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Registration now open for a Literacy Symposium unlike any other

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DFW Symposium - Poverty & Education

Guest blog post by Wes Young, MLS, Executive Director, Tarrant Literacy Coalition

The effects of the ongoing pandemic have brought many deficiencies into sharp focus.

The people who have been most severely affected by the pandemic tend to be those we work with in adult education classrooms across our community; lost jobs due to layoffs, decreased income, health scares and related concerns – all are new realities that our adult learners AND their families experience. 

On top of the daily responsibilities our learners face in everyday life, these new burdens strain capabilities and threaten personal growth through education.

Those who work with learners in any capacity do not always know the whole story or see the complete picture. We see a student drop out of class, and we think, “Well, there goes another one,” but the reality is that educators could do more to save that student with a little more understanding. 

The old-as-time expression ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ may seem like a cliché, but it is an essential part of reaching learners where they are; Tarrant Literacy Coalition is using this year’s DFW Literacy Symposium as a way into the lives of our learners.

Join us for the in-person 2021 DFW Literacy Symposium: Poverty and Education – a professional development experience unlike any you have ever participated in. 

The symposium will be held: 

Friday, October 8, 2021
7:00am to 5:00pm

Venue: George W. Hawkes Downtown Library and the Arlington City Council Chambers, two buildings on the same block. 

Registrant check-in will open at 6:30am in the Council Chambers building, with the day officially beginning at 7:00am. Our general session speaker will feature Dr. Horacio Sanchez, author and neuroscientist, presenting the session “Overcoming the Impact of Poverty on the Brain.”

Following the opening session, attendees will be split into two groups, and each will participate in the two remaining sessions for the day. One is a fabulous session presented by Theresa Sands of TCALL, “Beyond Poverty & Trauma with Adult Literacy.” The other session is a full-scale poverty simulation presented by ACH Child and Family Services. After lunch, the two groups will attend the session they did not participate in during the first half of the day. 

A simulation like this has not been offered to educators in DFW in many years, and it is something you DO NOT want to miss.

Registration for the event is now open. Read more about this one-of-a-kind event and register for the Symposium FOR FREE.

Film Director Richard Eyre once said, “Change begins with understanding, and understanding begins by identifying oneself with another person: in a word, empathy.” 

Tarrant Literacy Coalition and our sponsors hope that you will join us for an event sure to change your perspective and increase your empathy.

Professional Development credit (8.5 hours) is available.
Lunch will be provided.
Parking instructions can be found here.

Student Goals

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4 Things You Must Consider When Developing Adult Literacy Curriculum

No matter what age we’re working with, our students learn best when motivated. Whether internal or external, practical or aspirational, the stronger the “why”, the better they perform. As educators, we must never lose sight of this, even as we coordinate our students’ educational goals with various state and federal standards. 

As we set our instructional intentions, we need to keep (among many other things!) these four things in mind:

1) Blended Learning: Don’t just wheel in a television.

Of course, nowadays it’s more likely to be a projector or a Youtube link, but multimedia should no longer be thought of as a supplement. The pandemic provided an opportunity to explore technology as the foundation, as a flexible way to cater a lesson to each student’s needs, learning style, and living situation. The Online Learning Consortium defines blended/hybrid learning as “integrating online with traditional face-to-face class activities in a planned, pedagogically valuable manner.” 

Technology isn’t a novelty anymore. Inside the classroom and out, it’s essential to understand and use it skillfully. 

2) Upskilling: Preparing for the test that matters. 

“Upskilling is the process of acquiring new and relevant competencies needed today and in the near future.” (Digitalhrtech.com) It’s an understatement to say that the world is evolving. People hoping to find meaningful employment need an increasingly diverse set of skills and experience to keep up with this change. Dallas is #3 in the nation for job creation in the tech industry. We need to be aware of these broader changes happening around us and consider how they will affect our student’s goals. That means not only knowing but keeping tabs on our student’s goals, and supporting their needs through how we curate our instruction.

Upskilling can include digital skills (social media, UX/UI), analytics skills (critical thinking, research), soft skills (creativity, persuasion, communication), and many other skills that we’d do well to integrate into our classrooms.

3) Family Literacy: Who’s teaching who?

Teaching an adult means teaching the citizen, the parent, the employee, the friend, and all the other roles that person has taken on in their life. Family literacy means recognizing and fostering the parent’s role as a primary teacher in their children’s lives. Read talk more about the ties of family to literacy in this article. 

4) Health Literacy: The gap between the textbook and real life. 

Specialized language can be difficult even in our mother tongue. One particular area where this is true is with medical jargon, pharmaceuticals, and simply navigating our health system. Simply being able to read complicated instructions doesn’t equal meaningful comprehension. Is there a way to meet your student’s goals, comply with state and federal standards, and address challenges like health literacy that students might not even be aware they must face? 

But how?

You see the importance of these considerations, but creating an effective instructional strategy can be daunting. Thankfully, the 2021 Literacy Texas Annual Conference offers solutions to this challenge. Join us August 2-4 as speaker Ann Beeson presents “Student Goals & Instructional Standards: Coordinating your Curriculum and Instruction for Success”. She offers the resources and strategies you’ll need to keep your student’s goals front and center while also staying on target to achieve external standards.
Visit https://www.literacytexas.org/calendar/2021-literacy-texas-annual-conference/ to register and learn about the other speakers and sessions offered at this extraordinary event.