to develop a Unit Overview from a template for contextualized reading instruction that incorporates tools from the Guide and is appropriate for ABE, HSE, Family Literacy, or ESOL learners.
- you agree to freely share any products developed in this Circle, both on LINCS and among instructors and programs everywhere. We are not copywriting the Unit Overviews that we develop so that they can be widely distributed. Some Overviews may be made available online at the end of our time together, with attribution to the author (s).
- you agree to receive daily notifications every 12 or 24 hours of postings in discussions and to respond regularly to others who are commenting. You will find the notification option in the right-hand column of our group home page, under “My Email Subscription to This Group.”
- once we actually start developing unit activities in Week 2, you agree to review what others develop and to offer them helpful feedback. You are encouraged to work together with others on assignments as you meet people who have the same interest and goals as you.
Note: depending on the size of the group, we may divide the Circle into two groups after the first week.
Please complete your profile as soon as possible so that we can all get to know each other better. Adding your photo will help a lot! If you need help completing your profile or handling other issues related to participating, contact leecy@reconnectioncompany.com. If you run into technical issues with the LINCS site, click on the “Contact Us” link at the very top of the page.
Your suggestions for improvement are strongly encouraged from the start. Let us hear from you either in the forums or through email. You may contact any member of the Circle by clicking a name from the “Members” tab on our home page. That will open a profile, with a “Contact” link, which opens an email form.
You will notice other tabs as well. The View Tab lists all comments posted, with your unread items labeled as “new” or “updated” in red, to help you keep track of what is posted. The Discussions Tab lists all discussion topics posted. We will have approximately two discussion prompts each week. You do not need to use any of the other tabs in the next few weeks.
When you wish to respond to an original prompt, click on the “+Add new comment” link at the bottom of the prompt. When you wish to respond to a comment posted in response to the prompt, click on the “reply” link at the bottom of the comment.
Welcome, and thanks for joining us!
The PIAAC Literacy Circle Team