From djrosen at comcast.net Tue May 2 08:51:05 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 2 May 2006 08:51:05 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 1] test message Message-ID: <2EB817B3-4574-49C8-A6E9-3D2B34596944@comcast.net> This is a test message. David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Thu May 18 14:10:34 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 18 May 2006 14:10:34 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 2] ARCS discussion to begin soon: E-mail your Questions Message-ID: <972FC1D2-2B15-4939-B4CF-891D032E4559@comcast.net> Special Topics List Colleagues, On May 23rd we will begin the discussion on the Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS). Please send your questions about the study, about how the ARCS was done, how it is or can be used, about the ARCS Web page, or other ARCS-related questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov The questions will be posted beginning on May 23rd. You will find a 30-minute video panel discussion with ARCS researchers Rosalind Davidson and John Strucker, and practitioners Kay Vaccaro and Jane Meyer at http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/20040204/webcast02-04.html This video panel introduction is also available on DVD from the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy [ http:// www.ncsall.net/?id=24 ] or from the National Institute for Literacy. (Send a request for the Adult Readiing Components Study (ARCS) Panel (free) DVD to: info at nifl.gov Be sure to include your mailing address.) Other ARCS introductory materials include: 1. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) [PDF document] by John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27 (ninth item down) 2. How the ARCS Was Done http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/op_arcs.pdf 3. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27#arcs I look forward to seeing your questions. David Rosen djrosen1 at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Mon May 22 15:30:46 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 15:30:46 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 3] Welcome to the Special Topics List Message-ID: Dear Colleague, You have subscribed to the Special Topics Discussion List sponsored by the National Institute for Literacy. Our first topic is the Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS). Our guests are Dr. John Strucker and Dr. Rosalind Davidson, the researchers on this study. The discussion will begin tomorrow, Tuesday May 23rd. A good discussion depends on your active participation. I hope you will read some of the background articles, and/or look at the video panel discussion, and that you will then post questions for our guests. To post a question, e-mail it to: SpecialTopics at nifl.gov If for some reason you have a question you would like me to ask on your behalf, or if you need technical assistance, my e-mail is below. Here are some resources that might be a good introduction to this topic: 1. You will find a 30-minute video panel discussion with ARCS researchers Rosalind Davidson and John Strucker, and practitioners Kay Vaccaro and Jane Meyer at http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/20040204/webcast02-04.html This video panel introduction is also available on DVD from the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy [ http:// www.ncsall.net/?id=24 ] or from the National Institute for Literacy. (Send a request for the Adult Readiing Components Study (ARCS) Panel (free) DVD to: info at nifl.gov Be sure to include your mailing address.) Other ARCS introductory materials which might be a good introduction include: 2. "What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can't Tell You", the precursor to the website that will be discussed. http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=456 3. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) [PDF document] by John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27 (ninth item down) 4. How the ARCS Was Done http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/op_arcs.pdf 5. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27#arcs I look forward to seeing your questions and to having you participate in the discussion. All the best, David Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Tue May 23 05:01:44 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 05:01:44 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 4] The ARCS discussion begins Message-ID: <5E164787-9F3C-42FF-AB2D-00FB5C645AF3@comcast.net> Special Topics List Colleagues, Let's begin the discussion with some introductions. My name is David Rosen. I am the moderator of this new Special Topics list sponsored by the National Institute for Literacy. I have worked in adult literacy education as a teacher, program administrator, staff development center director, researcher, and now as an independent consultant. I founded and moderated the National Literacy Advocacy electronic list and was for ten years its moderator. It's great to be back in the saddle again! This discussion list is a little different from the other National Institute discussion forums in that it will open for each topic and then close down for awhile until the next topic begins. So there will be a flurry of messages for the next few days and then, between discussions, no messages for awhile. If you are only interested in this topic you can unsubscribe after the discussion. Or you can wait to see what the next topic is before deciding. There will be one topic every four-five weeks, from now through September. Our first topic, as you know, is the Adult Reading Components Study. I asked our guests, researchers John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson, to write a little bit about themselves, and here's what John sent: "Ros and I are both reading teachers by trade - Ros with decades of experience from K through adult, and I with 11 years teaching adult reading and ESL at a community-based ABE program. For the last 10 years while doing research at NCSALL, we have also been the co- directors of the Harvard Adult Reading Lab, which has helped us to stay in direct touch with adult learners and practitioners-in-training. The Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) is very much a product of our obsessive focus on teaching. We gave 676 ABE learners in seven states the same diagnostic reading tests that we use in our reading lab. And, we gave similar tests to 279 ESOL learners, including tests of Spanish literacy to Spanish speakers. We then did a computer cluster analysis of the 955 learners' individual reading profiles to identify profiles, 10 for ABE and 6 for Spanish-speaking ESOL. Note our emphasis on . All of these assessments are practical tests that teachers can actually use to figure out students' strengths and needs in reading - with the sole purpose of planning effective, efficient instruction. We hope that our ARCS profiles will help teachers to better understand the diverse instructional needs of the adult learners they meet and to use that understanding to improve the quality of instruction. To that end, Ros designed an interactive website < http://www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles/ > that shows practitioners how to create and interpret reading profiles. Practitioners can enter a learner's reading test scores into the site, and it will calculate which of the ARCS-derived profiles best fits that student. There are even some instructional suggestions for each profile. So if you think you'd like to talk about reading and reading instruction with a couple of incorrigible old-school reading wonks, you should enjoy this week's discussion. We are certainly looking forward to talking to you!" Welcome John and Ros. We look forward to hearing your responses to a wide range of questions. Everyone: questions -- and follow-ups -- can be sent in any time between now and Tuesday, May 30th. The discussion will continue until Wednesday, May 31st. David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From EMReddy at aol.com Sun May 21 14:20:09 2006 From: EMReddy at aol.com (EMReddy at aol.com) Date: Sun, 21 May 2006 14:20:09 EDT Subject: [SpecialTopics 5] questions for ARCS discussion Message-ID: <366.4d66ae9.31a20959@aol.com> Hello John and Ros. I'm looking forward to this discussion. Here are some questions I am interested in hearing about: 1. Given your findings about the varied reading profiles of adult learners and given the reality of classrom structures in ABE, where it is rare to be able to set up separate classes for students whose profiles are similar, what would you suggest for classroom management strategies that meet students' needs? Have you observed ABE classrooms where reading instruction was done effectively? 2. What policy recommendations would you make to improve the practices and outcomes of reading instruction? 3. Specifically for second language learners, how important or useful is it to explicitly assess and teach an understanding of English morphology? How much does an understanding of English morphology influence their comprehension of text? I am curious about this because of my personal experience reading in languages in which my vocabulary is limited. I find that an understanding of the structure of the language helps me to derive at least a basic meaning from the text even when I do not understand many of the words. Mina Reddy SABES/World Education Boston -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060521/b7912260/attachment.html From IraY at lacnyc.org Mon May 22 11:31:47 2006 From: IraY at lacnyc.org (Ira Yankwitt) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 11:31:47 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 6] ARCS Question Message-ID: <6E8BC13A30982C44BCD32B38FB8F5AB814608A@lac-exch.lacnyc.local> Hi David, Here's my question about the ARCS: Is there a tension between the skills-based interventions supported by the ARCS and an approach to reading instruction that emphasizes using authentic materials or developing curriculum around particular content? If not, can our guests give examples of how to do both simultaneously? Thanks. Ira Yankwitt, Director Professional Development/ NYC Regional Adult Education Network Literacy Assistance Center 32 Broadway, 10th Floor NY, NY 10004 212-803-3356 From kappelt at coe.tamu.edu Mon May 22 17:37:59 2006 From: kappelt at coe.tamu.edu (Ken Appelt) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 16:37:59 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 7] Matching readers to text difficulty Message-ID: <200605222138.k4MLcT9Z054067@smtp-relay.tamu.edu> I have seen an increase in materials that recommend readers be matched to the difficulty of the text they are reading based on their reading comprehension. The idea is that we adjust the reading level of the material so that students read materials challenging enough to improve their reading skills and vocabulary, but not so difficult to cause frustration. At first glance, this seems reasonable. I saw this first in Accelerated Reader materials a decade ago and now in materials from Lexile. However, the ARCS shows that a general reading comprehension score by itself does not give a clear picture of a reader's skills; we must look at the components to determine what areas of study will help the reader improve. How useful do you feel matching students and texts is? Can it be helpful in some situations and not in others? Is it too restrictive as to what students are allowed to read? What are we to make of the "readability" measures? Ken Appelt Professional Development Specialist Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning Texas A&M University 800-441-READ (7323) FAX (979) 845-0952 website: www-tcall.tamu.edu kappelt at coe.tamu.edu "Illiteracy and innumeracy are a greater threat to humanity than terrorism." -- Amaratya Sen, 2003 Nobel prize-winning economist. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060522/5d501a53/attachment.html From jn at cloudworld.co.uk Wed May 3 11:19:16 2006 From: jn at cloudworld.co.uk (John Nissen) Date: Wed, 03 May 2006 15:19:16 -0000 Subject: [SpecialTopics 8] ARCS Mini-course - "whole word" approach deprecated Message-ID: <002801c66ec4$efe00840$0202a8c0@Tomschoice> Hello all, I have just subscribed to this new list, and could only see a single message so far - a test message. To get the ball rolling, I had a look at the ARCS mini-course, to see how it squared up with experience in the UK. I am concerned by advocacy for teaching whole word recognition on the "Sight words" page: http://www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles/MC_Sight_Words.htm But in this same page there is this telling passage: [quote] Because most adult poor readers have difficulty with letter-sound skills, they tend to use a whole word recognition approach much more than do children who are reading at the same level.RR Whole word recognition only works if the words are mastered sight words. The result of continued reliance on whole word "recognition" instead of phonetic skills when decoding unfamiliar words is guessing and misreading. [end quote] I agree with that deduction. Moreover I claim that teaching letter-sound skills to adults, as for children, means no effort need be spent on whole word recognition! The teaching of whole word recognition as an approach was in the now deprecated Searchlights model of the UK National Literacy Strategy. It leads indeed to much guesswork and error. It has no doubt contributed to the failure of 20% children to learn to read. On the other hand, experience with teaching synthetic phonics shows that rapid recognition of whole words arises naturally from rapid decoding which gradually increases automaticity. The use of multiple modalities should be applied to the phonics instruction that gives the rapid decoding ability, rather than to whole word recognition as ARCS proposes. Synthetic phonics, with multimodal techniques, was used in the Clackmannanshire study, where all 300 children were taught to read successfully in a few months, and by the end of Primary School their average reading age was over three years ahead of their chronological reading age. This result has caused the government to change tack on literacy, and advocate the introduction of synthetic phonics "first and fast" in all primary schools. Cheers from Chiswick, John John Nissen Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm Tel: +44 208 742 3170 Fax: +44 208 742 0202 Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060503/97e69889/attachment.html From ylerew at aol.com Mon May 22 22:17:50 2006 From: ylerew at aol.com (ylerew at aol.com) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 22:17:50 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 9] ARCS questions Message-ID: <8C84C2639D031E3-1584-26F@FWM-R05.sysops.aol.com> Here are a couple of initial questions about ARCS: 1. Was the age of the adult students a factor? Were older or younger adults more commonly found in any cluster of reading skill? What implications might there be for practitioners working with older adults versus younger adults? 2. There was mention made that teachers perceived the Spanish literacy skills of their students (native Spanish speakers) to be lower than their actual skill level in Spanish. Why do you think this disconnect between perception and reality exists? How could ESOL practice be improved to capitalize on the native language reading skills? Thanks Yvonne Lerew From lterrill at cal.org Mon May 22 15:01:57 2006 From: lterrill at cal.org (Lynda Terrill) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 15:01:57 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 10] Patterns of Word Recognition Errors Message-ID: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8F0145486C@MAIL.cal.local> Hi, David, Rosalind, and John, I read Rosalind and John's NCSALL Research Brief "Patterns of Word Recognition Errors Among Adult Basic Education Native and Nonnative Speakers of English" (available on the NCSALL Web site). Because I have taught reading to both native and nonnative speakers, I have a sense of the differences in the errors, but I wonder if you could give some comparative examples of the word recognition errors for each group? Thanks, Lynda Terrill lterrill at cal.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060522/c246e80c/attachment.html From Holly.Dilatush-Guthrie at ccs.k12.va.us Mon May 22 15:53:55 2006 From: Holly.Dilatush-Guthrie at ccs.k12.va.us (Holly Dilatush-Guthrie) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 15:53:55 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 11] Re: Thoughts, questions Message-ID: (from "What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can?t Tell You")?In urban and suburban areas, small programs might consider merging to create larger, more versatile centers.? I?d like to suggest that we broaden this thought -- Implications ? Distance Learning supplements? There are so many well-developed practice and lessons and support sites for student and teacher use. I envision (and would love to try my hands at) a DL position where my task was to meet f2f at least once, and then to ?meet? (virtually or physically ? via virtual office hours, telephone, recorded exchanges, snail mail even, etc.) once a month with all learners in our program. At first meeting, step 1 of a plan as recommended by the classroom teacher and/or assessor would be discussed with a learner, and an assignment (collaboratively with the student) a goal for completion of computer-based activity/lesson/responses/reports/assignments ? with tutorials, language lab assistance, discussed ? possibly enrollment in a several step curriculum/program, perhaps as simple as one link to a quiz that the student will use over and over until confidence is gained, and then a new further outreach challenge site assigned? with documented individual goals ? short and longterm, addressed. with all students enrolled in a learning center Moodle site ? (http://www.Moodle.org for info ? Moodle is a wonderful CMS course management system, free ? designed by educators for educators), with peer to peer buddy systems incorporated ? with spaces for small subgroups (reading comprehension, vocabulary, spelling, phonics, etc.) and encourage each student to participate in at least one, but as many as they wish, of these groups. I?m short of time today, but would love to expound on these ideas ? I see real potential in Moodles ? to engage, to teach technology skills, to teach communication skills, to support, to involve an ever-expanded network of support systems, to encourage global awareness and connections ? much more! So, a question, is there research to support (or conversely, to dissuade) more melding of adult ESL and GED classes? I?ve taught both, and had ESL learners in GED classes ? with mixed successes, and certainly concur with the FOB article (What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can?t Tell You) findings ? that there are ?very mixed, uneven patterns of strengths and needs.? It?s been interesting to me to observe the disconnect teachers feel (between GED and ESL), whereas the more I taught both, the more parallels and similarities I noted. So many resources billed as ?GED/ABE? or ?ESL? that are not frequently shared, could, in my humble opinion, enhance collaborative efforts, enhance teacher awareness, enhance student success, enhance cross-cultural competencies. Targeted intervention helps, but adult education is so much more. Comments? Am I way off topic here? I think reading instruction, as with all instruction, will see more and more distance learning (DL) connections in the future. "No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides." Holly Dilatush ESL distance learning, Dialogue Cafe, Volunteer coordinator Charlottesville City Schools Adult Learning Center 1000 Preston Ave., Suite D Charlottesville VA 22903 (434) 245.2815 office (434) 960.7177 cell/mobile http://theHsmile.org ['home' to several Moodle CMS (course management systems/virtual classrooms)] http://www.Charlottesville-ESL.org "Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe and nurture in nature." From bgiven at gmu.edu Mon May 22 17:48:24 2006 From: bgiven at gmu.edu (bgiven at gmu.edu) Date: Mon, 22 May 2006 17:48:24 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 12] question Message-ID: This may be a bit premature, but I'd like to know more about the specific assessment tools used for ARCS and what the training was for teachers who administered them. Or did a trained psychometrician conduct the assessments? Thanks, barb given From wrmuth at vcu.edu Tue May 23 00:55:32 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 00:55:32 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 13] Grouping Students In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Greetings John & Ros, Congratulations for providing the field with an interesting and useful framework for improving our understanding of reading, reading instruction, and literacy learning. Because the ARCS work synthesizes so much ? phonology, vocabulary, reading rate, comprehension, assessment, learner ?types,? reading patterns, classroom management, instructional grouping, etc. ? it is hard to know where to begin the conversation! My questions relate to the implications of ARCS for grouping students in the classroom, assuming that some adult literacy classrooms/programs will be organized according to reading component profiles: (1) The role of reading rate/fluency. The ARCS profiles are most easily recognized as patterns primarily shaped by two broad component areas: print and meaning. So why bother measuring reading rate? Would it make a difference in the way teachers grouped their students if some were slower readers than others? Will it be difficult for slower readers to keep up with faster ones, even if their reading profiles (print versus meaning component skills and levels) otherwise look the same? (2) Permanent versus fluid groupings. Do you think adult literacy learners will be characterized by one profile ?type? that more or less permanently defines their learning; or, on the other extreme, do you think these profiles will be dynamic and shift frequently as learners progress through the program? (3) Staff development and classroom management. An ARCS-organized program may require some practitioners to organize their learners in new ways, such as in small groups. Are you finding this to be so as you work to implement ARCS-based instruction? As we plan to implement reading components strategies, how much attention should be given to classroom management? Thank you, John & Ros, for your help. Sorry to hit you with so many questions; please feel free to answer only those you think are most appropriate for this forum. And keep up the great work! Bill Muth William R. Muth, PhD Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy Virginia Commonwealth University (804) 828-8768 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060523/7cae08e4/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Tue May 23 05:45:54 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 05:45:54 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 14] Flurry of Questions about the ARCS Message-ID: <361B701F-F8B4-468A-8EF8-912FDBD66168@comcast.net> ARCS discussion participants, Thanks to all who have posted these great questions. Our guests, John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson, will be looking them over and responding as they can over the next several days, perhaps grouping similar questions. Please post your questions -- and follow-up questions -- through Tuesday, May 30th. David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From gprice at famlit.org Tue May 23 10:09:55 2006 From: gprice at famlit.org (Gail Price) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 10:09:55 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 15] ARCS question Message-ID: <30C5061E-8038-4C69-B14D-0A2740C0B181@famlit.org> As an adult education instructor in both a lab setting and a homogeneous (based on TABE scores) classroom setting, I am concerned with the application of the ARCS recommendations in these settings, so my questions may seem a little more specific than others that have been posted thus far. After doing initial assessments and using those figures in the "Match a Profile" section, the profile could indicate that a student needs more instruction in phonemic awareness and/or phonological awareness. You recommend using the Test of Auditory Analysis Skills (TAAS) and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised to do further evaluation in these areas. If, for whatever reason (cost, training, personnel), instructors do not have accessibility to these assessments, but want to move ahead with their instruction, what materials or what instructional strategies do you recommend they use to build students' phonemic awareness and phonological awareness skills? Some instructors may feel they do not have time to administer each of the assessments needed to provide scores for the "Match a Profile," but think they can use one or two to assess their students' needs. Do you subscribe to the "a little is better than none" idea? Which assessment(s) do you think would prove most advantageous, beyond the silent reading comprehension, to the greatest number of students?? Word Recognition, Spelling, Word Meaning or Oral Reading Rate? Gail J. Price Multimedia Specialist National Center for Family Literacy 325 West Main Street, Suite 300 Louisville, KY 40205 Phone: 502 584-1133, ext. 112 Fax: 502 584-0172 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060523/67432ec0/attachment.html From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 23 14:49:49 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 14:49:49 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 16] Re: questions for ARCS discussion In-Reply-To: <366.4d66ae9.31a20959@aol.com> References: <366.4d66ae9.31a20959@aol.com> Message-ID: <932D5019D006DBB78A24DEA5@nichols303> Hi Mina, I'll respond to your questions in the text below. --On Sunday, May 21, 2006 2:20 PM -0400 EMReddy at aol.com wrote: > > Hello John and Ros. I'm looking forward to this discussion. Here are > some questions I am interested in hearing about: > > 1. Given your findings about the varied reading profiles of adult > learners and given the reality of classrom structures in ABE, where it is > rare to be able to set up separate classes for students whose profiles > are similar, what would you suggest for classroom management strategies > that meet students' needs? This question comes up a lot! The ARCS showed that this variation of reader profiles you refer to is especially great among GE 4-8 adult intermediates. First, however, before going any further, I want to stress that we have to do everything we can to discourage the "one-room schoolhouse approach" to adult ed that forces learners with a range of diverse profiles into one generic class. Only large, comprehensive adult education centers can offer the range of classes needed to accommodate the diverse range of reader profiles. In urban and suburban areas where students are fairly concentrated, there's no good reason to have a bunch of small centers, each offering a few multi-level classes at each site. Whatever it takes to change this (e.g., putting our classes at centrally-located community college campuses, merging smaller centers into larger ones, or having one small center concentrate on GED, while another offers only intermediate levels, and yet another only beginners' classes) - we have to find a way to offer the range of classes people need and deserve. In urban areas, my feeling is that the only ESOL beginners who are new immigrants really need a small center right in their neighborhood. These folks definitely need a place that's not only geographically close but also has lots of people working at it who share their home language and culture. Everybody else - ABE, intermediate and above ESOL, and GED - would be better served by bigger learning centers that could offer economies of scale. They would also afford our learners other amenities that adults at community colleges regularly get - like modern media/computer labs with professional tech support, student lounge areas, student book stores and libraries, adequate parking, onsite child care, etc. As you note, however, multi-level classes unfortunately remain the norm in many places in the US. In these classes, the best we can hope for is: 1) the teacher is trained to recognize the different learner profiles and to know about their different needs; 2) the teacher has a range of appropriate materials readily at her disposal; 3) the teacher has enough prep time to plan four or more lessons per class, and 4) the teacher has help - in the form of trained volunteers or paid instructional aides - who can work with small groups of students to give them lessons and activities that will help them to learn efficiently. Again, I want to emphasize that multi-level classes are a poor, second-best alternative, one that should not be tolerated much less encouraged anywhere except in rural areas. Have you observed ABE classrooms where > reading instruction was done effectively? Heck yes! We have a very talented group of teachers in our field, and they do fantastic work under the circumstances. In my experience, ABE and ESOL teachers also respond extremely well to in-service training, possibly better than K-12 teachers in general. Most of our teachers have the skill set they need, or they could quickly acquire it. But as it is set up now the system doesn't get the most from our teachers' talent. > > 2. What policy recommendations would you make to improve the practices > and outcomes of reading instruction? Bigger, better-equipped centers (as discussed above)and a permanent, well-compensated practitioner workforce. If you have those two things, then teacher training will pay off even more than it does currently, because practitioners will be able to stay in the field long enough to make full use of the training and improve upon it based on their experience and sharing of knowledge. > > 3. Specifically for second language learners, how important or useful is > it to explicitly assess and teach an understanding of English morphology? > How much does an understanding of English morphology influence their > comprehension of text? I am curious about this because of my personal > experience reading in languages in which my vocabulary is limited. I > find that an understanding of the structure of the language helps me to > derive at least a basic meaning from the text even when I do not > understand many of the words. Mina, I think you are right about this last point, but I don't know of much ESOL research that focuses on this. NCSALL's Steve Reder would be a good person to ask about this. However, I think ELL research has looked at this from time to time, and that research supports your position. As an aside, in general, I think those of us in ABE/ESOL can probably learn a lot by looking more at ELL research. > > Mina Reddy > SABES/World Education > Boston John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 23 15:14:29 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 15:14:29 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 17] Re: ARCS Question In-Reply-To: <6E8BC13A30982C44BCD32B38FB8F5AB814608A@lac-exch.lacnyc.local> References: <6E8BC13A30982C44BCD32B38FB8F5AB814608A@lac-exch.lacnyc.local> Message-ID: Hey Ira, Great question! I really don't see a necessary contradiction between focusing on skills in isolation (e.g., word recognition, oral reading, vocabulary, etc.) and using authentic materials in context, especially for oral reading, vocabulary, and comprehension. The trick in using any materials (authentic or otherwise) is to make sure that they are at the appropriate level of challenge for the learners - not too easy and not too difficult. At a minimum, this means doing readability checks on the texts to verify their levels. In addition, I think many of the skills activities are inherently "unauthentic" (I.e., How could there be an "authentic" word list of vowel digraphs, or signal words?). Nevertheless (< - check out the signal word!) teachers should feel free to introduce and work on skills in isolation - as long as learners have ample opportunities to try out and take chances with those skills in real text. As my former NCSALL colleague Vickie Purcell Gates used to explain: Teaching reading is like teaching swimming - part of the class should be spent at the "side of the pool" working on kicking, strikes, and breathing in isolation. But it all has to be integrated in the "middle of the pool" when students put together kicking, strokes, and breathing to actually swim. My mentor Jeanne Chall always insisted that for most struggling readers (like our students) the skills need to be taught directly and in isolation. But she also insisted that our students will never really master the skills unless they also have the opportunity to integrate them into the real activity of reading for meaning. As a final observation, I would say that finding materials that students regard as authentic is important, but that alone can never trump two fundamental pedagogical principles: 1) focusing on the right components of reading for a given profile and 2) using material that's at the right level of challenge within each component. Side of the pool/middle of the pool - we can and should do both. --On Monday, May 22, 2006 11:31 AM -0400 Ira Yankwitt wrote: > Hi David, > > Here's my question about the ARCS: > > Is there a tension between the skills-based interventions supported by > the ARCS and an approach to reading instruction that emphasizes using > authentic materials or developing curriculum around particular content? > If not, can our guests give examples of how to do both simultaneously? > Thanks. > > Ira Yankwitt, Director > Professional Development/ > NYC Regional Adult Education Network > Literacy Assistance Center > 32 Broadway, 10th Floor > NY, NY 10004 > 212-803-3356 > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 23 15:17:17 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 15:17:17 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 18] Re: Patterns of Word Recognition Errors In-Reply-To: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8F0145486C@MAIL.cal.local> References: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8F0145486C@MAIL.cal.local> Message-ID: <5DA8C20E27549ABED6358533@nichols303> Hi Lynda, At least in the hard copy version, Ros and I gave examples of readers' errors - possibly in the appendix. If the version you have doesn't have these example, call or email us and we'll send you a photocopy. Best, John --On Monday, May 22, 2006 3:01 PM -0400 Lynda Terrill wrote: > > Hi, David, Rosalind, and John, > > I read Rosalind and John's NCSALL Research Brief "Patterns of Word > Recognition Errors Among Adult Basic Education Native and Nonnative > Speakers of English" (available on the NCSALL Web site). Because I have > taught reading to both native and nonnative speakers, I have a sense of > the differences in the errors, but I wonder if you could give some > comparative examples of the word recognition errors for each group? > > Thanks, > > Lynda Terrill > lterrill at cal.org John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 23 15:25:45 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 15:25:45 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 19] Re: Matching readers to text difficulty In-Reply-To: <200605222138.k4MLcT9Z054067@smtp-relay.tamu.edu> References: <200605222138.k4MLcT9Z054067@smtp-relay.tamu.edu> Message-ID: Hi Ken, As you allude to, Ros and I would argue that you should match the level of challenge of the materials for , not just silent comprehension. So for example, someone who has realtive strength in vocabulary but also has a severe word recognition problem like "Richard", whom I wrote about some years ago would need GE 7-8 in vocabulary instruction, but perhaps GE 3-4 for oral reading and word recognition. As an aside, in our Adult Reading Lab, Ros and I have not found Lexiles as useful or accurate at estimating text difficulty as more traditional readability formulae such as the Fry or Dale-Chall. I'd be interested in other people's experience with this. --On Monday, May 22, 2006 4:37 PM -0500 Ken Appelt wrote: > > > I have seen an increase in materials that recommend readers be matched to > the difficulty of the text they are reading based on their reading > comprehension. The idea is that we adjust the reading level of the > material so that students read materials challenging enough to improve > their reading skills and vocabulary, but not so difficult to cause > frustration. At first glance, this seems reasonable. I saw this first > in Accelerated Reader materials a decade ago and now in materials from > Lexile. > > > > However, the ARCS shows that a general reading comprehension score by > itself does not give a clear picture of a reader's skills; we must look > at the components to determine what areas of study will help the reader > improve. > > > > How useful do you feel matching students and texts is? Can it be helpful > in some situations and not in others? Is it too restrictive as to what > students are allowed to read? What are we to make of the "readability" > measures? > > > > > > Ken Appelt > > > > Professional Development Specialist > > Texas Center for the Advancement of Literacy and Learning > > Texas A&M University > > 800-441-READ (7323) > > FAX (979) 845-0952 > > website: www-tcall.tamu.edu > > kappelt at coe.tamu.edu > > > > "Illiteracy and innumeracy are a greater threat to humanity than > terrorism." > -- Amaratya Sen, 2003 Nobel prize-winning economist. > > John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From korber at centerforliteracy.org Tue May 23 11:32:03 2006 From: korber at centerforliteracy.org (Stephanie Korber) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 11:32:03 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 20] Re: Flurry of Questions about the ARCS Message-ID: What a great discussion topic! The ARCS project has been one of a few factors that have caused some programs in our organization to revisit diagnostic assessment as a tool for providing quality instruction. However, I have found some challenges that I would like to hear opinions on. Given the resources in the field of adult education, the bottom line of some of these challenges is dollars. 1. Not all adult ed programs are staffed with teachers (or volunteer tutors) who are comfortable with teaching beginning reading skills that relate to phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency instruction. In the K-12 world of education, this level of remediation is done by reading specialists, folks who have spent years being educated in the field of reading and on the implementation of appropriate assessments and strategies for such remediation. In my opinion, this should have a huge impact on the planning and delivery of professional development. 2. Grouping students homogenously (by skill level), so that you can best match teacher strengths with students' areas of weakness, is not always an option when you have to fill classes to meet your numbers goal for students served. 3. Resources (time, human, financial) for providing one-on-one assessment is quite limited, if it exists at all. Not all classes have access to computers for individualized assessment. Without a doubt, I see the value in the project! I believe targeted instruction of skills, particularly for students with low reading levels, is imperative. Our organization works with E3 (Employment, Education, Empowerment) Centers which are youth centers for disconnected out-of-school youth (particularly those returning from placement centers). We also contract with the Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation to provide literacy services to people participating in the Maximizing Participation Project. The adults in this project are working to overcome multiple barriers to coming off of welfare. In both of these projects, we built in the use of the Woodcock Johnson Diagnostic Battery of Reading. At the E3 Centers we were afforded the luxury of staffing the low level literacy class with reading specialists and in the MPP class we were not. This meant a lot of time and resources went into training the staff at the MPP site on assessment and interpretation of results, and then the use of appropriate instructional strategies based on those results. I would love to see this type of assessment used with our volunteer tutoring programs and in community classes where students are TABEing below the the 6th grade level. However, for all of the reasons above, the implementation of such a plan is quite challenging. Stephanie Korber Program Manager - Learning Differences and Youth Initiatives Center for Literacy Philadelphia, PA ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Tue 5/23/2006 5:45 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 14] Flurry of Questions about the ARCS ARCS discussion participants, Thanks to all who have posted these great questions. Our guests, John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson, will be looking them over and responding as they can over the next several days, perhaps grouping similar questions. Please post your questions -- and follow-up questions -- through Tuesday, May 30th. David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 6643 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060523/c7208518/attachment.bin From kvaccaro at hcde-texas.org Tue May 23 13:11:05 2006 From: kvaccaro at hcde-texas.org (Kay Vaccaro) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 12:11:05 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 21] Re: ARCS question Message-ID: Gail, John and Ros may disagree with me, but when an adult student comes to you and cannot read, a little is better than nothing. By taking the lowest reading profile and trying some of the recommended instructional options, the student may make gains and lead you to other areas in need of remediation. The adult students with whom I have used that philosophy have made some gains on silent reading (TABE) scores, but their self esteem has definitely improved and motivation to try more challenging materials has emerged. However, it does require concentrated selection of reading material on the teacher's part. V. Kay Vaccaro Program Coordinator Adult Education Division Harris County Department of Education 713-692-6216 FAX 713-695-1976 -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Gail Price Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 9:10 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 15] ARCS question As an adult education instructor in both a lab setting and a homogeneous (based on TABE scores) classroom setting, I am concerned with the application of the ARCS recommendations in these settings, so my questions may seem a little more specific than others that have been posted thus far. After doing initial assessments and using those figures in the "Match a Profile" section, the profile could indicate that a student needs more instruction in phonemic awareness and/or phonological awareness. You recommend using the Test of Auditory Analysis Skills (TAAS) and the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised to do further evaluation in these areas. If, for whatever reason (cost, training, personnel), instructors do not have accessibility to these assessments, but want to move ahead with their instruction, what materials or what instructional strategies do you recommend they use to build students' phonemic awareness and phonological awareness skills? Some instructors may feel they do not have time to administer each of the assessments needed to provide scores for the "Match a Profile," but think they can use one or two to assess their students' needs. Do you subscribe to the "a little is better than none" idea? Which assessment(s) do you think would prove most advantageous, beyond the silent reading comprehension, to the greatest number of students--Word Recognition, Spelling, Word Meaning or Oral Reading Rate? Gail J. Price Multimedia Specialist National Center for Family Literacy 325 West Main Street, Suite 300 Louisville, KY 40205 Phone: 502 584-1133, ext. 112 Fax: 502 584-0172 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060523/cdd3f201/attachment.html From mgsantos at sfsu.edu Tue May 23 14:15:18 2006 From: mgsantos at sfsu.edu (Maricel G. Santos) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 11:15:18 -0700 Subject: [SpecialTopics 22] ARCS questions In-Reply-To: <8C84C2639D031E3-1584-26F@FWM-R05.sysops.aol.com> References: <8C84C2639D031E3-1584-26F@FWM-R05.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <1148408118.44735136e3191@webmail.sfsu.edu> Dear John and Ros and members of the NIFL special-topics listserve -- Greetings from San Francisco... I use John and Ros' articles on the ARCS in my graduate ESL teacher training classes at San Francisco State University. My students are grateful for the practical utility and the instructional value of the ARCS assessments. They bring their knowledge via practicum courses to ESL teachers in the field, who are hungry for this kind of guidance about adult reading development. However, I find that my students often want to know what an ARCS-infused curriculum looks like in practice. This is something I know less about... for example, what would an ESL curriculum that blended ARCS assessments with project-based or content-based learning (e.g., health literacy or vocational job training) look like? I'm interested in hearing John and Ros' thoughts on curricular possibilities, as well as from other adult educators who have made use of the ARCS system in their curriculum. And would it be possible to share these curricula on line? Thanks again, John and Ros. Looking forward to reading everyone's postings. Maricel Santos Asst. Professor English Department/ MA TESOL Program San Francisco State University 1600 Holloway Ave San Francisco, CA 94132 415-338-7445 (work) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 23 15:40:25 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 15:40:25 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 23] Re: ARCS questions In-Reply-To: <8C84C2639D031E3-1584-26F@FWM-R05.sysops.aol.com> References: <8C84C2639D031E3-1584-26F@FWM-R05.sysops.aol.com> Message-ID: <8B474CCA00FAA48D34D4E57A@nichols303> Yvonne, I'll let Ros handle your first question about age. I take a stab at your second question below. --On Monday, May 22, 2006 10:17 PM -0400 ylerew at aol.com wrote: > Here are a couple of initial questions about ARCS: > > 1. Was the age of the adult students a factor? Were older or younger > adults more commonly found in any cluster of reading skill? What > implications might there be for practitioners working with older adults > versus younger adults? > > 2. There was mention made that teachers perceived the Spanish literacy > skills of their students (native Spanish speakers) to be lower than > their actual skill level in Spanish. Why do you think this disconnect > between perception and reality exists? I think it's pretty straightforward - most of the time we never test students' literacy abilities in their native languages, even though research tell us that for adults, native language literacy is very important for second language acquisition. For Spanish, NL literacy is easy to assess using the Woodcock-Munoz, among other tests. For other languages it's much harder. My Harvard colleague Catherine Snow once suggested that the USDOE should assemble a bunch of computer-administered tests in the various languages spoken by most US ESOL students. If the computer administered and scored the tests, we would know how well a person reads, say Mandarin, without ever knowing a word of that language. The whole point of this is that if someone has relatively high literacy in their native language, they might learn English more efficiently if it were taught more like English as a Foreign Language (EFL) - making use the students's pre-existing literacy and incipient English reading as tools for second language learning. Instead we tend to start everybody off with survival-emphasis-oral.aural skills only ESOL. But this probably only necessary as a dominant mode of instruction for folks with low native language literacy. This topic ought to set off a hornet's nest!! How could ESOL practice be > improved to capitalize on the native language reading skills? > > Thanks > Yvonne Lerew > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 23 15:45:45 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 15:45:45 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 24] Re: Patterns of Word Recognition Errors In-Reply-To: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8F013FBF86@MAIL.cal.local> References: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8F013FBF86@MAIL.cal.local> Message-ID: Hi Lynda, Since you're at CAL, you might already have 2002, pp 298-315 in your library. If not, write back, and we'll send you a photocopy. Best, John --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 3:39 PM -0400 Lynda Terrill wrote: > > > Hi, John, > The research brief I downloaded at > http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/brief_strucker.pdf is > a two-pager that summarizes the findings about the errors related to the > native and nonnative speakers, but I don't see an appendix. If there is > a link to other information, please send, or I would appreciate a > photocopy. > > Thanks so much. > > Lynda Terrill > Technical Assistance and Web Coordinator > Center for Adult English Language Acquisition > Center for Applied Linguistics > 4646 40th St, NW > Washington, DC 20016 > lterrill at cal.org > 202-362-0700 > > > > __________________________________________________ > From: struckjo at gse.harvard.edu on behalf of john strucker > Sent: Tue 5/23/2006 3:17 PM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; Lynda Terrill; specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > Subject: Re: [SpecialTopics 10] Patterns of Word Recognition Errors > > > > Hi Lynda, > At least in the hard copy version, Ros and I gave examples of > readers' > errors - possibly in the appendix. If the version you have doesn't have > these example, call or email us and we'll send you a photocopy. > Best, > John > > --On Monday, May 22, 2006 3:01 PM -0400 Lynda Terrill > wrote: > >> >> Hi, David, Rosalind, and John, >> >> I read Rosalind and John's NCSALL Research Brief "Patterns of Word >> Recognition Errors Among Adult Basic Education Native and Nonnative >> Speakers of English" (available on the NCSALL Web site). Because I have >> taught reading to both native and nonnative speakers, I have a sense of >> the differences in the errors, but I wonder if you could give some >> comparative examples of the word recognition errors for each group? >> >> Thanks, >> >> Lynda Terrill >> lterrill at cal.org > > > > John Strucker, EdD > Nichols House 303 > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge, MA 02138 > > 617 495 4745 > 617 495 4811 (fax) John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From lterrill at cal.org Tue May 23 15:39:32 2006 From: lterrill at cal.org (Lynda Terrill) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 15:39:32 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 25] Re: Patterns of Word Recognition Errors Message-ID: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8F013FBF86@MAIL.cal.local> Hi, John, The research brief I downloaded at http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/brief_strucker.pdf is a two-pager that summarizes the findings about the errors related to the native and nonnative speakers, but I don't see an appendix. If there is a link to other information, please send, or I would appreciate a photocopy. Thanks so much. Lynda Terrill Technical Assistance and Web Coordinator Center for Adult English Language Acquisition Center for Applied Linguistics 4646 40th St, NW Washington, DC 20016 lterrill at cal.org 202-362-0700 ________________________________ From: struckjo at gse.harvard.edu on behalf of john strucker Sent: Tue 5/23/2006 3:17 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; Lynda Terrill; specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov Subject: Re: [SpecialTopics 10] Patterns of Word Recognition Errors Hi Lynda, At least in the hard copy version, Ros and I gave examples of readers' errors - possibly in the appendix. If the version you have doesn't have these example, call or email us and we'll send you a photocopy. Best, John --On Monday, May 22, 2006 3:01 PM -0400 Lynda Terrill wrote: > > Hi, David, Rosalind, and John, > > I read Rosalind and John's NCSALL Research Brief "Patterns of Word > Recognition Errors Among Adult Basic Education Native and Nonnative > Speakers of English" (available on the NCSALL Web site). Because I have > taught reading to both native and nonnative speakers, I have a sense of > the differences in the errors, but I wonder if you could give some > comparative examples of the word recognition errors for each group? > > Thanks, > > Lynda Terrill > lterrill at cal.org John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060523/40216761/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Tue May 23 16:22:45 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 16:22:45 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 26] Welcome to those who have just joined the ARCS discussion Message-ID: Dear colleague, If you have just joined the ARCS discussion and would like to "catch up", of if you want to be sure if your message has been posted, all the posted messages are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/ specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From agopalakrishnan at yahoo.com Tue May 23 19:20:46 2006 From: agopalakrishnan at yahoo.com (Ajit Gopalakrishnan) Date: Tue, 23 May 2006 16:20:46 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [SpecialTopics 27] ARCS Questions Message-ID: <20060523232046.57858.qmail@web30714.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Thanks David for arranging this conversation. Thanks also to the researchers for their willingness to engage in this forum and for taking the time to answer our questions. In order to better understand the ARCS results and their implications, I would like to learn what it means for an adult learner to be assigned a grade equivalent (GE) score for the reading components. For example, does a 4th grade equivalent score in alphabetics imply that the adult has mastered the alphabetics skills generally expected of 4th graders as outlined in several K-12 state content standards OR does the grade equivalent score imply that the adult learner's skills in alphabetics are similar to that of ?other? 4th graders who may or may not be performing at the expected standards? Has any follow up research been conducted with the students who participated in the creation of these profiles to document their future successes/challenges e.g. achievement of high school diploma/GED, postsecondary education, or in employment situation? Thank you. Ajit Gopalakrishnan agopalakrishnan at yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com From bgiven at gmu.edu Wed May 24 08:02:31 2006 From: bgiven at gmu.edu (bgiven at gmu.edu) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 08:02:31 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 27] Re: Patterns of Word Recognition Errors In-Reply-To: References: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8F013FBF86@MAIL.cal.local> Message-ID: Is it permissible to put the appendix online for others of us who would like it? barb given Barbara K. Given, Ph.D. Director, Adolescent and Adult Learning Research Center Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, and Director, Center for Honoring Individual Learning Diversity, an International Learning Styles Center George Mason University Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 Fax: 703-993-4325 Ph: 703-993-4406 ----- Original Message ----- From: john strucker Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 3:45 pm Subject: [SpecialTopics 24] Re: Patterns of Word Recognition Errors > Hi Lynda, > > Since you're at CAL, you might already have Reading > V. 6, #3> 2002, pp 298-315 in your library. If not, write back, > and we'll > send you a photocopy. > > Best, > John > > --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 3:39 PM -0400 Lynda Terrill > > wrote: > > > > > > > Hi, John, > > The research brief I downloaded at > > > http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/brief_strucker.pdf is > > a two-pager that summarizes the findings about the errors > related to the > > native and nonnative speakers, but I don't see an appendix. If > there is > > a link to other information, please send, or I would appreciate a > > photocopy. > > > > Thanks so much. > > > > Lynda Terrill > > Technical Assistance and Web Coordinator > > Center for Adult English Language Acquisition > > Center for Applied Linguistics > > 4646 40th St, NW > > Washington, DC 20016 > > lterrill at cal.org > > 202-362-0700 > > > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > > From: struckjo at gse.harvard.edu on behalf of john strucker > > Sent: Tue 5/23/2006 3:17 PM > > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; Lynda Terrill; specialtopics- > bounces at nifl.gov> Subject: Re: [SpecialTopics 10] Patterns of Word > Recognition Errors > > > > > > > > Hi Lynda, > > At least in the hard copy version, Ros and I gave > examples of > > readers' > > errors - possibly in the appendix. If the version you have > doesn't have > > these example, call or email us and we'll send you a photocopy. > > Best, > > John > > > > --On Monday, May 22, 2006 3:01 PM -0400 Lynda Terrill > > wrote: > > > >> > >> Hi, David, Rosalind, and John, > >> > >> I read Rosalind and John's NCSALL Research Brief "Patterns of Word > >> Recognition Errors Among Adult Basic Education Native and Nonnative > >> Speakers of English" (available on the NCSALL Web site). > Because I have > >> taught reading to both native and nonnative speakers, I have a > sense of > >> the differences in the errors, but I wonder if you could give some > >> comparative examples of the word recognition errors for each group? > >> > >> Thanks, > >> > >> Lynda Terrill > >> lterrill at cal.org > > > > > > > > John Strucker, EdD > > Nichols House 303 > > Harvard Graduate School of Education > > 7 Appian Way > > Cambridge, MA 02138 > > > > 617 495 4745 > > 617 495 4811 (fax) > > > > John Strucker, EdD > Nichols House 303 > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge, MA 02138 > > 617 495 4745 > 617 495 4811 (fax) > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From john_strucker at harvard.edu Wed May 24 12:03:24 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 12:03:24 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 28] Re: Flurry of Questions about the ARCS In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3E03045148F9FA67011CD38D@nichols303> Hi Stephanie, I'll respond to your questions in the text of your note below. But as a preface, let me say a little about the "philosophical premises" of the ARCS. Ros and I believe very strongly in learner-centered instruction in reading. It has to start with diagnostic assessments to find out which components are relatively strong and which are not so strong - and what are the optimal levels at which to begin instruction in each component. With struggling readers - whether children or adults - there's no other responsible way to go. That was true when Jeanne Chall and Florence Roswell pioneered this approach back in the 1930s and 1940s at their lab at CCNY, and it remains true today. While you are right that the "barrier is dollars", that doesn't mean that we should be shy about advocating for the approach of diagnostic teaching, whether we're talking to fellow practitioners, local program administrators, or policy makers at the state and national level. I'm so obsessive about this that I'd almost be willing to argue that every additional penny that comes into the field should be spent on this area above all others. Otherwise, we end up wasting our own talents, wasting the precious time of the learners, and wasting what little money the taxpayers give us. In my opinion, as more and more states move toward ABE/ESOL certification, 70% of the required courses and competencies should be in how one diagnoses adult readers' strengths and needs and what techniques to use in in teaching to those strengths and needs. What limited funds there are should be almost exclusively in those areas. The math experts would probably give a similar response if we asked them about training for ABE math. --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 11:32 AM -0400 Stephanie Korber wrote: > What a great discussion topic! The ARCS project has been one of a few > factors that have caused some programs in our organization to revisit > diagnostic assessment as a tool for providing quality instruction. > However, I have found some challenges that I would like to hear opinions > on. Given the resources in the field of adult education, the bottom line > of some of these challenges is dollars. > 1. Not all adult ed programs are staffed with teachers (or volunteer > tutors) who are comfortable with teaching beginning reading skills that > relate to phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency instruction. In the > K-12 world of education, this level of remediation is done by reading > specialists, folks who have spent years being educated in the field of > reading and on the implementation of appropriate assessments and > strategies for such remediation. In my opinion, this should have a huge > impact on the planning and delivery of professional development. In my experience both as a practitioner and educator of teachers, ABE/ESOL teachers are very quick at picking up how to teach reading. In my opinion, phonics and fluency instruction are actually easier for teachers to learn to teach well (and therefore potentially cheaper to learn) than some aspects of vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. In an ideal world, the main burden of our adult learners' reading instruction would never be borne by volunteers. Volunteers can be very effective professional teaching - but only if they are working in direct support of professionals who have the time to train and supervise them properly. Yes, in K-12 struggling readers who are just like our students only younger are taught by folks with master's degrees in reading and or special ed. Again, to work effectively with adult struggling readers, all of us in the field would have master's level training in reading with substantial cross-training in ESOL, given that many of today's ABE students are former ESOL students. 2. > Grouping students homogenously (by skill level), so that you can best > match teacher strengths with students' areas of weakness, is not always > an option when you have to fill classes to meet your numbers goal for > students served. 3. Resources (time, human, financial) for providing > one-on-one assessment is quite limited, if it exists at all. Not all > classes have access to computers for individualized assessment. > Without a doubt, I see the value in the project! I believe targeted > instruction of skills, particularly for students with low reading levels, > is imperative. Our organization works with E3 (Employment, Education, > Empowerment) Centers which are youth centers for disconnected > out-of-school youth (particularly those returning from placement > centers). We also contract with the Philadelphia Workforce Development > Corporation to provide literacy services to people participating in the > Maximizing Participation Project. The adults in this project are working > to overcome multiple barriers to coming off of welfare. In both of these > projects, we built in the use of the Woodcock Johnson Diagnostic Battery > of Reading. At the E3 Centers we were afforded the luxury of staffing > the low level literacy class with reading specialists and in the MPP > class we were not. This meant a lot of time and resources went into > training the staff at the MPP site on assessment and interpretation of > results, and then the use of appropriate instructional strategies based > on those results. > I would love to see this type of assessment used with our volunteer > tutoring programs and in community classes where students are TABEing > below the the 6th grade level. However, for all of the reasons above, > the implementation of such a plan is quite challenging. As far as you point goes about centers not being able to offer range of classes to meet the needs of the various adult profiles Ros and I identified in the ARCS, I discussed that in my response to Mina yesterday. In brief - we should be moving away from small one-room-schoolhouse centers in favor of centers that are large enough to offer the minimal range of classes our learners need. The only exception - rural areas. And, in rural areas, well-designed individualized distance learning with interactive technology may prove to be better than small sparsely attended physical centers. The W-J is a great battery of reading and language tests, but it's more expensive compared to others, requires a bit more training to administer, and has a bunch of subtests that I've always felt were primarily designed to aid K-12 special ed teachers' decision making. We get a lot of mileage out of the DAR (which will soon come out with a FormB) in our adult reading lab, but if you already have people trained in the W-J, that's a fantastic test. > Stephanie Korber > Program Manager - Learning Differences and Youth Initiatives > Center for Literacy > Philadelphia, PA > > ________________________________ > > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen > Sent: Tue 5/23/2006 5:45 AM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 14] Flurry of Questions about the ARCS > > > > ARCS discussion participants, > > Thanks to all who have posted these great questions. Our guests, > John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson, will be looking them over and > responding as they can over the next several days, perhaps grouping > similar questions. Please post your questions -- and follow-up > questions -- through Tuesday, May 30th. > > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Wed May 24 15:44:37 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 15:44:37 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 29] Re: Grouping Students In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6FCC985D150B5E06C9B5A1D6@nichols303> Hi Bill, Nice to hear from you! But you're busted as an expert! For those who don't know Bill, I'd like to point out that he is a very accomplished reading researcher in his own right who actually did a an excellent version of the ARCS with inmates in the Federal Corrections system. Bill, I'll respond to your questions within your text below. --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 12:55 AM -0400 "William R Muth/FS/VCU" wrote: > > Greetings John & Ros, > Congratulations for providing the field with an interesting and useful > framework for improving our understanding of reading, reading > instruction, and literacy learning. Because the ARCS work synthesizes so > much -- phonology, vocabulary, reading rate, comprehension, assessment, > learner "types," reading patterns, classroom management, instructional > grouping, etc. -- it is hard to know where to begin the conversation! My > questions relate to the implications of ARCS for grouping students in the > classroom, assuming that some adult literacy classrooms/programs will be > organized according to reading component profiles: > (1) The role of reading rate/fluency. The ARCS profiles are most > easily recognized as patterns primarily shaped by two broad component > areas: print and meaning. So why bother measuring reading rate? Would it > make a difference in the way teachers grouped their students if some were > slower readers than others? Will it be difficult for slower readers to > keep up with faster ones, even if their reading profiles (print versus > meaning component skills and levels) otherwise look the same? Two of our ARCS profile clusters (see attachments) - Cluster 6 at the Intermediate Level and Cluster 10 at the Beginner Level - were actually distinguished from other nearly identical neighboring clusters by having very slow reading rates and unusual difficulty with rapid automatized naming (RAN). Based on clinical experience, Ros and I have found that people with this rate difficulty profile still have difficulty improving their reading rate even after they've patched up their word recognition ability. They respond much more slowly to fluency instruction than other folks at the same level. There may not be enough of these learners with severe rate problems at one time to justify creating a whole class solely for them, but teachers need to know about them because they respond more slowly to instruction - and it's not because they're lazy or inattentive. They appear to need more practice and exposure not just to phonics principles but also to syllable types and new vocabulary words. The general area fluency instruction in the classroom doesn't seem to present a big problem for teachers. Yes, people will read at different rates even within a profile type, but the same techniques of round robin oral reading, repeated reading, and choral reading seem to work with them. As long as somewhat faster readers are patient and supportive when listening to a slower readers during round robin reading, it usually goes pretty well. And, even the people who have the most trouble increasing their rate can still improve their comprehension by improving their smoothness and expression (prosody) in oral reading. > (2) Permanent versus fluid groupings. Do you think adult literacy > learners will be characterized by one profile "type" that more or less > permanently defines their learning; or, on the other extreme, do you > think these profiles will be dynamic and shift frequently as learners > progress through the program? This is an important point that Jeanne Chall also wondered about when I first showed her some adult profiles way back in 1995. Would profiles change as people improved? We just don't know. We really need a longitudinal study to explore that. We do know from the work of Maggie Bruck and others that people who are dyslexic are capable of improving their comprehension to quite a high level if they get the right instruction; but even when this happens, they they continue to have severe difficulty at the phoneme (letter-sound) and word level, and they continue to have very poor spelling. At the other extreme, an ESOL learner with initially weak English vocabulary is likely to improve in that (and with that to improve in comprehension as well) until her or his abilities approach those of native speakers. > (3) Staff development and classroom management. An ARCS-organized > program may require some practitioners to organize their learners in new > ways, such as in small groups. Are you finding this to be so as you work > to implement ARCS-based instruction? As we plan to implement reading > components strategies, how much attention should be given to classroom > management? I covered those points in my response to Mina yesterday. Briefly, if a teacher is forced to teach a multi-level, multi-profile class, she needs to have accurate diagnostic information on the various learner profiles present; she has to know what to do with each profile; she needs a range of materials in each component; she needs prep time to plan three, four, or five separate lessons for the one class; and finally, she needs a well-trained volunteer or professional instructional aide to help her carry out the several distinct lessons within the one class period. > Thank you, John & Ros, for your help. Sorry to hit you with so many > questions; please feel free to answer only those you think are most > appropriate for this forum. And keep up the great work! > Bill Muth > William R. Muth, PhD > Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy > Virginia Commonwealth University > (804) 828-8768 John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ABE Cluster 6 .doc Type: application/msword Size: 43008 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060524/d9837545/attachment.doc -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: ABE Cluster 10.doc Type: application/msword Size: 43008 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060524/d9837545/attachment-0001.doc From john_strucker at harvard.edu Wed May 24 16:03:24 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 16:03:24 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 30] Re: ARCS questions In-Reply-To: <1148408118.44735136e3191@webmail.sfsu.edu> References: <8C84C2639D031E3-1584-26F@FWM-R05.sysops.aol.com> <1148408118.44735136e3191@webmail.sfsu.edu> Message-ID: Hi Maricel, Another ringer!!!! Like Bill Muth, Maricel is one of our most treasured former graduate students and a major-league researcher in second language acquisition!!! Ros and I probably wouldn't use the term "ARCS curriculum." Any curriculum that is based in knowledge of students' strengths and needs in the various components of reading would be qualify as an "ARCS curriculum." One example that we've started to try out in a longitudinal study of ABE intermediates is an adult adaptation of Mary Beth Curtis's Boys Town Reading Program. So far the results are promising, but we have a ways to go. I would, however, suggest that there could indeed be such a thing as an ARCS Curriculum for practitioners. Ros's website is a good example of what that might look like. With regard to using the components approach in content areas, if an ABE or ESOL practitioner understood reading components and reading profiles, then she could use them to create a content curriculum that used, say, health words for word recognition and vocabulary. The trick would be figuring out the right level of instructional challenge for materials taken from an occupational field, or alternatively creating new materials based on that field that are at the appropriate level. Maricel, I think you're just the person to do this! --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 11:15 AM -0700 "Maricel G. Santos" wrote: > Dear John and Ros and members of the NIFL special-topics listserve -- > > Greetings from San Francisco... > > I use John and Ros' articles on the ARCS in my graduate ESL teacher > training classes at San Francisco State University. My students are > grateful for the practical utility and the instructional value of the > ARCS assessments. They bring their knowledge via practicum courses to > ESL teachers in the field, who are hungry for this kind of guidance about > adult reading development. However, I find that my students often want > to know what an ARCS-infused curriculum looks like in practice. This is > something I know less about... for example, what would an ESL curriculum > that blended ARCS assessments with project-based or content-based > learning (e.g., health literacy or vocational job training) look like? > I'm interested in hearing John and Ros' thoughts on curricular > possibilities, as well as from other adult educators who have made use of > the ARCS system in their curriculum. And would it be possible to share > these curricula on line? > > Thanks again, John and Ros. Looking forward to reading everyone's > postings. > > Maricel Santos > > Asst. Professor > English Department/ MA TESOL Program > San Francisco State University > 1600 Holloway Ave > San Francisco, CA 94132 > 415-338-7445 (work) > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From jw at weallcanread.com Wed May 24 13:38:13 2006 From: jw at weallcanread.com (Jim Williams) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 13:38:13 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 31] Re: Flurry of Questions about the ARCS Message-ID: <889B247F-DFC0-4ED6-A8B1-7F1B24939D99@weallcanread.com> Thank you for this valuable discussion. I would like to comment on an E-mail posted earlier from Stephanie Korber. Specifically she referred to the fact that it is most difficult to implement certain aspects of reading instruction when faced with a limited budget along with a staff of teachers and volunteers who are often not trained nor comfortable teaching phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency instruction. I have struggled for years with this issue. I am a former English teacher and remedial reading teacher at an inner- city high school in Atlanta, Georgia. For years I also operated a reading clinic during after-school hours. Older students and adults with basic reading skill deficiencies often require huge amounts of time to master basic skills. Meeting once or twice a week with a tutor is a very long, arduous, and uncertain path in terms of the student ever becoming an independent reader. Teachers in the upper grades and adult literacy instructors usually do not have a background in teaching phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency instruction. Reading specialists do, but there are few of them available in many programs. So many teachers/tutors avoid an area they don't feel comfortable addressing, and instead of focusing on basic skill instruction instead focus upon teaching comprehension strategies instead. But the research is clear that in fact if these struggling students are ever to become independent readers, then they require mastery in the basic skills mentioned above. As the ARCS study indicates, adults reading below the GED level seem to freeze at somewhere in the middle school years which tends to be the very point schools quit focusing upon learning to read and instead focus upon reading to learn. Adults who continue to struggle as readers need intensive, systematic, and direct instruction. And yet because of the time involved to provide this intensive remediation, and the lack of training teachers and volunteers receive, often this critical area is neglected. Fortunately the solution is available now with technology. Print and audio lessons which teach phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency for adults can be found online. Students are able to work independently at a computer or in conjunction with a teacher/tutor. A computer-based method of delivery, when offered at a price that is within an organization's budget, enables virtually any organization to teach effectively critical reading skills to students while at the same time providing a method whereby staff can receive training as well. Without direct access to online learning or perhaps a video-based format of instruction, the kind of intensive training which is required to train staff and to teach basic reading skills to students is simply outside the economic reach of many organizations, particularly adult literacy organizations who rely heavily upon volunteer tutors. I can think of no other effective and sustainable solution to this issue than a computer-based model of delivering instruction. Jim Williams Email address: jw at weallcanread.com Web address: www.weallcanread.com From cnaamh at rcn.com Wed May 24 21:05:43 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 21:05:43 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 32] ESOL diagnostic testing Message-ID: <001001c67f97$83c8ec10$bad8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Hi John and Ros, I find the discussions most interesting. Thank you! I teach adult ESOL. Previously, I worked as a special education teacher and as a reading teacher (children). Several of our learners are non-readers or struggling readers. I'm currently teaching a beginning level ESOL group and an ESOL/literacy class. We formed the Lit class based on needs of the students: high level speakers, non- or low-reading level, no or very low -level in writing. What diagnostic tests would you suggest for this population in order to find strenghts and instructional needs? Wouldn't tests normed on a population of native speakers be somewhat inaccurate for ESOL learners? Depending on the native language, I can see that in certain cases some tests might work fairly well. But what of others with different alphabets and different ways? Chinese learners do not sound out words. Russians do not actually spell words, etc. Thanks again. Nicole B. Graves Teacher/ESOL Program Coordinator The Center for New Americans Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton, MA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060524/2a865a04/attachment.html From norenehp at bresnan.net Wed May 24 23:11:48 2006 From: norenehp at bresnan.net (NOREN PETERSON) Date: Wed, 24 May 2006 21:11:48 -0600 Subject: [SpecialTopics 33] grouping and resources In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thanks for recognizing the difficulty rural states have in grouping students. As Ros can tell you, this is something that we in Montana experience first hand. Resource question: There are times when it is difficult to "convince" others that some adults need to be taught phonemic awareness, etc. Besides referring individuals to the ARCS website, do you have any other recommendation for a basic resource that is easily understood? Thanks! NP =) Norene Peterson Adult Education Center Billings, MT From kvaccaro at hcde-texas.org Thu May 25 10:28:17 2006 From: kvaccaro at hcde-texas.org (Kay Vaccaro) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 09:28:17 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 34] Re: grouping and resources Message-ID: Norene, I think I may have found a resource for you. I am looking at new software published by MindPlay entitled My Reading Coach that may meet the reading needs of the low literacy student, particularly in phonemic awareness. It was recommended to me by a reading specialist in K-12, so I am looking at its applicability to the adult learner. The website is www.mindplay.com If anyone else has used it or knows about its value to the adult learner I would appreciate knowing. I received my copy of the manual and CD yesterday, so I will check it how and let you know what I discover. V. Kay Vaccaro Program Coordinator Adult Education Division Harris County Department of Education 713-692-6216 FAX 713-695-1976 -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of NOREN PETERSON Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 10:12 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 33] grouping and resources Thanks for recognizing the difficulty rural states have in grouping students. As Ros can tell you, this is something that we in Montana experience first hand. Resource question: There are times when it is difficult to "convince" others that some adults need to be taught phonemic awareness, etc. Besides referring individuals to the ARCS website, do you have any other recommendation for a basic resource that is easily understood? Thanks! NP =) Norene Peterson Adult Education Center Billings, MT ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From jgreiner at proliteracy.org Thu May 25 12:12:59 2006 From: jgreiner at proliteracy.org (jgreiner) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 12:12:59 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 35] ARCS and PD Message-ID: <221E918332E818488687199E5CBD74CE041CB338@keats.proliteracy.org> Hello John and Ros, I'd like to hear more ideas about how professional development could be designed and implemented to support the use of ARCS in instruction. Some of the questions and comments so far have touched on the complexities involved: Norene Peterson wrote, "It is difficult to 'convince' others that some adults need to be taught phonemic awareness, etc." Stephanie Korber also wrote about adult educators' readiness and comfort with beginning reading skills, and that "this should have a huge impact on the planning and delivery of professional development." And Bill Muth notes how staff development is needed in order to organize learners in new ways. John, you also wrote that, "If you have [well-equipped centers and well-compensated practitioners] then teacher training will pay off even more than it does currently, because practitioners will be able to stay in the field long enough to make full use of the training and improve upon it based on their experience and sharing of knowledge." The need for professional development is not limited to what teachers need to know in order provide effective instruction. It seems that professional development needs to also hit the level of program management as well so that alternatives to the "one-size-fits-all' classroom can be implemented. What recommendations specific to professional development do you (or other discussion participants) have that would support instruction based on diagnostic assessments? What components would it have? What form would it take? Thanks to all - Jane Jane Greiner Training Coordinator ProLiteracy America ProLiteracy Worldwide 1320 Jamesville Avenue Syracuse, NY 13210 (315) 422-9121 Ext. 283 Fax (315) 422-6369 jgreiner at proliteracy.org www.proliteracy.org From djrosen at comcast.net Thu May 25 12:49:28 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 12:49:28 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 36] Re: ARCS and PD In-Reply-To: <221E918332E818488687199E5CBD74CE041CB338@keats.proliteracy.org> References: <221E918332E818488687199E5CBD74CE041CB338@keats.proliteracy.org> Message-ID: Hello Marie, Jane Meyer, a coordinator of an adult education program in Canton, Ohio has joined this discussion. Jane was one of the panelists in the video that you may have seen as you prepared for this discussion http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/20040204/archive/sec4-r.html She has used a study circle model for professional development focused on the ARCS. Jane, could you tell us about that here in some detail? Then I hope others may have some questions for you about this as a professional development model for the ARCS. David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net On May 25, 2006, at 12:12 PM, jgreiner wrote: > Hello John and Ros, > > I'd like to hear more ideas about how professional development > could be > designed and implemented to support the use of ARCS in instruction. > Some of > the questions and comments so far have touched on the complexities > involved: > Norene Peterson wrote, "It is difficult to 'convince' others that some > adults need to be taught phonemic awareness, etc." > Stephanie Korber also wrote about adult educators' readiness and > comfort > with beginning reading skills, and that "this should have a huge > impact on > the planning and delivery of professional development." > And Bill Muth notes how staff development is needed in order to > organize > learners in new ways. > > John, you also wrote that, "If you have [well-equipped centers and > well-compensated practitioners] then teacher training will pay off > even more > than it does currently, because practitioners will be able to stay > in the > field long enough to make full use of the training and improve upon > it based > on their experience and sharing of knowledge." > > The need for professional development is not limited to what > teachers need > to know in order provide effective instruction. It seems that > professional > development needs to also hit the level of program management as > well so > that alternatives to the "one-size-fits-all' classroom can be > implemented. > > What recommendations specific to professional development do you > (or other > discussion participants) have that would support instruction based on > diagnostic assessments? What components would it have? What form > would it > take? > > Thanks to all - > Jane > > Jane Greiner > Training Coordinator ProLiteracy America > ProLiteracy Worldwide > 1320 Jamesville Avenue > Syracuse, NY 13210 > (315) 422-9121 Ext. 283 > Fax (315) 422-6369 > jgreiner at proliteracy.org > www.proliteracy.org > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net From meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org Thu May 25 14:06:20 2006 From: meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org (Jane Meyer) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 14:06:20 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 37] professional development using the ARCS website Message-ID: <4475F21C.4040103@ccsdistrict.org> David suggested that I tell a bit about how we used the ARCS website for professional development in our ABE program in Canton, Ohio. First I explored the website myself and then, at a staff meeting, I told the teachers about the site highlighting some features that I thought might be of particular interest to them. I offered to pay them if they wanted to explore the website for a professional development activity. I set a meeting date about a month away for those who had explored the website to discuss what they had found and how it could be useful to them as well as ask any questions. The teachers loved using the website for professional development because it was so convenient and the format worked great for us because I had staff with various levels of knowledge about reading. The website allowed those who needed basic information to get it without holding those back who had more knowledge and were ready to go deeper. It has been a while, but I remember the discussion about the site being quite rich. Jane Meyer Canton City Schools Canton, Ohio meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org From davidsro at gse.harvard.edu Thu May 25 14:58:42 2006 From: davidsro at gse.harvard.edu (rosalind davidson) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 14:58:42 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 38] Re: ARCS questions Message-ID: <990E6B814EBEE7C27D4A0A60@Nic2-2> Hello Yvonne, Although we did not use age to form the clusters,we see three age groups among the 10 clusters: Clusters 1 and 2 with an average age of 27.5; clusters 3-8, 30 to 34 years; clusters 9-10, 37 -41 years. The younger learners in GED Clusters, 1 and 2 have made the decision to finish their education fairly soon after leaving high-school, so we can say that they are returning to school, not starting anew. They come to adult ed with 10th or 11th grade educations, with some good reading skills, ready to 'finish up'. Their individual diagnostic profiles will pinpoint areas that need shoring up along with test taking skills. Vocabulary instruction, always a must for any group, should include words from the academic vocabulary list since many learners in these clusters will go on to post secondary vocational schools or community colleges. Download the list from: www.vuw.ac.nz/lals/research/ awl/download/awlfrequent.pdf Many more of those in the middle clusters reported having had trouble learning to read from the beginning in the primary grades. their phonological abilities of distinguishing, isolating and blending sounds should be assessed. Teachers can use the assessment on the ARCS website to find those phonics elements that learners need to master. Another age related factor is the amount of help learners received in K-12. The older learners in all clusters may not have had the advantage of Chapter One, special classes, or tutoring and remain at primary or low intermediate reading levels. Some of the 25 to 40 year olds who have phonological deficits may be curriculum casualties of embedded rather than systematic phonics programs that would have helped ameliorate their basic sound discrimination problems. Also related to age and lack of supplementary reading services (or ineffective interventions) are the poor reading tactics that older learners use in order to read well enough to lead their adult lives. It requires reeducation and repeated success with new skills that help undo poor readers' unproductive word recognition and comprehension strategies. The clusters are composed of learners with similar strengths and needs, age doesn't indicate the particular reading difficulty in any cluster, rather it is an indicator of the amount of reeducation that might be required to get them 'unstuck' and redirected. Ros --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 3:40 PM -0400 john strucker wrote: > Yvonne, > I'll let Ros handle your first question about age. I take a stab at your > second question below. > > --On Monday, May 22, 2006 10:17 PM -0400 ylerew at aol.com wrote: > >> Here are a couple of initial questions about ARCS: >> >> 1. Was the age of the adult students a factor? Were older or younger >> adults more commonly found in any cluster of reading skill? What >> implications might there be for practitioners working with older adults >> versus younger adults? >> >> 2. There was mention made that teachers perceived the Spanish literacy >> skills of their students (native Spanish speakers) to be lower than >> their actual skill level in Spanish. Why do you think this disconnect >> between perception and reality exists? > > I think it's pretty straightforward - most of the time we never test > students' literacy abilities in their native languages, even though > research tell us that for adults, native language literacy is very > important for second language acquisition. For Spanish, NL literacy is > easy to assess using the Woodcock-Munoz, among other tests. For other > languages it's much harder. My Harvard colleague Catherine Snow once > suggested that the USDOE should assemble a bunch of computer-administered > tests in the various languages spoken by most US ESOL students. If the > computer administered and scored the tests, we would know how well a > person reads, say Mandarin, without ever knowing a word of that language. > > The whole point of this is that if someone has relatively high literacy > in their native language, they might learn English more efficiently if > it were taught more like English as a Foreign Language (EFL) - making > use the students's pre-existing literacy and incipient English reading > as tools for second language learning. Instead we tend to start > everybody off with survival-emphasis-oral.aural skills only ESOL. But > this probably only necessary as a dominant mode of instruction for folks > with low native language literacy. This topic ought to set off a > hornet's nest!! > > > How could ESOL practice be >> improved to capitalize on the native language reading skills? >> >> Thanks >> Yvonne Lerew >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > > John Strucker, EdD > Nichols House 303 > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge, MA 02138 > > 617 495 4745 > 617 495 4811 (fax) > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From davidsro at gse.harvard.edu Thu May 25 16:19:38 2006 From: davidsro at gse.harvard.edu (rosalind davidson) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 16:19:38 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 39] Re: grouping and resources In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi Norene, You mean after all your fine work on curriculum and reading workshops, you still have doubters? How about a mini-workshop on mastering the decoding of difficult scientific or other specialized vocabulary so doubters can see what skills they need in order to decode unfamiliar as well as long familiar words. Would they then understand the value of teaching learners to isolate sounds, blend and syllabicate - strengthen reading skills at the word level? Worth a try? Love that Montana - All the best, Ros --On Wednesday, May 24, 2006 9:11 PM -0600 NOREN PETERSON wrote: > Thanks for recognizing the difficulty rural states have in grouping > students. As Ros can tell you, this is something that we in Montana > experience first hand. > > Resource question: > There are times when it is difficult to "convince" others that some > adults need to be taught phonemic awareness, etc. Besides referring > individuals to the ARCS website, do you have any other recommendation > for a basic resource that is easily understood? Thanks! NP =) > > Norene Peterson > Adult Education Center > Billings, MT > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Thu May 25 17:17:21 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 17:17:21 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 40] ARCS questions from Tom sticht References: <1148585478.4476060643f09@webmail.znet.net> Message-ID: From: tsticht at znet.com Date: May 25, 2006 3:31:18 PM EDT To: djrosen at comcast.net Subject: ARCS questions David: Please post the following message for John Strucker. Thanks, Tom Sticht John: In 1999-2000 I conducted workshops on listening and reading processes of adults. One of the things that came from a survey of some 247 participants was that most thought alphabetics (phonemics; phonics) was "very important" to their classroom teaching or tutoring. Yet, 38-79 percent (depending on the site) said they had never received training in teaching or tutoring phonemic awareness and 31-59 percent said they had no training in teaching phonics. In preparing the workshop, I searched for research indicating that a focus on alphabetics (code emphasis in Jeanne?s terms) with adults with low literacy produced better learning outcomes than some other, perhaps meaning (whole language) emphasis. But I could find no such research. So I looked at historical approaches to teaching adults to read. Cora Wilson Stewart in 1910 and beyond did not like the alphabetics approach and clearly stated that adults should be taught using the "word? approach. Reports of her work indicate that hundreds of thousands of adults learned to read following her "whole language" approach. But in World War I, J. Duncan Spaeth took a strong phonics approach to teaching reading to soldiers. Then in World War II, Paul Witty took a strong "word", "whole language" approach, and indeed teachers in Special Training Units got demerits if they emphasized phonics too much. It is reported that over a quarter million soldiers learned to read using this meaning emphasis approach. This type of variable historical data, and the lack of any solid research that I could find on the relative effectiveness with adults of the code or meaning emphases left me to have to report in my workshops that I did not know of any good data to help make decisions about the use of these two approaches. I knew that Jeanne favored the code approach in her clinical work but her reported gains did not seem to be much better, if at all better, than what other adult literacy programs reported. So my question now is do you know of any research with the ARCS comparing it to other approaches to teaching reading that could be pointed to to convince teachers and administrators in adult literacy education that the ARCS approach is the road to take today and the time, money, and effort needed to invest in professional development on the ARCS would be worth it in improved student learning? Thanks, Tom Sticht From jn at cloudworld.co.uk Thu May 25 17:19:09 2006 From: jn at cloudworld.co.uk (John Nissen) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 22:19:09 +0100 Subject: [SpecialTopics 41] ARCS Mini-course - teaching of basic reading skills References: <889B247F-DFC0-4ED6-A8B1-7F1B24939D99@weallcanread.com> Message-ID: <165401c68040$dcd50c90$0202a8c0@Tomschoice> Hello John and everybody, I would like to discuss the "mini-course" part of ARCS, following the discussion about teaching basic reading skills which came under the subject heading: "flurry of questions about the ARCS". There was an issue of how easy it was to teach these basic reading skills, in a question raised by Stephanie Korber and answered by John (see below). This was followed by a comment from Jim Williams about the availability of programs to help in the learning of basic skills (see below that). But I have been looking at the mini-course on the ARCS site. I am concerned by advocacy for teaching whole word recognition on the "Sight words" page: http://www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles/MC_Sight_Words.htm But in this same page there is this telling passage: [quote] Because most adult poor readers have difficulty with letter-sound skills, they tend to use a whole word recognition approach much more than do children who are reading at the same level. Whole word recognition only works if the words are mastered sight words. The result of continued reliance on whole word "recognition" instead of phonetic skills when decoding unfamiliar words is guessing and misreading. [end quote] I agree with that deduction. Moreover I claim that teaching letter-sound skills to adults, as for children, means no effort need be spent on whole word recognition! The teaching of whole word recognition as an approach was in the now deprecated Searchlights model of the UK National Literacy Strategy. It leads indeed to much guesswork and error. It has no doubt contributed to the failure of 20% children to learn to read. On the other hand, experience with teaching synthetic phonics shows that rapid recognition of whole words arises naturally from rapid decoding which gradually increases automaticity. The use of multiple modalities should be applied to the phonics instruction that gives the rapid decoding ability, rather than to whole word recognition as ARCS proposes. Synthetic phonics, with multimodal techniques, was used in the Clackmannanshire study, where all 300 children were taught to read successfully in a few months, and by the end of Primary School their average reading age was over three years ahead of their chronological reading age. This result has caused the government to change tack on literacy, and advocate the introduction of synthetic phonics "first and fast" in all primary schools. So, John and colleagues, I think you could go further with the mini-course, and show an even simpler and more effective way to teach the basic reading skills. You could at least take a systematic phonics approach, but I would strongly recommend more specifically the synthetic phonics method. BTW, the synthetic phonics approach is applicable to TESOL - i.e. teaching students who do not have English as their native language. Thus by choice of suitable reading material, one might be able to "kill two birds with one stone", and teach a class with mixed categories of student, addressing one of the major issues being raised in this "flurry of questions". Cheers from Chiswick, John John Nissen Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk maker of the assistive reader, WordAloud. Try WordAloud with synthetic phonics: http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm Tel: +44 208 742 3170 Fax: +44 208 742 0202 Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk --------------------- --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 11:32 AM -0400 Stephanie Korber wrote: > What a great discussion topic! The ARCS project has been one of a few > factors that have caused some programs in our organization to revisit > diagnostic assessment as a tool for providing quality instruction. > However, I have found some challenges that I would like to hear opinions > on. Given the resources in the field of adult education, the bottom line > of some of these challenges is dollars. > 1. Not all adult ed programs are staffed with teachers (or volunteer > tutors) who are comfortable with teaching beginning reading skills that > relate to phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency instruction. In the > K-12 world of education, this level of remediation is done by reading > specialists, folks who have spent years being educated in the field of > reading and on the implementation of appropriate assessments and > strategies for such remediation. In my opinion, this should have a huge > impact on the planning and delivery of professional development. In my experience both as a practitioner and educator of teachers, ABE/ESOL teachers are very quick at picking up how to teach reading. In my opinion, phonics and fluency instruction are actually easier for teachers to learn to teach well (and therefore potentially cheaper to learn) than some aspects of vocabulary, comprehension, and writing. In an ideal world, the main burden of our adult learners' reading instruction would never be borne by volunteers. Volunteers can be very effective professional teaching - but only if they are working in direct support of professionals who have the time to train and supervise them properly. Yes, in K-12 struggling readers who are just like our students only younger are taught by folks with master's degrees in reading and or special ed. Again, to work effectively with adult struggling readers, all of us in the field would have master's level training in reading with substantial cross-training in ESOL, given that many of today's ABE students are former ESOL students. ----------- This was followed by a comment about using technology from Jim Williams, ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jim Williams" To: Sent: Wednesday, May 24, 2006 6:38 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 31] Re: Flurry of Questions about the ARCS > Thank you for this valuable discussion. I would like to comment on > an E-mail posted earlier from Stephanie Korber. Specifically she > referred to the fact that it is most difficult to implement certain > aspects of reading instruction when faced with a limited budget > along with a staff of teachers and volunteers who are often not > trained nor comfortable teaching phonemic awareness, phonics and > fluency instruction. I have struggled for years with this issue. I am > a former English teacher and remedial reading teacher at an inner- > city high school in Atlanta, Georgia. For years I also operated a > reading clinic during after-school hours. Older students and adults > with basic reading skill deficiencies often require huge amounts of > time to master basic skills. Meeting once or twice a week with a > tutor is a very long, arduous, and uncertain path in terms of the > student ever becoming an independent reader. > > Teachers in the upper grades and adult literacy instructors usually > do not have a background in teaching phonemic awareness, phonics and > fluency instruction. Reading specialists do, but there are few of > them available in many programs. So many teachers/tutors avoid an > area they don't feel comfortable addressing, and instead of focusing > on basic skill instruction instead focus upon teaching comprehension > strategies instead. But the research is clear that in fact if these > struggling students are ever to become independent readers, then they > require mastery in the basic skills mentioned above. As the ARCS > study indicates, adults reading below the GED level seem to freeze at > somewhere in the middle school years which tends to be the very point > schools quit focusing upon learning to read and instead focus upon > reading to learn. Adults who continue to struggle as readers need > intensive, systematic, and direct instruction. And yet because of the > time involved to provide this intensive remediation, and the lack of > training teachers and volunteers receive, often this critical area is > neglected. > > Fortunately the solution is available now with technology. Print and > audio lessons which teach phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency > for adults can be found online. Students are able to work > independently at a computer or in conjunction with a teacher/tutor. A > computer-based method of delivery, when offered at a price that is > within an organization's budget, enables virtually any organization > to teach effectively critical reading skills to students while at the > same time providing a method whereby staff can receive training as well. > > Without direct access to online learning or perhaps a video-based > format of instruction, the kind of intensive training which is > required to train staff and to teach basic reading skills to students > is simply outside the economic reach of many organizations, > particularly adult literacy organizations who rely heavily upon > volunteer tutors. I can think of no other effective and sustainable > solution to this issue than a computer-based model of delivering > instruction. > > Jim Williams > Email address: jw at weallcanread.com > Web address: www.weallcanread.com ------------ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060525/4cba7450/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Thu May 25 17:29:39 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 17:29:39 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 42] Re: professional development using the ARCS website In-Reply-To: <4475F21C.4040103@ccsdistrict.org> References: <4475F21C.4040103@ccsdistrict.org> Message-ID: Thanks, Jane. I wonder if anyone else in this discussion has used the ARCS Web site and/or a study circle model using the ARCS Web site or other ARCS materials. If so, please tell us about your experience. Also, if anyone has questions for Jane or Ros about the use of the ARCS Web site, please ask them now. David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net On May 25, 2006, at 2:06 PM, Jane Meyer wrote: > David suggested that I tell a bit about how we used the ARCS > website for > professional development in our ABE program in Canton, Ohio. First I > explored the website myself and then, at a staff meeting, I told the > teachers about the site highlighting some features that I thought > might > be of particular interest to them. I offered to pay them if they > wanted > to explore the website for a professional development activity. I > set a > meeting date about a month away for those who had explored the website > to discuss what they had found and how it could be useful to them as > well as ask any questions. The teachers loved using the website for > professional development because it was so convenient and the format > worked great for us because I had staff with various levels of > knowledge > about reading. The website allowed those who needed basic information > to get it without holding those back who had more knowledge and were > ready to go deeper. It has been a while, but I remember the > discussion > about the site being quite rich. > Jane Meyer > Canton City Schools > Canton, Ohio > meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net From wrmuth at vcu.edu Thu May 25 20:21:48 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 20:21:48 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 43] Re: professional development using the ARCS website In-Reply-To: Message-ID: We designed a "front end" module to introduce Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) teachers to the ARCS website/course. The module was taught in real time through CENTRA (a distance training platform), and we provided participants (from around the country) with FBOP training credit. The module presented some reading theory (e.g., Marilyn Adams' 4 Processors Model), and tied this to ARCS terminology (e.g., print skills, meaning skills). We cited John Strucker's 'Why Silent Reading Comprehension Scores Are Not Enough" article, and provided examples of clusters I found in my ARCS dissertation study of literacy learners in federal prisons. The session ended with an overview of Ros' on-line course. The training took about 90 minutes, and I think we conducted four sessions, reaching about 80 teachers in all. After this, teachers were encouraged to take the on-line course. We credited teachers with course completions when they (a) conducted ARCS tests on a student, (b) submitted scores to the website, and (c) printed out the profile/results. Since I have retired from the FBOP, I do not have staff completion data, but I do know that we (opps, 'they') are now incorporating ARCS training in our face-to-face training for all new teachers entering the Bureau. Bill William R. Muth, PhD Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy Virginia Commonwealth University (804) 828-8768 David Rosen Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 05/25/2006 05:29 PM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To specialtopics at nifl.gov cc Subject [SpecialTopics 42] Re: professional development using the ARCS website Thanks, Jane. I wonder if anyone else in this discussion has used the ARCS Web site and/or a study circle model using the ARCS Web site or other ARCS materials. If so, please tell us about your experience. Also, if anyone has questions for Jane or Ros about the use of the ARCS Web site, please ask them now. David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net On May 25, 2006, at 2:06 PM, Jane Meyer wrote: > David suggested that I tell a bit about how we used the ARCS > website for > professional development in our ABE program in Canton, Ohio. First I > explored the website myself and then, at a staff meeting, I told the > teachers about the site highlighting some features that I thought > might > be of particular interest to them. I offered to pay them if they > wanted > to explore the website for a professional development activity. I > set a > meeting date about a month away for those who had explored the website > to discuss what they had found and how it could be useful to them as > well as ask any questions. The teachers loved using the website for > professional development because it was so convenient and the format > worked great for us because I had staff with various levels of > knowledge > about reading. The website allowed those who needed basic information > to get it without holding those back who had more knowledge and were > ready to go deeper. It has been a while, but I remember the > discussion > about the site being quite rich. > Jane Meyer > Canton City Schools > Canton, Ohio > meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060525/75d3e391/attachment.html From cnaamh at rcn.com Thu May 25 20:23:08 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 20:23:08 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 44] Re: grouping and resources References: Message-ID: <007301c6805b$b73faa60$7ed8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Great idea! Nicole Graves ----- Original Message ----- From: "rosalind davidson" To: Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 4:19 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 39] Re: grouping and resources > Hi Norene, > You mean after all your fine work on curriculum and reading workshops, you > still have doubters? How about a mini-workshop on mastering the decoding of > difficult scientific or other specialized vocabulary so doubters can see > what skills they need in order to decode unfamiliar as well as long > familiar words. Would they then understand the value of teaching learners > to isolate sounds, blend and syllabicate - strengthen reading skills at the > word level? Worth a try? > Love that Montana - All the best, > Ros > > > --On Wednesday, May 24, 2006 9:11 PM -0600 NOREN PETERSON > wrote: > > > Thanks for recognizing the difficulty rural states have in grouping > > students. As Ros can tell you, this is something that we in Montana > > experience first hand. > > > > Resource question: > > There are times when it is difficult to "convince" others that some > > adults need to be taught phonemic awareness, etc. Besides referring > > individuals to the ARCS website, do you have any other recommendation > > for a basic resource that is easily understood? Thanks! NP =) > > > > Norene Peterson > > Adult Education Center > > Billings, MT > > ------------------------------- > > National Institute for Literacy > > Special Topics mailing list > > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Thu May 25 20:37:43 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 20:37:43 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 45] Explicitly assessing and teaching an understanding of English morphology Message-ID: <311200FD-2A01-49CB-B0A3-F834D1C89D56@comcast.net> Mina Reddy wrote: "...Specifically for second language learners, how important or useful is it to explicitly assess and teach an understanding of English morphology? How much does an understanding of English morphology influence their comprehension of text? I am curious about this because of my personal experience reading in languages in which my vocabulary is limited. I find that an understanding of the structure of the language helps me to derive at least a basic meaning from the text even when I do not understand many of the words." John Strucker answered: "Mina, I think you are right about this last point, but I don't know of much ESOL research that focuses on this. NCSALL's Steve Reder would be a good person to ask about this. However, I think ELL research has looked at this from time to time, and that research supports your position. As an aside, in general, I think those of us in ABE/ESOL can probably learn a lot by looking more at ELL research." I (David Rosen) asked Steve Reder to reply, and he turned to his colleagues at Portland State University's Department of Applied Linguistics, Kathy Harris and Lynn Santelmann. They asked that we post this reply: "There isn't a lot of research directed at this specific question, but the research that exists points to a couple of conclusions. First, student acquisition of some kinds of morphemes (e.g. plural and 3rd person -s) can be promoted with instruction. However, instruction of other forms (e.g. -ing) can promote overproduction. Also, other types of English morphology aren't easily acquired through instruction (e.g. articles such as the and a). Generally, the order in which English morphology is learned isn't altered by instruction, but some aspects may be acquired more quickly through instruction. Instruction may help students to "notice" new forms so that when the new forms become salient (through error correction or negotiation for example), learners have knowledge of the new form to apply." Kathy Harris & Lynn Santelmann Department of Applied Linguistics & the NCSALL Adult ESOL Lab School Portland State University David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From norenehp at bresnan.net Thu May 25 23:32:10 2006 From: norenehp at bresnan.net (NOREN PETERSON) Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 21:32:10 -0600 Subject: [SpecialTopics 46] Re: grouping and resources In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thanks for the suggestion, Ros! I bet "atherosclerosis" and many others might do the trick, right? =) And we'd love to have you back any time! NP =) On Thu, 25 May 2006 16:19:38 -0400 rosalind davidson wrote: > Hi Norene, > You mean after all your fine work on curriculum and reading workshops, you > still have doubters? How about a mini-workshop on mastering the decoding of > difficult scientific or other specialized vocabulary so doubters can see > what skills they need in order to decode unfamiliar as well as long > familiar words. Would they then understand the value of teaching learners > to isolate sounds, blend and syllabicate - strengthen reading skills at the > word level? Worth a try? > Love that Montana - All the best, > Ros > > > --On Wednesday, May 24, 2006 9:11 PM -0600 NOREN PETERSON > wrote: > >> Thanks for recognizing the difficulty rural states have in grouping >> students. As Ros can tell you, this is something that we in Montana >> experience first hand. >> >> Resource question: >> There are times when it is difficult to "convince" others that some >> adults need to be taught phonemic awareness, etc. Besides referring >> individuals to the ARCS