Colleagues,
I'd like to focus our June discussion on strategies to keep students engaged during summer breaks. Each day through out the month, I will be posting a strategy, idea, or resource.
I'd love to start the discussion hearing from you.
How are you planning on keeping students engaged with your program during the summer?
Sincerely,
Kathy
Comments
Book clubs are a great, informal activity that can support ongoing reading throughout the summer. Check out some tips for creating book clubs. Another great resource for book clubs can come from partnerships with local libraries.
Ideas include:
There are two LINCS discussions with a variety of book recommendations. The first is includes a great list of STEM books and the second is a list of recommendations for a 2-week course
The benefit of a book club for summer engagement is they can be informal, yet meaningful. They can happen virtually, or even face to face.
Do you use book clubs? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Kathy
Keeping students engaged in reading through summer breaks will help prevent the summer slide. If book clubs aren't possible, start a Three to Succeed Reading Challenge.
Ask students to select three books to read during the summer. If your looking for more book ideas, check out the best Young Adult Literature for the summer. Students may need assistance with picking a book that is at an appropriate reading level.
Ask students to keep a reading journal. This process will help students see progress toward a specific goal.
Finally, make sure you connect with your local library. If a field trip to the library is not a possibility, help arrange a virtual tour so students know how to get a library card.
At the end of summer, consider hosting a Return to School party to celebrate the accomplishments.
Kathy
Hello Kathy and others,
Learning circles are a growing nonformal education phenomenon in Adult Foundational Education (For more about this new name for our field, read The Evolution of a New Name for Our Field https://national-coalition-literacy.org/2022/05/adult-foundational-education/ and The evolving definition of Adult Foundational Education https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BTroPf5NCwcQIy_drWO5pzd44GE2fbmWNp71VyrqZCc/edit?usp=sharing). The learning circle concept, created by Peer-to-peer University (not a higher education institution but a metaphor for learning) http://p2pu.org, was scaled up for adult English language learners in (I think) ten states by World Education's EdTech Center supported by funding ov er several years from the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. A learning circle typically has a once-a-week, real time 90-minute to two-hour meeting in person or online. This is accompanied by an online course that all the members are taking. In some cases instead of a course, it is a collection of online learning resources related to a particular learning goal or goals that all the participants are interested in achieving.
Learning circles have had a lot of different applications in our field such as: serving ESOL/ESL learners on waiting lists for classes; supplementing learning taking place in formal classes for students who want to advance more quickly; providing an opportunity for learners preparing for U.S. citizenship or for high school equivalency exam prep; as a supplement to using an adult foundational education app such as Learning Upgrade, Cell-Ed or another app; as a way to onboard students to using a particular education app; and to provide digital literacy skills. Learning circles are often, but not always, led by volunteers trained as peer learning and support facilitators. Some facilitators are adult learners who have had successful experiences as learning circle participants and who have then continued, with additional training, to become facilitators of other learning circles.
At the Providence Public Library in Rhode Island, adult foundational education teachers offered learning circles over the summer both to learn about this nonformal way to provide learning experiences, and to help students enrolled in their ESOL program over the summer when there were no classes. At the YMCA International Services program in Boston a few years ago, students who had participated in a successful VISTA volunteer-led ESOL learning circle, chose to create their own learning circle over the summer while waiting for the next cycle of formal ESOL classes in the fall. I would love to hear about other learning circles offered over the summer, led by adult learner facilitators who had been successful themselves as learning circle participants.
I hope that there may be others in this discussion who would like to add their experiences with learning circles. I would also be glad to try to answer questions about learning circles, and to hear some ways that they might help adult learners over the summer.
World Education has several articles and a guide to ESL learning circles. If you are interested in learning more about them, that would be a good place to begin. Let me know if you are interested, and I can post some links here.
David J. Rosen
djrosen123@gmail.com
As we look for ways to keep adult learners engaged, I am curious if any programs have experience in running short term boot camps to help students who are close to achieving their goals. They can be delivered through remote learning opportunities or even a face to face kick off.
Have you run summer boot camps? I'd love to hear your experience.
Kathy
Colleagues,
As we continue the discussion on preventing the summer slide, I'd like to circle back to a few previous discussions on using podcasts to support learning. Below is a curated list of several podcasts for your consideration.
Tips to using these include:
What ideas do you have for using podcasts to prevent the summer slide?
There are several curated recourses in the Science on the Go discussion. A few of the podcasts highlighted include:
A broader range of podcasts was discussed in Using Podcasts to Support Learning A few of the podcasts highlighted include:
Happy listening.
Kathy Tracey