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Conference Spotlight: Technology & Distance Learning Sessions

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Dear readers,

Welcome back to another week of conference discussion! Today, we want to highlight a few sessions on a topic we think will be helpful for many of you: technology.

Texas is a large and varied state, and many of you are familiar with the importance of computers and technology in our work. Digital tools enable students to overcome learning difficulties and engage in their education, and distance learning is a growing alternative for students that cannot attend physical classes. As we continue to offer literacy services to the underserved, it is important that we learn to utilize technology effectively, in the classroom and beyond. Literacy Texas is happy to welcome a number of presenters to speak on this topic during our conference. Sessions on distance learning and technology will include:

Technologizing Your Classroom

This comprehensive course will cover everything from designing lessons that integrate technology into instruction, to finding fun and engaging technology tools. It will also offer ideas and resources for future technology use in the classroom.

Assess For Success: Assessing Student Performance with Tech Tools

This presentation will teach educators about three different tech tools (Plickers, Quizizz, and Kahoot), enable participants to experience them through a student perspective, and allow them to set up and explore one of the tools.

Creating 2.0 Classrooms on 1.0 Budgets

Want to bring digital literacy into your class or program, but budget constraints are slowing you down? This is the session will explore digital resources and provide options for finding free or discounted hardware and software.

Assistive Technology: Creating an On-Ramp for Digital Learning

During this Wednesday Workshop, participants will learn about and explore several practical, accessible examples of assistive technology (AT) that have instructional implications for serving the needs of students with learning disabilities in the AEL classroom.

We’ll continue sharing news of our conference with you next Wednesday, but for now, make sure to download our mobile app — we’ll be announcing all presentation details this week, and our app users will be the first to know when the schedule is available!

Register

Conference Spotlight: ESL Sessions

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Dear readers,

As a community of literacy providers, we are all aware of the importance of English Language Learner (ELL) programs in our state. Texas is home to some of the most diverse populations in the country, and familiarity with ESL is vital to many adult literacy programs. The ability to speak, read, and write English fluently is essential to the lives of students, from passing high school equivalency exams to navigating our nation’s healthcare system. Literacy Texas is proud to offer a range of sessions on ESL at this year’s conference, a few of which we’d like to share with you right now!

At our 2017 Conference, you will have the opportunity to attend sessions on:

Effective Needs Assessment in Adult ESL One-to-One Tutoring

In order to provide effective service, it’s important to successfully determine the needs of students, but tutoring needs assessments are often underestimated and misused. This session will discuss their efficacy and cultural appropriateness.

The Intersection of Adult ESL and Health Literacy

Understanding healthcare and health literacy can be complicated in any language. This session will cover ways to incorporate health literacy within ESL lessons to increase health outcomes for students.

How to use Graphic Materials to Contextualize ESL Instruction for Adult Learners

Graphic materials have long been useful tools in teaching adult literacy. In this session, attendees will learn to utilize graphic materials to engage adult ESL learners in dialogue, develop critical thinking, and encourage autonomy.

Wait, What? Fun Strategies for a Multi-level ELL Conversation Class

Managing students with diverse levels of fluency can be a complex job, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be enjoyable! This session will provide teachers with fun and productive ideas to keep multi-level, diverse groups of ELLs engaged and progressing as they wait for traditional classes.

We have a great deal more in store for you, so be sure to keep an eye on the blog for more session spotlights, and download our mobile app to be alerted when the full schedule is published!

Register

An Overview of the Literacy Texas Conference

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Dear readers,

Time flies when you’re traveling around a state as large as ours, but we’re still a little shocked to see that it’s already May! Springtime at Literacy Texas means that preparation for our annual conference is in full swing, and this year is no different. We’ve opened registration, announced our keynotes, and are in the process of finalizing the schedule. There is much left to do, but for now, we’d like to offer an overview of the conference, why you should go, and what changes you can expect for 2017.