website, do you have any other recommendation >> for a basic resource that is easily understood? Thanks! NP =) >> >> Norene Peterson >> Adult Education Center >> Billings, MT >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Fri May 26 10:23:24 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 10:23:24 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 47] Special Topics List Messages in Digest Format Message-ID: <0C7C4667-B2DF-4D50-B0DB-D0882D82BA61@comcast.net> Special Topics List Colleagues, A colleague wrote "There are way too many conversations to follow, could they be organized in some way, maybe sent only once a day, or twice a week?" If you would like to change your subscription to get messages in digest format (and for answers to other questions about this and other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored electronic discussion lists) go to http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/help/help_mailman.html#digest David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From jn at cloudworld.co.uk Fri May 26 10:58:55 2006 From: jn at cloudworld.co.uk (John Nissen) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 15:58:55 +0100 Subject: [SpecialTopics 48] Re: Explicitly assessing and teaching anunderstanding of English morphology References: <311200FD-2A01-49CB-B0A3-F834D1C89D56@comcast.net> Message-ID: <16d201c680d4$e9532440$0202a8c0@Tomschoice> Hello David and all, We seem now to be getting into the area of understanding or comprehension. One of the basic skills is segmentation of the speech stream into separate words. This is a key skill in conversational English or other "joined up" speech. (Even more key in French!) Perhaps we should be doing more dictation to test student's ability not only to segment words into phonemes and spell out the words, but also to test their ability to decide on word boundaries within a stream of speech. There can be some tricky things. For example "I scream" is phonetically similar to "Ice Cream". In doing this segmentation into words, the common "function" words, like "the" and "about", are very important to recognise. But to make sense out of the stream, the morphology is very important as well. So that an ending "ing" strongly suggests a verb, and the ending "ly" often indicates an adverb, just as a "the" strongly suggests a noun, etc. Then the /d/ or /t/ at the end of a word often indicates the past tense of a verb, perhaps used as an adjective, as in a "marked paper". In the reply from the linguists, we got some thoughts on the difficulty of _producing_ the correct morphology, e.g. use of definite and indefinite articles ('the' and 'a'). However I think the comprehension aspect deserves attention, especially for teaching literacy skills to adults with English as a second or other language (TESOL). Cheers from Chiswick, John John Nissen Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk maker of the assistive reader, WordAloud. Try WordAloud with synthetic phonics: http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm Tel: +44 208 742 3170 Fax: +44 208 742 0202 Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Rosen" To: Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 1:37 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 45] Explicitly assessing and teaching anunderstanding of English morphology > Mina Reddy wrote: > > "...Specifically for second language learners, how important or > useful is it to explicitly assess and teach an understanding of > English morphology? How much does an understanding of English > morphology influence their comprehension of text? I am curious about > this because of my personal experience reading in languages in which > my vocabulary is limited. I find that an understanding of the > structure of the language helps me to derive at least a basic meaning > from the text even when I do not understand many of the words." > > John Strucker answered: > > "Mina, I think you are right about this last point, but I don't know > of much ESOL research that focuses on this. NCSALL's Steve Reder > would be a > good person to ask about this. However, I think ELL research has > looked at this from time to time, and that research supports your > position. As an > aside, in general, I think those of us in ABE/ESOL can probably learn > a lot by looking more at ELL research." > > I (David Rosen) asked Steve Reder to reply, and he turned to his > colleagues at Portland State University's Department of Applied > Linguistics, Kathy Harris and Lynn Santelmann. They asked that we > post this reply: > > "There isn't a lot of research directed at this specific question, > but the research that exists points to a couple of conclusions. > First, student acquisition of some kinds of morphemes (e.g. plural > and 3rd person -s) can be promoted with instruction. However, > instruction of other forms (e.g. -ing) can promote overproduction. > Also, other types of English morphology aren't easily acquired > through instruction (e.g. articles such as the and a). Generally, > the order in which English morphology is learned isn't altered by > instruction, but some aspects may be acquired more quickly through > instruction. Instruction may help students to "notice" new forms so > that when the new forms become salient (through error correction or > negotiation for example), learners have knowledge of the new form to > apply." > > Kathy Harris & Lynn Santelmann > Department of Applied Linguistics & the NCSALL Adult ESOL Lab School > Portland State University > > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > From djrosen at comcast.net Fri May 26 11:46:32 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 11:46:32 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 49] ARCS Discussion Message-ID: <85F6F5CE-5C73-41B1-A0A7-D2D779598181@comcast.net> Dear colleague, I would like to invite those who have not yet asked a question, as well as those who already have, to post your questions or observations now. Our discussion will end after next Tuesday, so now would be a good time to join in. I would like to hear from everyone, but especially from teachers who have used the ARCS Web site or who are thinking of using it. What are your thoughts, questions, concerns? If you have used it, what have you found rewarding or challenging? For those who haven't had time to dig in to this yet, we have a long weekend coming up, so perhaps it will give you time to do the background reading or watch the video and to then to take advantage this opportunity before the discussion ends on Wednesday. And a more general question, since one of the purposes of the Special Topics list is to help practitioners benefit from research through discussion with researchers, what are your thoughts about how we can do that better, that is, better meet your needs as a teacher who wants to know more about research? All the best, David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From jn at cloudworld.co.uk Fri May 26 11:34:00 2006 From: jn at cloudworld.co.uk (John Nissen) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 16:34:00 +0100 Subject: [SpecialTopics 50] Re: grouping and resources References: Message-ID: <16e301c680d9$cfec5b70$0202a8c0@Tomschoice> Hello Norene, "Atherosclerosis"? No spelling or pronunciation problem there! But what about "dyslexics", especially for the eponymous individuals? The /i/ and /ks/ are each encoded in two different ways within this one word. And if you tried to decode and pronounce by analogy with "my exam" you'd get quite the wrong sound for the word... /die/ /sligziks/. This goes back to my mini-course problem (see SpecialTopics 41).. teaching people to try to recognise words as a whole is actually a bad thing, because it sets the brain along the wrong channels for being able to quickly decode new words. And, yes, a mini-workshop specifically on decoding is a good idea, considering the importance of converting the doubters! Cheers from Chiswick, John John Nissen Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk maker of the assistive reader, WordAloud. Try WordAloud with synthetic phonics: http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm Tel: +44 208 742 3170 Fax: +44 208 742 0202 Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk ----- Original Message ----- From: "NOREN PETERSON" To: Sent: Friday, May 26, 2006 4:32 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 46] Re: grouping and resources > Thanks for the suggestion, Ros! I bet "atherosclerosis" and many others > might > do the trick, right? =) And we'd love to have you back any time! NP =) > > > On Thu, 25 May 2006 16:19:38 -0400 > rosalind davidson wrote: >> Hi Norene, >> You mean after all your fine work on curriculum and reading workshops, >> you >> still have doubters? How about a mini-workshop on mastering the decoding >> of >> difficult scientific or other specialized vocabulary so doubters can see >> what skills they need in order to decode unfamiliar as well as long >> familiar words. Would they then understand the value of teaching learners >> to isolate sounds, blend and syllabicate - strengthen reading skills at >> the >> word level? Worth a try? >> Love that Montana - All the best, >> Ros >> >> >> --On Wednesday, May 24, 2006 9:11 PM -0600 NOREN PETERSON >> wrote: >> >>> Thanks for recognizing the difficulty rural states have in grouping >>> students. As Ros can tell you, this is something that we in Montana >>> experience first hand. >>> >>> Resource question: >>> There are times when it is difficult to "convince" others that some >>> adults need to be taught phonemic awareness, etc. Besides referring >>> individuals to the ARCS website, do you have any other recommendation >>> for a basic resource that is easily understood? Thanks! NP =) >>> >>> Norene Peterson >>> Adult Education Center >>> Billings, MT From jgreiner at proliteracy.org Fri May 26 12:54:35 2006 From: jgreiner at proliteracy.org (jgreiner) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 12:54:35 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 51] Re: professional development using the ARCS we bsite Message-ID: <221E918332E818488687199E5CBD74CE041CB354@keats.proliteracy.org> Thanks Bill. I'm wondering if your front end module approached the issue of how learners are organized (either in the actual module, or in convesations leading up to it). Does anyone else have ideas about how to involve program administrators in these discussions. Jane, maybe this was part of your study circle? Or is it more important to support widespread acceptance and use of the ARCS among teachers first? Thanks, Jane Jane Greiner Training Coordinator ProLiteracy America ProLiteracy Worldwide 1320 Jamesville Avenue Syracuse, NY 13210 (315) 422-9121 Ext. 283 Fax (315) 422-6369 jgreiner at proliteracy.org www.proliteracy.org -----Original Message----- From: William R Muth/FS/VCU [mailto:wrmuth at vcu.edu] Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 8:22 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 43] Re: professional development using the ARCS website We designed a "front end" module to introduce Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) teachers to the ARCS website/course. The module was taught in real time through CENTRA (a distance training platform), and we provided participants (from around the country) with FBOP training credit. The module presented some reading theory (e.g., Marilyn Adams' 4 Processors Model), and tied this to ARCS terminology (e.g., print skills, meaning skills). We cited John Strucker's 'Why Silent Reading Comprehension Scores Are Not Enough" article, and provided examples of clusters I found in my ARCS dissertation study of literacy learners in federal prisons. The session ended with an overview of Ros' on-line course. The training took about 90 minutes, and I think we conducted four sessions, reaching about 80 teachers in all. After this, teachers were encouraged to take the on-line course. We credited teachers with course completions when they (a) conducted ARCS tests on a student, (b) submitted scores to the website, and (c) printed out the profile/results. Since I have retired from the FBOP, I do not have staff completion data, but I do know that we (opps, 'they') are now incorporating ARCS training in our face-to-face training for all new teachers entering the Bureau. Bill William R. Muth, PhD Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy Virginia Commonwealth University (804) 828-8768 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060526/7311f8b4/attachment.html From john_strucker at harvard.edu Fri May 26 12:13:11 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 12:13:11 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 52] Re: ARCS questions from Tom sticht In-Reply-To: References: <1148585478.4476060643f09@webmail.znet.net> Message-ID: <09838E222E3F1F4F34F52758@nichols303> Hi David and Tom, ARCS isn't really a teaching approach as such, except in the narrowest sense that it implies that you can't plan good instruction without having done diagnostic assessment in the components of reading. As far as Tom's question about alphabetics, at least half of the ARCS ABE clusters are made up of learners who could need instruction in print skills, ranging from beginners who need everything from phonemic awareness onward, to many of the intermediates who need brush-up work in lower frequency phonics patterns (e.g., diphthongs), syllabication of long words, and fluency. Although as Tom points out the research on the effectiveness of teaching various print skills to adults is sparse, as Tom implies with his historical examples, nearly all successful adult literacy programs have done so for quite a long time. Down at the clinical level of our reading lab, we simply tell our graduate student tutors, "Find out what print skills an adult learner already has and teach her/him the ones they haven't mastered." Some of the NICHD studies that are in the field now are taking a pretty close look at the effectiveness of teaching print skills - from phonemic awareness through phonics, word recognition, and fluency. So pretty soon we may have evidence for something that teachers, clinicians, and adult learners themselves - as Tom documented - have known for a long time: we need to teach print skills to people who haven't mastered them. I don't want to convey the impression, however, that we already know everything we need to know about print skills. Our adult learner population includes many people who are moderately-to-severely reading disabled. They may never "master" some print skills - e.g., higher levels of phonemic awareness. What we need to know more about is they have to get in order to move forward, read less laboriously, and comprehend what they read better. The NICHD studies and others should shed some light on "how much mastery one needs" - and this info will be very important for practitioners. --On Thursday, May 25, 2006 5:17 PM -0400 David Rosen wrote: > From: tsticht at znet.com > Date: May 25, 2006 3:31:18 PM EDT > To: djrosen at comcast.net > Subject: ARCS questions > > David: Please post the following message for John Strucker. Thanks, > Tom Sticht > John: In 1999-2000 I conducted workshops on listening and reading > processes > of adults. One of the things that came from a survey of some 247 > participants was that most thought alphabetics (phonemics; phonics) was > "very important" to their classroom teaching or tutoring. Yet, 38-79 > percent (depending on the site) said they had never received > training in > teaching or tutoring phonemic awareness and 31-59 percent said they > had no > training in teaching phonics. > > In preparing the workshop, I searched for research indicating that a > focus > on alphabetics (code emphasis in Jeanne?s terms) with adults with low > literacy produced better learning outcomes than some other, perhaps > meaning > (whole language) emphasis. But I could find no such research. > > So I looked at historical approaches to teaching adults to read. Cora > Wilson > Stewart in 1910 and beyond did not like the alphabetics approach and > clearly > stated that adults should be taught using the "word? approach. > Reports of > her work indicate that hundreds of thousands of adults learned to read > following her "whole language" approach. But in World War I, J. Duncan > Spaeth took a strong phonics approach to teaching reading to > soldiers. Then > in World War II, Paul Witty took a strong "word", "whole language" > approach, > and indeed teachers in Special Training Units got demerits if they > emphasized phonics too much. It is reported that over a quarter million > soldiers learned to read using this meaning emphasis approach. > > This type of variable historical data, and the lack of any solid > research > that I could find on the relative effectiveness with adults of the > code or > meaning emphases left me to have to report in my workshops that I did > not > know of any good data to help make decisions about the use of these two > approaches. I knew that Jeanne favored the code approach in her clinical > work but her reported gains did not seem to be much better, if at all > better, than what other adult literacy programs reported. > > So my question now is do you know of any research with the ARCS > comparing it > to other approaches to teaching reading that could be pointed to to > convince > teachers and administrators in adult literacy education that the ARCS > approach is the road to take today and the time, money, and effort > needed > to invest in professional development on the ARCS would be worth it in > improved student learning? > > Thanks, > > Tom Sticht > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Fri May 26 13:01:57 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 13:01:57 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 53] Re: Patterns of Word Recognition Errors In-Reply-To: References: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8F013FBF86@MAIL.cal.local> Message-ID: <718293AED591B27FAFE3393B@nichols303> Hi Barbara, I think it makes sense for people to read the whole paper, because I'm not sure how much sense the appendix makes by itself. However, we don't have an electronic version of the paper. Folks with access to university libraries such as yourself should be able get it right away in , V. 6, N. 3 (2002), pps 299-315. For those who don't have access to university libraries, we'd be happy to snail mail hard copy versions to you if you send us your addresses. Best, John --On Wednesday, May 24, 2006 8:02 AM -0400 bgiven at gmu.edu wrote: > Is it permissible to put the appendix online for others of us who would > like it? barb given > > Barbara K. Given, Ph.D. > Director, Adolescent and Adult Learning Research Center > Krasnow Institute for Advanced Study, and > Director, Center for Honoring Individual Learning Diversity, an > International Learning Styles Center George Mason University > Fairfax, VA 22030-4444 > Fax: 703-993-4325 > Ph: 703-993-4406 > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: john strucker > Date: Tuesday, May 23, 2006 3:45 pm > Subject: [SpecialTopics 24] Re: Patterns of Word Recognition Errors > >> Hi Lynda, >> >> Since you're at CAL, you might already have > Reading >> V. 6, #3> 2002, pp 298-315 in your library. If not, write back, >> and we'll >> send you a photocopy. >> >> Best, >> John >> >> --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 3:39 PM -0400 Lynda Terrill >> >> wrote: >> >> > >> > >> > Hi, John, >> > The research brief I downloaded at >> > >> http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/brief_strucker.pdf is >> > a two-pager that summarizes the findings about the errors >> related to the >> > native and nonnative speakers, but I don't see an appendix. If >> there is >> > a link to other information, please send, or I would appreciate a >> > photocopy. >> > >> > Thanks so much. >> > >> > Lynda Terrill >> > Technical Assistance and Web Coordinator >> > Center for Adult English Language Acquisition >> > Center for Applied Linguistics >> > 4646 40th St, NW >> > Washington, DC 20016 >> > lterrill at cal.org >> > 202-362-0700 >> > >> > >> > >> > __________________________________________________ >> > From: struckjo at gse.harvard.edu on behalf of john strucker >> > Sent: Tue 5/23/2006 3:17 PM >> > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; Lynda Terrill; specialtopics- >> bounces at nifl.gov> Subject: Re: [SpecialTopics 10] Patterns of Word >> Recognition Errors >> > >> > >> > >> > Hi Lynda, >> > At least in the hard copy version, Ros and I gave >> examples of >> > readers' >> > errors - possibly in the appendix. If the version you have >> doesn't have >> > these example, call or email us and we'll send you a photocopy. >> > Best, >> > John >> > >> > --On Monday, May 22, 2006 3:01 PM -0400 Lynda Terrill >> > wrote: >> > >> >> >> >> Hi, David, Rosalind, and John, >> >> >> >> I read Rosalind and John's NCSALL Research Brief "Patterns of Word >> >> Recognition Errors Among Adult Basic Education Native and Nonnative >> >> Speakers of English" (available on the NCSALL Web site). >> Because I have >> >> taught reading to both native and nonnative speakers, I have a >> sense of >> >> the differences in the errors, but I wonder if you could give some >> >> comparative examples of the word recognition errors for each group? >> >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> >> >> Lynda Terrill >> >> lterrill at cal.org >> > >> > >> > >> > John Strucker, EdD >> > Nichols House 303 >> > Harvard Graduate School of Education >> > 7 Appian Way >> > Cambridge, MA 02138 >> > >> > 617 495 4745 >> > 617 495 4811 (fax) >> >> >> >> John Strucker, EdD >> Nichols House 303 >> Harvard Graduate School of Education >> 7 Appian Way >> Cambridge, MA 02138 >> >> 617 495 4745 >> 617 495 4811 (fax) >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Fri May 26 13:13:11 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 13:13:11 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 54] Re: Flurry of Questions about the ARCS In-Reply-To: <889B247F-DFC0-4ED6-A8B1-7F1B24939D99@weallcanread.com> References: <889B247F-DFC0-4ED6-A8B1-7F1B24939D99@weallcanread.com> Message-ID: <3EF8B84416476026D26BE1B9@nichols303> Hi Jim, Not much to add except to commend you for your work with adults and adolescents and your point about computer-based print skills programs. There are a number of really good ones on the market now, including some that come with relatively low-cost teacher training. A few of these are being tested in research programs now. Of course, the most severely reading disabled adults require a human teacher or tutor in addition to such programs, but a well-designed computer phonics and word recognition programs could help to offset gaps in teacher training. Again, great point. Thanks for making it! --On Wednesday, May 24, 2006 1:38 PM -0400 Jim Williams wrote: > Thank you for this valuable discussion. I would like to comment on > an E-mail posted earlier from Stephanie Korber. Specifically she > referred to the fact that it is most difficult to implement certain > aspects of reading instruction when faced with a limited budget > along with a staff of teachers and volunteers who are often not > trained nor comfortable teaching phonemic awareness, phonics and > fluency instruction. I have struggled for years with this issue. I am > a former English teacher and remedial reading teacher at an inner- > city high school in Atlanta, Georgia. For years I also operated a > reading clinic during after-school hours. Older students and adults > with basic reading skill deficiencies often require huge amounts of > time to master basic skills. Meeting once or twice a week with a > tutor is a very long, arduous, and uncertain path in terms of the > student ever becoming an independent reader. > > Teachers in the upper grades and adult literacy instructors usually > do not have a background in teaching phonemic awareness, phonics and > fluency instruction. Reading specialists do, but there are few of > them available in many programs. So many teachers/tutors avoid an > area they don't feel comfortable addressing, and instead of focusing > on basic skill instruction instead focus upon teaching comprehension > strategies instead. But the research is clear that in fact if these > struggling students are ever to become independent readers, then they > require mastery in the basic skills mentioned above. As the ARCS > study indicates, adults reading below the GED level seem to freeze at > somewhere in the middle school years which tends to be the very point > schools quit focusing upon learning to read and instead focus upon > reading to learn. Adults who continue to struggle as readers need > intensive, systematic, and direct instruction. And yet because of the > time involved to provide this intensive remediation, and the lack of > training teachers and volunteers receive, often this critical area is > neglected. > > Fortunately the solution is available now with technology. Print and > audio lessons which teach phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency > for adults can be found online. Students are able to work > independently at a computer or in conjunction with a teacher/tutor. A > computer-based method of delivery, when offered at a price that is > within an organization's budget, enables virtually any organization > to teach effectively critical reading skills to students while at the > same time providing a method whereby staff can receive training as well. > > Without direct access to online learning or perhaps a video-based > format of instruction, the kind of intensive training which is > required to train staff and to teach basic reading skills to students > is simply outside the economic reach of many organizations, > particularly adult literacy organizations who rely heavily upon > volunteer tutors. I can think of no other effective and sustainable > solution to this issue than a computer-based model of delivering > instruction. > > Jim Williams > Email address: jw at weallcanread.com > Web address: www.weallcanread.com > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Fri May 26 13:23:49 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 13:23:49 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 55] Re: professional development using the ARCS website In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hey Bill, Glad you mentioned your FBOP teacher training. You were one of the first to use the ARCS findings as a basis for teacher training, way back in 2001. I'm glad to hear the Bureau is still using your training. Best, John --On Thursday, May 25, 2006 8:21 PM -0400 "William R Muth/FS/VCU" wrote: > > We designed a "front end" module to introduce Federal Bureau of Prisons > (FBOP) teachers to the ARCS website/course. The module was taught in real > time through CENTRA (a distance training platform), and we provided > participants (from around the country) with FBOP training credit. The > module presented some reading theory (e.g., Marilyn Adams' 4 Processors > Model), and tied this to ARCS terminology (e.g., print skills, meaning > skills). We cited John Strucker's 'Why Silent Reading Comprehension > Scores Are Not Enough" article, and provided examples of clusters I found > in my ARCS dissertation study of literacy learners in federal prisons. > The session ended with an overview of Ros' on-line course. The training > took about 90 minutes, and I think we conducted four sessions, reaching > about 80 teachers in all. After this, teachers were encouraged to take > the on-line course. We credited teachers with course completions when > they (a) conducted ARCS tests on a student, (b) submitted scores to the > website, and (c) printed out the profile/results. Since I have retired > from the FBOP, I do not have staff completion data, but I do know that we > (opps, 'they') are now incorporating ARCS training in our face-to-face > training for all new teachers entering the Bureau. > Bill > > > William R. Muth, PhD > Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy > Virginia Commonwealth University > (804) 828-8768 > > > > David Rosen > Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > > 05/25/2006 05:29 PM > > Please respond to > specialtopics at nifl.gov > > > To specialtopics at nifl.gov > > cc > > Subject [SpecialTopics 42] Re: professional development using the ARCS > website > > > > > > Thanks, Jane. I wonder if anyone else in this discussion has used > the ARCS Web site and/or a study circle model using the ARCS Web site > or other ARCS materials. If so, please tell us about your experience. > > Also, if anyone has questions for Jane or Ros about the use of the > ARCS Web site, please ask them now. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > On May 25, 2006, at 2:06 PM, Jane Meyer wrote: > >> David suggested that I tell a bit about how we used the ARCS >> website for >> professional development in our ABE program in Canton, Ohio. First I >> explored the website myself and then, at a staff meeting, I told the >> teachers about the site highlighting some features that I thought >> might >> be of particular interest to them. I offered to pay them if they >> wanted >> to explore the website for a professional development activity. I >> set a >> meeting date about a month away for those who had explored the website >> to discuss what they had found and how it could be useful to them as >> well as ask any questions. The teachers loved using the website for >> professional development because it was so convenient and the format >> worked great for us because I had staff with various levels of >> knowledge >> about reading. The website allowed those who needed basic information >> to get it without holding those back who had more knowledge and were >> ready to go deeper. It has been a while, but I remember the >> discussion >> about the site being quite rich. >> Jane Meyer >> Canton City Schools >> Canton, Ohio >> meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From djrosen at comcast.net Fri May 26 14:24:14 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 14:24:14 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 56] Two other online discussions of teaching reading Message-ID: <367EE924-5DCA-4AEE-B084-45417F522E01@comcast.net> Colleagues, I would like to call your attention to two other online discussions of teaching reading to adults which may be of interest: 1) On the Englsh Language discussion list a discussion has begun today on teaching reading to adult English language learners. To subscribe and join in, go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage 2) From June 12-16 on the Focus on Basics Discussion List Alisa Belzer will discuss her articles: Influences on the Reading Practices of Adults in ABE http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=1108 and Learners on Learning to Read http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=1110 To subscribe and join in, go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/focusonbasics David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From SMonti at ccbcmd.edu Fri May 26 14:25:47 2006 From: SMonti at ccbcmd.edu (Monti, Suzi) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 14:25:47 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 57] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing Message-ID: <9D909391CB025945BDA19A90B940A0B6020EDA50@ccbc-de.ccbc.ccbcmd.edu> Hi, I have been looking for an answer to the very solid ESOL-related questions raised by this post. Perhaps I have missed the response. I am especially interested in the question raised concerning whether the tests mentioned in the study were normed for a non-native speaking population (a validity/reliability issue). I am also interested in what impact lack of cultural reference/schema as well as other ESOL issues may have had on the results. Finally, of course there is the issue of a native/non-native speaker's natural approach/bent (whether they tend to be top-down or bottom-up in thinking) and what impact that may have on his/her approach to reading. Suzi Monti TESOL Instructor - Maryland Bible College and Seminary, International Institute of Linguistics ESOL Curriculum Developer, Instructional Specialist, and Intake Asssessment Specialist - Community College of Baltimore County, Center for Adult and Family Literacy -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Nicole Graves Sent: Wednesday May 24, 2006 9:06 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 32] ESOL diagnostic testing Hi John and Ros, I find the discussions most interesting. Thank you! I teach adult ESOL. Previously, I worked as a special education teacher and as a reading teacher (children). Several of our learners are non-readers or struggling readers. I'm currently teaching a beginning level ESOL group and an ESOL/literacy class. We formed the Lit class based on needs of the students: high level speakers, non- or low-reading level, no or very low -level in writing. What diagnostic tests would you suggest for this population in order to find strenghts and instructional needs? Wouldn't tests normed on a population of native speakers be somewhat inaccurate for ESOL learners? Depending on the native language, I can see that in certain cases some tests might work fairly well. But what of others with different alphabets and different ways? Chinese learners do not sound out words. Russians do not actually spell words, etc. Thanks again. Nicole B. Graves Teacher/ESOL Program Coordinator The Center for New Americans Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton, MA -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060526/a935ec17/attachment.html From Sharon.T.Miller at nhmccd.edu Fri May 26 15:02:31 2006 From: Sharon.T.Miller at nhmccd.edu (Miller, Sharon T (Cy-Fair)) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 14:02:31 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 58] Re: ARCS Discussion References: <85F6F5CE-5C73-41B1-A0A7-D2D779598181@comcast.net> Message-ID: <51C018635065444FA9BC4B3AD52668010B43A6DF@DIS-MAIL.nhmccd.net> David, I am enjoying this discussion very much. Once we have identified our low level readers, we would like to have some online resources to use for remediation in addition to working with one on one literacy tutors. If we can identify a large enough population, we will create one or more classes. Can you recommend materials that can be used for remediation? Sharon Miller Professor of Transitional English Cy-Fair College ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Fri 5/26/2006 10:46 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 49] ARCS Discussion Dear colleague, I would like to invite those who have not yet asked a question, as well as those who already have, to post your questions or observations now. Our discussion will end after next Tuesday, so now would be a good time to join in. I would like to hear from everyone, but especially from teachers who have used the ARCS Web site or who are thinking of using it. What are your thoughts, questions, concerns? If you have used it, what have you found rewarding or challenging? For those who haven't had time to dig in to this yet, we have a long weekend coming up, so perhaps it will give you time to do the background reading or watch the video and to then to take advantage this opportunity before the discussion ends on Wednesday. And a more general question, since one of the purposes of the Special Topics list is to help practitioners benefit from research through discussion with researchers, what are your thoughts about how we can do that better, that is, better meet your needs as a teacher who wants to know more about research? All the best, David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 5104 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060526/6b9ee069/attachment.bin From atrawick at charter.net Fri May 26 15:10:20 2006 From: atrawick at charter.net (Amy Trawick) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 15:10:20 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 59] ARCS questions-Comprehension References: <1148585478.4476060643f09@webmail.znet.net> <09838E222E3F1F4F34F52758@nichols303> Message-ID: <00ce01c680f8$08b76800$0301a8c0@AMY> Thank you, John and Ros for the wonderful resource of the ARCS website and for this opportunity to ask questions. My questions have mainly to do with comprehension, and the quotes in my message come from the silent reading comprehension page of the mini-course. 1) On the website, you say, "There are other subskills of reading comprehension that require knowledge of the structure of language (compound and complex sentences, paragraphs, stories and informational text), and the ability to interact with text (metacognition) by assuming some responsibility for understanding the author's message. Many ABE learners have to learn "how" to comprehend. Teachers address these issues through instruction in reading comprehension strategies." Yet, I notice that you did not include assessments that measure *use of comprehension strategies* in the battery of assessments. Could you please talk a little bit about your reasons for this? In other words, were there logistical concerns or research-based/theoretical concerns--or both? 2) This statement appears on the website: "Explicit instruction in comprehension strategies should begin when a learner has acquired sufficient word recognition mastery, usually no sooner than low intermediate level, GE 3. Beginning readers are focused on word analysis and recognition within simple text that does not require strategies for understanding." Whereas I agree for the most part with this statement, I think that, since we are working with adults, there might be a caveat here. As adults, these readers often need to address real-life reading tasks (reading labels, filling out simple forms, paying bills) that, if they use some simple comprehension strategies (attending to text formatting/structure, scanning for key words, thinking about what they know), they can accomplish simple but important reading purposes with texts that are written above their reading level. I'm thinking here, for example, of reading to understand a utility bill. A utility bill can be difficult to read from beginning to end, but if you just want to know how much you owe and when it's due, a low-level reader can read for that purpose--if they know some basic comprehension strategies and are able to integrate this with their alphabetics and vocabulary knowledge. Do you have any philosophical problem with incorporating comprehension strategies of this type into a curriculum for beginning readers, as long as due attention is also paid to building the underlying skills in alphabetics, fluency, and vocabulary? Thank you! Amy From davidsro at gse.harvard.edu Fri May 26 17:54:34 2006 From: davidsro at gse.harvard.edu (rosalind davidson) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 17:54:34 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 59] Re: ARCS Mini-course - "whole word" approach deprecated Message-ID: <99FD263367E57AB1F96AB103@Nic2-2> Hello John, You are right in pointing out the need to teach systematic decoding as the basic approach to figuring out unfamiliar words. But, yes, John and I do teach our graduate students to assess their learners' immediate recognition of the most frequent words and, if necessary, teach those basic sight words to those who are reading below fifth grade level. These are really not contradictory methods if we know that the one (whole word recognition)is just a 'temporary fix' that enables adults to get going in reading text and the other (systematic phonics)is a 'permanent fix' - one they can count on- to help them read at higher levels. The emphasis of word recognition instruction is always on systematic phonics. Harris and Sipay define our understanding of sight words --"Sight vocabulary includes all the words we recognize immediately. The words may have been learned originally through whole word,phonics, or any other instructional approach", "How to Increase Reading Ability", New York:Longman You cite the success of 300 normally achieving children using Hepplewhite's synthetic phonics that teaches the sounds of all possible combination of letters beginning with the smallest units and progressing to longer words and sentences. I wonder how applicable this method is to adult readers many of whom have not progressed normally through the stages of reading. They do have some skills, but their abilities are uneven. This is why John and I have emphasized the need for diagnostic testing through our ARCS study, because with assessment teachers can determine which elements of phonics, vocabulary, comprehension strategies are most in need of strengthening. There are significant differences in teaching adults and children. Time to devote to improving their reading in the classroom (or online) is just one. Here's to systematic phonics instruction! Ros --On Wednesday, May 03, 2006 4:19 PM +0100 John Nissen wrote: > > Hello all, > > I have just subscribed to this new list, and could only see a single > message so far - a test message. To get the ball rolling, I had a look > at the ARCS mini-course, to see how it squared up with experience in the > UK. > > I am concerned by advocacy for teaching whole word recognition on the > "Sight words" page: > http://www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles/MC_Sight_Words.htm > But in this same page there is this telling passage: > > [quote] > Because most adult poor readers have difficulty with letter-sound skills, > they tend to use a whole word recognition approach much more than do > children who are reading at the same level.RR Whole word recognition only > works if the words are mastered sight words. The result of continued > reliance on whole word "recognition" instead of phonetic skills when > decoding unfamiliar words is guessing and misreading. > [end quote] > > I agree with that deduction. Moreover I claim that teaching letter-sound > skills to adults, as for children, means no effort need be spent on > whole word recognition! The teaching of whole word recognition as an > approach was in the now deprecated Searchlights model of the UK National > Literacy Strategy. It leads indeed to much guesswork and error. It has > no doubt contributed to the failure of 20% children to learn to read. On > the other hand, experience with teaching synthetic phonics shows that > rapid recognition of whole words arises naturally from rapid decoding > which gradually increases automaticity. The use of multiple modalities > should be applied to the phonics instruction that gives the rapid > decoding ability, rather than to whole word recognition as ARCS proposes. > > > Synthetic phonics, with multimodal techniques, was used in the > Clackmannanshire study, where all 300 children were taught to read > successfully in a few months, and by the end of Primary School their > average reading age was over three years ahead of their chronological > reading age. This result has caused the government to change tack on > literacy, and advocate the introduction of synthetic phonics "first and > fast" in all primary schools. > > Cheers from Chiswick, > > John > > John Nissen > Cloudworld Ltd - http://www.cloudworld.co.uk > http://www.cloudworld.co.uk/teaching-synthetic-phonics.htm > Tel: +44 208 742 3170 Fax: +44 208 742 0202 > Email: info at cloudworld.co.uk > > > From wrmuth at vcu.edu Fri May 26 18:35:34 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Fri, 26 May 2006 18:35:34 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 60] Re: professional development using the ARCS we bsite In-Reply-To: <221E918332E818488687199E5CBD74CE041CB354@keats.proliteracy.org> Message-ID: Hi Jane - We did discuss ways that teachers could organize and group learners based on ARCS profiles, and why seemingly homogeneous groups (based on ABLE or TABE comprehension scores) were likely to be anything but homogeneous. But we also worked on policy to redefine the way we defined literacy levels and criteria based on component scores. It's the old circus tent analogy: many poles have to go up at the same time - staff development, policy, information management system, curricula...and, oh yeah, budget...:) You're right -- buy in from the administration is essential. Best regards, Bill William R. Muth, PhD Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy Virginia Commonwealth University (804) 828-8768 jgreiner Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 05/26/2006 12:54 PM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To "'specialtopics at nifl.gov'" cc Subject [SpecialTopics 51] Re: professional development using the ARCS we bsite Thanks Bill. I'm wondering if your front end module approached the issue of how learners are organized (either in the actual module, or in convesations leading up to it). Does anyone else have ideas about how to involve program administrators in these discussions. Jane, maybe this was part of your study circle? Or is it more important to support widespread acceptance and use of the ARCS among teachers first? Thanks, Jane Jane Greiner Training Coordinator ProLiteracy America ProLiteracy Worldwide 1320 Jamesville Avenue Syracuse, NY 13210 (315) 422-9121 Ext. 283 Fax (315) 422-6369 jgreiner at proliteracy.org www.proliteracy.org -----Original Message----- From: William R Muth/FS/VCU [mailto:wrmuth at vcu.edu] Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 8:22 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 43] Re: professional development using the ARCS website We designed a "front end" module to introduce Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) teachers to the ARCS website/course. The module was taught in real time through CENTRA (a distance training platform), and we provided participants (from around the country) with FBOP training credit. The module presented some reading theory (e.g., Marilyn Adams' 4 Processors Model), and tied this to ARCS terminology (e.g., print skills, meaning skills). We cited John Strucker's 'Why Silent Reading Comprehension Scores Are Not Enough" article, and provided examples of clusters I found in my ARCS dissertation study of literacy learners in federal prisons. The session ended with an overview of Ros' on-line course. The training took about 90 minutes, and I think we conducted four sessions, reaching about 80 teachers in all. After this, teachers were encouraged to take the on-line course. We credited teachers with course completions when they (a) conducted ARCS tests on a student, (b) submitted scores to the website, and (c) printed out the profile/results. Since I have retired from the FBOP, I do not have staff completion data, but I do know that we (opps, 'they') are now incorporating ARCS training in our face-to-face training for all new teachers entering the Bureau. Bill William R. Muth, PhD Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy Virginia Commonwealth University (804) 828-8768------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060526/2b2ab424/attachment.html From sreid at workbase.org.nz Sat May 27 18:17:32 2006 From: sreid at workbase.org.nz (Susan Reid) Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 10:17:32 +1200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 61] Re: ARCS questions-Comprehension Message-ID: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E23BF3E@secure.workbase.org.nz> Thank you for a very interesting discussion Just a comment to support what Amy is saying about comprehension strategies In New Zealand our teaching of reading has been influenced by Freebody and Liuke's four reader roles ( lately collapsed into 3 ) code breaker, meaning maker or participant, text user and text analyst - the roles are not linear - see http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm http://www.alea.edu.au/docs/ludwig.pdf http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm Certainly in the work I have done with lower level readers a number are already at some level of the text analyst stage even though they may not have the full range of codebreakling skills I presume that what you refer to on the website is explicit teaching of a range of comprehension strategies At Workbase one of my colleagues Trisha Hanifin who I know is following this discussion led the development of a course on How to teach reading to adults. Trisha and another colleague Ginnie Denny deliver this course three times a year to a range of adult literacy tutors. As a result of feedback about what tutors want to learn about now Trisha is currently working on a one day workshop on Comprehension Strategies to provide more depth to those covered in the Reading Course Regards Susan Reid Manager, Professional Development Workbase NZ Centre for Workforce Literacy Development www.workbase.org.nz also see New Zealand Literacy Portal www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Amy Trawick Sent: Sat 27/05/2006 7:10 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 59] ARCS questions-Comprehension Thank you, John and Ros for the wonderful resource of the ARCS website and for this opportunity to ask questions. My questions have mainly to do with comprehension, and the quotes in my message come from the silent reading comprehension page of the mini-course. 1) On the website, you say, "There are other subskills of reading comprehension that require knowledge of the structure of language (compound and complex sentences, paragraphs, stories and informational text), and the ability to interact with text (metacognition) by assuming some responsibility for understanding the author's message. Many ABE learners have to learn "how" to comprehend. Teachers address these issues through instruction in reading comprehension strategies." Yet, I notice that you did not include assessments that measure *use of comprehension strategies* in the battery of assessments. Could you please talk a little bit about your reasons for this? In other words, were there logistical concerns or research-based/theoretical concerns--or both? 2) This statement appears on the website: "Explicit instruction in comprehension strategies should begin when a learner has acquired sufficient word recognition mastery, usually no sooner than low intermediate level, GE 3. Beginning readers are focused on word analysis and recognition within simple text that does not require strategies for understanding." Whereas I agree for the most part with this statement, I think that, since we are working with adults, there might be a caveat here. As adults, these readers often need to address real-life reading tasks (reading labels, filling out simple forms, paying bills) that, if they use some simple comprehension strategies (attending to text formatting/structure, scanning for key words, thinking about what they know), they can accomplish simple but important reading purposes with texts that are written above their reading level. I'm thinking here, for example, of reading to understand a utility bill. A utility bill can be difficult to read from beginning to end, but if you just want to know how much you owe and when it's due, a low-level reader can read for that purpose--if they know some basic comprehension strategies and are able to integrate this with their alphabetics and vocabulary knowledge. Do you have any philosophical problem with incorporating comprehension strategies of this type into a curriculum for beginning readers, as long as due attention is also paid to building the underlying skills in alphabetics, fluency, and vocabulary? Thank you! Amy ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060528/8083e04b/attachment.html From mathewssb at earthlink.net Sun May 28 11:38:58 2006 From: mathewssb at earthlink.net (Sarae Mathews) Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 10:38:58 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 62] Oral reading rate tests Message-ID: I'm enjoying this dialogue very much. Next week, I start as a new ABE instructor at a community college in north Florida. I would like to use the interactive profile on the website. Between results from students' TABE and the sample QARI word recognition test and WMT on the website, I'll have all the requisite components except an oral reading rate test. Does anyone have a set of graded passages they can share electronically? Thanks, it would sure help. Sunny Mathews, Ed.D. FCCJ-South Jacksonville, FL From phanifin at workbase.org.nz Sun May 28 18:26:17 2006 From: phanifin at workbase.org.nz (Trisha Hanifin) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 10:26:17 +1200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 63] Re: ARCS questions-Comprehension Message-ID: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E0AA812@secure.workbase.org.nz> Further to Susan's comments and other comments about teaching comprehension: there's an old saying I'm aware of about adult literacy learners (not sure where it came from originally but it might be from Jane Mace) that an adult beginning reader is not (necessarily) a beginning thinker. Freebody and Luke's roles acknowledge this as do other perspectives on the importance of developing and using critical thinking and critical reading skills and strategies with adults even when code-breaking skills might be weak. This is not to suggest that working at word level with learners isn't crucial but I can't see that it's useful for an adult learner to wait until they can decode entirely independently before they use and extend their range of comprehension strategies. I'm also interested in whether people think there are overlaps - in terms of teaching comprehension strategies to adults- between listening comprehension and reading comprehension? Enjoying the discussion very much. Thank-you. Trisha Hanifin Professional Development Coordinator Workbase NZ Centre for Workforce Literacy Development -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Susan Reid Sent: Sunday, 28 May 2006 10:18 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 61] Re: ARCS questions-Comprehension Thank you for a very interesting discussion Just a comment to support what Amy is saying about comprehension strategies In New Zealand our teaching of reading has been influenced by Freebody and Liuke's four reader roles ( lately collapsed into 3 ) code breaker, meaning maker or participant, text user and text analyst - the roles are not linear - see http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm http://www.alea.edu.au/docs/ludwig.pdf http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm Certainly in the work I have done with lower level readers a number are already at some level of the text analyst stage even though they may not have the full range of codebreakling skills I presume that what you refer to on the website is explicit teaching of a range of comprehension strategies At Workbase one of my colleagues Trisha Hanifin who I know is following this discussion led the development of a course on How to teach reading to adults. Trisha and another colleague Ginnie Denny deliver this course three times a year to a range of adult literacy tutors. As a result of feedback about what tutors want to learn about now Trisha is currently working on a one day workshop on Comprehension Strategies to provide more depth to those covered in the Reading Course Regards Susan Reid Manager, Professional Development Workbase NZ Centre for Workforce Literacy Development www.workbase.org.nz also see New Zealand Literacy Portal www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Amy Trawick Sent: Sat 27/05/2006 7:10 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 59] ARCS questions-Comprehension Thank you, John and Ros for the wonderful resource of the ARCS website and for this opportunity to ask questions. My questions have mainly to do with comprehension, and the quotes in my message come from the silent reading comprehension page of the mini-course. 1) On the website, you say, "There are other subskills of reading comprehension that require knowledge of the structure of language (compound and complex sentences, paragraphs, stories and informational text), and the ability to interact with text (metacognition) by assuming some responsibility for understanding the author's message. Many ABE learners have to learn "how" to comprehend. Teachers address these issues through instruction in reading comprehension strategies." Yet, I notice that you did not include assessments that measure *use of comprehension strategies* in the battery of assessments. Could you please talk a little bit about your reasons for this? In other words, were there logistical concerns or research-based/theoretical concerns--or both? 2) This statement appears on the website: "Explicit instruction in comprehension strategies should begin when a learner has acquired sufficient word recognition mastery, usually no sooner than low intermediate level, GE 3. Beginning readers are focused on word analysis and recognition within simple text that does not require strategies for understanding." Whereas I agree for the most part with this statement, I think that, since we are working with adults, there might be a caveat here. As adults, these readers often need to address real-life reading tasks (reading labels, filling out simple forms, paying bills) that, if they use some simple comprehension strategies (attending to text formatting/structure, scanning for key words, thinking about what they know), they can accomplish simple but important reading purposes with texts that are written above their reading level. I'm thinking here, for example, of reading to understand a utility bill. A utility bill can be difficult to read from beginning to end, but if you just want to know how much you owe and when it's due, a low-level reader can read for that purpose--if they know some basic comprehension strategies and are able to integrate this with their alphabetics and vocabulary knowledge. Do you have any philosophical problem with incorporating comprehension strategies of this type into a curriculum for beginning readers, as long as due attention is also paid to building the underlying skills in alphabetics, fluency, and vocabulary? Thank you! Amy ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060529/05313fac/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Mon May 29 13:46:54 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Mon, 29 May 2006 13:46:54 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 64] ARCS questions: Listening and Reading Comprehension Message-ID: <20AE9B68-FB18-49D9-8596-DF5A77FD2515@comcast.net> From: tsticht at znet.com Subject: ARCS questions: Listening and Reading Comprehension Date: May 29, 2006 12:12:44 PM EDT David: Please post this information for Trisha Hanifin who asked about relationships among listening and reading comprehension. The following book has extensive information on these relationships and can be downloaded for free at the addresses given. Thanks, Tom Sticht Auding and reading: A developmental model - Tom Sticht - 1974 (US) Although this book was written in 1974 it is still seen as the most significant contribution made on reading and listening. It is the first book applying modern cognitive science to literacy development with children and adults. Author: Tom Sticht, Lawrence Beck, Robert Hauke, Glenn Kleiman and James James Organisation: NALD Organisation Web Address: http://www.nald.ca Website Address: http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/aar/aar.pdf Download address: http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/aar/aar.pdf From phanifin at workbase.org.nz Mon May 29 17:16:33 2006 From: phanifin at workbase.org.nz (Trisha Hanifin) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 09:16:33 +1200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 65] Re: ARCS questions: Listening and ReadingComprehension Message-ID: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E0AA816@secure.workbase.org.nz> Thank-you very much Tom. Much appreciated. Trisha Hanifin -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Tuesday, 30 May 2006 5:47 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 64] ARCS questions: Listening and ReadingComprehension From: tsticht at znet.com Subject: ARCS questions: Listening and Reading Comprehension Date: May 29, 2006 12:12:44 PM EDT David: Please post this information for Trisha Hanifin who asked about relationships among listening and reading comprehension. The following book has extensive information on these relationships and can be downloaded for free at the addresses given. Thanks, Tom Sticht Auding and reading: A developmental model - Tom Sticht - 1974 (US) Although this book was written in 1974 it is still seen as the most significant contribution made on reading and listening. It is the first book applying modern cognitive science to literacy development with children and adults. Author: Tom Sticht, Lawrence Beck, Robert Hauke, Glenn Kleiman and James James Organisation: NALD Organisation Web Address: http://www.nald.ca Website Address: http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/aar/aar.pdf Download address: http://www.nald.ca/fulltext/sticht/aar/aar.pdf ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Tue May 30 08:51:26 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 08:51:26 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 66] Questions for ARCS Participants Message-ID: Colleagues, Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 31st, will be the last day to post questions for John and Ros about the ARCS. The questions, comments and suggested resources so far have been great. I hope there are more. I have two questions for participants: 1. Which preparation materials for this discussion did you find especially useful? Would you recommend any of these to your colleagues? If so, which ones? (see below for a list of materials.) 2. Would you like to have the whole discussion archived (on the National institute for Adult Literacy LINCS web site or on the Adult Literacy Education Wiki -- or both)? You could reply to the list -- specialtopics at nifl.gov -- or by e- mail to me at djrosen at comcast.net Here's a list of the introductory materials: 1. 30-minute video panel discussion with ARCS researchers Rosalind Davidson and John Strucker, and practitioners Kay Vaccaro and Jane Meyer at http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/20040204/webcast02-04.html This video panel introduction is also available on DVD from the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy [ http:// www.ncsall.net/?id=24 ] or from the National Institute for Literacy. (Send a request for the Adult Readiing Components Study (ARCS) Panel (free) DVD to: info at nifl.gov Be sure to include your mailing address.) 2. "What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can't Tell You", the precursor to the website that will be discussed. http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=456 3. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) [PDF document] by John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27 (ninth item down) 4. How the ARCS Was Done http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/op_arcs.pdf 5. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27#arcs David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From scarlisle at midco.net Tue May 30 09:15:24 2006 From: scarlisle at midco.net (Sue Carlisle) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 08:15:24 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 67] Re: Questions for ARCS Participants In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <000d01c683eb$1cfaceb0$190ac90a@EXPLORIT2> It would be most helpful if you could archive the discussion on National institute for Adult Literacy LINCS web site. Thank you. -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 7:51 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 66] Questions for ARCS Participants Colleagues, Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 31st, will be the last day to post questions for John and Ros about the ARCS. The questions, comments and suggested resources so far have been great. I hope there are more. I have two questions for participants: 1. Which preparation materials for this discussion did you find especially useful? Would you recommend any of these to your colleagues? If so, which ones? (see below for a list of materials.) 2. Would you like to have the whole discussion archived (on the National institute for Adult Literacy LINCS web site or on the Adult Literacy Education Wiki -- or both)? You could reply to the list -- specialtopics at nifl.gov -- or by e- mail to me at djrosen at comcast.net Here's a list of the introductory materials: 1. 30-minute video panel discussion with ARCS researchers Rosalind Davidson and John Strucker, and practitioners Kay Vaccaro and Jane Meyer at http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/20040204/webcast02-04.html This video panel introduction is also available on DVD from the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy [ http:// www.ncsall.net/?id=24 ] or from the National Institute for Literacy. (Send a request for the Adult Readiing Components Study (ARCS) Panel (free) DVD to: info at nifl.gov Be sure to include your mailing address.) 2. "What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can't Tell You", the precursor to the website that will be discussed. http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=456 3. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) [PDF document] by John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27 (ninth item down) 4. How the ARCS Was Done http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/op_arcs.pdf 5. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27#arcs David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From tamill2 at uky.edu Tue May 30 09:07:23 2006 From: tamill2 at uky.edu (Toni-Ann Mills) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 09:07:23 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 68] Re: Questions for ARCS Participants In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6.0.1.1.2.20060530090444.01c1ae50@pop.uky.edu> This has been a very informative discussion with wonderful questions posed and in-depth answers provided. Please archive the material on both sites. This would be a great extended reading when using ARCS as part of professional development. Toni-Ann At 08:51 AM 5/30/2006, you wrote: >Colleagues, > >Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 31st, will be the last day to post questions >for John and Ros about the ARCS. The questions, comments and >suggested resources so far have been great. I hope there are more. > >I have two questions for participants: > >1. Which preparation materials for this discussion did you find >especially useful? Would you recommend any of these to your >colleagues? If so, which ones? (see below for a list of materials.) > >2. Would you like to have the whole discussion archived (on the >National institute for Adult Literacy LINCS web site or on the Adult >Literacy Education Wiki -- or both)? > >You could reply to the list -- specialtopics at nifl.gov -- or by e- >mail to me at djrosen at comcast.net > >Here's a list of the introductory materials: > >1. 30-minute video panel discussion with ARCS researchers Rosalind >Davidson and John Strucker, and practitioners Kay Vaccaro and Jane >Meyer at > >http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/20040204/webcast02-04.html > >This video panel introduction is also available on DVD from the >National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy [ http:// >www.ncsall.net/?id=24 ] or from the National Institute for Literacy. >(Send a request for the Adult Readiing Components Study (ARCS) Panel >(free) DVD to: info at nifl.gov Be sure to include your mailing >address.) > >2. "What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can't Tell You", the precursor to >the website that will be discussed. >http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=456 > >3. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) [PDF document] by John >Strucker and Rosalind Davidson >http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27 (ninth item down) > >4. How the ARCS Was Done >http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/op_arcs.pdf > >5. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) >http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27#arcs > > >David J. Rosen >Special Topics discussion List Moderator >djrosen at comcast.net > > > >------------------------------- >National Institute for Literacy >Special Topics mailing list >SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From davidsro at gse.harvard.edu Tue May 30 10:16:32 2006 From: davidsro at gse.harvard.edu (rosalind davidson) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 10:16:32 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 69] Re: question In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <76940682518E918434AAA16F@[192.168.1.103]> Hi Barb, You can find a list on the ARCS website of the specific tests we gave for the ARCS study. http://www.nifl.gov/readingprofiles John and I trained teachers to give the assessments at each of the 21 sites but, for privacy reasons, none of the examiners was assigned to test where they also taught. You can read all about how we gave the ARCS in "How the ARCS Was Done" which can be downloaded as a pdf file from http://www.ncsall.net. Just type in the title on the search button on the home page. Let us know if the above documents do not answer your specific questions. Best, Ros --On Monday, May 22, 2006 5:48 PM -0400 bgiven at gmu.edu wrote: > This may be a bit premature, but I'd like to know more about the specific > assessment tools used for ARCS and what the training was for teachers who > administered them. Or did a trained psychometrician conduct the > assessments? Thanks, barb given > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Tue May 30 11:36:14 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 11:36:14 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 70] Re: ARCS question Message-ID: <219A28DD-9EAE-4565-8509-43C2BFF640A5@comcast.net> Posted for Rosalind Davidson by David J. Rosen: From: rosalind davidson Date: May 30, 2006 10:59:48 AM EDT To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: Re: [SpecialTopics 15] ARCS question Hi Gail, I'm going to interface responses to your questions in upper case - --On Tuesday, May 23, 2006 10:09 AM -0400 Gail Price wrote: > As an adult education instructor in both a lab setting and a > homogeneous > (based on TABE scores) classroom setting, I am concerned with the > application of the ARCS recommendations in these settings, so my > questions may seem a little more specific than others that have been > posted thus far. > > After doing initial assessments and using those figures in the > "Match a > Profile" section, the profile could indicate that a student needs more > instruction in phonemic awareness and/or phonological awareness. You > recommend using the Test of Auditory Analysis Skills (TAAS) and the > Woodcock Reading Mastery Test-Revised to do further evaluation in > these > areas. > YOU CAN DOWNLOAD SYLVIA GREENE'S INFORMAL WORD ANALYSIS INVENTORY FROM THE ARCS WEBSITE. IT'S FREE AND WILL GIVE SIMILAR INFORMATION AS THE WOODCOCK. > If, for whatever reason (cost, training, personnel), instructors do > not > have accessibility to these assessments, but want to move ahead with > their instruction, what materials or what instructional strategies do > you recommend they use to build students' phonemic awareness and > phonological awareness skills? YOU CAN VIEW THE DOCUMENT, "APPLYING RESEARCH IN READING INSTRUCTION FOR ADULTS", BY SUSAN MCSHANE AT: www.nifl.gov/partnershipforreading/publications/html/mcshane/ OR GET A COPY OF THE BOOK FROM SUSAN EVEN THOUGH MANY LEARNERS HAVE PHONOLOGICAL DIFFICULTIES AND ARE NOT FACILE IN ISOLATING SOUNDS (THE TASKS OF PHONEMIC PROCESSING), THE CONSCENSUS IN THE FIELD IS TO MOVE QUICKLY TO PHONICS BY ATTACHING THE SOUNDS TO THE LETTERS AND WORDS THEY REPRESENT. IN JOHN'S AND MY ADULT READING LAB, WE ENCOURAGE THE TEACHERS TO SPEND JUST A COUPLE OF MINUTES AT THE BEGINNING OF EACH LESSON WORKING ORALLY, CONCENTRATING ON SOUNDS, E.G., RHYMES, LISTING NAMES OR WORDS THAT BEGIN, OR END WITH A PARTICULAR SOUND, - ANY KIND OF GAME THAT GETS THE LEARNERS TUNED-IN TO THINKING ABOUT THE SOUNDS OF THE LANGUAGE BEFORE THEY DEAL WITH WRITTEN FORMS IN THE REMAINDER OF THE SESSION. > Some instructors may feel they do not have time to administer each > of the > assessments needed to provide scores for the "Match a Profile," but > think > they can use one or two to assess their students' needs. Do you > subscribe > to the "a little is better than none" idea? Which assessment(s) do you > think would prove most advantageous, beyond the silent reading > comprehension, to the greatest number of students??Word Recognition, > Spelling, Word Meaning or Oral Reading Rate? IF YOU ARE ONLY GOING TO ASSESS TWO SUB-SKILLS, TEST ISOLATED WORD RECOGNITION AND WORD MEANING. THAT'S THE BARE BONES OF READING ABILITY. HOWEVER, TAKING TIME TO DO THE FULL MODEST ASSESSMENT ON "MATCH A PROFILE" WILL SAVE TIME IN PLANNING INDIVIDUAL OR CLASS INSTRUCTION. ALTHOUGH HAVING A TEACHER ASSESS HER OWN STUDENTS IS BEST, VOLUNTEERS CAN ALSO ADMINISTER THESE TESTS - IF VOLUNTEERS RECORD RESPONSES, TEACHERS CAN EVALUATE A LEARNER'S PERFORMANCE OUTSIDE OF CLASS TIME. OR, VOLUNTEERS CAN BE TRAINED IN A MORNING TO ADMINISTER AND SCORE THESE FEW ASSESSMENTS. THANKS FOR WRITING - I HOPE MY REPONSE HAS BEEN HELPFUL ROS D. From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 30 11:34:28 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 11:34:28 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 71] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing In-Reply-To: <9D909391CB025945BDA19A90B940A0B6020EDA50@ccbc-de.ccbc.ccbcmd.edu> References: <9D909391CB025945BDA19A90B940A0B6020EDA50@ccbc-de.ccbc.ccbcmd.ed u> Message-ID: <02D825AE7FFE591793EB2ADD@nichols303> Hi Suzi, All students in ESOL classes, all non-native speakers of English in ABE classes, and all native speakers in ABE and ASE classes were assessed with the same battery of tests of English reading components. All of the English reading tests were designed to be used with adults and/or children, but not none were specifically normed on ESOL adults. But that was OK with Ros and me, because we primarily wanted to know about their various reading profiles in English reading. (As aside, my intuition tells me that it would be very difficult to norm an English reading test on all varieties of ESOL adults in such a way that would be useful to practitioners or even researchers. That is, given the diversity of ESOL students' native languages and native language literacy skills - not to mention cultural attitudes surrounding literacy, life experiences, etc. - it might make more sense to develop norms within specific language groups, so you'd be only be comparing Spanish speakers to Spanish speakers, Haitian Creole to Haitian Creole, etc. I'd be interested in other peoples' thoughts on this.) Back to the ARCS, all native speakers of Spanish, whether they were in ABE or ESOL classes, were also tested with the Woodcock-Munoz battery, which has been extensively normed on Spanish speakers from young children through adults. As for your question about "cultural references/schema", I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that. Maybe you could say more. But remember, all we were doing with ARCS was testing people in reading - how they were reading English (and or Spanish as discussed above) at the moment we showed up at their program. This was not a longitudinal study with pre and post measures where a number of other factors - including cultural factors - would indeed be expected to play a role in students' outcomes. In our extensive background questionnaire we did ask people about their childhood educational experience, literacy in native language as well as English, reading habits, parents' levels of education, reasons for attending adult education, health, family status, etc. We did this primarily to be able to talk about the wide diversity in the US ESOL population. And, wow, did we find diversity! --On Friday, May 26, 2006 2:25 PM -0400 "Monti, Suzi" wrote: > > Hi, > I have been looking for an answer to the very solid ESOL-related > questions raised by this post. Perhaps I have missed the response. I am > especially interested in the question raised concerning whether the tests > mentioned in the study were normed for a non-native speaking population > (a validity/reliability issue). I am also interested in what impact lack > of cultural reference/schema as well as other ESOL issues may have had on > the results. Finally, of course there is the issue of a native/non-native > speaker's natural approach/bent (whether they tend to be top-down or > bottom-up in thinking) and what impact that may have on his/her approach > to reading. > > Suzi Monti > > TESOL Instructor - Maryland Bible College and Seminary, International > Institute of Linguistics > > ESOL Curriculum Developer, Instructional Specialist, and Intake > Asssessment Specialist - Community College of Baltimore County, Center > for Adult and Family Literacy > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Nicole Graves > Sent: Wednesday May 24, 2006 9:06 PM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 32] ESOL diagnostic testing > > > > Hi John and Ros, > > I find the discussions most interesting. Thank you! > > I teach adult ESOL. Previously, I worked as a special education teacher > and as a reading teacher (children). Several of our learners are > non-readers or struggling readers. I'm currently teaching a beginning > level ESOL group and an ESOL/literacy class. We formed the Lit class > based on needs of the students: high level speakers, non- or low-reading > level, no or very low -level in writing. What diagnostic tests would you > suggest for this population in order to find strenghts and instructional > needs? Wouldn't tests normed on a population of native speakers be > somewhat inaccurate for ESOL learners? Depending on the native language, > I can see that in certain cases some tests might work fairly well. But > what of others with different alphabets and different ways? Chinese > learners do not sound out words. Russians do not actually spell words, > etc. > > Thanks again. > > Nicole B. Graves > Teacher/ESOL Program Coordinator > The Center for New Americans > Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton, MA > John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 30 11:40:14 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 11:40:14 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 72] Re: ARCS questions-Comprehension In-Reply-To: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E23BF3E@secure.workbase.org.nz> References: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E23BF3E@secure.workbase.org.nz> Message-ID: Thank you, Susan, for your input. I look forward to hearing more about your work in NZ. The "reader roles" appear similar to Chall's Stages of Reading Development. Best, John --On Sunday, May 28, 2006 10:17 AM +1200 Susan Reid wrote: > > > Thank you for a very interesting discussion > Just a comment to support what Amy is saying about comprehension > strategies > In New Zealand our teaching of reading has been influenced by Freebody > and Liuke's four reader roles ( lately collapsed into 3 ) code breaker, > meaning maker or participant, text user and text analyst - the roles are > not linear - see > http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm > http://www.alea.edu.au/docs/ludwig.pdf > http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm > Certainly in the work I have done with lower level readers a number are > already at some level of the text analyst stage even though they may not > have the full range of codebreakling skills > I presume that what you refer to on the website is explicit teaching of > a range of comprehension strategies > > At Workbase one of my colleagues Trisha Hanifin who I know is > following this discussion led the development of a course on How to teach > reading to adults. Trisha and another colleague Ginnie Denny deliver this > course three times a year to a range of adult literacy tutors. As a > result of feedback about what tutors want to learn about now Trisha is > currently working on a one day workshop on Comprehension Strategies to > provide more depth to those covered in the Reading Course > > Regards > Susan Reid > Manager, Professional Development > Workbase NZ Centre for Workforce Literacy Development > www.workbase.org.nz > also see New Zealand Literacy Portal > www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz > > > > __________________________________________________ > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Amy Trawick > Sent: Sat 27/05/2006 7:10 a.m. > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 59] ARCS questions-Comprehension > > > > Thank you, John and Ros for the wonderful resource of the ARCS website and > for this opportunity to ask questions. My questions have mainly to do > with > comprehension, and the quotes in my message come from the silent reading > comprehension page of the mini-course. > > 1) On the website, you say, "There are other subskills of reading > comprehension that require knowledge of the structure of language > (compound > and complex sentences, paragraphs, stories and informational text), and > the > ability to interact with text (metacognition) by assuming some > responsibility for understanding the author's message. Many ABE learners > have to learn "how" to comprehend. Teachers address these issues through > instruction in reading comprehension strategies." Yet, I notice that you > did not include assessments that measure *use of comprehension strategies* > in the battery of assessments. Could you please talk a little bit about > your reasons for this? In other words, were there logistical concerns or > research-based/theoretical concerns--or both? > > 2) This statement appears on the website: "Explicit instruction in > comprehension strategies should begin when a learner has acquired > sufficient > word recognition mastery, usually no sooner than low intermediate level, > GE > 3. Beginning readers are focused on word analysis and recognition within > simple text that does not require strategies for understanding." Whereas > I > agree for the most part with this statement, I think that, since we are > working with adults, there might be a caveat here. As adults, these > readers > often need to address real-life reading tasks (reading labels, filling out > simple forms, paying bills) that, if they use some simple comprehension > strategies (attending to text formatting/structure, scanning for key > words, > thinking about what they know), they can accomplish simple but important > reading purposes with texts that are written above their reading level. > I'm > thinking here, for example, of reading to understand a utility bill. A > utility bill can be difficult to read from beginning to end, but if you > just > want to know how much you owe and when it's due, a low-level reader can > read > for that purpose--if they know some basic comprehension strategies and are > able to integrate this with their alphabetics and vocabulary knowledge. > Do > you have any philosophical problem with incorporating comprehension > strategies of this type into a curriculum for beginning readers, as long > as > due attention is also paid to building the underlying skills in > alphabetics, > fluency, and vocabulary? > > Thank you! > > Amy > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From miriam at cal.org Tue May 30 11:23:22 2006 From: miriam at cal.org (Miriam Burt) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 11:23:22 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 73] Re: Explicitly assessing and teaching anunderstanding of English morphology Message-ID: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8FF6A391@MAIL.cal.local> I think Mina Reddy's question is very interesting and important for those teaching adult English language learners. My teaching experience - and that of others - seems to indicate that an understanding of English morphology should be taught to adult English language learners - even if there isn't experimental research with this population to back that us. Nation (2005, p. 592) discusses teaching word parts - suffixes, prefixes, inflections for tenses -- as a "strategy [that] deserves teaching time because of the large number of words it can be applied to." And an experimental study of college level students (Qian, 1999) - who had a vocabulary level of 3,000 words in English (more words than many adult English language learners) suggested that teaching word parts might help these students increase their English vocabulary and also could be a strategy to improve their reading comprehension. But that was all I could find. So I asked Dr. Julie Mathews, research associate for CAELA, to look at research on ELLs - whether K-12, adult or higher ed. She found some research on younger ELLs, that I think is worthwhile considering. Here's Julies response: "Here's what I've come up with after a pretty exhaustive search of the academic databases. I agree with Kathy Harris and Lynn Santelmann when they say that there isn't a lot of research (if any) specifically addressing the question of whether explicit teaching of morphology may affect text comprehension in second language learners. I also agree with their broad overview of research on English morpheme/morphology acquisition-some forms seem to be acquired faster with instruction, others not. But to answer Mina Reddy's question, I think that both her own experiences and the results of two fairly recent studies are enough to say that some explicit instruction in English morphology would not hurt, and might very well contribute to ELLs' text comprehension. The studies I have in mind are Carlo, August, McLaughlin, Snow et al (2004) and Tremblay & Morris (2002). In the first study, the researchers found that 5th graders' academic vocabulary (and ultimately their reading comprehension) could be enhanced by teaching the meanings of academically useful words together with strategies for using, among other things, morphological information about the words. The second study, working with similarly aged students, found that weekly interventions (over a 15-week period) in which students' attention was drawn to particular morphological language points through a cloze test (with the teacher first reading the text-repeating sentences on request-and students trying to fill in the blanks, then discussing in small groups to agree on the correct answers), resulted in dramatic improvement in students' use of those forms. Tremblay & Morris point out that it seems to be the case that students with appropriate linguistic ability (not complete beginners) and cognitive levels (not very young learners), can benefit from such explicit instruction. M.S. Carlo, D. August, B. McLaughlin, C.E. Snow, et al. (2004). Closing the gap: Addressing the vocabulary needs of English language learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(2), 188-215. Tremblay, M., Morris, L. (2002). The impact of attending to unstressed words on the acquisition of written grammatical morphology by French speaking ESL students. The Canadian Modern Language Review. 58(3) 364-385." Nation, I. M. P. (2005). Teaching and learning vocabulary. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 581-595). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Qian, D. D. (1999). Assessing the roles of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. The Canadian Modern Language Journal, 56, 262-305. Miriam ***** Miriam Burt Center for Applied Linguistics 4646 40th Street NW Washington, DC 20016 (202) 362-0700 (202) 363-7204 (fax) miriam at cal.org -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 8:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 45] Explicitly assessing and teaching anunderstanding of English morphology Mina Reddy wrote: "...Specifically for second language learners, how important or useful is it to explicitly assess and teach an understanding of English morphology? How much does an understanding of English morphology influence their comprehension of text? I am curious about this because of my personal experience reading in languages in which my vocabulary is limited. I find that an understanding of the structure of the language helps me to derive at least a basic meaning from the text even when I do not understand many of the words." John Strucker answered: "Mina, I think you are right about this last point, but I don't know of much ESOL research that focuses on this. NCSALL's Steve Reder would be a good person to ask about this. However, I think ELL research has looked at this from time to time, and that research supports your position. As an aside, in general, I think those of us in ABE/ESOL can probably learn a lot by looking more at ELL research." I (David Rosen) asked Steve Reder to reply, and he turned to his colleagues at Portland State University's Department of Applied Linguistics, Kathy Harris and Lynn Santelmann. They asked that we post this reply: "There isn't a lot of research directed at this specific question, but the research that exists points to a couple of conclusions. First, student acquisition of some kinds of morphemes (e.g. plural and 3rd person -s) can be promoted with instruction. However, instruction of other forms (e.g. -ing) can promote overproduction. Also, other types of English morphology aren't easily acquired through instruction (e.g. articles such as the and a). Generally, the order in which English morphology is learned isn't altered by instruction, but some aspects may be acquired more quickly through instruction. Instruction may help students to "notice" new forms so that when the new forms become salient (through error correction or negotiation for example), learners have knowledge of the new form to apply." Kathy Harris & Lynn Santelmann Department of Applied Linguistics & the NCSALL Adult ESOL Lab School Portland State University David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060530/b3cce2d7/attachment.html From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 30 12:03:26 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 12:03:26 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 74] Re: ARCS questions-Comprehension In-Reply-To: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E0AA812@secure.workbase.org.nz> References: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E0AA812@secure.workbase.org.nz> Message-ID: <5FE6E8F767FC6BE04CE93D49@nichols303> Trisha, I have a comment below the second paragraph of your message. --On Monday, May 29, 2006 10:26 AM +1200 Trisha Hanifin wrote: > > > Further to Susan's comments and other comments about teaching > comprehension: there's an old saying I'm aware of about adult literacy > learners (not sure where it came from originally but it might be from > Jane Mace) that an adult beginning reader is not (necessarily) a > beginning thinker. > > > > Freebody and Luke's roles acknowledge this as do other perspectives on > the importance of developing and using critical thinking and critical > reading skills and strategies with adults even when code-breaking skills > might be weak. This is not to suggest that working at word level with > learners isn't crucial but I can't see that it's useful for an adult > learner to wait until they can decode entirely independently before they > use and extend their range of comprehension strategies. I agree that critical thinking is important for adult beginners. In addition to working on this through oral discussion, at the Harvard Adult Lab we like to have them read poetry. Short poems by Langston Hughes, William Carlos Williams, or Lucille Clifton, for just a few examples, do not impose much of decoding burden, but they certainly call for critical thinking and discussion. Poetry can also help to make the adult beginner feel less "infantilized" and helpless in the face of print. Poetry puts the teacher and the adult student on a somewhat more equal footing - just two adults talking about layers of meaning, discussion of mood, etc. Often there aren't "right" answers. In addition, poetry also lends itself to re-reading as part of the interpretive process, so it can provide an meaningful context for adult beginners to work on their reading fluency. For all this, we also remind our graduate students that critical thinking (or comprehension in general) doesn't trump the need to teach the code to beginners - and the best way to do that is directly, systematically, and sequentially - with plenty of interaction and feedback. > > > I'm also interested in whether people think there are overlaps -- in > terms of teaching comprehension strategies to adults-- between listening > comprehension and reading comprehension? > > > > Enjoying the discussion very much. Thank-you. > > > > Trisha Hanifin > > > > Professional Development Coordinator > > Workbase NZ Centre for Workforce Literacy Development > > > > > > > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Susan Reid > Sent: Sunday, 28 May 2006 10:18 a.m. > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 61] Re: ARCS questions-Comprehension > > > > > Thank you for a very interesting discussion > > Just a comment to support what Amy is saying about comprehension > strategies > > In New Zealand our teaching of reading has been influenced by Freebody > and Liuke's four reader roles ( lately collapsed into 3 ) code breaker, > meaning maker or participant, text user and text analyst - the roles are > not linear - see > > http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm > > http://www.alea.edu.au/docs/ludwig.pdf > > http://www.alea.edu.au/freebody.htm > > Certainly in the work I have done with lower level readers a number are > already at some level of the text analyst stage even though they may not > have the full range of codebreakling skills > > I presume that what you refer to on the website is explicit teaching of > a range of comprehension strategies > > > > At Workbase one of my colleagues Trisha Hanifin who I know is > following this discussion led the development of a course on How to teach > reading to adults. Trisha and another colleague Ginnie Denny deliver this > course three times a year to a range of adult literacy tutors. As a > result of feedback about what tutors want to learn about now Trisha is > currently working on a one day workshop on Comprehension Strategies to > provide more depth to those covered in the Reading Course > > > > Regards > > Susan Reid > > Manager, Professional Development > > Workbase NZ Centre for Workforce Literacy Development > > www.workbase.org.nz > > also see New Zealand Literacy Portal > > www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz > > > > > > __________________________________________________ > > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Amy Trawick > Sent: Sat 27/05/2006 7:10 a.m. > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 59] ARCS questions-Comprehension > > Thank you, John and Ros for the wonderful resource of the ARCS website and > for this opportunity to ask questions. My questions have mainly to do > with > comprehension, and the quotes in my message come from the silent reading > comprehension page of the mini-course. > > 1) On the website, you say, "There are other subskills of reading > comprehension that require knowledge of the structure of language > (compound > and complex sentences, paragraphs, stories and informational text), and > the > ability to interact with text (metacognition) by assuming some > responsibility for understanding the author's message. Many ABE learners > have to learn "how" to comprehend. Teachers address these issues through > instruction in reading comprehension strategies." Yet, I notice that you > did not include assessments that measure *use of comprehension strategies* > in the battery of assessments. Could you please talk a little bit about > your reasons for this? In other words, were there logistical concerns or > research-based/theoretical concerns--or both? > > 2) This statement appears on the website: "Explicit instruction in > comprehension strategies should begin when a learner has acquired > sufficient > word recognition mastery, usually no sooner than low intermediate level, > GE > 3. Beginning readers are focused on word analysis and recognition within > simple text that does not require strategies for understanding." Whereas > I > agree for the most part with this statement, I think that, since we are > working with adults, there might be a caveat here. As adults, these > readers > often need to address real-life reading tasks (reading labels, filling out > simple forms, paying bills) that, if they use some simple comprehension > strategies (attending to text formatting/structure, scanning for key > words, > thinking about what they know), they can accomplish simple but important > reading purposes with texts that are written above their reading level. > I'm > thinking here, for example, of reading to understand a utility bill. A > utility bill can be difficult to read from beginning to end, but if you > just > want to know how much you owe and when it's due, a low-level reader can > read > for that purpose--if they know some basic comprehension strategies and are > able to integrate this with their alphabetics and vocabulary knowledge. > Do > you have any philosophical problem with incorporating comprehension > strategies of this type into a curriculum for beginning readers, as long > as > due attention is also paid to building the underlying skills in > alphabetics, > fluency, and vocabulary? > > Thank you! > > Amy > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 30 12:08:57 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 12:08:57 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 75] Re: Oral reading rate tests In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <6A6DD34C68F45B083C55F3DD@nichols303> Hi Sarae, Ros will probably have a more detailed response to your question about graded oral reading passages. But here's my 2-cents' worth. Most of the independent reading inventories (some of which are available on the web) have graded passages that accurate enough for this purpose. You could also use short selections from a graded adult series like . Best, John --On Sunday, May 28, 2006 10:38 AM -0500 Sarae Mathews wrote: > I'm enjoying this dialogue very much. Next week, I start as a new ABE > instructor at a community college in north Florida. I would like to > use the interactive profile on the website. Between results from > students' TABE and the sample QARI word recognition test and WMT on > the website, I'll have all the requisite components except an oral > reading rate test. Does anyone have a set of graded passages they can > share electronically? Thanks, it would sure help. > > Sunny Mathews, Ed.D. > FCCJ-South > Jacksonville, FL > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 30 12:11:49 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 12:11:49 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 76] Re: Explicitly assessing and teaching anunderstanding of English morphology In-Reply-To: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8FF6A391@MAIL.cal.local> References: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8FF6A391@MAIL.cal.local> Message-ID: Hi Miriam, Thank you and the ESOL experts for wading in on this! A very interesting thread. And, a special thanks to your colleague Julie Matthews! Best, John --On Tuesday, May 30, 2006 11:23 AM -0400 Miriam Burt wrote: > > > I think Mina Reddy's question is very interesting and important for those > teaching adult English language learners. My teaching experience - and > that of others - seems to indicate that an understanding of English > morphology should be taught to adult English language learners - even if > there isn't experimental research with this population to back that us. > Nation (2005, p. 592) discusses teaching word parts - suffixes, prefixes, > inflections for tenses -- as a "strategy [that] deserves teaching time > because of the large number of words it can be applied to." And an > experimental study of college level students (Qian, 1999) - who had a > vocabulary level of 3,000 words in English (more words than many adult > English language learners) suggested that teaching word parts might help > these students increase their English vocabulary and also could be a > strategy to improve their reading comprehension. But that was all I could > find. So I asked Dr. Julie Mathews, research associate for CAELA, to > look at research on ELLs - whether K-12, adult or higher ed. She found > some research on younger ELLs, that I think is worthwhile considering. > > Here's Julies response: > > "Here's what I've come up with after a pretty exhaustive search of the > academic databases. > > I agree with Kathy Harris and Lynn Santelmann when they say that there > isn't a lot of research (if any) specifically addressing the question of > whether explicit teaching of morphology may affect text comprehension in > second language learners. I also agree with their broad overview of > research on English morpheme/morphology acquisition--some forms seem to > be acquired faster with instruction, others not. But to answer Mina > Reddy's question, I think that both her own experiences and the results > of two fairly recent studies are enough to say that some explicit > instruction in English morphology would not hurt, and might very well > contribute to ELLs' text comprehension. > > The studies I have in mind are Carlo, August, McLaughlin, Snow et al > (2004) and Tremblay & Morris (2002). In the first study, the researchers > found that 5th graders' academic vocabulary (and ultimately their reading > comprehension) could be enhanced by teaching the meanings of academically > useful words together with strategies for using, among other things, > morphological information about the words. The second study, working with > similarly aged students, found that weekly interventions (over a 15-week > period) in which students' attention was drawn to particular > morphological language points through a cloze test (with the teacher > first reading the text--repeating sentences on request--and students > trying to fill in the blanks, then discussing in small groups to agree on > the correct answers), resulted in dramatic improvement in students' use > of those forms. Tremblay & Morris point out that it seems to be the case > that students with appropriate linguistic ability (not complete > beginners) and cognitive levels (not very young learners), can benefit > from such explicit instruction. > > M.S. Carlo, D. August, B. McLaughlin, C.E. Snow, et al. (2004). Closing > the gap: Addressing the vocabulary needs of English language learners in > bilingual and mainstream classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(2), > 188-215. > > Tremblay, M., Morris, L. (2002). The impact of attending to unstressed > words on the acquisition of written grammatical morphology by French > speaking ESL students. The Canadian Modern Language Review. 58(3) > 364-385." > > Nation, I. M. P. (2005). Teaching and learning vocabulary. In E. Hinkel > (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. > 581--595). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. > > Qian, D. D. (1999). Assessing the roles of depth and breadth of > vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. The Canadian Modern > Language Journal, 56, 262--305. > > Miriam > ***** > Miriam Burt > Center for Applied Linguistics > 4646 40th Street NW > Washington, DC 20016 > (202) 362-0700 > (202) 363-7204 (fax) > miriam at cal.org > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen > Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 8:38 PM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 45] Explicitly assessing and teaching > anunderstanding of English morphology > > Mina Reddy wrote: > > "...Specifically for second language learners, how important or useful is > it to explicitly assess and teach an understanding of English morphology? > How much does an understanding of English morphology influence their > comprehension of text? I am curious about this because of my personal > experience reading in languages in which my vocabulary is limited. I > find that an understanding of the structure of the language helps me to > derive at least a basic meaning from the text even when I do not > understand many of the words." > > John Strucker answered: > > "Mina, I think you are right about this last point, but I don't know of > much ESOL research that focuses on this. NCSALL's Steve Reder would be a > good person to ask about this. However, I think ELL research has looked > at this from time to time, and that research supports your position. As > an aside, in general, I think those of us in ABE/ESOL can probably learn > a lot by looking more at ELL research." > > I (David Rosen) asked Steve Reder to reply, and he turned to his > colleagues at Portland State University's Department of Applied > Linguistics, Kathy Harris and Lynn Santelmann. They asked that we post > this reply: > > "There isn't a lot of research directed at this specific question, > but the research that exists points to a couple of conclusions. > First, student acquisition of some kinds of morphemes (e.g. plural and > 3rd person -s) can be promoted with instruction. However, > > instruction of other forms (e.g. -ing) can promote overproduction. > Also, other types of English morphology aren't easily acquired through > instruction (e.g. articles such as the and a). Generally, the order in > which English morphology is learned isn't altered by instruction, but > some aspects may be acquired more quickly through instruction. > Instruction may help students to "notice" new forms so that when the new > forms become salient (through error correction or negotiation for > example), learners have knowledge of the new form to apply." > > Kathy Harris & Lynn Santelmann > Department of Applied Linguistics & the NCSALL Adult ESOL Lab School > Portland State University > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From SMonti at ccbcmd.edu Tue May 30 14:34:19 2006 From: SMonti at ccbcmd.edu (Monti, Suzi) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 14:34:19 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 77] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing Message-ID: <9D909391CB025945BDA19A90B940A0B6020EDA57@ccbc-de.ccbc.ccbcmd.edu> John, Thanks for your reply. The reason the question of validity/reliability is raised when using tests not designed for an ESOL population is one is never really sure the test is testing what it is intended to test. When standardized tests are specifically designed for ESOL (meaning a multi-lingual and multi-cultural audience) additional thought is given to the text with respect to things like what schema a reader must bring to the text as well as the linguistic demands of the texts. A lack of familiarity with typical western style test format and item type is a consideration. In addition, simple things like phrasal verbs that would not usually impede understanding in a native speaker cause great problems a majority of ESOL learners. Different discourse patterns are also a consideration in interpreting text. Unless a test is designed with ESOL learners in mind the results are questionable. In ESOL we also recognize that language and culture are intertwined. ESOL learners are learning/using the language without having been brought up in the culture and having had access to the norms of use(such as appropriacy, denotation/connotation, etc.) or the shared common knowledge needed to interpret many texts. An author writes knowing what background knowledge the intended reader has in place to draw upon in interpreting the text and therefore does not elaborate or feel the need to make explicit what are considered the "givens" (things that everybody knows). When writing text for ESOL in general, and for testing in particular, care has to be given that the text is not testing the lack of the shared common knowledge rather than what it is intended to test. For example, something as simple as a practice of keeping dogs/cats as house pets or even giving pets a name is common knowledge here but is not a practice in many countries. Barbie may be referring to a doll not an actual person. The final question I had related to learning styles of all individuals. What impact would some learner's natural bent toward being a top-down or bottom-up processor/thinker have on the attention he/she gives to the various components of reading? And what impact would an approach at variance with a learner's style have on his/her learning? For example a global thinker who is always looking for the big picture and meaning being put in a phonics program that uses bits and pieces without context. Suzi Monti -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of john strucker Sent: Tuesday May 30, 2006 11:34 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 71] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing Hi Suzi, All students in ESOL classes, all non-native speakers of English in ABE classes, and all native speakers in ABE and ASE classes were assessed with the same battery of tests of English reading components. All of the English reading tests were designed to be used with adults and/or children, but not none were specifically normed on ESOL adults. But that was OK with Ros and me, because we primarily wanted to know about their various reading profiles in English reading. (As aside, my intuition tells me that it would be very difficult to norm an English reading test on all varieties of ESOL adults in such a way that would be useful to practitioners or even researchers. That is, given the diversity of ESOL students' native languages and native language literacy skills - not to mention cultural attitudes surrounding literacy, life experiences, etc. - it might make more sense to develop norms within specific language groups, so you'd be only be comparing Spanish speakers to Spanish speakers, Haitian Creole to Haitian Creole, etc. I'd be interested in other peoples' thoughts on this.) Back to the ARCS, all native speakers of Spanish, whether they were in ABE or ESOL classes, were also tested with the Woodcock-Munoz battery, which has been extensively normed on Spanish speakers from young children through adults. As for your question about "cultural references/schema", I'm not sure exactly what you mean by that. Maybe you could say more. But remember, all we were doing with ARCS was testing people in reading - how they were reading English (and or Spanish as discussed above) at the moment we showed up at their program. This was not a longitudinal study with pre and post measures where a number of other factors - including cultural factors - would indeed be expected to play a role in students' outcomes. In our extensive background questionnaire we did ask people about their childhood educational experience, literacy in native language as well as English, reading habits, parents' levels of education, reasons for attending adult education, health, family status, etc. We did this primarily to be able to talk about the wide diversity in the US ESOL population. And, wow, did we find diversity! --On Friday, May 26, 2006 2:25 PM -0400 "Monti, Suzi" wrote: > > Hi, > I have been looking for an answer to the very solid ESOL-related > questions raised by this post. Perhaps I have missed the response. I am > especially interested in the question raised concerning whether the tests > mentioned in the study were normed for a non-native speaking population > (a validity/reliability issue). I am also interested in what impact lack > of cultural reference/schema as well as other ESOL issues may have had on > the results. Finally, of course there is the issue of a native/non-native > speaker's natural approach/bent (whether they tend to be top-down or > bottom-up in thinking) and what impact that may have on his/her approach > to reading. > > Suzi Monti > > TESOL Instructor - Maryland Bible College and Seminary, International > Institute of Linguistics > > ESOL Curriculum Developer, Instructional Specialist, and Intake > Asssessment Specialist - Community College of Baltimore County, Center > for Adult and Family Literacy > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Nicole Graves > Sent: Wednesday May 24, 2006 9:06 PM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 32] ESOL diagnostic testing > > > > Hi John and Ros, > > I find the discussions most interesting. Thank you! > > I teach adult ESOL. Previously, I worked as a special education teacher > and as a reading teacher (children). Several of our learners are > non-readers or struggling readers. I'm currently teaching a beginning > level ESOL group and an ESOL/literacy class. We formed the Lit class > based on needs of the students: high level speakers, non- or low-reading > level, no or very low -level in writing. What diagnostic tests would you > suggest for this population in order to find strenghts and instructional > needs? Wouldn't tests normed on a population of native speakers be > somewhat inaccurate for ESOL learners? Depending on the native language, > I can see that in certain cases some tests might work fairly well. But > what of others with different alphabets and different ways? Chinese > learners do not sound out words. Russians do not actually spell words, > etc. > > Thanks again. > > Nicole B. Graves > Teacher/ESOL Program Coordinator > The Center for New Americans > Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton, MA > John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue May 30 15:45:13 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 15:45:13 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 78] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing In-Reply-To: <9D909391CB025945BDA19A90B940A0B6020EDA57@ccbc-de.ccbc.ccbcmd.edu> References: <9D909391CB025945BDA19A90B940A0B6020EDA57@ccbc-de.ccbc.ccbcmd.ed u> Message-ID: Hi Suzi, I've entered my responses in your text below. --On Tuesday, May 30, 2006 2:34 PM -0400 "Monti, Suzi" wrote: > John, > Thanks for your reply. The reason the question of validity/reliability > is raised when using tests not designed for an ESOL population is one is > never really sure the test is testing what it is intended to test. When > standardized tests are specifically designed for ESOL (meaning a > multi-lingual and multi-cultural audience) additional thought is given to > the text with respect to things like what schema a reader must bring to > the text as well as the linguistic demands of the texts. A lack of > familiarity with typical western style test format and item type is a > consideration. In addition, simple things like phrasal verbs that would > not usually impede understanding in a native speaker cause great problems > a majority of ESOL learners. Different discourse patterns are also a > consideration in interpreting text. Unless a test is designed with ESOL > learners in mind the results are questionable. In ESOL we also > recognize that language and culture are intertwined. ESOL learners are > learning/using the language without having been brought up in the culture > and having had access to the norms of use(such as appropriacy, > denotation/connotation, etc.) or the shared common knowledge needed to > interpret many texts. An author writes knowing what background knowledge > the intended reader has in place to draw upon in interpreting the text > and therefore does not elaborate or feel the need to make explicit what > are considered the "givens" (things that everybody knows). When writing > text for ESOL in general, and for testing in particular, care has to be > given that the text is not testing the lack of the shared common > knowledge rather than what it is intended to test. For example, something > as simple as a practice of keeping dogs/cats as house pets or even giving > pets a name is common knowledge here but is not a practice in many > countries. Barbie may be referring to a doll not an ac tual person. My take on your paragraph above is that you have given lots of examples of why any ELL (or any of us for that matter when learning a foreign language) might not read that language as well as one reads one's native language. I completely agree with all of the examples you've given. They add up to a list of things that might impeded the comprehension of any foreign language learner. But, again, remember that our goal in the ARCS was to come up with a a sense of how well people do on the various components of English reading. The print components (word recognition, oral reading) were actually scored so that ESOL students' accent features were not marked as mistakes. We were testing reading, not whether ESOL students speak like a TV broadcaster. We certainly do not mean to imply that ABE and ESOL teachers should ignore any of the impediments to comprehension that you listed when they plan lessons or reflect on their students' difficulties. However, as far as comprehension tests go, to avoid some of those comprehension glitches you refer to, you'd have to create some pretty unnatural text, text that had been cleansed of any of these glitches. But having done that, what would you have found out about their ability to use literacy in the real world? > The final question I had related to learning styles of all individuals. > What impact would some learner's natural bent toward being a top-down or > bottom-up processor/thinker have on the attention he/she gives to the > various components of reading? And what impact would an approach at > variance with a learner's style have on his/her learning? For example a > global thinker who is always looking for the big picture and meaning > being put in a phonics program that uses bits and pieces without context. With regard to learning styles, remember we weren't trying to them anything, just test them. The research on learning styles and reading even among native speaking children is pretty inconclusive. So far most of the evidence for kids in early reading (and there isn't much research on adults) favors direct, systematic, and sequential instruction in alphabetics and direct instruction in vocabulary. Here's a question: if a bunch of us were to move to Poland, wouldn't 95% of us prefer to have someone teach us the Polish sound/symbol correspondences as quickly and directly as possible, rather than having to intuit them on our own from the context of Polish reading and Polish conversation? Finally, no recognized phonics program that I know of uses "bits and pieces" of phonics. All are sequential and systematic, based on optimal sequences for learning English sounds and symbols. And, no phonics program that I know of recommends that there be no reading of connected text. Phonics knowledge won't stick unless people have the opportunity to use that knowledge to read actual text. > Suzi Monti > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of john strucker > Sent: Tuesday May 30, 2006 11:34 AM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 71] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing > > > Hi Suzi, > All students in ESOL classes, all non-native speakers of English in ABE > classes, and all native speakers in ABE and ASE classes were assessed > with the same battery of tests of English reading components. All of the > English reading tests were designed to be used with adults and/or > children, but not none were specifically normed on ESOL adults. But > that was OK with Ros and me, because we primarily wanted to know about > their various reading profiles in English reading. (As aside, my > intuition tells me that it would be very difficult to norm an English > reading test on all varieties of ESOL adults in such a way that would be > useful to practitioners or even researchers. That is, given the > diversity of ESOL students' native languages and native language > literacy skills - not to mention cultural attitudes surrounding > literacy, life experiences, etc. - it might make more sense to develop > norms within specific language groups, so you'd be only be comparing > Spanish speakers to Spanish speakers, Haitian Creole to Haitian Creole, > etc. I'd be interested in other peoples' thoughts on this.) Back to the > ARCS, all native speakers of Spanish, whether they were in ABE or ESOL > classes, were also tested with the Woodcock-Munoz battery, which has > been extensively normed on Spanish speakers from young children through > adults. > As for your question about "cultural references/schema", I'm not sure > exactly what you mean by that. Maybe you could say more. But remember, > all we were doing with ARCS was testing people in reading - how they were > reading English (and or Spanish as discussed above) at the moment we > showed up at their program. This was not a longitudinal study with pre > and post measures where a number of other factors - including cultural > factors - would indeed be expected to play a role in students' outcomes. > In our extensive background questionnaire we did ask people about their > childhood educational experience, literacy in native language as well as > English, reading habits, parents' levels of education, reasons for > attending adult education, health, family status, etc. We did this > primarily to be able to talk about the wide diversity in the US ESOL > population. And, wow, did we find diversity! > > --On Friday, May 26, 2006 2:25 PM -0400 "Monti, Suzi" > wrote: > >> >> Hi, >> I have been looking for an answer to the very solid ESOL-related >> questions raised by this post. Perhaps I have missed the response. I am >> especially interested in the question raised concerning whether the tests >> mentioned in the study were normed for a non-native speaking population >> (a validity/reliability issue). I am also interested in what impact lack >> of cultural reference/schema as well as other ESOL issues may have had on >> the results. Finally, of course there is the issue of a native/non-native >> speaker's natural approach/bent (whether they tend to be top-down or >> bottom-up in thinking) and what impact that may have on his/her approach >> to reading. >> >> Suzi Monti >> >> TESOL Instructor - Maryland Bible College and Seminary, International >> Institute of Linguistics >> >> ESOL Curriculum Developer, Instructional Specialist, and Intake >> Asssessment Specialist - Community College of Baltimore County, Center >> for Adult and Family Literacy >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov >> [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Nicole Graves >> Sent: Wednesday May 24, 2006 9:06 PM >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 32] ESOL diagnostic testing >> >> >> >> Hi John and Ros, >> >> I find the discussions most interesting. Thank you! >> >> I teach adult ESOL. Previously, I worked as a special education teacher >> and as a reading teacher (children). Several of our learners are >> non-readers or struggling readers. I'm currently teaching a beginning >> level ESOL group and an ESOL/literacy class. We formed the Lit class >> based on needs of the students: high level speakers, non- or low-reading >> level, no or very low -level in writing. What diagnostic tests would you >> suggest for this population in order to find strenghts and instructional >> needs? Wouldn't tests normed on a population of native speakers be >> somewhat inaccurate for ESOL learners? Depending on the native language, >> I can see that in certain cases some tests might work fairly well. But >> what of others with different alphabets and different ways? Chinese >> learners do not sound out words. Russians do not actually spell words, >> etc. >> >> Thanks again. >> >> Nicole B. Graves >> Teacher/ESOL Program Coordinator >> The Center for New Americans >> Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton, MA >> > > > > John Strucker, EdD > Nichols House 303 > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge, MA 02138 > > 617 495 4745 > 617 495 4811 (fax) > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From MF at ldaminnesota.org Tue May 30 16:38:29 2006 From: MF at ldaminnesota.org (Marn Frank) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 15:38:29 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 79] Re: professional development using the ARCSwebsite Message-ID: <535FCFA131E9E4458CD9E1CF0C339E322BE59D@ldasbs.LDALEARNING.local> This is a belated reply to the request for professional development ideas using the ARCS website. I am in the process of developing a study circle/training called "Using Informal Reading Assessments" for Minnesota ABE. My co-presenter and I shared handouts and informal assessments downloaded and printed from the ARCS website. We wanted to give participants a hands-on experience with informal reading assessments they could begin using immediately. It was received well and seemed to be "convincing" that other assessments besides those just measuring silent reading comprehension were worth their time and effort. This is our outline: 1. Refer participants to the ARCS handout COMPONENTS? READING PROFILES? WHAT ARE THEY? 2. Do a quick review of the components and other words or phrases that are used in the reading instruction world (alphabetics, decoding, word analysis, encoding, etc.) 3. Share word recognition and/or spelling assessments available from the ARCS website: Sylvia Greene's Informal Word Analysis Inventory and the Quick Adult Reading Inventory (QARI). 4. Provide an opportunity for participants to pair up, administer, and score one of the above. We found from piloting this study circle that a "script" from a real assessment might work better because participants (ABE teachers) were struggling with mimicking adult reading difficulties. 5. Share Read Naturally and pre-GED/GED passages for cold and hot fluency timings. Again, we found that an audio-tape of a real learner reading aloud would be a better simulated experience for measuring oral reading rate. 6. Share the Word Meaning Test from the ARCS and provide an opportunity to administer one or two levels to determine a word meaning grade level. I feel the ARCS has been a remarkable resource (as has this discussion list!) for my work in Minnesota ABE staff development. I use it extensively for the above and also in facilitating practitioner reading research (as developed by NCSALL). Thank You! Margaret (Marn) Frank LD Specialist LDA of Minnesota -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 4:30 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 42] Re: professional development using the ARCSwebsite [bcc] Thanks, Jane. I wonder if anyone else in this discussion has used the ARCS Web site and/or a study circle model using the ARCS Web site or other ARCS materials. If so, please tell us about your experience. Also, if anyone has questions for Jane or Ros about the use of the ARCS Web site, please ask them now. David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net On May 25, 2006, at 2:06 PM, Jane Meyer wrote: > David suggested that I tell a bit about how we used the ARCS > website for > professional development in our ABE program in Canton, Ohio. First I > explored the website myself and then, at a staff meeting, I told the > teachers about the site highlighting some features that I thought > might > be of particular interest to them. I offered to pay them if they > wanted > to explore the website for a professional development activity. I > set a > meeting date about a month away for those who had explored the website > to discuss what they had found and how it could be useful to them as > well as ask any questions. The teachers loved using the website for > professional development because it was so convenient and the format > worked great for us because I had staff with various levels of > knowledge > about reading. The website allowed those who needed basic information > to get it without holding those back who had more knowledge and were > ready to go deeper. It has been a while, but I remember the > discussion > about the site being quite rich. > Jane Meyer > Canton City Schools > Canton, Ohio > meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Tue May 30 17:19:06 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 17:19:06 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 80] Welcome, recent subscribers Message-ID: Colleagues, A few people have recently subscribed to the special topics list. Welcome. The discussion about the Adult Reading Components Study began last Tuesday and will be ending this week. Tomorrow, Wednesday, is the last day to post questions to our guests, Dr. Rosalind Davidson and Dr. John Strucker. If you would like to "catch up" you can read all the messages posted so far at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From cnaamh at rcn.com Tue May 30 20:50:55 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 20:50:55 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 81] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing References: <9D909391CB025945BDA19A90B940A0B6020EDA50@ccbc-de.ccbc.ccbcmd.ed u> <02D825AE7FFE591793EB2ADD@nichols303> Message-ID: <015501c6844f$b91fa720$3cd8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Thanks John and Ros. Of course I understand the difficulty about norming tests for ESOL learners given all the various differences. However I still think that tests for English speakers may contain cultural biases or items that students from other cultures cannot "get". I agree with Suzi that students come with a variety of ideas about reading and learning that may be culturally-based. For example, I have students who expect the teachers to have all the answers. Others focus on mechanics: when asked to read aloud, they can give a good rendition with little comprehension, etc. I think if I know ( by experience and by observation) that my Chinese beginning readers, in general, do not have phonemic awareness, that's where I should start. I'm not convinced giving them the test will help me much more and I'm afraid they will understand they failed the test. As for my Russian students, they do not actually spell as we do. So I need to teach spelling directly. I also have to know which letters of the Cyrillic alphabet have a different sound for the same grapheme, both in upper case and lower case. I do not need to speak the language. I need to find out about areas of differences or difficulties. And do on for the other components. Your profiles may guide me but I'm still bothered: I would like to have some kind of diagnostic test at hand. Nicole B. Graves ----- Original Message ----- From: "john strucker" To: Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 11:34 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 71] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing > Hi Suzi, > All students in ESOL classes, all non-native speakers of English in ABE > classes, and all native speakers in ABE and ASE classes were assessed with > the same battery of tests of English reading components. All of the English > reading tests were designed to be used with adults and/or children, but not > none were specifically normed on ESOL adults. But that was OK with Ros and > me, because we primarily wanted to know about their various reading > profiles in English reading. (As aside, my intuition tells me that it > would be very difficult to norm an English reading test on all varieties of > ESOL adults in such a way that would be useful to practitioners or even > researchers. That is, given the diversity of ESOL students' native > languages and native language literacy skills - not to mention cultural > attitudes surrounding literacy, life experiences, etc. - it might make more > sense to develop norms within specific language groups, so you'd be only be > comparing Spanish speakers to Spanish speakers, Haitian Creole to Haitian > Creole, etc. I'd be interested in other peoples' thoughts on this.) > Back to the ARCS, all native speakers of Spanish, whether they were in ABE > or ESOL classes, were also tested with the Woodcock-Munoz battery, which > has been extensively normed on Spanish speakers from young children through > adults. > As for your question about "cultural references/schema", I'm not sure > exactly what you mean by that. Maybe you could say more. But remember, > all we were doing with ARCS was testing people in reading - how they were > reading English (and or Spanish as discussed above) at the moment we showed > up at their program. This was not a longitudinal study with pre and post > measures where a number of other factors - including cultural factors - > would indeed be expected to play a role in students' outcomes. In our > extensive background questionnaire we did ask people about their childhood > educational experience, literacy in native language as well as English, > reading habits, parents' levels of education, reasons for attending adult > education, health, family status, etc. We did this primarily to be able to > talk about the wide diversity in the US ESOL population. And, wow, did we > find diversity! > > --On Friday, May 26, 2006 2:25 PM -0400 "Monti, Suzi" > wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > I have been looking for an answer to the very solid ESOL-related > > questions raised by this post. Perhaps I have missed the response. I am > > especially interested in the question raised concerning whether the tests > > mentioned in the study were normed for a non-native speaking population > > (a validity/reliability issue). I am also interested in what impact lack > > of cultural reference/schema as well as other ESOL issues may have had on > > the results. Finally, of course there is the issue of a native/non-native > > speaker's natural approach/bent (whether they tend to be top-down or > > bottom-up in thinking) and what impact that may have on his/her approach > > to reading. > > > > Suzi Monti > > > > TESOL Instructor - Maryland Bible College and Seminary, International > > Institute of Linguistics > > > > ESOL Curriculum Developer, Instructional Specialist, and Intake > > Asssessment Specialist - Community College of Baltimore County, Center > > for Adult and Family Literacy > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Nicole Graves > > Sent: Wednesday May 24, 2006 9:06 PM > > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > > Subject: [SpecialTopics 32] ESOL diagnostic testing > > > > > > > > Hi John and Ros, > > > > I find the discussions most interesting. Thank you! > > > > I teach adult ESOL. Previously, I worked as a special education teacher > > and as a reading teacher (children). Several of our learners are > > non-readers or struggling readers. I'm currently teaching a beginning > > level ESOL group and an ESOL/literacy class. We formed the Lit class > > based on needs of the students: high level speakers, non- or low-reading > > level, no or very low -level in writing. What diagnostic tests would you > > suggest for this population in order to find strenghts and instructional > > needs? Wouldn't tests normed on a population of native speakers be > > somewhat inaccurate for ESOL learners? Depending on the native language, > > I can see that in certain cases some tests might work fairly well. But > > what of others with different alphabets and different ways? Chinese > > learners do not sound out words. Russians do not actually spell words, > > etc. > > > > Thanks again. > > > > Nicole B. Graves > > Teacher/ESOL Program Coordinator > > The Center for New Americans > > Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton, MA > > > > > > John Strucker, EdD > Nichols House 303 > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge, MA 02138 > > 617 495 4745 > 617 495 4811 (fax) > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From cnaamh at rcn.com Tue May 30 20:54:35 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Tue, 30 May 2006 20:54:35 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 82] Re: Explicitly assessing and teachinganunderstanding of English morphology References: <7E0B624DDF68104F92C38648A4D93D8FF6A391@MAIL.cal.local> Message-ID: <015601c6844f$baa9f0a0$3cd8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> RE: [SpecialTopics 45] Explicitly assessing and teaching anunderstanding of English morphologyThanks Miriam and Julie. Very helpful information. Nicole B. Graves ----- Original Message ----- From: Miriam Burt To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 11:23 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 73] Re: Explicitly assessing and teachinganunderstanding of English morphology I think Mina Reddy's question is very interesting and important for those teaching adult English language learners. My teaching experience - and that of others - seems to indicate that an understanding of English morphology should be taught to adult English language learners - even if there isn't experimental research with this population to back that us. Nation (2005, p. 592) discusses teaching word parts - suffixes, prefixes, inflections for tenses -- as a "strategy [that] deserves teaching time because of the large number of words it can be applied to." And an experimental study of college level students (Qian, 1999) - who had a vocabulary level of 3,000 words in English (more words than many adult English language learners) suggested that teaching word parts might help these students increase their English vocabulary and also could be a strategy to improve their reading comprehension. But that was all I could find. So I asked Dr. Julie Mathews, research associate for CAELA, to look at research on ELLs - whether K-12, adult or higher ed. She found some research on younger ELLs, that I think is worthwhile considering. Here's Julies response: "Here's what I've come up with after a pretty exhaustive search of the academic databases. I agree with Kathy Harris and Lynn Santelmann when they say that there isn't a lot of research (if any) specifically addressing the question of whether explicit teaching of morphology may affect text comprehension in second language learners. I also agree with their broad overview of research on English morpheme/morphology acquisition-some forms seem to be acquired faster with instruction, others not. But to answer Mina Reddy's question, I think that both her own experiences and the results of two fairly recent studies are enough to say that some explicit instruction in English morphology would not hurt, and might very well contribute to ELLs' text comprehension. The studies I have in mind are Carlo, August, McLaughlin, Snow et al (2004) and Tremblay & Morris (2002). In the first study, the researchers found that 5th graders' academic vocabulary (and ultimately their reading comprehension) could be enhanced by teaching the meanings of academically useful words together with strategies for using, among other things, morphological information about the words. The second study, working with similarly aged students, found that weekly interventions (over a 15-week period) in which students' attention was drawn to particular morphological language points through a cloze test (with the teacher first reading the text-repeating sentences on request-and students trying to fill in the blanks, then discussing in small groups to agree on the correct answers), resulted in dramatic improvement in students' use of those forms. Tremblay & Morris point out that it seems to be the case that students with appropriate linguistic ability (not complete beginners) and cognitive levels (not very young learners), can benefit from such explicit instruction. M.S. Carlo, D. August, B. McLaughlin, C.E. Snow, et al. (2004). Closing the gap: Addressing the vocabulary needs of English language learners in bilingual and mainstream classrooms. Reading Research Quarterly, 39(2), 188-215. Tremblay, M., Morris, L. (2002). The impact of attending to unstressed words on the acquisition of written grammatical morphology by French speaking ESL students. The Canadian Modern Language Review. 58(3) 364-385." Nation, I. M. P. (2005). Teaching and learning vocabulary. In E. Hinkel (Ed.), Handbook of research in second language teaching and learning (pp. 581-595). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum. Qian, D. D. (1999). Assessing the roles of depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge in reading comprehension. The Canadian Modern Language Journal, 56, 262-305. Miriam ***** Miriam Burt Center for Applied Linguistics 4646 40th Street NW Washington, DC 20016 (202) 362-0700 (202) 363-7204 (fax) miriam at cal.org -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 8:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 45] Explicitly assessing and teaching anunderstanding of English morphology Mina Reddy wrote: "...Specifically for second language learners, how important or useful is it to explicitly assess and teach an understanding of English morphology? How much does an understanding of English morphology influence their comprehension of text? I am curious about this because of my personal experience reading in languages in which my vocabulary is limited. I find that an understanding of the structure of the language helps me to derive at least a basic meaning from the text even when I do not understand many of the words." John Strucker answered: "Mina, I think you are right about this last point, but I don't know of much ESOL research that focuses on this. NCSALL's Steve Reder would be a good person to ask about this. However, I think ELL research has looked at this from time to time, and that research supports your position. As an aside, in general, I think those of us in ABE/ESOL can probably learn a lot by looking more at ELL research." I (David Rosen) asked Steve Reder to reply, and he turned to his colleagues at Portland State University's Department of Applied Linguistics, Kathy Harris and Lynn Santelmann. They asked that we post this reply: "There isn't a lot of research directed at this specific question, but the research that exists points to a couple of conclusions. First, student acquisition of some kinds of morphemes (e.g. plural and 3rd person -s) can be promoted with instruction. However, instruction of other forms (e.g. -ing) can promote overproduction. Also, other types of English morphology aren't easily acquired through instruction (e.g. articles such as the and a). Generally, the order in which English morphology is learned isn't altered by instruction, but some aspects may be acquired more quickly through instruction. Instruction may help students to "notice" new forms so that when the new forms become salient (through error correction or negotiation for example), learners have knowledge of the new form to apply." Kathy Harris & Lynn Santelmann Department of Applied Linguistics & the NCSALL Adult ESOL Lab School Portland State University David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060530/4c8196f7/attachment.html From ylerew at aol.com Wed May 31 00:34:31 2006 From: ylerew at aol.com (ylerew at aol.com) Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 00:34:31 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 82] Re: Questions for ARCS Participants In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8C85282A530A513-1014-E484@FWM-R05.sysops.aol.com> David, I have found this discussion to be very helpful, Yes, Please do have the whole discussion archived. My first choice would be on the LINCS site. Many thanks! Yvonne -----Original Message----- From: David Rosen To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Tue, 30 May 2006 08:51:26 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 66] Questions for ARCS Participants Colleagues, Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 31st, will be the last day to post questions for John and Ros about the ARCS. The questions, comments and suggested resources so far have been great. I hope there are more. I have two questions for participants: 1. Which preparation materials for this discussion did you find especially useful? Would you recommend any of these to your colleagues? If so, which ones? (see below for a list of materials.) 2. Would you like to have the whole discussion archived (on the National institute for Adult Literacy LINCS web site or on the Adult Literacy Education Wiki -- or both)? You could reply to the list -- specialtopics at nifl.gov -- or by e- mail to me at djrosen at comcast.net Here's a list of the introductory materials: 1. 30-minute video panel discussion with ARCS researchers Rosalind Davidson and John Strucker, and practitioners Kay Vaccaro and Jane Meyer at http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/20040204/webcast02-04.html This video panel introduction is also available on DVD from the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy [ http:// www.ncsall.net/?id=24 ] or from the National Institute for Literacy. (Send a request for the Adult Readiing Components Study (ARCS) Panel (free) DVD to: info at nifl.gov Be sure to include your mailing address.) 2. "What Silent Reading Tests Alone Can't Tell You", the precursor to the website that will be discussed. http://www.ncsall.net/index.php?id=456 3. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) [PDF document] by John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27 (ninth item down) 4. How the ARCS Was Done http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/op_arcs.pdf 5. Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) http://www.ncsall.net/?id=27#arcs David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From john_strucker at harvard.edu Wed May 31 10:37:38 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 10:37:38 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 83] Re: professional development using the ARCSwebsite In-Reply-To: <535FCFA131E9E4458CD9E1CF0C339E322BE59D@ldasbs.LDALEARNING.local> References: <535FCFA131E9E4458CD9E1CF0C339E322BE59D@ldasbs.LDALEARNING.local > Message-ID: Dear Marn, This looks great! It's very gratifying to have colleagues take what we've started and create something new and useful out of it. Best, John --On Tuesday, May 30, 2006 3:38 PM -0500 Marn Frank wrote: > This is a belated reply to the request for professional development ideas > using the ARCS website. I am in the process of developing a study > circle/training called "Using Informal Reading Assessments" for Minnesota > ABE. My co-presenter and I shared handouts and informal assessments > downloaded and printed from the ARCS website. We wanted to give > participants a hands-on experience with informal reading assessments they > could begin using immediately. It was received well and seemed to be > "convincing" that other assessments besides those just measuring silent > reading comprehension were worth their time and effort. > > This is our outline: > > 1. Refer participants to the ARCS handout COMPONENTS? READING PROFILES? > WHAT ARE THEY? 2. Do a quick review of the components and other words or > phrases that are used in the reading instruction world (alphabetics, > decoding, word analysis, encoding, etc.) 3. Share word recognition > and/or spelling assessments available from the ARCS website: Sylvia > Greene's Informal Word Analysis Inventory and the Quick Adult Reading > Inventory (QARI). 4. Provide an opportunity for participants to pair > up, administer, and score one of the above. We found from piloting this > study circle that a "script" from a real assessment might work better > because participants (ABE teachers) were struggling with mimicking adult > reading difficulties. 5. Share Read Naturally and pre-GED/GED passages > for cold and hot fluency timings. Again, we found that an audio-tape of > a real learner reading aloud would be a better simulated experience for > measuring oral reading rate. 6. Share the Word Meaning Test from the > ARCS and provide an opportunity to administer one or two levels to > determine a word meaning grade level. > > I feel the ARCS has been a remarkable resource (as has this discussion > list!) for my work in Minnesota ABE staff development. I use it > extensively for the above and also in facilitating practitioner reading > research (as developed by NCSALL). Thank You! > > Margaret (Marn) Frank > LD Specialist > LDA of Minnesota > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen > Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2006 4:30 PM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 42] Re: professional development using the > ARCSwebsite [bcc] > > > Thanks, Jane. I wonder if anyone else in this discussion has used > the ARCS Web site and/or a study circle model using the ARCS Web site > or other ARCS materials. If so, please tell us about your experience. > > Also, if anyone has questions for Jane or Ros about the use of the > ARCS Web site, please ask them now. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > On May 25, 2006, at 2:06 PM, Jane Meyer wrote: > >> David suggested that I tell a bit about how we used the ARCS >> website for >> professional development in our ABE program in Canton, Ohio. First I >> explored the website myself and then, at a staff meeting, I told the >> teachers about the site highlighting some features that I thought >> might >> be of particular interest to them. I offered to pay them if they >> wanted >> to explore the website for a professional development activity. I >> set a >> meeting date about a month away for those who had explored the website >> to discuss what they had found and how it could be useful to them as >> well as ask any questions. The teachers loved using the website for >> professional development because it was so convenient and the format >> worked great for us because I had staff with various levels of >> knowledge >> about reading. The website allowed those who needed basic information >> to get it without holding those back who had more knowledge and were >> ready to go deeper. It has been a while, but I remember the >> discussion >> about the site being quite rich. >> Jane Meyer >> Canton City Schools >> Canton, Ohio >> meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From john_strucker at harvard.edu Wed May 31 11:13:21 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Wed, 31 May 2006 11:13:21 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 84] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing In-Reply-To: <015501c6844f$b91fa720$3cd8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> References: <9D909391CB025945BDA19A90B940A0B6020EDA50@ccbc-de.ccbc.ccbcmd.ed u> <02D825AE7FFE591793EB2ADD@nichols303> <015501c6844f$b91fa720$3cd8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Message-ID: <2944999FC88387A0EF6B9312@nichols303> Hi Nicole, All of the things you and Suzi have brought up are indeed important issues that teachers of ESOL students need to know in order to teach them better. However, as a former ESOL teacher, I didn't expect to get this kind of nuanced cultural information from tests. It can only come from personal interviews (with translators if necessary), insights from bilingual members of a given community, and the hard-earned experience of other teachers. So my advice would be, take the time to do the interviews, gather the information, and learn from colleagues - but by all means don't neglect to take the time to give basic diagnostic tests of English reading, not to mention assessments of spoken language such as the Best+. The diagnostic information you have gleaned about your Chinese and Russian students seems very astute. But one shouldn't have to rely on experience alone, and out students shouldn't have to put up with teachers' learning curves any longer than necessary. And, often the issue is not whether a person (singular!) has does not have phonemic awareness, but they have or don't have. In my limited experience, for example, there is actually quite a bit of variation among ESOL Chinese speakers on the issue of phonemic awareness, depending on their early reading experience in Chinese,* their level of Chinese literacy, their previous encounters with alphabetic writing of English or other alphabetically written languages, and ultimately their innate phonological ability. Last point: one of the best predictors of how well an ESOL student will pick up English reading is their level of native language literacy. That's easy for us to obtain for Spanish speakers (ie, Woodcock-Munoz), and we should do everything thing we can to to do, but for all other languages, we really need some quick, easy-to-administer testing. This has been a great thread. Thanks to you and Suzi for getting it going. Best, John * This quote from Marilyn Jager Adams ( wrote: > Thanks John and Ros. > > Of course I understand the difficulty about norming tests for ESOL > learners given all the various differences. However I still think that > tests for English speakers may contain cultural biases or items that > students from other cultures cannot "get". I agree with Suzi that > students come with a variety of ideas about reading and learning that may > be culturally-based. For example, I have students who expect the teachers > to have all the answers. Others focus on mechanics: when asked to read > aloud, they can give a good rendition with little comprehension, etc. > I think if I know ( by experience and by observation) that my Chinese > beginning readers, in general, do not have phonemic awareness, that's > where I should start. I'm not convinced giving them the test will help > me much more and I'm afraid they will understand they failed the test. > As for my Russian students, they do not actually spell as we do. So I > need to teach spelling directly. I also have to know which letters of the > Cyrillic alphabet have a different sound for the same grapheme, both in > upper case and lower case. I do not need to speak the language. I need > to find out about areas of differences or difficulties. > And do on for the other components. > Your profiles may guide me but I'm still bothered: I would like to have > some kind of diagnostic test at hand. > Nicole B. Graves > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "john strucker" > To: > Sent: Tuesday, May 30, 2006 11:34 AM > Subject: [SpecialTopics 71] Re: ESOL diagnostic testing > > >> Hi Suzi, >> All students in ESOL classes, all non-native speakers of English in ABE >> classes, and all native speakers in ABE and ASE classes were assessed >> with the same battery of tests of English reading components. All of the > English >> reading tests were designed to be used with adults and/or children, but > not >> none were specifically normed on ESOL adults. But that was OK with Ros > and >> me, because we primarily wanted to know about their various reading >> profiles in English reading. (As aside, my intuition tells me that it >> would be very difficult to norm an English reading test on all varieties > of >> ESOL adults in such a way that would be useful to practitioners or even >> researchers. That is, given the diversity of ESOL students' native >> languages and native language literacy skills - not to mention cultural >> attitudes surrounding literacy, life experiences, etc. - it might make > more >> sense to develop norms within specific language groups, so you'd be only > be >> comparing Spanish speakers to Spanish speakers, Haitian Creole to Haitian >> Creole, etc. I'd be interested in other peoples' thoughts on this.) >> Back to the ARCS, all native speakers of Spanish, whether they were in >> ABE or ESOL classes, were also tested with the Woodcock-Munoz battery, >> which has been extensively normed on Spanish speakers from young children > through >> adults. >> As for your question about "cultural references/schema", I'm not sure >> exactly what you mean by that. Maybe you could say more. But remember, >> all we were doing with ARCS was testing people in reading - how they were >> reading English (and or Spanish as discussed above) at the moment we > showed >> up at their program. This was not a longitudinal study with pre and post >> measures where a number of other factors - including cultural factors - >> would indeed be expected to play a role in students' outcomes. In our >> extensive background questionnaire we did ask people about their >> childhood educational experience, literacy in native language as well as >> English, reading habits, parents' levels of education, reasons for >> attending adult education, health, family status, etc. We did this >> primarily to be able > to >> talk about the wide diversity in the US ESOL population. And, wow, did we >> find diversity! >> >> --On Friday, May 26, 2006 2:25 PM -0400 "Monti, Suzi" >> wrote: >> >> > >> > Hi, >> > I have been looking for an answer to the very solid ESOL-related >> > questions raised by this post. Perhaps I have missed the response. I am >> > especially interested in the question raised concerning whether the > tests >> > mentioned in the study were normed for a non-native speaking population >> > (a validity/reliability issue). I am also interested in what impact >> > lack of cultural reference/schema as well as other ESOL issues may >> > have had > on >> > the results. Finally, of course there is the issue of a > native/non-native >> > speaker's natural approach/bent (whether they tend to be top-down or >> > bottom-up in thinking) and what impact that may have on his/her >> > approach to reading. >> > >> > Suzi Monti >> > >> > TESOL Instructor - Maryland Bible College and Seminary, International >> > Institute of Linguistics >> > >> > ESOL Curriculum Developer, Instructional Specialist, and Intake >> > Asssessment Specialist - Community College of Baltimore County, Center >> > for Adult and Family Literacy >> > >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov >> > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Nicole Graves >> > Sent: Wednesday May 24, 2006 9:06 PM >> > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> > Subject: [SpecialTopics 32] ESOL diagnostic testing >> > >> > >> > >> > Hi John and Ros, >> > >> > I find the discussions most interesting. Thank you! >> > >> > I teach adult ESOL. Previously, I worked as a special education >> > teacher and as a reading teacher (children). Several of our learners >> > are non-readers or struggling readers. I'm currently teaching a >> > beginning level ESOL group and an ESOL/literacy class. We formed the >> > Lit class based on needs of the students: high level speakers, non- or >> > low-reading level, no or very low -level in writing. What diagnostic >> > tests would > you >> > suggest for this population in order to find strenghts and >> > instructional needs? Wouldn't tests normed on a population of native >> > speakers be somewhat inaccurate for ESOL learners? Depending on the >> > native > language, >> > I can see that in certain cases some tests might work fairly well. But >> > what of others with different alphabets and different ways? Chinese >> > learners do not sound out words. Russians do not actually spell words, >> > etc. >> > >> > Thanks again. >> > >> > Nicole B. Graves >> > Teacher/ESOL Program Coordinator >> > The Center for New Americans >> > Amherst, Greenfield, Northampton, MA >> > >> >> >> >> John Strucker, EdD >> Nichols House 303 >> Harvard Graduate School of Education >> 7 Appian Way >> Cambridge, MA 02138 >> >> 617 495 4745 >> 617 495 4811 (fax) >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From djrosen at comcast.net Thu Jun 1 10:25:11 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 1 Jun 2006 10:25:11 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 85] ARCS Discussion coming to a close Message-ID: <3643ABF6-E231-42F5-A5DE-05C5DB5F4DF0@comcast.net> Dear Special Topics Discussion List Colleagues, I want to thank you for joining and participating in this terrific discussion about the Adult Reading Components Study. I especially want to thank John Strucker and Rosalind Davidson for their careful, informative, encouraging replies, and those of you who posted such thoughtful questions to them. This is a great launch for the new special topics discussion list. The discussion is now coming to a close. It will be archived on both the National Institute for Literacy web pages and on the Adult Literacy Education Wiki. I will post a message to this list sometime in the next few days with the web page addresses. If you would like to comment on this discussion or make suggestions for improving the discussions we will have in the future you could send your thoughts to the special topics discussion list or e-mail them to me at djrosen at comcast.net The list will be quiet for a few weeks until the next topic. You can stay subscribed and wait to see what that topic will be, or you can unsubscribe by going to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/ specialtopics All the best David J. Rosen Special Topics List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Sat Jun 10 12:53:15 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Sat, 10 Jun 2006 12:53:15 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 86] New Discussion on Special Topics List: Learner Persistence Message-ID: <56B3185D-6C3C-46F6-9576-D02CCD1C2676@comcast.net> Colleagues, I am pleased to announce that on the Special Topics discussion list from July 10-18, Dr. John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL), will be a guest to discuss and answer questions about research on student persistence in adult literacy education. More information to come later in June. If you want to let colleagues know now, however, please forward this e-mail to them with the information below on how to subscribe: The National Institute for Literacy Special Topics electronic list is an intermittent discussion list. The topics open and close throughout the year, so there are periods where there are no discussion or postings. You can subscribe to the e-list for a particular topic of interest, and then unsubscribe, or you can stay subscribed throughout the year. To participate in this topic discussion, you can subscribe by going to: http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/specialtopics If you are subscribed but do not want to participate in this discussion, you can also unsubscribe using the above web address. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Wed Jul 5 16:33:07 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2006 16:33:07 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 87] Persistence Discussion Message-ID: Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but these will not be posted until July 10th. i am looking forward to your joining in on this important discussion. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net -------------- When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. We asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can meet their educational goals?" That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, and identified ways that programs were trying to support the persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be found at: In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with funds to implement interventions that might help improve persistence, and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their staff and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 months. The report of that second phase can be found at: We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the third approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, as well as it can be solved. I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be interested in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to expand opportunities for learning. John Comings, NCSALL Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From djrosen at comcast.net Thu Jul 6 11:09:46 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 6 Jul 2006 11:09:46 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 88] Persistence Discussion Panel Video Message-ID: <4FFEC93B-BDA6-417D-A57A-97B14A07B88D@comcast.net> Colleagues, In preparation for the upcoming special topics discussion on persistence with our guest, Dr. John Comings, you might wish to view a 30-minute video panel discussion with John and two practitioners, Kathy Endaya and Ernest Best. You will find the video streamed at: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, or you could try this shorter version: http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing the presentation. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Mon Jul 10 07:36:37 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 07:36:37 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <73DE2DF9-AA2D-40A2-928A-3135FA803DAB@comcast.net> Dear Colleagues, Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue through Tuesday next week, July 18th. Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two practitioners, streamed at: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, or you could try this shorter version: http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of the Mac streamed version. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: > Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, > > John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult > Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the > persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, > below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the > study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome > to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but > these will not be posted until July 10th. > > i am looking forward to your joining in on this important discussion. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > -------------- > > When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the > proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed > practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design > our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. We > asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they > wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED > programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and > second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, > "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the > program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can > meet their educational goals?" > > That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. > The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the > literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, > and identified ways that programs were trying to support the > persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be > found at: > > > > In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with > funds to implement interventions that might help improve persistence, > and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their staff > and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 > months. The report of that second phase can be found at: > > > > We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer > has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would > test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to > existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of > learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other > ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, > and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the third > approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, as well > as it can be solved. > > I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be interested > in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to > expand opportunities for learning. > > John Comings, NCSALL Director > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge MA 02138 > (617) 496-0516, voice > (617) 495-4811, fax > (617) 335-9839, mobile > john_comings at harvard.edu > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net From marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Mon Jul 10 10:02:17 2006 From: marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com (Marie Cora) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:02:17 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 90] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <73DE2DF9-AA2D-40A2-928A-3135FA803DAB@comcast.net> Message-ID: <007101c6a429$756d0050$0302a8c0@LITNOW> Dear Colleagues, Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what strategies folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with their students. I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do that. It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so easy to get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some of the things that folks do around this issue? Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you noted that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to acknowledge that the student might not persist. In other words, why not explore with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", this doesn't have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at the same time, completely logical. This appears to be part of what you intend in your third area of research based on what I've read. Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion Dear Colleagues, Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue through Tuesday next week, July 18th. Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two practitioners, streamed at: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, or you could try this shorter version: http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of the Mac streamed version. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: > Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, > > John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult > Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the > persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, > below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the > study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome > to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but > these will not be posted until July 10th. > > i am looking forward to your joining in on this important discussion. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > -------------- > > When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the > proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed > practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design > our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. We > asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they > wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED > programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and > second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, > "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the > program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can > meet their educational goals?" > > That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. > The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the > literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, > and identified ways that programs were trying to support the > persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be > found at: > > > > In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with > funds to implement interventions that might help improve persistence, > and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their staff > and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 > months. The report of that second phase can be found at: > > > > We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer > has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would > test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to > existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of > learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other > ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, > and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the third > approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, as well > as it can be solved. > > I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be interested > in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to > expand opportunities for learning. > > John Comings, NCSALL Director > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge MA 02138 > (617) 496-0516, voice > (617) 495-4811, fax > (617) 335-9839, mobile > john_comings at harvard.edu > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From bcarmel at rocketmail.com Mon Jul 10 12:25:49 2006 From: bcarmel at rocketmail.com (Bruce Carmel) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 09:25:49 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Message-ID: <20060710162549.75396.qmail@web37904.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/61741425/attachment.html From rrusso at hcde-texas.org Mon Jul 10 12:42:58 2006 From: rrusso at hcde-texas.org (Renata Russo) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 11:42:58 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies Message-ID: Hello Bruce, Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our programs. Renata -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? >From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY _____ Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/30843d6c/attachment.html From RMaurio at carrollcc.edu Mon Jul 10 12:55:53 2006 From: RMaurio at carrollcc.edu (Maurio, Rebecca) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 12:55:53 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 93] Re: Persistence Strategies Message-ID: <3F3CB09760922A47BA8FC7AC35B19999043D05E5@mail1.carrollcc.edu> Great discussion and it's only early Monday! I appreciate hearing ideas and learning what has worked in other settings - this topic is so critical to our work! Renata's comments lead me to ask - how can we help our funders and other stakeholders to understand the realities our students and our programs face? While we all need to be held to certain accountability measures, there will be many students who can benefit from even what most would consider irregular attendance - and I believe that's a good thing. How can we demonstrate other benefits - perhaps without the number of hours of attendance or without the score on a standardized post-test? I also wonder - what activities and strategies are programs employing to keep learners connected to their programs even when they cannot attend regularly? Thanks! Becki Becki Maurio ESOL Coordinator / Project Developer Carroll Community College Westminster, Maryland _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Renata Russo Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:43 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies Hello Bruce, Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our programs. Renata -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/537b1bbc/attachment.html From cbower at necc.mass.edu Mon Jul 10 13:03:00 2006 From: cbower at necc.mass.edu (Bower, Carol) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 13:03:00 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 94] Re: Persistence Strategies In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <1F64CFEE8902A248A8BE9EA760C0CE6480C938@LAWEX01.necc.mass.edu> Hello John and all, Renata's comment echos a concern I heard raised repeatedly in a NCSALL Persistence Study Circle which I recently co-facilitated with one of my SABES colleagues. In Massachusetts, where programs are being asked to be accountable for retention by reporting on attendance and average attended hours, programs willing to embrace the concepts and effective practices associated with the NCSALL definition of persistence are caught in a bit of a bind. They want to support the on-going learning of their students, and can see that many do persist, although not necessarily in the same program or in an uninterrupted fashion. What advice would you have for programs that are attempting to reconcile these different approaches? Carol Bower Director, NE SABES System for Adult Basic Education Support Northern Essex Community College 45 Franklin Street Lawrence, MA 01840 ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Renata Russo Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:43 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies Hello Bruce, Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our programs. Renata -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY ________________________________ Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/2d533af3/attachment.html From lmhowardliteracy at hotmail.com Mon Jul 10 13:08:21 2006 From: lmhowardliteracy at hotmail.com (Lynn Howard) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:08:21 -0700 Subject: [SpecialTopics 95] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <007101c6a429$756d0050$0302a8c0@LITNOW> Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/a40dc893/attachment.html From bcarmel at rocketmail.com Mon Jul 10 13:15:05 2006 From: bcarmel at rocketmail.com (Bruce Carmel) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:15:05 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [SpecialTopics 96] Re: Persistence Strategies In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060710171505.97074.qmail@web37913.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Dear Renata (and list) It is indeed sad that many programs who serve those most in need stand to lose funding. This just happened in New York State, where part of our WIA proposals scores were based on "report cards." So programs who serve students who make lots of progress quickly and programs who are good at massaging their data were at an advantage. Programs who chose to serve people in great need yet who were often unable to persist and/or did not show much progress on a standardized test were at a great disadvantage, and many did not receive funding. Bruce Carmel Renata Russo wrote: Hello Bruce, Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our programs. Renata -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics --------------------------------- Want to be your own boss? Learn how on Yahoo! Small Business. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/a18e45a7/attachment.html From WMaxwell at cde.ca.gov Mon Jul 10 13:26:06 2006 From: WMaxwell at cde.ca.gov (Wendi Maxwell) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:26:06 -0700 Subject: [SpecialTopics 97] Funding strategies to support persistence In-Reply-To: <1F64CFEE8902A248A8BE9EA760C0CE6480C938@LAWEX01.necc.mass.edu> References: <1F64CFEE8902A248A8BE9EA760C0CE6480C938@LAWEX01.necc.mass.edu> Message-ID: <44B22B3E0200001C000062BC@mail.cde.ca.gov> I'd like to address the policy conundrum that Carol referred to (below.) How can we develop policies (and funding procedures) that support learner persistence, but still allow for accountability of public funds? The performance-based accountability system we developed in California pays for student learning outcomes, rather than hours of attendance. From the point of view of public policy, I think this is a good compromise because it allows for a measurable return-on-investment of public monies. We've rapidly run out of federal money to support the learning gains of the state's students however, so it's not a strategy that can continue indefinitely. Also, it does not account very well for students who move in and out of the system, or those who start attending at the end of a fiscal year and only show learning gains in the new fiscal year, sometimes with limited hours of attendance showing up on their "new" fiscal year record. It seems to me there's two ways to determine how public policy should address persistence. One is to start from the ideal - what would be the ideal ways to support learner persistence, given what we know from research and effective practice? The other way is to start from the political reality - what can we actually "sell" or justify to legislators and auditors, given the restrictions they face on use of public funds? The ideal path is to find a balance between the two, and that balance will, and should, change as we learn more about "what works." I'd love to hear some discussion from practitioners (and other policy folks like me), on what would be the best ways to provide fiscal support for activities that support learner persistence. Wendi Maxwell Education Programs Consultant Adult Education Office California Department of Education >>> "Bower, Carol" 07/10/06 10:03 AM >>> Hello John and all, Renata?s comment echos a concern I heard raised repeatedly in a NCSALL Persistence Study Circle which I recently co-facilitated with one of my SABES colleagues. In Massachusetts, where programs are being asked to be accountable for retention by reporting on attendance and average attended hours, programs willing to embrace the concepts and effective practices associated with the NCSALL definition of persistence are caught in a bit of a bind. They want to support the on-going learning of their students, and can see that many do persist, although not necessarily in the same program or in an uninterrupted fashion. What advice would you have for programs that are attempting to reconcile these different approaches? Carol BowerDirector, NE SABESSystem for Adult Basic Education SupportNorthern Essex Community College45 Franklin StreetLawrence, MA 01840 From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Renata Russo Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:43 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies Hello Bruce, Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our programs. Renata -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence StrategiesDear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? >From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/deb3c09c/attachment.html From meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org Mon Jul 10 13:33:35 2006 From: meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org (Jane Meyer) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 13:33:35 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 98] Re: Persistence Strategies In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <44B28F6F.3040504@ccsdistrict.org> Renata Russo wrote: > "We as teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers > to participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for > some programs in recent years." > > I agree Renata, but I think the trick is to find ways that learners > can continue to study when they need to "stop out" and make it easy > for them to get back in when they can. Some ideas we have tried are > giving every student a full GED or pre GED workbook and the calculator > they will use on the GED test so they have something to work on at > home if they can't get in to class. We also show the GED on TV on our > school district's TV station 3 times every weekday so students can > watch lesson on TV. It seems what makes this work better is starting > the practices when the student is involved in class, then they are > more likely to continue on their own at home. For example we use the > workbook we give out in class from time to time in class so students > know how to use it and how it can be helpful to them. Phoning students > who have stopped coming also works well. The teacher can make > suggestions on what to work on at home and also make it clear that the > door is open for returning. We called students who had dropped out to > ask why and to invite them back. Many wanted to return, but either > weren't sure how or weren't sure they would be welcome. Now while > still emphasizing the importance of good attendance, we talk about > what to do when you need to stop out. It makes sense to spend time > and money on students who are already enrolled (and counting in your > statistics) rather than focusing solely on recruiting new students. Jane Meyer ABLE Coordinator Canton City Schools Canton, Ohio meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org From wookey.4 at osu.edu Mon Jul 10 13:33:40 2006 From: wookey.4 at osu.edu (Barbara Wookey) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 13:33:40 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 99] Re: Persistence Strategies References: Message-ID: <008d01c6a446$fc33ff90$0c00a8c0@delawarefddoqz> I agree with the accountability and importance of number of hours a student attends being a major focus of adult basic education programs. It's a necessary component for funding. However, there are ways to keep students coming back by making them feel that they are an essential part of the class, that they will be missed by the group when they are not there. I find that by doing a lot of group work and encouraging them to work together helps them get to know each other. I teach in an ESL adult class and I stress that they are all in the same boat. I also think providing a course outline at the beginning of the school year, having continuity in lessons, putting the lesson plan on the board, etc. helps students see a pattern and a structure. We are also becoming more "academic" because this is what the students want. We are constantly looking for more ideas to attract and keep students, knowing that their lives do interfere with their attendance. This year Ohio has started an adult ESL distance learning class and we are one of the pilot programs. This becomes another option for students. I'm glad to be a part of this discussion. Barbara Wookey wookey.4 at osu.edu To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:42 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies Hello Bruce, Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our programs. Renata -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Spam Not spam Forget previous vote ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/40c7cea1/attachment.html From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Mon Jul 10 16:01:10 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 16:01:10 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 100] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <4DDF8159-E0B2-4563-A310-324BFA9B53AF@comcast.net> References: <007101c6a429$756d0050$0302a8c0@LITNOW> <4DDF8159-E0B2-4563-A310-324BFA9B53AF@comcast.net> Message-ID: <28CD1855DD52048F3DCA6982@nic106> Sorry I'm late responding but I just got into the office after a morning of conference calls and family business. Let me start by saying that the last 8 years of research has given NCSALL some insights into what might work to increase persistence, but we don't yet have proof that the changes in program services that these insights suggest lead to increased persistence. However, I feel we have some of the best available advice. That advice suggests two broad approaches, one is to add supports to persistence in our existing programs and the other suggests adding those supports to programs that are designed to fit with the existing patterns of participation. The first approach is incremental and less expensive. That second requires changes in policy, funding, accountability, and service delivery. Now to Marie Cora's two questions: 1. Goals: The quantitative aspect of our research showed a correlation between students who were able to state a specific goal for attending (they persisted longer) and those who stated a vague goal or no goal at all (they persisted less). So we explored the goals of students and found that they usually expressed both an instrumental goal ("I want to get my GED, so I can get a better job" for example) and a transformational goal (I want to be the kind of person who has a high school education," for example). Many programs ask students at intake to state their goals, which is probably helpful. But, it might be helpful to weave the goal setting process into instruction as well. In this way, students can have some time to think about what they want and why they want it. Learner-produced reading materials, which many programs produce, at least in small quantities, might be useful in this process, but informal dialogue and writing about goals might work just as well. Any activities that help students articulate their instrumental and transformational goals, and revisit them as part of instruction, probably adds this support to persistence. 2. Stopout: In our interviews, students who had dropped out told us that their program would not allow them to return after they stopped attending, but the staff in their programs said this was not true and we observed students returning and being welcomed back into the program. The misconception started at intake and orientation, when staff emphasized good attendance. Our longitudinal study is identifying a pattern of participation in learning that is made up of episodes of participation in programs and episodes of self-study. Our research suggests that a support to persistence would making sure that new students know that they can stopout and also know how to reenter. However, we might do better to change the form of participation to one that links episodes of program participation and self study. > Begin forwarded message: > >> From: "Marie Cora" >> Date: July 10, 2006 10:02:17 AM EDT >> To: >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 90] Re: Persistence Discussion questions >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> >> Dear Colleagues, >> >> Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss >> Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what >> strategies >> folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with their students. >> >> I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am >> interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the >> student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do >> that. >> It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so >> easy to >> get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some >> of the >> things that folks do around this issue? >> >> Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you noted >> that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to acknowledge >> that the student might not persist. In other words, why not explore >> with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", this doesn't >> have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at the same time, >> completely logical. This appears to be part of what you intend in >> your >> third area of research based on what I've read. >> >> Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. >> >> Marie Cora >> NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator >> marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov >> [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion >> >> Dear Colleagues, >> >> Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings >> and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and >> Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue >> through Tuesday next week, July 18th. >> >> Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. >> >> In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of >> interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- >> minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two >> practitioners, streamed at: >> >> http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html >> >> You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, >> or you could try this shorter version: >> >> http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu >> >> Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing >> the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of >> the Mac streamed version. >> >> David J. Rosen >> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator >> djrosen at comcast.net >> >> On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: >> >>> Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, >>> >>> John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult >>> Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the >>> persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, >>> below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the >>> study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome >>> to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but >>> these will not be posted until July 10th. >>> >>> i am looking forward to your joining in on this important discussion. >>> >>> David J. Rosen >>> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator >>> djrosen at comcast.net >>> -------------- >>> >>> When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the >>> proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed >>> practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design >>> our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. We >>> asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they >>> wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED >>> programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and >>> second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, >>> "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the >>> program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can >>> meet their educational goals?" >>> >>> That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. >>> The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the >>> literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, >>> and identified ways that programs were trying to support the >>> persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be >>> found at: >>> >>> >>> >>> In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with >>> funds to implement interventions that might help improve persistence, >>> and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their staff >>> and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 >>> months. The report of that second phase can be found at: >>> >>> >>> >>> We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer >>> has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would >>> test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to >>> existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of >>> learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other >>> ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, >>> and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the third >>> approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, as well >>> as it can be solved. >>> >>> I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be interested >>> in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to >>> expand opportunities for learning. >>> >>> John Comings, NCSALL Director >>> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy >>> Harvard Graduate School of Education >>> 7 Appian Way >>> Cambridge MA 02138 >>> (617) 496-0516, voice >>> (617) 495-4811, fax >>> (617) 335-9839, mobile >>> john_comings at harvard.edu >>> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------- >>> National Institute for Literacy >>> Special Topics mailing list >>> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> >> David Rosen >> djrosen at comcast.net >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Mon Jul 10 16:29:01 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 16:29:01 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 101] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Strategies In-Reply-To: <2A96F1FD-33FE-4795-8CF3-3EEE453C0CD2@comcast.net> References: <3F3CB09760922A47BA8FC7AC35B19999043D05E5@mail1.carrollcc.edu> <2A96F1FD-33FE-4795-8CF3-3EEE453C0CD2@comcast.net> Message-ID: Well, I think we could demonstrate positive impact in students who have irregular attendance, but they would probably need some minimum intensity and duration to succeed. In England, programs are held accountable by their students taking standardized tests, but they are curriculum tests, more like the GED, except that there are five levels of tests and there are several versions of each test. So every class is helping its students prepare to pass a specific test, not make a gain on a pre-test and post-test. This gets a bit away from persistence, but I do think an approach to program participation that employed episodes of classroom learning with self-study would fit better with level tests than with pre-/post-test approach to accountability. Also, the policy allows for some students to decide not to take the tests. > Begin forwarded message: > >> From: "Maurio, Rebecca" >> Date: July 10, 2006 12:55:53 PM EDT >> To: >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 93] Re: Persistence Strategies >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> >> Great discussion and it's only early Monday! I appreciate hearing >> ideas and learning what has worked in other settings ? this topic >> is so critical to our work! >> >> >> >> Renata's comments lead me to ask ? how can we help our funders and >> other stakeholders to understand the realities our students and our >> programs face? While we all need to be held to certain >> accountability measures, there will be many students who can >> benefit from even what most would consider irregular attendance ? >> and I believe that's a good thing. How can we demonstrate other >> benefits - perhaps without the number of hours of attendance or >> without the score on a standardized post-test? >> >> >> >> I also wonder - what activities and strategies are programs >> employing to keep learners connected to their programs even when >> they cannot attend regularly? >> >> >> >> Thanks! >> Becki >> >> >> >> Becki Maurio >> >> ESOL Coordinator / Project Developer >> >> Carroll Community College >> >> Westminster, Maryland >> >> >> >> >> >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- >> bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Renata Russo >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:43 PM >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies >> >> >> >> Hello Bruce, >> >> >> >> Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found >> helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the >> second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as >> teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to >> participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for >> some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and >> funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our >> programs. >> >> >> >> Renata >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- >> bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies >> >> Dear John, >> >> I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student >> persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I >> have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes >> educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I >> learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds >> project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy >> students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: >> >> 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment >> (There are many components of this.) >> >> 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend >> classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their >> needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and >> duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, >> sporadic model of participation. >> >> >> >> What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, >> strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with >> student persistence? >> >> >> >> From Bruce Carmel >> >> Turning Point >> >> Brooklyn, NY >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Mon Jul 10 16:32:56 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 16:32:56 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 102] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Strategies In-Reply-To: <274B2D35-5EF9-433C-B68A-3BC45F4AC8FD@comcast.net> References: <1F64CFEE8902A248A8BE9EA760C0CE6480C938@LAWEX01.necc.mass.edu> <274B2D35-5EF9-433C-B68A-3BC45F4AC8FD@comcast.net> Message-ID: <01DCF341E5FE1BA5FC295C72@nic106> There is only so much a program can do within existing policies. The policies aren't bad, they are just based on assumptions that are true for some but not all students. We need to convince policy makers to broaden their definition of participation. > Begin forwarded message: > >> From: "Bower, Carol" >> Date: July 10, 2006 1:03:00 PM EDT >> To: >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 94] Re: Persistence Strategies >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> >> Hello John and all, >> >> >> >> Renata's comment echos a concern I heard raised repeatedly in a >> NCSALL Persistence Study Circle which I recently co-facilitated >> with one of my SABES colleagues. In Massachusetts, where programs >> are being asked to be accountable for retention by reporting on >> attendance and average attended hours, programs willing to embrace >> the concepts and effective practices associated with the NCSALL >> definition of persistence are caught in a bit of a bind. They want >> to support the on-going learning of their students, and can see >> that many do persist, although not necessarily in the same program >> or in an uninterrupted fashion. >> >> >> >> What advice would you have for programs that are attempting to >> reconcile these different approaches? >> >> >> >> Carol Bower >> >> Director, NE SABES >> >> System for Adult Basic Education Support >> >> Northern Essex Community College >> >> 45 Franklin Street >> >> Lawrence, MA 01840 >> >> >> >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- >> bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Renata Russo >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:43 PM >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies >> >> >> >> Hello Bruce, >> >> >> >> Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found >> helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the >> second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as >> teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to >> participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for >> some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and >> funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our >> programs. >> >> >> >> Renata >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- >> bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies >> >> Dear John, >> >> I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student >> persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I >> have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes >> educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I >> learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds >> project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy >> students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: >> >> 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment >> (There are many components of this.) >> >> 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend >> classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their >> needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and >> duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, >> sporadic model of participation. >> >> >> >> What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, >> strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with >> student persistence? >> >> >> >> From Bruce Carmel >> >> Turning Point >> >> Brooklyn, NY >> >> >> >> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and >> 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Mon Jul 10 16:37:12 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 16:37:12 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 103] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <0ED9FC40-F760-4C0F-84C0-A4BD147D57B9@comcast.net> References: <0ED9FC40-F760-4C0F-84C0-A4BD147D57B9@comcast.net> Message-ID: <9FBF2488DDF22170EAB3B3D1@nic106> This sounds like a good approach. When we were just starting the persistence project, we talked with programs about what they did to support persistence and we heard lots of good ideas, some of which ended up in our report. We need a systematic way to share all this professional wisdom. > > Begin forwarded message: > >> From: "Lynn Howard" >> Date: July 10, 2006 1:08:21 PM EDT >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 95] Re: Persistence Discussion questions >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> >> I am looking forward to this discussion because it is so relevant >> to our mission... >> >> To answer question one: We have a "Roles and Goals" form that we >> fill out with our students when they register for services. We ask >> them specifically "Why are you here today? What is your goal?" >> When they reply to learn to read, write and speak English, we then >> ask them "Why? What is it you hope to be able to do once you have >> begun working on these skills?" We then take that information, fill >> out the form and share that info with the student's tutor and in >> our database. We then ask tutors to let us know quarterly what >> goals have been met, what new goals have been set and what goals >> are still in progress. >> >> To answer question two: We let the students know from the >> beginning that we are aware that life gets in the way of learning >> sometiimes, and that taking a break to deal with life outside of >> tutoring is okay...we will contact them again after X amount of >> time (usually 4 weeks) to see how they are doing and if they are >> ready to continue. Our tutors sometimes break at the same time so >> they can keep their student, and sometimes choose to continue on >> with a different student. >> >> >> >> >> >> Lynn M. Howard, CoordinatorWoodland Public Library Literacy >> Service250 First StreetWoodland, CA 95695530-661-5987530-666-5408 >> FAXWPLLiteracyService at hotmail.com www.ci.woodland.ca.us/library/ >> literacypage.htm >> >> From: "Marie Cora" >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> To: >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 90] Re: Persistence Discussion questions >> Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 10:02:17 -0400 >> > Dear Colleagues, >> > >> > Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss >> > Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what >> strategies >> > folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with their students. >> > >> > I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am >> > interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the >> > student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do >> that. >> > It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so >> easy to >> > get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some >> of the >> > things that folks do around this issue? >> > >> > Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you >> noted >> > that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to acknowledge >> > that the student might not persist. In other words, why not explore >> > with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", this doesn't >> > have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at the same time, >> > completely logical. This appears to be part of what you intend in >> your >> > third area of research based on what I've read. >> > >> > Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. >> > >> > Marie Cora >> > NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator >> > marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com >> > >> > >> > -----Original Message----- >> > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov >> > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen >> > Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM >> > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> > Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion >> > >> > Dear Colleagues, >> > >> > Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings >> > and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and >> > Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue >> > through Tuesday next week, July 18th. >> > >> > Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. >> > >> > In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of >> > interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- >> > minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two >> > practitioners, streamed at: >> > >> > http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html >> > >> > You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, >> > or you could try this shorter version: >> > >> > http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu >> > >> > Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing >> > the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of >> > the Mac streamed version. >> > >> > David J. Rosen >> > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator >> > djrosen at comcast.net >> > >> > On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: >> > >> > > Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, >> > > >> > > John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of >> Adult >> > > Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the >> > > persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, >> > > below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of >> the >> > > study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome >> > > to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, >> but >> > > these will not be posted until July 10th. >> > > >> > > i am looking forward to your joining in on this important >> discussion. >> > > >> > > David J. Rosen >> > > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator >> > > djrosen at comcast.net >> > > -------------- >> > > >> > > When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the >> > > proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed >> > > practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us >> design >> > > our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the >> survey. We >> > > asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they >> > > wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and >> GED >> > > programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and >> > > second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, >> > > "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the >> > > program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can >> > > meet their educational goals?" >> > > >> > > That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of >> persistence. >> > > The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the >> > > literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England >> states, >> > > and identified ways that programs were trying to support the >> > > persistence of their students. The report of that first phase >> can be >> > > found at: >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided >> with >> > > funds to implement interventions that might help improve >> persistence, >> > > and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their >> staff >> > > and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 >> > > months. The report of that second phase can be found at: >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer >> > > has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would >> > > test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to >> > > existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of >> modes of >> > > learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other >> > > ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their >> learning, >> > > and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the >> third >> > > approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, >> as well >> > > as it can be solved. >> > > >> > > I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be >> interested >> > > in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and >> how to >> > > expand opportunities for learning. >> > > >> > > John Comings, NCSALL Director >> > > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy >> > > Harvard Graduate School of Education >> > > 7 Appian Way >> > > Cambridge MA 02138 >> > > (617) 496-0516, voice >> > > (617) 495-4811, fax >> > > (617) 335-9839, mobile >> > > john_comings at harvard.edu >> > > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > ------------------------------- >> > > National Institute for Literacy >> > > Special Topics mailing list >> > > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> > > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> > > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> > >> > David Rosen >> > djrosen at comcast.net >> > >> > >> > >> > ------------------------------- >> > National Institute for Literacy >> > Special Topics mailing list >> > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> > >> > ------------------------------- >> > National Institute for Literacy >> > Special Topics mailing list >> > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Mon Jul 10 16:54:28 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 16:54:28 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 104] Persistence Message-ID: <05A38EBB1AA42300B8534472@nic106> The last few posts make me feel that the value of NCSALL's persistence study is the dialogue it started and the sharing of experience among practitioners. For those of you who have not seen the NCSALL study circle guide on persistence, you might take a look at the new revised version that is now available on the NCSALL Web site. This version includes phase 2 of the research, which the first version did not. The URL is http://www.ncsall.net/?id=896. The link is also on the home page. John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From djrosen at comcast.net Mon Jul 10 17:25:58 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 17:25:58 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 105] Re: Persistence Strategies References: Message-ID: <7D28B964-2ABD-4B95-81BD-919BD088689C@comcast.net> From: John Comings Date: July 10, 2006 4:20:36 PM EDT I think I spoke to this in the last posting, but let me elaborate. Someone once told me that in advertising there are two kinds of products. An example of the first is toothpaste. Apparently, the percentage of the population that is willing to brush their teeth is set. It isn't getting any bigger, and so toothpaste companies are not trying to sell people on the idea of brushing their teeth but, rather, trying to get people to change from one brand of toothpaste to another. An example of the second was the personal computer. In 1980, very few people knew they wanted a personal computer. IBM and Apple had to sell the idea. People had to be convinced to buy a product they didn't know they needed. We're at that stage. There is some interesting innovation in using computers and the Web for our field. Someone now needs to put it together and sell it to government policy makers. John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > >> Begin forwarded message: >> >>> From: "Renata Russo" >>> Date: July 10, 2006 12:42:58 PM EDT >>> To: >>> Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies >>> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >>> >>> Hello Bruce, >>> >>> Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found >>> helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the >>> second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as >>> teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to >>> participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for >>> some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and >>> funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our >>> programs. >>> >>> Renata >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- >>> bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel >>> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM >>> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >>> Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies >>> >>> Dear John, >>> I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student >>> persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I >>> have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes >>> educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I >>> learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds >>> project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy >>> students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: >>> 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment >>> (There are many components of this.) >>> 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend >>> classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their >>> needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and >>> duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, >>> sporadic model of participation. >>> >>> What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, >>> strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with >>> student persistence? >>> >>> From Bruce Carmel >>> Turning Point >>> Brooklyn, NY >>> >>> >>> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and >>> 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. >>> ------------------------------- >>> National Institute for Literacy >>> Special Topics mailing list >>> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> >> David Rosen >> djrosen at comcast.net >> >> >> > > From Khinson at future-gate.com Mon Jul 10 19:58:05 2006 From: Khinson at future-gate.com (Katrina Hinson) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 01:58:05 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 105] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <007101c6a429$756d0050$0302a8c0@LITNOW> References: <73DE2DF9-AA2D-40A2-928A-3135FA803DAB@comcast.net> <007101c6a429$756d0050$0302a8c0@LITNOW> Message-ID: <44B2B14B.121D.00A0.0@future-gate.com> This is a great discussion so far. I've enjoyed reading all the email today and thinking about all the ideas shared so far, as well as the questions/concerns presented. I thought I'd jump into this conversation by answering the question Maria posed below. Question 1: (Goal Setting) - When I get new students in my class - one of things we do together is go over the LEIS profile sheet A) because I have to and B) it's a good way to begin to ask my students questions about what brought them to the program and what they hope to get out of it. I loved Lynn Howard's idea of the "Roles and Goals" sheet. I don't necessarily have a sheet, but I make lots of notes that I keep in each students folder and/or in my own lesson planning notebook. Periodically, I come back to a student's goals and discuss with them their progress towards their goals. It's a way to find out if they've changed or added new ones. I can update their records that way and I can also talk about realistic goal setting during the initial process and the follow up. Usually, I have one or two students who place very low and think getting their GED is going to be "easy". When we get to the follow up goal setting discussion, they've realized that they have material to learn and opt to change their goals but stair stepping them so that they can see their own POSITIVE gains in smaller chunks rather than focusing on the big picture. Like many of the others, I share the concerns that there is a conflict between accountability measures and the real reasons a student stops coming. I do think teachers need to be accountable but I think there has to be a better way than what is currently being done to programs. It seems to me, that rather than helping to improve programs, accountability measures that are directly tied to funding may ultimately see some programs disappear. What happens to our students when they have no place to go? In rural areas with high unemployment, high drop out rates etc; it's often difficult to meet performance measures based on the progress of standardized tests for the very reasons that students do "stop out" for whatever reason - those reasons are never taken into account, program funding gets cut and classes are closed because there is no teacher to teach. Barbara Wookey replied in an email: ". . . .there are ways to keep students coming back by making them feel that they are an essential part of the class, that they will be missed by the group when they are not there. . . ." I'm not sure it's that easy though. The one thing that my students have repeatedly told me is the reason they keep coming back is because they know I care...at the same time I still get the same number of phone calls from students who tell me they don't have transportation, no way to pay for daycare, no computer access to even consider working online, having the baby at home would interfere with study time etc. No matter how much I care for my students, no matter the level of comraderie established in my class, some things are simply out of a teachers control. Additionally, I'd love to provide a course outline but I have open enrollment. I can get students the week before a session ends. A course outline, in that regard, would not be very useful. Not only that, in a multilevel classroom, I may have multiple subjects going at the same time and again it would limit the type of structure I can provide. (I'm open to ideas if anyone has them.) It's funny - you said your program is becoming more "academic" while ours is becoming more "vocational." We've learned that many of our students don't have desires to pursue a 4 year degree or even a 2 year degree. Most are after skills and certifications that are going to make them employable in a very tight job market or give them skills if they move to a different market. We're in the middle of trying to find that balance between academic and vocational so we can meet both needs. I there are so many things that can impact a student's persistence and I'm wondering if the needs actually vary from region to region - rural to urban etc. A lot of research is done in the Northeast or other major metropolitan areas but realistically, how applicable and how sound is it when it comes to a program that serves in different regions that may have different factors that influence persistence rates? Regards Katrina Hinson >>> "Marie Cora" 7/10/2006 10:02 am >>> Dear Colleagues, Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what strategies folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with their students. I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do that. It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so easy to get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some of the things that folks do around this issue? Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you noted that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to acknowledge that the student might not persist. In other words, why not explore with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", this doesn't have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at the same time, completely logical. This appears to be part of what you intend in your third area of research based on what I've read. Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion Dear Colleagues, Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue through Tuesday next week, July 18th. Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two practitioners, streamed at: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, or you could try this shorter version: http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of the Mac streamed version. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: > Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, > > John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult > Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the > persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, > below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the > study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome > to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but > these will not be posted until July 10th. > > i am looking forward to your joining in on this important discussion. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > -------------- > > When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the > proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed > practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design > our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. We > asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they > wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED > programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and > second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, > "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the > program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can > meet their educational goals?" > > That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. > The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the > literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, > and identified ways that programs were trying to support the > persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be > found at: > > > > In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with > funds to implement interventions that might help improve persistence, > and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their staff > and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 > months. The report of that second phase can be found at: > > > > We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer > has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would > test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to > existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of > learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other > ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, > and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the third > approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, as well > as it can be solved. > > I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be interested > in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to > expand opportunities for learning. > > John Comings, NCSALL Director > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge MA 02138 > (617) 496-0516, voice > (617) 495-4811, fax > (617) 335-9839, mobile > john_comings at harvard.edu > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics David Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Mon Jul 10 21:53:44 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 21:53:44 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 106] Re: Fwd: Posting for Persistence discussion In-Reply-To: References: <8ED1421E7185F742B0485938@nic106> Message-ID: <9C5B8CE05F23305687E8C5F7@[192.168.1.102]> High quality instruction in a supportive environment is a support to persistence. These should be qualities of every program. The present definition of success works for some students but not others. I see no reason why we couldn't have several different types of success. However, our programs are funded by agencies that want a credible measure of success. When NCSALL started ten years ago, many people asked me why didn't we have a research project on technology, and I said I couldn't think of a research question for technology. Now, I believe that technology could help solve this problem by expanding the way we measure success but also by helping us track episodes of participation either in program or through self-study. I don't think government policy makers are going to support the development of these new kinds of success. We need a foundation to help us develop new approaches that employ technology to open up new ways to participate in learning and new ways to measure persistence and achievement. Once these new approaches have been developed and tested, policy makers will accept them. >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>> Begin forwarded message: >>>> >>>> >>>>> From: Bruce Carmel >>>>> Date: July 10, 2006 12:25:49 PM EDT >>>>> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >>>>> Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies >>>>> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >>>>> >>>>> Dear John, >>>>> I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student >>>>> persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I >>>>> have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes >>>>> educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I >>>>> learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds >>>>> project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy >>>>> students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: >>>>> 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment >>>>> (There are many components of this.) >>>>> 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend >>>>> classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their >>>>> needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and >>>>> duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, >>>>> sporadic model of participation. >>>>> >>>>> What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, >>>>> strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with >>>>> student persistence? >>>>> >>>>> From Bruce Carmel >>>>> Turning Point >>>>> Brooklyn, NY >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and >>>>> 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. >>>>> ------------------------------- >>>>> National Institute for Literacy >>>>> Special Topics mailing list >>>>> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >>>>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >>>>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >>>>> >>>> >>>> David Rosen >>>> djrosen at comcast.net >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> John Comings, Director >>> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy >>> Harvard Graduate School of Education >>> 7 Appian Way >>> Cambridge MA 02138 >>> (617) 496-0516, voice >>> (617) 495-4811, fax >>> (617) 335-9839, mobile >>> john_comings at harvard.edu >>> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >>> >>> >>> >>> David Rosen >>> djrosen at comcast.net >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> >> John Comings, Director >> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy >> Harvard Graduate School of Education >> 7 Appian Way >> Cambridge MA 02138 >> (617) 496-0516, voice >> (617) 495-4811, fax >> (617) 335-9839, mobile >> john_comings at harvard.edu >> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >> > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From cnaamh at rcn.com Mon Jul 10 21:23:58 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 21:23:58 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 107] Re: Persistence Strategies References: <20060710162549.75396.qmail@web37904.