We aim to provide two very valuable things at our conference: professional development and networking. For years, this meant bringing adult educators together for two days of training sessions and networking luncheons — components that are still integral to our event. In 2016, we added an optional third day to the schedule, offering a range of full-day, intensive workshops on a variety of subjects.

This year, we’re continuing to change things in order to provide the best possible experience for you. We took last year’s feedback into account, shortening breaks and increasing the number of breakout sessions. We’ve also changed the format of our Wednesday workshops, splitting them into morning and afternoon sessions. During registration, you’ll be able to select which two workshops you’d like to attend for the day.

We’re also planning a number of special events throughout the conference — ones we hope will be not only educational, but inspirational and fun. As an attendee, you’ll have the opportunity to attend a special evening workshop with award-winning playwright and monologist Kevin Kling and engage with our new mobile app. You’ll also be able to kick back with popcorn and board games, tell your favorite classroom story over cookies and coffee, and scour the San Marcos Outlets for our scavenger hunt. Our conference has always provided invaluable training, but this year, it will also be a place where you can make memories, build new friendships, and just have fun.

We’ll be speaking in depth about all of these features over the coming months, starting with spotlights on some of the sessions we think you’ll be eager to attend. Check back next Wednesday to learn more!

Conference Spotlight: Creativity in the Classroom

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Dear readers,

One change we worked to implement in this year’s conference was increasing the fun factor, and we wanted our sessions to reflect that. Of the many wonderful proposals we received, here are a few that we think will be especially creative and enjoyable to attend.

The Multiple Values and Benefits of Journaling

Delve into the world of journaling with author Arlene Gale! Though widely accepted as a tool for personal growth, journaling is rarely considered for its value as a professional development tool to grow writing skills. In this session, you’ll flex your “show, don’t tell” muscles, learn the art of capturing emotions in writing, and explore ways to teach scenes and settings for world building.

Getting Graphic: The Value of Graphic Novels in Literacy Instruction

Comics are already a widely used tool in the adult literacy classroom, and the last decade has seen an explosion in the popularity of graphic novels. But how can we incorporate these tools into our instruction? This session will help you create a lesson plan around a graphic novel and locate resources in researching graphic novels.

Hear here! The Audio Revolution of Podcasts, Adapted for Literacy Instruction

Podcasts offer easily accessed content for free, and can be adapted for any adult education program. Attend this presentation to learn how to access tools that adapt audio into written content for instruction, and how to craft a lesson plan around audio content.

Literacy Lessons as a Half-Orc: Go beyond Monopoly & Teach With Tabletop Gaming

While heroically fighting dragons, players gain reading, numeracy, leadership, communication, and critical thinking skills. This fun and interactive session will teach you to integrate roleplaying and tabletop games into the adult learning environment.

We hope these sessions make you as excited as we are for the conference! You can learn more about our event at literacytexas.org/conference, and be sure to check out the full presentation schedule here.

Next week, we’ll have a first-time attendee of our 2016 Conference share some insight on what to expect, how the event differs from our regional symposiums, and more, so be sure to check back on Wednesday!

Advocating for AEL in a Workforce Framework

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Welcome to the final Workforce Wednesday blog post! This blog series will end, but the blog will continue to bring you top-notch information and resources. This is a site you want to bookmark! So far, we’ve discussed what a Workforce Development Board does, how you can partner with your local board, and ways to incorporate workforce development in the classroom. Now, for the final week of Workforce Awareness Month, we will discuss advocacy in the context of today’s Adult Education and Literacy landscape.

Advocacy? Do You Mean Lobbying?

Not quite! Calling for the passage of certain laws is certainly a piece of advocacy, but it is one small slice in a delicious advocacy pie. The rest includes: building relationships with community leaders and legislators, educating your community about issues related to adult education and workforce preparedness, and raising awareness about your organization and its needs. Let’s look at each piece in detail.