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <011a01c6a490$3cb50520$dad8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> I agree with you, Bruce. High-quality instruction in a supportive environment is key and has many components. We may have to re-define success for funders but for students feeling successful NOW is a key element of persistence. We evaluate every activity and every class. All students should leave every class with a feeling of success. I try my best to have students leave, even the first class, with something they can use now. Nicole B. Graves South Deerfield, MA ----- Original Message ----- From: Bruce Carmel To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:25 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/51ff517c/attachment.html From cnaamh at rcn.com Mon Jul 10 21:41:20 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 21:41:20 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 108] Re: Persistence Strategies References: <008d01c6a446$fc33ff90$0c00a8c0@delawarefddoqz> Message-ID: <011b01c6a490$3defcf10$dad8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Well said, Barbara. Building community in the classroom is very important and the ideas you list support this development. I also call students immediately when they miss class without letting me know or I ask a classmate to do so. Sometimes having a conversation about the barriers helps to manage them. For example, a student may say he missed class because he had to go to work early or he had a doctor's appointment. By asking if the boss is aware of the student class schedule, I may discover that the student never mentioned that fact. We can practice a potential conversation to, at least, reveal the fact. By sharing that I ask that my appointments be made at a different time, I can help the student see that he or she is in fact a "customer". Recently, a young pregnant woman started to miss class every Thursday to go to the doctor. After our talk, she told me she could not change the day but she was able to change the time. It allowed her to come for most of the class. (I also tell them it does not always work.) Our students do not have a lot of "flex" time, I am very much aware of that. Nicole B. Graves ----- Original Message ----- From: Barbara Wookey To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 1:33 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 99] Re: Persistence Strategies I agree with the accountability and importance of number of hours a student attends being a major focus of adult basic education programs. It's a necessary component for funding. However, there are ways to keep students coming back by making them feel that they are an essential part of the class, that they will be missed by the group when they are not there. I find that by doing a lot of group work and encouraging them to work together helps them get to know each other. I teach in an ESL adult class and I stress that they are all in the same boat. I also think providing a course outline at the beginning of the school year, having continuity in lessons, putting the lesson plan on the board, etc. helps students see a pattern and a structure. We are also becoming more "academic" because this is what the students want. We are constantly looking for more ideas to attract and keep students, knowing that their lives do interfere with their attendance. This year Ohio has started an adult ESL distance learning class and we are one of the pilot programs. This becomes another option for students. I'm glad to be a part of this discussion. Barbara Wookey wookey.4 at osu.edu To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:42 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies Hello Bruce, Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our programs. Renata -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Spam Not spam Forget previous vote ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060710/ccd2c69b/attachment.html From cnaamh at rcn.com Mon Jul 10 22:13:12 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 22:13:12 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 109] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Discussion questions References: <007101c6a429$756d0050$0302a8c0@LITNOW><4DDF8159-E0B2-4563-A310-324BFA9B53AF@comcast.net> <28CD1855DD52048F3DCA6982@nic106> Message-ID: <011d01c6a490$439238e0$dad8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Hello John, I met you years ago at a NCSALL meeting. I was a PDRN from Massachusetts. I agree with your answer for number 1. Goals must be part of instruction and revisited frequently. They can and do change over time. Nicole B. Graves ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Comings" To: Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 4:01 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 100] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Discussion questions > Sorry I'm late responding but I just got into the office after a morning of > conference calls and family business. > > Let me start by saying that the last 8 years of research has given NCSALL > some insights into what might work to increase persistence, but we don't > yet have proof that the changes in program services that these insights > suggest lead to increased persistence. However, I feel we have some of the > best available advice. That advice suggests two broad approaches, one is to > add supports to persistence in our existing programs and the other suggests > adding those supports to programs that are designed to fit with the > existing patterns of participation. The first approach is incremental and > less expensive. That second requires changes in policy, funding, > accountability, and service delivery. > > Now to Marie Cora's two questions: > > 1. Goals: The quantitative aspect of our research showed a correlation > between students who were able to state a specific goal for attending (they > persisted longer) and those who stated a vague goal or no goal at all (they > persisted less). So we explored the goals of students and found that they > usually expressed both an instrumental goal ("I want to get my GED, so I > can get a better job" for example) and a transformational goal (I want to > be the kind of person who has a high school education," for example). Many > programs ask students at intake to state their goals, which is probably > helpful. But, it might be helpful to weave the goal setting process into > instruction as well. In this way, students can have some time to think > about what they want and why they want it. Learner-produced reading > materials, which many programs produce, at least in small quantities, might > be useful in this process, but informal dialogue and writing about goals > might work just as well. Any activities that help students articulate their > instrumental and transformational goals, and revisit them as part of > instruction, probably adds this support to persistence. > > 2. Stopout: In our interviews, students who had dropped out told us that > their program would not allow them to return after they stopped attending, > but the staff in their programs said this was not true and we observed > students returning and being welcomed back into the program. The > misconception started at intake and orientation, when staff emphasized good > attendance. Our longitudinal study is identifying a pattern of > participation in learning that is made up of episodes of participation in > programs and episodes of self-study. Our research suggests that a support > to persistence would making sure that new students know that they can > stopout and also know how to reenter. However, we might do better to change > the form of participation to one that links episodes of program > participation and self study. > > > > Begin forwarded message: > > > >> From: "Marie Cora" > >> Date: July 10, 2006 10:02:17 AM EDT > >> To: > >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 90] Re: Persistence Discussion questions > >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > >> > >> Dear Colleagues, > >> > >> Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss > >> Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what > >> strategies > >> folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with their students. > >> > >> I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am > >> interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the > >> student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do > >> that. > >> It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so > >> easy to > >> get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some > >> of the > >> things that folks do around this issue? > >> > >> Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you noted > >> that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to acknowledge > >> that the student might not persist. In other words, why not explore > >> with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", this doesn't > >> have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at the same time, > >> completely logical. This appears to be part of what you intend in > >> your > >> third area of research based on what I've read. > >> > >> Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. > >> > >> Marie Cora > >> NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator > >> marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com > >> > >> > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > >> [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen > >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM > >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion > >> > >> Dear Colleagues, > >> > >> Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings > >> and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and > >> Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue > >> through Tuesday next week, July 18th. > >> > >> Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. > >> > >> In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of > >> interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- > >> minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two > >> practitioners, streamed at: > >> > >> http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html > >> > >> You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, > >> or you could try this shorter version: > >> > >> http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu > >> > >> Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing > >> the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of > >> the Mac streamed version. > >> > >> David J. Rosen > >> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > >> djrosen at comcast.net > >> > >> On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: > >> > >>> Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, > >>> > >>> John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult > >>> Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the > >>> persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, > >>> below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the > >>> study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome > >>> to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but > >>> these will not be posted until July 10th. > >>> > >>> i am looking forward to your joining in on this important discussion. > >>> > >>> David J. Rosen > >>> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > >>> djrosen at comcast.net > >>> -------------- > >>> > >>> When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the > >>> proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed > >>> practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design > >>> our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. We > >>> asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they > >>> wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED > >>> programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and > >>> second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, > >>> "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the > >>> program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can > >>> meet their educational goals?" > >>> > >>> That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. > >>> The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the > >>> literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, > >>> and identified ways that programs were trying to support the > >>> persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be > >>> found at: > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with > >>> funds to implement interventions that might help improve persistence, > >>> and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their staff > >>> and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 > >>> months. The report of that second phase can be found at: > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer > >>> has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would > >>> test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to > >>> existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of > >>> learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other > >>> ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, > >>> and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the third > >>> approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, as well > >>> as it can be solved. > >>> > >>> I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be interested > >>> in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to > >>> expand opportunities for learning. > >>> > >>> John Comings, NCSALL Director > >>> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > >>> Harvard Graduate School of Education > >>> 7 Appian Way > >>> Cambridge MA 02138 > >>> (617) 496-0516, voice > >>> (617) 495-4811, fax > >>> (617) 335-9839, mobile > >>> john_comings at harvard.edu > >>> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> ------------------------------- > >>> National Institute for Literacy > >>> Special Topics mailing list > >>> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > >>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > >>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > >> > >> David Rosen > >> djrosen at comcast.net > >> > >> > >> > >> ------------------------------- > >> National Institute for Literacy > >> Special Topics mailing list > >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > >> > >> ------------------------------- > >> National Institute for Literacy > >> Special Topics mailing list > >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > > David Rosen > > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > > > > > > > John Comings, Director > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge MA 02138 > (617) 496-0516, voice > (617) 495-4811, fax > (617) 335-9839, mobile > john_comings at harvard.edu > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From cnaamh at rcn.com Mon Jul 10 22:07:16 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 22:07:16 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 110] Re: Persistence Discussion questions References: <007101c6a429$756d0050$0302a8c0@LITNOW> Message-ID: <011c01c6a490$41c95fc0$dad8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Hi Marie, Students who make the effort to contact a program generally have at least a broad goal in mind. It is not always very realistic. It is important to clarify the goal and to break it down into more specific goals. We ask students about goals at intake. This is not sufficient. Goal-setting activities at the beginning of every class must be seen and understood as being components of instruction. These activities help students break down a broad goal into more manageable steps. These more specific steps can become lesson objectives. Students achieve the objectives and gain success. The process is repeated by setting new mini-goals or steps. Connecting learners' goals with instruction, now, helps to increase motivation and persistence. Immediacy is also important. The process we use in my program is explained in Adventures and Assessment, Vol. 16. Spring 2004. Nicole B. Graves The Center for New Americans ----- Original Message ----- From: "Marie Cora" To: Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 10:02 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 90] Re: Persistence Discussion questions > Dear Colleagues, > > Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss > Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what strategies > folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with their students. > > I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am > interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the > student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do that. > It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so easy to > get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some of the > things that folks do around this issue? > > Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you noted > that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to acknowledge > that the student might not persist. In other words, why not explore > with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", this doesn't > have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at the same time, > completely logical. This appears to be part of what you intend in your > third area of research based on what I've read. > > Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. > > Marie Cora > NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator > marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen > Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion > > Dear Colleagues, > > Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings > and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and > Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue > through Tuesday next week, July 18th. > > Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. > > In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of > interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- > minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two > practitioners, streamed at: > > http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html > > You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, > or you could try this shorter version: > > http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu > > Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing > the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of > the Mac streamed version. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: > > > Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, > > > > John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult > > Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the > > persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, > > below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the > > study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome > > to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but > > these will not be posted until July 10th. > > > > i am looking forward to your joining in on this important discussion. > > > > David J. Rosen > > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > > djrosen at comcast.net > > -------------- > > > > When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the > > proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed > > practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design > > our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. We > > asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they > > wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED > > programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and > > second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, > > "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the > > program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can > > meet their educational goals?" > > > > That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. > > The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the > > literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, > > and identified ways that programs were trying to support the > > persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be > > found at: > > > > > > > > In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with > > funds to implement interventions that might help improve persistence, > > and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their staff > > and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 > > months. The report of that second phase can be found at: > > > > > > > > We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer > > has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would > > test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to > > existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of > > learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other > > ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, > > and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the third > > approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, as well > > as it can be solved. > > > > I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be interested > > in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to > > expand opportunities for learning. > > > > John Comings, NCSALL Director > > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > > Harvard Graduate School of Education > > 7 Appian Way > > Cambridge MA 02138 > > (617) 496-0516, voice > > (617) 495-4811, fax > > (617) 335-9839, mobile > > john_comings at harvard.edu > > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > National Institute for Literacy > > Special Topics mailing list > > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From cnaamh at rcn.com Mon Jul 10 22:15:17 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2006 22:15:17 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 111] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Strategies References: <1F64CFEE8902A248A8BE9EA760C0CE6480C938@LAWEX01.necc.mass.edu><274B2D35-5EF9-433C-B68A-3BC45F4AC8FD@comcast.net> <01DCF341E5FE1BA5FC295C72@nic106> Message-ID: <011e01c6a490$46e55b80$dad8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> How can we convince policy makers to broaden their definitions? Nicole B. Graves ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Comings" To: Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 4:32 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 102] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Strategies > There is only so much a program can do within existing policies. The > policies aren't bad, they are just based on assumptions that are true for > some but not all students. We need to convince policy makers to broaden > their definition of participation. > > > > Begin forwarded message: > > > >> From: "Bower, Carol" > >> Date: July 10, 2006 1:03:00 PM EDT > >> To: > >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 94] Re: Persistence Strategies > >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > >> > >> Hello John and all, > >> > >> > >> > >> Renata's comment echos a concern I heard raised repeatedly in a > >> NCSALL Persistence Study Circle which I recently co-facilitated > >> with one of my SABES colleagues. In Massachusetts, where programs > >> are being asked to be accountable for retention by reporting on > >> attendance and average attended hours, programs willing to embrace > >> the concepts and effective practices associated with the NCSALL > >> definition of persistence are caught in a bit of a bind. They want > >> to support the on-going learning of their students, and can see > >> that many do persist, although not necessarily in the same program > >> or in an uninterrupted fashion. > >> > >> > >> > >> What advice would you have for programs that are attempting to > >> reconcile these different approaches? > >> > >> > >> > >> Carol Bower > >> > >> Director, NE SABES > >> > >> System for Adult Basic Education Support > >> > >> Northern Essex Community College > >> > >> 45 Franklin Street > >> > >> Lawrence, MA 01840 > >> > >> > >> > >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- > >> bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Renata Russo > >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:43 PM > >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies > >> > >> > >> > >> Hello Bruce, > >> > >> > >> > >> Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found > >> helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the > >> second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as > >> teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to > >> participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for > >> some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and > >> funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our > >> programs. > >> > >> > >> > >> Renata > >> > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- > >> bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel > >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM > >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies > >> > >> Dear John, > >> > >> I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student > >> persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I > >> have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes > >> educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I > >> learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds > >> project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy > >> students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: > >> > >> 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment > >> (There are many components of this.) > >> > >> 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend > >> classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their > >> needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and > >> duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, > >> sporadic model of participation. > >> > >> > >> > >> What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, > >> strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with > >> student persistence? > >> > >> > >> > >> From Bruce Carmel > >> > >> Turning Point > >> > >> Brooklyn, NY > >> > >> > >> > >> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and > >> 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. > >> > >> ------------------------------- > >> National Institute for Literacy > >> Special Topics mailing list > >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > > David Rosen > > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > > > > > > > John Comings, Director > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge MA 02138 > (617) 496-0516, voice > (617) 495-4811, fax > (617) 335-9839, mobile > john_comings at harvard.edu > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Tue Jul 11 06:40:28 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 06:40:28 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 112] New from NCSALL--Adult Student Persistence Study Circle Guide References: <002901c6a477$4732c190$0202a8c0@your4105e587b6> Message-ID: <62D79A5A-8CCC-4CE7-A8D8-56BCF7D67922@comcast.net> Colleagues, This newly revised resource is pertinent to our discussion about persistence. David J. Rosen pecial Stopics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net Begin forwarded message: > From: "Kaye Beall" > Date: July 10, 2006 7:19:22 PM EDT > Study Circle Guide: Adult Student Persistence > > Newly revised to include the second phase of the NCSALL research on > adult student persistence, this guide provides comprehensive > instructions for facilitating a 10?-hour study circle. It explores > what the research says about adult student persistence and ideas > for how to apply what is learned in classrooms and programs. The > guide is based on a review of the NCSALL research on adult student > persistence conducted by John Comings and others, summarized in an > article entitled ?Supporting the Persistence of Adult Basic > Education Students? and other studies on student motivation and > retention. It includes articles, resources, and action research > reports to help practitioners consider strategies for increasing > adult student persistence. This guide provides all the necessary > materials and clear instructions to plan and facilitate a three- > session study circle with an option for a fourth. Each session > lasts three-and-a-half hours. > > To download the study circle guide, visit NCSALL?s Web site: http:// > www.ncsall.net/?id=896 > > **************** > > Kaye Beall > > Outreach Coordinator/NCSALL Dissemination Project > > World Education > > 4401 S. Madison St. > > Muncie, IN 47302 > > Tel: 765-717-3942 > > Fax: 208-694-8262 > > kaye_beall at worlded.org > > http://www.ncsall.net > From hsnow at cougar.kean.edu Tue Jul 11 08:05:57 2006 From: hsnow at cougar.kean.edu (Hugh D. Snow) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 07:05:57 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 113] Re: Persistence Strategies Message-ID: <5ac5a277.a2775ac5@kean.edu> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060711/f6db786f/attachment.html -------------- next part -------------- I agree with you, Bruce. High-quality instruction in a supportive environment is key and has many components. We may have to re-define success for funders but for students feeling successful NOW is a key element of persistence. We evaluate every activity and every class. All students should leave every class with a feeling of success. I try my best to have students leave, even the first class, with something they can use now. Nicole B. Graves South Deerfield, MA ----- Original Message ----- From: Bruce Carmel To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:25 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060711/f6db786f/attachment-0001.html -------------- next part -------------- ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From night-school at usa.net Tue Jul 11 09:19:59 2006 From: night-school at usa.net (Terri DeVito) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 09:19:59 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 114] Childcare and Transportation Barrier Removal Message-ID: <843kgkNT84368S13.1152623999@uwdvg013.cms.usa.net> My name is Terri Stone and I have been an ESOL/ABE Director of a smaller, semi-rural program in Mass. for the past 9 years. Two issues that continue to arise for our students as well as for our more at-risk community members are the issues of childcare and transportation. We have opted from the very beginning of our program to offer both on-site, free childcare and free transportation from our community and one abutting community. We hope to expand this transportation option to two additional communitites in FY '07. These services are constantly used and our students report regularly that without these services they would have never been able to accomplish their goal of coming to class on a regular basis. I know that these options are not reasonable in some locations, but do believe that a broader acceptance in our field of actually removing these barriers for students would greatly enhance program access to students who otherwise could not attend classes as well as provide an often closed pathway for students who truly need and want these services. From e.b.shupe at lycos.com Tue Jul 11 10:07:16 2006 From: e.b.shupe at lycos.com (e s) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 09:07:16 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 115] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Strategies Message-ID: <20060711140721.EA1953384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> Hello Everyone, Very interesting discussion with lots of insight into the multi-faceted topic of "persistence" of adult learners. On the topic of domestic violence, I have used film to introduce the the topic of domestic violence. In particular, The Joy Luck Club. One of the overarching themes in this movie, is the way cultural norms keep women (and men) in rigified roles. Men sometimes act out these roles in abusive ways and women defer and find themselves powerless. It does the allow learners the safety of distance in looking at this issue through the experiences of others in the film. We spend time after the movie discussing the experiences of the characters in the film. I use the blackboard to keep track of the discussion providing some structure to the discussion. (problems/solutions) It has always been a powerful way to introduce a topic that can leave everyone feeling uncomfortable. -- _______________________________________________ Search for businesses by name, location, or phone number. -Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Tue Jul 11 11:07:28 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:07:28 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 116] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <44B2B14B.121D.00A0.0@future-gate.com> References: <73DE2DF9-AA2D-40A2-928A-3135FA803DAB@comcast.net> <007101c6a429$756d0050$0302a8c0@LITNOW> <44B2B14B.121D.00A0.0@future-gate.com> Message-ID: <198C14D60B3735B07EB1E805@nic106> Katrina's last question is one that is key to evaluating the usefulness of research. That is, was the research done in a context and with students similar to my program. Our field does not have sufficient research funding to replicate studies in the many contexts and with the many types of students we have. So, we must identify the characteristics of context and subjects that are most important. In our research, being older than 30, having teen or adult children, and being an immigrant predicted higher persistence, and so we might need persistence studies that looked separately at young and old, older children and younger children, and immigrant and native born students. As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal factors do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of supports to persistence might be affected by these factors. July 11, 2006 1:58 AM +0200 Katrina Hinson wrote: > This is a great discussion so far. I've enjoyed reading all the email > today and thinking about all the ideas shared so far, as well as the > questions/concerns presented. I thought I'd jump into this conversation > by answering the question Maria posed below. > > Question 1: (Goal Setting) - When I get new students in my class - one > of things we do together is go over the LEIS profile sheet A) because I > have to and B) it's a good way to begin to ask my students questions > about what brought them to the program and what they hope to get out of > it. I loved Lynn Howard's idea of the "Roles and Goals" sheet. I don't > necessarily have a sheet, but I make lots of notes that I keep in each > students folder and/or in my own lesson planning notebook. > Periodically, I come back to a student's goals and discuss with them > their progress towards their goals. It's a way to find out if they've > changed or added new ones. I can update their records that way and I can > also talk about realistic goal setting during the initial process and > the follow up. Usually, I have one or two students who place very low > and think getting their GED is going to be "easy". When we get to the > follow up goal setting discussion, they've realized that they have > material to learn and opt to change their goals but stair stepping them > so that they can see their own POSITIVE gains in smaller chunks rather > than focusing on the big picture. > > Like many of the others, I share the concerns that there is a conflict > between accountability measures and the real reasons a student stops > coming. I do think teachers need to be accountable but I think there has > to be a better way than what is currently being done to programs. It > seems to me, that rather than helping to improve programs, > accountability measures that are directly tied to funding may ultimately > see some programs disappear. What happens to our students when they have > no place to go? In rural areas with high unemployment, high drop out > rates etc; it's often difficult to meet performance measures based on > the progress of standardized tests for the very reasons that students do > "stop out" for whatever reason - those reasons are never taken into > account, program funding gets cut and classes are closed because there > is no teacher to teach. > > Barbara Wookey replied in an email: ". . . .there are ways to keep > students coming back by making them feel that they are an essential part > of the class, that they will be missed by the group when they are not > there. . . ." I'm not sure it's that easy though. The one thing that my > students have repeatedly told me is the reason they keep coming back is > because they know I care...at the same time I still get the same number > of phone calls from students who tell me they don't have transportation, > no way to pay for daycare, no computer access to even consider working > online, having the baby at home would interfere with study time etc. No > matter how much I care for my students, no matter the level of > comraderie established in my class, some things are simply out of a > teachers control. Additionally, I'd love to provide a course outline > but I have open enrollment. I can get students the week before a session > ends. A course outline, in that regard, would not be very useful. Not > only that, in a multilevel classroom, I may have multiple subjects going > at the same time and again it would limit the type of structure I can > provide. (I'm open to ideas if anyone has them.) It's funny - you said > your program is becoming more "academic" while ours is becoming more > "vocational." We've learned that many of our students don't have desires > to pursue a 4 year degree or even a 2 year degree. Most are after skills > and certifications that are going to make them employable in a very > tight job market or give them skills if they move to a different market. > We're in the middle of trying to find that balance between academic and > vocational so we can meet both needs. I there are so many things that > can impact a student's persistence and I'm wondering if the needs > actually vary from region to region - rural to urban etc. A lot of > research is done in the Northeast or other major metropolitan areas but > realistically, how applicable and how sound is it when it comes to a > program that serves in different regions that may have different factors > that influence persistence rates? > > Regards > Katrina Hinson > > > >>>> "Marie Cora" 7/10/2006 10:02 am >>>> > Dear Colleagues, > > Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss > Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what > strategies > folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with their students. > > > I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am > interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the > student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do > that. > It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so easy > to > get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some of > the > things that folks do around this issue? > > Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you noted > that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to acknowledge > that the student might not persist. In other words, why not explore > with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", this doesn't > have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at the same time, > completely logical. This appears to be part of what you intend in > your > third area of research based on what I've read. > > Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. > > Marie Cora > NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator > marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen > Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion > > Dear Colleagues, > > Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings > and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and > > Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue > through Tuesday next week, July 18th. > > Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. > > In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of > > interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- > minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two > practitioners, streamed at: > > http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html > > You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, > or you could try this shorter version: > > http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu > > Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing > the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of > the Mac streamed version. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: > >> Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, >> >> John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult >> Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the >> persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, >> below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the >> study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome >> to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but >> these will not be posted until July 10th. >> >> i am looking forward to your joining in on this important > discussion. >> >> David J. Rosen >> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator >> djrosen at comcast.net >> -------------- >> >> When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the >> proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed >> practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design >> our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. > We >> asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they >> wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED >> programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and >> second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, >> "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the >> program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can >> meet their educational goals?" >> >> That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of > persistence. >> The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the >> literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, >> and identified ways that programs were trying to support the >> persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be >> found at: >> >> >> >> In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with >> funds to implement interventions that might help improve > persistence, >> and our study team observed the programs and interviewed their staff >> and students. We also followed a cohort of 180 students for 14 >> months. The report of that second phase can be found at: >> >> >> >> We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer >> has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would >> test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to >> existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of >> learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other >> ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, >> and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the > third >> approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, as > well >> as it can be solved. >> >> I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be > interested >> in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence and how to >> expand opportunities for learning. >> >> John Comings, NCSALL Director >> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy >> Harvard Graduate School of Education >> 7 Appian Way >> Cambridge MA 02138 >> (617) 496-0516, voice >> (617) 495-4811, fax >> (617) 335-9839, mobile >> john_comings at harvard.edu >> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >> >> >> >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Tue Jul 11 11:18:42 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:18:42 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 117] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Strategies In-Reply-To: <011e01c6a490$46e55b80$dad8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> References: <1F64CFEE8902A248A8BE9EA760C0CE6480C938@LAWEX01.necc.mass.edu> <274B2D35-5EF9-433C-B68A-3BC45F4AC8FD@comcast.net> <01DCF341E5FE1BA5FC295C72@nic106> <011e01c6a490$46e55b80$dad8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Message-ID: <6F39E4B3D48942ADA2565FF4@nic106> Our research came to conclusions that support Nicole's efforts. The adults we interviewed said that support from teachers and fellow students was an important support to persistence and the research on building self-efficacy shows that having success, particularly early on, is important to helping students believe that they can be successful in learning. As I said in an earlier post, someone has to show that different approaches can work, either for all learners or for those who are not now being successful. We need someone to fund this type of action research, someone who would be willing to employ a rigorous approach to evaluating impact. I feel we now have enough research and enough good ideas to move forward with this. We just don't have the money. --On Monday, July 10, 2006 10:15 PM -0400 Nicole Graves wrote: > How can we convince policy makers to broaden their definitions? > > Nicole B. Graves > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "John Comings" > To: > Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 4:32 PM > Subject: [SpecialTopics 102] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Strategies > > >> There is only so much a program can do within existing policies. The >> policies aren't bad, they are just based on assumptions that are true for >> some but not all students. We need to convince policy makers to broaden >> their definition of participation. >> >> >> > Begin forwarded message: >> > >> >> From: "Bower, Carol" >> >> Date: July 10, 2006 1:03:00 PM EDT >> >> To: >> >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 94] Re: Persistence Strategies >> >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> >> >> >> Hello John and all, >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Renata's comment echos a concern I heard raised repeatedly in a >> >> NCSALL Persistence Study Circle which I recently co-facilitated >> >> with one of my SABES colleagues. In Massachusetts, where programs >> >> are being asked to be accountable for retention by reporting on >> >> attendance and average attended hours, programs willing to embrace >> >> the concepts and effective practices associated with the NCSALL >> >> definition of persistence are caught in a bit of a bind. They want >> >> to support the on-going learning of their students, and can see >> >> that many do persist, although not necessarily in the same program >> >> or in an uninterrupted fashion. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> What advice would you have for programs that are attempting to >> >> reconcile these different approaches? >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Carol Bower >> >> >> >> Director, NE SABES >> >> >> >> System for Adult Basic Education Support >> >> >> >> Northern Essex Community College >> >> >> >> 45 Franklin Street >> >> >> >> Lawrence, MA 01840 >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- >> >> bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Renata Russo >> >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:43 PM >> >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 92] Re: Persistence Strategies >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Hello Bruce, >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Thank you for sharing the two strategies that you have found >> >> helpful when dealing with persistence. A comment I have about the >> >> second strategy relates to funding and accountability. We as >> >> teachers and administrators understand our learners' barriers to >> >> participate. However, accountability has become a major barrier for >> >> some programs in recent years. The performance-based approach and >> >> funding measured by contact hours can have a major impact in our >> >> programs. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Renata >> >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics- >> >> bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Bruce Carmel >> >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 11:26 AM >> >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies >> >> >> >> Dear John, >> >> >> >> I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student >> >> persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I >> >> have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes >> >> educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I >> >> learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds >> >> project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy >> >> students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: >> >> >> >> 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment >> >> (There are many components of this.) >> >> >> >> 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend >> >> classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their >> >> needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and >> >> duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, >> >> sporadic model of participation. >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, >> >> strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with >> >> student persistence? >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> From Bruce Carmel >> >> >> >> Turning Point >> >> >> >> Brooklyn, NY >> >> >> >> >> >> >> >> Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and >> >> 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> >> National Institute for Literacy >> >> Special Topics mailing list >> >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> > >> > David Rosen >> > djrosen at comcast.net >> > >> > >> > >> >> >> >> John Comings, Director >> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy >> Harvard Graduate School of Education >> 7 Appian Way >> Cambridge MA 02138 >> (617) 496-0516, voice >> (617) 495-4811, fax >> (617) 335-9839, mobile >> john_comings at harvard.edu >> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Tue Jul 11 11:37:43 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 11:37:43 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 118] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Strategies In-Reply-To: <20060711140721.EA1953384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> References: <20060711140721.EA1953384B@ws7-3.us4.outblaze.com> Message-ID: In the first phase of our study, supportive partners, children, friends and coworkers were identified by students as the most important support to persistence. However, some students did mention people in their lives who were not supportive. In the second phase of the study, we looked into this. We found some passive aggressive behaviors. So, even in cases where domestic violence does not exist, partners, friends, (we even found a mother) can put up subtle but significant barriers to persistence. --On Tuesday, July 11, 2006 9:07 AM -0500 e s wrote: > Hello Everyone, > Very interesting discussion with lots of insight into the multi-faceted > topic of "persistence" of adult learners. On the topic of domestic > violence, I have used film to introduce the the topic of domestic > violence. In particular, The Joy Luck Club. One of the overarching > themes in this movie, is the way cultural norms keep women (and men) in > rigified roles. Men sometimes act out these roles in abusive ways and > women defer and find themselves powerless. It does the allow learners > the safety of distance in looking at this issue through the experiences > of others in the film. We spend time after the movie discussing the > experiences of the characters in the film. I use the blackboard to keep > track of the discussion providing some structure to the discussion. > (problems/solutions) It has always been a powerful way to introduce a > topic that can leave everyone feeling uncomfortable. > > -- > _______________________________________________ > > Search for businesses by name, location, or phone number. -Lycos Yellow > Pages > > http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default. > asp?SRC=lycos10 > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From MWPotts2001 at aol.com Tue Jul 11 14:10:52 2006 From: MWPotts2001 at aol.com (MWPotts2001 at aol.com) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:10:52 EDT Subject: [SpecialTopics 119] Re: Persistence Discussion questions Message-ID: <53f.32565bd.31e543ac@aol.com> In a message dated 7/11/2006 11:23:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, comingjo at gse.harvard.edu writes: As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal factors do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of supports to persistence might be affected by these factors. John and All, You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between program supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? I see them as two different things, and most of the posts have been dealt with supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we might be able to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular stance, but given the drop out rate and even the stop out rate, perhaps we should give it a try. Meta Potts FOCUS on Literacy Glen Allen, Virginia -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060711/bbc36232/attachment.html From khinson at future-gate.com Tue Jul 11 14:21:16 2006 From: khinson at future-gate.com (Katrina Hinson) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 20:21:16 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 120] Re: Childcare and Transportation Barrier Removal Message-ID: <44B4083C020000A000002D52@fgwiel01a.wie.de.future-gate.com> I think this is very good. I'd like to know more about how you actually implemented this option. Is it worked into your budget or did you seek grants to help fund the transportation /childcare or do parents help in any way? Regards Katrina Hinson >>> "Terri DeVito" 07/11/06 6:19 AM >>> My name is Terri Stone and I have been an ESOL/ABE Director of a smaller, semi-rural program in Mass. for the past 9 years. Two issues that continue to arise for our students as well as for our more at-risk community members are the issues of childcare and transportation. We have opted from the very beginning of our program to offer both on-site, free childcare and free transportation from our community and one abutting community. We hope to expand this transportation option to two additional communitites in FY '07. These services are constantly used and our students report regularly that without these services they would have never been able to accomplish their goal of coming to class on a regular basis. I know that these options are not reasonable in some locations, but do believe that a broader acceptance in our field of actually removing these barriers for students would greatly enhance program access to students who otherwise could not attend classes as well as provide an often closed pathway for students who truly need and want these services. ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djgbrian at utk.edu Tue Jul 11 14:22:26 2006 From: djgbrian at utk.edu (Brian, Dr Donna J G) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:22:26 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 121] Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <53f.32565bd.31e543ac@aol.com> Message-ID: <6A5CE13D731DE249BC61CB8C5C474B0A076C8165@UTKFSVS1.utk.tennessee.edu> Attribution theory must surely play a part. Someone who feels that the success they are experiencing as a learner is due to their own hard work and efforts would be more likely to persist in their efforts. Donna Brian ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of MWPotts2001 at aol.com Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:11 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 119] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In a message dated 7/11/2006 11:23:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, comingjo at gse.harvard.edu writes: As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal factors do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of supports to persistence might be affected by these factors. John and All, You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between program supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? I see them as two different things, and most of the posts have been dealt with supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we might be able to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular stance, but given the drop out rate and even the stop out rate, perhaps we should give it a try. Meta Potts FOCUS on Literacy Glen Allen, Virginia -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060711/33a4a75b/attachment.html From khinson at future-gate.com Tue Jul 11 14:32:48 2006 From: khinson at future-gate.com (Katrina Hinson) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 20:32:48 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 122] Re: Persistence Discussion questions Message-ID: <44B40AF0020000A000002D5B@fgwiel01a.wie.de.future-gate.com> By "nature of persistence" do you mean on the part of the student? For me, the one thing I've noticed in the years I've been teaching, the biggest reason people keep coming no matter what they face is their own personal "drive"; the "I want it bad enough to overcome anything" drive. That's not quantifiable though. It can't be measured and it's going to vary from student to student. On the flip side of that, you have students who really do have drive and determination that if there were no personal barriers to their persistence, they would continue to attend and make progress. I don't think you can look at persistence and supports to persistance as two different issues when they are so very much inter-dependent on one another. Regards Katrina Hinson >>> 07/11/06 11:10 AM >>> John and All, You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between program supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? I see them as two different things, and most of the posts have been dealt with supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we might be able to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular stance, but given the drop out rate and even the stop out rate, perhaps we should give it a try. Meta Potts FOCUS on Literacy Glen Allen, Virginia From MWPotts2001 at aol.com Tue Jul 11 14:53:17 2006 From: MWPotts2001 at aol.com (MWPotts2001 at aol.com) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:53:17 EDT Subject: [SpecialTopics 123] Re: Persistence Discussion questions Message-ID: <366.7ad322c.31e54d9d@aol.com> In a message dated 7/11/2006 2:37:49 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, khinson at future-gate.com writes: I don't think you can look at persistence and supports to persistance as two different issues when they are so very much inter-dependent on one another. Katrina, You are so right: they are interdependent, but I do not think that they are the same thing. Years ago, I participated in a study of motivation. Same issue: Do we consider intrinsic motivation on the part of the student, or supports to motivation on the part of the programs? Both necessary, but two different things. Meta Potts -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060711/dcd6d3e9/attachment.html From MWPotts2001 at aol.com Tue Jul 11 14:54:18 2006 From: MWPotts2001 at aol.com (MWPotts2001 at aol.com) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 14:54:18 EDT Subject: [SpecialTopics 124] Re: Persistence Discussion questions Message-ID: <565.178455c.31e54dda@aol.com> In a message dated 7/11/2006 2:39:43 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, djgbrian at utk.edu writes: Attribution theory must surely play a part. Someone who feels that the success they are experiencing as a learner is due to their own hard work and efforts would be more likely to persist in their efforts. Donna Brian Yes! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060711/4f2021e8/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Tue Jul 11 15:00:18 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:00:18 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 125] Persistence discussion messages are archived Message-ID: <83AFC91F-1704-47CD-9548-27292D032834@comcast.net> Colleagues, I would like to welcome those who have recently joined the discussion and to let everyone know that all of the messages posted are publicly archived. f you want to "catch up" or find a particular posting for this discussion, you can go to the archive page: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Tue Jul 11 15:52:27 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:52:27 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 126] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <53f.32565bd.31e543ac@aol.com> References: <53f.32565bd.31e543ac@aol.com> Message-ID: In the final report of the second phase of our study, we developed a typology of "persistence pathways". We chose to describe these as pathways rather than as types of students because we saw evidence that people moved from one type to the other over the course of their lives. One pathway was "try-out". People on this pathway were motivated to learn (demonstrated by showing up to enroll in a program) but had too many barriers to persistence and were destined to drop out early. We suggested that a good approach for people on this pathway was for programs to counsel them out of joining a class (why should they experience another failure in education?)but help them develop a plan to both do some self-study (possibly coming in to the program to talk with a tutor once a month) and develop a plan that would lead them into a class after they had addressed the barriers to persistence in their life. However, this positive "outcome" is not listed on the NRS. This is one of the new forms of success our programs should help students achieve (in fact some programs do this informally) and should be able to report on the NRS. --On Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:10 PM -0400 MWPotts2001 at aol.com wrote: > > > In a message dated 7/11/2006 11:23:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > comingjo at gse.harvard.edu writes: > > As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal > factors > do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of supports > to > persistence might be affected by these factors. > > > > John and All, > > You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between program > supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? I see them > as two different things, and most of the posts have been dealt with > supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we might be able > to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular stance, but given the > drop out rate and even the stop out rate, perhaps we should give it a > try. > > Meta Potts > FOCUS on Literacy > Glen Allen, Virginia John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Tue Jul 11 15:58:58 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 15:58:58 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 127] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <6A5CE13D731DE249BC61CB8C5C474B0A076C8165@UTKFSVS1.utk.tennessee.edu> References: <6A5CE13D731DE249BC61CB8C5C474B0A076C8165@UTKFSVS1.utk.tennessee .edu> Message-ID: <3CBFFB480F5D87D6A683E58A@nic106> There is some research in K-12 that sets out students along a continuum from those who believe that achievement comes from hard work at one end of the scale and those who believe that achievement is the result of inherent ability. Students who believe in inherent ability exhibit behaviors, such as waiting until the last minute to study for a test so that they can blame failure on their lack of study rather than their lack of inherent ability. No one knows for sure, but I think many of our less successful students are at the inherent ability end of the scale. Helping our students learn, through direct experience, that consistent effort leads to achievement might help support persistence. --On Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:22 PM -0400 "Brian, Dr Donna J G" wrote: > > Attribution theory must surely play a part. Someone who feels that the > success they are experiencing as a learner is due to their own hard work > and efforts would be more likely to persist in their efforts. > Donna Brian > > > __________________________________________________ > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of MWPotts2001 at aol.com > Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:11 PM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 119] Re: Persistence Discussion questions > > > > > In a message dated 7/11/2006 11:23:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > comingjo at gse.harvard.edu writes: > > As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal > factors > do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of supports > to > persistence might be affected by these factors. > > > > John and All, > > You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between program > supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? I see them > as two different things, and most of the posts have been dealt with > supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we might be able > to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular stance, but given the > drop out rate and even the stop out rate, perhaps we should give it a > try. > > Meta Potts > FOCUS on Literacy > Glen Allen, Virginia John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From cnaamh at rcn.com Tue Jul 11 17:54:08 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 17:54:08 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 128] Re: Persistence Strategies References: <5ac5a277.a2775ac5@kean.edu> Message-ID: <01de01c6a535$e0177040$3cd8accf@cnadln21kxvbnn> Thank you Hugh. You comments are well taken. So true about many social agencies... They actually schedule appointments with clients during class time. Nicole Graves ----- Original Message ----- From: Hugh D. Snow To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 8:05 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 113] Re: Persistence Strategies In response to Bruce Comer, Hello everyone I am the new comer to the chat room. My name is Hugh Snow and I have been a college professor for more than twenty years. My envolvement with specific /special programs is less than five years,however,I have experience in dealing with students/adults in such programs is quite extensive. Bruce,I enjoyed your two observations, and I concur. I would also like to add the following: I agree challenging curricular is a must,but if it does not meet the needs of the participants it simply is an exercise in futility. I also understand why students don't show up everyday,even when they are benefitting from the material. Economic and social problems abound in these communities, sometimes its a matter of not having carfare; or a babysitter, or the significant other tells them to stay home,or they don't have food.I have also seen examples where some of the social agencies that are designed to help them,act more as a deterrent for reasons known only to them. I believe a better system of interviewing potential students will in the long run provide us with better outcomes. Thus enhancing the persistence strategies. Regards, Hugh ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I agree with you, Bruce. High-quality instruction in a supportive environment is key and has many components. We may have to re-define success for funders but for students feeling successful NOW is a key element of persistence. We evaluate every activity and every class. All students should leave every class with a feeling of success. I try my best to have students leave, even the first class, with something they can use now. Nicole B. Graves South Deerfield, MA ----- Original Message ----- From: Bruce Carmel To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 12:25 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 91] Persistence Strategies Dear John, I've been working in adult literacy since 1989, and student persistence (and retention) has been a challenge in every setting I have known. Students' dropout or irregular attendance makes educational gain difficult and really frustrates teachers. I learned a lot when you and I worked together on the Wallace Funds project, where we focused on persistence among library literacy students. There are two main strategies I have found helpful: 1) Offer high-quality instruction in a supportive environment (There are many components of this.) 2) Re-define success. Accept that students are going to attend classes in a way that fits into their lives and satisfies their needs. This might not fit into staff's concept of intensity and duration of instruction--so staff have to accept a new, irregular, sporadic model of participation. What do you think? What do you think are the key issues, strategies, suggestions for programs and staff struggling with student persistence? From Bruce Carmel Turning Point Brooklyn, NY ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060711/e1053533/attachment.html From MMaralit at NIFL.gov Wed Jul 12 09:06:25 2006 From: MMaralit at NIFL.gov (Maralit, Mary Jo) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:06:25 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 129] Re: Persistence DVD transcripts Message-ID: <4062487BDB6029428A763CAEF4E1FE5B0E59BC1F@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> Hello, All, Just wanted to let you know that we just added the transcript for the Persistence Among Adult Education Students Panel Discussion video, you can access it at: http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html Jo Maralit mmaralit at nifl.gov National Institute for Literacy From djrosen at comcast.net Wed Jul 12 10:03:13 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:03:13 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 130] Persistence video, and questions about two of the five patterns of persistence Message-ID: <42B9D8E7-85B0-46C5-8938-F12677849F0E@comcast.net> John and others, The transcript of the persistence panel discussion video -- and the video itself -- are a quick way to introduce this topic to other colleagues. If they wish to join this discussion, it lasts through next Tuesday, and they can catch up by reading the archived postings at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html For those who have not seen the video yet, you'll find it streamed online at http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html one of the highlights of the panel discussion for me was when panelist Ernest Best, in response to my question, "And are the men in the African-American Men?s Literacy Project persisting?" answered "Yes; they are. We have amazing results. First, I?d like to say that at all levels of education, African-American men have-- we?re at the lowest in terms of persistent rates and academic outcomes. With all the things that we have in place to support persistence, our men have demonstrated history-making outcomes in terms of persisting. We have a 93% persistence rate." Another highlight was John's description of the five patterns of persistence: 1) long-term students, 2) mandatory students, 3) short- term students, 4) try-out students and 5) intermittent students. John, could you -- or if others who teach mandatory students (those who have to be enrolled but may not want to be) -- have more information on how programs can build the personal motivation of these students. And John, could you could talk more about what programs can do to address the needs of intermittent students, particularly how programs can organize themselves differently so that students can participate -- fully or partially -- during periods of a few weeks to months -- when they cannot attend classes. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From night-school at usa.net Wed Jul 12 09:21:22 2006 From: night-school at usa.net (Terri DeVito) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 09:21:22 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 131] Re: Persistence Discussion questions Message-ID: <303kgLNVw7536S13.1152710482@uwdvg013.cms.usa.net> To John and All: I had participated in the Persistence Study Circle that was held in Massachusetts this spring and the description of the five pathways rang so true when we thought of our students and has changed the way we think about our students and the systems with which we address their needs. We are changing the role of our counselor beginning in September so that she will spend far more time with each incoming student prior to entering class and will conduct interviews, learning style inventories, discuss barriers and barrier removal, and lay the ground work for goal setting which will then be completed by the classroom teacher. She will help students develop a plan if they are not ready to enter classes yet and will stay in touch with those students who do not enter immediately or "stop out" within the first 3 weeks. After a student has completed a 3 week (21 hour) orientation class and has been enrolled in a class, it will then become the teacher's responsibility to follow through and report back as to the status of a student. We also immediately began thinking about our mandated students very differently. I actually consider most immediate high school drop outs as mandated students because I am pretty sure someone else is insisting that they get their GED at once. Of course, the court and agency mandated student falls clearly into this category. Our approach to these young students is far more parental while still using youth development techniques and showing these students an adult respect and level of expectation. We're hoping that our awareness of these pathways and our systems changes will settle the population from the beginning and will be placing our most serious students in class. ------ Original Message ------ Received: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 05:50:14 PM EDT From: John Comings To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 126] Re: Persistence Discussion questions > In the final report of the second phase of our study, we developed a > typology of "persistence pathways". We chose to describe these as pathways > rather than as types of students because we saw evidence that people moved > from one type to the other over the course of their lives. > > One pathway was "try-out". People on this pathway were motivated to learn > (demonstrated by showing up to enroll in a program) but had too many > barriers to persistence and were destined to drop out early. We suggested > that a good approach for people on this pathway was for programs to counsel > them out of joining a class (why should they experience another failure in > education?)but help them develop a plan to both do some self-study > (possibly coming in to the program to talk with a tutor once a month) and > develop a plan that would lead them into a class after they had addressed > the barriers to persistence in their life. > > However, this positive "outcome" is not listed on the NRS. This is one of > the new forms of success our programs should help students achieve (in fact > some programs do this informally) and should be able to report on the NRS. > > --On Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:10 PM -0400 MWPotts2001 at aol.com wrote: > > > > > > > In a message dated 7/11/2006 11:23:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > > comingjo at gse.harvard.edu writes: > > > > As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal > > factors > > do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of supports > > to > > persistence might be affected by these factors. > > > > > > > > John and All, > > > > You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between program > > supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? I see them > > as two different things, and most of the posts have been dealt with > > supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we might be able > > to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular stance, but given the > > drop out rate and even the stop out rate, perhaps we should give it a > > try. > > > > Meta Potts > > FOCUS on Literacy > > Glen Allen, Virginia > > > > John Comings, Director > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge MA 02138 > (617) 496-0516, voice > (617) 495-4811, fax > (617) 335-9839, mobile > john_comings at harvard.edu > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > From djrosen at comcast.net Wed Jul 12 10:41:23 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:41:23 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 132] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <303kgLNVw7536S13.1152710482@uwdvg013.cms.usa.net> References: <303kgLNVw7536S13.1152710482@uwdvg013.cms.usa.net> Message-ID: <435EF657-19D9-4A66-A3FF-2997F5299256@comcast.net> Terri, and others, Terri, you and I were both thinking about the five pathways at the same time. I would be interested in hearing more about what you do with mandated (and perhaps "pressured") young adults. What are some of the "parental" strategies and "youth development techniques" which you have found to help motivate them, and to increase their persistence? I would also like to hear from others who have effective strategies for increasing motivation and ultimately persistence for mandated students. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net On Jul 12, 2006, at 9:21 AM, Terri DeVito wrote: > To John and All: I had participated in the Persistence Study > Circle that was > held in Massachusetts this spring and the description of the five > pathways > rang so true when we thought of our students and has changed the > way we think > about our students and the systems with which we address their > needs. We are > changing the role of our counselor beginning in September so that > she will > spend far more time with each incoming student prior to entering > class and > will conduct interviews, learning style inventories, discuss > barriers and > barrier removal, and lay the ground work for goal setting which > will then be > completed by the classroom teacher. She will help students develop > a plan if > they are not ready to enter classes yet and will stay in touch with > those > students who do not enter immediately or "stop out" within the > first 3 weeks. > After a student has completed a 3 week (21 hour) orientation class > and has > been enrolled in a class, it will then become the teacher's > responsibility to > follow through and report back as to the status of a student. We also > immediately began thinking about our mandated students very > differently. I > actually consider most immediate high school drop outs as mandated > students > because I am pretty sure someone else is insisting that they get > their GED at > once. Of course, the court and agency mandated student falls > clearly into > this category. Our approach to these young students is far more > parental > while still using youth development techniques and showing these > students an > adult respect and level of expectation. We're hoping that our > awareness of > these pathways and our systems changes will settle the population > from the > beginning and will be placing our most serious students in class. > > ------ Original Message ------ > Received: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 05:50:14 PM EDT > From: John Comings > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 126] Re: Persistence Discussion questions > >> In the final report of the second phase of our study, we developed a >> typology of "persistence pathways". We chose to describe these as >> pathways >> rather than as types of students because we saw evidence that >> people moved >> from one type to the other over the course of their lives. >> >> One pathway was "try-out". People on this pathway were motivated >> to learn >> (demonstrated by showing up to enroll in a program) but had too many >> barriers to persistence and were destined to drop out early. We >> suggested >> that a good approach for people on this pathway was for programs >> to counsel > >> them out of joining a class (why should they experience another >> failure in >> education?)but help them develop a plan to both do some self-study >> (possibly coming in to the program to talk with a tutor once a >> month) and >> develop a plan that would lead them into a class after they had >> addressed >> the barriers to persistence in their life. >> >> However, this positive "outcome" is not listed on the NRS. This is >> one of >> the new forms of success our programs should help students achieve >> (in fact > >> some programs do this informally) and should be able to report on >> the NRS. >> >> --On Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:10 PM -0400 MWPotts2001 at aol.com wrote: >> >>> >>> >>> In a message dated 7/11/2006 11:23:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, >>> comingjo at gse.harvard.edu writes: >>> >>> As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal >>> factors >>> do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of >>> supports >>> to >>> persistence might be affected by these factors. >>> >>> >>> >>> John and All, >>> >>> You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between >>> program >>> supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? I >>> see them >>> as two different things, and most of the posts have been dealt with >>> supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we might >>> be able >>> to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular stance, but >>> given the >>> drop out rate and even the stop out rate, perhaps we should give >>> it a >>> try. >>> >>> Meta Potts >>> FOCUS on Literacy >>> Glen Allen, Virginia >> >> >> >> John Comings, Director >> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy >> Harvard Graduate School of Education >> 7 Appian Way >> Cambridge MA 02138 >> (617) 496-0516, voice >> (617) 495-4811, fax >> (617) 335-9839, mobile >> john_comings at harvard.edu >> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From night-school at usa.net Wed Jul 12 11:20:24 2006 From: night-school at usa.net (Terri DeVito) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:20:24 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 133] Re: Persistence Discussion questions Message-ID: <806kgLPuy4896S29.1152717624@cmsweb29.cms.usa.net> David and all: As far as techniques and strategies, I would say that we immediately show these young people a level of respect by speaking to them very directly and as adults. We let them know that we care and that we realize that they may not really want to be there, but as long as they are there they might as well work towards their GED. We ususally end up having lengthy discussion about what their lives might consist of if they don't get the GED and often times we get initial agreement as to their behavior and their intent. However, keeping these students engaged in the classroom is far more difficult. We usually have the teachers try techniques from their "bag of tricks", but the younger students who really need to or want to stay seem to respond best when they have a serious one-to-one meeting with me, the Director. We discuss their reasons for being there and what they will do differently going forward in order to be allowed to stay in the program. The "seriousness" of this last line being drawn in the sand seems to change many behaviors. Of course, this does not work for the "try-out" student who really doesn't have good reason for being in class. This is what we're going to try to flesh out with the new counselor role of which I spoke earlier. Also, we now understand that this is a process through which we need to progress for these students as oppossed to what we used to do which was say, basically, why don't you come back when you're ready to be an adult. ------ Original Message ------ Received: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 10:45:31 AM EDT From: David Rosen To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 132] Re: Persistence Discussion questions > Terri, and others, > > Terri, you and I were both thinking about the five pathways at the > same time. I would be interested in hearing more about what you do > with mandated (and perhaps "pressured") young adults. What are some > of the "parental" strategies and "youth development techniques" which > you have found to help motivate them, and to increase their persistence? > > I would also like to hear from others who have effective strategies > for increasing motivation and ultimately persistence for mandated > students. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > On Jul 12, 2006, at 9:21 AM, Terri DeVito wrote: > > > To John and All: I had participated in the Persistence Study > > Circle that was > > held in Massachusetts this spring and the description of the five > > pathways > > rang so true when we thought of our students and has changed the > > way we think > > about our students and the systems with which we address their > > needs. We are > > changing the role of our counselor beginning in September so that > > she will > > spend far more time with each incoming student prior to entering > > class and > > will conduct interviews, learning style inventories, discuss > > barriers and > > barrier removal, and lay the ground work for goal setting which > > will then be > > completed by the classroom teacher. She will help students develop > > a plan if > > they are not ready to enter classes yet and will stay in touch with > > those > > students who do not enter immediately or "stop out" within the > > first 3 weeks. > > After a student has completed a 3 week (21 hour) orientation class > > and has > > been enrolled in a class, it will then become the teacher's > > responsibility to > > follow through and report back as to the status of a student. We also > > immediately began thinking about our mandated students very > > differently. I > > actually consider most immediate high school drop outs as mandated > > students > > because I am pretty sure someone else is insisting that they get > > their GED at > > once. Of course, the court and agency mandated student falls > > clearly into > > this category. Our approach to these young students is far more > > parental > > while still using youth development techniques and showing these > > students an > > adult respect and level of expectation. We're hoping that our > > awareness of > > these pathways and our systems changes will settle the population > > from the > > beginning and will be placing our most serious students in class. > > > > ------ Original Message ------ > > Received: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 05:50:14 PM EDT > > From: John Comings > > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > > Subject: [SpecialTopics 126] Re: Persistence Discussion questions > > > >> In the final report of the second phase of our study, we developed a > >> typology of "persistence pathways". We chose to describe these as > >> pathways > >> rather than as types of students because we saw evidence that > >> people moved > >> from one type to the other over the course of their lives. > >> > >> One pathway was "try-out". People on this pathway were motivated > >> to learn > >> (demonstrated by showing up to enroll in a program) but had too many > >> barriers to persistence and were destined to drop out early. We > >> suggested > >> that a good approach for people on this pathway was for programs > >> to counsel > > > >> them out of joining a class (why should they experience another > >> failure in > >> education?)but help them develop a plan to both do some self-study > >> (possibly coming in to the program to talk with a tutor once a > >> month) and > >> develop a plan that would lead them into a class after they had > >> addressed > >> the barriers to persistence in their life. > >> > >> However, this positive "outcome" is not listed on the NRS. This is > >> one of > >> the new forms of success our programs should help students achieve > >> (in fact > > > >> some programs do this informally) and should be able to report on > >> the NRS. > >> > >> --On Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:10 PM -0400 MWPotts2001 at aol.com wrote: > >> > >>> > >>> > >>> In a message dated 7/11/2006 11:23:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, > >>> comingjo at gse.harvard.edu writes: > >>> > >>> As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal > >>> factors > >>> do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of > >>> supports > >>> to > >>> persistence might be affected by these factors. > >>> > >>> > >>> > >>> John and All, > >>> > >>> You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between > >>> program > >>> supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? I > >>> see them > >>> as two different things, and most of the posts have been dealt with > >>> supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we might > >>> be able > >>> to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular stance, but > >>> given the > >>> drop out rate and even the stop out rate, perhaps we should give > >>> it a > >>> try. > >>> > >>> Meta Potts > >>> FOCUS on Literacy > >>> Glen Allen, Virginia > >> > >> > >> > >> John Comings, Director > >> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy > >> Harvard Graduate School of Education > >> 7 Appian Way > >> Cambridge MA 02138 > >> (617) 496-0516, voice > >> (617) 495-4811, fax > >> (617) 335-9839, mobile > >> john_comings at harvard.edu > >> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > >> > >> ------------------------------- > >> National Institute for Literacy > >> Special Topics mailing list > >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > >> > > > > > > > > ------------------------------- > > National Institute for Literacy > > Special Topics mailing list > > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Wed Jul 12 11:24:20 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 11:24:20 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 134] Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <303kgLNVw7536S13.1152710482@uwdvg013.cms.usa.net> References: <303kgLNVw7536S13.1152710482@uwdvg013.cms.usa.net> Message-ID: <5BF393AC25884C5A5B05EE38@[192.168.1.102]> In education, evidence-based practice is a partnership between researchers and practitioners. Researchers contribute empirical evidence and practitioners contribute professional wisdom. Empirical evidence generated by researchers through studies leads to research-based practices generated by practitioners who use that evidence in their programs. The next step in this process is for researchers to test the efficacy of the practices developed by practitioners. Terri DeVito just described an interesting example of how research-based evidence becomes useful through its adaptation by practitioners. The result, as outlined here, is the professional wisdom part of the partnership. Unfortunately, our field does not have funding to do the third step, the testing to see if these practices work and if they do are they cost-effective. Over the last 10 years, NCSALL has been pursuing these first two steps in the process of developing evidence-based practice. A few years ago, we began the testing phase on a couple of topics, one in ESOL and one in ABE, and we believe we now have enough knowledge about doing rigorous testing of practices in our field to be successful at it. NCSALL doesn't have to do this next phase, any qualified research organization could take it on, but the Institute of Education Sciences (IES), the agency in the Dept of Education that funds this type of research, has decided not to fund a comprehensive adult education research center. They do have some funds available for specific research topics, but adult education researchers must compete against K-12 researchers for those funds. Also, I doubt that IES would ever put out a request for proposals for a test of interventions meant to increase persistence of adults in adult education programs, because they have no adult education experts on their staff. We should ask the Dept of Education to set aside funds for research in our field so that we will have more advice for programs that is based on the best available evidence. While waiting (and then waiting some more), practitioners should continue to adapt research findings to the needs of their programs and students and, if possible, they should also evaluate these practices to see if they work. If they work, they should share these practices with other practitioners. --On Wednesday, July 12, 2006 9:21 AM -0400 Terri DeVito wrote: > To John and All: I had participated in the Persistence Study Circle that > was held in Massachusetts this spring and the description of the five > pathways rang so true when we thought of our students and has changed the > way we think about our students and the systems with which we address > their needs. We are changing the role of our counselor beginning in > September so that she will spend far more time with each incoming student > prior to entering class and will conduct interviews, learning style > inventories, discuss barriers and barrier removal, and lay the ground > work for goal setting which will then be completed by the classroom > teacher. She will help students develop a plan if they are not ready to > enter classes yet and will stay in touch with those students who do not > enter immediately or "stop out" within the first 3 weeks. After a > student has completed a 3 week (21 hour) orientation class and has been > enrolled in a class, it will then become the teacher's responsibility to > follow through and report back as to the status of a student. We also > immediately began thinking about our mandated students very differently. > I actually consider most immediate high school drop outs as mandated > students because I am pretty sure someone else is insisting that they get > their GED at once. Of course, the court and agency mandated student > falls clearly into this category. Our approach to these young students > is far more parental while still using youth development techniques and > showing these students an adult respect and level of expectation. We're > hoping that our awareness of these pathways and our systems changes will > settle the population from the beginning and will be placing our most > serious students in class. > > ------ Original Message ------ > Received: Tue, 11 Jul 2006 05:50:14 PM EDT > From: John Comings > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 126] Re: Persistence Discussion questions > >> In the final report of the second phase of our study, we developed a >> typology of "persistence pathways". We chose to describe these as >> pathways rather than as types of students because we saw evidence that >> people moved from one type to the other over the course of their lives. >> >> One pathway was "try-out". People on this pathway were motivated to >> learn (demonstrated by showing up to enroll in a program) but had too >> many barriers to persistence and were destined to drop out early. We >> suggested that a good approach for people on this pathway was for >> programs to counsel > >> them out of joining a class (why should they experience another failure >> in education?)but help them develop a plan to both do some self-study >> (possibly coming in to the program to talk with a tutor once a month) >> and develop a plan that would lead them into a class after they had >> addressed the barriers to persistence in their life. >> >> However, this positive "outcome" is not listed on the NRS. This is one >> of the new forms of success our programs should help students achieve >> (in fact > >> some programs do this informally) and should be able to report on the >> NRS. >> >> --On Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:10 PM -0400 MWPotts2001 at aol.com wrote: >> >> > >> > >> > In a message dated 7/11/2006 11:23:12 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, >> > comingjo at gse.harvard.edu writes: >> > >> > As far as persistence is concerned, what other context or personal >> > factors >> > do people think might be important? That is, that the impact of >> > supports to >> > persistence might be affected by these factors. >> > >> > >> > >> > John and All, >> > >> > You have hit here on my question: What is the difference between >> > program supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence? >> > I see them as two different things, and most of the posts have been >> > dealt with supports. If we can identify the nature of persistence, we >> > might be able to recruit to the point. This may not be a popular >> > stance, but given the drop out rate and even the stop out rate, >> > perhaps we should give it a try. >> > >> > Meta Potts >> > FOCUS on Literacy >> > Glen Allen, Virginia >> >> >> >> John Comings, Director >> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy >> Harvard Graduate School of Education >> 7 Appian Way >> Cambridge MA 02138 >> (617) 496-0516, voice >> (617) 495-4811, fax >> (617) 335-9839, mobile >> john_comings at harvard.edu >> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From Holly.Dilatush-Guthrie at ccs.k12.va.us Wed Jul 12 22:11:39 2006 From: Holly.Dilatush-Guthrie at ccs.k12.va.us (Holly Dilatush-Guthrie) Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 22:11:39 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 135] Re: Persistence Strategies Message-ID: Hello all, a delayed response from Holly here -- This: >>> cnaamh at rcn.com 7/10/2006 9:23 PM >>> I agree with you, Bruce. High-quality instruction in a supportive environment is key and has many components. We may have to re-define success for funders but for students feeling successful NOW is a key element of persistence. We evaluate every activity and every class. All students should leave every class with a feeling of success. I try my best to have students leave, even the first class, with something they can use now. Nicole B. Graves South Deerfield, MA>> ...reminded me of an experience I had teaching a workplace ESL (Hotel employees) class a few years back -- after the third 2 hour class, IMMEDIATELY after the class, as we were exiting the classroom space, the employees' supervisor asked the students/employees: "Well, what did you learn today?" (she asked this to the group, and then repeated her question individually to each employee -- ). The first response, "Nothing." The second response, "nothing." etc. etc. --- What I learned from this: a new daily scheduled activity at the end of each class -- practicing (verbally) "What did you learn today?" answers! So, students left feeling success, KNOWING how to articulate that success -- both in simple written format (like writing a memo to their supervisor) and in simple spoken English format... and I learned to quiz the supervisor before the following class, "Well, what DID they learn last class?" -- it became a win-win-win --- and continued the contract! [supervisors then added, based on the students/employees feedback, 5 minutes language exchange show & tell at monthly staff meetings -- where everyone had to share what they'd learned -- in a language of their choice! Hooray for multilingualism -- hooray for feelings of success -- hooray for articulated mini-goals.... etc. persistence -- motivation -- and hooray for continued funding! Holly "No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides." Holly Dilatush ESL distance learning, Dialogue Cafe, Volunteer coordinator Charlottesville City Schools Adult Learning Center 1000 Preston Ave., Suite D Charlottesville VA 22903 (434) 245.2815 office (434) 960.7177 cell/mobile http://theHsmile.org ['home' to several Moodle CMS (course management systems/virtual classrooms)] http://www.Charlottesville-ESL.org "Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe and nurture in nature." From alisapovenmire at hotmail.com Thu Jul 13 12:54:16 2006 From: alisapovenmire at hotmail.com (Alisa Vlahakis Povenmire) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 12:54:16 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 135] Does managed enrollment support persistence? In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060713/4edce332/attachment.html From night-school at usa.net Thu Jul 13 14:48:12 2006 From: night-school at usa.net (Terri DeVito) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 14:48:12 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 136] Re: Does managed enrollment support persistence? Message-ID: <989kgmsvm9216S24.1152816492@cmsweb24.cms.usa.net> Alisa and all: Thank you so much for raising this issue as it pertains to persistence. I am a 9 year Director of an ESOL and ABE/GED program in Mass. and we have adopted a managed enrollment process based upon requests from our students and on research/comments that I have read regarding college cohorts. Our students have told us loud and clearly that they do not like turbulance in the classroom and that new students coming in and out is very turbulent. Our teachers find it almost impossible to effectively teach a class with open enrollment. We've only worked with this model for one year, but we met our attendance goal, our pre/post test goals, and our meaningful gain goals this year for the first time. We are still a little short of our average attended hours and our goals met goals for the year. And, we feel more professional and that we are offering far better education to our students. We are looking at a major system change for next year that we hope will further support this management of enrollment by having new students attend a class (21 hours for ABE/GED and 7 - 14 hours for ESOL students) prior to entering classes. We also are intending to enroll new ABE/GED students every two months and ESOL students at the half year mark. Our full staff is spending 23 hours each this summer redesigning our curriculum based upon the Massachusetts State Frameworks to determine what is truly possible to teach 7 hours per week 36 weeks of the year so that teachers can teach a skill, spiral back to check for mastery, and reteach the skills again for new students who entered in a cohort. We all agree that we must have a clear and manageable curriculum in order to effectively serve these students even on a managed basis. ------ Original Message ------ Received: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 01:01:03 PM EDT From: "Alisa Vlahakis Povenmire" To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 135] Does managed enrollment support persistence? > Hello all, > > I am a few days late to join the list but have thoroughly enjoyed the discussions. In fair warning, I am submitting a somewhat long post. > > I am conducting somewhat informal research for the Massachusetts Department of Education on the topic of managed enrollment. > > Meta Potts wrote in post # 119: > > ?What is the difference between program supports to persistence and the nature of student persistence?? > My research addresses a small this question which regards the enrollment policies and practices of Adult Education Programs. My quest is to determine the pros and cons of managed enrollment, and how managed enrollment affects the retention, persistence, and learning gains of students. I have corresponded with several practitioners around the country who have forayed into managed enrollment in their programs, and all seem VERY satisfied with the results. Most, but not all, programs that I have been in contact with do also have at least one open entry classroom, and/or distance learning options for students who cannot commit to the time and intensity required by the managed enrollment classrooms. > In John Comings? and Lisa Soricone?s NCSALL Paper, ?An Evidence-based Adult Education Program Model Appropriate for Research?, certain scholars are quoted who feel that open enrollment practices are ?not an effective way to use limited resources?(p 66). Other studies suggest that managed enrollment, which allows students to enter a class during specific times only, is not only easier and more productive for students and teachers, but also promotes a higher rate of retention and persistence. However, the report is careful to recommend that programs take their own mission and student population into account when making enrollment decisions and formal policies. Many programs I have had contact > with, echo this sentiment and have found enrollment policy-making an ongoing and often slow process, but worth the effort. Although there hasn't, to my knowledge, been a formal assessment of the effects of managed enrollment, it seems like a program design element which tends to promote persistence. > So my questions to John and listers are: > 1. What do you think about Managed Enrollment? Do you have a managed enrollment policy at your program? If so, for how long have you used this policy and how is student persistence at your program affected by this policy? > 2. There has been a lot of discussion on this list about students who need flexible attendance schedules. What is your sense of the percentage of these students compared to the whole population of students? Do you think managed enrollment works against these students? > 3. Is managed enrollment more suitable in certain contexts? If so, which? > 4. Many practitioners have only been able to cite (to me) benefits of managed enrollment. Do you feel that there are any negative aspects of this practice? > 5. Does it cost more to use a managed enrollment system? Is the return on investment (learning gains) greater? > 6. Finally, in the broad context of persistence and support for learners, how does the importance of enrollment policies compare to the importance of supports like child care and transportation and teachers who really connect with their learners? > I thank you all, in advance, for what I know will be your thoughtful comment on any of these questions. > Sincerely, > Alisa Povenmire, ABE Consultant, former SABES Coordinator > > > > From: "Holly Dilatush-Guthrie" > Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > To: > Subject: [SpecialTopics 135] Re: Persistence Strategies > Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 22:11:39 -0400 > >Hello all, a delayed response from Holly here -- > >This: > > >>> cnaamh at rcn.com 7/10/2006 9:23 PM >>> > >I agree with you, Bruce. High-quality instruction in a supportive environment is key and has many components. We may have to re-define success for funders but for students feeling successful NOW is a key element of persistence. We evaluate every activity and every class. All students should leave every class with a feeling of success. I try my best to have students leave, even the first class, with something they can use now. > > Nicole B. Graves > >South > Deerfield, MA>> > >...reminded me of an experience I had teaching a workplace ESL (Hotel employees) class a few years back -- after the third 2 hour class, IMMEDIATELY after the class, as we were exiting the classroom space, the employees' supervisor asked the students/employees: "Well, what did you learn today?" (she asked this to the group, and then repeated her question individually to each employee -- ). The first response, "Nothing." The second response, "nothing." etc. etc. --- What I learned from this: a new daily scheduled activity at the end of each class -- practicing (verbally) "What did you learn today?" answers! > > > >So, students left feeling success, KNOWING how to articulate that success -- both in simple written format (like writing a memo to their supervisor) and in simple spoken English format... > > > >and I learned to quiz > the supervisor before the following class, "Well, what DID they learn last class?" -- > >it became a win-win-win --- and continued the contract! > >[supervisors then added, based on the students/employees feedback, 5 minutes language exchange show & tell at monthly staff meetings -- where everyone had to share what they'd learned -- in a language of their choice! > >Hooray for multilingualism -- hooray for feelings of success -- hooray for articulated mini-goals.... etc. > >persistence -- motivation -- and hooray for continued funding! > >Holly > > > > > >"No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides." > >Holly Dilatush > >ESL distance learning, Dialogue Cafe, Volunteer coordinator > >Charlottesville City Schools Adult Learning Center > >1000 Preston Ave., Suite D > >Charlottesville VA > 22903 > >(434) 245.2815 office > >(434) 960.7177 cell/mobile > >http://theHsmile.org ['home' to several Moodle CMS (course management systems/virtual classrooms)] > >http://www.Charlottesville-ESL.org > >"Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe and nurture in nature." > > > >------------------------------- > >National Institute for Literacy > >Special Topics mailing list > >SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > >To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > Save time by searching from any Web page use the MSN Search Toolbar- it's FREE! > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djgbrian at utk.edu Thu Jul 13 15:42:37 2006 From: djgbrian at utk.edu (Brian, Dr Donna J G) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 15:42:37 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 137] Re: Does managed enrollment support persistence? In-Reply-To: <989kgmsvm9216S24.1152816492@cmsweb24.cms.usa.net> Message-ID: <6A5CE13D731DE249BC61CB8C5C474B0A0796FB96@UTKFSVS1.utk.tennessee.edu> I've been watching this discussion to see if anyone knows of a resource that gives a good comparison of managed and open enrollment. I know there are plus and minus points for each view, and I'm looking for a good reference that doesn't completely trash open enrollment (preferably an online resource.) Does anyone know of one? Donna Brian djgbrian at utk.edu -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Terri DeVito Sent: Thursday, July 13, 2006 2:48 PM To: alisa at caringhandsmt.com; specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 136] Re: Does managed enrollment support persistence? Alisa and all: Thank you so much for raising this issue as it pertains to persistence. I am a 9 year Director of an ESOL and ABE/GED program in Mass. and we have adopted a managed enrollment process based upon requests from our students and on research/comments that I have read regarding college cohorts. Our students have told us loud and clearly that they do not like turbulance in the classroom and that new students coming in and out is very turbulent. Our teachers find it almost impossible to effectively teach a class with open enrollment. We've only worked with this model for one year, but we met our attendance goal, our pre/post test goals, and our meaningful gain goals this year for the first time. We are still a little short of our average attended hours and our goals met goals for the year. And, we feel more professional and that we are offering far better education to our students. We are looking at a major system change for next year that we hope will further support this management of enrollment by having new students attend a class (21 hours for ABE/GED and 7 - 14 hours for ESOL students) prior to entering classes. We also are intending to enroll new ABE/GED students every two months and ESOL students at the half year mark. Our full staff is spending 23 hours each this summer redesigning our curriculum based upon the Massachusetts State Frameworks to determine what is truly possible to teach 7 hours per week 36 weeks of the year so that teachers can teach a skill, spiral back to check for mastery, and reteach the skills again for new students who entered in a cohort. We all agree that we must have a clear and manageable curriculum in order to effectively serve these students even on a managed basis. ------ Original Message ------ Received: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 01:01:03 PM EDT From: "Alisa Vlahakis Povenmire" To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 135] Does managed enrollment support persistence? > Hello all, > > I am a few days late to join the list but have thoroughly enjoyed the discussions. In fair warning, I am submitting a somewhat long post. > > I am conducting somewhat informal research for the Massachusetts > Department of Education on the topic of managed enrollment. > > Meta Potts wrote in post # 119: > > "What is the difference between program supports to persistence and > the nature of student persistence?" > My research addresses a small this question which regards the > enrollment policies and practices of Adult Education Programs. My quest is to determine the pros and cons of managed enrollment, and how managed enrollment affects the retention, persistence, and learning gains of students. I have corresponded with several practitioners around the country who have forayed into managed enrollment in their programs, and all seem VERY satisfied with the results. Most, but not all, programs that I have been in contact with do also have at least one open entry classroom, and/or distance learning options for students who cannot commit to the time and intensity required by the managed enrollment classrooms. > In John Comings' and Lisa Soricone's NCSALL Paper, "An Evidence-based Adult Education Program Model Appropriate for Research", certain scholars are quoted who feel that open enrollment practices are "not an effective way to use limited resources"(p 66). Other studies suggest that managed enrollment, which allows students to enter a class during specific times only, is not only easier and more productive for students and teachers, but also promotes a higher rate of retention and persistence. However, the report is careful to recommend that programs take their own mission and student population into account when making enrollment decisions and formal policies. Many programs I have had contact > with, echo this sentiment and have found enrollment policy-making an ongoing and often slow process, but worth the effort. Although there hasn't, to my knowledge, been a formal assessment of the effects of managed enrollment, it seems like a program design element which tends to promote persistence. > So my questions to John and listers are: > 1. What do you think about Managed Enrollment? Do you have a managed enrollment policy at your program? If so, for how long have you used this policy and how is student persistence at your program affected by this policy? > 2. There has been a lot of discussion on this list about students who need flexible attendance schedules. What is your sense of the percentage of these students compared to the whole population of students? Do you think managed enrollment works against these students? > 3. Is managed enrollment more suitable in certain contexts? If so, which? > 4. Many practitioners have only been able to cite (to me) benefits of managed enrollment. Do you feel that there are any negative aspects of this practice? > 5. Does it cost more to use a managed enrollment system? Is the return on investment (learning gains) greater? > 6. Finally, in the broad context of persistence and support for learners, how does the importance of enrollment policies compare to the importance of supports like child care and transportation and teachers who really connect with their learners? > I thank you all, in advance, for what I know will be your thoughtful comment on any of these questions. > Sincerely, > Alisa Povenmire, ABE Consultant, former SABES Coordinator > > > > From: "Holly Dilatush-Guthrie" > Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > To: > Subject: [SpecialTopics 135] Re: Persistence Strategies > Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2006 22:11:39 -0400 > >Hello all, a delayed response from Holly here -- > >This: > > >>> cnaamh at rcn.com 7/10/2006 9:23 PM >>> > >I agree with you, Bruce. High-quality instruction in a supportive environment is key and has many components. We may have to re-define success for funders but for students feeling successful NOW is a key element of persistence. We evaluate every activity and every class. All students should leave every class with a feeling of success. I try my best to have students leave, even the first class, with something they can use now. > > Nicole B. Graves > >South > Deerfield, MA>> > >...reminded me of an experience I had teaching a workplace ESL (Hotel employees) class a few years back -- after the third 2 hour class, IMMEDIATELY after the class, as we were exiting the classroom space, the employees' supervisor asked the students/employees: "Well, what did you learn today?" (she asked this to the group, and then repeated her question individually to each employee -- ). The first response, "Nothing." The second response, "nothing." etc. etc. --- What I learned from this: a new daily scheduled activity at the end of each class -- practicing (verbally) "What did you learn today?" answers! > > > >So, students left feeling success, KNOWING how to articulate that > >success -- both in simple written format (like writing a memo to their supervisor) and in simple spoken English format... > > > >and I learned to quiz > the supervisor before the following class, "Well, what DID they learn > last class?" -- > >it became a win-win-win --- and continued the contract! > >[supervisors then added, based on the students/employees feedback, 5 minutes language exchange show & tell at monthly staff meetings -- where everyone had to share what they'd learned -- in a language of their choice! > >Hooray for multilingualism -- hooray for feelings of success -- > >hooray for articulated mini-goals.... etc. > >persistence -- motivation -- and hooray for continued funding! > >Holly > > > > > >"No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire > >that will turn the tides." > >Holly Dilatush > >ESL distance learning, Dialogue Cafe, Volunteer coordinator > >Charlottesville City Schools Adult Learning Center 1000 Preston Ave., > >Suite D Charlottesville VA > 22903 > >(434) 245.2815 office > >(434) 960.7177 cell/mobile > >http://theHsmile.org ['home' to several Moodle CMS (course management systems/virtual classrooms)] > >http://www.Charlottesville-ESL.org > >"Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe > >and nurture in nature." > > > >------------------------------- > >National Institute for Literacy > >Special Topics mailing list > >SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > >To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > Save time by searching from any Web page... use the MSN Search Toolbar- > it's FREE! > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Thu Jul 13 16:59:35 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 16:59:35 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 138] oe/oe and managed enrollment References: <1152823816.44b6b20853556@webmail.znet.net> Message-ID: Posted on behalf of Tom Sticht: From: tsticht at znet.com Date: July 13, 2006 4:50:16 PM EDT To: djrosen at comcast.net Subject: oe/oe and managed enrollment David: In response to Donna Brian, the Passports to Paradise report has lots of information about teaching in an open entry/open exit (oe/oe) system and shows how at least one vocational ESL (VESL) program was exemplary in accomplishing education within this type of system. The report also has a Chapter that examines the issue of open entry/open exit in greater detail and suggests that managed enrollment may offer a good alternative and should receive some research. Still a good idea I think. Tom Sticht January 31, 2005 Persistence in English as a Second Language (ESL) Programs: Research Using the Method of Natural Variations Tom Sticht International Consultant in Adult Education Testing hypotheses derived from theory using experimental research designs with random assignment are extremely difficult to implement in operational settings such as adult literacy education programs. It may also be prohibitively expensive to conduct this sort of "gold standard" research. For these reasons colleagues and I explored a different approach when we set out to test hypotheses from Functional Context Education theory in an operational context. In this case we followed a method used in sciences such as astronomy and biology and set out to test a hypotheses from FCE theory using the method of examining naturally occurring variations in adult literacy programs. A basic tenet of Functional Context Education (FCE) theory is that adult literacy education ought to be based on what is relevant to the contexts of adults? lives. In research on the persistence of adults in Vocational English as a Second Language (VESL) programs, colleagues and I considered the foregoing and hypothesized that the reasons why adults frequently enroll in a course of study and then quickly drop out might have something to do with mismatches between what the adults want to learn and what programs actually offer. So we tested this hypothesis by studying persistence in VESL programs that had only a general focus on work, or a focus on a specific career field, or a focus on a specific job. Data on persistence showed that , in general, the closer the match between the reasons of the adult students for taking the VESL course, in this case to get a job, and the focus of the program, in this case focusing directly on vocational training and finding jobs for students, the more likely the students were to complete the course. The method of studying naturally occurring variations in adult literacy programs is considerably less expensive and more feasible to implement than experimental designs. Though not as rigorous as true experiments, the method of natural variation can be used in testing hypotheses derived from adult literacy theory. The paucity of such research may result at least in part from the lack of adult literacy theory that has been formulated explicitly enough to derive hypotheses that are testable. Theory of this sort is crucial for the development of validated knowledge for the general advance of adult literacy education because it provides guidance beyond the specifics of particulars techniques, materials, technologies, management practices and other operational details of programs. The latter are too numerous and change too often to make it practicable to conduct experimental tests of the relative effectiveness of programs comprised of combinations of such particulars. As Kurt Lewin said, "There is nothing so practical as a good theory. " Reference Sticht, Thomas G.; McDonald, Barbara A.; Erickson, Paul R. (1998, January). Passports to Paradise: The Struggle To Teach and To Learn on the Margins of Adult Education. Online at: http://SearchERIC.org/scripts/texis.exe/scripts/asearch1? db=ericft&expan=no&disp=snote&proximity=rank&lmt=nul&nsz=20&arg=passport s+to+passports From the ERIC database Passports to Paradise: The Struggle To Teach and To Learn on the Margins of Adult Education. Sticht, Thomas G.; McDonald, Barbara A.; Erickson, Paul R. http://SearchERIC.org/scripts/seget2.asp?db=ericft&want=http:// SearchERIC.org/ericdc/ED418238.htm Abstract: This report provides a 5-year perspective on the adult literacy education (ALE) system in the inner city of San Diego, California. Chapter 1 introduces the research. Chapters 2-5 in part 1, "The Struggle To Learn," contain the following: information about the difficulties of determining how many adults might benefit from basic skill education; introduction of the practice of having adult literacy students perform as researchers to discover barriers to and ways to increase participation in ALE; what happens after adults decide to go back to school; and how various instructional factors affect learning and the transfer of learning to the home and community. Chapters 6-8 in part 2, "The Struggle To Teach," include the following: reports by two teacher researchers on hardships of teaching and learning and insights of 17 teachers about the educational system; a teacher researcher's experiences in trying to change instruction in an English as a second language class and how the dynamics of students' lives and classroom turbulence affected her work; and challenges to teaching posed by diversity in a classroom due to cultural factors and different language and literacy skill levels. Chapters 9-11 in part 3, "The Struggle To Be Better," cover the following: activities federal policy makers and officials have undertaken to try to improve the ALE system nationally; activities in California to improve the ALE system; and rebuttals to news stories about the low intellectual abilities of disadvantaged youth and adults. (YLB) Title: Passports to Paradise: The Struggle To Teach and To Learn on the Margins of Adult Education. Author: Sticht, Thomas G.; McDonald, Barbara A.; Erickson, Paul R. Note: 125p. Publication Year: 1998 Document Type: Research Report (143) Target Audience: Practitioners and Teachers ERIC Identifier: ED418238 Available from: Applied Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences, Inc., 2062 Valley View Blvd., El Cajon, CA 92019-2059 ($20). You may be able to download this document from the ERIC Contractor. ----- From cnaamh at rcn.com Thu Jul 13 17:12:43 2006 From: cnaamh at rcn.com (Nicole Graves) Date: Thu, 13 Jul 2006 17:12:43 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 139] Re: Persistence Strategies References: Message-ID: <00af01c6a6c5$33126710$83b53bd0@cnadln21kxvbnn> Wonderful story, Holly! Nicole ----- Original Message ----- From: "Holly Dilatush-Guthrie" To: Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2006 10:11 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 135] Re: Persistence Strategies > Hello all, a delayed response from Holly here -- > This: > >>> cnaamh at rcn.com 7/10/2006 9:23 PM >>> > I agree with you, Bruce. High-quality instruction in a supportive environment is key and has many components. We may have to re-define success for funders but for students feeling successful NOW is a key element of persistence. We evaluate every activity and every class. All students should leave every class with a feeling of success. I try my best to have students leave, even the first class, with something they can use now. > Nicole B. Graves > South Deerfield, MA>> > ...reminded me of an experience I had teaching a workplace ESL (Hotel employees) class a few years back -- after the third 2 hour class, IMMEDIATELY after the class, as we were exiting the classroom space, the employees' supervisor asked the students/employees: "Well, what did you learn today?" (she asked this to the group, and then repeated her question individually to each employee -- ). The first response, "Nothing." The second response, "nothing." etc. etc. --- What I learned from this: a new daily scheduled activity at the end of each class -- practicing (verbally) "What did you learn today?" answers! > > So, students left feeling success, KNOWING how to articulate that success -- both in simple written format (like writing a memo to their supervisor) and in simple spoken English format... > > and I learned to quiz the supervisor before the following class, "Well, what DID they learn last class?" -- > it became a win-win-win --- and continued the contract! > [supervisors then added, based on the students/employees feedback, 5 minutes language exchange show & tell at monthly staff meetings -- where everyone had to share what they'd learned -- in a language of their choice! > Hooray for multilingualism -- hooray for feelings of success -- hooray for articulated mini-goals.... etc. > persistence -- motivation -- and hooray for continued funding! > Holly > > > "No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides." > Holly Dilatush > ESL distance learning, Dialogue Cafe, Volunteer coordinator > Charlottesville City Schools Adult Learning Center > 1000 Preston Ave., Suite D > Charlottesville VA 22903 > (434) 245.2815 office > (434) 960.7177 cell/mobile > http://theHsmile.org ['home' to several Moodle CMS (course management systems/virtual classrooms)] > http://www.Charlottesville-ESL.org > "Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe and nurture in nature." > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From alisapovenmire at hotmail.com Fri Jul 14 14:47:56 2006 From: alisapovenmire at hotmail.com (Alisa Vlahakis Povenmire) Date: Fri, 14 Jul 2006 14:47:56 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 140] Re: oe/oe and managed enrollment In-Reply-To: Message-ID: An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060714/0a73e8e5/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Sun Jul 16 16:25:53 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Sun, 16 Jul 2006 16:25:53 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 141] Keeping students' eyes on the prize Message-ID: <5006EFB2-897E-4EAB-AF29-6A68FA46CFE8@comcast.net> John, and other colleagues, Part of the persistence challenge is that some adult learners make progress very slowly and have so very far to go before they see the prize they may have their eyes on. The prize might be a high school diploma, a better job, a living wage, a good job with a decent salary and good benefits, or going to college, but these may be basic literacy or beginning English language students who need years of study to achieve one of these goals. One answer might be to increase intensity, more time on task, more hours of study. But this is not always possible for programs, because they lack the funding to increase intensity of classroom instruction, or for learners, who usually have other commitments like working and parenting. Funders -- especially companies when they fund "workplace literacy" -- often want results in a few weeks or months, and even major federal and state funders want results at the end of the fiscal year, either one of these prizes or evidence of progress toward its attainment. Are there some ways we could sustain the student's original motive or goal (the GED diploma, a good job, or an admission to college prize) over several years, if needed. What do we know about strategies like awarding certificates for small achievements, holding annual recognition ceremonies, and providing good formative assessment so students can see they have reached some milestones? How about strategies like building community, providing food, helping students to learn skills that they can use in daily living? Can we articulate from research and/or professional wisdom what strategies work (if any) in sustaining long-term students' motivation and convince funders that we need their support for these strategies? David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net From CGannon at qcc.mass.edu Mon Jul 17 12:17:40 2006 From: CGannon at qcc.mass.edu (Cathy Gannon) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 12:17:40 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 141] Re: [This message may be SPAM] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Discussion questions Message-ID: <7D243C93CC45DC47BD40B11C9D073BA901278B12@HOBBES.campus.qcc.edu> I hope I'm not too late to pose a question - have just gotten caught up on this very interesting discussion. John, Would you please elaborate a bit on "Learner-produced reading materials, which many programs produce, at least in small quantities, might be useful in this process, but informal dialogue and writing about goals might work just as well." in your response to Marie below. We (here at Central SABES) support a publication of learner produced writings and know that the practitioners in our region of MA would be interested in connecting this learner writing to goal setting and thus increased learner persistence. Cathy Gannon -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of John Comings Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 4:01 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [This message may be SPAM] [SpecialTopics 100] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Discussion questions Importance: Low Sorry I'm late responding but I just got into the office after a morning of conference calls and family business. Let me start by saying that the last 8 years of research has given NCSALL some insights into what might work to increase persistence, but we don't yet have proof that the changes in program services that these insights suggest lead to increased persistence. However, I feel we have some of the best available advice. That advice suggests two broad approaches, one is to add supports to persistence in our existing programs and the other suggests adding those supports to programs that are designed to fit with the existing patterns of participation. The first approach is incremental and less expensive. That second requires changes in policy, funding, accountability, and service delivery. Now to Marie Cora's two questions: 1. Goals: The quantitative aspect of our research showed a correlation between students who were able to state a specific goal for attending (they persisted longer) and those who stated a vague goal or no goal at all (they persisted less). So we explored the goals of students and found that they usually expressed both an instrumental goal ("I want to get my GED, so I can get a better job" for example) and a transformational goal (I want to be the kind of person who has a high school education," for example). Many programs ask students at intake to state their goals, which is probably helpful. But, it might be helpful to weave the goal setting process into instruction as well. In this way, students can have some time to think about what they want and why they want it. Learner-produced reading materials, which many programs produce, at least in small quantities, might be useful in this process, but informal dialogue and writing about goals might work just as well. Any activities that help students articulate their instrumental and transformational goals, and revisit them as part of instruction, probably adds this support to persistence. 2. Stopout: In our interviews, students who had dropped out told us that their program would not allow them to return after they stopped attending, but the staff in their programs said this was not true and we observed students returning and being welcomed back into the program. The misconception started at intake and orientation, when staff emphasized good attendance. Our longitudinal study is identifying a pattern of participation in learning that is made up of episodes of participation in programs and episodes of self-study. Our research suggests that a support to persistence would making sure that new students know that they can stopout and also know how to reenter. However, we might do better to change the form of participation to one that links episodes of program participation and self study. > Begin forwarded message: > >> From: "Marie Cora" >> Date: July 10, 2006 10:02:17 AM EDT >> To: >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 90] Re: Persistence Discussion questions >> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> >> Dear Colleagues, >> >> Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss >> Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what >> strategies folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with >> their students. >> >> I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am >> interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the >> student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do >> that. >> It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so easy >> to get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some >> of the things that folks do around this issue? >> >> Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you >> noted that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to >> acknowledge that the student might not persist. In other words, why >> not explore with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", >> this doesn't have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at >> the same time, completely logical. This appears to be part of what >> you intend in your third area of research based on what I've read. >> >> Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. >> >> Marie Cora >> NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator >> marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com >> >> >> -----Original Message----- >> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov >> [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen >> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM >> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >> Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion >> >> Dear Colleagues, >> >> Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings >> and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and >> Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue >> through Tuesday next week, July 18th. >> >> Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. >> >> In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of >> interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- >> minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two >> practitioners, streamed at: >> >> http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html >> >> You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, >> or you could try this shorter version: >> >> http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu >> >> Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing >> the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of >> the Mac streamed version. >> >> David J. Rosen >> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net >> >> On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: >> >>> Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, >>> >>> John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult >>> Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the >>> persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, >>> below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the >>> study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome >>> to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but >>> these will not be posted until July 10th. >>> >>> i am looking forward to your joining in on this important discussion. >>> >>> David J. Rosen >>> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net >>> -------------- >>> >>> When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the >>> proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed >>> practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design >>> our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. >>> We asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they >>> wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED >>> programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and >>> second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, >>> "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the >>> program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can >>> meet their educational goals?" >>> >>> That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of persistence. >>> The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the >>> literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, >>> and identified ways that programs were trying to support the >>> persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be >>> found at: >>> >>> >>> >>> In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with >>> funds to implement interventions that might help improve >>> persistence, and our study team observed the programs and >>> interviewed their staff and students. We also followed a cohort of >>> 180 students for 14 months. The report of that second phase can be found at: >>> >>> >>> >>> We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer >>> has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would >>> test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to >>> existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of >>> learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other >>> ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, >>> and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the >>> third approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, >>> as well as it can be solved. >>> >>> I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be >>> interested in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence >>> and how to expand opportunities for learning. >>> >>> John Comings, NCSALL Director >>> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard >>> Graduate School of Education >>> 7 Appian Way >>> Cambridge MA 02138 >>> (617) 496-0516, voice >>> (617) 495-4811, fax >>> (617) 335-9839, mobile >>> john_comings at harvard.edu >>> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------- >>> National Institute for Literacy >>> Special Topics mailing list >>> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> >> David Rosen >> djrosen at comcast.net >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > David Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From dwyoho at earthlink.net Mon Jul 17 15:48:44 2006 From: dwyoho at earthlink.net (Debbie Yoho) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 15:48:44 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 142] Re: Managed enrollment Message-ID: <380-220067117194844656@earthlink.net> I thought it interesting that one of the suggestions as a result of the persistence research is to find ways to accomodate the tendency of adult learners to "drop in and out". The idea of "managed enrollment", where programs end open enrollment and instead offer coursework in 8-12 week packages, as been touted in our area as a panacea for this problem. I'd like to hear from programs that have tried "managed enrollment". My own problem is I can't figure out how to include one-on-one services in a "managed" context. My experience tells me, and the research seems to point to this too, that the problem with persistence may not be one of motivation, but of juggling the many realities of adult life. Increasing the intensity of programs may work for some, but may also have the result of pushing out those who just can't commit to more than a few hours a week. "Turning Pages into Possibilities", Debbie Deborah W. Yoho Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council 2728 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29205 803-765-2555 Fax 803-799-8417 dwyoho at earthlink.net GCLC is a community service of Volunteers of America of the Carolinas. From djrosen at comcast.net Mon Jul 17 20:54:15 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David J. Rosen) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:54:15 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 143] Persistence: Student Transformation Goals Message-ID: <44BC3137.9040204@comcast.net> Posted for Andy Nash: Hi John, I was surprised and heartened to read the following in your 7/10 response to Marie Cora: . . . we explored the goals of students and found that they usually expressed both an instrumental goal (?I want to get my GED, so I can get a better job? for example) and a transformational goal (I want to be the kind of person who has a high school education,? for example). Many programs ask students at intake to state their goals, which is probably helpful. But, it might be helpful to weave the goal-setting process into instruction as well. . . . My sense is that the focus in programs, so far, has been on the instrumental goals * those that are clear, measurable, functional, etc. Since I?m interested in the ?transformational? goals, particularly in the sense of helping adults see themselves as ?the kind of person? who reads a newspaper or ?the kind of person? who understands (and speaks up about?) the decisions that are being made about their lives, I?ve been dismayed by this trend toward the immediately practical. While I agree that goal-setting needs to be an on-going process infused into instruction, I don?t think transformational goals are likely to be identified by students through an individual process. I have only seen individuals name the kinds of concrete items that appear on the goal lists being developed in many programs. It seems to me that only when goal-setting is done as a group, and when students are invited to discuss what their concerns are, or what kind of person they want to be, or how they want their lives to be different after participating in the program, that we?ll be able to start surfacing those transformational goals. Can you please comment on this, and on how you saw those transformational goals expressed during your research? Andy Nash New England Literacy Resource Center/World Educaton From djrosen at comcast.net Mon Jul 17 21:28:07 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David J. Rosen) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 21:28:07 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 144] [Fwd: [Assessment 409] Re: FW: Keeping students' eyes on the prize] Message-ID: <44BC3927.6080904@comcast.net> Forwarded from the Assessment Discussion List: -------- Original Message -------- Subject: [Assessment 409] Re: FW: [SpecialTopics 141] Keeping students' eyes on the prize Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 10:27:43 -0700 From: Tina_Luffman at yc.edu Reply-To: The Assessment Discussion List To: The Assessment Discussion List Hi everyone, Thank you for the terrific video presentation concerning persistence among students. We plan to use it for teacher training this August at Yavapai College. I just wanted to add that, "yes," we do give our students certificates whenever they come up in a TABE regardless if it is a complete ed gain or not, and whenever they have perfect attendance each month. These certificates seem to be more motivating than anything we could offer them. I had one student who reportedly went home and hung his on the wall, and said he would keep it there until he had his GED Diploma. He was so thrilled because he hadn't received any kind of recognition certificate since elementary school. <>Tina Tina Luffman Coordinator, Developmental Education Verde Valley Campus 928-634-6544 tina_luffman at yc.edu -------------- next part -------------- An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed... Name: file:///C|/DOCUME%7E1/DAVID/LOCALS%7E1/TEMP/nsmail.txt Url: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060717/7b1e9888/attachment.txt From hsnow at cougar.kean.edu Mon Jul 17 21:02:00 2006 From: hsnow at cougar.kean.edu (Hugh D. Snow) Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2006 20:02:00 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 145] Re: Managed enrollment Message-ID: <541125378d.5378d54112@kean.edu> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060717/dc73e11c/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Tue Jul 18 07:27:46 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:27:46 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 146] Persistence: Keeping Students on a learning plan... References: <20060717131227.86251.qmail@web36604.mail.mud.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <9A944204-ABBE-4D19-9EF9-74ED3B921040@comcast.net> Posted for Marilyn Knight: From: Marilynn Knight Date: July 17, 2006 9:12:27 AM EDT Subject: Keeping Students on a learning plan... What I find most natural, and what seems to help undergird my students' committment to persevere, is to help my students bond to each other, and even across the lines of ABE and ESOL. I teach both Reading and Writing to both groups, in both one-on-one tutoring and group settings. I want them to know each other and to know they can learn from each other. I have found interest in an ongoing Book Club to meet on Sundays from 4 to 5pm. Not a rigid, everyone must read the same book, kind of club, but where we are sharing in a discussion, reading aloud of individual books and a common book. This is an outgrowth of a Reading/Writing Class I have taught here over the past year. I want to maintain a relaxed, happy, enthusiastic, spontaneous approach, where each member is enjoyed and appreciated and contributes. We don't have the time pressure of a formal class, but we also can exult in acquiring new vocabulary, new construction. This is strictly a voluntary activity, but I think it will help them persevere, but also internalize the zest for learning, which I consider everyone's birthright. Marilynn Latta Knight The Greater Columbia Literacy Council Columbia, SC From djrosen at comcast.net Tue Jul 18 07:34:57 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 07:34:57 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 147] Last day of Discussion on Persistence Message-ID: <8D627E6F-03BC-4612-BD32-993EAF110A41@comcast.net> Special Topics Discussion Colleagues, Today is the last day to post your questions and comments on Persistence. After today, and after John Comings has responded to any recent posts, the discussion will close. For those who have recently joined us, and others, the discussions on the Special Topics list are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/ date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Tue Jul 18 10:14:10 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:14:10 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 148] Re: Persistence: Student Transformation Goals In-Reply-To: <44BC3137.9040204@comcast.net> References: <44BC3137.9040204@comcast.net> Message-ID: If you think back about your own adult education, that is college and graduate school along with learning related to improving your job prospects or enjoying your leisure time (language classes, golf lessons, and computer training, for example), you probably had an instrumental goal (get a better or specific job, speak Spanish, lower your handicap, or be able to produce better looking documents, for example). However, you also had a vision of yourself as person with that better or specific job, as a person who is bilingual, as being able to consistently hit 250 yards down the middle of the fairway of the tee [a transformation I am still waiting for], or being the person other people ask for computer help). This vision of who you wanted to become and the instrumental benefit supported your motivation to sit through and pass courses that were boring, make time in your schedule to practice and attend training programs. The desire to change some aspect of personal identity came up in our interviews with ABE and ESOL students. So programs might consider exploring both instrumental and transitional goals. There is no reason why these explorations cannot be done within the context of teaching ESOL or ABE. The exploration should help students articulate these goals but should also build self-efficacy, that is the belief that they can reach those goals. The ways to build self-efficacy have been identified through research and are explained in the Persistence report on our website. But in summary, we should help our students experience success by making meaningful progress and seeing that they are making progress meet people just like them who have succeeded receive social support from teachers, fellow students, and from members of their family and friendship network and learn to overcome any negative emotional states (nervousness or anxiety for example) around learning. --On Monday, July 17, 2006 8:54 PM -0400 "David J. Rosen" wrote: > Posted for Andy Nash: > > Hi John, > > I was surprised and heartened to read the following in your 7/10 response > to Marie Cora: > > . . . we explored the goals of students and found that they usually > expressed both an instrumental goal ("I want to get my GED, so I can > get a better job" for example) and a transformational goal (I want to > be the kind of person who has a high school education," for example). > Many programs ask students at intake to state their goals, which is > probably helpful. But, it might be helpful to weave the goal-setting > process into instruction as well. . . . > > My sense is that the focus in programs, so far, has been on the > instrumental goals * those that are clear, measurable, functional, etc. > Since I'm interested in the "transformational" goals, particularly > in the sense of helping adults see themselves as "the kind of person" > who reads a newspaper or "the kind of person" who understands (and > speaks up about?) the decisions that are being made about their lives, > I've been dismayed by this trend toward the immediately practical. > > While I agree that goal-setting needs to be an on-going process infused > into instruction, I don't think transformational goals are likely to be > identified by students through an individual process. I have only seen > individuals name the kinds of concrete items that appear on the goal > lists being developed in many programs. It seems to me that only when > goal-setting is done as a group, and when students are invited to discuss > what their concerns are, or what kind of person they want to be, or how > they want their lives to be different after participating in the program, > that we'll be able to start surfacing those transformational goals. Can > you please comment on this, and on how you saw those transformational > goals expressed during your research? > > Andy Nash > New England Literacy Resource Center/World Educaton > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From john_strucker at harvard.edu Tue Jul 18 10:49:46 2006 From: john_strucker at harvard.edu (john strucker) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:49:46 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 149] Re: Keeping students' eyes on the prize In-Reply-To: <5006EFB2-897E-4EAB-AF29-6A68FA46CFE8@comcast.net> References: <5006EFB2-897E-4EAB-AF29-6A68FA46CFE8@comcast.net> Message-ID: Hi David and colleagues, One part of a total approach to improved persistence that we should explore is the one they are trying in the UK. Their adult students take a series of nationally developed curriculum-based benchmark tests that give them feedback on their mastery of various specific competencies and also give them a sense of how much closer they are getting to reaching their long-term goals. Best, John Strucker --On Sunday, July 16, 2006 4:25 PM -0400 David Rosen wrote: > John, and other colleagues, > > Part of the persistence challenge is that some adult learners make > progress very slowly and have so very far to go before they see the > prize they may have their eyes on. The prize might be a high school > diploma, a better job, a living wage, a good job with a decent salary > and good benefits, or going to college, but these may be basic > literacy or beginning English language students who need years of > study to achieve one of these goals. One answer might be to increase > intensity, more time on task, more hours of study. But this is not > always possible for programs, because they lack the funding to > increase intensity of classroom instruction, or for learners, who > usually have other commitments like working and parenting. Funders > -- especially companies when they fund "workplace literacy" -- often > want results in a few weeks or months, and even major federal and > state funders want results at the end of the fiscal year, either one > of these prizes or evidence of progress toward its attainment. > > Are there some ways we could sustain the student's original motive or > goal (the GED diploma, a good job, or an admission to college prize) > over several years, if needed. What do we know about strategies > like awarding certificates for small achievements, holding annual > recognition ceremonies, and providing good formative assessment so > students can see they have reached some milestones? How about > strategies like building community, providing food, helping students > to learn skills that they can use in daily living? Can we articulate > from research and/or professional wisdom what strategies work (if > any) in sustaining long-term students' motivation and convince > funders that we need their support for these strategies? > > David J. Rosen > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Strucker, EdD Nichols House 303 Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge, MA 02138 617 495 4745 617 495 4811 (fax) From ckillack at uno.edu Tue Jul 18 11:04:40 2006 From: ckillack at uno.edu (Cecil J Killacky) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 10:04:40 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 150] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence References: <8D627E6F-03BC-4612-BD32-993EAF110A41@comcast.net> Message-ID: <9BD100EEFBE35A4092F56A9E6763EC39EB0FCD@mail3.uno.edu> Hi David and friends: many thanks for facilitating this discussion. It has been engaging and valuable. Jim Killacky University of New Orleans ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Tue 7/18/2006 6:34 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 147] Last day of Discussion on Persistence Special Topics Discussion Colleagues, Today is the last day to post your questions and comments on Persistence. After today, and after John Comings has responded to any recent posts, the discussion will close. For those who have recently joined us, and others, the discussions on the Special Topics list are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/ date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 4179 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060718/b3bafd30/attachment.bin From drichardson at jclibrary.org Tue Jul 18 12:21:29 2006 From: drichardson at jclibrary.org (Darnelle Richardson) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 12:21:29 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 151] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence In-Reply-To: <8D627E6F-03BC-4612-BD32-993EAF110A41@comcast.net> Message-ID: <4EA97732BEFF5041A6AABC9CD77655BD03F279@jersey-mail.jcpl_serv.jclibrary.org> I managed to read most of the discussions on this topic and concur with everyone on the strategies that need to be implemented or changed to support our adult learners. There's one thing I would like to add, and most people might not agree with me. In terms of our adults stopping out and dropping in, I think we need to hold them more accountable. The trend I've seen is that some of them think it's okay to stop at any time and jump back in at any time. While I understand that circumstances might warrant them having to take a break, all too often some of them don't take their learning serious enough to try to make adjustments that might enable them to continue in their programs. Is it because we are too lenient with them? We try our best to be accountable to our funders, which can be rigid at times when you consider how much manpower goes into producing some reports, and yet we allow our adults to move nonchalantly through our programs. Some of them place no value on persistence because most of the services are free. Perhaps if they were required to pay high fees like some of us do for our college education, they might be persistent. I realize this might be outside of the box for most programs, including mine, but we should try to find ways to make them more accountable; this might improve persistence. Darnelle L. Richardson Program Coordinator Literacy Program Jersey City Public Library 472 Jersey Avenue Jersey City, NJ 07302 T: 201/547-5770 F: 201/435-5746 E-mail: drichardson at jclibrary.org "The ability to read and write is critical to personal freedom and the maintenance of a democratic society." -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 7:35 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 147] Last day of Discussion on Persistence Special Topics Discussion Colleagues, Today is the last day to post your questions and comments on Persistence. After today, and after John Comings has responded to any recent posts, the discussion will close. For those who have recently joined us, and others, the discussions on the Special Topics list are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/ date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From Holly.Dilatush-Guthrie at ccs.k12.va.us Tue Jul 18 12:51:26 2006 From: Holly.Dilatush-Guthrie at ccs.k12.va.us (Holly Dilatush-Guthrie) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 12:51:26 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 152] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence Message-ID: Ditto! <> kudos Holly "No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that will turn the tides." Holly Dilatush ESL distance learning, Dialogue Cafe, Volunteer coordinator Charlottesville City Schools Adult Learning Center 1000 Preston Ave., Suite D Charlottesville VA 22903 (434) 245.2815 office (434) 960.7177 cell/mobile http://theHsmile.org ['home' to several Moodle CMS (course management systems/virtual classrooms)] http://www.Charlottesville-ESL.org "Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe and nurture in nature." From meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org Tue Jul 18 13:21:01 2006 From: meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org (Jane Meyer) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:21:01 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 153] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence In-Reply-To: <4EA97732BEFF5041A6AABC9CD77655BD03F279@jersey-mail.jcpl_serv.jclibrary.org> References: <4EA97732BEFF5041A6AABC9CD77655BD03F279@jersey-mail.jcpl_serv.jclibrary.org> Message-ID: <44BD187D.7020005@ccsdistrict.org> Darnelle Richardson wrote: >In terms of our adults stopping out and dropping in, I think we need to hold them more accountable. The trend I've seen is that some of them think it's okay to stop at any time and jump back in at any time. While I understand that circumstances might warrant them having to take a break, all too often some of them don't take their learning serious enough to try to make adjustments that might enable them to continue in their programs. > > Debbie Yoho brought up the question of how managed enrollment fits with stopping out. I once heard someone speak at an NCFL conference (sorry I forget who) about a way their program structured stopping out. When students need to stop out for some reason the teacher and the student talk it over and decide on a time to check in with the family about returning. They also talk about what the student might need to do during the stop out, both academically and to get through the problem that is causing them to stop out. The time would be in several weeks depending on the problem. During the check-in conference the student would show they are ready to return or the time might be extended if needed, but again they are looking at a set time to check back which helps the student see the stop out as an issue to move through, not an ongoing set of one smaller problem after another. During the stop out teachers could have some kind of contact with the student, or the student might attend some flexible services, but not the class. This sounded like it might work. I like the way it clarifies the difference between stopping out to deal with an issue that has become a barrier and just poor attendance (which could be delved into as an issue). I'd like to hear how others have managed the balancing act between managed enrollment and flexing to meet students needs. Jane Meyer Canton City Schools ABLE meyer_j at ccsdistrict.org From cspin at searchproject.org Tue Jul 18 14:50:06 2006 From: cspin at searchproject.org (Christine Spin) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 13:50:06 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 154] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence Message-ID: I am writing from an adult education program for the homeless. I have read all of the discussions thus far, and have found many comments and suggestions helpful, as they pertain to the demographic I work with on a daily basis. The lack of student persistence is frustrating, and it would be a perfect world if we could institute some method of holding students accountable for their schedule--to keep them from "stopping out and dropping in." There are, however, many more factors than simply work and family that keep them from maintaining a consistent effort & schedule for their education. In my population, in particular, we deal with instances of multiple learning & mental disabilities; many of our students have both. Unless we maintain an open enrollment standard in our organization, our services will be rendered unsustainable. Hence, we work constantly with managing many other factors in each student's life: shelter, food, health, medication, etc. Once those needs are addressed, then we can only hope that they are sustained, and can possibly contribute to student persistence. Because many of our students, due to their physical & mental conditions, have rarely had to be held accountable for many parts of their lives (work, education, family), it is a struggle for us to attempt to instill that in them now as adults, no matter how medication & rehabilitation have alleviated their initial disabilities. My hope now lies in most of the "goal-setting" suggestions I have read in this discussion. I have taken notes and I am planning to execute the idea asking students to set forth their goals in an initial interview and then clarifying these goals as they pertain to our classroom's abilities and their own. I also plan on setting both immediate instrumental and more long-term transformative goals with each student upon entry and periodically (quarterly) throughout their time here. By working with them and posting their goals in a portfolio, which we revisit to see how far they have come to attaining their goals, I do believe we can see advanced persistence. Thank you for your suggestions, and I look forward to implementing them in my classroom. Christine Spin GED Instructor From jjarrell at sdccd.edu Tue Jul 18 15:14:57 2006 From: jjarrell at sdccd.edu (Jan Jarrell) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 12:14:57 -0700 Subject: [SpecialTopics 155] Re: Managed enrollment Message-ID: While the benefits of managed enrollment for some students (and teachers) seems clear and unarguable, I wonder about what is lost. Students who have trouble committing to a managed enrollment program may not be able to access education at all, or if they do, they may enter what is perceived (or even promoted) to be an inferior learning environment (oe/oe), or they may feel discouraged or embarrassed if they attempt a managed enrollment class and are subsequently dropped from a class because they cannot sustain attendance requirements. In oe/oe classes, there is a certain dynamism and freedom, and the potential for daily renewal, which is rare in any type of institution -- educational or otherwise. Moreover, we do not know what students' stopping in may have meant to them. We do have evidence, however, that prior exposure to adult education is a factor in persistence (Comings, Parrella, & Soricone). Some additional food for thought . . . In 2003, we conducted an informal case study of "high retention ESL teachers," in our Continuing Education (oe/oe) program, which involved class observations, instructor interviews, and student focus groups. We identified the following themes: structure, organization, community, and expertise. All of these classes demonstrated structure in the form of schedules, calendars, weekly or daily routines, syllabi, agendas, and/or classroom management through student teams. In terms of organization, students in these classes were busy during the entire class period and were actively engaged in meaningful and relevant tasks. Third, there was a sense of community in these classrooms. Instructors knew all of their students' names as well as details about their lives. Students also knew and cared about other students in their class. Finally, the teachers were experts. They knew their material well and could provide clear explanations and examples. Students in the higher-level classes especially appreciated this skill. One comment we frequently heard from teachers was: "Students feel they miss something if they don't come to class." I've appreciated the discussion. Thanks to all. Jan Jarrell Professor of ESL San Diego Continuing Education 4343 Ocean View Blvd. San Diego, CA 92113 619-388-4847 _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Hugh D. Snow Sent: Monday, July 17, 2006 6:02 PM To: dwyoho at earthlink.net; specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 145] Re: Managed enrollment Debbie, I agree with you. In fact I stated a few days ago,there needs to be a different system of interviewing the potential students,so that we can bring about a change in their lives and circumstances. Today, rich and poor, literate and illiterate suffer from a poverty of time.They (students) have many additional issues as well. We can do better. Hugh` ----- Original Message ----- From: Debbie Yoho Date: Monday, July 17, 2006 2:48 pm Subject: [SpecialTopics 142] Re: Managed enrollment > I thought it interesting that one of the suggestions as a result > of the > persistence research is to find ways to accomodate the tendency of > adultlearners to "drop in and out". The idea of "managed > enrollment", where > programs end open enrollment and instead offer coursework in 8-12 week > packages, as been touted in our area as a panacea for this > problem. I'd > like to hear from programs that have tried "managed enrollment". > My own > problem is I can't figure out how to include one-on-one services > in a > "managed" context. > > My experience tells me, and the research seems to point to this > too, that > the problem with persistence may not be one of motivation, but of > jugglingthe many realities of adult life. Increasing the > intensity of programs may > work for some, but may also have the result of pushing out those > who just > can't commit to more than a few hours a week. > > "Turning Pages into Possibilities", Debbie > > Deborah W. Yoho > Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council > 2728 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29205 > 803-765-2555 Fax 803-799-8417 dwyoho at earthlink.net > > GCLC is a community service of Volunteers of America of the Carolinas. > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060718/b2027621/attachment.html From khinson at future-gate.com Tue Jul 18 17:02:38 2006 From: khinson at future-gate.com (Katrina Hinson) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 23:02:38 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 156] Re: Persistence: Student Transformation Goals Message-ID: <44BD688E020000A000002E0D@fgwiel01a.wie.de.future-gate.com> I periodically have my students write a paper that answers the question "Why am I here?" where they are to tell me what it is that brings them to my class everyday, what their expectations are of themselves and of me as their instructor. Additionally, I have them tell me what it is that motivates them to get out of bed and show up in the mornings. The responses I get always start with "I want to get my GED" but they end with "I want to be a better role model for my child/children/brothers/sisters" or " I want to feel better about myself" or "I want people to respect me more." I don't do this as a shared group experience all the time - but have each student write and submit to me. This is one of the few writing assignments where I don't mark mechanical or grammatical errors and simply read for content and provide feedback as necessary. Occassionally, we'll discuss the goals that they've given and how important it is to understand that goal setting is a process. We'll take it to the "how do I get to where I want to be" steps. Regards Katrina Hinson >>> "David J. Rosen" 07/17/06 5:54 PM >>> Posted for Andy Nash: Hi John, I was surprised and heartened to read the following in your 7/10 response to Marie Cora: . . . we explored the goals of students and found that they usually expressed both an instrumental goal (???I want to get my GED, so I can get a better job??? for example) and a transformational goal (I want to be the kind of person who has a high school education,??? for example). Many programs ask students at intake to state their goals, which is probably helpful. But, it might be helpful to weave the goal-setting process into instruction as well. . . . My sense is that the focus in programs, so far, has been on the instrumental goals * those that are clear, measurable, functional, etc. Since I???m interested in the ???transformational??? goals, particularly in the sense of helping adults see themselves as ???the kind of person??? who reads a newspaper or ???the kind of person??? who understands (and speaks up about?) the decisions that are being made about their lives, I???ve been dismayed by this trend toward the immediately practical. While I agree that goal-setting needs to be an on-going process infused into instruction, I don???t think transformational goals are likely to be identified by students through an individual process. I have only seen individuals name the kinds of concrete items that appear on the goal lists being developed in many programs. It seems to me that only when goal-setting is done as a group, and when students are invited to discuss what their concerns are, or what kind of person they want to be, or how they want their lives to be different after participating in the program, that we???ll be able to start surfacing those transformational goals. Can you please comment on this, and on how you saw those transformational goals expressed during your research? Andy Nash New England Literacy Resource Center/World Educaton ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From hsnow at cougar.kean.edu Tue Jul 18 17:14:38 2006 From: hsnow at cougar.kean.edu (Hugh D. Snow) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 16:14:38 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 157] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence Message-ID: <31ccf317e3.317e331ccf@kean.edu> An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060718/c9e52ec0/attachment.html From khinson at future-gate.com Tue Jul 18 17:11:10 2006 From: khinson at future-gate.com (Katrina Hinson) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 23:11:10 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 158] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence Message-ID: <44BD6A8E020000A000002E12@fgwiel01a.wie.de.future-gate.com> I'd have to agree with Ms. Richardson. I do think accountability is a factor that plays into leaner persistence. Recently, we made a move towards holding our Adult High School students more accountable. It's made a difference in the attendance over the summer and it wasn't an easy transition for them. They were used to being able to miss 12 hours in mulitple classes, make it up, miss some more etc. This summer we went to an 8 hour max for a particular class and a short 2 week window to make it up. If they didn't get it made up, they got dropped from the class. The students, (with few exceptions) have opted to attend class as required. Sometimes, expecting students to act like adults and hold them accountable is very important to helping them learn accountability. Regards Katrina Hinson >>> "Darnelle Richardson" 07/18/06 9:21 AM >>> I managed to read most of the discussions on this topic and concur with everyone on the strategies that need to be implemented or changed to support our adult learners. There's one thing I would like to add, and most people might not agree with me. In terms of our adults stopping out and dropping in, I think we need to hold them more accountable. The trend I've seen is that some of them think it's okay to stop at any time and jump back in at any time. While I understand that circumstances might warrant them having to take a break, all too often some of them don't take their learning serious enough to try to make adjustments that might enable them to continue in their programs. Is it because we are too lenient with them? We try our best to be accountable to our funders, which can be rigid at times when you consider how much manpower goes into producing some reports, and yet we allow our adults to move nonchalantly through our programs. Some of them place no value on pe rsistence because most of the services are free. Perhaps if they were required to pay high fees like some of us do for our college education, they might be persistent. I realize this might be outside of the box for most programs, including mine, but we should try to find ways to make them more accountable; this might improve persistence. Darnelle L. Richardson Program Coordinator Literacy Program Jersey City Public Library 472 Jersey Avenue Jersey City, NJ 07302 T: 201/547-5770 F: 201/435-5746 E-mail: drichardson at jclibrary.org "The ability to read and write is critical to personal freedom and the maintenance of a democratic society." -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 7:35 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 147] Last day of Discussion on Persistence Special Topics Discussion Colleagues, Today is the last day to post your questions and comments on Persistence. After today, and after John Comings has responded to any recent posts, the discussion will close. For those who have recently joined us, and others, the discussions on the Special Topics list are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/ date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From mcarro at lmi.net Tue Jul 18 19:59:02 2006 From: mcarro at lmi.net (Maureen Carro) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 16:59:02 -0700 Subject: [SpecialTopics 159] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence In-Reply-To: <44BD6A8E020000A000002E12@fgwiel01a.wie.de.future-gate.com> References: <44BD6A8E020000A000002E12@fgwiel01a.wie.de.future-gate.com> Message-ID: Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this discussion! I too have managed to followed most of the comments. All of the points made have merit, and reflect someone's reality. It is obvious that a variety of program options would be ideal! I love the idea of "transitional goals"! I also agree with Darnelle Richardson and others who believe that learner accountability is an important factor. Persistence is a quality that leads to success in life in general, not just for our students, as students, but for their lifetime. We persist with things that are important to us, and we prioritize accordingly! There is also such a thing as "goodness of fit". The best program is useless to one who cannot access it. There is more to it than just setting a goal. Although I cannot remember the author, the saying " a goal without a plan is just a dream" comes to mind. I often discuss this saying as part of an intake process. We fill out a calendar with everything that MUST be done at a particular time and cannot be changed. This includes work and family committments. The next level, what needs to be done, but has some flexibility. After prioritizing in this manner, the student can determine whether the particular program is a "good fit". Is the time the student has available compatible with the class time? We also discuss the fact that progress may be disappointing to the client if frequency and intensity cannot be maintained. The intake process is also a good time to discuss 'self-advocacy". It may be worth a try to ask for a work schedule that accommodates class attendance. These activities are part of developing a plan to achieve the goal. Planning is also an important ingredient to a successful outcome, and lack of it can result in chaos. Prioritizing, planning, monitoring, and evaluating are "life skills" that can be continually woven into our "academic" programs. Some students need "explicit instruction" and modeling in order to learn these skills in the same way that they learn academic skills. On Jul 18, 2006, at 2:11 PM, Katrina Hinson wrote: > I'd have to agree with Ms. Richardson. I do think accountability is a > factor that plays into leaner persistence. Recently, we made a move > towards holding our Adult High School students more accountable. It's > made a difference in the attendance over the summer and it wasn't an > easy transition for them. They were used to being able to miss 12 hours > in mulitple classes, make it up, miss some more etc. This summer we > went > to an 8 hour max for a particular class and a short 2 week window to > make it up. If they didn't get it made up, they got dropped from the > class. The students, (with few exceptions) have opted to attend class > as > required. Sometimes, expecting students to act like adults and hold > them > accountable is very important to helping them learn accountability. > > Regards > Katrina Hinson > >>>> "Darnelle Richardson" 07/18/06 9:21 AM >>>> > I managed to read most of the discussions on this topic and concur with > everyone on the strategies that need to be implemented or changed to > support our adult learners. There's one thing I would like to add, and > most people might not agree with me. In terms of our adults stopping > out and dropping in, I think we need to hold them more accountable. > The > trend I've seen is that some of them think it's okay to stop at any > time > and jump back in at any time. While I understand that circumstances > might warrant them having to take a break, all too often some of them > don't take their learning serious enough to try to make adjustments > that > might enable them to continue in their programs. Is it because we are > too lenient with them? We try our best to be accountable to our > funders, which can be rigid at times when you consider how much > manpower > goes into producing some reports, and yet we allow our adults to move > nonchalantly through our programs. Some of them place no value on pe > rsistence because most of the services are free. Perhaps if they were > required to pay high fees like some of us do for our college education, > they might be persistent. I realize this might be outside of the box > for most programs, including mine, but we should try to find ways to > make them more accountable; this might improve persistence. > > Darnelle L. Richardson > Program Coordinator > Literacy Program > Jersey City Public Library > 472 Jersey Avenue > Jersey City, NJ 07302 > T: 201/547-5770 > F: 201/435-5746 > E-mail: drichardson at jclibrary.org > > "The ability to read and write is critical to personal freedom and the > maintenance of a democratic society." > > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen > Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 7:35 AM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 147] Last day of Discussion on Persistence > > > Special Topics Discussion Colleagues, > > Today is the last day to post your questions and comments on > Persistence. After today, and after John Comings has responded to > any recent posts, the discussion will close. For those who have > recently joined us, and others, the discussions on the Special Topics > list are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/ > date.html > > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > Maureen From drichardson at jclibrary.org Tue Jul 18 18:40:01 2006 From: drichardson at jclibrary.org (Darnelle Richardson) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 18:40:01 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 160] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence In-Reply-To: <31ccf317e3.317e331ccf@kean.edu> Message-ID: <4EA97732BEFF5041A6AABC9CD77655BD03F27C@jersey-mail.jcpl_serv.jclibrary.org> Hugh, Sometimes I do get frustrated, but not to the point of giving up. I'm encouraged by the success stories of the few persistent and hard working students. Darnelle L. Richardson Program Coordinator Literacy Program Jersey City Public Library 472 Jersey Avenue Jersey City, NJ 07302 T: 201/547-5770 F: 201/435-5746 E-mail: drichardson at jclibrary.org "The ability to read and write is critical to personal freedom and the maintenance of a democratic society." -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Hugh D. Snow Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 5:15 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 157] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence Darnelle, I didn't plan to respond to your e-mail at first but had a change of heart. You seem to be a bit frustrated with your student population.Am I correct? That's because you care and when the targeted group fails to respond in kind it hurts. Stay the course,the results will get better.If you charge a fee for service you will lose most if not all of the students your program was designed to help. There are so many things going on in their minds (I might add, ours too) its a wonder any of them persist. Once more for the record, if we can devise a screening mechanism which allows us to really assess the level of concern and what really matters to the students; we can effectuate a more meaningful program and a significant increase in the persistence level of the students. Hope this makes sense. I sure would enjoy working on such a platform. Regards, Hugh ----- Original Message ----- From: Darnelle Richardson Date: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 11:21 am Subject: [SpecialTopics 151] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence > I managed to read most of the discussions on this topic and concur > with everyone on the strategies that need to be implemented or > changed to support our adult learners. There's one thing I would > like to add, and most people might not agree with me. In terms of > our adults stopping out and dropping in, I think we need to hold > them more accountable. The trend I've seen is that some of them > think it's okay to stop at any time and jump back in at any time. > While I understand that circumstances might warrant them having to > take a break, all too often some of them don't take their learning > serious enough to try to make adjustments that might enable them > to continue in their programs. Is it because we are too lenient > with them? We try our best to be accountable to our funders, > which can be rigid at times when you consider how much manpower > goes into producing some reports, and yet we allow our adults to > move nonchalantly through our programs. Some of them place no > value on pe > rsistence because most of the services are free. Perhaps if they > were required to pay high fees like some of us do for our college > education, they might be persistent. I realize this might be > outside of the box for most programs, including mine, but we > should try to find ways to make them more accountable; this might > improve persistence. > > Darnelle L. Richardson > Program Coordinator > Literacy Program > Jersey City Public Library > 472 Jersey Avenue > Jersey City, NJ 07302 > T: 201/547-5770 > F: 201/435-5746 > E-mail: drichardson at jclibrary.org > > "The ability to read and write is critical to personal freedom and > the maintenance of a democratic society." > > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen > Sent: Tuesday, July 18, 2006 7:35 AM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 147] Last day of Discussion on Persistence > > > Special Topics Discussion Colleagues, > > Today is the last day to post your questions and comments on > Persistence. After today, and after John Comings has responded to > > any recent posts, the discussion will close. For those who have > recently joined us, and others, the discussions on the Special > Topics > list are archived at > http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/ > date.html > > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion List Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060718/5fbb35ec/attachment.html From ktashjian at yahoo.com Tue Jul 18 20:59:30 2006 From: ktashjian at yahoo.com (karisa tashjian) Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2006 17:59:30 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [SpecialTopics 161] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20060719005930.65914.qmail@web52709.mail.yahoo.com> I, too, have greatly enjoyed and appreciated the conversation over the past few weeks on persistence. I am sorry to ask a question so late into the discussion but Maureen's posting prompted my interest on how other programs approach the intake process. As a result of Dr. Comings work on persistence, our program is focusing on this topic and making changes for the upcoming year. Some of the changes include offering teacher office hours, drop-in hours and open lab time, scheduling individual student/family appointments as part of our intake process (the first time we can say we have an organized and distinct intake period planned) as well as fostering discussion about student barriers, supports and building more opportunities to promote self-efficacy into our curriculum (Dr. Comings - I hope we are doing this right!!). Maureen mentioned some very interesting topics that she discusses with students during intake (prioritizing commitments, completing a calendar, the need for a plan to meet goals, and self-advocacy). As most of our students are beginning and low intermediate, what strategies/activities/questions can you suggest for intake? What are the specifics/logistics of how your intake process is designed? What tools can be used to determine if the student is a good fit for the program? I look forward to your help -- our intake period is fast approaching! Best regards, Karisa Tashjian Rhode Island Family Literacy Initiative --------------------------------- Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Make PC-to-Phone Calls to the US (and 30+ countries) for 2?/min or less. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060718/edb1a9c9/attachment.html From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Wed Jul 19 08:14:55 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:14:55 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 162] Re: [This message may be SPAM] Re: Fwd: Re: Persistence Discussion questions In-Reply-To: <7D243C93CC45DC47BD40B11C9D073BA901278B12@HOBBES.campus.qcc.edu> References: <7D243C93CC45DC47BD40B11C9D073BA901278B12@HOBBES.campus.qcc.edu> Message-ID: <6B70A19005F9A335BE37E0D4@[192.168.1.102]> These types of materials often focus on students' tranformational vision. They also present people who are similar to our students who have struggled to succeed against the same barriers and who have succeeded. Reading and discussing these materials provides an opportunity to improve and practice reading and speaking skills, but this activity also allows students the chance to discuss their vision for their personal future, the new identity they are seeking, which is their true motivation for learning. Understanding these two types of goals is best done with an example. For example, when I first started playing golf, I took some lessons to improve my game. The lessons were expensive and it was difficult to get the time to both attend the lessons and to do the practice required to make the lesson effective. My stated instrumental goal was to start getting a score in the 90s, a pathetic goal in golf terms but my goal none the less. I also had a vision of myself being able to join a group of golfers and be feel confident that my game was going to be OK and someday quite good. It was that vision, the one of me hitting the 250 yard drive right down the middle of the fairway that kept me going. Our learners have a vision of themselves. It might be someone they know who is also an immigrant but who can always speak English in every situation. Or, it might be a friend who got her GED and then went on to medical assistant training at a community college and now works in a hospital helping people who are sick and who is now talking about becoming a nurse. In both cases they want to become that person. I think learner-generated stories would be good vehicles for articulating and connecting to this aspect of motivation. Along with teaching language and literacy skills, this kind of an activity can build critical thinking skills as well, by having the discussion follow Freire's "decoding" approach. That is, use a logical sequence for the discussion that starts with description (what happened in this story), then moves on to analysis (why did it happen), personalization (does this happen to you), planning (what can you/we do about this), action (trying something out), and reflection (what did we learn from the action and what should we do next). This allows students an opportunity to practice a process of critical thinking that may lead to action that supports persistence and learning. --On Monday, July 17, 2006 12:17 PM -0400 Cathy Gannon wrote: > I hope I'm not too late to pose a question - have just gotten caught up > on this very interesting discussion. > > John, Would you please elaborate a bit on "Learner-produced reading > materials, which many programs produce, at least in small quantities, > might be useful in this process, but informal dialogue and writing about > goals might work just as well." in your response to Marie below. > > We (here at Central SABES) support a publication of learner produced > writings and know that the practitioners in our region of MA would be > interested in connecting this learner writing to goal setting and thus > increased learner persistence. > > Cathy Gannon > > > -----Original Message----- > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov > [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of John Comings > Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 4:01 PM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [This message may be SPAM] [SpecialTopics 100] Re: Fwd: Re: > Persistence Discussion questions > Importance: Low > > Sorry I'm late responding but I just got into the office after a morning > of conference calls and family business. > > Let me start by saying that the last 8 years of research has given > NCSALL some insights into what might work to increase persistence, but > we don't yet have proof that the changes in program services that these > insights suggest lead to increased persistence. However, I feel we have > some of the best available advice. That advice suggests two broad > approaches, one is to add supports to persistence in our existing > programs and the other suggests adding those supports to programs that > are designed to fit with the existing patterns of participation. The > first approach is incremental and less expensive. That second requires > changes in policy, funding, accountability, and service delivery. > > Now to Marie Cora's two questions: > > 1. Goals: The quantitative aspect of our research showed a correlation > between students who were able to state a specific goal for attending > (they persisted longer) and those who stated a vague goal or no goal at > all (they persisted less). So we explored the goals of students and > found that they usually expressed both an instrumental goal ("I want to > get my GED, so I can get a better job" for example) and a > transformational goal (I want to be the kind of person who has a high > school education," for example). Many programs ask students at intake to > state their goals, which is probably helpful. But, it might be helpful > to weave the goal setting process into instruction as well. In this way, > students can have some time to think about what they want and why they > want it. Learner-produced reading materials, which many programs > produce, at least in small quantities, might be useful in this process, > but informal dialogue and writing about goals might work just as well. > Any activities that help students articulate their instrumental and > transformational goals, and revisit them as part of instruction, > probably adds this support to persistence. > > 2. Stopout: In our interviews, students who had dropped out told us > that their program would not allow them to return after they stopped > attending, but the staff in their programs said this was not true and we > observed students returning and being welcomed back into the program. > The misconception started at intake and orientation, when staff > emphasized good attendance. Our longitudinal study is identifying a > pattern of participation in learning that is made up of episodes of > participation in programs and episodes of self-study. Our research > suggests that a support to persistence would making sure that new > students know that they can stopout and also know how to reenter. > However, we might do better to change the form of participation to one > that links episodes of program participation and self study. > > >> Begin forwarded message: >> >>> From: "Marie Cora" >>> Date: July 10, 2006 10:02:17 AM EDT >>> To: >>> Subject: [SpecialTopics 90] Re: Persistence Discussion questions >>> Reply-To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >>> >>> Dear Colleagues, >>> >>> Thanks so much to John Comings for being with us this week to discuss > >>> Persistence. I am very much looking forward to hearing what >>> strategies folks use out there to try and tackle this issue with >>> their students. >>> >>> I actually have two questions for you (and list subscribers): I am >>> interested in hearing you elaborate a bit on the impact of having the > >>> student set his or her own goals, and how best to help them to do >>> that. >>> It's quite easy to set a student's goal for her/him - but not so easy > >>> to get a student to determine a goal for her/himself. What are some >>> of the things that folks do around this issue? >>> >>> Second, I heard you speak at a conference last fall in which you >>> noted that part of what could be helpful in persistence, is to >>> acknowledge that the student might not persist. In other words, why >>> not explore with the student the reality that if they do "stop out", >>> this doesn't have to mean "quit". I found this fascinating and at >>> the same time, completely logical. This appears to be part of what >>> you intend in your third area of research based on what I've read. >>> >>> Thank you again for your time this week and for the discussion. >>> >>> Marie Cora >>> NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator >>> marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov >>> [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen >>> Sent: Monday, July 10, 2006 7:37 AM >>> To: specialtopics at nifl.gov >>> Subject: [SpecialTopics 89] Re: Persistence Discussion >>> >>> Dear Colleagues, >>> >>> Today we begin a discussion about the studies which Dr. John Comings >>> and others at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and > >>> Literacy have done on persistence. The discussion will continue >>> through Tuesday next week, July 18th. >>> >>> Please post your questions and comments to John beginning now. >>> >>> In John's message below he describes two publications which may be of >>> interest. Each has a short executive summary. There is also a 30- >>> minute video panel discussion about the study, with John and two >>> practitioners, streamed at: >>> >>> http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/webcasts/persistence/persistence_cast.html >>> >>> You may need to cut and paste the whole web address in your browser, >>> or you could try this shorter version: >>> >>> http://tinyurl.com/s6tcu >>> >>> Macintosh users will need to select the Quicktime format for viewing >>> the presentation, and there are still some bugs to be worked out of >>> the Mac streamed version. >>> >>> David J. Rosen >>> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net >>> >>> On Jul 5, 2006, at 4:33 PM, David Rosen wrote: >>> >>>> Special Topics List Discussion Colleagues, >>>> >>>> John Comings, Director of the National Center for the Study of Adult > >>>> Learning and Literacy, will join us on July 10th to discuss the >>>> persistence study he has done. John has written an introduction, >>>> below, and included links to reports of the first two phases of the >>>> study. I hope you can read these before July 10th. You are welcome >>>> to submit questions, ideas and comments for John beginning now, but >>>> these will not be posted until July 10th. >>>> >>>> i am looking forward to your joining in on this important > discussion. >>>> >>>> David J. Rosen >>>> Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net >>>> -------------- >>>> >>>> When a group of us at World Education were preparing to write the >>>> proposal for the funds that have supported NCSALL, we surveyed >>>> practitioners and policy makers around the country to help us design > >>>> our research agenda. Almost 500 people participated in the survey. >>>> We asked the survey participants to send us the questions that they >>>> wanted answered to help them improve practice in ABE, ESOL, and GED >>>> programs. One question was at the top of the list for teachers and >>>> second on everyone else's list. One teacher phrased it this way, >>>> "Just when they begin to make progress, many students leave the >>>> program. How can I keep those students long enough that they can >>>> meet their educational goals?" >>>> >>>> That question formed the basis of a three-phase study of > persistence. >>>> The first two phases are complete. The first phase surveyed the >>>> literature, interviewed 150 students in the six New England states, >>>> and identified ways that programs were trying to support the >>>> persistence of their students. The report of that first phase can be > >>>> found at: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> In the second phase, 9 library literacy programs were provided with >>>> funds to implement interventions that might help improve >>>> persistence, and our study team observed the programs and >>>> interviewed their staff and students. We also followed a cohort of >>>> 180 students for 14 months. The report of that second phase can be > found at: >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> We are prepared to implement the third phase, but NCSALL no longer >>>> has funding to begin a new research project. This next phase would >>>> test three interventions. One would add persistence supports to >>>> existing classroom programs, one would use a wide range of modes of >>>> learning (in programs and through self study on-line and in other >>>> ways) that more closely match the way adults manage their learning, >>>> and the third would combine these two approaches. I believe the >>>> third approach is a promising way to solve the persistence problem, >>>> as well as it can be solved. >>>> >>>> I'm looking forward to your questions, but I would also be >>>> interested in practical ideas of how to build support to persistence > >>>> and how to expand opportunities for learning. >>>> >>>> John Comings, NCSALL Director >>>> National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard > >>>> Graduate School of Education >>>> 7 Appian Way >>>> Cambridge MA 02138 >>>> (617) 496-0516, voice >>>> (617) 495-4811, fax >>>> (617) 335-9839, mobile >>>> john_comings at harvard.edu >>>> http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> ------------------------------- >>>> National Institute for Literacy >>>> Special Topics mailing list >>>> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >>>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >>>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >>> >>> David Rosen >>> djrosen at comcast.net >>> >>> >>> >>> ------------------------------- >>> National Institute for Literacy >>> Special Topics mailing list >>> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >>> >>> ------------------------------- >>> National Institute for Literacy >>> Special Topics mailing list >>> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >>> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >>> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics >> >> David Rosen >> djrosen at comcast.net >> >> >> > > > > John Comings, Director > National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard > Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge MA 02138 > (617) 496-0516, voice > (617) 495-4811, fax > (617) 335-9839, mobile > john_comings at harvard.edu > http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Wed Jul 19 08:23:44 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:23:44 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 163] Re: Managed enrollment In-Reply-To: <380-220067117194844656@earthlink.net> References: <380-220067117194844656@earthlink.net> Message-ID: <52815FE507985E769AA878B0@[192.168.1.102]> Yes, this is our finding so far. We need to think about our programs as providing a range of modes of learning, modes that are connected and consistent. For example, a student might only be able to regularly show up for instruction one hour, once a week. That student could be connected to selfstudy options on-line or in print. The hour class might focus on progress with self study. Then, after a few months, that student might have some extra time available on the weekends. The student might be sent to a intensive one-day class that focuses only on spelling, pronunciation, algebra, or vocabulary. The student's self-study plan might be changed to build on that one-day intensive class. Then a few months later the student might decide they are able to spend 6 hours a week in class for 3 or 4 months, and they add that to their plan but continue the selfstudy so that after the class ends they don't go back to selfstudy but continue it. --On Monday, July 17, 2006 3:48 PM -0400 Debbie Yoho wrote: > I thought it interesting that one of the suggestions as a result of the > persistence research is to find ways to accomodate the tendency of adult > learners to "drop in and out". The idea of "managed enrollment", where > programs end open enrollment and instead offer coursework in 8-12 week > packages, as been touted in our area as a panacea for this problem. I'd > like to hear from programs that have tried "managed enrollment". My own > problem is I can't figure out how to include one-on-one services in a > "managed" context. > > My experience tells me, and the research seems to point to this too, that > the problem with persistence may not be one of motivation, but of juggling > the many realities of adult life. Increasing the intensity of programs > may work for some, but may also have the result of pushing out those who > just can't commit to more than a few hours a week. > > "Turning Pages into Possibilities", Debbie > > Deborah W. Yoho > Executive Director, Greater Columbia Literacy Council > 2728 Devine Street, Columbia, SC 29205 > 803-765-2555 Fax 803-799-8417 dwyoho at earthlink.net > > GCLC is a community service of Volunteers of America of the Carolinas. > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Wed Jul 19 08:29:53 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:29:53 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 164] Re: Keeping students' eyes on the prize In-Reply-To: References: <5006EFB2-897E-4EAB-AF29-6A68FA46CFE8@comcast.net> Message-ID: I, too, think national curriculum frameworks for subgroups of students (based on their goals and their learning needs) would be helpful to persistence. It would make it much easier to build learning plans that included guides self-study, classes, tutoring, one-day intensive workshops and other modes of learning into a coherent learning activity. --On Tuesday, July 18, 2006 10:49 AM -0400 john strucker wrote: > Hi David and colleagues, > One part of a total approach to improved persistence that we should > explore is the one they are trying in the UK. Their adult students take > a series of nationally developed curriculum-based benchmark tests that > give them feedback on their mastery of various specific competencies and > also give them a sense of how much closer they are getting to reaching > their long-term goals. > Best, > John Strucker > > --On Sunday, July 16, 2006 4:25 PM -0400 David Rosen > wrote: > >> John, and other colleagues, >> >> Part of the persistence challenge is that some adult learners make >> progress very slowly and have so very far to go before they see the >> prize they may have their eyes on. The prize might be a high school >> diploma, a better job, a living wage, a good job with a decent salary >> and good benefits, or going to college, but these may be basic >> literacy or beginning English language students who need years of >> study to achieve one of these goals. One answer might be to increase >> intensity, more time on task, more hours of study. But this is not >> always possible for programs, because they lack the funding to >> increase intensity of classroom instruction, or for learners, who >> usually have other commitments like working and parenting. Funders >> -- especially companies when they fund "workplace literacy" -- often >> want results in a few weeks or months, and even major federal and >> state funders want results at the end of the fiscal year, either one >> of these prizes or evidence of progress toward its attainment. >> >> Are there some ways we could sustain the student's original motive or >> goal (the GED diploma, a good job, or an admission to college prize) >> over several years, if needed. What do we know about strategies >> like awarding certificates for small achievements, holding annual >> recognition ceremonies, and providing good formative assessment so >> students can see they have reached some milestones? How about >> strategies like building community, providing food, helping students >> to learn skills that they can use in daily living? Can we articulate >> from research and/or professional wisdom what strategies work (if >> any) in sustaining long-term students' motivation and convince >> funders that we need their support for these strategies? >> >> David J. Rosen >> djrosen at comcast.net >> >> >> >> ------------------------------- >> National Institute for Literacy >> Special Topics mailing list >> SpecialTopics at nifl.gov >> To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to >> http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > > John Strucker, EdD > Nichols House 303 > Harvard Graduate School of Education > 7 Appian Way > Cambridge, MA 02138 > > 617 495 4745 > 617 495 4811 (fax) > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From comingjo at gse.harvard.edu Wed Jul 19 08:55:19 2006 From: comingjo at gse.harvard.edu (John Comings) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 08:55:19 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 165] Re: Last day of Discussion on Persistence In-Reply-To: <20060719005930.65914.qmail@web52709.mail.yahoo.com> References: <20060719005930.65914.qmail@web52709.mail.yahoo.com> Message-ID: <40596EBFB8E619024249250B@[192.168.1.102]> Thank you for this chance to talk and think about my research. I think I'll end my participation by touching on the issue of student responsibility. Responsibility is a two way street. I do think our students need to make every effort to meet the schedule they have agree to, and when life intervenes to upset that schedule to contact the program and change the schedule. However, we should be looking at our schedule of services to see if we are providing a schedule that functions under a "catch 22", a rule that makes responsibility difficult or even impossible. We can't expect our students to stay engaged with our programs unless our programs are committed to staying engaged with them. That means providing them with services on a schedule that, when they are being responsible, they can actually keep. I don't think we have good models for this, but I do think there are all the bits and pieces scattered around the country and the minds of researchers and practitioners. Unfortunately, our funding mechanisms and accountability systems are not open to the kind of experimentation that might lead to a better approach to providing services. A good next step would be for someone, OVAE, IES, NIFL, a state or group of states, or a foundation to fund an experiment that set up some programs that function under a new model for services and tested it against the existing model. Right not, when we make changes, such as managed enrolment, we don't know if we are helping student persist or weeding out those students who face barriers to persistence. The K-12 system has good persistence because children are forced to attend up to the age of 16, or in some cases 18. That system doesn't have to provide supports to persistence. We have to do something that helps our students persist. John Comings, Director National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy Harvard Graduate School of Education 7 Appian Way Cambridge MA 02138 (617) 496-0516, voice (617) 495-4811, fax (617) 335-9839, mobile john_comings at harvard.edu http://ncsall.gse.harvard.edu From djrosen at comcast.net Wed Jul 19 10:13:02 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Wed, 19 Jul 2006 10:13:02 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 166] Persistence Discussion coming to a close Message-ID: <5D61E389-EF8D-4A92-9880-B9C1955AF135@comcast.net> Colleagues, I want to thank John Comings for making time available during the last several days to join us in this discussion about research on learner persistence. And thanks also to those of you who participated by asking good questions and giving helpful examples from your experience. The dialogue was engaging and enlightening. For me the highlights were the discussion about instrumental and transformational goals, and the recommendation by John that we can improve persistence by providing more supports within programs, but also by re-designing our systems of services so that we offer a range of options from supported self study, distance learning, hybrid learning (Face-to-face and online), to intensive classes and tutorials, and that we expect that students will shift from one mode of learning to another, to more and less intensive modes, depending on what else is happening in their lives. With many of you, I very much hope that the third stage of the Persistence study will be funded and carried out soon. As a field, we need the answers which such a study could provide. This discussion is now closed. It will be archived on the Adult Literacy Education Wiki and on the National Institute for Literacy Web sites sometime in August. Messages will not be posted to this list until the next discussion. Subscribers can unsubscribe -- or wait for the announcement of the next discussion to decide whether to unsubscribe or continue. Of course, I hope you will continue. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Tue Aug 15 08:14:36 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 15 Aug 2006 08:14:36 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 167] Live NIFL Webcast on NAAL findings for Basic & Below Basic Adults Tuesday afternoon Message-ID: Special Topics Colleagues, The announcement below might be of interest to some of you as John Strucker was a guest on the Special Topics list, and also as we may have a guest discussion on the NAAL sometime in the next few months. The webcast takes place this afternoon, EST. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net --------------- Join the National Institute for Literacy for a LIVE webcast on: Adults with Basic and Below Basic Literacy Levels: Findings from NAAL and Implications for Practice. Featuring Dr. Sheida White, Dr. John Strucker, & Brian Bosworth, and moderated by Lori Aratani WHEN: August 15, 2006 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m. EST The webcast can be viewed from your computer. We encourage you to register in advance. To register for this webcast go to: For more information about this webcast, go to: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ---- The National Institute for Literacy is hosting a live webcast on Tuesday, August 15 at 1:30 p.m. to discuss the results of the National Assessement of Adult Literacy (NAAL) 2003, specifically relating to Americans who tested in the Below Basic and Basic literacy levels. The webcast will feature Dr. Sheida White, of the National Center for Education Statistics, who served as project officer for the NAAL, who will present the findings of the NAAL for Below Basic and Basic levels. In addition, there will be a panel of subject-matter experts who will discuss what implications the NAAL findings for Below Basic and Basic adults will have on programs. The panelists include John Strucker, of the National Center for Adult Literacy and Learning, will discuss basic skills; and Brian Bosworth, of the consulting firm FutureWorks, will discuss implications for workforce programs. The live webcast will feature: * Dr. Sheida White directs the National Assessment of Adult Literacy at the National Center for Education Statistics (or NCES). After working as a full-time reading researcher for 6 years, she joined NCES in 1991. During the first 8 years at NCES, she monitored the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP). Since 1999, she has been directing the NAAL project. Her articles have appeared in journals such as Language in Society and Reading Research Quarterly. * John Strucker, Ed.D., is a Lecturer in Education and Research Associate at the National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. He teaches a laboratory practicum course at Harvard, "Developing Reading in Adults and Older Adolescents," and he has been the principal investigator on two large-scale assessment projects, NCSALL's Adult Reading Components Study (ARCS) and the joint NCSALL/ETS Level 1 Study. * Brian Bosworth is the founder and President of FutureWorks, a private consulting and public policy research firm in Belmont, Massachusetts, that builds regional institutions and strategies for economic growth, workforce education, and civic improvement. The webcast will be moderated by Lori Aratani, Education Staff Writer at the Washington Post. My Linh Nguyen Associate Director of Communications National Institute for Literacy (202) 233-2041 fax (202) 233-2050 mnguyen at nifl.gov From djrosen at comcast.net Thu Aug 31 09:55:20 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 31 Aug 2006 09:55:20 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 168] Special Topic: Formative Assessment in International Education Message-ID: <4D6F0855-BAE6-47B9-85E3-B86262C5EA69@comcast.net> Special Topic Discussion Colleagues, In preparation for celebrating International Literacy Day, on September 5th-7th the Special Topics Discussion List is pleased to welcome Ms. Janet Looney representing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development(OECD). Janet is the leader of the Centre for Educational Research and Innovation program known as What Works in Innovation in Education. Its current focus is formative assessment. The discussion will serve to introduce some of OECD's work in international education. The primary focus of the discussion will be on the value of formative assessment for promoting higher levels of learner achievement, greater equity of outcomes, and the development of "learning to learn" skills. Not a term widely known in the U.S., formative assessment refers to what teachers and learners do in the classroom to assess learning progress. An assessment is _formative_ when information gathered in the assessment process is used to modify teaching and learning activities. It's an assessment _for_ learning not just _of_ learning. Between 2002 and 2004, the What Works program explored formative assessment in lower secondary classrooms in eight international systems [see Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms (2005)]. OECD will publish a second study addressing formative assessment for adult basic skill learners in 2007. Together, the two studies are intended to strengthen understanding of effective approaches to lifelong learning. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOLS While many teachers incorporate aspects of formative assessment into their teaching, it is not often practiced systematically. The What Works study, Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms (2005), features exemplary cases from secondary schools in eight systems and international research reviews, and relates these to the broader policy environment. The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems. FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN ADULT BASIC SKILL PROGRAMS Formative approaches may be particularly appropriate for adults with basic skill needs, the focus of the current What Works study. Instructors using formative approaches are able to tailor instruction more closely to the needs of diverse adult learners. Formative approaches also place an explicit focus on identifying and building upon learners' prior knowledge and skills - whether gained in formal education settings, or informal work or other settings. The OECD study on "Improving Teaching and Learning for Adults with Basic Skill Needs through Formative Assessment" , now underway, is: 1. Developing studies of exemplary teaching and assessment practice for adults with basic skill needs 2. Bringing together international scholarship on teaching and assessment for adults with basic skill needs 3. Identifying effective policy levers for improving the quality of provision in the adult basic skills sector, and 4. Creating opportunities for policy officials, researchers and practitioners to exchange insights and ideas on promoting effective teaching, assessment and evaluation. We look forward to your participation in this three-day discussion beginning on September 5th David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From Mylinh.Nguyen at ed.gov Wed Aug 30 13:17:30 2006 From: Mylinh.Nguyen at ed.gov (Nguyen, My Linh) Date: Wed, 30 Aug 2006 13:17:30 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 169] NIFL Webcast Now Available in Archive Message-ID: Hi Everyone, The National Institute for Literacy has now made available an archived version of its latest webcast: "Adults with Basic and Below Basic Literacy Levels: Findings from NAAL and Implications for Practice" from August 15, 2006. We have made the entire webcast available (include transcript and slides for download) on our website at www.nifl.gov. Look under the heading "What's New." Thank you. My Linh Nguyen Associate Director of Communications National Institute for Literacy (202) 233-2041 fax (202) 233-2050 mnguyen at nifl.gov From djrosen at comcast.net Fri Sep 1 11:01:54 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 11:01:54 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 170] Formative Assessment Discussion to Begin Tuesday Message-ID: <8D5E7E35-9035-495E-BD02-72B4AACA6C7A@comcast.net> Special Topics Discussion List Colleagues, On Tuesday, Janet Looney will join us from Paris to answer questions about the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) formative assessment studies. In preparation, you may wish to look at the OECD Thematic Review of Adult Learning - a two-part study exploring policies on qualifications, pathways for progression and other issues in adult learning. These documents are downloadable at http://www.oecd.org/edu/adultlearning . Please also look at at "Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms" and "Formative Assessment: Improving Teaching and Learning for Adults with Basic Skill Needs" at http:// www.oecd.org/edu/whatworks . And if you would like to learn more about the OECD Education Directorate a .pdf brochure will be found at http://www.oecd.org/edu/brochure This will be an opportunity to begin a discussion, that can continue on the Assessment discussion list, of formative assessment practice in the U.S. Meanwhile, let's hear your questions. Here are some I have already anticipated: For Janet: 1. What is OECD and what does it do? 2. How does OECD's work include or affect what happens in the U.S.? 3. What is "formative assessment" and why is OECD interested in this? 4. Why has OECD embarked on a study addressing formative assessment for adult basic skill learners? For subscribers: 1. Are you involved in a program which actively engages in formative assessment? If so, tell us about your practice. What do teachers and learners look at? How are data from formative assessment used to improve the learning process? 2. What do you think is the right mix of formative and summative assessment? 3. How did you learn how to do formative assessment? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Fri Sep 1 12:49:17 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 12:49:17 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 171] Formative Assessment: our guest's background, some readings and posting questions Message-ID: Special Topic Discussion Colleagues, Please post your questions for Janet as soon as you like. She will answer them on Tuesday, or perhaps Wednesday since Janet is located in France and there is a time difference. Here's a little background: Janet Looney has led the What Works in Innovation in Education program at the OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation since 2002. Prior to joining the OECD, Janet was the Assistant Director of the Institute for Public Policy and Management at the University of Washington and a policy analyst in the Education Directorate of the Office of Management and Budget in Washington, D.C. She earned her Master of Public Administration and Master of Arts in International Studies from the University of Washington in 1993. In preparation for our discussion you may wish to look at the OECD Thematic Review of Adult Learning - a two-part study exploring policies on qualifications, pathways for progression and other issues in adult learning. These documents are downloadable at http:// www.oecd.org/edu/adultlearning . Please also look at "Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms" http://www.oecd.org/edu/whatworks [Note that, although the book must be purchased, the "exemplary cases" and "international research reviews" are all online as .pdfs] and "Formative Assessment: Improving Teaching and Learning for Adults with Basic Skill Needs" also at http://www.oecd.org/edu/whatworks . [The bold words "current What Works study" in this section will lead you to a downloadable .pdf, the Study Outline] . If you would like to learn more about the OECD Education Directorate a .pdf brochure will be found at http://www.oecd.org/edu/brochure David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion List Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From sbaxter at nifl.gov Fri Sep 1 14:51:07 2006 From: sbaxter at nifl.gov (sbaxter at nifl.gov) Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2006 14:51:07 -0400 (EDT) Subject: [SpecialTopics 172] NIFL welcomes OECD for the start of the Formative Assessment Discussion Message-ID: <20060901185107.6B75F46555@dev.nifl.gov> Hello everyone and welcome to the discussion on Formative Assessment in International Education. I am pleased to welcome and thank Ms. Janet Looney from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), for spending the next few days helping us better understand international education. The National Institute for Literacy has recently begun work with OECD to identify and describe high quality adult literacy programs around the world. We are very excited to host Ms. Looney for this week's discussion, and encourage all of you to participate in this discussion with an expert in international education. I know you will find this to be a stimulating and informative discussion. Coinciding with this week's discussion, the National Institute for Literacy has launched a special section on our website dedicated to international literacy, http://www.nifl.gov/nifl/international/intro.html. The site provides valuable information and resources about worldwide education and literacy, and to some of the key organizations, including OECD, currently engaged in addressing and eradicating the problem of access to education and illiteracy around the world. This week's discussion and the launch of our new international literacy web resources come as the world is preparing to observe International Literacy Day on September 8. We encourage you to participate in this discussion and visit our website for more information on how the United States and other countries are tackling the issue of literacy. Finally, I would like to thank our Special Topics moderator David Rosen for organizing both the international literacy web resources and this special discussion. Thank you for participating, now let's begin the discussion! Sandra L. Baxter Director National Institute for Literacy http://www.nifl.gov From djrosen at comcast.net Mon Sep 4 22:54:31 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Mon, 4 Sep 2006 22:54:31 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 173] Discussion of Formative Assessment in International Education Message-ID: <9108AC77-B55B-4BE5-9075-C273F92118C3@comcast.net> Colleagues, As International Literacy Day -- September 8th -- approaches, I would like to welcome our guest, Janet Looney, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who will be with us through Thursday to discuss the OECD formative assessment project. Janet lives in Paris, in a time zone that is 6-9 hours ahead of those of us in North America, so there might be some delays in her responses to questions posted in the afternoon or evening. Do please post your questions to Janet as soon as you wish, remembering that this is only a three-day discussion, so don't wait! To begin, Janet, here are some questions that I anticipate some of our subscribers may have 1. What is OECD and what does it do? 2. How does OECD's work include or affect what happens in the U.S.? 3. What is "formative assessment" and why is OECD interested in this? 4. Why has OECD embarked on a study addressing formative assessment for adult basic skill learners? I should say, Special Topics discussion subscribers , that I have some knowledge of the project that Janet will be describing, that I am one of the researchers for the formative assessment case studies in Flanders, in Belgium. Thanks so much for being with us, Janet. David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net From marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Sat Sep 2 17:27:52 2006 From: marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com (Marie Cora) Date: Sat, 2 Sep 2006 17:27:52 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 174] Questions on formative assessment Message-ID: <005701c6ced6$a609c860$0202a8c0@LITNOW> Ms. Looney, Thank you so much for taking the time to share your findings and respond to some of our questions. This is an extremely timely topic for us to explore here in the U.S. I am very interested in hearing you discuss in some detail these two points of the study: "The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems." Specifically: Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school (system)? Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative assessment is also useful at the evaluation level - for example, for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? I'm not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or government agencies? How is this achieved? In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others using the assessments? Thank you for your responses. Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060902/4b0d19e6/attachment.html From Mylinh.Nguyen at ed.gov Tue Sep 5 09:44:42 2006 From: Mylinh.Nguyen at ed.gov (Nguyen, My Linh) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 09:44:42 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 175] National Institute for Literacy Launches International Perspective Webpages Message-ID: Just in time for International Literacy Day on September 8, the National Institute for Literacy has launched a series of webpages on its website (www.nifl.gov) to highlight worldwide efforts to address and combat literacy problems. The International Perspectives webpages allow American adult literacy and English language teachers and students quick access to information about: * adult literacy education in other countries and cultures, including both developing and industrialized countries, and including curriculum and outcomes standards for adult education in other countries * international comparative studies of adult literacy and PreK-12 education, and * international efforts to raise literacy levels (e.g.UNESCO, International Reading Association, and the Venezuelan and Argentinian literacy campaigns) The Institute plans to continue to build on the information on the International Perspective pages () as they develop into a central site for worldwide literacy resources. The National Institute for Literacy provides leadership on literacy issues, including the improvement of reading instruction for children, youth, and adults. In consultation with the U.S. Departments of Education, Labor, and Health and Human Services, the Institute serves as a national resource on current, comprehensive literacy research, practice, and policy. My Linh Nguyen Associate Director of Communications National Institute for Literacy (202) 233-2041 fax (202) 233-2050 mnguyen at nifl.gov From Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Tue Sep 5 10:26:45 2006 From: Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org (Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 16:26:45 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 176] Re: Discussion of Formative Assessment inInternational Education In-Reply-To: <9108AC77-B55B-4BE5-9075-C273F92118C3@comcast.net> Message-ID: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8EB@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Hello and thank you for the opportunity to participate in this special topics discussion. Thank you also to both David Rosen organising and getting this discussion started. Below are my responses to his questions. 1. WHAT IS THE OECD AND WHAT DOES IT DO? The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) was established in 1961. Its mission is to help governments achieve sustainable economic growth and employment and rising standards of living in while maintaining financial stability. There are 30 member countries, including the U.S., one of the OECD's founding members. OECD also has relationships with some 70 other countries, non-government organizations and civil society. OECD addresses a range of policy issues, including education, labour, trade, employment, migration, energy, health, industry, taxation and the environment. OECD provides a forum for dialogue and consensus and peer review as well as the development of internationally agreed instruments, decisions and recommendations. The OECD is also a source for comparative statistical, economic and social data. NIfL readers may be familiar with OECD's statistical work in education. The statistics work includes - the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). PISA, a three-yearly survey (2000, 2003, 2006...) of 15-year-olds in the principal industrialised countries. It assesses problem-solving skills in literacy, mathematics and science. - the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS)(1994, 1998) (accessible through the NIfL website). - the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey (ALL)(2005). The U.S. has participated in each of these surveys. NIfL readers may also be familiar with OECD reports related to literacy and to adult learning (see http://www.oecd.org/edu/adultlearning). The U.S. participated in the first round of the Thematic Review of Adult Learning (see OECD, (2003). Beyond Rhetoric: Adult Learning Policies and Practices, OECD, Paris at http://www.oecd.org/edu/adultlearning), and has joined the current study, provisionally entitled "Improving Teaching and Learning for Adults with Basic Skill Needs through Formative Assessment". The results of this study will be published in 2007. > 2. HOW DOES THE OECD'S WORK INCLUDE OR AFFECT WHAT HAPPENS IN THE U.S.? The U.S. actively participates in decisions regarding the strategic directions and governance of the organisation and its policy directorates. Participation in specific projects is voluntary. In the realm of education, in addition to the studies mentioned above, the U.S. has most recently participated in the 2005 study, Teachers Matter, and a recent series of forums and workshops exploring evidence-based policy. Each country can draw upon OECD statistics, research and policy analyses to inform development of its own strategy. Certainly there are important differences in approaches to education in the United States and in other OECD systems - starting with the very obvious difference of size (and in some cases, most useful comparisons may be between a smaller country and the individual state level in the U.S.). But all OECD countries are concerned with accountability, equity, raising levels of student achievement, and helping students "learn to learn", and can learn from the experiences of others. 3. WHAT IS "FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT" AND WHY IS OECD INTERESTED IN THIS? "Formative assessment" refers to frequent, interactive assessments of student progress and understanding. Teachers are then able to adjust teaching approaches to better meet identified learning needs. Assessment is "formative" when the information gathered is actually used to alter the student's performance gap. Formative assessment differs from summative assessment (tests, examinations) in that the information gathered in the formative process is used to shape improvements, rather than serve as a summary of performances. The OECD's interest in formative assessment is based on research supporting the effectiveness of the approach (in their seminal 1998 review* , Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam describe the achievement gains associated with formative assessment as "among the largest ever reported for educational interventions.") It has also emerged as an important strategy for education reform in several countries. Between 2002 and 2004, the OECD's What Works in Innovation in Education" program examined exemplary practice of formative assessment in secondary schools in eight countries (Australia [Queensland], different provinces in Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Italy, New Zealand and Scotland). The study also brought together literature reviews from different linguistic research traditions (English, French and German) and related all this to the broader current policy environment. The resulting study [OECD, 2005. Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms, OECD, Paris) combined these elements to clarify the concept of, and approaches to, formative assessment and its relation to teaching strategies. It offered suggestions for policies to support this direction of reform in schools and classrooms. * See Black P. and D. Wiliam (1998), "Assessment and Classroom Learning", Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, CARFAX, Oxfordshire, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 7-74. 4. > WHY HAS OECD EMBARKED ON A STUDY ADDRESSING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT FOR ADULT BASIC SKILL LEARNERS? The results of the study on formative assessment in secondary schools suggested that formative assessment merits attention in adult education as well. Formative approaches may be particularly appropriate for adults with basic skill needs, the focus of the current What Works study. Instructors using formative approaches are able to tailor instruction more closely to the needs of diverse adult learners. Formative approaches also place an explicit focus on identifying and building upon learners' prior knowledge and skills - whether gained in formal education settings, or informal work or other settings. Together, the What Works studies on formative assessment in secondary classrooms and in programmes for adults with basic skill needs will strengthen understanding of effective approaches to lifelong learning. -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 4:55 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 173] Discussion of Formative Assessment inInternational Education Colleagues, As International Literacy Day -- September 8th -- approaches, I would like to welcome our guest, Janet Looney, from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), who will be with us through Thursday to discuss the OECD formative assessment project. Janet lives in Paris, in a time zone that is 6-9 hours ahead of those of us in North America, so there might be some delays in her responses to questions posted in the afternoon or evening. Do please post your questions to Janet as soon as you wish, remembering that this is only a three-day discussion, so don't wait! To begin, Janet, here are some questions that I anticipate some of our subscribers may have 1. What is OECD and what does it do? 2. How does OECD's work include or affect what happens in the U.S.? 3. What is "formative assessment" and why is OECD interested in this? 4. Why has OECD embarked on a study addressing formative assessment for adult basic skill learners? I should say, Special Topics discussion subscribers , that I have some knowledge of the project that Janet will be describing, that I am one of the researchers for the formative assessment case studies in Flanders, in Belgium. Thanks so much for being with us, Janet. David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Tue Sep 5 10:32:54 2006 From: Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org (Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 16:32:54 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 177] Re: Questions on formative assessment In-Reply-To: <005701c6ced6$a609c860$0202a8c0@LITNOW> Message-ID: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8EC@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Dear Marie, Thank you for your questions. I've provided some rather detailed answers here to be sure that the concepts are clear in this initial phases of the discussion. > "The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic > practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the > principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures > of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems." > Specifically: > Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced > systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain > schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that > formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school > or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school > (system)? When we talk about the "systematic" practice of formative assessment, we are talking about formative assessment as an integrated part of teaching and learning in classrooms. Many (probably most) teachers often incorporate aspects of formative assessment - for example, finding new ways to explain a concept when a student does not understand. But as teachers in our own case studies noted, prior to establishing formative assessment as an overall framework for teaching and learning, these kinds of interactions were somewhat haphazard. Many of the teachers in our case study schools said they had made fundamental changes in their approaches to teaching - in their interactions with students, the way they set up learning situations and guided students toward learning goals - even in the way they thought about student success - when they started to use formative assessment systematically. > Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the > teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative > assessment is also useful at the evaluation level - for example, > for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? In our study, we distinguish between assessment and evaluation. The term "assessment" is used to refer to judgments of student performance, and the term "evaluation" to refer to judgements of programme or organisational effectiveness. Ideally, information gathered in assessments and evaluations is used to shape strategies for improvement at each level of the education system. At the classroom level, teachers gather information on student understanding, and adjust teaching to meet identified learning needs. At the school level, school leaders use information to identify areas of strength and weakness across the school, and to develop strategies for improvement. At the policy level, officials use information gathered through national or regional tests, or through monitoring of school performance, to guide investments in training and support for schools and teachers, or to set broad priorities for education. In this way, summative information is used formatively at each level of the system. Teachers, school leaders and policy officials are more likely to use assessment information when assessments are well coordinated, and it is clear why and how the information is relevant to their work. One very valuable example of how formative principles can be applied at school and system level is found in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Since 2001, schools in this province have been developing action plans based on the provincial test results. School boards manage the planning process. Each school board brings principals together for two days. Consultants from the Department of Education review all test results with the district programme staff and school principals. Through this review and subsequent discussions, principals identify learning needs and incorporate them into their school development plan. The consultants are then available to help plan and implement teacher professional development programmes for schools that have identified teacher training as part of their action plan. Another example may be found in Finland. Finland does not have an inspectorate, and does not sponsor national examinations, except for the matriculation examination at the end of upper secondary general education. Instead, the National Board of Education tracks school quality through random sample evaluations of different subjects in each comprehensive school every third year. The results of these evaluations provide information on the quality of learning outcomes, and are utilised in ongoing development of the education system and core curricula, as well as in practical teaching work. > I'm not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but > is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or > government agencies? How is this achieved? Formative assessment within the classroom is used to inform teaching and learning and is not be used for reporting purposes in any of the systems we studied. I would classify information used in this way as "summative assessment". > In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments > developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there > guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is > special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others > using the assessments? We found a variety of strategies for promoting formative assessment. I'll provide just a few examples to illustrate the range of approaches (note that this is by no means a thorough list of each country's approach): * legislation promoting and supporting the practice of formative assessment and establishing it as a priority. Italy first introduced the national "valuation form" in national legislation in 1977. Teachers are required to use the valuation form to compile data on their students, including information on what has been taught, any discipline issues, and results of assessment (including social, behavioural, cognitive and metacognitive factors). The form, which has been revised several times since 1977, is intended to facilitate communication between school leaders, teachers and students. ? efforts to encourage the use of summative data for formative purposes. In Canada, all provinces and territories participate in a national programme to assess student achievement in mathematics, reading and writing, and science on a four-year cycle. Each province and territory receives its own results as well as an analysis by sub-test. Provinces may then conduct a secondary analysis to shape teaching practices. The three Canadian provinces participating in the OECD study, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, and Qu?bec, encourage schools to use school-level data in school planning. In the early 1990s Her Majesty's Inspectors of Education in Scotland published school self-assessment and development planning guidelines that schools could use on a voluntary basis. Since 2001, all schools have been required to use these guidelines to develop school plans. The plans are to refer to data on student performance as gathered in national examinations for 16-year-olds and on attainment levels for students between the ages of 5 and 14 (as established in official targets). School plans are expected to evaluate teaching and learning practices and to include strategies for improvement. The plans are shared with parents and published in school outreach materials and on websites. ? Guidelines on effective teaching and formative assessment have been embedded in the national curriculum and other materials. In 2000, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in England introduced the Assessment for Learning (AfL) programme, targeting pilots to Key Stage 3 schools - that is, lower secondary schools. AfL provides teachers, school leaders, local education authorities and other stakeholders with guidance and resources on the principles of good classroom assessment, as supported in research. DfES promises also to provide a repertoire of teaching strategies and tools from which schools and teachers may choose, based on students' needs and the school's goals and priorities. ? provision of tools and exemplars to support effective formative assessment. The New Zealand Ministry of Education has also supported the development of a number of tools for formative assessment. These include Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) for assessing literacy and numeracy from years 5 to 10, in English and te reo Maori, and national curriculum exemplars for students in years 1-10 in all curriculum areas. The asTTle are a key component of both the government's literacy and numeracy assessment strategies. Teachers use the tools to evaluate the impact of teaching approaches on student achievement, and when necessary, to adjust teaching to better meet student needs. The national exemplars include annotated work samples and feature sample teacher-student dialogues and written teacher comments, showing how teachers might assess the student work in a formative manner, and in a way that is sensitive to different learning and communication styles of students. They are available in print form and on-line. Many are also supported by video clips. ? investments in special initiatives and innovative programmes incorporating formative assessment approaches. Several schools included in the case study countries participated in pilot or other special projects before deciding to adopt formative assessment teaching methods. Certainly, their participation in special projects signals that these are schools that are more open to innovation and change, and is likely one of the reasons the schools have come to the attention of researchers. Their participation in these projects also helped to prepare the ground for further change. ? Investments in teacher professional development for formative assessment. Queensland has a variety of in-service workshops and professional development opportunities for teachers on assessment. At the senior secondary school level, professional workshops assist teachers in implementing assessment in the subjects they teach. Teacher practice is supported by strong professional networks and professional subject-based organisations. Service on moderation panels (discussed above) is recognised as providing powerful professional development for panellists, and many schools encourage their staff to seek panel membership. Feedback from moderation panels to schools involves teachers in discussions on their assessment practices, both within their school and with the relevant panel. Being wholly responsible for student assessment, teachers continually reflect on their assessment practice and consider how it can be improved. Assessment practice is therefore always evolving. -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Marie Cora Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 11:28 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 174] Questions on formative assessment Ms. Looney, Thank you so much for taking the time to share your findings and respond to some of our questions. This is an extremely timely topic for us to explore here in the U.S. I am very interested in hearing you discuss in some detail these two points of the study: "The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems." Specifically: Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school (system)? Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative assessment is also useful at the evaluation level - for example, for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? I'm not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or government agencies? How is this achieved? In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others using the assessments? Thank you for your responses. Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060905/539df9e2/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Tue Sep 5 21:10:05 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 5 Sep 2006 21:10:05 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 178] Discussion of Formative Assessment in International Education Message-ID: <7415F6F7-C7A3-402C-88D1-31C58F8D3552@comcast.net> Hello Janet, You wrote: The OECD's interest in formative assessment is based on research supporting the effectiveness of the approach (in their seminal 1998 review* , Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam describe the achievement gains associated with formative assessment as "among the largest ever reported for educational interventions.") It has also emerged as an important strategy for education reform in several countries. * See Black P. and D. Wiliam (1998), "Assessment and Classroom Learning", Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, CARFAX, Oxfordshire, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 7-74. Based on the Black and William study, if the same findings were to hold true for adults as for secondary school students , that the use of (systematic) formative assessment is associated with very large learning gains, perhaps the Black and William study should be replicated in adult learning settings. Are the OECD case studies a step toward that? Are they a way to investigate whether such a study would be warranted? Are you aware of any other studies of the use of formative assessment with adults other than those OECD is conducting now? And here are three questions for discussion participants: 1. Are you involved in a program which actively engages in formative assessment? If so, tell us about your practice. What do teachers and learners look at? How are data from formative assessment used to improve the learning process? 2. What do you think is the right mix of formative and summative assessment? 3. How did you learn how to do formative assessment? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Wed Sep 6 07:56:34 2006 From: Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org (Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 13:56:34 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 179] Re: Discussion of Formative Assessment inInternational Education In-Reply-To: <7415F6F7-C7A3-402C-88D1-31C58F8D3552@comcast.net> Message-ID: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8F0@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Hello David, I'VE PLACED MY REPLIES BELOW IN CAPS, FOLLOWING EACH OF THE QUESTIONS YOU SENT. You wrote: The OECD's interest in formative assessment is based on research supporting the effectiveness of the approach (in their seminal 1998 review* , Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam describe the achievement gains associated with formative assessment as "among the largest ever reported for educational interventions.") It has also emerged as an important strategy for education reform in several countries. * See Black P. and D. Wiliam (1998), "Assessment and Classroom Learning", Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy and Practice, CARFAX, Oxfordshire, Vol. 5, No. 1, pp. 7-74. Based on the Black and William study, if the same findings were to hold true for adults as for secondary school students , that the use of (systematic) formative assessment is associated with very large learning gains, perhaps the Black and William study should be replicated in adult learning settings. Are the OECD case studies a step toward that? Are they a way to investigate whether such a study would be warranted? DAVID, WE HAVE COMMISSIONED REVIEWS OF THE INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE ON ADULT TEACHING, LEARNING AND ASSESSMENT (THUS FAR FOR ENGLISH, GERMAN AND SPANISH LITERATURE), TO LEARN MORE ABOUT "WHAT'S OUT THERE" IN THE RESEARCH ON ADULT BASIC SKILL LEARNING, AND WHETHER IT WOULD INDEED BE POSSIBLE TO REPLICATE THE BLACK & WILIAM STUDY. THE BLACK & WILIAM STUDY GATHERED A WIDE RANGE OF ARTICLES ON ECOLOGICALLY VALID CONTROLLED STUDIES OF FORMATIVE APPROACHES AND TECHNIQUES (COVERING, AS THEY DESCRIBE "...ALL THOSE ACTIVITIES ENCOMPASSING ALL THOSE ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY TEACHERS, AND/OR BY THEIR STUDENTS, WHICH PROVIDE INFORMATION TO BE USED AS FEEDBACK TO MODIFY THE TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES IN WHICH THEY ARE ENGAGED.") THUS FAR, WE HAVE FOUND VERY FEW SIMILAR CONTROLLED STUDIES FOR ADULT BASIC SKILL LEARNERS IN THE INTERNATIONAL LITERATURE. THE FEW EXISTING EMPIRICAL STUDIES DO APPEAR TO POINT TO THE PROMISE OF FORMATIVE METHODS FOR ADULTS, AS DO ARTICLES BASED ON "PRACTITIONER WISDOM". OUR OWN CASE STUDIES ARE NOT SET UP AS CONTROLLED STUDIES OF FORMATIVE APPROACHES AND TECHNIQUES. RATHER, OUR INTENTION IS TO EXAMINE WHAT FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT LOOKS LIKE IN PRACTICE, WHAT KIND OF BARRIERS INSTRUCTORS AND PROGRAMME LEADERS CONFRONT IN TRYING TO INTEGRATE FORMATIVE METHODS INTO REGULAR TEACHING AND LEARNING AND HOW THEY ADDRESS THOSE BARRIERS. WE HAVE ASKED OUR CASE STUDY PARTICIPANTS FOR EVIDENCE AND/OR INDICATORS OF THE IMPACT OF THE FORMATIVE METHODS ON TEACHING AND LEARNING. THE INTERNATIONAL REVIEWS OF LITERATURE AND CASE STUDIES WILL HELP TO IDENTIFY THE GAPS AND MOST PROMISING DIRECTIONS FOR FUTURE RESEARCH (BOTH QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE). Are you aware of any other studies of the use of formative assessment with adults other than those OECD is conducting now? THE NATIONAL RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTRE FOR ADULT LITERACY AND NUMERACY IN THE UK, ONE OF OUR PARTNERS IN THIS RESEARCH (www.nrdc.org.uk), HAS INITIATED A STUDY ON FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT FOR ADULT BASIC SKILL LEARNERS (WITH THE SUPPORT OF THE NUFFIELD FOUNDATION, WHICH SUPPORTED THE BLACK & WILIAM WORK, AS WELL) NIACE (THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ADULT CONTINUING EDUCATION - ENGLAND AND WALES) [www.niace.org.uk] HAS ALSO INITIATED PROJECT INVESTIGATING FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT. And here are three questions for discussion participants: 1. Are you involved in a program which actively engages in formative assessment? If so, tell us about your practice. What do teachers and learners look at? How are data from formative assessment used to improve the learning process? 2. What do you think is the right mix of formative and summative assessment? 3. How did you learn how to do formative assessment? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Wed Sep 6 08:16:08 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 08:16:08 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Message-ID: Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From lpetty at twmi.rr.com Wed Sep 6 08:31:04 2006 From: lpetty at twmi.rr.com (Leslie Petty) Date: Wed, 06 Sep 2006 08:31:04 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 181] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <44FEBF88.2090402@twmi.rr.com> I work with a consortium of states exploring the use of distance education for their adult basic learners. A key challenge for many distance programs is to increase student persistence. At our recent conference, participants suggested that two factors that led to increased persistence were carefully screening and counseling students into appropriate programs and frequent, positive communication with the teacher. I would also suggest that formative assessment, used as the basis of individual lesson planning, might also have a role in increasing persistence. While teachers are doing this on an informal basis, I am unaware of any structured attempts to explore this issue. Does anyone have any knowledge about the impact of formative assessment on student persistence and retention? Leslie Petty Project IDEAL lpetty at mich.edu David Rosen wrote: > Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, > > We would like to hear from you. > > What has been your experience with formative assessment? > Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? > Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including > classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What > did you find? > Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post > NRS-required) assessment? > Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? > > Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. > > Thanks. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > -- ********************************* Leslie Petty Associate Director, Project IDEAL University of Michigan Institute for Social Research 734-425-0748 From marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Wed Sep 6 14:02:00 2006 From: marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com (Marie Cora) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:02:00 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 182] Re: Questions on formative assessment In-Reply-To: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8EC@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Message-ID: <010b01c6d1de$8dd77390$0302a8c0@LITNOW> Dear Janet, Thanks for this rich amount of info and explanation. I?m so impressed by the array of innovative thought and action that these different countries and programs are pursuing. I see formative assessment as a fundamental mechanism for examining what is happening, and then taking this information (data) in order to improve practice on the classroom, program, or state/country scale. Your study clearly shows that formative assessment can and is being used to improve service delivery on all levels ? including guiding the investments that are necessary for success in the program and classroom. A couple questions: You noted that in Finland, they use ?random sample evaluations of different subjects? ? does this mean that they study test data in subjects on an aggregate level and make determinations from this? If so, this would mean that accountability is spread more broadly, as opposed to studying individual performance/test data and then linking success or failure to either individuals (the student or the teacher) or smaller entities (one school as opposed to a whole school system). I would think that such an approach would necessitate studying not only what is happening in the classroom and school, but also what types of educational materials and assessments are being used. Would that be a correct assumption? Also, you discuss the use of guidelines for promoting formative assessment in various countries/programs that you studied, and you do note that one set from New Zealand is available for us to look at. Are the other materials from the countries you studied also accessible? These guidelines, case studies, and action plans would be extremely helpful in developing a focus on the use of formative assessments in this country. You note that many teachers described changes in their behavior once they started to use formative assessments ? in their interactions with students, how they set up learning, in providing guidance toward goals, and in how they think about student success. I would be extremely interested in hearing more about this ? can you provide us with a couple of examples of these types of teacher change? Did the process of going from random to systematic use of formative assessments begin with professional development for the teachers, application of the learning, and then reflecting on the results, or was it less deliberate? In other words, did the teachers in your case study already use this approach and just realized it was successful so incorporated it further? Or were these teachers part of a process to get them to learn and use formative assessment strategies? And I also have a question for subscribers: Janet notes that one example of incorporating formative assessment into teaching would be finding new ways to explain concepts when the student is struggling to understand. I?m guessing that this sounds super familiar to everyone out there ? searching for new ways to help the student when the old ways are not cutting it. Can subscribers talk about any formative assessment strategies they use and how this improves classroom or program level practice. Thanks so much!! Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 10:33 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 177] Re: Questions on formative assessment Dear Marie, Thank you for your questions. I've provided some rather detailed answers here to be sure that the concepts are clear in this initial phases of the discussion. > ?The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic > practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the > principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures > of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems.? > Specifically: > Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced > systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain > schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that > formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school > or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school > (system)? When we talk about the ?systematic? practice of formative assessment, we are talking about formative assessment as an integrated part of teaching and learning in classrooms. Many (probably most) teachers often incorporate aspects of formative assessment ? for example, finding new ways to explain a concept when a student does not understand. But as teachers in our own case studies noted, prior to establishing formative assessment as an overall framework for teaching and learning, these kinds of interactions were somewhat haphazard. Many of the teachers in our case study schools said they had made fundamental changes in their approaches to teaching ? in their interactions with students, the way they set up learning situations and guided students toward learning goals ? even in the way they thought about student success ? when they started to use formative assessment systematically. > Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the > teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative > assessment is also useful at the evaluation level ? for example, > for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? In our study, we distinguish between assessment and evaluation. The term ?assessment? is used to refer to judgments of student performance, and the term ?evaluation? to refer to judgements of programme or organisational effectiveness. Ideally, information gathered in assessments and evaluations is used to shape strategies for improvement at each level of the education system. At the classroom level, teachers gather information on student understanding, and adjust teaching to meet identified learning needs. At the school level, school leaders use information to identify areas of strength and weakness across the school, and to develop strategies for improvement. At the policy level, officials use information gathered through national or regional tests, or through monitoring of school performance, to guide investments in training and support for schools and teachers, or to set broad priorities for education. In this way, summative information is used formatively at each level of the system. Teachers, school leaders and policy officials are more likely to use assessment information when assessments are well coordinated, and it is clear why and how the information is relevant to their work. One very valuable example of how formative principles can be applied at school and system level is found in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Since 2001, schools in this province have been developing action plans based on the provincial test results. School boards manage the planning process. Each school board brings principals together for two days. Consultants from the Department of Education review all test results with the district programme staff and school principals. Through this review and subsequent discussions, principals identify learning needs and incorporate them into their school development plan. The consultants are then available to help plan and implement teacher professional development programmes for schools that have identified teacher training as part of their action plan. Another example may be found in Finland. Finland does not have an inspectorate, and does not sponsor national examinations, except for the matriculation examination at the end of upper secondary general education. Instead, the National Board of Education tracks school quality through random sample evaluations of different subjects in each comprehensive school every third year. The results of these evaluations provide information on the quality of learning outcomes, and are utilised in ongoing development of the education system and core curricula, as well as in practical teaching work. > I?m not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but > is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or > government agencies? How is this achieved? Formative assessment within the classroom is used to inform teaching and learning and is not be used for reporting purposes in any of the systems we studied. I would classify information used in this way as ?summative assessment?. > In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments > developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there > guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is > special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others > using the assessments? We found a variety of strategies for promoting formative assessment. I?ll provide just a few examples to illustrate the range of approaches (note that this is by no means a thorough list of each country?s approach): 1. legislation promoting and supporting the practice of formative assessment and establishing it as a priority. Italy first introduced the national ?valuation form? in national legislation in 1977. Teachers are required to use the valuation form to compile data on their students, including information on what has been taught, any discipline issues, and results of assessment (including social, behavioural, cognitive and metacognitive factors). The form, which has been revised several times since 1977, is intended to facilitate communication between school leaders, teachers and students. 1. efforts to encourage the use of summative data for formative purposes. In Canada, all provinces and territories participate in a national programme to assess student achievement in mathematics, reading and writing, and science on a four-year cycle. Each province and territory receives its own results as well as an analysis by sub-test. Provinces may then conduct a secondary analysis to shape teaching practices. The three Canadian provinces participating in the OECD study, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, and Qu?bec, encourage schools to use school-level data in school planning. In the early 1990s Her Majesty?s Inspectors of Education in Scotland published school self-assessment and development planning guidelines that schools could use on a voluntary basis. Since 2001, all schools have been required to use these guidelines to develop school plans. The plans are to refer to data on student performance as gathered in national examinations for 16-year-olds and on attainment levels for students between the ages of 5 and 14 (as established in official targets). School plans are expected to evaluate teaching and learning practices and to include strategies for improvement. The plans are shared with parents and published in school outreach materials and on websites. 2. Guidelines on effective teaching and formative assessment have been embedded in the national curriculum and other materials. In 2000, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in England introduced the Assessment for Learning (AfL) programme, targeting pilots to Key Stage 3 schools ? that is, lower secondary schools. AfL provides teachers, school leaders, local education authorities and other stakeholders with guidance and resources on the principles of good classroom assessment, as supported in research. DfES promises also to provide a repertoire of teaching strategies and tools from which schools and teachers may choose, based on students? needs and the school?s goals and priorities. 3. provision of tools and exemplars to support effective formative assessment. The New Zealand Ministry of Education has also supported the development of a number of tools for formative assessment. These include Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) for assessing literacy and numeracy from years 5 to 10, in English and te reo Maori, and national curriculum exemplars for students in years 1-10 in all curriculum areas. The asTTle are a key component of both the government?s literacy and numeracy assessment strategies. Teachers use the tools to evaluate the impact of teaching approaches on student achievement, and when necessary, to adjust teaching to better meet student needs. The national exemplars include annotated work samples and feature sample teacher-student dialogues and written teacher comments, showing how teachers might assess the student work in a formative manner, and in a way that is sensitive to different learning and communication styles of students. They are available in print form and on-line. Many are also supported by video clips. 4. investments in special initiatives and innovative programmes incorporating formative assessment approaches. Several schools included in the case study countries participated in pilot or other special projects before deciding to adopt formative assessment teaching methods. Certainly, their participation in special projects signals that these are schools that are more open to innovation and change, and is likely one of the reasons the schools have come to the attention of researchers. Their participation in these projects also helped to prepare the ground for further change. 5. Investments in teacher professional development for formative assessment. Queensland has a variety of in-service workshops and professional development opportunities for teachers on assessment. At the senior secondary school level, professional workshops assist teachers in implementing assessment in the subjects they teach. Teacher practice is supported by strong professional networks and professional subject-based organisations. Service on moderation panels (discussed above) is recognised as providing powerful professional development for panellists, and many schools encourage their staff to seek panel membership. Feedback from moderation panels to schools involves teachers in discussions on their assessment practices, both within their school and with the relevant panel. Being wholly responsible for student assessment, teachers continually reflect on their assessment practice and consider how it can be improved. Assessment practice is therefore always evolving. -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Marie Cora Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 11:28 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 174] Questions on formative assessment Ms. Looney, Thank you so much for taking the time to share your findings and respond to some of our questions. This is an extremely timely topic for us to explore here in the U.S. I am very interested in hearing you discuss in some detail these two points of the study: ?The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems.? Specifically: Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school (system)? Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative assessment is also useful at the evaluation level ? for example, for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? I?m not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or government agencies? How is this achieved? In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others using the assessments? Thank you for your responses. Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060906/0787db10/attachment.html From sreid at workbase.org.nz Wed Sep 6 14:24:24 2006 From: sreid at workbase.org.nz (Susan Reid) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 06:24:24 +1200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 183] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education Message-ID: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E23C4A2@secure.workbase.org.nz> Hi David as you are aware New Zealand is taking part in the OECD study. In New Zealand the Government has also undertaken a small scale research study on assessment in a range of adult literacy programmes ( called foundation learning in New Zealand). The purpose of the research study was to contribute to an understanding of what is required to enhance the assessment capability of tertiary education providers of learning in literacy, numeracy, and language. Formative assessment has been pushed hard in the compulsory education sector in New Zealand ( K-12) and as the report shows is a bit hit and miss in the adult literacy sector in New Zealand. We don't yet have standardised tests that we have to use in the adult literacy sector here. the summary report about the research study is at http://educationcounts.edcentre.govt.nz/publications/tertairy/assessment-foundation.html the full report is available for download at the bottom of the webpage about the summary report Janet is it useful to give the urls for the PowerPoint presentations from the International Conference in Paris last year around Improving Learning through Formative Assessment - even though they are school focussed there is some interesting information in them. I really liked a quote from one of them - I am recalling this from memory and not sure whether it was your quote Janet - Hope doesn't build good schools - aspiration does same applies for adult literacy although funding and perspiration seem to be factors as well. Very interesting discussion - I like these Special Topics Thank you Susan Reid Manager Professional Development Workbase the New Zealand for Workforce Literacy www.workbase.org.nz see also the New Zealand Literacy Portal www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Thu 7/09/2006 12:16 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/cc0b9b5e/attachment.html From akohring at utk.edu Wed Sep 6 14:36:23 2006 From: akohring at utk.edu (Kohring, Aaron M) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 14:36:23 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 184] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <6A5CE13D731DE249BC61CB8C5C474B0A146F3F94@UTKFSVS1.utk.tennessee.edu> David, I was struck by your last question in regards to my own work: Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? I would say- Yes. With teachers that I've worked with- they always mention how the standardized (summative) tests they are required to administer do not really tell them what they need to be teaching. Then we go another step and talk about how formative assessments add to that picture of what learners know and can do- thus giving them more information about what to teach as well as helping to show progress. Yet, some of the recurring themes many instructors seem to deal with- especially in the U.S.- where many only work part-time are: 1) Having time (preferably paid) for: working with learners to assess what they want to know and be able to do, understanding where they are starting from, planning the lesson along with useful assessment(s), etc. 2) Not having much experience in developing a 'suitable' formative assessment 3) Dealing with tensions for accountability (needing to show level gains based on acceptable reporting measures for the federal government) So does that mean education to understand the benefits and uses of formative and summative assessments? Professional development on developing/creating assessments? Educating legislators/funders about issues with accountability and part-time staff? All of these? Aaron -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:16 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From MMaralit at NIFL.gov Wed Sep 6 15:27:05 2006 From: MMaralit at NIFL.gov (Maralit, Mary Jo) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 15:27:05 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 185] Re: The Health Literacy of America's Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy Message-ID: <4062487BDB6029428A763CAEF4E1FE5B0B93313A@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> The following announcement is posted on behalf of The National Center for Education Statistics: The Health Literacy of America's Adults: Results from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (9/6/2006) Results from the Health Literacy component of the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) were just released. The health literacy findings are based on the first large-scale national assessment designed specifically to measure the health literacy of adults living in America. This report measures health literacy among American adults including their ability to read, understand, and apply health-related information in English. Findings include: * The majority of American adults (53 percent) had Intermediate health literacy. Fewer than 15 percent of adults had either Below Basic or Proficient health literacy. * Women had higher average health literacy than men. * Adults who were ages 65 and older had lower average health literacy than younger adults. * Hispanic adults had lower average health literacy than adults in any other racial/ethnic group. To download, view and print the publication as a PDF file, please visit: To view other NAAL reports and for more information, visit Jaleh Behroozi Soroui Education Statistics Services Institute (ESSI-Stat) American Institutes for Research 1990 K Street, NW Suite 500 Washington, DC 20006 Phone: 202/403-6958 email: jsoroui at air.org From j.benseman at auckland.ac.nz Wed Sep 6 17:41:30 2006 From: j.benseman at auckland.ac.nz (Benseman John) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 09:41:30 +1200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 186] Re: Formative Assessment in InternationalEducation Message-ID: In response to Aaron's posting about formative assessment being yet another thing to add to teachers' already long list of tasks to do: * Black and Wiliam argue that formative assessment should replace/improve what teachers already do, not just be added on top of every thing else. * the point about formative assessment is to improve what we already do as teachers and make better use of the information that we get in the process * one of the attractions about formative assessment is that teachers can improve/add to their teaching skills incrementally and not have to change everything - they could for example focus on improving their questioning skills before tackling students learning to review each others' work Two other points about formative assessment: * because it is fundamentally about generic aspects of teaching, it has currency for all teachers, irrespective of the content of their teaching, level etc. It is a very good strategy for professional development because of its relevance across the board * being involved in developing formative assessment usually involves peer observation for teachers, which is probably one of the best prompts to critically review our own practices. My own interest in formative assessment was initially prompted by carrying out an observation study of 15 literacy and numeracy teachers ( http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=10929&indexid=1028&indexparentid=1000 ), which really brought home to me the importance of generic teaching skills such as questioning (eg teachers asking questions and then supplying the answer themselves ('rescuing' their learners so that they don't feel failures) about 2 seconds later) and scaffolding off learners' responses. Janet - it might be useful to outline what is going to come out of the OECD study when it is published? John John Benseman PhD Director of Research & Evaluation, Upskilling NZ (based at Department of Labour) DDI 04 915 4195 - Cell: 021 0489 143 Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland PB 92019, Auckland, NZ * j.benseman at auckland.ac.nz ( 0064 9 623 8899, ext 87161 7 0064 9 373 7455 Office location: Room 365, N Block, Epsom Campus ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Kohring, Aaron M Sent: Thu 7/09/2006 6:36 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 184] Re: Formative Assessment in InternationalEducation David, I was struck by your last question in regards to my own work: Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? I would say- Yes. With teachers that I've worked with- they always mention how the standardized (summative) tests they are required to administer do not really tell them what they need to be teaching. Then we go another step and talk about how formative assessments add to that picture of what learners know and can do- thus giving them more information about what to teach as well as helping to show progress. Yet, some of the recurring themes many instructors seem to deal with- especially in the U.S.- where many only work part-time are: 1) Having time (preferably paid) for: working with learners to assess what they want to know and be able to do, understanding where they are starting from, planning the lesson along with useful assessment(s), etc. 2) Not having much experience in developing a 'suitable' formative assessment 3) Dealing with tensions for accountability (needing to show level gains based on acceptable reporting measures for the federal government) So does that mean education to understand the benefits and uses of formative and summative assessments? Professional development on developing/creating assessments? Educating legislators/funders about issues with accountability and part-time staff? All of these? Aaron -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:16 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics The Faculty invites you to its 125th Jubilee of Teacher Education, 23 September 2006 For further information: http://alumniandfriends.education.auckland.ac.nz Phone Maureen Tizard on [09]6238899 extn48689 ###################################################################### Attention: This e-mail message is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author. This e-mail has been scanned and cleared by MailMarshal www.marshalsoftware.com ###################################################################### From sreid at workbase.org.nz Wed Sep 6 17:58:11 2006 From: sreid at workbase.org.nz (Susan Reid) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 09:58:11 +1200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 187] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education Message-ID: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E32478F@secure.workbase.org.nz> I am at my desk in the ofice now where the quote is pinned on my wall Sympathy doesn't raise standards , aspiration does shows you how good my memory is Regards Susan Reid -----Original Message----- From: Susan Reid Sent: 7/09/2006 9:09 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 183] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education Hi David as you are aware New Zealand is taking part in the OECD study. In New Zealand the Government has also undertaken a small scale research study on assessment in a range of adult literacy programmes ( called foundation learning in New Zealand). The purpose of the research study was to contribute to an understanding of what is required to enhance the assessment capability of tertiary education providers of learning in literacy, numeracy, and language. Formative assessment has been pushed hard in the compulsory education sector in New Zealand ( K-12) and as the report shows is a bit hit and miss in the adult literacy sector in New Zealand. We don't yet have standardised tests that we have to use in the adult literacy sector here. the summary report about the research study is at http://educationcounts.edcentre.govt.nz/publications/tertairy/assessment-foundation.html the full report is available for download at the bottom of the webpage about the summary report Janet is it useful to give the urls for the PowerPoint presentations from the International Conference in Paris last year around Improving Learning through Formative Assessment - even though they are school focussed there is some interesting information in them. I really liked a quote from one of them - I am recalling this from memory and not sure whether it was your quote Janet - Hope doesn't build good schools - aspiration does same applies for adult literacy although funding and perspiration seem to be factors as well. Very interesting discussion - I like these Special Topics Thank you Susan Reid Manager Professional Development Workbase the New Zealand for Workforce Literacy www.workbase.org.nz see also the New Zealand Literacy Portal www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Thu 7/09/2006 12:16 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/f0815826/attachment.html From sreid at workbase.org.nz Wed Sep 6 17:58:11 2006 From: sreid at workbase.org.nz (Susan Reid) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 09:58:11 +1200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 188] Re: Questions on formative assessment Message-ID: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E324789@secure.workbase.org.nz> Hi Marie apart from asTTLE which is online in New Zealand http://www.tki.org.nz/r/asttle/index_e.php there has also been a number of other efforts around assessment developed for the K-12 sector http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/ this online PD is about formative assessment developed for our K-12 sector but is really relevant to the adult sector as well http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/atol_online/ppt/online_workshop_1.ppt there is a part in this resource which talks about the importance of feedback in formative assessment and I know as a tutor I have struggled in this area to do more that say you have done really well and have learned over the years not to stop at that but to keep going and point out what has been done well and a couple of areas for improvement and work out with the learner what could be done to achieve those improvements Regards Susan Reid Manager, Professional Development Workbase: The New Zealand Centre for Workforce Literacy Development 2 Vermont Street, Ponsonby - PO Box 56571, Dominion Road, Auckland 1030 Phone: 09 361 3800 - Fax: 09 376 3700 Website: www.workbase.org.nz - Email: sreid at workbase.org.nz See New Zealand Literacy Portal www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz Caution - This email and its contents contain privileged information that is intended solely for the recipient. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this email is prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify admin at workbase.org.nz immediately. Any views expressed in this email are of the sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of Workbase: The New Zealand Centre for Workforce Literacy Development. -----Original Message----- From: Marie Cora Sent: 7/09/2006 6:57 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 182] Re: Questions on formative assessment Dear Janet, Thanks for this rich amount of info and explanation. I'm so impressed by the array of innovative thought and action that these different countries and programs are pursuing. I see formative assessment as a fundamental mechanism for examining what is happening, and then taking this information (data) in order to improve practice on the classroom, program, or state/country scale. Your study clearly shows that formative assessment can and is being used to improve service delivery on all levels - including guiding the investments that are necessary for success in the program and classroom. A couple questions: You noted that in Finland, they use "random sample evaluations of different subjects" - does this mean that they study test data in subjects on an aggregate level and make determinations from this? If so, this would mean that accountability is spread more broadly, as opposed to studying individual performance/test data and then linking success or failure to either individuals (the student or the teacher) or smaller entities (one school as opposed to a whole school system). I would think that such an approach would necessitate studying not only what is happening in the classroom and school, but also what types of educational materials and assessments are being used. Would that be a correct assumption? Also, you discuss the use of guidelines for promoting formative assessment in various countries/programs that you studied, and you do note that one set from New Zealand is available for us to look at. Are the other materials from the countries you studied also accessible? These guidelines, case studies, and action plans would be extremely helpful in developing a focus on the use of formative assessments in this country. You note that many teachers described changes in their behavior once they started to use formative assessments - in their interactions with students, how they set up learning, in providing guidance toward goals, and in how they think about student success. I would be extremely interested in hearing more about this - can you provide us with a couple of examples of these types of teacher change? Did the process of going from random to systematic use of formative assessments begin with professional development for the teachers, application of the learning, and then reflecting on the results, or was it less deliberate? In other words, did the teachers in your case study already use this approach and just realized it was successful so incorporated it further? Or were these teachers part of a process to get them to learn and use formative assessment strategies? And I also have a question for subscribers: Janet notes that one example of incorporating formative assessment into teaching would be finding new ways to explain concepts when the student is struggling to understand. I'm guessing that this sounds super familiar to everyone out there - searching for new ways to help the student when the old ways are not cutting it. Can subscribers talk about any formative assessment strategies they use and how this improves classroom or program level practice. Thanks so much!! Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 10:33 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 177] Re: Questions on formative assessment Dear Marie, Thank you for your questions. I've provided some rather detailed answers here to be sure that the concepts are clear in this initial phases of the discussion. > "The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic > practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the > principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures > of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems." > Specifically: > Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced > systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain > schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that > formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school > or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school > (system)? When we talk about the "systematic" practice of formative assessment, we are talking about formative assessment as an integrated part of teaching and learning in classrooms. Many (probably most) teachers often incorporate aspects of formative assessment - for example, finding new ways to explain a concept when a student does not understand. But as teachers in our own case studies noted, prior to establishing formative assessment as an overall framework for teaching and learning, these kinds of interactions were somewhat haphazard. Many of the teachers in our case study schools said they had made fundamental changes in their approaches to teaching - in their interactions with students, the way they set up learning situations and guided students toward learning goals - even in the way they thought about student success - when they started to use formative assessment systematically. > Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the > teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative > assessment is also useful at the evaluation level - for example, > for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? In our study, we distinguish between assessment and evaluation. The term "assessment" is used to refer to judgments of student performance, and the term "evaluation" to refer to judgements of programme or organisational effectiveness. Ideally, information gathered in assessments and evaluations is used to shape strategies for improvement at each level of the education system. At the classroom level, teachers gather information on student understanding, and adjust teaching to meet identified learning needs. At the school level, school leaders use information to identify areas of strength and weakness across the school, and to develop strategies for improvement. At the policy level, officials use information gathered through national or regional tests, or through monitoring of school performance, to guide investments in training and support for schools and teachers, or to set broad priorities for education. In this way, summative information is used formatively at each level of the system. Teachers, school leaders and policy officials are more likely to use assessment information when assessments are well coordinated, and it is clear why and how the information is relevant to their work. One very valuable example of how formative principles can be applied at school and system level is found in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Since 2001, schools in this province have been developing action plans based on the provincial test results. School boards manage the planning process. Each school board brings principals together for two days. Consultants from the Department of Education review all test results with the district programme staff and school principals. Through this review and subsequent discussions, principals identify learning needs and incorporate them into their school development plan. The consultants are then available to help plan and implement teacher professional development programmes for schools that have identified teacher training as part of their action plan. Another example may be found in Finland. Finland does not have an inspectorate, and does not sponsor national examinations, except for the matriculation examination at the end of upper secondary general education. Instead, the National Board of Education tracks school quality through random sample evaluations of different subjects in each comprehensive school every third year. The results of these evaluations provide information on the quality of learning outcomes, and are utilised in ongoing development of the education system and core curricula, as well as in practical teaching work. > I'm not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but > is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or > government agencies? How is this achieved? Formative assessment within the classroom is used to inform teaching and learning and is not be used for reporting purposes in any of the systems we studied. I would classify information used in this way as "summative assessment". > In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments > developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there > guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is > special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others > using the assessments? We found a variety of strategies for promoting formative assessment. I'll provide just a few examples to illustrate the range of approaches (note that this is by no means a thorough list of each country's approach): 1. legislation promoting and supporting the practice of formative assessment and establishing it as a priority. Italy first introduced the national "valuation form" in national legislation in 1977. Teachers are required to use the valuation form to compile data on their students, including information on what has been taught, any discipline issues, and results of assessment (including social, behavioural, cognitive and metacognitive factors). The form, which has been revised several times since 1977, is intended to facilitate communication between school leaders, teachers and students. 1. efforts to encourage the use of summative data for formative purposes. In Canada, all provinces and territories participate in a national programme to assess student achievement in mathematics, reading and writing, and science on a four-year cycle. Each province and territory receives its own results as well as an analysis by sub-test. Provinces may then conduct a secondary analysis to shape teaching practices. The three Canadian provinces participating in the OECD study, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, and Qu?bec, encourage schools to use school-level data in school planning. In the early 1990s Her Majesty's Inspectors of Education in Scotland published school self-assessment and development planning guidelines that schools could use on a voluntary basis. Since 2001, all schools have been required to use these guidelines to develop school plans. The plans are to refer to data on student performance as gathered in national examinations for 16-year-olds and on attainment levels for students between the ages of 5 and 14 (as established in official targets). School plans are expected to evaluate teaching and learning practices and to include strategies for improvement. The plans are shared with parents and published in school outreach materials and on websites. 2. Guidelines on effective teaching and formative assessment have been embedded in the national curriculum and other materials. In 2000, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in England introduced the Assessment for Learning (AfL) programme, targeting pilots to Key Stage 3 schools - that is, lower secondary schools. AfL provides teachers, school leaders, local education authorities and other stakeholders with guidance and resources on the principles of good classroom assessment, as supported in research. DfES promises also to provide a repertoire of teaching strategies and tools from which schools and teachers may choose, based on students' needs and the school's goals and priorities. 3. provision of tools and exemplars to support effective formative assessment. The New Zealand Ministry of Education has also supported the development of a number of tools for formative assessment. These include Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) for assessing literacy and numeracy from years 5 to 10, in English and te reo Maori, and national curriculum exemplars for students in years 1-10 in all curriculum areas. The asTTle are a key component of both the government's literacy and numeracy assessment strategies. Teachers use the tools to evaluate the impact of teaching approaches on student achievement, and when necessary, to adjust teaching to better meet student needs. The national exemplars include annotated work samples and feature sample teacher-student dialogues and written teacher comments, showing how teachers might assess the student work in a formative manner, and in a way that is sensitive to different learning and communication styles of students. They are available in print form and on-line. Many are also supported by video clips. 4. investments in special initiatives and innovative programmes incorporating formative assessment approaches. Several schools included in the case study countries participated in pilot or other special projects before deciding to adopt formative assessment teaching methods. Certainly, their participation in special projects signals that these are schools that are more open to innovation and change, and is likely one of the reasons the schools have come to the attention of researchers. Their participation in these projects also helped to prepare the ground for further change. 5. Investments in teacher professional development for formative assessment. Queensland has a variety of in-service workshops and professional development opportunities for teachers on assessment. At the senior secondary school level, professional workshops assist teachers in implementing assessment in the subjects they teach. Teacher practice is supported by strong professional networks and professional subject-based organisations. Service on moderation panels (discussed above) is recognised as providing powerful professional development for panellists, and many schools encourage their staff to seek panel membership. Feedback from moderation panels to schools involves teachers in discussions on their assessment practices, both within their school and with the relevant panel. Being wholly responsible for student assessment, teachers continually reflect on their assessment practice and consider how it can be improved. Assessment practice is therefore always evolving. -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Marie Cora Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 11:28 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 174] Questions on formative assessment Ms. Looney, Thank you so much for taking the time to share your findings and respond to some of our questions. This is an extremely timely topic for us to explore here in the U.S. I am very interested in hearing you discuss in some detail these two points of the study: "The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems." Specifically: Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school (system)? Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative assessment is also useful at the evaluation level - for example, for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? I'm not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or government agencies? How is this achieved? In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others using the assessments? Thank you for your responses. Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/c3666228/attachment.html From marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Wed Sep 6 22:21:18 2006 From: marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com (Marie Cora) Date: Wed, 6 Sep 2006 22:21:18 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 189] Re: Questions on formative assessment In-Reply-To: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E324789@secure.workbase.org.nz> Message-ID: <019001c6d224$4e2549c0$0302a8c0@LITNOW> Hi Susan, Thanks so much for this ? I?m anxious to check it all out! Marie Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Susan Reid Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 5:58 PM To: Marie Cora; specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 188] Re: Questions on formative assessment Hi Marie apart from asTTLE which is online in New Zealand http://www.tki.org.nz/r/asttle/index_e.php there has also been a number of other efforts around assessment developed for the K-12 sector http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/ this online PD is about formative assessment developed for our K-12 sector but is really relevant to the adult sector as well http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/atol_online/ppt/online_workshop_1.ppt there is a part in this resource which talks about the importance of feedback in formative assessment and I know as a tutor I have struggled in this area to do more that say you have done really well and have learned over the years not to stop at that but to keep going and point out what has been done well and a couple of areas for improvement and work out with the learner what could be done to achieve those improvements Regards Susan Reid Manager, Professional Development Workbase: The New Zealand Centre for Workforce Literacy Development 2 Vermont Street, Ponsonby - PO Box 56571, Dominion Road, Auckland 1030 Phone: 09 361 3800 - Fax: 09 376 3700 Website: www.workbase.org.nz - Email: sreid at workbase.org.nz See New Zealand Literacy Portal www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz Caution - This email and its contents contain privileged information that is intended solely for the recipient. If you are not the intended recipient you are hereby notified that any use, dissemination, distribution or reproduction of this email is prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify admin at workbase.org.nz immediately. Any views expressed in this email are of the sender and may not necessarily reflect the views of Workbase: The New Zealand Centre for Workforce Literacy Development. -----Original Message----- From: Marie Cora Sent: 7/09/2006 6:57 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 182] Re: Questions on formative assessment Dear Janet, Thanks for this rich amount of info and explanation. I?m so impressed by the array of innovative thought and action that these different countries and programs are pursuing. I see formative assessment as a fundamental mechanism for examining what is happening, and then taking this information (data) in order to improve practice on the classroom, program, or state/country scale. Your study clearly shows that formative assessment can and is being used to improve service delivery on all levels ? including guiding the investments that are necessary for success in the program and classroom. A couple questions: You noted that in Finland, they use ?random sample evaluations of different subjects? ? does this mean that they study test data in subjects on an aggregate level and make determinations from this? If so, this would mean that accountability is spread more broadly, as opposed to studying individual performance/test data and then linking success or failure to either individuals (the student or the teacher) or smaller entities (one school as opposed to a whole school system). I would think that such an approach would necessitate studying not only what is happening in the classroom and school, but also what types of educational materials and assessments are being used. Would that be a correct assumption? Also, you discuss the use of guidelines for promoting formative assessment in various countries/programs that you studied, and you do note that one set from New Zealand is available for us to look at. Are the other materials from the countries you studied also accessible? These guidelines, case studies, and action plans would be extremely helpful in developing a focus on the use of formative assessments in this country. You note that many teachers described changes in their behavior once they started to use formative assessments ? in their interactions with students, how they set up learning, in providing guidance toward goals, and in how they think about student success. I would be extremely interested in hearing more about this ? can you provide us with a couple of examples of these types of teacher change? Did the process of going from random to systematic use of formative assessments begin with professional development for the teachers, application of the learning, and then reflecting on the results, or was it less deliberate? In other words, did the teachers in your case study already use this approach and just realized it was successful so incorporated it further? Or were these teachers part of a process to get them to learn and use formative assessment strategies? And I also have a question for subscribers: Janet notes that one example of incorporating formative assessment into teaching would be finding new ways to explain concepts when the student is struggling to understand. I?m guessing that this sounds super familiar to everyone out there ? searching for new ways to help the student when the old ways are not cutting it. Can subscribers talk about any formative assessment strategies they use and how this improves classroom or program level practice. Thanks so much!! Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 10:33 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 177] Re: Questions on formative assessment Dear Marie, Thank you for your questions. I've provided some rather detailed answers here to be sure that the concepts are clear in this initial phases of the discussion. > ?The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic > practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the > principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures > of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems.? > Specifically: > Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced > systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain > schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that > formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school > or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school > (system)? When we talk about the ?systematic? practice of formative assessment, we are talking about formative assessment as an integrated part of teaching and learning in classrooms. Many (probably most) teachers often incorporate aspects of formative assessment ? for example, finding new ways to explain a concept when a student does not understand. But as teachers in our own case studies noted, prior to establishing formative assessment as an overall framework for teaching and learning, these kinds of interactions were somewhat haphazard. Many of the teachers in our case study schools said they had made fundamental changes in their approaches to teaching ? in their interactions with students, the way they set up learning situations and guided students toward learning goals ? even in the way they thought about student success ? when they started to use formative assessment systematically. > Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the > teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative > assessment is also useful at the evaluation level ? for example, > for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? In our study, we distinguish between assessment and evaluation. The term ?assessment? is used to refer to judgments of student performance, and the term ?evaluation? to refer to judgements of programme or organisational effectiveness. Ideally, information gathered in assessments and evaluations is used to shape strategies for improvement at each level of the education system. At the classroom level, teachers gather information on student understanding, and adjust teaching to meet identified learning needs. At the school level, school leaders use information to identify areas of strength and weakness across the school, and to develop strategies for improvement. At the policy level, officials use information gathered through national or regional tests, or through monitoring of school performance, to guide investments in training and support for schools and teachers, or to set broad priorities for education. In this way, summative information is used formatively at each level of the system. Teachers, school leaders and policy officials are more likely to use assessment information when assessments are well coordinated, and it is clear why and how the information is relevant to their work. One very valuable example of how formative principles can be applied at school and system level is found in Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Since 2001, schools in this province have been developing action plans based on the provincial test results. School boards manage the planning process. Each school board brings principals together for two days. Consultants from the Department of Education review all test results with the district programme staff and school principals. Through this review and subsequent discussions, principals identify learning needs and incorporate them into their school development plan. The consultants are then available to help plan and implement teacher professional development programmes for schools that have identified teacher training as part of their action plan. Another example may be found in Finland. Finland does not have an inspectorate, and does not sponsor national examinations, except for the matriculation examination at the end of upper secondary general education. Instead, the National Board of Education tracks school quality through random sample evaluations of different subjects in each comprehensive school every third year. The results of these evaluations provide information on the quality of learning outcomes, and are utilised in ongoing development of the education system and core curricula, as well as in practical teaching work. > I?m not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but > is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or > government agencies? How is this achieved? Formative assessment within the classroom is used to inform teaching and learning and is not be used for reporting purposes in any of the systems we studied. I would classify information used in this way as ?summative assessment?. > In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments > developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there > guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is > special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others > using the assessments? We found a variety of strategies for promoting formative assessment. I?ll provide just a few examples to illustrate the range of approaches (note that this is by no means a thorough list of each country?s approach): 1. legislation promoting and supporting the practice of formative assessment and establishing it as a priority. Italy first introduced the national ?valuation form? in national legislation in 1977. Teachers are required to use the valuation form to compile data on their students, including information on what has been taught, any discipline issues, and results of assessment (including social, behavioural, cognitive and metacognitive factors). The form, which has been revised several times since 1977, is intended to facilitate communication between school leaders, teachers and students. 1. efforts to encourage the use of summative data for formative purposes. In Canada, all provinces and territories participate in a national programme to assess student achievement in mathematics, reading and writing, and science on a four-year cycle. Each province and territory receives its own results as well as an analysis by sub-test. Provinces may then conduct a secondary analysis to shape teaching practices. The three Canadian provinces participating in the OECD study, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, and Qu?bec, encourage schools to use school-level data in school planning. In the early 1990s Her Majesty?s Inspectors of Education in Scotland published school self-assessment and development planning guidelines that schools could use on a voluntary basis. Since 2001, all schools have been required to use these guidelines to develop school plans. The plans are to refer to data on student performance as gathered in national examinations for 16-year-olds and on attainment levels for students between the ages of 5 and 14 (as established in official targets). School plans are expected to evaluate teaching and learning practices and to include strategies for improvement. The plans are shared with parents and published in school outreach materials and on websites. 2. Guidelines on effective teaching and formative assessment have been embedded in the national curriculum and other materials. In 2000, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) in England introduced the Assessment for Learning (AfL) programme, targeting pilots to Key Stage 3 schools ? that is, lower secondary schools. AfL provides teachers, school leaders, local education authorities and other stakeholders with guidance and resources on the principles of good classroom assessment, as supported in research. DfES promises also to provide a repertoire of teaching strategies and tools from which schools and teachers may choose, based on students? needs and the school?s goals and priorities. 3. provision of tools and exemplars to support effective formative assessment. The New Zealand Ministry of Education has also supported the development of a number of tools for formative assessment. These include Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning (asTTle) for assessing literacy and numeracy from years 5 to 10, in English and te reo Maori, and national curriculum exemplars for students in years 1-10 in all curriculum areas. The asTTle are a key component of both the government?s literacy and numeracy assessment strategies. Teachers use the tools to evaluate the impact of teaching approaches on student achievement, and when necessary, to adjust teaching to better meet student needs. The national exemplars include annotated work samples and feature sample teacher-student dialogues and written teacher comments, showing how teachers might assess the student work in a formative manner, and in a way that is sensitive to different learning and communication styles of students. They are available in print form and on-line. Many are also supported by video clips. 4. investments in special initiatives and innovative programmes incorporating formative assessment approaches. Several schools included in the case study countries participated in pilot or other special projects before deciding to adopt formative assessment teaching methods. Certainly, their participation in special projects signals that these are schools that are more open to innovation and change, and is likely one of the reasons the schools have come to the attention of researchers. Their participation in these projects also helped to prepare the ground for further change. 5. Investments in teacher professional development for formative assessment. Queensland has a variety of in-service workshops and professional development opportunities for teachers on assessment. At the senior secondary school level, professional workshops assist teachers in implementing assessment in the subjects they teach. Teacher practice is supported by strong professional networks and professional subject-based organisations. Service on moderation panels (discussed above) is recognised as providing powerful professional development for panellists, and many schools encourage their staff to seek panel membership. Feedback from moderation panels to schools involves teachers in discussions on their assessment practices, both within their school and with the relevant panel. Being wholly responsible for student assessment, teachers continually reflect on their assessment practice and consider how it can be improved. Assessment practice is therefore always evolving. -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Marie Cora Sent: Saturday, September 02, 2006 11:28 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 174] Questions on formative assessment Ms. Looney, Thank you so much for taking the time to share your findings and respond to some of our questions. This is an extremely timely topic for us to explore here in the U.S. I am very interested in hearing you discuss in some detail these two points of the study: ?The study shows how teachers have addressed barriers to systematic practice, and how school and policy leaders may apply the principles of formative assessment to promote constructive cultures of assessment and evaluation throughout education systems.? Specifically: Can you discuss further how formative assessment is not practiced systematically in secondary schools? Does this refer to certain schools using the practice and others not, or rather, that formative assessment is used for certain purposes within a school or school system, but is not practiced in all aspects of the school (system)? Formative assessment is an excellent approach for informing the teaching and learning process. Can you discuss how formative assessment is also useful at the evaluation level ? for example, for purposes of examining success on the program or system level? I?m not sure how the systems you studied are funded/supported, but is formative assessment used for reporting purposes to funders or government agencies? How is this achieved? In the systems that you researched, how are formative assessments developed and used? Are they uniform or standardized? Are there guidelines for development? Who develops the assessments? Is special training involved for administrators, teachers, or others using the assessments? Thank you for your responses. Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060906/3c409e6a/attachment.html From Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Thu Sep 7 05:21:46 2006 From: Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org (Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 11:21:46 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 190] Re: Questions on formative assessment In-Reply-To: <010b01c6d1de$8dd77390$0302a8c0@LITNOW> Message-ID: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8F5@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Good morning from Paris. Yesterday, Maria wrote: " You noted that in Finland, they use "random sample evaluations of different subjects" - does this mean that they study test data in subjects on an aggregate level and make determinations from this? If so, this would mean that accountability is spread more broadly, as opposed to studying individual performance/test data and then linking success or failure to either individuals (the student or the teacher) or smaller entities (one school as opposed to a whole school system). I would think that such an approach would necessitate studying not only what is happening in the classroom and school, but also what types of educational materials and assessments are being used. Would that be a correct assumption? " You are correct in your assumptions - the test data are used to track general trends in student learning, not as a mechanism for holding individual schools accountable. Schools being evaluated do receive their results, but the results are not published more widely. The Finnish National Board of Education uses the results of the random evaluations for ongoing development of the education system and core curricula. Also, you discuss the use of guidelines for promoting formative assessment in various countries/programs that you studied, and you do note that one set from New Zealand is available for us to look at. Are the other materials from the countries you studied also accessible? These guidelines, case studies, and action plans would be extremely helpful in developing a focus on the use of formative assessments in this country. Thanks to Susan Reid for providing the url for guidelines used in New Zealand. You will find a number of resources from other countries by searching their sites for "formative assessment". Sites from the English-speaking countries will be easiest to follow, of course. - The site for the UK is http://www.dfes.gov.uk - Learning and Teaching Scotland has a number of resources at http://www.ltscotland.org.uk - The Ministry of Education in Canada will also link you to a number of resources. See http://www.edu.gov.on.ca - For Queensland, Australia, consult http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au - And as Susan Reid mentioned, you may find resources used by New Zealand teachers for asTTLE at htpp://www.tki.org.nz/r/asttle/index_e.php ; and other resources at http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/ Countries revise their strategies and update and improve materials, so it is worth checking in from time to time. Maria wrote that "You note that many teachers described changes in their behavior once they started to use formative assessments - in their interactions with students, how they set up learning, in providing guidance toward goals, and in how they think about student success. I would be extremely interested in hearing more about this - can you provide us with a couple of examples of these types of teacher change? Did the process of going from random to systematic use of formative assessments begin with professional development for the teachers, application of the learning, and then reflecting on the results, or was it less deliberate? In other words, did the teachers in your case study already use this approach and just realized it was successful so incorporated it further? Or were these teachers part of a process to get them to learn and use formative assessment strategies? " The process of going from somewhat random, or haphazard to systematic use of formative assessment varied in each of the sites we visited. Very often the schools featured in our study had been involved in special pilot projects, partnerships with University-based research projects, or other innovations. Participation in special projects signals that these are schools that are more open to innovation and change, and is likely one of the reasons the schools have come to the attention of researchers for our own study. Their experiences also provide useful lessons for others on the process of change. A couple of examples of how schools approached the process of integrating formative assessment into regular teaching....At Rosehill College in Auckland, New Zealand, the school's involvement in the national "Assessment for Better Learning" professional development programme as the development of National Curriculum Exemplars helped place the focus on formative assessment. The leadership team at the school also started staff discussions on formative assessment , shared professional reading on formative assessment , invited expert speakers and asked individual departments tihin the school to work on their own ideas about how to implement formative assessment within classrooms. Each of the schools involved in the English case study were part of the King's-Medway-Oxfordshire Formative Assessment Project initiated in January 1999 (KMOFAP - refers to the partnership between Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam's team at King's College and selected schools in Medway and Oxfordshire). The project, funded by the Nuffield foundation, introduced a small group of teachers (usually department heads) to the Black & Wiliam research on formative assessment through a series of three one-day workshops over a six-month period, and encouraged them to try out some innovations in their practice, and to plan the innovations they wanted to implement with one class in the following school year. These teachers, in turn, shared their ideas with colleagues. The process of translating research into practice involved a close partnership between the University and the schools. Between 1985 and 1995 the Michelangelo School in Bari, Italy was among a small number of schools selected by the Italian Ministry of Education to participate in a project to revise the national valuation form (mentioned the other day). This school is unusual in having very low turnover, in fact, several of the teachers involved in the pilot recall that the experience of working together on this demonstration project was key to shaping their strong working relationship. These are just a few of examples. And I also have a question for subscribers: Janet notes that one example of incorporating formative assessment into teaching would be finding new ways to explain concepts when the student is struggling to understand. I'm guessing that this sounds super familiar to everyone out there - searching for new ways to help the student when the old ways are not cutting it. Can subscribers talk about any formative assessment strategies they use and how this improves classroom or program level practice Good discussion question. I'd be very interested in hearing about this from subscribers, as well. Thanks so much!! Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/94fccdf3/attachment.html From Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Thu Sep 7 05:56:59 2006 From: Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org (Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 11:56:59 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 191] Re: Formative Assessment inInternationalEducation In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8F6@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Let me jump into the discussion between Aaron and John about "formative assessment being yet another thing to add to teachers' already long list of tasks to do". As John notes, Black and Wiliam do argue that formative assessment should replace/improve what teachers already do. Our argument in the OECD study is that formative assessment should be an overall framework for teaching - part of the classroom culture, where teachers and students use tools for assessment, set goals and track progress, use varied approaches to teaching,learning and assessment, and give regular feedback on how to reach learning goals. One of the school leaders in a school we visited said that formative assessment had helped them to be more strategic about innovation...rather than just letting a thousand flowers bloom. It's also important to note that the process of introducing change involves some pragmatic solutions. For example, teachers involved in a couple of the English case study schools had gotten into the habit of giving individual students feedback orally, and having the student record the feedback in their learning journal....saving quite a bit of time for the teacher. Other teachers said they invested more time up front in training students to use criteria and rubrics for self and peer-assessment, but saved a lot of time later - and also built students' learning to learn skills. Sometimes teachers decided to cut back on the quantity of learning to focus on quality...those core concepts most important for students to understand if they are really to grasp the subject. I agree with John that formative assessment can improve/add to teaching skills incrementally and teachers do not have to change everything. It's kind of a "scaffolding" for teachers, and ultimatey more effective as teachers see small changes and build their confidence. In response to John's question on what will come out of the OECD study on adult basic skill learners and foramtive assessment: - We are finalising country background reports addressing challenges facing countries, and current policy approaches. These will appear on our Internet site over Autumn 2006. Then countries are contributing background reports. They include: Australia, Belgium (the Flemish Community), Denmark, England, France, New Zealand, Norway, Scotland, Spain and the United States. - We are gathering findings from the country case studies. Seven countries are contributing case studies. They include: Belgium (the Flemish Community), Denmark, England, France, Norway, Scotland, and the United States. - We have also commissioned reviews of English-language, German-language and Spanish literature. Each of these components will inform the OECD analysis. The final OECD report on the study findings is scheduled for mid-2007. We will also share the findings in confererences and workshops, and with this discussion group! - Janet Analyst and Project Lead, What Works in Innovation Centre for Educational Research and Innovation Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development www.oecd.org/edu/ceri Phone: +33 (0)1 45 24 91 71 Fax: +33 (0)1 44 30 63 94 -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Benseman John Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:42 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 186] Re: Formative Assessment inInternationalEducation In response to Aaron's posting about formative assessment being yet another thing to add to teachers' already long list of tasks to do: * Black and Wiliam argue that formative assessment should replace/improve what teachers already do, not just be added on top of every thing else. * the point about formative assessment is to improve what we already do as teachers and make better use of the information that we get in the process * one of the attractions about formative assessment is that teachers can improve/add to their teaching skills incrementally and not have to change everything - they could for example focus on improving their questioning skills before tackling students learning to review each others' work Two other points about formative assessment: * because it is fundamentally about generic aspects of teaching, it has currency for all teachers, irrespective of the content of their teaching, level etc. It is a very good strategy for professional development because of its relevance across the board * being involved in developing formative assessment usually involves peer observation for teachers, which is probably one of the best prompts to critically review our own practices. My own interest in formative assessment was initially prompted by carrying out an observation study of 15 literacy and numeracy teachers ( http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=10929&indexid= 1028&indexparentid=1000 ), which really brought home to me the importance of generic teaching skills such as questioning (eg teachers asking questions and then supplying the answer themselves ('rescuing' their learners so that they don't feel failures) about 2 seconds later) and scaffolding off learners' responses. Janet - it might be useful to outline what is going to come out of the OECD study when it is published? John John Benseman PhD Director of Research & Evaluation, Upskilling NZ (based at Department of Labour) DDI 04 915 4195 - Cell: 021 0489 143 Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland PB 92019, Auckland, NZ * j.benseman at auckland.ac.nz ( 0064 9 623 8899, ext 87161 7 0064 9 373 7455 Office location: Room 365, N Block, Epsom Campus ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Kohring, Aaron M Sent: Thu 7/09/2006 6:36 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 184] Re: Formative Assessment in InternationalEducation David, I was struck by your last question in regards to my own work: Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? I would say- Yes. With teachers that I've worked with- they always mention how the standardized (summative) tests they are required to administer do not really tell them what they need to be teaching. Then we go another step and talk about how formative assessments add to that picture of what learners know and can do- thus giving them more information about what to teach as well as helping to show progress. Yet, some of the recurring themes many instructors seem to deal with- especially in the U.S.- where many only work part-time are: 1) Having time (preferably paid) for: working with learners to assess what they want to know and be able to do, understanding where they are starting from, planning the lesson along with useful assessment(s), etc. 2) Not having much experience in developing a 'suitable' formative assessment 3) Dealing with tensions for accountability (needing to show level gains based on acceptable reporting measures for the federal government) So does that mean education to understand the benefits and uses of formative and summative assessments? Professional development on developing/creating assessments? Educating legislators/funders about issues with accountability and part-time staff? All of these? Aaron -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:16 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics The Faculty invites you to its 125th Jubilee of Teacher Education, 23 September 2006 For further information: http://alumniandfriends.education.auckland.ac.nz Phone Maureen Tizard on [09]6238899 extn48689 ###################################################################### Attention: This e-mail message is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author. This e-mail has been scanned and cleared by MailMarshal www.marshalsoftware.com ###################################################################### ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Thu Sep 7 06:04:50 2006 From: Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org (Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 12:04:50 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 192] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education In-Reply-To: <14794889A1E3AF419042F64CC5425A1E32478F@secure.workbase.org.nz> Message-ID: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8F7@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Susan - On the quote "Sympathy doesn't raise standards , aspiration does". I can't take credit for it....but it's certainly a good quote. We had several school leaders presenting at workships at the conference ...perhaps it is from one of their presentations? - Janet -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Susan Reid Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 11:58 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 187] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education I am at my desk in the ofice now where the quote is pinned on my wall Sympathy doesn't raise standards , aspiration does shows you how good my memory is Regards Susan Reid -----Original Message----- From: Susan Reid Sent: 7/09/2006 9:09 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 183] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education Hi David as you are aware New Zealand is taking part in the OECD study. In New Zealand the Government has also undertaken a small scale research study on assessment in a range of adult literacy programmes ( called foundation learning in New Zealand). The purpose of the research study was to contribute to an understanding of what is required to enhance the assessment capability of tertiary education providers of learning in literacy, numeracy, and language. Formative assessment has been pushed hard in the compulsory education sector in New Zealand ( K-12) and as the report shows is a bit hit and miss in the adult literacy sector in New Zealand. We don't yet have standardised tests that we have to use in the adult literacy sector here. the summary report about the research study is at http://educationcounts.edcentre.govt.nz/publications/tertairy/assessment-foun dation.html the full report is available for download at the bottom of the webpage about the summary report Janet is it useful to give the urls for the PowerPoint presentations from the International Conference in Paris last year around Improving Learning through Formative Assessment - even though they are school focussed there is some interesting information in them. I really liked a quote from one of them - I am recalling this from memory and not sure whether it was your quote Janet - Hope doesn't build good schools - aspiration does same applies for adult literacy although funding and perspiration seem to be factors as well. Very interesting discussion - I like these Special Topics Thank you Susan Reid Manager Professional Development Workbase the New Zealand for Workforce Literacy www.workbase.org.nz see also the New Zealand Literacy Portal www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Thu 7/09/2006 12:16 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/4d34f08f/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Thu Sep 7 07:25:36 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David J. Rosen) Date: Thu, 07 Sep 2006 07:25:36 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 193] Formative assessment and professional development In-Reply-To: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8F5@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> References: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8F5@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Message-ID: <450001B0.4080009@comcast.net> Thanks for your thoughtful and informative answers to these questions, Janet. And thanks for your willingness to stay on through Friday (morning in the U.S.). Colleagues, if you have more questions or comments, please post them now. Marie wrote: "Did the process of going from random to systematic use of formative assessments begin with professional development for the teachers, application of the learning, and then reflecting on the results, or was it less deliberate? In other words, did the teachers in your case study already use this approach and just realized it was successful so incorporated it further? Or were these teachers part of a process to get them to learn and use formative assessment strategies? " I too have been wondering about professional development for formative assessment. In the high school study, or in the current adult basic skill study, are there examples of good models for professional development for formative assessment? Are any of these documented? And has a relationship been established between professional development, especially ongoing professional development, and success in implementing formative assessment? David David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/a83cac15/attachment.html From akohring at utk.edu Thu Sep 7 08:15:13 2006 From: akohring at utk.edu (Kohring, Aaron M) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 08:15:13 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 194] Re: Formative Assessment inInternationalEducation In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <6A5CE13D731DE249BC61CB8C5C474B0A147398A7@UTKFSVS1.utk.tennessee.edu> John, Thanks for raising your point about adding formative assessment to the list of things to do as an instructor. I also feel like it should be integrated into the teaching process not an add-on. Which is why I replied "yes" to David's issue of paying more attention to formative assessment. Perhaps an area that needs much more PD support here in the U.S.? Aaron -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Benseman John Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 5:42 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 186] Re: Formative Assessment inInternationalEducation In response to Aaron's posting about formative assessment being yet another thing to add to teachers' already long list of tasks to do: * Black and Wiliam argue that formative assessment should replace/improve what teachers already do, not just be added on top of every thing else. * the point about formative assessment is to improve what we already do as teachers and make better use of the information that we get in the process * one of the attractions about formative assessment is that teachers can improve/add to their teaching skills incrementally and not have to change everything - they could for example focus on improving their questioning skills before tackling students learning to review each others' work Two other points about formative assessment: * because it is fundamentally about generic aspects of teaching, it has currency for all teachers, irrespective of the content of their teaching, level etc. It is a very good strategy for professional development because of its relevance across the board * being involved in developing formative assessment usually involves peer observation for teachers, which is probably one of the best prompts to critically review our own practices. My own interest in formative assessment was initially prompted by carrying out an observation study of 15 literacy and numeracy teachers ( http://www.minedu.govt.nz/index.cfm?layout=document&documentid=10929&ind exid=1028&indexparentid=1000 ), which really brought home to me the importance of generic teaching skills such as questioning (eg teachers asking questions and then supplying the answer themselves ('rescuing' their learners so that they don't feel failures) about 2 seconds later) and scaffolding off learners' responses. Janet - it might be useful to outline what is going to come out of the OECD study when it is published? John John Benseman PhD Director of Research & Evaluation, Upskilling NZ (based at Department of Labour) DDI 04 915 4195 - Cell: 021 0489 143 Faculty of Education, The University of Auckland PB 92019, Auckland, NZ * j.benseman at auckland.ac.nz ( 0064 9 623 8899, ext 87161 7 0064 9 373 7455 Office location: Room 365, N Block, Epsom Campus ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of Kohring, Aaron M Sent: Thu 7/09/2006 6:36 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 184] Re: Formative Assessment in InternationalEducation David, I was struck by your last question in regards to my own work: Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? I would say- Yes. With teachers that I've worked with- they always mention how the standardized (summative) tests they are required to administer do not really tell them what they need to be teaching. Then we go another step and talk about how formative assessments add to that picture of what learners know and can do- thus giving them more information about what to teach as well as helping to show progress. Yet, some of the recurring themes many instructors seem to deal with- especially in the U.S.- where many only work part-time are: 1) Having time (preferably paid) for: working with learners to assess what they want to know and be able to do, understanding where they are starting from, planning the lesson along with useful assessment(s), etc. 2) Not having much experience in developing a 'suitable' formative assessment 3) Dealing with tensions for accountability (needing to show level gains based on acceptable reporting measures for the federal government) So does that mean education to understand the benefits and uses of formative and summative assessments? Professional development on developing/creating assessments? Educating legislators/funders about issues with accountability and part-time staff? All of these? Aaron -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 8:16 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics The Faculty invites you to its 125th Jubilee of Teacher Education, 23 September 2006 For further information: http://alumniandfriends.education.auckland.ac.nz Phone Maureen Tizard on [09]6238899 extn48689 ###################################################################### Attention: This e-mail message is privileged and confidential. If you are not the intended recipient please delete the message and notify the sender. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author. This e-mail has been scanned and cleared by MailMarshal www.marshalsoftware.com ###################################################################### ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From jcrawford at nifl.gov Thu Sep 7 10:27:40 2006 From: jcrawford at nifl.gov (Crawford, June) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 10:27:40 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 195] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education Message-ID: <9B35BF1886881547B5DFF88364AF31A30C842F76@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> Susan, I tried to reach the page you list in your message but I keep getting an error message. Can anyone get this? Is it just my government computer that is blocking it or is there an error in the address? Please advise. June Crawford -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Susan Reid Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 5:58 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 187] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education I am at my desk in the ofice now where the quote is pinned on my wall Sympathy doesn't raise standards , aspiration does shows you how good my memory is Regards Susan Reid -----Original Message----- From: Susan Reid Sent: 7/09/2006 9:09 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov; specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 183] Re: Formative Assessment in International Education Hi David as you are aware New Zealand is taking part in the OECD study. In New Zealand the Government has also undertaken a small scale research study on assessment in a range of adult literacy programmes ( called foundation learning in New Zealand). The purpose of the research study was to contribute to an understanding of what is required to enhance the assessment capability of tertiary education providers of learning in literacy, numeracy, and language. Formative assessment has been pushed hard in the compulsory education sector in New Zealand ( K-12) and as the report shows is a bit hit and miss in the adult literacy sector in New Zealand. We don't yet have standardised tests that we have to use in the adult literacy sector here. the summary report about the research study is at http://educationcounts.edcentre.govt.nz/publications/tertairy/assessment-fou ndation.html the full report is available for download at the bottom of the webpage about the summary report Janet is it useful to give the urls for the PowerPoint presentations from the International Conference in Paris last year around Improving Learning through Formative Assessment - even though they are school focussed there is some interesting information in them. I really liked a quote from one of them - I am recalling this from memory and not sure whether it was your quote Janet - Hope doesn't build good schools - aspiration does same applies for adult literacy although funding and perspiration seem to be factors as well. Very interesting discussion - I like these Special Topics Thank you Susan Reid Manager Professional Development Workbase the New Zealand for Workforce Literacy www.workbase.org.nz see also the New Zealand Literacy Portal www.nzliteracyportal.org.nz _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Thu 7/09/2006 12:16 a.m. To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 180] Formative Assessment in International Education Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, We would like to hear from you. What has been your experience with formative assessment? Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What did you find? Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post NRS-required) assessment? Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. Thanks. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/fe5ddbe8/attachment.html From marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Thu Sep 7 10:44:16 2006 From: marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com (Marie Cora) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 10:44:16 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 196] Re: questions on formative assessment In-Reply-To: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF8F5@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Message-ID: <020101c6d28c$18821330$0302a8c0@LITNOW> Hi again Janet. Thanks a million for all these resources, I'm very anxious to study what's going on and how some of these strategies might work for us here in the U.S. Thanks also for outlining some of your findings on the professional development piece of this puzzle. I note that many of the approaches used are in fact similar. It makes me think that there may be a 'menu of options' from which to consider and select what would work best for a particular program or state. I'm so struck by the Bari, Italy example: the fact that launching into formative assessment processes has also affected the stability of the school staff is huge. For me, stability in personnel forms a good part of the backbone to the success of a program. I think that formative assessment approaches allow for the inclusiveness that sometimes (ok, often) is lacking in school systems and programs here in the U.S. By inclusiveness, I mean that it should be the ENTIRE staff of a program that builds that program, not just the leadership, or not just from directives that come from outside of a school system, for example. The student body must also be a part of this inclusiveness - they have a lot to offer since they are the ones with the goals to achieve and are in the process of trying to achieve them. I saw this when I was program director in the 90s - it was really my staff who built the program, I was just there to feed them information, guidance, resources, and also fight for our funding. If they build it, they will stay. Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 5:22 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 190] Re: Questions on formative assessment Good morning from Paris. Yesterday, Maria wrote: " You noted that in Finland, they use "random sample evaluations of different subjects" - does this mean that they study test data in subjects on an aggregate level and make determinations from this? If so, this would mean that accountability is spread more broadly, as opposed to studying individual performance/test data and then linking success or failure to either individuals (the student or the teacher) or smaller entities (one school as opposed to a whole school system). I would think that such an approach would necessitate studying not only what is happening in the classroom and school, but also what types of educational materials and assessments are being used. Would that be a correct assumption? " You are correct in your assumptions - the test data are used to track general trends in student learning, not as a mechanism for holding individual schools accountable. Schools being evaluated do receive their results, but the results are not published more widely. The Finnish National Board of Education uses the results of the random evaluations for ongoing development of the education system and core curricula. Also, you discuss the use of guidelines for promoting formative assessment in various countries/programs that you studied, and you do note that one set from New Zealand is available for us to look at. Are the other materials from the countries you studied also accessible? These guidelines, case studies, and action plans would be extremely helpful in developing a focus on the use of formative assessments in this country. Thanks to Susan Reid for providing the url for guidelines used in New Zealand. You will find a number of resources from other countries by searching their sites for "formative assessment". Sites from the English-speaking countries will be easiest to follow, of course. - The site for the UK is http://www.dfes.gov.uk - Learning and Teaching Scotland has a number of resources at http://www.ltscotland.org.uk - The Ministry of Education in Canada will also link you to a number of resources. See http://www.edu.gov.on.ca - For Queensland, Australia, consult http://www.qsa.qld.edu.au - And as Susan Reid mentioned, you may find resources used by New Zealand teachers for asTTLE at htpp://www.tki.org.nz/r/asttle/index_e.php ; and other resources at http://www.tki.org.nz/r/assessment/ Countries revise their strategies and update and improve materials, so it is worth checking in from time to time. Maria wrote that "You note that many teachers described changes in their behavior once they started to use formative assessments - in their interactions with students, how they set up learning, in providing guidance toward goals, and in how they think about student success. I would be extremely interested in hearing more about this - can you provide us with a couple of examples of these types of teacher change? Did the process of going from random to systematic use of formative assessments begin with professional development for the teachers, application of the learning, and then reflecting on the results, or was it less deliberate? In other words, did the teachers in your case study already use this approach and just realized it was successful so incorporated it further? Or were these teachers part of a process to get them to learn and use formative assessment strategies? " The process of going from somewhat random, or haphazard to systematic use of formative assessment varied in each of the sites we visited. Very often the schools featured in our study had been involved in special pilot projects, partnerships with University-based research projects, or other innovations. Participation in special projects signals that these are schools that are more open to innovation and change, and is likely one of the reasons the schools have come to the attention of researchers for our own study. Their experiences also provide useful lessons for others on the process of change. A couple of examples of how schools approached the process of integrating formative assessment into regular teaching....At Rosehill College in Auckland, New Zealand, the school's involvement in the national "Assessment for Better Learning" professional development programme as the development of National Curriculum Exemplars helped place the focus on formative assessment. The leadership team at the school also started staff discussions on formative assessment , shared professional reading on formative assessment , invited expert speakers and asked individual departments tihin the school to work on their own ideas about how to implement formative assessment within classrooms. Each of the schools involved in the English case study were part of the King's-Medway-Oxfordshire Formative Assessment Project initiated in January 1999 (KMOFAP - refers to the partnership between Paul Black and Dylan Wiliam's team at King's College and selected schools in Medway and Oxfordshire). The project, funded by the Nuffield foundation, introduced a small group of teachers (usually department heads) to the Black & Wiliam research on formative assessment through a series of three one-day workshops over a six-month period, and encouraged them to try out some innovations in their practice, and to plan the innovations they wanted to implement with one class in the following school year. These teachers, in turn, shared their ideas with colleagues. The process of translating research into practice involved a close partnership between the University and the schools. Between 1985 and 1995 the Michelangelo School in Bari, Italy was among a small number of schools selected by the Italian Ministry of Education to participate in a project to revise the national valuation form (mentioned the other day). This school is unusual in having very low turnover, in fact, several of the teachers involved in the pilot recall that the experience of working together on this demonstration project was key to shaping their strong working relationship. These are just a few of examples. And I also have a question for subscribers: Janet notes that one example of incorporating formative assessment into teaching would be finding new ways to explain concepts when the student is struggling to understand. I'm guessing that this sounds super familiar to everyone out there - searching for new ways to help the student when the old ways are not cutting it. Can subscribers talk about any formative assessment strategies they use and how this improves classroom or program level practice Good discussion question. I'd be very interested in hearing about this from subscribers, as well. Thanks so much!! Marie Cora Marie Cora NIFL Assessment Discussion List Moderator marie.cora at hotspurpartners.com Coordinator, LINCS Assessment Special Collection http://literacy.kent.edu/Midwest/assessment/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/8f55e6ef/attachment.html From Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Thu Sep 7 12:02:56 2006 From: Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org (Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 18:02:56 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 197] Re: Formative assessment and professionaldevelopment In-Reply-To: <450001B0.4080009@comcast.net> Message-ID: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF907@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> David and Marie have both raised questions about professional development for teachers, helping them to integrate foramtive assessment into their regular teaching. I gave a few examples earlier of strategies different schools involved in the OECD study used to encourage systematic practice of formative assessment. Each school had a very different approach. To add to the examples cited earlier - at the time we visited Waitakere College in New Zealand, they had a 1/2 time coordinator who worked intensively with the four or five teachers engaged in a pilot programme targeted to Maori students (and incorporating the principles of formative assessment). This coordinator also liaised with researchers at the University of Waikato. I would have to say this was probably the Rolls Royce model of teacher p.d. Teachers and school heads we met in England participated in short-term professional development, but really, their most intensive development occured in the process of figuring out among themselves and with King's College researchers how to use the principle of formative assessment in the classroom. They spent time observing each other in the classroom, as well. We visited 19 schools in 8 different countries. The majority of these schools had some kind of relationship with an external expert who was able to give input and advice on formative assessment as well as the process of implementation. Sometimes, only department heads were able to take advantage of professional development opportunities, but they were well positioned to share what they had learnt. All teachers were involved in broader networks. It is safe to say that that the teachers and school heads in our case study schools saw their ongoing professional development, as well as professional dialogue among teachers, as absolutely essential to their efforts to implement formative assessment as part of their regular practice. Certainly, though, there's a need for more research on "what works" in effective professional development. -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David J. Rosen Sent: Thursday, September 07, 2006 1:26 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 193] Formative assessment and professionaldevelopment Thanks for your thoughtful and informative answers to these questions, Janet. And thanks for your willingness to stay on through Friday (morning in the U.S.). Colleagues, if you have more questions or comments, please post them now. Marie wrote: "Did the process of going from random to systematic use of formative assessments begin with professional development for the teachers, application of the learning, and then reflecting on the results, or was it less deliberate? In other words, did the teachers in your case study already use this approach and just realized it was successful so incorporated it further? Or were these teachers part of a process to get them to learn and use formative assessment strategies? " I too have been wondering about professional development for formative assessment. In the high school study, or in the current adult basic skill study, are there examples of good models for professional development for formative assessment? Are any of these documented? And has a relationship been established between professional development, especially ongoing professional development, and success in implementing formative assessment? David David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060907/ae9f0bda/attachment.html From Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org Thu Sep 7 12:13:47 2006 From: Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org (Janet.LOONEY at oecd.org) Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 18:13:47 +0200 Subject: [SpecialTopics 198] Re: Formative Assessment in InternationalEducation In-Reply-To: <44FEBF88.2090402@twmi.rr.com> Message-ID: <227A8C8F337FB14CB1304302479F1B89066EF908@EXCHANGEB.main.oecd.org> Leslie - You raise questions for subscribers about structured attempts to explore the relationship between formative assessment and its role in increasing learner persistence. Through the ongoing OECD study on adults with basic skill needs, we are getting anecdotal evidence that it is one important element in persistence. I'm not aware of any structured studies, though, and would also be interested in hearing from anyone who does have some references. I'll add that I have heard of a couple of small case-studies on e-learning programmes that provide feedback to learners (a study in Spain and a study in Germany)....The studies are more focused on what kind of feedback is effective in an e-learning environment; they do not look at persistence. -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Leslie Petty Sent: Wednesday, September 06, 2006 2:31 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 181] Re: Formative Assessment in InternationalEducation I work with a consortium of states exploring the use of distance education for their adult basic learners. A key challenge for many distance programs is to increase student persistence. At our recent conference, participants suggested that two factors that led to increased persistence were carefully screening and counseling students into appropriate programs and frequent, positive communication with the teacher. I would also suggest that formative assessment, used as the basis of individual lesson planning, might also have a role in increasing persistence. While teachers are doing this on an informal basis, I am unaware of any structured attempts to explore this issue. Does anyone have any knowledge about the impact of formative assessment on student persistence and retention? Leslie Petty Project IDEAL lpetty at mich.edu David Rosen wrote: > Special Topics Discussion Subscribers, > > We would like to hear from you. > > What has been your experience with formative assessment? > Do you use formative assessment strategies in your classroom? Have you > done research -- qualitative or quantitative, including > classroom research -- on the effects of formative assessment? What > did you find? > Are you satisfied with using only summative (standardized per-post > NRS-required) assessment? > Do we need to pay more attention to formative assessment in the U.S.? > > Our discussion ends soon so please post your answers or questions now. > > Thanks. > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > -- ********************************* Leslie Petty Associate Director, Project IDEAL University of Michigan Institute for Social Research 734-425-0748 ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Sat Sep 9 06:40:14 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 06:40:14 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 199] Formative assessment discussion coming to a close Message-ID: <4DA6AA10-AD2E-44FC-BDAB-C802F8005521@comcast.net> Colleagues, I want to thank our guest, Janet Looney, for joining us this week to discuss formative assessment. Thanks, also, to those who participated in the discussion and asked thoughtful questions, especially to Marie Cora, moderator of the National Institute for Literacy Assessment list, who has a keen interest in this topic. Janet has provided us with a great introduction to formative assessment, a topic which may be new for many in the U.S. Janet, and Susan Reid and John Benseman, from New Zealand, have provided us with many references and resources to learn more. Perhaps the discussion of what U.S. educators are doing -- or could be doing -- with formative assessment will continue sometime on the Assessment discussion list. We look forward to next year's results of the OECD study on formative assessment in adult basic skill settings, andhope that Janet and others might join us again then. For those who were not able to find the New Zealand assessment web page suggested by Susan Reid, try http://educationcounts.edcentre.govt.nz/publications/tertiary/ assessment-foundation.html or, this short form of the web address, http://tinyurl.com/gv39x In a few days we will have a discussion on corrections education. We will look at research and professional wisdom on family literacy in a corrections setting, and the education transition from corrections to the community. We have a panel of outstanding guests joining us from September 18-22nd, and I look forward to your joining us. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Mon Sep 11 08:30:24 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2006 08:30:24 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 200] Corrections Education, Family Literacy and Transition to Community Education: September 18-22 Message-ID: <58321B79-5F30-45E4-A3DC-7A3A3E3004AC@comcast.net> Dear Colleagues, From September 18-22, on the Special Topics List, we are pleased to have a panel of expert guests in corrections education. The topic will focus on research and professional wisdom in corrections family literacy, and on the transition from corrections education to community education for inmates who have been released. Our guests are: John Linton, Correctional Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, U.S. Department of Education John is the program officer for two correctional education grant programs ("Lifeskills for State and Local Prisoners" and "Grants to States for Workplace and Community Transition Training for Incarcerated Youth Offenders") in the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools of the U. S. Department of Education. John formerly served the State of Maryland as the director of adult correctional education programs. He has been with the federal agency since 2001, originally with the Office of Vocational and Adult Education. Stephen J. Steurer, Ph.D., Executive Director, Correctional Education Association The Correctional Education Association is a professional organization of educators who work in prisons, jails and juvenile settings. William R. Muth, PhD, Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy, Virginia Commonwealth University Bill is an Assistant Professor of Adult and Adolescent Literacy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Until August 2005, he was the Education Administrator for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Other positions with the FBOP included: reading teacher, principal, and Chief of the Program Analysis Branch. In 2004 Bill earned his doctorate in adult literacy from George Mason University. His dissertation, ?Performance and Perspective: Two Assessments of Federal Prisoners in Literacy Programs? won the College Reading Association?s Dissertation of the Year Award. His research interests include Thirdspace and Reading Components theories, especially as these apply to prison-based family literacy programs and children of incarcerated parents. The following readings are recommended by the panelists as background for the discussion: 1. "Locked Up and Locked Out, An Educational Perspective on the US Prison Population," Coley, Richard J. and Barton, Paul E., 2006 Available on line at the ETS web site: http://tinyurl.com/qmzfa (short URL) 2. "Learning to Reduce Recidivism: A 50-state analysis of postsecondary correctional education policy," Institute for Higher Education Policy, Erisman, Wendy and Contardo, Jeanne B., 2005. Available on line at the IHEP web site: http://tinyurl.com/pj2sh (short URL) 3. "Understanding California Corrections" from the California Policy Research Center, U of C. (Chapter 4) http://www.ucop.edu/cprc/ documents/understand_ca_corrections.pdf John Linton believes that California is a watershed state in corrections issues and policies , and that how things unfold there has great national significance. He says that this is a thoughtful and well-informed report on the "overview" of the corrections situation in California -- including the role of treatment programs. Education is not presented as a central issue, but it has a place -- as a piece of a bigger puzzle. 4. An article by Bill Muth in Exploring Adult Literacy can be found at http://literacy.kent.edu/cra/2006/wmuth/index.html The article contains other on-line links related to prison-based intergenerational programs. He recommends especially the link to the Hudson River Center's excellent publication, Bringing Family Literacy to Incarcerated Settings: An Instructional Guide at: http://www.hudrivctr.org/products_ce.htm David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Sun Sep 17 22:44:49 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2006 22:44:49 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 201] Corrections Education, Family Literacy and Transition to Community Education Message-ID: Colleagues, I would like to welcome our guests: John Linton, Correctional Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, U.S. Department of Education; Stephen J. Steurer, Ph.D., Executive Director, Correctional Education Association; and William R. Muth, PhD, Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy, Virginia Commonwealth University. The discussion this week is in the realm of corrections education and its connections with family and community education. Together we guest experts and participants -- will explore what we know from research, professional wisdom, experience as practitioners and as students, about prison family literacy and about how to help inmates who are being released to connect with community-based education programs and to continue their learning until they achieve their goals. First I would like to invite each of our guests to introduce themselves, to tell us about their work in this area and their interest in corrections education which connects with family and community education. I would also like to invite you to begin posting your questions for our guests. I'll begin by posting some of mine: I would like to start with some general questions about corrections education before focusing on family literacy and connections to community education. One of the readings that was suggested was Locked Up and Locked Out [ "Locked Up and Locked Out, An Educational Perspective on the US Prison Population," Coley, Richard J. and Barton, Paul E., 2006 Available on line at the ETS web site: http://tinyurl.com/qmzfa ] I have three questions stimulated by that reading: 1. Locked Up and Locked Out claims that research shows that ?education and training programs can raise employment prospects and cut recidivism? Can you elaborate on that. What is the research evidence? What do we know about what makes corrections education and training effective? 2. Steve Steurer, you have written that ?Public policy on crime and punishment should be determined by the most effective crime prevention and reduction technique available through proven research.? (quote cited in Locked Up and Locked Out) Can you tell us what are some of these techniques? 3. Locked Up and Locked Out describes the declining investment in prison education. ?Captive Students, an ETS report published in early 1996, reported a decline in the resources available for education and training in prisons, as well as a wide variation of resources among the states. According to the report, at least half of all state correctional institutions had cut their inmate educational programs over the prior five years.? ?The decline has continued. From 1990 to 2000, the proportion of prison staff providing education fell from 4.1 to 3.2 percent of the total staff.? What has been the investment pattern since 2000? Further decreases? Level, increases? Has there been a ?turnaround? as it was predicted there would be by Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project based in Washington, D.C.? What are the prospects for increased funding for prison education? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060917/2bcf0501/attachment.html From wrmuth at vcu.edu Mon Sep 18 10:46:43 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 10:46:43 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 202] Re: Corrections Education, Family Literacy and Transition to Community Education In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Greetings, David & All, It is a real privilege to be a part of this discussion group. As David noted, I am currently at Virginia Commonwealth University, but in my past life (until a year ago), I was an educator with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (and before that, a special education teacher K-6). I will be "in & out" of this discussion as my meetings & classes permit, but I look forward to learning much from the conversation, and I thank David and NIFL for providing this much-needed focus on correctional education (CE). David, you asked three very hard questions! I am taking a shot at the recidivism one... Participation in prison education programs has been associated with reductions of 10 to 33 percent in recidivism rates (Gaes, Flanagan, Motiuk, & Stewart, 1999; Saylor & Gaes, 1997; Steurer, Smith, & Tracy, 2001). Gaes & Kendig (2002) concluded conservatively that correctional ?programs had an average effect size of .10. Translating this into a more understandable metric, program participants had a 45 percent likelihood of being arrested compared to a 55 percent likelihood for members of comparison groups.? If this low-estimate seems like a small effect, I suggest we look at the scale of the problem (650,000 or so people released from prison each year!) But recidivism is an enormously complex subject ? definitions of recidivism, variety of learner needs, opportunities for follow-through in the community, etc. -- prompting Thom Gehring (2000) to ask if impact on recidivism is the right question. For example, teachers know when a student ?transforms? and gets enthused about learning. Is this not an outcome of the highest order? But will this transformation be sufficient to sustain this learner through the post-release roller-coaster ride, peer pressures, ongoing poverty effects, etc.? Is it reasonable to expect our education programs to have a sustaining power 3+ years after release? I am conflicted about this issue. When I was in the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a post-release employment effects of vocational training programs (Saylor & Gaes, 1997) found a 33% greater survival rate among prisoners that participated in vocational training programs while incarcerated. This study, which was well-designed and stood the test of time as they say, enabled FBOP educators to find new funding sources for these programs after the elimination of Pell Grants in 1995. So I know the language of recidivism is the language of currency. Sorry for the side-track, David?back to your question: Why does CE have a positive impact on post-release success? It may be related to the broad relationship between education, work, and crime. Reder and Vogel (1997) found that adults (not limited to prisoners) with self-reported learning disabilities were more likely to be unemployed or work in jobs with low pay and low status. In a study of 68 male prisoners, ages 19-36, Gazze (1988) found an association between lower education levels and higher unemployment and crime, independent of learning disabilities status. Kling, Weiman, and Western (2002) found a relationship between wages, work and crime, and estimated that a 10 percent decrease in an individual?s wages could result in a 10 to 20 percent increase in criminal activity and incarceration. So higher level of education is associated with more work, and better jobs are associated with less crime. Should we be surprised by this? I am certain that our programs make a difference. In a strange way, prison-based programs have at least one potential advantage over community-based ones. For one, learners tend to persist in school (often for less than ideal reasons, of course), and school is 5-days a week for 90 minutes or more per day. Got to run. More later... William R. Muth, PhD Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy Virginia Commonwealth University (804) 828-8768 David Rosen Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/17/2006 10:44 PM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To specialtopics at nifl.gov cc Subject [SpecialTopics 201] Corrections Education, Family Literacy and Transition to Community Education Colleagues, I would like to welcome our guests: John Linton, Correctional Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, U.S. Department of Education; Stephen J. Steurer, Ph.D., Executive Director, Correctional Education Association; and William R. Muth, PhD, Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy, Virginia Commonwealth University. The discussion this week is in the realm of corrections education and its connections with family and community education. Together we guest experts and participants -- will explore what we know from research, professional wisdom, experience as practitioners and as students, about prison family literacy and about how to help inmates who are being released to connect with community-based education programs and to continue their learning until they achieve their goals. First I would like to invite each of our guests to introduce themselves, to tell us about their work in this area and their interest in corrections education which connects with family and community education. I would also like to invite you to begin posting your questions for our guests. I'll begin by posting some of mine: I would like to start with some general questions about corrections education before focusing on family literacy and connections to community education. One of the readings that was suggested was Locked Up and Locked Out [ "Locked Up and Locked Out, An Educational Perspective on the US Prison Population," Coley, Richard J. and Barton, Paul E., 2006 Available on line at the ETS web site: http://tinyurl.com/qmzfa ] I have three questions stimulated by that reading: 1. Locked Up and Locked Out claims that research shows that ?education and training programs can raise employment prospects and cut recidivism? Can you elaborate on that. What is the research evidence? What do we know about what makes corrections education and training effective? 2. Steve Steurer, you have written that ?Public policy on crime and punishment should be determined by the most effective crime prevention and reduction technique available through proven research.? (quote cited in Locked Up and Locked Out) Can you tell us what are some of these techniques? 3. Locked Up and Locked Out describes the declining investment in prison education. ?Captive Students, an ETS report published in early 1996, reported a decline in the resources available for education and training in prisons, as well as a wide variation of resources among the states. According to the report, at least half of all state correctional institutions had cut their inmate educational programs over the prior five years.? ?The decline has continued. From 1990 to 2000, the proportion of prison staff providing education fell from 4.1 to 3.2 percent of the total staff.? What has been the investment pattern since 2000? Further decreases? Level, increases? Has there been a ?turnaround? as it was predicted there would be by Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project based in Washington, D.C.? What are the prospects for increased funding for prison education? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060918/629b3e73/attachment.html From John.Linton at ed.gov Mon Sep 18 11:25:47 2006 From: John.Linton at ed.gov (Linton, John) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 11:25:47 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 203] Re: Corrections Education, Family Literacy and Transition to Community Education Message-ID: Introduction: Greetings. David asked me to introduce myself. That?s a bit of a challenge. Should I talk about my astrological sign, my weird hobbies, and my hopes for mankind? Perhaps I had better keep this conversation related to correctional education and save those other topics for the happy hour at the next conference. I?ve been privileged to have opportunities to work with prisoner education for quite some number of years ? starting as a prison based teacher and then doing a lot of prison school administration work ? all in the State of Maryland. For most of my career, the prisoner education programs in Maryland ran out of the State Department of Education, and I worked in close proximity to the state adult education staff. So I?ve generally felt pretty connected to adult education community. I started to work with prisoner education related federal grant program at the U.S. Department of Education in 2001. This has given me many opportunities to connect with correctional education programs in various states ? as well as in some jails. I guess my perspective remains primarily that of a practitioner ? but I?ve had good opportunities to rub shoulders with researcher, and to be engaged with policy issues. One thing that I find interesting about prisoner education is that it exists on the edge of ?education? and rubs up against numerous other disciplines. Working in correctional education requires engagement across various disciplines. Positions I held in Maryland bounced back and forth a few times between the State's departments of education and public safety. Some of the most interesting work I have done during my federal services has been with the interagency ?prisoner reentry? initiative. I?ve had many occasions to learn that what something looks like does vary a lot by where you are standing! David's Question 1 -- My Response: Thanks to David for calling attention to the ETS publication ?Locked Up and Locked Out.? I think it is a great piece on the state of correctional education today. The conclusions that education and training behind bars can improve employment prospects and cut recidivism are well supported in a heavily footnoted chapter titled ?The Prison Education Enterprise.? I won?t attempt to rehash that well developed and well-documented discussion. Another interesting support important to those who handle State tax dollars is the work done by the ?Washington State Institute for Public Policy.? This unit is a well-respected GAO like agency in the State of Washington. In January of this year, they posted tables of ?Evidence Based Adult Corrections Programs, What Works and What Does Not.? Their tables show that adult education and vocational training in prison are effective. See: http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/pub.asp?docid=06-01-1201 But what do we mean by effective? Correctional education is not a miracle drug and does not ?cure? individuals with criminal tendencies. The best predictor of future behavior is prior behavior. Individuals who have embarked on a life course that includes arrests, convictions, and various sanctions including incarceration are not easily launched on alternative pro social live paths. Many would argue that we have come to rely too heavily on incarceration, and thus now face the challenge of how to deal with ever larger prison populations, even as our crime rate has trended downward. The prisons are overcrowded because of the staggering return rate for released prisoners ? approaching two thirds. A ?prisoner re-entry movement? has taken hold in this country and is cutting across traditional political affiliations, recognizing that an approach best described as ?lock em up for a long time in a harsh environment and then dump them out when they have finished their sentences? is leaving us with a large group of repeat offenders who are then requiring that more and more prison cells be constructed. A thoughtful and research informed approach to this issue suggests that inmates should be prepared for success in the community while they are still incarcerated and then that their attempts to attain a crime free life post incarceration needs various practical supports. (Of course criminal justice supervision and sanctions may also be required.) So education is an important tool in a program of criminal rehabilitation ? not a be all and end all solution. David's Question 3 -- My Response: Correctional education generally doesn?t have enemies or people lined up to oppose it. Some years back an editor of the journal published by the American Correctional Association Journal invited me to do a column in favor of prisoner education to run alongside another written in opposition. We had to change the format because the editor failed to find an author willing to develop the opposing piece. If education didn?t have a significant cost ? correctional education would be doing great. Unfortunately, education isn?t cheap ? behind bars or in other settings. Those who decide where to commit our tax dollars are being tugged in a lot of directions at once. We?ve all heard education advocates say ?let?s invest in education and slow spending on prisons.? In fact, most correctional expenses are mandated. Security, plant, utilities, food, and medical care ? if you have the inmates, you have these costs. ?Treatment? programs such as recreation, drug treatment, counseling, religion, work programs and education are discretionary. These make up a very small proportion of the corrections budget. If your population is increasing, and you are being told ?hold down spending? ? prison schools don?t always come out of that process intact. (Many fail to realize that the explosive costs of medical care has hit prison budgets just as they have other segments of our society. If you are told to hold spending to a 3% increase while medical costs are going up 10% -- how do you balance that budget?) But to respond more directly to the question ? we hear of increases one year in one State ? decreases in two others. It is very difficult to track a trend. We don?t have great data on the investment in correctional education. Richard Coley and his fellow authors come down hard on the lack of good national data about correctional education. I think it is one of the most important conclusions of this publication. That we really don?t know trends in program availability, spending, enrollments and outcomes ? this indicates to me that we need to do better. John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Sunday, September 17, 2006 10:45 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 201] Corrections Education,Family Literacy and Transition to Community Education Colleagues, I would like to welcome our guests: John Linton, Correctional Education, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, U.S. Department of Education; Stephen J. Steurer, Ph.D., Executive Director, Correctional Education Association; and William R. Muth, PhD, Assistant Professor, Reading Education and Adult Literacy, Virginia Commonwealth University. The discussion this week is in the realm of corrections education and its connections with family and community education. Together we guest experts and participants -- will explore what we know from research, professional wisdom, experience as practitioners and as students, about prison family literacy and about how to help inmates who are being released to connect with community-based education programs and to continue their learning until they achieve their goals. First I would like to invite each of our guests to introduce themselves, to tell us about their work in this area and their interest in corrections education which connects with family and community education. I would also like to invite you to begin posting your questions for our guests. I'll begin by posting some of mine: I would like to start with some general questions about corrections education before focusing on family literacy and connections to community education. One of the readings that was suggested was Locked Up and Locked Out [ "Locked Up and Locked Out, An Educational Perspective on the US Prison Population," Coley, Richard J. and Barton, Paul E., 2006 Available on line at the ETS web site: http://tinyurl.com/qmzfa ] I have three questions stimulated by that reading: 1. Locked Up and Locked Out claims that research shows that ?education and training programs can raise employment prospects and cut recidivism? Can you elaborate on that. What is the research evidence? What do we know about what makes corrections education and training effective? 2. Steve Steurer, you have written that ?Public policy on crime and punishment should be determined by the most effective crime prevention and reduction technique available through proven research.? (quote cited in Locked Up and Locked Out) Can you tell us what are some of these techniques? 3. Locked Up and Locked Out describes the declining investment in prison education. ?Captive Students, an ETS report published in early 1996, reported a decline in the resources available for education and training in prisons, as well as a wide variation of resources among the states. According to the report, at least half of all state correctional institutions had cut their inmate educational programs over the prior five years.? ?The decline has continued. From 1990 to 2000, the proportion of prison staff providing education fell from 4.1 to 3.2 percent of the total staff.? What has been the investment pattern since 2000? Further decreases? Level, increases? Has there been a ?turnaround? as it was predicted there would be by Marc Mauer, assistant director of the Sentencing Project based in Washington, D.C.? What are the prospects for increased funding for prison education? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060918/4bd01e81/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Mon Sep 18 19:38:40 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 19:38:40 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Message-ID: <4F8145D8-8104-4D9C-BC43-72A486041F18@comcast.net> Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From Taylor.Stoehr at umb.edu Mon Sep 18 20:37:36 2006 From: Taylor.Stoehr at umb.edu (Taylor Stoehr) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:37:36 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 205] Comment on discussion of "re-entry education" for ex-offenders Message-ID: I work in a Massachusetts program for probationers called Changing Lives Through Literature. (See our website: cltl at umassd.edu ) Started in 1991 in a single court, it has spread to a number of jurisdictions in Massachusetts and to six other states. I can speak for the men's program in Dorchester, the busiest criminal court in the state, where we have the experience of a dozen years - perhaps 250 graduates of our ten-week program offered every semester. We are currently involved in a study of recidivism in five jurisdictions, but the results will not be available for quite some time. For the moment, I can say that the probationers themselves believe that they change during this short period of intense focus on a few texts, and a set of concerns that are central in their lives. Our primary text is Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, which serves as the starting point for discussion of problems faced by the students themselves - poverty and racism, the struggle for social justice, family breakdown, the weakening of community bonds and thinning out of spiritual sustenance. Short supplementary readings by other authors - black and white, American and foreign, contemporary and classic - clarify issues Douglass raises by putting them in a broader context, and a writing assignment helps us focus on their relevance today. For example, after reading how Douglass describes his childhood, and how Malcolm X, Bill Russell, Maxim Gorky, or Leo Tolstoy describe theirs, students are asked to state their own opinion of what is necessary for a "normal" childhood, and who has the responsibility to provide it. What was your childhood like? What kind of a father do you want to be? Those are the implied questions. We also ask how a man like Frederick Douglass or Malcolm X finds himself. "Where do people get their courage, self-esteem, and righteousness?" With men like those I work with, it's probably better to concentrate on the literacy skills they already possess - a complicated mix of street smarts and a colloquial eloquence among friends and family - than to imagine that we are going to "improve" their reading, writing, or talking. To speak in their own voices in a public setting like our classroom, where we talk about serious issues that affect their lives, is the best training in literacy we can offer them. One of our aims is to demystify the whole realm of social control, schooling, and literacy. All their lives our students have been told they are incompetent readers and writers, and this tends to make them so. But the incompetence is superficial in most cases. Their speech skills are usually more than adequate, and often superb. In fact, their failure in school has protected them from certain kinds of glibness and beating about the bush. All students, including ours, have the right to success in a truly democratic classroom - not just an opportunity to learn, but active exercise of language, taste, and ethics, in order to explore their own individual powers and ideals in relation to a growing sense of how others speak and judge and evaluate. "Success" means both discovering and making standards, rather than merely living up to them. "Failure" means being left out of the most essential aspects of civic life. Often the schools fail to do this important work, through a misguided notion of what kind of education is appropriate in an egalitarian society. The men we meet in Changing Lives typically think of themselves as failures. >From their earliest experiences in schooling to the regimen of incarceration and probation, they have stubbornly resisted demands and admonishments, have been labeled incorrigible, and have little or no sense of what it might mean to be part of a democratic forum deciding matters of concern for their own lives. We want to establish such a classroom, in which no one will be left out. Our aim is to give each man a chance to think better of himself, while simultaneously dispelling the illusion that success in school is the only route to respectability. We aren't trying to get people back on the educational track, but to let them judge for themselves what it would mean to return to school, or to decide not to go that route, a question that asks them to assess their own lives - Who am I, really, and what kind of future do I want for myself? Taylor Stoehr, English Department University of Massachusetts - Boston -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060918/7706b32e/attachment.html From Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us Mon Sep 18 20:39:27 2006 From: Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us (Lobaccaro Gina (DOC)) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 20:39:27 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions References: <4F8145D8-8104-4D9C-BC43-72A486041F18@comcast.net> Message-ID: Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 4996 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060918/1c1dc5d2/attachment.bin From lainemarsh at optonline.net Mon Sep 18 21:24:30 2006 From: lainemarsh at optonline.net (Helaine W. Marshall) Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 21:24:30 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 207] Adapting existing curriculum Message-ID: <0J5T00C1YFW1R320@mta3.srv.hcvlny.cv.net> Question: As a curriculum developer, I am charged with adapting a currently existing literacy curriculum to the prison setting. What are the major factors I need to keep in mind as I view the curriculum through this new lens? Helaine Marshall Literacy Volunteers of Westchester County, NY - consultant -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060918/afbe3b47/attachment.html From jgordon at fortunesociety.org Tue Sep 19 01:34:42 2006 From: jgordon at fortunesociety.org (John Gordon) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 01:34:42 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 208] Re: Comment on discussion of "re-entry education"for ex-offenders Message-ID: Thanks to Taylor Stoehr for his thought-provoking piece. I think we have much to learn from such work. I'd like to hear more. I work at the Fortune Society, a 39 year old organization in New York City dedicated to (1) advocating for prison and criminal justice reform and (2) working with people after they leave prison. At Fortune, education is just one of a wide array of programs people coming out of prison can participate in. Even though most people who come to us do not have a high school diploma, education is usually not the first thing on their minds. The vast majority need a job and many are either homeless or one step from it. In addition, most people are dealing with a range of parole and probation mandates like substance abuse treatment and anger management. Approximately 250 people participate in our Education program each year; in the last few years, the percentage of younger students and particularly of people mandated to one of Fortune's Alternative to Incarceration program has grown dramatically. I think our underlying philosophy has much in common with the program described by Taylor Stoehr - we develop curriculum around the needs and issues brought to the class by the students themselves. However, a number of factors have undermined our ability to maintain that focus on content: * The sheer numbers of people coming through our doors every year has stretched our resources. We have struggled to keep up with the demand. Recently we have restructured our program so that it serves fewer people, but more intensively. * We are serving increasing numbers of court mandated students, many of whom really don't want to be in class. We have worked hard to develop a curriculum that honors their right and need to make autonomous decisions about the role of education in their lives and at the same time to insist on the integrity of the process in the classroom. * Perhaps though, the biggest obstacle has been the fact that we are caught up in the National Reporting System and its focus on educational gain as defined by test scores. The pressure to meet state targets, lumped together indiscriminately as we are with every other program in the state, has produced enormous pressure to test, test, test. This has not been all bad as it has led us to look closely at what we are doing and think about how we can do it better. But the narrow focus on test scores has made it difficult to shape the program around the real and individual needs of the students. Perhaps in a later post, I can address some other issues, but I did want to pose one question: Given that the elimination of Pell Grants for prisoners has virtually ended the possibility of going to college while in prison, what do the panelists think is the importance of and possibility of reinstating that right? Here at Fortune where many of the staff have been incarcerated themselves, the value and significance of college level work in prison is a given. Many of the staff members in the leadership of the agency got their degrees (or at least started them) while in prison. Obviously, the college degree, or college level coursework, opens up job possibilities for people once they're out. But it also contributes to the development of leadership skills that will allow former prisoners to come back to their communities and play critical roles in shaping collective responses to the problems those communities are facing. john gordon The Fortune Society While we _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Taylor Stoehr Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 205] Comment on discussion of "re-entry education"for ex-offenders I work in a Massachusetts program for probationers called Changing Lives Through Literature. (See our website: cltl at umassd.edu ) Started in 1991 in a single court, it has spread to a number of jurisdictions in Massachusetts and to six other states. I can speak for the men's program in Dorchester, the busiest criminal court in the state, where we have the experience of a dozen years - perhaps 250 graduates of our ten-week program offered every semester. We are currently involved in a study of recidivism in five jurisdictions, but the results will not be available for quite some time. For the moment, I can say that the probationers themselves believe that they change during this short period of intense focus on a few texts, and a set of concerns that are central in their lives. Our primary text is Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, which serves as the starting point for discussion of problems faced by the students themselves - poverty and racism, the struggle for social justice, family breakdown, the weakening of community bonds and thinning out of spiritual sustenance. Short supplementary readings by other authors - black and white, American and foreign, contemporary and classic - clarify issues Douglass raises by putting them in a broader context, and a writing assignment helps us focus on their relevance today. For example, after reading how Douglass describes his childhood, and how Malcolm X, Bill Russell, Maxim Gorky, or Leo Tolstoy describe theirs, students are asked to state their own opinion of what is necessary for a "normal" childhood, and who has the responsibility to provide it. What was your childhood like? What kind of a father do you want to be? Those are the implied questions. We also ask how a man like Frederick Douglass or Malcolm X finds himself. "Where do people get their courage, self-esteem, and righteousness?" With men like those I work with, it's probably better to concentrate on the literacy skills they already possess - a complicated mix of street smarts and a colloquial eloquence among friends and family - than to imagine that we are going to "improve" their reading, writing, or talking. To speak in their own voices in a public setting like our classroom, where we talk about serious issues that affect their lives, is the best training in literacy we can offer them. One of our aims is to demystify the whole realm of social control, schooling, and literacy. All their lives our students have been told they are incompetent readers and writers, and this tends to make them so. But the incompetence is superficial in most cases. Their speech skills are usually more than adequate, and often superb. In fact, their failure in school has protected them from certain kinds of glibness and beating about the bush. All students, including ours, have the right to success in a truly democratic classroom - not just an opportunity to learn, but active exercise of language, taste, and ethics, in order to explore their own individual powers and ideals in relation to a growing sense of how others speak and judge and evaluate. "Success" means both discovering and making standards, rather than merely living up to them. "Failure" means being left out of the most essential aspects of civic life. Often the schools fail to do this important work, through a misguided notion of what kind of education is appropriate in an egalitarian society. The men we meet in Changing Lives typically think of themselves as failures. >From their earliest experiences in schooling to the regimen of incarceration and probation, they have stubbornly resisted demands and admonishments, have been labeled incorrigible, and have little or no sense of what it might mean to be part of a democratic forum deciding matters of concern for their own lives. We want to establish such a classroom, in which no one will be left out. Our aim is to give each man a chance to think better of himself, while simultaneously dispelling the illusion that success in school is the only route to respectability. We aren't trying to get people back on the educational track, but to let them judge for themselves what it would mean to return to school, or to decide not to go that route, a question that asks them to assess their own lives - Who am I, really, and what kind of future do I want for myself? Taylor Stoehr, English Department University of Massachusetts - Boston -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060919/a2d92438/attachment.html From aburruss2 at cox.net Tue Sep 19 07:19:31 2006 From: aburruss2 at cox.net (Ann Burruss) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 07:19:31 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 209] Re: Comment on discussion of "re-entryeducation"for ex-offenders References: Message-ID: <002001c6dbdd$7a78a4a0$0202a8c0@D1WJ3821> I am a volunteer in a local jail. Your third bullet is so true! Due to limited time and space, and the NRS system, we are often hard-pressed to determine the progress made - much less allow for meaningful instruction on any/all levels. Any ideas bout how we can made the reporting system work better for those inmates who have relatively short terms to serve :12 to 18 months? ----- Original Message ----- From: John Gordon To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 1:34 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 208] Re: Comment on discussion of "re-entryeducation"for ex-offenders Thanks to Taylor Stoehr for his thought-provoking piece. I think we have much to learn from such work. I'd like to hear more. I work at the Fortune Society, a 39 year old organization in New York City dedicated to (1) advocating for prison and criminal justice reform and (2) working with people after they leave prison. At Fortune, education is just one of a wide array of programs people coming out of prison can participate in. Even though most people who come to us do not have a high school diploma, education is usually not the first thing on their minds. The vast majority need a job and many are either homeless or one step from it. In addition, most people are dealing with a range of parole and probation mandates like substance abuse treatment and anger management. Approximately 250 people participate in our Education program each year; in the last few years, the percentage of younger students and particularly of people mandated to one of Fortune's Alternative to Incarceration program has grown dramatically. I think our underlying philosophy has much in common with the program described by Taylor Stoehr - we develop curriculum around the needs and issues brought to the class by the students themselves. However, a number of factors have undermined our ability to maintain that focus on content: a.. The sheer numbers of people coming through our doors every year has stretched our resources. We have struggled to keep up with the demand. Recently we have restructured our program so that it serves fewer people, but more intensively. b.. We are serving increasing numbers of court mandated students, many of whom really don't want to be in class. We have worked hard to develop a curriculum that honors their right and need to make autonomous decisions about the role of education in their lives and at the same time to insist on the integrity of the process in the classroom. c.. Perhaps though, the biggest obstacle has been the fact that we are caught up in the National Reporting System and its focus on educational gain as defined by test scores. The pressure to meet state targets, lumped together indiscriminately as we are with every other program in the state, has produced enormous pressure to test, test, test. This has not been all bad as it has led us to look closely at what we are doing and think about how we can do it better. But the narrow focus on test scores has made it difficult to shape the program around the real and individual needs of the students. Perhaps in a later post, I can address some other issues, but I did want to pose one question: Given that the elimination of Pell Grants for prisoners has virtually ended the possibility of going to college while in prison, what do the panelists think is the importance of and possibility of reinstating that right? Here at Fortune where many of the staff have been incarcerated themselves, the value and significance of college level work in prison is a given. Many of the staff members in the leadership of the agency got their degrees (or at least started them) while in prison. Obviously, the college degree, or college level coursework, opens up job possibilities for people once they're out. But it also contributes to the development of leadership skills that will allow former prisoners to come back to their communities and play critical roles in shaping collective responses to the problems those communities are facing. john gordon The Fortune Society While we ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Taylor Stoehr Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 205] Comment on discussion of "re-entry education"for ex-offenders I work in a Massachusetts program for probationers called Changing Lives Through Literature. (See our website: cltl at umassd.edu ) Started in 1991 in a single court, it has spread to a number of jurisdictions in Massachusetts and to six other states. I can speak for the men's program in Dorchester, the busiest criminal court in the state, where we have the experience of a dozen years - perhaps 250 graduates of our ten-week program offered every semester. We are currently involved in a study of recidivism in five jurisdictions, but the results will not be available for quite some time. For the moment, I can say that the probationers themselves believe that they change during this short period of intense focus on a few texts, and a set of concerns that are central in their lives. Our primary text is Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, which serves as the starting point for discussion of problems faced by the students themselves - poverty and racism, the struggle for social justice, family breakdown, the weakening of community bonds and thinning out of spiritual sustenance. Short supplementary readings by other authors - black and white, American and foreign, contemporary and classic - clarify issues Douglass raises by putting them in a broader context, and a writing assignment helps us focus on their relevance today. For example, after reading how Douglass describes his childhood, and how Malcolm X, Bill Russell, Maxim Gorky, or Leo Tolstoy describe theirs, students are asked to state their own opinion of what is necessary for a "normal" childhood, and who has the responsibility to provide it. What was your childhood like? What kind of a father do you want to be? Those are the implied questions. We also ask how a man like Frederick Douglass or Malcolm X finds himself. "Where do people get their courage, self-esteem, and righteousness?" With men like those I work with, it's probably better to concentrate on the literacy skills they already possess - a complicated mix of street smarts and a colloquial eloquence among friends and family - than to imagine that we are going to "improve" their reading, writing, or talking. To speak in their own voices in a public setting like our classroom, where we talk about serious issues that affect their lives, is the best training in literacy we can offer them. One of our aims is to demystify the whole realm of social control, schooling, and literacy. All their lives our students have been told they are incompetent readers and writers, and this tends to make them so. But the incompetence is superficial in most cases. Their speech skills are usually more than adequate, and often superb. In fact, their failure in school has protected them from certain kinds of glibness and beating about the bush. All students, including ours, have the right to success in a truly democratic classroom - not just an opportunity to learn, but active exercise of language, taste, and ethics, in order to explore their own individual powers and ideals in relation to a growing sense of how others speak and judge and evaluate. "Success" means both discovering and making standards, rather than merely living up to them. "Failure" means being left out of the most essential aspects of civic life. Often the schools fail to do this important work, through a misguided notion of what kind of education is appropriate in an egalitarian society. The men we meet in Changing Lives typically think of themselves as failures. From their earliest experiences in schooling to the regimen of incarceration and probation, they have stubbornly resisted demands and admonishments, have been labeled incorrigible, and have little or no sense of what it might mean to be part of a democratic forum deciding matters of concern for their own lives. We want to establish such a classroom, in which no one will be left out. Our aim is to give each man a chance to think better of himself, while simultaneously dispelling the illusion that success in school is the only route to respectability. We aren't trying to get people back on the educational track, but to let them judge for themselves what it would mean to return to school, or to decide not to go that route, a question that asks them to assess their own lives - Who am I, really, and what kind of future do I want for myself? Taylor Stoehr, English Department University of Massachusetts - Boston ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060919/6616b407/attachment.html From John.Linton at ed.gov Tue Sep 19 09:04:05 2006 From: John.Linton at ed.gov (Linton, John) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:04:05 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 210] Re: College for inmates Message-ID: Wow -- I'm impressed with the thoughtful comments in this discussion already! On the question about college for inmates -- this is a dynamic topic and there is much to be said. First, there are still college programs in prisons. A recent Ford Foundation supported study by the Institute for Higher Education Policy documented the extent of postsecondary education in prisons -- and there are more programs out there than many had thought (myself included). This is a well documented and very forward thinking publication which needs to be seen by more people. ("Learning to Reduce Recidivism, A 50 State analysis of postsecondary correctional education policy," November 2005, http://www.ihep.org/organizations.php3?action=printContentItem&orgid=104&typ eID=906&itemID=14017 ) There is still State money being invested in postsecondary education in a number of States, federal funds are being spent on postsecondary education in the Bureau of Prisons, and our Department provides more than $20 million annually for postsecondary State prisoner education in the Grants to States for Workplace and Community Transition Training for Incarcerated Youth Offenders Program. http://www.ed.gov/programs/transitiontraining/index.html In a number of States, postsecondary education seems to be quite an issue -- still to be settled at a policy level. New York comes to mind. California seems very recently to have settled this issue at a policy level and is now developing and implementing new partnerships with colleges. Will inmates become eligible for Pell grants again at some time in the future? That is for the lawmakers to decide, but it seems to be an issue that never goes away. CURE is one national organization that has worked hard year after year on this issue. http://www.curenational.org/new/index.html The Open Society Institute has also shown an ongoing interest. John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of John Gordon Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 1:35 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 208] Re: Comment on discussion of "re-entryeducation"for ex-offenders Thanks to Taylor Stoehr for his thought-provoking piece. I think we have much to learn from such work. I'd like to hear more. I work at the Fortune Society, a 39 year old organization in New York City dedicated to (1) advocating for prison and criminal justice reform and (2) working with people after they leave prison. At Fortune, education is just one of a wide array of programs people coming out of prison can participate in. Even though most people who come to us do not have a high school diploma, education is usually not the first thing on their minds. The vast majority need a job and many are either homeless or one step from it. In addition, most people are dealing with a range of parole and probation mandates like substance abuse treatment and anger management. Approximately 250 people participate in our Education program each year; in the last few years, the percentage of younger students and particularly of people mandated to one of Fortune's Alternative to Incarceration program has grown dramatically. I think our underlying philosophy has much in common with the program described by Taylor Stoehr - we develop curriculum around the needs and issues brought to the class by the students themselves. However, a number of factors have undermined our ability to maintain that focus on content: * The sheer numbers of people coming through our doors every year has stretched our resources. We have struggled to keep up with the demand. Recently we have restructured our program so that it serves fewer people, but more intensively. * We are serving increasing numbers of court mandated students, many of whom really don't want to be in class. We have worked hard to develop a curriculum that honors their right and need to make autonomous decisions about the role of education in their lives and at the same time to insist on the integrity of the process in the classroom. * Perhaps though, the biggest obstacle has been the fact that we are caught up in the National Reporting System and its focus on educational gain as defined by test scores. The pressure to meet state targets, lumped together indiscriminately as we are with every other program in the state, has produced enormous pressure to test, test, test. This has not been all bad as it has led us to look closely at what we are doing and think about how we can do it better. But the narrow focus on test scores has made it difficult to shape the program around the real and individual needs of the students. Perhaps in a later post, I can address some other issues, but I did want to pose one question: Given that the elimination of Pell Grants for prisoners has virtually ended the possibility of going to college while in prison, what do the panelists think is the importance of and possibility of reinstating that right? Here at Fortune where many of the staff have been incarcerated themselves, the value and significance of college level work in prison is a given. Many of the staff members in the leadership of the agency got their degrees (or at least started them) while in prison. Obviously, the college degree, or college level coursework, opens up job possibilities for people once they're out. But it also contributes to the development of leadership skills that will allow former prisoners to come back to their communities and play critical roles in shaping collective responses to the problems those communities are facing. john gordon The Fortune Society While we _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Taylor Stoehr Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 205] Comment on discussion of "re-entry education"for ex-offenders I work in a Massachusetts program for probationers called Changing Lives Through Literature. (See our website: cltl at umassd.edu ) Started in 1991 in a single court, it has spread to a number of jurisdictions in Massachusetts and to six other states. I can speak for the men's program in Dorchester, the busiest criminal court in the state, where we have the experience of a dozen years - perhaps 250 graduates of our ten-week program offered every semester. We are currently involved in a study of recidivism in five jurisdictions, but the results will not be available for quite some time. For the moment, I can say that the probationers themselves believe that they change during this short period of intense focus on a few texts, and a set of concerns that are central in their lives. Our primary text is Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, which serves as the starting point for discussion of problems faced by the students themselves - poverty and racism, the struggle for social justice, family breakdown, the weakening of community bonds and thinning out of spiritual sustenance. Short supplementary readings by other authors - black and white, American and foreign, contemporary and classic - clarify issues Douglass raises by putting them in a broader context, and a writing assignment helps us focus on their relevance today. For example, after reading how Douglass describes his childhood, and how Malcolm X, Bill Russell, Maxim Gorky, or Leo Tolstoy describe theirs, students are asked to state their own opinion of what is necessary for a "normal" childhood, and who has the responsibility to provide it. What was your childhood like? What kind of a father do you want to be? Those are the implied questions. We also ask how a man like Frederick Douglass or Malcolm X finds himself. "Where do people get their courage, self-esteem, and righteousness?" With men like those I work with, it's probably better to concentrate on the literacy skills they already possess - a complicated mix of street smarts and a colloquial eloquence among friends and family - than to imagine that we are going to "improve" their reading, writing, or talking. To speak in their own voices in a public setting like our classroom, where we talk about serious issues that affect their lives, is the best training in literacy we can offer them. One of our aims is to demystify the whole realm of social control, schooling, and literacy. All their lives our students have been told they are incompetent readers and writers, and this tends to make them so. But the incompetence is superficial in most cases. Their speech skills are usually more than adequate, and often superb. In fact, their failure in school has protected them from certain kinds of glibness and beating about the bush. All students, including ours, have the right to success in a truly democratic classroom - not just an opportunity to learn, but active exercise of language, taste, and ethics, in order to explore their own individual powers and ideals in relation to a growing sense of how others speak and judge and evaluate. "Success" means both discovering and making standards, rather than merely living up to them. "Failure" means being left out of the most essential aspects of civic life. Often the schools fail to do this important work, through a misguided notion of what kind of education is appropriate in an egalitarian society. The men we meet in Changing Lives typically think of themselves as failures. From their earliest experiences in schooling to the regimen of incarceration and probation, they have stubbornly resisted demands and admonishments, have been labeled incorrigible, and have little or no sense of what it might mean to be part of a democratic forum deciding matters of concern for their own lives. We want to establish such a classroom, in which no one will be left out. Our aim is to give each man a chance to think better of himself, while simultaneously dispelling the illusion that success in school is the only route to respectability. We aren't trying to get people back on the educational track, but to let them judge for themselves what it would mean to return to school, or to decide not to go that route, a question that asks them to assess their own lives - Who am I, really, and what kind of future do I want for myself? Taylor Stoehr, English Department University of Massachusetts - Boston -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060919/7ab07bb5/attachment.html From John.Linton at ed.gov Tue Sep 19 09:36:32 2006 From: John.Linton at ed.gov (Linton, John) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 09:36:32 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 211] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation Message-ID: A couple of quick reactions on motivation: * Is there something that a successful student can graduate to? In some systems, high value prison jobs (prison industry) and high demand vocational training programs are linked to completion of programs. The availability of a college program can really motivate GED students. Indiana State prisons award time off sentence credits to students -- not for participation -- but for completion of educational goals. * Is the teacher motivating? In community based adult education, students tend to pretty clearly "vote with their feet." The unmotivating adult ed teacher in the community might end up alone in a classroom. (Although this seems to happen to a certain extent even in prisons where students are "forced" to attend. Attendance records do tell a story.) Sometimes the motivation issue does come back to the capability and motivation of the teacher, at least in part. Are indicators such as attendance, disciplinary issues, progress and drop out rates tracked by teacher and are teachers recognized for positive outcomes? Are high quality professional development opportunities available to teachers? * Why would potentially motivated students be allowed to languish unserved in cells while unmotivated students occupy classroom seats? An exceptional correctional principal I was privileged to work with routinely called "well behaved" but passive students into his office and told them that they were being rotated out of the program for "lack of progress." This supported a cultural norm in that school where it was "ok" for tough guys to act like motivated students. They had an excuse: "I have to participate or I might get kicked out." And some of the unmotivated students did return after a semester off with an altered approach. I note the reference to a mandatory education policy. Some similar policies require a minimum time period (three months) of participation for inmates below a certain grade level or without a diploma. They don't require the inmate student to stay in school until they get the degree or attain the pre-determined grade level. If the existing policy is resulting in the school becoming clogged with "dead wood," perhaps it needs to be revisited. I'll bet those unmotivated students impact school climate, don't they? John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: RE: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060919/dd97b96b/attachment.html From Jnally at doc.in.gov Tue Sep 19 10:22:30 2006 From: Jnally at doc.in.gov (John Nally) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 10:22:30 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 212] Re: College for inmates Message-ID: Hello from the Hoosier State, A brief comment on the college programs in the Indiana Department of Correction: IDOC has contracts with six colleges and universities to provide associate/bachelor degree programs to offenders. This morning, 17% of all offenders who have a GED/hs diploma and enough time are enrolled in degree programs. At this time the only limiting factor on enrollment is projected release date. Our offenders have the highest completion rate of any college group in the state. The Department's recid rate for 2001 was 37.7%. The recid rate for bachelor completers was 6.9%. The recid rate for associate completers was 16.3% The Department's recid rate for 2002 was 39.3%. The recid rate for bachelor completers was 18.0% The recid rate for associate completers was 17.3%. We recently did a very detailed recidivist study on 856 offenders who completed programs that are aligned with the USDOE's Youthful Offender Grant program. Recid rate= Less than 10%. We accessed the state's workforce and welfare database to detail employment, retention, and access to social services. We are currently expanding that study to all offenders regardless of age who completed degrees in 2002, 2003, and 2004. (almost 2,000 individuals). Why? The prior study suggests to us that there are factors other than degree completion: Date of First Hire; Concurrent Substance Abuse Treatment; and, alignment of degrees to current workforce needs. Lastly, we just signed contracts for one female facility where the start to end education program is modeled on practices outlined by the NIFL. NIFL's documents were the basis for the RFP and the resulting contract. Undereducated offenders will be in literacy and GED programs that are focused from day-1 on successful enrollment in and completion of associate degree programs. I hope this adds a little to the on-going discussion. John Nally John M. Nally Director of Education, IDOC IGCS, 329 302 W. Washington St Indianapolis, IN 46204 317-233-3111 FAX: 317-234-0956 >>> John.Linton at ed.gov Tuesday, September 19, 2006 >>> Wow -- I'm impressed with the thoughtful comments in this discussion already! On the question about college for inmates -- this is a dynamic topic and there is much to be said. First, there are still college programs in prisons. A recent Ford Foundation supported study by the Institute for Higher Education Policy documented the extent of postsecondary education in prisons -- and there are more programs out there than many had thought (myself included). This is a well documented and very forward thinking publication which needs to be seen by more people. ("Learning to Reduce Recidivism, A 50 State analysis of postsecondary correctional education policy," November 2005, http://www.ihep.org/organizations.php3?action=printContentItem&orgid=104&typ eID=906&itemID=14017 ) There is still State money being invested in postsecondary education in a number of States, federal funds are being spent on postsecondary education in the Bureau of Prisons, and our Department provides more than $20 million annually for postsecondary State prisoner education in the Grants to States for Workplace and Community Transition Training for Incarcerated Youth Offenders Program. http://www.ed.gov/programs/transitiontraining/index.html In a number of States, postsecondary education seems to be quite an issue -- still to be settled at a policy level. New York comes to mind. California seems very recently to have settled this issue at a policy level and is now developing and implementing new partnerships with colleges. Will inmates become eligible for Pell grants again at some time in the future? That is for the lawmakers to decide, but it seems to be an issue that never goes away. CURE is one national organization that has worked hard year after year on this issue. http://www.curenational.org/new/index.html The Open Society Institute has also shown an ongoing interest. John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of John Gordon Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 1:35 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 208] Re: Comment on discussion of "re-entryeducation"for ex-offenders Thanks to Taylor Stoehr for his thought-provoking piece. I think we have much to learn from such work. I'd like to hear more. I work at the Fortune Society, a 39 year old organization in New York City dedicated to (1) advocating for prison and criminal justice reform and (2) working with people after they leave prison. At Fortune, education is just one of a wide array of programs people coming out of prison can participate in. Even though most people who come to us do not have a high school diploma, education is usually not the first thing on their minds. The vast majority need a job and many are either homeless or one step from it. In addition, most people are dealing with a range of parole and probation mandates like substance abuse treatment and anger management. Approximately 250 people participate in our Education program each year; in the last few years, the percentage of younger students and particularly of people mandated to one of Fortune's Alternative to Incarceration program has grown dramatically. I think our underlying philosophy has much in common with the program described by Taylor Stoehr - we develop curriculum around the needs and issues brought to the class by the students themselves. However, a number of factors have undermined our ability to maintain that focus on content: * The sheer numbers of people coming through our doors every year has stretched our resources. We have struggled to keep up with the demand. Recently we have restructured our program so that it serves fewer people, but more intensively. * We are serving increasing numbers of court mandated students, many of whom really don't want to be in class. We have worked hard to develop a curriculum that honors their right and need to make autonomous decisions about the role of education in their lives and at the same time to insist on the integrity of the process in the classroom. * Perhaps though, the biggest obstacle has been the fact that we are caught up in the National Reporting System and its focus on educational gain as defined by test scores. The pressure to meet state targets, lumped together indiscriminately as we are with every other program in the state, has produced enormous pressure to test, test, test. This has not been all bad as it has led us to look closely at what we are doing and think about how we can do it better. But the narrow focus on test scores has made it difficult to shape the program around the real and individual needs of the students. Perhaps in a later post, I can address some other issues, but I did want to pose one question: Given that the elimination of Pell Grants for prisoners has virtually ended the possibility of going to college while in prison, what do the panelists think is the importance of and possibility of reinstating that right? Here at Fortune where many of the staff have been incarcerated themselves, the value and significance of college level work in prison is a given. Many of the staff members in the leadership of the agency got their degrees (or at least started them) while in prison. Obviously, the college degree, or college level coursework, opens up job possibilities for people once they're out. But it also contributes to the development of leadership skills that will allow former prisoners to come back to their communities and play critical roles in shaping collective responses to the problems those communities are facing. john gordon The Fortune Society While we _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Taylor Stoehr Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 205] Comment on discussion of "re-entry education"for ex-offenders I work in a Massachusetts program for probationers called Changing Lives Through Literature. (See our website: cltl at umassd.edu ) Started in 1991 in a single court, it has spread to a number of jurisdictions in Massachusetts and to six other states. I can speak for the men's program in Dorchester, the busiest criminal court in the state, where we have the experience of a dozen years - perhaps 250 graduates of our ten-week program offered every semester. We are currently involved in a study of recidivism in five jurisdictions, but the results will not be available for quite some time. For the moment, I can say that the probationers themselves believe that they change during this short period of intense focus on a few texts, and a set of concerns that are central in their lives. Our primary text is Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of an American Slave, which serves as the starting point for discussion of problems faced by the students themselves - poverty and racism, the struggle for social justice, family breakdown, the weakening of community bonds and thinning out of spiritual sustenance. Short supplementary readings by other authors - black and white, American and foreign, contemporary and classic - clarify issues Douglass raises by putting them in a broader context, and a writing assignment helps us focus on their relevance today. For example, after reading how Douglass describes his childhood, and how Malcolm X, Bill Russell, Maxim Gorky, or Leo Tolstoy describe theirs, students are asked to state their own opinion of what is necessary for a "normal" childhood, and who has the responsibility to provide it. What was your childhood like? What kind of a father do you want to be? Those are the implied questions. We also ask how a man like Frederick Douglass or Malcolm X finds himself. "Where do people get their courage, self-esteem, and righteousness?" With men like those I work with, it's probably better to concentrate on the literacy skills they already possess - a complicated mix of street smarts and a colloquial eloquence among friends and family - than to imagine that we are going to "improve" their reading, writing, or talking. To speak in their own voices in a public setting like our classroom, where we talk about serious issues that affect their lives, is the best training in literacy we can offer them. One of our aims is to demystify the whole realm of social control, schooling, and literacy. All their lives our students have been told they are incompetent readers and writers, and this tends to make them so. But the incompetence is superficial in most cases. Their speech skills are usually more than adequate, and often superb. In fact, their failure in school has protected them from certain kinds of glibness and beating about the bush. All students, including ours, have the right to success in a truly democratic classroom - not just an opportunity to learn, but active exercise of language, taste, and ethics, in order to explore their own individual powers and ideals in relation to a growing sense of how others speak and judge and evaluate. "Success" means both discovering and making standards, rather than merely living up to them. "Failure" means being left out of the most essential aspects of civic life. Often the schools fail to do this important work, through a misguided notion of what kind of education is appropriate in an egalitarian society. The men we meet in Changing Lives typically think of themselves as failures. From their earliest experiences in schooling to the regimen of incarceration and probation, they have stubbornly resisted demands and admonishments, have been labeled incorrigible, and have little or no sense of what it might mean to be part of a democratic forum deciding matters of concern for their own lives. We want to establish such a classroom, in which no one will be left out. Our aim is to give each man a chance to think better of himself, while simultaneously dispelling the illusion that success in school is the only route to respectability. We aren't trying to get people back on the educational track, but to let them judge for themselves what it would mean to return to school, or to decide not to go that route, a question that asks them to assess their own lives - Who am I, really, and what kind of future do I want for myself? Taylor Stoehr, English Department University of Massachusetts - Boston From wrmuth at vcu.edu Tue Sep 19 12:29:37 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:29:37 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 213] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Greetings. I agree with my friend & colleague John Linton that these are excellent postings. My response will touch on points raised by a number of contributors. First, Taylor Stoehr?s impressive program Changing Lives Through Literature reminds me very much of a Core Humanities program Stephen Duguid created in the late 1980?s in prisons in British Columbia. Like Taylor, Duguid?s program encouraged learners to look critically at social power structures that defined them. Further, it forced practitioners as well as students to confront the myth that literacy learners ? even those in ABE ? do not have the intelligence or higher level thinking skills to discuss such ?advanced? topics. (In a parallel way, the work by Robert Kegan et al. supports this point: the capacity for higher complexity of thought has little to do with formal educational attainment. See: http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/brief19.pdf ) Gina Lobaccaro raised the issue of motivation. As I look back to Taylor?s statements - and John Gordon?s stance: ?we develop curriculum around the needs and issues brought to the class by the students? ? the question that comes to mind is, ?to what extent can we implement student centered programs in prison?? This question gets to the heart of prison culture, and the negative by-products of even the most well-meaning top-down systems that attempt to ?fix? people from without. And what should a student-centered prison-based literacy program look like? I fully agree that the pressing needs of learners should be invited into the classroom, and that they have the potential to become potent themes for learning and potent reasons to learn. So many learners in traditional literacy programs are placed into skill-based texts and rushed to the GED. Teachers feel this pressure, of course! But recent studies challenge the usefulness of programs that are focused primarily on passing the GED and ignore the need for foundational learning. And for both ethical and pedagogical reasons, why would an incarcerated woman (for example) who is struggling at a low-literacy level, and who is trying to keep her family together through letter writing be asked to leave these literacy-life needs at the classroom door? I have tremendous admiration for what you are doing, John (Gordon), but do differ a bit from your stance. I do believe we can and should teach foundational literacy skills to our learners --many of whom have histories of learning disabilities and severe health problems that sometimes require explicit (yes, top-down) instruction. For me the key is to take a bi-cultural approach. I agree with Vivian Gadsden that these two world views are not contradictory and the challenge for correctional teachers (I believe) is to embrace both. I need to run (again). But in part to begin to address Helaine Marshall?s question about adopting curricula to meet the needs of incarcerated learners, and in part to (hopefully) to provide another example of a student-centered program (this time a family literacy program in New York), I call the readers? attention to an excellent guide put out by the Hudson River Center at: http://www.hudrivctr.org/products_ce.htm Warm regards, Bill "Linton, John" Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/19/2006 09:36 AM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To cc Subject [SpecialTopics 211] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation A couple of quick reactions on motivation: Is there something that a successful student can graduate to? In some systems, high value prison jobs (prison industry) and high demand vocational training programs are linked to completion of programs. The availability of a college program can really motivate GED students. Indiana State prisons award time off sentence credits to students -- not for participation -- but for completion of educational goals. Is the teacher motivating? In community based adult education, students tend to pretty clearly "vote with their feet." The unmotivating adult ed teacher in the community might end up alone in a classroom. (Although this seems to happen to a certain extent even in prisons where students are "forced" to attend. Attendance records do tell a story.) Sometimes the motivation issue does come back to the capability and motivation of the teacher, at least in part. Are indicators such as attendance, disciplinary issues, progress and drop out rates tracked by teacher and are teachers recognized for positive outcomes? Are high quality professional development opportunities available to teachers? Why would potentially motivated students be allowed to languish unserved in cells while unmotivated students occupy classroom seats? An exceptional correctional principal I was privileged to work with routinely called "well behaved" but passive students into his office and told them that they were being rotated out of the program for "lack of progress." This supported a cultural norm in that school where it was "ok" for tough guys to act like motivated students. They had an excuse: "I have to participate or I might get kicked out." And some of the unmotivated students did return after a semester off with an altered approach. I note the reference to a mandatory education policy. Some similar policies require a minimum time period (three months) of participation for inmates below a certain grade level or without a diploma. They don't require the inmate student to stay in school until they get the degree or attain the pre-determined grade level. If the existing policy is resulting in the school becoming clogged with "dead wood," perhaps it needs to be revisited. I'll bet those unmotivated students impact school climate, don't they? John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: RE: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060919/7d20019a/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Tue Sep 19 12:42:30 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2006 12:42:30 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 214] Discussion to be extended through Monday Message-ID: Colleagues, Steve Steurer emailed me that he won't be able to join us until Friday. So I am going to extend our discussion through Monday next week so that he has a chance to read and respond to your questions and comments, and so that you have an opportunity to have a dialogue with him as well as with John Linton and Bill Muth. These are great questions and comments, and it's great to learn about programs in the community which have thought through the needs of those released from prison or jail. I hope we will have more questions, more examples from programs and practitioners -- and continued dialogue. David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net From djrosen at comcast.net Wed Sep 20 13:55:33 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:55:33 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 215] Family Literacy and Corrections Message-ID: <45CE0C5B-FF77-43CB-B532-EF576B656356@comcast.net> Bill, John and Steve, I have a question about family literacy. "Locked Up and Locked Out" points out that punishment ?is not appropriate for the more than 1.5 million children of prisoners? and that ?Neglecting these unintended victims will likely lead to these children replacing their parents in the prisons of the future.? What is being done about this? Can you give us some examples of programs in prison settings that help inmates help their children to read or with their homework, or with other education-related or parenting issues? David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net From Carolyn.Buser at ed.gov Wed Sep 20 14:19:20 2006 From: Carolyn.Buser at ed.gov (Buser, Carolyn) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 14:19:20 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 216] Re: Family Literacy and Corrections Message-ID: David -- Maryland has long had family literacy programs within selected institutions. Prisoners who are in the school program are able to bring children in one morning every other month along with the children's' care giver. The incarcerated parent participates in reading activities with the child or children, and the caregivers have a session led by social workers or other professionals on how to help children and themselves adjust to the incarceration of the parent. The program began at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in the 1990's through Reading is Fundamental. It has expanded to two men's institutions and has had continued support from Maryland's Correctional Education Program under the Maryland Department of Education. Each parent studies children's literature appropriate for her/his children in advance of the visit, and then each child may select two books to take home. Some of these books are purchased, and others are donated. Last year Maryland's public school teacher of the year made the donation of these books her project for the year. There is nothing quite like watching the commissioner of correction do the hokey-pokey with 25 or so prisoners and their children. Recently the program was awarded a Barbara Bush Family Literacy Grant. A contact for more information on this program is the Correctional Education Librarian, Glennor Shirley, at gshirley at msde.state.md.us. Thank you for an informative discussion. Carolyn Buser, Education Specialist United States Department of Education Division of Adult Education and Literacy -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:56 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 215] Family Literacy and Corrections Bill, John and Steve, I have a question about family literacy. "Locked Up and Locked Out" points out that punishment ?is not appropriate for the more than 1.5 million children of prisoners? and that ?Neglecting these unintended victims will likely lead to these children replacing their parents in the prisons of the future.? What is being done about this? Can you give us some examples of programs in prison settings that help inmates help their children to read or with their homework, or with other education-related or parenting issues? David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From wrmuth at vcu.edu Wed Sep 20 15:22:04 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:22:04 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 217] Re: Family Literacy and Corrections In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Hi Cay! In addition to the notable work being done in Maryland, four other examples follow. It would be wonderful to hear from others about their family literacy work programs. -Bill (a) The Hudson River Center program mentioned yesterday. (b) The Hope House DC program, which uses videoconferencing to support regular (biweekly) father-child contact. In addition to videoconferencing, letter writing, taped storybook readings, and poetry workshops are used to support and build relationships. (c) Reading-Is-Fundamental programs, like those Cay Buser mentioned, are now in at least a dozen federal facilities (and I am aware of similar programs sponsored by the Virginia Department of Correctional Education.) Typically, in these programs, incarcerated mothers and fathers tape record their reading of a storybook and the tape and book are sent home to the child. R-I-F (wisely) requires that these mailings happen regularly, so an individual child can expect a series of books over the course of a year. (d) An e-mail pilot program that the Federal BOP is planning at its female facility in Danbury CT. It will involve the use of carefully monitored e-mail correspondence between incarcerated mothers (who are also enrolled in the literacy program) and their children (who are part of a mentoring program). Here is some background info on this topic: 1. 55 % of male prisoners are fathers with children under age 18; 44 percent of these fathers lived in the home of at least one of their children at the time of arrest. 2. 75% of all female prisoners are mothers, and 72% were primary caretakers of their children prior to arrest. The number of incarcerated women is expanding more rapidly than that of male incarcerates. 3. Children of prisoners are six times more likely to enter the criminal justice system; the Human Rights Watch (2002) found that African American children were over eight times more likely to do time than Caucasian children, and Latino/a children were three times more likely. Children separated from parents as a result of incarceration experience higher rates of anxiety disorders, withdrawal, depression, guilt, shame, anger, aggression, school phobias, and poor academic performance. (These problems often started before the mother or father was arrested, parental removal tended to exacerbate them.) 4. About 55% of adjudicated youth have a parent in prison 5. Some proponents of tough sentencing for criminals challenge the ?right? of prisoners to have contact with their children. But practitioners that work with either the parents or the children or both, report on the need for this contact: (a) for the emotional health of the children (often described as the ?other victims,?) (b) to promote successful reintegration after prison, and (c) to stop the corrosive effects of high rates of incarceration on the community. The Reentry initiative has nurtured numerous community-prison partnerships, and increased political support for life skills and parenting programs, but I am not aware of nearly as many programs attempting to integrate parenting and literacy. For example, I recently found 1,187 research articles on family literacy, but only 8 of these had anything to do with incarcerated parents. It is not realistic to leave this problem at teacher?s doorsteps. It is foremost a policy issue that touches on a number of concerns that have already been discussed in this forum - pressure to show results (GED), a reporting system that is not sensitive to the kinds of learning that are engendered in intergenerational literacy programs, etc?. Bill "Buser, Carolyn" Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/20/2006 02:19 PM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To cc Subject [SpecialTopics 216] Re: Family Literacy and Corrections David -- Maryland has long had family literacy programs within selected institutions. Prisoners who are in the school program are able to bring children in one morning every other month along with the children's' care giver. The incarcerated parent participates in reading activities with the child or children, and the caregivers have a session led by social workers or other professionals on how to help children and themselves adjust to the incarceration of the parent. The program began at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in the 1990's through Reading is Fundamental. It has expanded to two men's institutions and has had continued support from Maryland's Correctional Education Program under the Maryland Department of Education. Each parent studies children's literature appropriate for her/his children in advance of the visit, and then each child may select two books to take home. Some of these books are purchased, and others are donated. Last year Maryland's public school teacher of the year made the donation of these books her project for the year. There is nothing quite like watching the commissioner of correction do the hokey-pokey with 25 or so prisoners and their children. Recently the program was awarded a Barbara Bush Family Literacy Grant. A contact for more information on this program is the Correctional Education Librarian, Glennor Shirley, at gshirley at msde.state.md.us. Thank you for an informative discussion. Carolyn Buser, Education Specialist United States Department of Education Division of Adult Education and Literacy -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:56 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 215] Family Literacy and Corrections Bill, John and Steve, I have a question about family literacy. "Locked Up and Locked Out" points out that punishment ?is not appropriate for the more than 1.5 million children of prisoners? and that ?Neglecting these unintended victims will likely lead to these children replacing their parents in the prisons of the future.? What is being done about this? Can you give us some examples of programs in prison settings that help inmates help their children to read or with their homework, or with other education-related or parenting issues? David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060920/128631e3/attachment.html From djgbrian at utk.edu Wed Sep 20 15:23:34 2006 From: djgbrian at utk.edu (Brian, Dr Donna J G) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:23:34 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 218] Re: Family Literacy and Corrections In-Reply-To: Message-ID: This is certainly a "feel good" post, Carolyn! Thank you for sharing. Donna Brian -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Buser, Carolyn Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 2:19 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 216] Re: Family Literacy and Corrections David -- Maryland has long had family literacy programs within selected institutions. Prisoners who are in the school program are able to bring children in one morning every other month along with the children's' care giver. The incarcerated parent participates in reading activities with the child or children, and the caregivers have a session led by social workers or other professionals on how to help children and themselves adjust to the incarceration of the parent. The program began at the Maryland Correctional Institution for Women in the 1990's through Reading is Fundamental. It has expanded to two men's institutions and has had continued support from Maryland's Correctional Education Program under the Maryland Department of Education. Each parent studies children's literature appropriate for her/his children in advance of the visit, and then each child may select two books to take home. Some of these books are purchased, and others are donated. Last year Maryland's public school teacher of the year made the donation of these books her project for the year. There is nothing quite like watching the commissioner of correction do the hokey-pokey with 25 or so prisoners and their children. Recently the program was awarded a Barbara Bush Family Literacy Grant. A contact for more information on this program is the Correctional Education Librarian, Glennor Shirley, at gshirley at msde.state.md.us. Thank you for an informative discussion. Carolyn Buser, Education Specialist United States Department of Education Division of Adult Education and Literacy -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 1:56 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 215] Family Literacy and Corrections Bill, John and Steve, I have a question about family literacy. "Locked Up and Locked Out" points out that punishment "is not appropriate for the more than 1.5 million children of prisoners" and that "Neglecting these unintended victims will likely lead to these children replacing their parents in the prisons of the future." What is being done about this? Can you give us some examples of programs in prison settings that help inmates help their children to read or with their homework, or with other education-related or parenting issues? David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From mgilbert at emporia.edu Wed Sep 20 16:22:41 2006 From: mgilbert at emporia.edu (Melisa Gilbert) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 15:22:41 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 219] correctional library support for education Message-ID: <45115CC1020000C100008343@zeno.emporia.edu> Hi, I am a correctional library supervisor and Master of Library Science graduate student. I joined this list as part of class assignment, but I also have a professional interest in building a special collection of adult literacy books for the library where I am working (500 bed, minimum-security, all male correctional center). I am also very interested in supporting the educational programs at my facility. I would like to know, from GED, ESL, and/or ABE instructors who work in corrections: What books or other media you would like to see in the correctional library at your facility? I'm looking for specific titles, or general types/categories, that would support your educational program AND be attractive or helpful to adult learners, but still be general enough to justify purchase in a library that must serve the entire facility. Sincerely, M. Gilbert Arrowhead Correctional Center - General Library From eappleton at fortunesociety.org Wed Sep 20 18:07:59 2006 From: eappleton at fortunesociety.org (Eric Appleton) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 18:07:59 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 220] self-education Message-ID: Hello everyone, I teach reading, writing and math at the Fortune Society with John Gordon. I have taught here for about seven years. As part of my work, I have done individual intakes with many of the students here. Student after student has told me that they really began to love reading when they were in prison. Not every student who has served time learned to love to read, but many did. It has been amazing to me to see how important books were to these people at hardest point in their lives. I don't want to minimize the work that teachers in prison are doing, but from my vantage point, self-education has been the most important type of education in the lives of most students I meet. I hear students talk about how they began to get interested in history, in science and in reading for reading's sake. I hear about how books became prized possessions and were passed from person to person. I look at the students in our program and wish that they were doing the same thing now, while continuing their studies. For students who are working towards their GED or are hoping to go to college, daily independent reading is essential. Unfortunately, many students drop out of the habit of reading once they get back in the free world, where friends, family and TV lead them away from books. How can teachers on the outside help students retain and continue this enthusiasm for reading on their own and learning for learning's sake? How can prison teachers and administrators encourage (and facilitate) more prisoners taking opportunities to educate themselves? Looking forward to more discussion, Eric ********** Eric Appleton Teacher/Coordinator The Fortune Society 212.691.7554, x.702 53 W. 23rd St., 7th floor, NYC 10010 eappleton at fortunesociety.org http://www.fortunesociety.org/education From eappleton at fortunesociety.org Wed Sep 20 18:19:09 2006 From: eappleton at fortunesociety.org (Eric Appleton) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 18:19:09 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 221] college for inmates Message-ID: Hi everyone, The Fortune Society corresponds with inmates all over the country. Many receive our newsletter, the Fortune News, free of charge. I received the following letter from an inmate in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York: "Would you send me all the information about what you have to offer? I am in the middle of studying a college course on health. A source here brought to my attention that you have some sort of college courses. Please send me all the information on college courses you deal with. Is it free? And/or connect me with other places who deal with a larger variety of college courses. Thank you." Unfortunately, the Fortune Society doesn't have college courses and I don't have any information to share. Does anyone have advice for this inmate? How can inmates find college opportunities? How can people on the outside help inmates find resources? Cheers, Eric From jgordon at fortunesociety.org Wed Sep 20 23:39:56 2006 From: jgordon at fortunesociety.org (John Gordon) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 23:39:56 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 222] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation Message-ID: Bill et al, Thanks for the thoughtful response. I cannot speak knowledgeably to the question of "to what extent can we implement student centered programs in prison?" since I have never taught on the inside. (Kathy Boudin speaks to this issue much more profoundly than I could ever do in her seminal piece in the Harvard Ed Review "Participatory Literacy Education Behind Bars: AIDS Opens the Door.," Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 63, number 2, Summer 1993. http://www.kathyboudin.com/harvard.htm). However, I do believe that one can bring a certain "stance" to teaching no matter where it is done. I don't really describe our approach as "student-centered" because I think that term has come to mean many things and sometimes implies a mushy, unrigorous methodology - similar to the way "empowerment" has lost any real meaning. I do believe that as teachers we must start from the assumption that we and the students we work with walk into the class as equals, each with things to teach and learn from each other. I believe as well that students may learn as much from each other as from me. Given those assumptions, the process will play out differently in different contexts. But that stance would inform what I do, no matter where I teach. I don't think centering your curriculum around the needs and concerns of the students means that we don't teach "foundational skills", but, again, I would say that it will inform how we go about teaching those skills. Obviously, this is a much longer conversation, and from your comments I think you might agree, but I welcome the opportunity to talk about these things. Students come to Fortune from a variety of places and for different reasons. Some are coming back from doing serious time upstate.... they tend to be pretty centered, with definite ideas about what they want. They're generally a little older, a little further from the high school experience. Others are on probation, one step from the street, and not really clear about where they are going and why they are here, other than to satisfy a probation officer. Still others are mandated into an alternative to incarceration program and risk prison time if they don't attend regularly. This last group is the youngest; they're often angry at having to be in school and a lot of their feelings play out in the classroom. It's not an easy mix; for all the problems, classes inside prison may simplify things. But the task is the same: to find some common ground, build trust and community within the classroom, and find a way to begin exchanging ideas about things that are important to the participants. A comment for David who does such a wonderful job instigating and facilitating these conversations. It would be great to do this in person some time, some where. If you have ideas about that, I would welcome them. best, john _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of William R Muth/FS/VCU Sent: Tuesday, September 19, 2006 12:30 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 213] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation Greetings. I agree with my friend & colleague John Linton that these are excellent postings. My response will touch on points raised by a number of contributors. First, Taylor Stoehr's impressive program Changing Lives Through Literature reminds me very much of a Core Humanities program Stephen Duguid created in the late 1980's in prisons in British Columbia. Like Taylor, Duguid's program encouraged learners to look critically at social power structures that defined them. Further, it forced practitioners as well as students to confront the myth that literacy learners - even those in ABE - do not have the intelligence or higher level thinking skills to discuss such "advanced" topics. (In a parallel way, the work by Robert Kegan et al. supports this point: the capacity for higher complexity of thought has little to do with formal educational attainment. See: http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/research/brief19.pdf ) Gina Lobaccaro raised the issue of motivation. As I look back to Taylor's statements - and John Gordon's stance: "we develop curriculum around the needs and issues brought to the class by the students" - the question that comes to mind is, "to what extent can we implement student centered programs in prison?" This question gets to the heart of prison culture, and the negative by-products of even the most well-meaning top-down systems that attempt to "fix" people from without. And what should a student-centered prison-based literacy program look like? I fully agree that the pressing needs of learners should be invited into the classroom, and that they have the potential to become potent themes for learning and potent reasons to learn. So many learners in traditional literacy programs are placed into skill-based texts and rushed to the GED. Teachers feel this pressure, of course! But recent studies challenge the usefulness of programs that are focused primarily on passing the GED and ignore the need for foundational learning. And for both ethical and pedagogical reasons, why would an incarcerated woman (for example) who is struggling at a low-literacy level, and who is trying to keep her family together through letter writing be asked to leave these literacy-life needs at the classroom door? I have tremendous admiration for what you are doing, John (Gordon), but do differ a bit from your stance. I do believe we can and should teach foundational literacy skills to our learners --many of whom have histories of learning disabilities and severe health problems that sometimes require explicit (yes, top-down) instruction. For me the key is to take a bi-cultural approach. I agree with Vivian Gadsden that these two world views are not contradictory and the challenge for correctional teachers (I believe) is to embrace both. I need to run (again). But in part to begin to address Helaine Marshall's question about adopting curricula to meet the needs of incarcerated learners, and in part to (hopefully) to provide another example of a student-centered program (this time a family literacy program in New York), I call the readers' attention to an excellent guide put out by the Hudson River Center at: http://www.hudrivctr.org/products_ce.htm Warm regards, Bill "Linton, John" Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/19/2006 09:36 AM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To cc Subject [SpecialTopics 211] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation A couple of quick reactions on motivation: * Is there something that a successful student can graduate to? In some systems, high value prison jobs (prison industry) and high demand vocational training programs are linked to completion of programs. The availability of a college program can really motivate GED students. Indiana State prisons award time off sentence credits to students -- not for participation -- but for completion of educational goals. * Is the teacher motivating? In community based adult education, students tend to pretty clearly "vote with their feet." The unmotivating adult ed teacher in the community might end up alone in a classroom. (Although this seems to happen to a certain extent even in prisons where students are "forced" to attend. Attendance records do tell a story.) Sometimes the motivation issue does come back to the capability and motivation of the teacher, at least in part. Are indicators such as attendance, disciplinary issues, progress and drop out rates tracked by teacher and are teachers recognized for positive outcomes? Are high quality professional development opportunities available to teachers? * Why would potentially motivated students be allowed to languish unserved in cells while unmotivated students occupy classroom seats? An exceptional correctional principal I was privileged to work with routinely called "well behaved" but passive students into his office and told them that they were being rotated out of the program for "lack of progress." This supported a cultural norm in that school where it was "ok" for tough guys to act like motivated students. They had an excuse: "I have to participate or I might get kicked out." And some of the unmotivated students did return after a semester off with an altered approach. I note the reference to a mandatory education policy. Some similar policies require a minimum time period (three months) of participation for inmates below a certain grade level or without a diploma. They don't require the inmate student to stay in school until they get the degree or attain the pre-determined grade level. If the existing policy is resulting in the school becoming clogged with "dead wood," perhaps it needs to be revisited. I'll bet those unmotivated students impact school climate, don't they? John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: RE: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina _____ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060920/ca4cb26c/attachment.html From djrosen at comcast.net Thu Sep 21 06:52:31 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 06:52:31 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 223] Community education for inmates who are released Message-ID: <4F790135-E095-436B-B774-5CCEBD702A19@comcast.net> Hello Colleagues, I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From John.Linton at ed.gov Thu Sep 21 07:50:40 2006 From: John.Linton at ed.gov (Linton, John) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:50:40 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 224] Re: college for inmates -- correspondence programs Message-ID: Hi Eric We're challenged to respond to a lot of inmate mail here also. There are a number of new distance learning initiatives out there -- I'm frankly having trouble keeping up with them -- but one that has been around for a while and seems to be solid is a distance learning program at the Ohio University called "College Program for the Incarcerated." http://www.ohiou.edu/adultlearning/incarc.htm (There is an a mailing address at this link where persons can send for an information packet.) The program is oriented toward prisons -- does not require phone or internet access. The only issue I've heard of with this program is the cost. Few incarcerated persons have the financial resources to afford this program -- but some do. John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Eric Appleton Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 6:19 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 221] college for inmates Hi everyone, The Fortune Society corresponds with inmates all over the country. Many receive our newsletter, the Fortune News, free of charge. I received the following letter from an inmate in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York: "Would you send me all the information about what you have to offer? I am in the middle of studying a college course on health. A source here brought to my attention that you have some sort of college courses. Please send me all the information on college courses you deal with. Is it free? And/or connect me with other places who deal with a larger variety of college courses. Thank you." Unfortunately, the Fortune Society doesn't have college courses and I don't have any information to share. Does anyone have advice for this inmate? How can inmates find college opportunities? How can people on the outside help inmates find resources? Cheers, Eric ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From wrmuth at vcu.edu Thu Sep 21 11:13:21 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:13:21 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 225] Re: Community education for inmates who are released In-Reply-To: <4F790135-E095-436B-B774-5CCEBD702A19@comcast.net> Message-ID: Eric (and All), I also found that incarcerated people in literacy programs are quite literate. In a study I did a few years back I was surprised to find that, except for participants in the lowest reading group (word recognition scores at about 1st grade level, and very slow reading rates) all others reported reading outside of class as much as 6 hours a week or more. (Even those at the lowest reading levels that had a bit stronger reading rate scores were active readers.) One mother ? also in the lowest reading group ? regularly wrote letters home in her effort to hold the family together. Another (male) literacy learner, who really struggled with print, said he read (USA Today, magazines) 3-4 hours every night. Not to say that these literacy practices always came easily to them, but their literacy practices certainly defied the stereotypical image of ?illiteracy!? And I agree they present opportunities for outside of school programs such as book clubs and discussion groups. There is a fathers group at one of our federal prison in Allenwood PA, that formed out of the parenting class. Because the teacher established a culture of dignity and trust (as John Gordon so eloquently described), the men began opening up and talking about the pressing issues facing their children, spouses, and parents back home. They found this conversation so helpful they took it upon themselves (with the support of the staff) to create the fathers group that met one evening a week in the school. One of the men told me that he never identified as a father until some others from the fathering group urged him to come to their meetings; now his responsibilities as a father were the defining purpose for how he was doing time. Another told me, ?The thing I will miss most about prison when I go home will be the support I receive from this (fathers) group.? (Miss? about prison?) Footnote to John Gordon: I love your suggest to bring us together. The Correctional Education Association provides one important forum for this. I wonder others would be interested if we created a strand in next summer?s international meeting? Of course, David, we?d love for you to fund something to, please. :) This has been such a good exchange. It would be good to know who the participants are, which systems they work with/in, & types of populations & settings... -Bill David Rosen Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/21/2006 06:52 AM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To specialtopics at nifl.gov cc Subject [SpecialTopics 223] Community education for inmates who are released Hello Colleagues, I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060921/b46f62e6/attachment.html From John.Linton at ed.gov Thu Sep 21 08:52:08 2006 From: John.Linton at ed.gov (Linton, John) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:52:08 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 226] Re: self-education and libraries Message-ID: I noted this posting in the context of another referencing libraries. Access by prisoners to all types of print materials is somewhat problematic in American prisons and jails. While some inmates are able to address some of their educational goals in prison schools -- others don't want to learn that way, can't get into a school program, or want to address legitimate learning goals that are not addressed by prison school programs. The Autobiography of Malcolm X includes a great example of "self education" in prison. I was already in the prisoner education business when I first read it, and found it more than a little humbling. I don't know who, but apparently someone somewhere decided that every American inmate should have virtually around the clock access to television. Unfortunately, access to books, newspapers and magazines is more problematic. Space, staffing, materials, technology and systems of access -- all are issues in the context of prison libraries. Educators need to be strong advocates of library services for inmates. John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Eric Appleton Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 6:08 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 220] self-education Hello everyone, I teach reading, writing and math at the Fortune Society with John Gordon. I have taught here for about seven years. As part of my work, I have done individual intakes with many of the students here. Student after student has told me that they really began to love reading when they were in prison. Not every student who has served time learned to love to read, but many did. It has been amazing to me to see how important books were to these people at hardest point in their lives. I don't want to minimize the work that teachers in prison are doing, but from my vantage point, self-education has been the most important type of education in the lives of most students I meet. I hear students talk about how they began to get interested in history, in science and in reading for reading's sake. I hear about how books became prized possessions and were passed from person to person. I look at the students in our program and wish that they were doing the same thing now, while continuing their studies. For students who are working towards their GED or are hoping to go to college, daily independent reading is essential. Unfortunately, many students drop out of the habit of reading once they get back in the free world, where friends, family and TV lead them away from books. How can teachers on the outside help students retain and continue this enthusiasm for reading on their own and learning for learning's sake? How can prison teachers and administrators encourage (and facilitate) more prisoners taking opportunities to educate themselves? Looking forward to more discussion, Eric ********** Eric Appleton Teacher/Coordinator The Fortune Society 212.691.7554, x.702 53 W. 23rd St., 7th floor, NYC 10010 eappleton at fortunesociety.org http://www.fortunesociety.org/education ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From Janet_Isserlis at brown.edu Thu Sep 21 08:54:43 2006 From: Janet_Isserlis at brown.edu (Janet Isserlis) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 08:54:43 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 227] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation In-Reply-To: Message-ID: John and all Thanks for this very helpful articulation of what is/isn?t useful in contemplating student-centered learning. This statement: But the task is the same: to find some common ground, build trust and community within the classroom, and find a way to begin exchanging ideas about things that are important to the participants. is especially helpful in framing the issue of bring foundational skills and rigor to a context that is jointly constructed by learners and teachers. I?ve tutored in prison since 2000, and while only working with a couple of women (as opposed to a class with external mandates, or students coming and going), have found that regardless of the setting, we each (practitioners and learners) bring our previous learning and understandings to the tasks at hand. I do understand that in larger classes and in different settings the challenges may be lesser/ greater / different ? but I appreciate your pointing out that motivation, learning and the other pieces under consideration are those shared across the board by adult educators everywhere. I also agree that an opportunity to meet face to face would be wonderful. thanks to all for this conversation Janet Isserlis From: John Gordon Reply-To: Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 23:39:56 -0400 To: Conversation: [SpecialTopics 213] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation Subject: [SpecialTopics 222] Re: Correctional education -- student motivation Bill et al, Thanks for the thoughtful response. I cannot speak knowledgeably to the question of "to what extent can we implement student centered programs in prison?" since I have never taught on the inside. (Kathy Boudin speaks to this issue much more profoundly than I could ever do in her seminal piece in the Harvard Ed Review "Participatory Literacy Education Behind Bars: AIDS Opens the Door.," Harvard Educational Review, Vol. 63, number 2, Summer 1993. http://www.kathyboudin.com/harvard.htm). However, I do believe that one can bring a certain "stance" to teaching no matter where it is done. I don't really describe our approach as "student-centered" because I think that term has come to mean many things and sometimes implies a mushy, unrigorous methodology - similar to the way "empowerment" has lost any real meaning. I do believe that as teachers we must start from the assumption that we and the students we work with walk into the class as equals, each with things to teach and learn from each other. I believe as well that students may learn as much from each other as from me. Given those assumptions, the process will play out differently in different contexts. But that stance would inform what I do, no matter where I teach. I don't think centering your curriculum around the needs and concerns of the students means that we don't teach "foundational skills", but, again, I would say that it will inform how we go about teaching those skills. Obviously, this is a much longer conversation, and from your comments I think you might agree, but I welcome the opportunity to talk about these things. Students come to Fortune from a variety of places and for different reasons. Some are coming back from doing serious time upstate.... they tend to be pretty centered, with definite ideas about what they want. They're generally a little older, a little further from the high school experience. Others are on probation, one step from the street, and not really clear about where they are going and why they are here, other than to satisfy a probation officer. Still others are mandated into an alternative to incarceration program and risk prison time if they don't attend regularly. This last group is the youngest; they're often angry at having to be in school and a lot of their feelings play out in the classroom. It's not an easy mix; for all the problems, classes inside prison may simplify things. But the task is the same: to find some common ground, build trust and community within the classroom, and find a way to begin exchanging ideas about things that are important to the participants. A comment for David who does such a wonderful job instigating and facilitating these conversations. It would be great to do this in person some time, some where. If you have ideas about that, I would welcome them. best, john -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060921/fefcffb2/attachment.html From Christine.Christopherson at state.sd.us Thu Sep 21 10:18:40 2006 From: Christine.Christopherson at state.sd.us (Christine.Christopherson at state.sd.us) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:18:40 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 228] Re: college for inmates -- correspondenceprograms In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <3A173D594A966645B997D2194CE0507B03114C82@ESPR1EXC02.state.sd.local> There are a few universities that still offer traditional paper/pencil correspondence courses that I recommend to the inmates in my facility. I actually wrote my Master's paper last summer on this very topic. There are not many options, and the OHIO program is expensive if the inmates does not have a funding source. The University of Central Arkansas at Conway, AR offers many that are only $80 per credit hour. This is the least expensive that I have been able to find and have had about 4 inmates take courses over the summer this year from this institution. Good luck! -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Linton, John Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 6:51 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 224] Re: college for inmates -- correspondenceprograms Hi Eric We're challenged to respond to a lot of inmate mail here also. There are a number of new distance learning initiatives out there -- I'm frankly having trouble keeping up with them -- but one that has been around for a while and seems to be solid is a distance learning program at the Ohio University called "College Program for the Incarcerated." http://www.ohiou.edu/adultlearning/incarc.htm (There is an a mailing address at this link where persons can send for an information packet.) The program is oriented toward prisons -- does not require phone or internet access. The only issue I've heard of with this program is the cost. Few incarcerated persons have the financial resources to afford this program -- but some do. John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Eric Appleton Sent: Wednesday, September 20, 2006 6:19 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 221] college for inmates Hi everyone, The Fortune Society corresponds with inmates all over the country. Many receive our newsletter, the Fortune News, free of charge. I received the following letter from an inmate in Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York: "Would you send me all the information about what you have to offer? I am in the middle of studying a college course on health. A source here brought to my attention that you have some sort of college courses. Please send me all the information on college courses you deal with. Is it free? And/or connect me with other places who deal with a larger variety of college courses. Thank you." Unfortunately, the Fortune Society doesn't have college courses and I don't have any information to share. Does anyone have advice for this inmate? How can inmates find college opportunities? How can people on the outside help inmates find resources? Cheers, Eric ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From aburruss2 at cox.net Thu Sep 21 09:15:16 2006 From: aburruss2 at cox.net (Ann Burruss) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 09:15:16 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 229] Re: Community education for inmates who are released References: <4F790135-E095-436B-B774-5CCEBD702A19@comcast.net> Message-ID: <002c01c6dd7f$fb1c2a70$0202a8c0@D1WJ3821> In response to the second question: We, in Gloucester County, VA work in the local jail. The educational program is carried out by the Literacy Volunteers of Gloucester. The programs offered are ABE and preparation for the GED. On some rare occasions, a counselor comes in from the nearest community college and gives placement test for those who are "short-timers" and who wish to pursue their education upon release. One one visit, an inmate actually began her course of study prior to release and went into the community college classes for which she was enrolled. In the past, we had to wait for extended periods for GED testing to take place. We are now a test center, so are more successful with GED certificates being earned. Even when an inmate lacked only one test for completion, we have had little success with that person continuing his or her studies "on the street". We have had more success with those individuals who were enrolled in Basic Education classes - particularly those whose primary desire was to assist young school age children with reading and math. They will continue until their level is about equivalent to grade 5 thru 8. On 2 occasions, in the 3 years that I have done this program, inmates have been very anxious to obtain the GED so that upon transferring to one of the State penitentiaries, college level classes could be pursed without delay. ----- Original Message ----- From: David Rosen To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 6:52 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 223] Community education for inmates who are released Hello Colleagues, I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060921/e2bcd283/attachment.html From carole.a.scholl at co.multnomah.or.us Thu Sep 21 14:28:07 2006 From: carole.a.scholl at co.multnomah.or.us (SCHOLL Carole A) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 11:28:07 -0700 Subject: [SpecialTopics 230] Re: Community education for inmates who are released Message-ID: In Portland Oregon, the Londer Learning Center is a unit of adult community corrections (the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice). Our GED/ABE/ESL program each year serves 500+ adults who are released from jail, prison and who on probation and/or involved in substance abuse treatment. Referrals come from POs, treatment centers, courts and caseworkers. We are successful in academics, as well as in reducing recidivism. Some reasons for our success: 1. We only serve offenders who are at high- to medium-risk to reoffend. These adults in "transition" who work toward positive goals with other adults in transition. We also incorporate rehabilitation practices in our adult education program. Teachers are all trained in motivational interviewing, change theory (stages of change) and cognitive behavioral change--evidenced based practices used in corrections. We provide a "holistic" approach--communicating often with POs, counselors and caseworkers. 