Congress Works for You

Those of you who attended the 2017 Literacy Texas Advocacy Day might remember this, but it is worth repeating: You are the experts in your field! Advocacy can be intimidating if you think of your state and national legislators as very important people who know about all of the issues affecting their constituents and only have the time to speak with other important people. However, the reality is that legislators love hearing from their constituents, and they want to know what is going on in their districts. As a provider of adult education, you have firsthand knowledge of the effects that laws like the Workforce Integration and Opportunity Act (WIOA) have on adult learners. In other words, your legislators need you to provide necessary insight and feedback on their work.

Put this date into your calendar: May 29, 2017. This is the day that both your state and national senators and representatives will return to their district offices. The national legislators will only be in town for a week, but state legislators will remain in their offices until the next legislative session, which is not until 2019. The best way to initiate a relationship with your elected officials is to visit. Bring literature about your program, examples of student work, and even the students themselves. You might only have one meeting with your national representative before they return to Washington, D.C., but you have much more time with your local congress members. This is an informational meeting: you do not need to “convince” them of anything. Rather, you are letting them know that you exist, you are meeting a need in the community, and you are seeking their collaboration in meeting that need. You can even invite them to speak at your next graduation ceremony, or to take a tour of your facilities. Find out who represents you at the state level here and at the national level here.

Educate & Elevate: A National Awareness Campaign

The Coalition on Adult Basic Education (COABE) is spearheading a national campaign to increase awareness of adult education efforts and highlight its importance to the economic future of the United States. The campaign illustrates the many positive impacts that adult education has on our communities, and calls for more collaboration between educators and businesses. They created an excellent fact sheet that you can take with you to your legislative meetings. Learn more about Educate & Elevate, and sign up for their distribution list, at www.educateandelevate.info. COABE also advocates on a national level, and our own board member, Joshua Hayes, is representing Texas today at COABE’s Capitol Hill Day in Washington, D.C.!

Build Your Online Presence
During the first week of Workforce Awareness Month, we encouraged you to investigate your local Workforce Development Board’s website. Did you find an Adult Education and Literacy section? The Lower Rio Grande Valley and Brazos Valley have great examples. If you can’t find an AEL section on your region’s website, reach out to your Workforce Development Board and advocate for one! This is a great way to build a relationship with your Board and increase access to adult education programs in your area.

You Know the Recipe for Your Perfect Advocacy Pie

These suggestions are a starting point, but ultimately, you are the expert on the way things work in your region. For more ideas, see COABE’s site, and remember that anyone, and especially you, can advocate for Adult Education and Literacy. Happy Workforce Wednesday — now get to work on that pie-baking!

Integrating Workforce Development into the Classroom

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Happy Workforce Wednesday, readers! WAM is more than halfway over, but we’re not even close to filling your workforce toolkits. Last week, we talked about partnerships between community-based organizations and Workforce Development Boards. As Adult Education and Literacy becomes more workforce-oriented, it is increasingly important to connect with people in your community who know the local needs and trends.

Career-Minded Learners

Many of your learners will seek your services with their careers in mind. Whether they are building their English fluency, developing computer skills, or preparing for a high school equivalency exam, adult learners are often focused on acquiring a job, finding a better job, or launching a career. The critical question for educators is, “When should I introduce workforce preparation into my curriculum?” For Melissa Sadler-Nitu, Director of the I-BEST Program at Alamo College and Vice Chair of the Alamo Workforce Development Board, the answer to that question is: right away!

The Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-BEST) program was originally developed in Washington in response to a growing need for basic technical skills training among ABE and ESL students and so these students could succeed in college-level occupational programs. The I-BEST program has since been adapted for use in multiple states, including Texas. For students who are preparing to enter college classrooms, but need basic skills training to access technical programs that will advance their careers, the I-BEST program has shown to powerfully support their efforts.