2. All staff is trained in working with adults with learning disabilities/difficulties, and we keep classes small. In sum: most of our students would not succeed if they went from jail/prison to a community college. Upon release they face numerous obstacles (housing, addictions rehab, etc). Just to make it onto a campus which accepts students 2 or 3x a term is daunting. I certainly recommend community-based transitions education programs for incarcerated adults, but also feel that success lies in partnership with probation offices, an awareness of learning disabilities, and training in psycho-social factors than influence change. For more information about the Londer Learning Center, please go to our website at: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dcj/acjlonder.shtml Thanks--Carole Scholl, Manager, Londer Learning Center Multnomah County Department of Community Justice 503-988-6828 -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 3:53 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 223] Community education for inmates who are released Hello Colleagues, I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From wrmuth at vcu.edu Thu Sep 21 20:17:40 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:17:40 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 231] Re: Community education for inmates who are released In-Reply-To: Message-ID: David -my responses to your questions are in bold below. - Bill I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? I am so impressed by the ?best practices? reported on by Carole Scholl in Oregon, Cay Buser in Maryland, Taylor Stoehr in Massachusetts & John Gordon in NYC. I mostly know programs based ?on the inside? (which of course reveals a key problem: the need for programs that span both sides of the fence.) The Federal Bureau of Prisons is working on a Re-entry partnership with Federal Probation and the US Department of Labor and piloting it in the St. Louis area. Sylvia McCollum at the FBOP has developed a broad network of community partnerships, mostly relating to job fairs. Also, the national Institute of Corrections has done a great deal of training in this area. See http://www.nicic.org/CommunityCorrections 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? The best example of a community partnership related to pre and post release that I can give no longer exists (just one example of a powerful program that vaporized when Pell Grants were cut off): It was a program at Marist College, NY. They provided a full range of literacy and post-secondary programs. Marist also had a college coordinator (Benay Rubenstein, who continues to do extraordinary work through John Jay College) housed in the prison (Otisville) who arranged for learners to continue their education at Marist after release. Today, most federal prisons have strong partnerships with the community, including individual contractors, local colleges and trade unions, and faith based communities. But I suspect ? at least as it pertains to federal prisoners ? that few of these partnerships establish relationships with individuals on the inside and then nurture these relationships on the outside. (I know that some such programs exist, especially with faith-based groups, but not aware of any programs that provide education support to individuals on the inside and then support them through the transition to the outside. (If such inside/outside programs exist, I apologize for my ignorance and would love to know about them!) There is a huge problem in the federal system, since so many prisoners live 100s of miles from home... 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I see some signs of hope here. Again the FBOP has been slowly experimenting with web-based applications. For example they are providing inmate law library services through an intra-net server that goes out to the web periodically, downloads files and distributes material via a closed system. They are also piloting e-mail systems at a few institutions, and, as I mentioned yesterday, they have begun some father ?child video-conferencing. The federal prison systems is slowly rethinking safe ways to use technology. But it is a slow evolution. Ironically, as correspondence courses continue to proliferate via the internet, prisoners have access to fewer of them. I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen "SCHOLL Carole A" Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/21/2006 02:28 PM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To cc Subject [SpecialTopics 230] Re: Community education for inmates who are released In Portland Oregon, the Londer Learning Center is a unit of adult community corrections (the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice). Our GED/ABE/ESL program each year serves 500+ adults who are released from jail, prison and who on probation and/or involved in substance abuse treatment. Referrals come from POs, treatment centers, courts and caseworkers. We are successful in academics, as well as in reducing recidivism. Some reasons for our success: 1. We only serve offenders who are at high- to medium-risk to reoffend. These adults in "transition" who work toward positive goals with other adults in transition. We also incorporate rehabilitation practices in our adult education program. Teachers are all trained in motivational interviewing, change theory (stages of change) and cognitive behavioral change--evidenced based practices used in corrections. We provide a "holistic" approach--communicating often with POs, counselors and caseworkers. 2. All staff is trained in working with adults with learning disabilities/difficulties, and we keep classes small. In sum: most of our students would not succeed if they went from jail/prison to a community college. Upon release they face numerous obstacles (housing, addictions rehab, etc). Just to make it onto a campus which accepts students 2 or 3x a term is daunting. I certainly recommend community-based transitions education programs for incarcerated adults, but also feel that success lies in partnership with probation offices, an awareness of learning disabilities, and training in psycho-social factors than influence change. For more information about the Londer Learning Center, please go to our website at: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dcj/acjlonder.shtml Thanks--Carole Scholl, Manager, Londer Learning Center Multnomah County Department of Community Justice 503-988-6828 -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 3:53 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 223] Community education for inmates who are released Hello Colleagues, I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060921/814e4c6b/attachment.html From aburruss2 at cox.net Fri Sep 22 04:24:18 2006 From: aburruss2 at cox.net (Ann Burruss) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 04:24:18 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 232] Re: Posting your questions References: <4F8145D8-8104-4D9C-BC43-72A486041F18@comcast.net> Message-ID: <003101c6de20$7f830310$0202a8c0@D1WJ3821> Gina, I, too, work with unmotivated ABE students. I believe that the key is showing how any amount of education is going to improve their lot in life; i.e., better job, family stability, etc. Too often we cannot demonstrate that what we are asking is going to make a difference in life outside the institution. Until we can integrate those skills with the hope and suitability of employment, think we are spinning our wheels. Have you tried the Workkeys Assessments? At least that steers you and the inmate in the direction of learning what's appropriate and needed for a job. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060922/7f9adbc8/attachment.html From John.Linton at ed.gov Fri Sep 22 11:42:17 2006 From: John.Linton at ed.gov (Linton, John) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:42:17 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 233] Re: Community education for inmates who are released Message-ID: David and others Yesterday the Senate Committee Judiciary Committee, Sub-committee on Crime and Drugs, held a hearing on Prisoner Rehabilitation and Re-entry. I was sick not to be able to go, even though it was within walking distance of my office. (I was "chained to my desk" with some end of fiscal year deadlines.) The testimony presented is available on the Judiciary Committee's web site: http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=2072 One witness was Diane Williams from the Safer Foundation in Chicago. She includes a description of her organizations integrated efforts to provide education to offenders, both during confinement and post release. Her testimony concludes with a success story of an individual who moved from homeless drop out to high school graduate and college student. Diane is a "jobs program" person, so I was surprised by see the emphasis on education in her testimony. She even included a pitch for getting Pell grants restored to inmates. Obviously, getting to work is critical for offenders leaving institutions -- so integrating education with efforts to support success with employment is smart. I also found the Department of Labor testimony at yesterday's Senate hearings quite interesting. I'm pleased that I'll be working on a little project this coming year to develop a resource guide for inmates focused on how they can access educational programming once released. David makes reference to the model of having local providers -- typically adult education programs and community colleges -- actually be the institutional education provider in order to encourage continuity upon release. I know that this model is common in jail settings in New York State. But too often inmates are held in State facilities distant from their home neighborhoods -- and continuity between service providers inside and outside is hardly an option. We plan to work with States to get this information in the hands of individuals who have been "turned on" to education during incarceration -- to help them understand their options to link up with appropriate program opportunities post release. John Linton -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 6:53 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 223] Community education for inmates who are released Hello Colleagues, I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us Fri Sep 22 08:09:42 2006 From: Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us (Lobaccaro Gina (DOC)) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:09:42 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 234] Re: Posting your questions Message-ID: I will search for information about Workkeys... I do not know the program. Please send a link in case I do not find it.... thank you, Ann. Gina -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Ann Burruss Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 4:24 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 232] Re: Posting your questions Gina, I, too, work with unmotivated ABE students. I believe that the key is showing how any amount of education is going to improve their lot in life; i.e., better job, family stability, etc. Too often we cannot demonstrate that what we are asking is going to make a difference in life outside the institution. Until we can integrate those skills with the hope and suitability of employment, think we are spinning our wheels. Have you tried the Workkeys Assessments? At least that steers you and the inmate in the direction of learning what's appropriate and needed for a job. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics _____ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060922/5756bc7e/attachment.html From Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us Fri Sep 22 08:19:02 2006 From: Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us (Lobaccaro Gina (DOC)) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:19:02 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 235] Net Site Capturing ?? Message-ID: Bill... I enjoyed this post very much... perhaps I can find a job in the federal system when I can retire from here. I keep hearing hints that there is something going on in Delaware with more Intranet based teaching/learning... but no one has told me the details. One of the prison programs have been piloting it. I think it is for GED students. I heard that it only worked with very highly motivated students. That is all I recall, but perhaps I need to ask! A question for others---- Have you found ways to bring the Net to the students. I use a Blue Squirrel product called Web Whacker that will copy a page and a number of layers behind it (1-3 perhaps but if you go farther it doesn't seem to work.. and you risk picking up some risky sites accidently in the grab). I was also told about a Adobe program that would capture a site and layers on to a PDF file.. I don't remember the details.... I have permission now to bring in a jump drive. So I can bring the sites in from home and put them on student computers. Right now I have two computers in my office.. one for the Internet provided by DOC.. and I cannot put any of my software on it.. the other is not connected yet, but I might be able to get connected without the state software (DOC software and Outlook)... but be able to use some of the programs to gather sites while at work... instead of on my time. Gina -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of William R Muth/FS/VCU Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 8:18 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 231] Re: Community education for inmates whoare released David -my responses to your questions are in bold below. - Bill I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? I am so impressed by the "best practices" reported on by Carole Scholl in Oregon, Cay Buser in Maryland, Taylor Stoehr in Massachusetts & John Gordon in NYC. I mostly know programs based 'on the inside' (which of course reveals a key problem: the need for programs that span both sides of the fence.) The Federal Bureau of Prisons is working on a Re-entry partnership with Federal Probation and the US Department of Labor and piloting it in the St. Louis area. Sylvia McCollum at the FBOP has developed a broad network of community partnerships, mostly relating to job fairs. Also, the national Institute of Corrections has done a great deal of training in this area. See http://www.nicic.org/CommunityCorrections 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? The best example of a community partnership related to pre and post release that I can give no longer exists (just one example of a powerful program that vaporized when Pell Grants were cut off): It was a program at Marist College, NY. They provided a full range of literacy and post-secondary programs. Marist also had a college coordinator (Benay Rubenstein, who continues to do extraordinary work through John Jay College) housed in the prison (Otisville) who arranged for learners to continue their education at Marist after release. Today, most federal prisons have strong partnerships with the community, including individual contractors, local colleges and trade unions, and faith based communities. But I suspect - at least as it pertains to federal prisoners - that few of these partnerships establish relationships with individuals on the inside and then nurture these relationships on the outside. (I know that some such programs exist, especially with faith-based groups, but not aware of any programs that provide education support to individuals on the inside and then support them through the transition to the outside. (If such inside/outside programs exist, I apologize for my ignorance and would love to know about them!) There is a huge problem in the federal system, since so many prisoners live 100s of miles from home... 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I see some signs of hope here. Again the FBOP has been slowly experimenting with web-based applications. For example they are providing inmate law library services through an intra-net server that goes out to the web periodically, downloads files and distributes material via a closed system. They are also piloting e-mail systems at a few institutions, and, as I mentioned yesterday, they have begun some father -child video-conferencing. The federal prison systems is slowly rethinking safe ways to use technology. But it is a slow evolution. Ironically, as correspondence courses continue to proliferate via the internet, prisoners have access to fewer of them. I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen "SCHOLL Carole A" Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/21/2006 02:28 PM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To cc Subject [SpecialTopics 230] Re: Community education for inmates who are released In Portland Oregon, the Londer Learning Center is a unit of adult community corrections (the Multnomah County Department of Community Justice). Our GED/ABE/ESL program each year serves 500+ adults who are released from jail, prison and who on probation and/or involved in substance abuse treatment. Referrals come from POs, treatment centers, courts and caseworkers. We are successful in academics, as well as in reducing recidivism. Some reasons for our success: 1. We only serve offenders who are at high- to medium-risk to reoffend. These adults in "transition" who work toward positive goals with other adults in transition. We also incorporate rehabilitation practices in our adult education program. Teachers are all trained in motivational interviewing, change theory (stages of change) and cognitive behavioral change--evidenced based practices used in corrections. We provide a "holistic" approach--communicating often with POs, counselors and caseworkers. 2. All staff is trained in working with adults with learning disabilities/difficulties, and we keep classes small. In sum: most of our students would not succeed if they went from jail/prison to a community college. Upon release they face numerous obstacles (housing, addictions rehab, etc). Just to make it onto a campus which accepts students 2 or 3x a term is daunting. I certainly recommend community-based transitions education programs for incarcerated adults, but also feel that success lies in partnership with probation offices, an awareness of learning disabilities, and training in psycho-social factors than influence change. For more information about the Londer Learning Center, please go to our website at: http://www.co.multnomah.or.us/dcj/acjlonder.shtml Thanks--Carole Scholl, Manager, Londer Learning Center Multnomah County Department of Community Justice 503-988-6828 -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of David Rosen Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2006 3:53 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 223] Community education for inmates who are released Hello Colleagues, I would like our guests -- and others -- to explore some other challenging questions: 1. One of the characteristics of a successful prison education program (Gerber and Fritsch, and Luiden and Perry) is follow-up with inmates after release. Can you describe some models that do this well, and that lead to released prisoners continuing their education in the community? 2. Do you know of examples of prisons or jails that invite community education programs to provide basic education inside so that when inmates are released there is continuity with the community education program outside? Can you tell us about how the model(s) works? 3. Is there any way that a web-based learning system could be offered to prisoners for self study inside that they could continue to use outside in a library, community technology center or at a community education program? I know that prisons and jails cannot offer Internet access, but are there any examples of a version of a web site being run on an internal server, in the prison, offering (nearly) the same experience as the user would have with internet access to the web site? I hope others will continue to post their questions and comments. Steve Steurer plans to join us tomorrow or Monday, and the discussion continues through Tuesday. Those who have just joined us, and others, the postings in this discussion are archived at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html If you would like to know more about other National Institute for Literacy-sponsored discussion lists, you will find information at http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/2006/date.html David J. Rosen Special Topics discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060922/59b74feb/attachment.html From jcrawford at nifl.gov Fri Sep 22 12:06:02 2006 From: jcrawford at nifl.gov (Crawford, June) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 12:06:02 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 236] Re: Posting your questions Message-ID: <9B35BF1886881547B5DFF88364AF31A3081E8B9E@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> Many people who work in correctional education report a high incidence of learning disabilities, a previous experience in special education classrooms, and a lack of appropriate instruction for those who require teaching techniques that are appropriate for the learner. My own research in corrections indicated a high, high percentage of the inmates in the correctional education programs either had been diagnosed in earlier schools or exhibited many characteristics of those with learning disabilities...and not just dyslexia. May I ask what screening or diagnosis is being done in the correctional system in which Gina works? What accommodations are provided for those with a history of LD? Is there a process to follow in the system for those who exhibit the characteristics of learning disabilities? Are the teachers in the system trained in teaching techniques that benefit students with LD? Sometimes it is not a matter of motivation, but a matter of being in an appropriate system, and the assessment of student needs for learning must go beyond a TABE or CASAS score and include the diagnosis of other things that may be interfering. I'd be interested in hearing about procedures that are followed in these situations. June Crawford -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Ann Burruss Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 4:24 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 232] Re: Posting your questions Gina, I, too, work with unmotivated ABE students. I believe that the key is showing how any amount of education is going to improve their lot in life; i.e., better job, family stability, etc. Too often we cannot demonstrate that what we are asking is going to make a difference in life outside the institution. Until we can integrate those skills with the hope and suitability of employment, think we are spinning our wheels. Have you tried the Workkeys Assessments? At least that steers you and the inmate in the direction of learning what's appropriate and needed for a job. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics _____ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060922/3387a10f/attachment.html From Steurer1 at aol.com Fri Sep 22 15:29:52 2006 From: Steurer1 at aol.com (Steurer1 at aol.com) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:29:52 EDT Subject: [SpecialTopics 237] Response Message-ID: <409.26f3c600.324593b0@aol.com> Hello David, This is my response. I could not find a way to click and respond automatically to all the responses. So I would appreciate it if you post my remarks. I have been reading the messages from the last few days and wanted to put my two cents in for whatever it is worth. Sorry about not writing sooner but I have been on travel and have had limited email capability. There are so many interesting questions and responses that I do not know where to begin, so here goes. There are actually a lot of post secondary programs going on across the country as noted in the recent Learning to Reduce Recidivism by The Institute for Higher Education, funded by the Ford Foundation. Go to _www.ihep.org_ (http://www.ihep.org) for a copy of the report. It was rather encouraging that many states are doing good things with state funds and grants for youthful offenders out of John Linton's office. It is disappointing that, after setting up the grants for youthful offenders with support from Senators Specter and Kennedy and a few others that we have not been able to extend the age limit for these funds beyond age 25. We thought that we could bump the limit up to 35 this year and found out recently that the amendments have been dropped at the insistence of House members in the conference committee. What it means is that all of us need to get pro-active and carry the message forward that education does reduce crime and post secondary is one of the most cost-effective tools to do so. We have not been out there enough getting the message around to all public officials. CEA will lead a new effort to do so and we hope to make a lots of noise and bring many other associations and organizations along with us during the next congressional session and expand post secondary and other educational opportunities for the incarcerated, both youth and adult. One of the respondents talked about having a strand for parenting at the next CEA annual conference which will be in Atlanta in July, 2007. Please see our website at _www.ceanational.org_ (http://www.ceanational.org) . We currently have general information and will soon post how to apply for presentations. One of the strands we are going to feature is parenting. So please join us for this topics and many others. I retired from Maryland adult corrections two years ago and was very interested and involved in parenting. Cay Buser made some comments about efforts being led by Glennor Shirley through the library, particularly at the women's facility. Up until recently there was also a program at the Maryland Correctional Institution - Jessup for men. Over the years some of the things they have done include getting new or like new children's book donations from various sources and setting up events in the visitor's room every other month. The wife, grandmother, significant other, whatever would come and the father's would read with the children and other family members. There would be other educational and fun activities for the kids as well. The children would all go home with some brand new or like new books. I can't tell you how motivating that was for the fathers and the children. It was interesting because the men would have to learn to read the children's books ahead of time. There was no stigma for the men to learn to read through children's literature. It provided a great incentive for the men and the atmosphere of the events always brought tears to your eyes. I would go there on Saturday mornings and come home all energized. Ohio has creative beautiful reading areas in each visitors room. A trained inmate aide is responsible to assist the visiting children to select and read books. The normally drab visitors rooms are made so much more comfortable with these colorful areas with rugs and soft furniture, artwork, brochures, etc.... You can contact Dr. Jerry McGlone's office for more information at 614-752-0305. I have been to a good number of prisons in Ohio in recent years and this is a great program. Ohio also has a very extensive post secondary education program which involved 15 colleges throughout the state. CEA evaluates five programs per year in accordance with Ohio state law. The attendance and completion rates are all above 90% and all the colleges accept each others courses as inmates move through the various prisons or are released to continue on the outside. The accountability system that Ohio has put in place is the best I have seen and the quality of the programs is exceptional. There are a lot of inmates, like Malcolm X did, who become interested in education and are self-motivated. But I believe after all these years of working in prisons and seeing programs that the prison and the school in the prison sets the tone. Hopefully, the entire correctional system has strong policies to encourage inmates to go to school and do well. That makes things even better. I used to think that you could not lead an inmate to education anymore than it was possible to herd cats. I no longer believe that. While the decision ultimately rests with the inmate, the prison either sets up incentives and awards, and creates an atmosphere that values programs or it doesn't. If it does lots of otherwise unmotivated students become involved for one reason or another and many of them get motivated as they become successful and overcome their years of negative educational experiences. Steve Steurer Stephen J. Steurer, Ph.D., Executive Director Correctional Education Association 8182 Lark Brown Road Suite 202 Elkridge, MD 21075 tel: 443-459-3081 fax: 443-459-3088 www.ceanational.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060922/04484046/attachment.html From ropteacher at gmail.com Fri Sep 22 18:18:16 2006 From: ropteacher at gmail.com (Gloria Fuentes) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:18:16 -0700 Subject: [SpecialTopics 238] Re: Posting your questions In-Reply-To: <9B35BF1886881547B5DFF88364AF31A3081E8B9E@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> References: <9B35BF1886881547B5DFF88364AF31A3081E8B9E@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> Message-ID: <38914de00609221518p6129e97g9168c22947d9db20@mail.gmail.com> I too, would be interested in all of these things. I teach an ROP class to at risk kids, most of my students need their GED still and are in my classroom for that reason. So many of my students are unmotivated to learn. I used to work with juveniles in a placement and they were far more motivated than my students. I know many of my students have LD but I have found no way of getting them help. I keep working with my students trying to offer them many different ways to learn. Many of them get bored with the computer program that they work at for their GED skills so I break it up and work with them at a table going through each subject. But still at times I feel like I am just banging my head against the wall. They get so easily discouraged or begin to think they can't do it. I haven't and won't give up on any of them but many of them just quit and settle for a dead end job. It can be discouraging at times. I tell myself that maybe they just aren't ready for it right now. But just the same it can be discouraging. I am open for ANY and ALL advice for them. gloria On 9/22/06, Crawford, June wrote: > > Many people who work in correctional education report a high incidence of > learning disabilities, a previous experience in special education > classrooms, and a lack of appropriate instruction for those who require > teaching techniques that are appropriate for the learner. My own research in > corrections indicated a high, high percentage of the inmates in the > correctional education programs either had been diagnosed in earlier schools > or exhibited many characteristics of those with learning disabilities...and > not just dyslexia. > > May I ask what screening or diagnosis is being done in the correctional > system in which Gina works? What accommodations are provided for those with > a history of LD? Is there a process to follow in the system for those who > exhibit the characteristics of learning disabilities? Are the teachers in > the system trained in teaching techniques that benefit students with LD? > Sometimes it is not a matter of motivation, but a matter of being in an > appropriate system, and the assessment of student needs for learning must go > beyond a TABE or CASAS score and include the diagnosis of other things that > may be interfering. > > I'd be interested in hearing about procedures that are followed in these > situations. > June Crawford > > -----Original Message----- > *From:* specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto: > specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]*On Behalf Of *Ann Burruss > *Sent:* Friday, September 22, 2006 4:24 AM > *To:* specialtopics at nifl.gov > *Subject:* [SpecialTopics 232] Re: Posting your questions > > Gina, > I, too, work with unmotivated ABE students. I believe that the key is > showing how any amount of education is going to improve their lot in life; > i.e., better job, family stability, etc. Too often we cannot demonstrate > that what we are asking is going to make a difference in life outside the > institution. Until we can integrate those skills with the hope and > suitability of employment, think we are spinning our wheels. > Have you tried the Workkeys Assessments? At least that steers you and the > inmate in the direction of learning what's appropriate and needed for a job. > > ----- Original Message ----- > *From:* Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) > *To:* specialtopics at nifl.gov > *Sent:* Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM > *Subject:* [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions > > Hello All, > I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex > Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware > Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with > David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. > I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of > motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so > many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over > and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to > receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for > education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student > does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long > waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students > sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their > academic skills. > Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE > low level learners in CE settings? > Gina > > ________________________________ > > From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen > Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM > To: specialtopics at nifl.gov > Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions > > > > Colleagues, > > Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you > are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like > "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education > program to a community education program?" or "What does family > literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions > like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's > reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be > introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All > questions are welcome. > > Send your questions to: > > specialtopics at nifl.gov > > David J. Rosen > Special Topics Discussion Moderator > djrosen at comcast.net > > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > ------------------------------ > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > > ------------------------------- > National Institute for Literacy > Special Topics mailing list > SpecialTopics at nifl.gov > To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to > http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics > > -- Gloria Fuentes -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060922/2bcffee1/attachment.html From fiona at literacy.ca Fri Sep 22 15:43:02 2006 From: fiona at literacy.ca (Fiona Murray) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 15:43:02 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 239] materials for prison libraries Message-ID: <8EE5B3E2-4A72-11DB-927F-000393C652C4@literacy.ca> This is for the librarian in a corrections institution that asked about possible reading materials for her collection. I'm sure you'll already have checked out American materials and other traditional literacy resources (ie. Laubach materials which are sold through New Readers Press in Canada) but I'd like to suggest some resources beyond your borders. Grass Roots Press in Canada publishes a variety of excellent materials for practitioners and learners alike. Their Easy Reader collection goes from readability levels of grade 3 - 5. They are based in Edmonton, Alberta and can be accessed at: http://www.literacyservices.com or call toll-free: 1-888-303-3213. In Britain, they have developed a very successful series of high interest books written by best-selling authors in shorter, easier to read formats. Find out more about the First Choice series at: http://www.firstchoicebooks.org.uk/. They have been created to interest and encourage those in the non-reading population but are being marketed broadly to the general public as popular and affordable literature. Canada is about to embark on a similar initiative called Reach a Reader but nothing is published yet. Also, if your library would like to bookmark an interactive website with great learner materials, try the Learning Edge at: http://thewclc.ca/edge/index.html. There are several issues of this learner newsletter on a variety of topics. Often learners are contributors. The graphics and voice-along option make it quite dynamic. Perhaps these may be of interest. All the best, Fiona __ Fiona Murray Communications/Liaison Coordinator Movement for Canadian Literacy Ottawa, Canada tel: 613-563-2464 email: fiona at literacy.ca website: http://www.literacy.ca From djrosen at comcast.net Sat Sep 23 06:18:31 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 06:18:31 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 240] Community re-entry programs Message-ID: <34184588-EBCA-4151-A26D-E993876DFED9@comcast.net> Colleagues, Here's a question for our guests, and for anyone in this discussion who may work with a prisoner community re-entry program: In "Locked Up and Locked Out" a community re-entry program in Massachusetts is described as follows: "Re-entry projects around the country have been similar, or at least somewhat similar, to the Offender Re-entry Program (ORP) in Suffolk County, Massachu- setts. The lead educational agency is Boston?s Bunker Hill Community College. The program is detailed in a case study found in a report of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).37 ORP provides soon-to-be- released inmates with an intensive 6-hour-a-day course of study over a six-week period. After release, the inmates continue to receive support from caseworkers and mentors for a minimum of six months ? and many choose to continue beyond this six-month period. Drawing on different community resources and agencies, the program includes: ? education during the final six weeks of prison provided by Bunker Hill Community College ? job assistance at the one-stop career center called Workplace ? case management provided by Community Resources for Justice ? mentoring support from the faith-based Ella J. Baker House" How prevalent are programs such as the ORP? Do they reduce recidivism? What are the key ingredients of success? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From robinschwarz1 at aol.com Sat Sep 23 17:37:20 2006 From: robinschwarz1 at aol.com (robinschwarz1 at aol.com) Date: Sat, 23 Sep 2006 17:37:20 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 241] Re: Posting your questions In-Reply-To: <9B35BF1886881547B5DFF88364AF31A3081E8B9E@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> References: <9B35BF1886881547B5DFF88364AF31A3081E8B9E@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> Message-ID: <8C8AD6F95438F91-C2C-9996@MBLK-M33.sysops.aol.com> Laura Weisel, Alan Toops and I wrote an article for FOB a year ago ( August, 2005) addressing the wide range of causes of learning difficulties in the corrections population. It isn't just LD, but vision, hearing, attention, and especially visual stress syndrome that have caused a lot of learning problems and hence a lifetime of poor results in school. Helping adult learners know about these challenges and ways to help themselves manage their challenges has helped many inmates be successful. Check out the article. Robin Lovrien Schwarz -----Original Message----- From: jcrawford at nifl.gov To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 9:06 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 236] Re: Posting your questions Many people who work in correctional education report a high incidence of learning disabilities, a previous experience in special education classrooms, and a lack of appropriate instruction for those who require teaching techniques that are appropriate for the learner.?My own research in corrections indicated?a high, high percentage of the inmates in the correctional education programs?either had been diagnosed in?earlier schools or?exhibited many characteristics of those with learning disabilities...and not just dyslexia.??? ? May I ask what screening or diagnosis is being done in the correctional system in which Gina works?? What accommodations are provided for those with a history of LD?? Is there a process to follow in the system for those who exhibit the characteristics of learning disabilities?? Are the teachers in the system trained in teaching techniques that benefit students with LD?? Sometimes it is not a matter of motivation, but a matter of being in an appropriate system, and the assessment of student needs for learning must go beyond a TABE or CASAS score and include the diagnosis of other things that may be interfering. ? I'd be interested in hearing about procedures that are followed in these situations. June Crawford -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Ann Burruss Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 4:24 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 232] Re: Posting your questions Gina, I, too, work with unmotivated ABE students.? I believe that the key is showing how any amount of education is going to improve their lot in life; i.e., better job, family stability, etc.? Too often we cannot demonstrate that what we are asking is going to make a difference in life outside the institution.? Until we can integrate those skills with the hope and suitability of employment, think we are spinning our wheels. Have you tried the Workkeys Assessments?? At least that steers you and the inmate in the direction of learning what's appropriate and needed for a job. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware.? I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings.? We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time.? They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time".? In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education.? Our education program is a classified program.? If a student does not have? GED or HS diploma they must attend school.? We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready.? (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?"? Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area.? All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------- ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. From wrmuth at vcu.edu Sun Sep 24 00:04:19 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 00:04:19 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 242] Re: Community re-entry programs In-Reply-To: <34184588-EBCA-4151-A26D-E993876DFED9@comcast.net> Message-ID: Gina Lobaccaro and all, By way of addressing your excellent question about motivating low-literacy level learners, I?d like to return to what I believe is a hugely untapped potential in correctional education: the incarcerated learner?s personal needs and interests. Anita Wilson describes ?Third-spaces? in prisons in the UK where prisoners express themselves in ways deeply personal and loaded with their own sense of identity ? poetry, music, art; ways of expression that they would likely not be engaged in ?back home? or in ?official? prison discourses (including prison classrooms, work assignments, etc.). When I recently interviewed literacy learners on their views of prison literacy programs, I was taken back by their need to talk about families and loved ones back home. Most of the prisoners thought about their mothers, fathers, spouses, sisters, sons, daughters, and grandparents almost constantly, when they were not ?pulled back? into the reality of prison by another inmate or staff member. Based on Anita?s work I began seeing the reality of prison as the learners? ?First- space? and their personal thoughts of home as the hidden ?Second-spaces.? I wondered how this enormous emotional resource (Second-space) could be (respectfully) ?invited? into the classroom by teachers. Gina asked about motivating low-level literacy students. One possible solution ? though not necessarily an easy one ? is through Language Experience Approach lessons. An example: A student of mine ? 18 yrs old, doing time for murder, ADD big time and, weirdly, likeable -- was a profoundly disabled reader, barely knew the names of the letters. But he was convinced he did not need to study such ?childish? things as phonics. Because he was highly fascinated with himself (!) I put a tape recorder in front of him and let him talk. His early stories made me queasy ? how, once he got out, he was going to set up his own gas station and hire a team of his buddies to work for him?totally out of touch with reality! More than once I doubted my own judgment, but continued to transcribe the stories. They became his reading materials and he loved to read them. We made flash cards out of the words he most wanted to learn to read and spell, reread his stories to improve his fluency, and dread! even created daily phonics lessons based on his words. In addition to rapid growth in his reading, he began writing letters home, and this sparked a dialogue with his estranged mother. As time went by, his stories became much less fantastic, and much more real ? about facing his mother when she came to visit, etc. Language Experience Approach (LEA) can be time consuming, and some prisons don?t even allow tape recorders in the classroom. There is, also, a down side to this idea - that staff can get "too close" to their students -- and that can lead to disastrous results, and lead to harsh staff policies about keeping one's distance. (But, for example, if there were trustworthy tutors around, they could do the transcribing. Or discussion groups, instead of LEA, could be used to get learners engaged. Also, many staff have found ways to support students' personal needs and still maintain boundaries.) The point is that there are ways to motivate low-literacy adults -- Language Experience, Third-spaces, discussion groups, etc. -- but whether or not correctional educators are permitted to use them is another story. My guess is that if prisoners? ?Second spaces? were "invited" into the classroom (they should never be coerced into the classroom!), we?d have a lot more family and intergenerational literacy programs flourishing: support for letter writing, peer support for family crises (see my note about the Allenwood Father?s Group, few days back), and powerful and empowering purposes for literacy learning. I know that many prison classrooms do not engender the trust it would take to pull this off, but I also bet that those who care enough to participate in this discussion struggle everyday to sustain just such environments. A few related notes: John Linton, thank you for bringing to our attention the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee hearing, and the inside/outside work that Safer is doing. David ? Safer Foundation program may be the best example of the kind of programs you were asking about. Diane Williams reported that the Safer ?model prison to community initiative?show[ed] a 50 % decline in recidivism and a 50% increase in job placement. Our most recent statistics show that 77% of the participants who are active in Safer?s services are currently working.? About the testimony of the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee hearing on Reentry: Numerous experts talked about the need for support for families and children of prisoners, and the importance of family ties. But only once did a witness ? Roger Werholtz from Kansas ? mentioned a reentry program that involved ?maintaining family ties.? Why is it that this need, though recognized by Urban Institute and others as one of the major contributors to reentry success, is overshadowed by jobs, drug treatment, sex offender, and other (worthy) needs? Are these programs too messy? Too threatening? To personal? Again, at the risk of broke-record syndrome, I argue that family and intergenerational literacy programs could reach some of the least communicative parents in prison, and thus some of the most vulnerable children and families. Gina Lobaccaro is too modest to mention this, but she is the wiki-master!! Gina maintains the correctional education component of the Adult Literacy Education Wiki hosted by NIFL and supported by David Rosen, Erik Jacobsen and others (see: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Corrections_Education ). This is a great resource for our community of practice. Thank you, Gina. My guess is much of our conversation will find its way to this wiki, yes? June Crawford: As you know well, one alternative way to screen for reading disabilities in our classrooms is by assessing reading components in addition to reading comprehension. Here is a link to John Strucker?s classic argument for the need for reading components testing: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=456 Sorry for such a long post!!! -Bill David Rosen Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/23/2006 06:18 AM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To specialtopics at nifl.gov cc Subject [SpecialTopics 240] Community re-entry programs Colleagues, Here's a question for our guests, and for anyone in this discussion who may work with a prisoner community re-entry program: In "Locked Up and Locked Out" a community re-entry program in Massachusetts is described as follows: "Re-entry projects around the country have been similar, or at least somewhat similar, to the Offender Re-entry Program (ORP) in Suffolk County, Massachu- setts. The lead educational agency is Boston?s Bunker Hill Community College. The program is detailed in a case study found in a report of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).37 ORP provides soon-to-be- released inmates with an intensive 6-hour-a-day course of study over a six-week period. After release, the inmates continue to receive support from caseworkers and mentors for a minimum of six months ? and many choose to continue beyond this six-month period. Drawing on different community resources and agencies, the program includes: ? education during the final six weeks of prison provided by Bunker Hill Community College ? job assistance at the one-stop career center called Workplace ? case management provided by Community Resources for Justice ? mentoring support from the faith-based Ella J. Baker House" How prevalent are programs such as the ORP? Do they reduce recidivism? What are the key ingredients of success? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060924/6158d0f9/attachment.html From b.garner4 at verizon.net Sun Sep 24 10:38:35 2006 From: b.garner4 at verizon.net (Barbara Garner) Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 09:38:35 -0500 (CDT) Subject: [SpecialTopics 243] Re: Posting your questions Message-ID: <18031024.4844981159108715128.JavaMail.root@vms074.mailsrvcs.net> The link to Understanding the Complexities of Offenders' Special Learning Needs, the article Robin mentions, is http://www.ncsall.net/?id=829 That article was in an issue of "Focus on Basics" on Corrections Education. Other articles include an excellent look at assessing learner's needs by Bill Muth, a history of the role of education in Corrections by Dominique Chlup, and many other articles. The PDF can be found at http://www.ncsall.net/fileadmin/resources/fob/2005/fob_7d.pdf Barb Garner Editor, Focus on Basics ===================== From: robinschwarz1 at aol.com Date: 2006/09/23 Sat PM 04:37:20 CDT To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 241] Re: Posting your questions Laura Weisel, Alan Toops and I wrote an article for FOB a year ago ( August, 2005) addressing the wide range of causes of learning difficulties in the corrections population. It isn't just LD, but vision, hearing, attention, and especially visual stress syndrome that have caused a lot of learning problems and hence a lifetime of poor results in school. Helping adult learners know about these challenges and ways to help themselves manage their challenges has helped many inmates be successful. Check out the article. Robin Lovrien Schwarz -----Original Message----- From: jcrawford at nifl.gov To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 9:06 AM Subject: [SpecialTopics 236] Re: Posting your questions Many people who work in correctional education report a high incidence of learning disabilities, a previous experience in special education classrooms, and a lack of appropriate instruction for those who require teaching techniques that are appropriate for the learner.?My own research in corrections indicated?a high, high percentage of the inmates in the correctional education programs?either had been diagnosed in?earlier schools or?exhibited many characteristics of those with learning disabilities...and not just dyslexia.??? ? May I ask what screening or diagnosis is being done in the correctional system in which Gina works?? What accommodations are provided for those with a history of LD?? Is there a process to follow in the system for those who exhibit the characteristics of learning disabilities?? Are the teachers in the system trained in teaching techniques that benefit students with LD?? Sometimes it is not a matter of motivation, but a matter of being in an appropriate system, and the assessment of student needs for learning must go beyond a TABE or CASAS score and include the diagnosis of other things that may be interfering. ? I'd be interested in hearing about procedures that are followed in these situations. June Crawford -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Ann Burruss Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 4:24 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 232] Re: Posting your questions Gina, I, too, work with unmotivated ABE students.? I believe that the key is showing how any amount of education is going to improve their lot in life; i.e., better job, family stability, etc.? Too often we cannot demonstrate that what we are asking is going to make a difference in life outside the institution.? Until we can integrate those skills with the hope and suitability of employment, think we are spinning our wheels. Have you tried the Workkeys Assessments?? At least that steers you and the inmate in the direction of learning what's appropriate and needed for a job. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware.? I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings.? We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time.? They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time".? In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education.? Our education program is a classified program.? If a student does not have? GED or HS diploma they must attend school.? We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready.? (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?"? Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area.? All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------- ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From robinschwarz1 at aol.com Sun Sep 24 15:13:13 2006 From: robinschwarz1 at aol.com (robinschwarz1 at aol.com) Date: Sun, 24 Sep 2006 15:13:13 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 244] Re: Family Literacy and Corrections In-Reply-To: <45CE0C5B-FF77-43CB-B532-EF576B656356@comcast.net> References: <45CE0C5B-FF77-43CB-B532-EF576B656356@comcast.net> Message-ID: <8C8AE249DCE9EC7-1738-437B@mblk-d26.sysops.aol.com> David-- this reminds me of the work of Ross Greene, who, I believe, works with at-risk young people in Maine. I heard him at an Institute sponsored by the Learning Lab @ Lesley in 2005 in Marlborough, MA. He has written "The Explosive Child" and another about the family. He maintains that punishment more often produces the opposite effect of what was intended and that usually it is about the worst response to outbursts and "bad behavior." I was very moved by his stories about the young people he works with--many of whom are already incarcerated in juvenile institutions. Robin Lovrien Schwarz -----Original Message----- From: djrosen at comcast.net To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 1:55 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 215] Family Literacy and Corrections Bill, John and Steve, I have a question about family literacy. "Locked Up and Locked Out" points out that punishment ?is not appropriate for the more than 1.5 million children of prisoners? and that ?Neglecting these unintended victims will likely lead to these children replacing their parents in the prisons of the future.? What is being done about this? Can you give us some examples of programs in prison settings that help inmates help their children to read or with their homework, or with other education-related or parenting issues? David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ________________________________________________________________________ Check out the new AOL. Most comprehensive set of free safety and security tools, free access to millions of high-quality videos from across the web, free AOL Mail and more. From Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us Mon Sep 25 07:49:39 2006 From: Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us (Lobaccaro Gina (DOC)) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 07:49:39 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 245] Re: Posting your questions In-Reply-To: <9B35BF1886881547B5DFF88364AF31A3081E8B9E@wdcrobe2m03.ed.gov> Message-ID: June, We provide the full range of special education services for all students under 21, but not so for the older inmates. We will be doing more precise student learning plans in the future that look alot like an IEP, specific learning goals with follow-through on a 60 hour basis. No, the teachers are not trained well to work with LD students, but it would be a great suggest for local professional development. I am the media & technology specialist/teacher and I do not actually "teach" but I am a special educator and worked here as the special education teacher for the first 9 years I was here. I have had lots of professional development background, so perhaps it is something I can offer. Thanks for your reply. Gina -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Crawford, June Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 12:06 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 236] Re: Posting your questions Many people who work in correctional education report a high incidence of learning disabilities, a previous experience in special education classrooms, and a lack of appropriate instruction for those who require teaching techniques that are appropriate for the learner. My own research in corrections indicated a high, high percentage of the inmates in the correctional education programs either had been diagnosed in earlier schools or exhibited many characteristics of those with learning disabilities...and not just dyslexia. May I ask what screening or diagnosis is being done in the correctional system in which Gina works? What accommodations are provided for those with a history of LD? Is there a process to follow in the system for those who exhibit the characteristics of learning disabilities? Are the teachers in the system trained in teaching techniques that benefit students with LD? Sometimes it is not a matter of motivation, but a matter of being in an appropriate system, and the assessment of student needs for learning must go beyond a TABE or CASAS score and include the diagnosis of other things that may be interfering. I'd be interested in hearing about procedures that are followed in these situations. June Crawford -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Ann Burruss Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 4:24 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 232] Re: Posting your questions Gina, I, too, work with unmotivated ABE students. I believe that the key is showing how any amount of education is going to improve their lot in life; i.e., better job, family stability, etc. Too often we cannot demonstrate that what we are asking is going to make a difference in life outside the institution. Until we can integrate those skills with the hope and suitability of employment, think we are spinning our wheels. Have you tried the Workkeys Assessments? At least that steers you and the inmate in the direction of learning what's appropriate and needed for a job. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics _____ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060925/7ab6c4f6/attachment.html From Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us Mon Sep 25 08:53:39 2006 From: Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us (Lobaccaro Gina (DOC)) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:53:39 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 246] Re: Community re-entry programs In-Reply-To: Message-ID: Yes, Bill.. This morning I added the FOB article about Special Needs of Incarcerated Leaners and I will add this entire thread/conversation when it is complete... the Wiki at http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Corrections_Education Gina -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of William R Muth/FS/VCU Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 12:04 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 242] Re: Community re-entry programs Gina Lobaccaro and all, By way of addressing your excellent question about motivating low-literacy level learners, I'd like to return to what I believe is a hugely untapped potential in correctional education: the incarcerated learner's personal needs and interests. Anita Wilson describes "Third-spaces" in prisons in the UK where prisoners express themselves in ways deeply personal and loaded with their own sense of identity - poetry, music, art; ways of expression that they would likely not be engaged in 'back home' or in 'official' prison discourses (including prison classrooms, work assignments, etc.). When I recently interviewed literacy learners on their views of prison literacy programs, I was taken back by their need to talk about families and loved ones back home. Most of the prisoners thought about their mothers, fathers, spouses, sisters, sons, daughters, and grandparents almost constantly, when they were not 'pulled back' into the reality of prison by another inmate or staff member. Based on Anita's work I began seeing the reality of prison as the learners' "First- space" and their personal thoughts of home as the hidden "Second-spaces." I wondered how this enormous emotional resource (Second-space) could be (respectfully) 'invited' into the classroom by teachers. Gina asked about motivating low-level literacy students. One possible solution - though not necessarily an easy one - is through Language Experience Approach lessons. An example: A student of mine - 18 yrs old, doing time for murder, ADD big time and, weirdly, likeable -- was a profoundly disabled reader, barely knew the names of the letters. But he was convinced he did not need to study such "childish" things as phonics. Because he was highly fascinated with himself (!) I put a tape recorder in front of him and let him talk. His early stories made me queasy - how, once he got out, he was going to set up his own gas station and hire a team of his buddies to work for him...totally out of touch with reality! More than once I doubted my own judgment, but continued to transcribe the stories. They became his reading materials and he loved to read them. We made flash cards out of the words he most wanted to learn to read and spell, reread his stories to improve his fluency, and dread! even created daily phonics lessons based on his words. In addition to rapid growth in his reading, he began writing letters home, and this sparked a dialogue with his estranged mother. As time went by, his stories became much less fantastic, and much more real - about facing his mother when she came to visit, etc. Language Experience Approach (LEA) can be time consuming, and some prisons don't even allow tape recorders in the classroom. There is, also, a down side to this idea - that staff can get "too close" to their students -- and that can lead to disastrous results, and lead to harsh staff policies about keeping one's distance. (But, for example, if there were trustworthy tutors around, they could do the transcribing. Or discussion groups, instead of LEA, could be used to get learners engaged. Also, many staff have found ways to support students' personal needs and still maintain boundaries.) The point is that there are ways to motivate low-literacy adults -- Language Experience, Third-spaces, discussion groups, etc. -- but whether or not correctional educators are permitted to use them is another story. My guess is that if prisoners' "Second spaces" were "invited" into the classroom (they should never be coerced into the classroom!), we'd have a lot more family and intergenerational literacy programs flourishing: support for letter writing, peer support for family crises (see my note about the Allenwood Father's Group, few days back), and powerful and empowering purposes for literacy learning. I know that many prison classrooms do not engender the trust it would take to pull this off, but I also bet that those who care enough to participate in this discussion struggle everyday to sustain just such environments. A few related notes: John Linton, thank you for bringing to our attention the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee hearing, and the inside/outside work that Safer is doing. David - Safer Foundation program may be the best example of the kind of programs you were asking about. Diane Williams reported that the Safer "model prison to community initiative...show[ed] a 50 % decline in recidivism and a 50% increase in job placement. Our most recent statistics show that 77% of the participants who are active in Safer's services are currently working." About the testimony of the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee hearing on Reentry: Numerous experts talked about the need for support for families and children of prisoners, and the importance of family ties. But only once did a witness - Roger Werholtz from Kansas - mentioned a reentry program that involved "maintaining family ties." Why is it that this need, though recognized by Urban Institute and others as one of the major contributors to reentry success, is overshadowed by jobs, drug treatment, sex offender, and other (worthy) needs? Are these programs too messy? Too threatening? To personal? Again, at the risk of broke-record syndrome, I argue that family and intergenerational literacy programs could reach some of the least communicative parents in prison, and thus some of the most vulnerable children and families. Gina Lobaccaro is too modest to mention this, but she is the wiki-master!! Gina maintains the correctional education component of the Adult Literacy Education Wiki hosted by NIFL and supported by David Rosen, Erik Jacobsen and others (see: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Corrections_Education ). This is a great resource for our community of practice. Thank you, Gina. My guess is much of our conversation will find its way to this wiki, yes? June Crawford: As you know well, one alternative way to screen for reading disabilities in our classrooms is by assessing reading components in addition to reading comprehension. Here is a link to John Strucker's classic argument for the need for reading components testing: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=456 Sorry for such a long post!!! -Bill David Rosen Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/23/2006 06:18 AM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To specialtopics at nifl.gov cc Subject [SpecialTopics 240] Community re-entry programs Colleagues, Here's a question for our guests, and for anyone in this discussion who may work with a prisoner community re-entry program: In "Locked Up and Locked Out" a community re-entry program in Massachusetts is described as follows: "Re-entry projects around the country have been similar, or at least somewhat similar, to the Offender Re-entry Program (ORP) in Suffolk County, Massachu- setts. The lead educational agency is Boston's Bunker Hill Community College. The program is detailed in a case study found in a report of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).37 ORP provides soon-to-be- released inmates with an intensive 6-hour-a-day course of study over a six-week period. After release, the inmates continue to receive support from caseworkers and mentors for a minimum of six months - and many choose to continue beyond this six-month period. Drawing on different community resources and agencies, the program includes: * education during the final six weeks of prison provided by Bunker Hill Community College * job assistance at the one-stop career center called Workplace * case management provided by Community Resources for Justice * mentoring support from the faith-based Ella J. Baker House" How prevalent are programs such as the ORP? Do they reduce recidivism? What are the key ingredients of success? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060925/2ca514b9/attachment.html From Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us Mon Sep 25 08:02:27 2006 From: Gina.Lobaccaro at state.de.us (Lobaccaro Gina (DOC)) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 08:02:27 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 247] Re: Community re-entry programs In-Reply-To: Message-ID: I will be honest here ... as I admit a bias that has beeing my undoing perhaps. I am such a "phonics' person.... I nearly forgot how important it is to include whole language in with instruction. I do not teach here now, but BUT.... I can make suggestions and I can do mini projects with ABE students as I please -- as a rule. I have actually been thinking about getting permission to bring in digital tape recorders and interview incoming students about their education histories and "interest in education" while they are incarcerated. In the pass, all placement in education at SCI has been based on a "first come first serve basis" as the student is placed on the "classified (mandated) to education list"/tested/ put on a waiting list. I am preparing a strategy where the emphasis will be change to a "first come/most motivated" practice keeping the others on the list, but lower down on it. Bills suggestions about audio taping and transribing life stories is the perfect complement to this process, and I -- will with all my enthusiam try.. to make it happen here at SCI. I would like to do a small research project on it as well.... Thanks Bill .. keep in touch. But.. I don't really think I am a Wike-master... but thank you very much. I am happy to hear that the CEA Annual Conference is on the east coast this year, Steve. I didn't know you had retired from the MD Corrections system... are you still the director of the CEA??? I am pretty sure that you are. Gina -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of William R Muth/FS/VCU Sent: Sunday, September 24, 2006 12:04 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 242] Re: Community re-entry programs Gina Lobaccaro and all, By way of addressing your excellent question about motivating low-literacy level learners, I'd like to return to what I believe is a hugely untapped potential in correctional education: the incarcerated learner's personal needs and interests. Anita Wilson describes "Third-spaces" in prisons in the UK where prisoners express themselves in ways deeply personal and loaded with their own sense of identity - poetry, music, art; ways of expression that they would likely not be engaged in 'back home' or in 'official' prison discourses (including prison classrooms, work assignments, etc.). When I recently interviewed literacy learners on their views of prison literacy programs, I was taken back by their need to talk about families and loved ones back home. Most of the prisoners thought about their mothers, fathers, spouses, sisters, sons, daughters, and grandparents almost constantly, when they were not 'pulled back' into the reality of prison by another inmate or staff member. Based on Anita's work I began seeing the reality of prison as the learners' "First- space" and their personal thoughts of home as the hidden "Second-spaces." I wondered how this enormous emotional resource (Second-space) could be (respectfully) 'invited' into the classroom by teachers. Gina asked about motivating low-level literacy students. One possible solution - though not necessarily an easy one - is through Language Experience Approach lessons. An example: A student of mine - 18 yrs old, doing time for murder, ADD big time and, weirdly, likeable -- was a profoundly disabled reader, barely knew the names of the letters. But he was convinced he did not need to study such "childish" things as phonics. Because he was highly fascinated with himself (!) I put a tape recorder in front of him and let him talk. His early stories made me queasy - how, once he got out, he was going to set up his own gas station and hire a team of his buddies to work for him...totally out of touch with reality! More than once I doubted my own judgment, but continued to transcribe the stories. They became his reading materials and he loved to read them. We made flash cards out of the words he most wanted to learn to read and spell, reread his stories to improve his fluency, and dread! even created daily phonics lessons based on his words. In addition to rapid growth in his reading, he began writing letters home, and this sparked a dialogue with his estranged mother. As time went by, his stories became much less fantastic, and much more real - about facing his mother when she came to visit, etc. Language Experience Approach (LEA) can be time consuming, and some prisons don't even allow tape recorders in the classroom. There is, also, a down side to this idea - that staff can get "too close" to their students -- and that can lead to disastrous results, and lead to harsh staff policies about keeping one's distance. (But, for example, if there were trustworthy tutors around, they could do the transcribing. Or discussion groups, instead of LEA, could be used to get learners engaged. Also, many staff have found ways to support students' personal needs and still maintain boundaries.) The point is that there are ways to motivate low-literacy adults -- Language Experience, Third-spaces, discussion groups, etc. -- but whether or not correctional educators are permitted to use them is another story. My guess is that if prisoners' "Second spaces" were "invited" into the classroom (they should never be coerced into the classroom!), we'd have a lot more family and intergenerational literacy programs flourishing: support for letter writing, peer support for family crises (see my note about the Allenwood Father's Group, few days back), and powerful and empowering purposes for literacy learning. I know that many prison classrooms do not engender the trust it would take to pull this off, but I also bet that those who care enough to participate in this discussion struggle everyday to sustain just such environments. A few related notes: John Linton, thank you for bringing to our attention the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee hearing, and the inside/outside work that Safer is doing. David - Safer Foundation program may be the best example of the kind of programs you were asking about. Diane Williams reported that the Safer "model prison to community initiative...show[ed] a 50 % decline in recidivism and a 50% increase in job placement. Our most recent statistics show that 77% of the participants who are active in Safer's services are currently working." About the testimony of the Senate Judiciary Sub-Committee hearing on Reentry: Numerous experts talked about the need for support for families and children of prisoners, and the importance of family ties. But only once did a witness - Roger Werholtz from Kansas - mentioned a reentry program that involved "maintaining family ties." Why is it that this need, though recognized by Urban Institute and others as one of the major contributors to reentry success, is overshadowed by jobs, drug treatment, sex offender, and other (worthy) needs? Are these programs too messy? Too threatening? To personal? Again, at the risk of broke-record syndrome, I argue that family and intergenerational literacy programs could reach some of the least communicative parents in prison, and thus some of the most vulnerable children and families. Gina Lobaccaro is too modest to mention this, but she is the wiki-master!! Gina maintains the correctional education component of the Adult Literacy Education Wiki hosted by NIFL and supported by David Rosen, Erik Jacobsen and others (see: http://wiki.literacytent.org/index.php/Corrections_Education ). This is a great resource for our community of practice. Thank you, Gina. My guess is much of our conversation will find its way to this wiki, yes? June Crawford: As you know well, one alternative way to screen for reading disabilities in our classrooms is by assessing reading components in addition to reading comprehension. Here is a link to John Strucker's classic argument for the need for reading components testing: http://www.ncsall.net/?id=456 Sorry for such a long post!!! -Bill David Rosen Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/23/2006 06:18 AM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To specialtopics at nifl.gov cc Subject [SpecialTopics 240] Community re-entry programs Colleagues, Here's a question for our guests, and for anyone in this discussion who may work with a prisoner community re-entry program: In "Locked Up and Locked Out" a community re-entry program in Massachusetts is described as follows: "Re-entry projects around the country have been similar, or at least somewhat similar, to the Offender Re-entry Program (ORP) in Suffolk County, Massachu- setts. The lead educational agency is Boston's Bunker Hill Community College. The program is detailed in a case study found in a report of the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).37 ORP provides soon-to-be- released inmates with an intensive 6-hour-a-day course of study over a six-week period. After release, the inmates continue to receive support from caseworkers and mentors for a minimum of six months - and many choose to continue beyond this six-month period. Drawing on different community resources and agencies, the program includes: * education during the final six weeks of prison provided by Bunker Hill Community College * job assistance at the one-stop career center called Workplace * case management provided by Community Resources for Justice * mentoring support from the faith-based Ella J. Baker House" How prevalent are programs such as the ORP? Do they reduce recidivism? What are the key ingredients of success? David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060925/7a259827/attachment.html From Tiffany.Johnson at victoriacollege.edu Mon Sep 25 12:40:23 2006 From: Tiffany.Johnson at victoriacollege.edu (JOHNSON, Tiffany) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 11:40:23 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 248] Our Education Program References: Message-ID: First of all, this discussion is an excellent spotlight on correctional education. It is always positive when there are others who can relate to your issues. Since our program is a correctional program and not really a prison program, there are few people who can understand some of our unique problems. We are a small county jail program in Texas that is sponsored by the adult education grant at the local community college. We service the students who have a below 12.9 reading, writing, and/or mathematics score on a standardized test; however, the program is voluntary and we have certain restrictions. They stay with our program until they are either released to the local area or sent to the prison system. We have a statewide education system here in Texas at the prison level that will continue their education. Our problems are usually dealing with the unpredictable time they will stay in our classes (average stay is 3-6 months), officer relationships with inmates and instructors, and the image that correctional education has with the public. However, in my years working with the incarcerated, the most positive aspect is the flexibility. We can arrange classes and offer any types of additional programs we can come up with. The students are always the focus and the classes being taught are always catered to their needs. We offer English as a Second Language, basic ed, GED, and workforce skills. However, it is the extra classes that the students request that keeps them motivated and maintain our positive image with the inmates. I realize we are small (our county jail holds 500) and it is easy to handle such a small population; however, I'm sure there are things that can be duplicated at a larger level. Some comments on the discussion topics: it does take a motivating teacher to make your program work. Not only motivating, but excellent in teaching as well as people relationships! Maryland has had some fantastic programs that I have read about and I agree with the comments on self-education. However, I must add that peer education is also a very effective route. Our community also eliminated the newspapers when they put in televisions and ironically, the inmates are petitioning to get rid of the TVs because they never turn them off! Finally, I heard the presentation referred to by Robin Schwarz and the probability that our students are suffering from a physical limitation (poor eyesight, hearing problems, etc) and it is being neglected, is very likely. I hope the programs will begin to address that first. There are a couple of things that I wanted to share that may be of some interest. We have Internet access for our students to use. It is strictly limited and monitored at all times. The classroom has 6 computers and all screens are visible. The students are allowed to use them while the instructor is present and monitoring. The rules do not allow email, chat, etc. All downloading and printing is monitored. It is a very small operation, but effective. We began a college online course pilot program last week with three students. They are taking a Web Page Design class. Hopefully, this will be a precedent for others to follow. We will see. Tiffany Johnson Victoria College Adult Education --- Corrections Changing the world... one inmate at a time! ________________________________ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: application/ms-tnef Size: 5855 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060925/a72879a4/attachment.bin From familyed at logantele.com Mon Sep 25 16:36:35 2006 From: familyed at logantele.com (Marie Reeves) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 15:36:35 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 249] Re: Posting your questions Message-ID: <200609252036.k8PKaZZv010922@bn4.blue.net> Hi, My name is Marie Reeves and I am a Family Literacy coordinator. I work for Kentucky Adult Education in Logan County, Ky. We are currently setting up to use Work Keys in our local detention center. The web address is http://www.act.org/workkeys/ -------- Original Message -------- ==> From: "Lobaccaro Gina \(DOC\)" ==> Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:09:42 -0400 I will search for information about Workkeys... I do not know the program. Please send a link in case I do not find it.... thank you, Ann. Gina -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of Ann Burruss Sent: Friday, September 22, 2006 4:24 AM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 232] Re: Posting your questions Gina, I, too, work with unmotivated ABE students. I believe that the key is showing how any amount of education is going to improve their lot in life; i.e., better job, family stability, etc. Too often we cannot demonstrate that what we are asking is going to make a difference in life outside the institution. Until we can integrate those skills with the hope and suitability of employment, think we are spinning our wheels. Have you tried the Workkeys Assessments? At least that steers you and the inmate in the direction of learning what's appropriate and needed for a job. ----- Original Message ----- From: Lobaccaro Gina (DOC) To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Sent: Monday, September 18, 2006 8:39 PM Subject: [SpecialTopics 206] Re: Posting your questions Hello All, I am Gina Lobaccaro the Media & Technology Specialist at Sussex Correctional Institution in Georgetown Delaware. I work for the Delaware Department of Education Prison Education program.. I have corresponded with David and Bill, and I have met Steve at a couple of conferences. I am asking if there is any research or a need for research in the area of motivation for low level ABE learners in correctional settings. We have so many inmate/students who come to class but make little or no progress over and extended time. They appear to be coming to get off the tiers or to receive "good time". In truth, they do not receive much "good time" for education. Our education program is a classified program. If a student does not have GED or HS diploma they must attend school. We have a long waiting list for the low level ABE students, but we also have students sitting in classes who appear to me totally unmotivated to improve their academic skills. Do you or the other list serve members have suggestions for motivating ABE low level learners in CE settings? Gina ________________________________ From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov on behalf of David Rosen Sent: Mon 9/18/2006 7:38 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 204] Posting your questions Colleagues, Please post your questions and comments for our guests as soon as you are ready. (Now would be good.) You can ask general questions like "What do we know about the transition from a prison or jail education program to a community education program?" or "What does family literacy mean in a prison setting?" Or you can ask specific questions like "How does a prison family literacy program affect children's reading skills?" Some people have joined the discussion to be introduced to the topic; others are experts in this area. All questions are welcome. Send your questions to: specialtopics at nifl.gov David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics _____ ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From familyed at logantele.com Mon Sep 25 16:46:59 2006 From: familyed at logantele.com (Marie Reeves) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 15:46:59 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 250] Re: Family Literacy and Corrections Message-ID: <200609252046.k8PKkx2Y019297@bn4.blue.net> Hi, I teach a parenting and PACT (Parent And Child Together) class in our local detention center. Incarcerated parents attend a one hour parenting class addressing different issues, then child care providers bring their children for PACT. We have had some wonderful success stories as a result of these classes. Marie Reeves Logan County Kentucky -------- Original Message -------- ==> From: David Rosen ==> Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2006 13:55:33 -0400 Bill, John and Steve, I have a question about family literacy. "Locked Up and Locked Out" points out that punishment ?is not appropriate for the more than 1.5 million children of prisoners? and that ?Neglecting these unintended victims will likely lead to these children replacing their parents in the prisons of the future.? What is being done about this? Can you give us some examples of programs in prison settings that help inmates help their children to read or with their homework, or with other education-related or parenting issues? David J. Rosen djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From djrosen at comcast.net Mon Sep 25 17:53:03 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David J. Rosen) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 17:53:03 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 251] Corrections education discussion coming to a close Message-ID: <45184FBF.4080104@comcast.net> Colleagues, Today is the last day of our discussion with our guests, Bill Muth, John Linton, and Steve Steurer. I want to thank them -- and everyone who contributed -- for a rich and interesting discussion. I would also like to invite our guests, if they would like, to give us any remaining replies and any end-of-discussion thoughts or additional comments. For example, if there are other resources you would like us to know about that would be helpful in continuing this dialogue -- online, hard copy, or conferences for example -- please feel free to share them. I will post any comments through tomorrow, and then the discussion will close. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net From Steurer1 at aol.com Mon Sep 25 20:43:01 2006 From: Steurer1 at aol.com (Steurer1 at aol.com) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 20:43:01 EDT Subject: [SpecialTopics 252] Re: Corrections education discussion coming to a close Message-ID: <413.cb9daeb.3249d195@aol.com> David, Thank you for hosting the special topics session. I got a late start due to a scheduling problem but have been fascinated by the comments and discussion. Bill Muth and John Linton are two people I respect tremendously for their brilliance and dedication to the field and contributions over the years. It is great to have such wonderful friends and peers. For those folks whose great comments I have read during the last week thank you very much. We should not end this dialogue today. CEA has a number of listserv discussion groups for topics such as special education and parenting. Please visit our website shown below and check it out. There are lots of other folks out there who need to hear your remarks and who are anxious to talk to you. We are so isolated in our work and the Internet is such a great way to communicate. Once again, David, I appreciate your help and assistance, and patience with me. Best to everyone, Steve Stephen J. Steurer, Ph.D., Executive Director Correctional Education Association 8182 Lark Brown Road Suite 202 Elkridge, MD 21075 tel: 443-459-3081 fax: 443-459-3088 www.ceanational.org -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060925/cdcf70df/attachment.html From John.Linton at ed.gov Tue Sep 26 07:43:14 2006 From: John.Linton at ed.gov (Linton, John) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 07:43:14 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 253] Re: Corrections education discussion coming to a close Message-ID: David and all Thanks for inviting me to participate. This has been stimulating, and it was my honor to be selected as an "expert" to serve with Steve Steurer and Bill Muth -- two great people who are accomplished and well respected in this field. As we have seen in this discussion, there are a lot of experts out there. This is a great vehicle for us to tutor and learn from one another. It has long been my belief that one of the most insidious and destructive enemies faced by correctional educators is simple professional isolation. Any tool that can be used against that foe should be valued. Thanks for your work on this, David. Steve has not paid me to say this, but I want to add that I've had great opportunities for growth and affirmation through the Correctional Education Association. Many generous and dedicated individuals have lent a hand to help make that organization prosper. While it does have a strong professional staff under Steve Steurer's leadership, it is still in essence a volunteer organization -- and people tend to get out of it what they are willing to invest. So if you have not already done so, check it out! A good starting point is the web site: http://www.ceanational.org/ Time is really short for me just now -- so please forgive me for not offering up a more topical and substantial post in closing. Fortunately, there has been no shortage of expert offerings provided in this forum by a rich variety of individuals doing interesting and important work. Thanks for letting me be part of your conversation. If I may be of service to you, my full contact information follows: John Linton, Correctional Education Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Room 3E334 Washington, DC 20202-6450 202-205-7942 (voice), 202-260-7767 (fax) -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David J. Rosen Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 5:53 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 251] Corrections education discussion coming to aclose Colleagues, Today is the last day of our discussion with our guests, Bill Muth, John Linton, and Steve Steurer. I want to thank them -- and everyone who contributed -- for a rich and interesting discussion. I would also like to invite our guests, if they would like, to give us any remaining replies and any end-of-discussion thoughts or additional comments. For example, if there are other resources you would like us to know about that would be helpful in continuing this dialogue -- online, hard copy, or conferences for example -- please feel free to share them. I will post any comments through tomorrow, and then the discussion will close. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics From wrmuth at vcu.edu Tue Sep 26 12:21:17 2006 From: wrmuth at vcu.edu (William R Muth/FS/VCU) Date: Tue, 26 Sep 2006 12:21:17 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 254] Re: Corrections education discussion coming to a close In-Reply-To: Message-ID: David, Thank you for hosting this discussion. I feel like we just scratched the surface of this broad subject. If we continue the discussion in other formats (and I hope we do) we may need to narrow the focus a bit. One last thought concerning comments made by June Crawford (concerning learning disabilities) and Gina Lobaccaro (regarding ?whole language?). For some these phrases conjure up strong feelings either for or against authentic learning (or conversely, for or against, say, explicit phonics instruction). For me (and I?d dare say for most teachers looking to survive and succeed in the classroom) it is pointless to make absolute claims about either approach. The key is: in what context? Does the practitioner have regular contact with the learner over 3 months? 1 year? 5 years? Is the learner motivated to learn? Is there a climate of trust between keeper and kept? One solution, for me, is what Dorothy Strickland calls ?Whole-Part-Whole.? We start a lesson with meaning and purpose, move on to skill instruction, then close with purpose. I like it because it embraces both world views, and suggests a way to go forward. But even this model does not work for everyone! As I have argued elsewhere, it is just as inhumane to ignore the explicit instructional needs of a learner with a severe reading disability as it is to ?impose? phonics on a mistrusting, resisting learner, or on a strong decoder who is interested in developing, say, a rich English vocabulary. I?ll end here. I echo John Linton and Steve Steurer?s sentiments ? it has been a real honor to share the ?stage? with them and with all of the caring, forceful and wise respondents. Thank you David and all! Bill "Linton, John" Sent by: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov 09/26/2006 07:43 AM Please respond to specialtopics at nifl.gov To cc Subject [SpecialTopics 253] Re: Corrections education discussion coming to a close David and all Thanks for inviting me to participate. This has been stimulating, and it was my honor to be selected as an "expert" to serve with Steve Steurer and Bill Muth -- two great people who are accomplished and well respected in this field. As we have seen in this discussion, there are a lot of experts out there. This is a great vehicle for us to tutor and learn from one another. It has long been my belief that one of the most insidious and destructive enemies faced by correctional educators is simple professional isolation. Any tool that can be used against that foe should be valued. Thanks for your work on this, David. Steve has not paid me to say this, but I want to add that I've had great opportunities for growth and affirmation through the Correctional Education Association. Many generous and dedicated individuals have lent a hand to help make that organization prosper. While it does have a strong professional staff under Steve Steurer's leadership, it is still in essence a volunteer organization -- and people tend to get out of it what they are willing to invest. So if you have not already done so, check it out! A good starting point is the web site: http://www.ceanational.org/ Time is really short for me just now -- so please forgive me for not offering up a more topical and substantial post in closing. Fortunately, there has been no shortage of expert offerings provided in this forum by a rich variety of individuals doing interesting and important work. Thanks for letting me be part of your conversation. If I may be of service to you, my full contact information follows: John Linton, Correctional Education Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW, Room 3E334 Washington, DC 20202-6450 202-205-7942 (voice), 202-260-7767 (fax) -----Original Message----- From: specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:specialtopics-bounces at nifl.gov]On Behalf Of David J. Rosen Sent: Monday, September 25, 2006 5:53 PM To: specialtopics at nifl.gov Subject: [SpecialTopics 251] Corrections education discussion coming to aclose Colleagues, Today is the last day of our discussion with our guests, Bill Muth, John Linton, and Steve Steurer. I want to thank them -- and everyone who contributed -- for a rich and interesting discussion. I would also like to invite our guests, if they would like, to give us any remaining replies and any end-of-discussion thoughts or additional comments. For example, if there are other resources you would like us to know about that would be helpful in continuing this dialogue -- online, hard copy, or conferences for example -- please feel free to share them. I will post any comments through tomorrow, and then the discussion will close. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics ------------------------------- National Institute for Literacy Special Topics mailing list SpecialTopics at nifl.gov To unsubscribe or change your subscription settings, please go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/SpecialTopics -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://www.nifl.gov/pipermail/specialtopics/attachments/20060926/b5abdd17/attachment.html From Mylinh.Nguyen at ed.gov Wed Oct 18 11:42:20 2006 From: Mylinh.Nguyen at ed.gov (Nguyen, My Linh) Date: Wed, 18 Oct 2006 11:42:20 -0400 Subject: [SpecialTopics 255] CROSSPOSTED: Update on Discussion Lists Message-ID: Dear Discussion List subscribers, As the National Institute for Literacy begins a new fiscal year, we have taken steps to streamline the way we deliver professional development to our discussion list members. We would like to let you know about some changes ahead for some of the National Institute for Literacy Discussion Lists. The changes affect the Women and Literacy List; Poverty, Race, and Literacy List; Content Standards List; and Program Leadership and Improvement List. First, effective October 30, 2006, we will be closing the Content Standards and Program Leadership & Improvement lists. We have chosen to close these two lists because we recognize that many of the issues that impact Content Standards and Program Leadership & Improvement carry across all the subject areas of our other Discussion Lists. Second, effective November 6, 2006, we will be merging of the Poverty, Race and Literacy List with the Women and Literacy List. We have chosen to combine the two lists because we recognize that many of the issues that impact one group also affect the other group, and believe that many of the topics discussed on one list can benefit the other list. Race and gender issues often intersect, and it is most both practical and appropriate to have them intersect on one combined list. We will continue to provide access to discussion archives on our website. Thank you for your active participation in the Institute's lists. We invite you to explore all of our lists for to help you further your own professional development. The Institute's lists include: Adult Literacy Professional Development Assessment Adult English Language Learners Family Literacy Focus on Basics Health & Literacy Learning Disabilities Poverty, Race, Women and Literacy Special Topics Technology & Literacy Workplace Literacy Descriptions and instructions on how to register for the Institute's Discussion Lists can be found at http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html My Linh Nguyen Associate Director of Communications National Institute for Literacy (202) 233-2041 fax (202) 233-2050 mnguyen at nifl.gov From djrosen at comcast.net Sat Nov 4 14:07:39 2006 From: djrosen at comcast.net (David Rosen) Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2006 14:07:39 -0500 Subject: [SpecialTopics 256] New Discussion List: Poverty, Race, Women, and Literacy References: <454A5531020000310000B3FF@mailsrv4.gsu.edu> Message-ID: <2E213B62-DA3C-4E8B-9ABF-09DE312B9477@comcast.net> Special Topics Colleagues, For your information, below is a message about a new National Institute for Literacy discussion List, from its moderator, Daphne Greenberg. David J. Rosen Special Topics Discussion Moderator djrosen at comcast.net ============================ On November 6th, a new discussion list will be starting called: Poverty, Race, Women, and Literacy. If you are interested in subscribing, please to do so by going to: http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/PovertyRaceWomen The purpose of this discussion list is to provide an on-going professional development forum for providers, advocates, researchers, learners, policy makers, and all other persons who are interested in exploring the linkages between poverty, race, women and literacy. Examples of topics include: the relationships among poverty, race, women and literacy in the United States and in other countries; health as it pertains to women and poverty issues; the hidden rules of persons living with the effects of poverty, the intersection of these effects with gender and race, and the misunderstandings these can cause in the teaching/learning process; the role of women's literacy in family literacy programs, and the assumptions about race and poverty often made in these programs; domestic violence and its intersection with poverty, race, and literacy; women's literacy levels and its ties to economics and welfare of families; access to literacy in different cultures based on gender, racial, and economic status; connection between women's literacy, race, poverty and public policy; identification of supportive communication networks; and discussion of action steps addressing women, race, poverty and literacy. If the above description interests you, please go to the following address to subscribe: http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/PovertyRaceWomen . The list opens on November 6th. Thanks, Daphne Daphne Greenberg Assistant Professor Educational Psych. & Special Ed. Georgia State University P.O. Box 3979 Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3979 phone: 404-651-0127 fax:404-651-4901 dgreenberg at gsu.edu Daphne Greenberg Associate Director Center for the Study of Adult Literacy Georgia State University P.O. Box 3977 Atlanta, Georgia 30302-3977 phone: 404-651-0127 fax:404-651-4901 dgreenberg at gsu.edu