Bringing Career Pathways to Your Classroom

However, for many of the students who seek community-based services, the costs of college programs are prohibitive, and they might lack spoken English proficiency. Sadler-Nitu asserts that the perfect time for these students to begin preparing for the workforce is during their very first lesson. In her presentation on Career Pathways, Sadler-Nitu showcases the Career and Educational Pathways program, a collaborative effort with Cambridge University Press. This curriculum is free to download and correlates each lesson group to official NRS levels of educational proficiency. From the very first lesson in the Ventures program, entitled “Personal Life History,” students are practicing for job interviews. They learn how to describe their technical and soft skills, how to map a career path that interests them, and how to set measurable goals toward career success. You can check out Sadler-Nitu’s entire presentation here.

WIOA and You

This post would not be complete without talking about the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). This comprehensive federal policy requires state grant recipients to integrate workforce preparation into their curricula as part of the transformation of Adult Education and Literacy from a department of higher education to a workforce development initiative.

For those of you with Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) funds, this is a very familiar refrain. At Literacy Texas, we want to know: how has your program adapted to WIOA standards? What challenges have you encountered? What are your success stories? Comment below to start the conversation! And if you’re a community-based organization who is still unsure about WIOA’s application to your program, check out this free ebook, sponsored by Essential Education, that puts WIOA guidelines into plain language and shows you how to integrate workforce skills into your lesson plans.

Workforce Awareness Month concludes next week with a call to action: we’ll talk about how YOU can effectively advocate on behalf of your organization, at the local level and beyond! Workforce integration is a community effort, and you must hone your advocacy skills to make sure Adult Education and Literacy participates in the conversation. See you next week!

For more information about the I-BEST program, read this report by the Community College Research Center.

How to Partner with your Workforce Development Board

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Welcome back, readers!

Today we continue our celebration of Workforce Awareness Month by asking the question, How can community-based literacy programs partner with their local Workforce Development Board to galvanize student success?

To help us properly answer this question, we reached out to several of our regional partners who are members of their local Board. If you recall from our first post in this series, the Texas Workforce Commission mandates that each Workforce Development Board include representatives from community-based organizations, as well as higher education providers. Adult literacy is guaranteed a seat at the table! But what does this look like in practice?

South Texas Workforce Partnership

Dr. Ida Acuña-Garza is the Executive Director of the South Texas Literacy Coalition (STLC). If that name sounds familiar, it may be because she was also the host of the South Texas Literacy Symposium in Edinburg this January. In addition to her work with the STLC, Dr. Acuña-Garza is an appointed member of the Lower Rio Grande Valley Workforce Development Board. This board represents Workforce Region 23 (check out their website here).

The process of induction to a Workforce Development Board includes a formal recommendation by a county official to the governor of Texas. Dr. Acuña-Garza’s came in the form of an invitation from the Chief Elected Officer of the Lower Rio Board about six years ago. Since Dr. Acuña-Garza’s appointment, she has collaborated with workforce partners in the Rio Grande Valley on many exciting projects.

Community Partnerships for Success

The partnership between the South Texas Literacy Coalition and Lower Rio Grande Valley Workforce Solutions has been fruitful. Dr. Acuña-Garza assisted in the Spanish translation of employer manuals that featured team- and skill-building exercises for employees. Additionally, her work with the Board gave her the opportunity to speak on the importance of family literacy to about 500 daycare workers during a conference.

Being involved with the Board provides many other opportunities for involvement in the community. One that Dr. Acuña-Garza is particularly excited about is the 2017 Youth Career Expo, where the South Texas Literacy Coalition will have a table and will distribute 700 books and other workforce preparation materials to high school students.

The STLC is a valued member of workforce readiness initiatives in the Rio Grande Valley. The organization was recently the beneficiary of a Workforce Solutions employee fundraiser: they presented Dr. Acuña-Garza and the STLC board with a $1725 check! Dr. Acuña-Garza reports that this will put 700 books into the hands of adult learners.

Every Board is Different

Dr. Acuña-Garza cautions that, while every regional board is structured similarly, they often operate in very different ways. The Lower Rio Board is highly collaborative with community partners like the South Texas Literacy Coalition, but collaborating with Boards will look different from region to region.

If you’re not sure where to start, Dr. Acuña-Garza recommends inviting your local Workforce Solutions staff to your next community event. For example, Lower Rio Workforce Solutions was an exhibitor at the South Texas Literacy Symposium. Another way to initiate the relationship is to invite Workforce Solutions staff to speak to your students or volunteers. This is a great way to connect your students with resources, especially if you don’t have the capacity to teach a separate job skills class.

Speaking of class, our next blog will focus on bringing workforce preparation into your classroom! Bookmark this page if you haven’t already, and we’ll see you next Wednesday.

Introducing: Workforce Development Boards

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Welcome, one and all, to WAM!

At Literacy Texas, we’re always looking for ways to connect community-based adult literacy programs with resources to propel adult learners to success in the classroom and beyond. We created Workforce Awareness Month to shine a light on one aspect of that success: workforce preparedness. Over the next four weeks, we’ll be exploring ways that adult educators can partner with local workforce efforts in their regions.

Adult Education is Workforce-Oriented

Most adult literacy providers would agree that their students need to be prepared to navigate the workforce. The push for workforce readiness was the driving factor behind the transfer of Adult Education and Literacy from the Texas Education Agency to the Texas Workforce Commission. Today’s students are learning to read, write, and speak English in order to acquire jobs, negotiate higher wages, and access training opportunities that will increase their economic stability.

Where do community-based literacy programs fit into this equation? Local literacy organizations have a unique opportunity to join the conversation between business owners, community leaders, and local decision-makers. In fact, community-based programs already have a seat at the table!

Workforce Development in Texas

Texas is divided into 28 Workforce Development Regions. Each region is headed by a Workforce Development Board, a nonprofit board of directors answerable to the Texas Workforce Commission. Boards oversee grants to local Workforce Solutions offices, assess regional workforce needs, and develop programs and services to address those needs.

The public’s point of contact is through Workforce Solutions offices. These offices use Workforce Investment Act funds to help job-seekers secure employment. They also subsidize childcare costs for eligible parents.

Each Board operates differently, and Workforce Solutions programs focus on workforce needs unique to their respective regions. Let’s look at the Coastal Bend board directory. This board directory delineates the types of representatives (private sector, community-based organization, etc) and shows us the typical makeup of a Workforce Development Board. Representatives come from private businesses, public assistance agencies, school districts, and community-based organizations.

One of the advantages of having such a diverse mix of professionals in the same room is that it facilitates communication between industries that would not otherwise cross paths. As adult literacy providers know, literacy touches all aspects of a person’s life. Often, educational services are fragmented, and this prevents efficient service delivery. This has prompted the development of literacy coalitions and organizations like Literacy Texas. Workforce Development Boards occupy a similar role of connecting services across professional and geographical lines.

Next Steps: Partnering with a Workforce Development Board

From the TWC website (emphasis ours):

“The majority of each Board is represented by members of the local business community. In all, Board membership includes individuals representing business and industry, economic development agencies, community-based organizations, education, organized labor, public assistance agencies and more.”

Every Workforce Development Board is required to have a representative from community-based programs, and many of Literacy Texas’ partners occupy that role in their local boards. Next week’s blog post will feature interviews with these partners, as well as actions you can take to partner with your Workforce Development Board!

Click here for a list of all 28 Workforce Development Board websites.

Like our WAM! posts? Got you humming tunes from MTV’s early days? Enjoy a flashback moment you go go), and be sure to tune in next week!

Welcome to the Literacy Texas Blog

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At the beginning of this year, one of the resolutions that passed through the Literacy Texas office was to update and improve the online support of our organization. We changed the frequency of our newsletter, implemented a calendar, compiled a presentation and resource library, and now, finally, we are launching our blog. (And that’s not all — we’ve got a few other surprises coming soon!)

We hope that this will become a place where you can learn about developments in adult education and the resources that are available to you and your students, as well as to familiarize yourself with our organization, learn about upcoming events, and explore the many other aspects of adult education and literacy.

Stay tuned — our first post, which will cover Workforce Development boards, will go live on Wednesday, April 5th!