Top Stories in Literacy: July 16

New Special Ed. Research will Tackle Deaf Students’ Literacy Skills
A new round of about $60 million in grants from the National Center for Special Education Research awards researchers working to improve the school experiences of students with autism, ADHD, and who are deaf, among other disabilities.

California’s Food Literacy Resolution Sparks Fight Between Grocers and Advocates
Sacramento Assemblyman, Roger Dickinson, introduced a resolution to dub September Food Literacy Awareness Month, the details of the motion set off a virtual food fight.

Family Literacy Program Closes
Last year Walton County’s federally funded Even Start family literacy program shut down. Now a cut in funding has resulted in the closure of Northwest Florida State College’s version of the program at the Crestview Bob Sikes Center.

Has Florida Governor Had a Testing Epiphany?
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, who hasn’t seen a test he hasn’t wanted students to take, seems to have come to some sort of epiphany: The state that has been a national model for high-stakes test-based school reform just may be testing schoolchildren too much.

Career Pathways for Florida’s Adult Education and Literacy Programs

Career pathways is the wave of the future for Florida’s adult education and literacy programs.  In early November, ACE of Florida, the Florida Department of Education and other partners broadcasted a webcast about building career pathways for Florida’s adult students.  This is a link to the recorded webinar – it’s about 3 hours long, and gives viewers a clear picture of where the industry is headed with this initiative and how adult education and literacy programs can participate.

To help launch this initiative, each Regional Training Council (RTC) is conducting Career Pathways workshops.  Each workshop is on the January 2011 calendar on the Florida TechNet site and is free to attend.

This is the quick breakdown of offerings – each session will cover the same information, so you just need to attend one.

• 8:30 a.m.- 4 p.m., Monday, Jan. 10, at Northwest Florida State College (Niceville, Fla.) Register
• 8:30 a.m. – 4 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 11, at Tallahassee Community College (Tallahassee, Fla.) Register
• 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 12, at Florida State College Jacksonville (Jacksonville, Fla.) Register
• 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Friday, Jan. 14, at Mid Florida Tech (Orlando, Fla.) Register
• 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Tuesday, Jan. 18, at Hillsborough Instructional Services Center (Tampa, Fla.) Register
• 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 19, at Lee County Public Education Center (Fort Myers, Fla.) Register
• 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 20, at Lindsey Hopkins Tech (Miami, Fla.) Register
• 9 a.m. – 4 p.m., Friday, Jan. 21, at Fulton-Holland Ed. Services Center (West Palm Beach, Fla.) Register

Workshop overview:  An adult career pathway is a systemic framework that connects adult education programs, work, and postsecondary education. Each step in a career pathway is designed to prepare the student for the next level of work and education. Adult Career Pathways includes the guidance, remediation, curricula, and other support elements required to enable career limited adults to enter the workforce and progress in rewarding careers.

Purpose: This workshop will lead participants through practical strategies to analyze and develop the components of an adult career pathways system.

The workshop includes topics such as:
• Adult Education and Florida’s Economic Development
• Steps in Designing Adult Education Career Pathways
• Career Pathways Maps
• Student Recruitment, Orientation, and Placement
• Contextualized Curriculum and Instruction
• Career Development
• Data Collection and Analysis for ACPs

Does your program already offer career pathways/transition programs for students?  If so, tell us about them in the comment section below.  If not, what do you feel the challenges are?  Did you watch the webcast earlier this month – if so, what were your thoughts?

We look forward to your comments and conversation.

Upcoming FATDEC Meeting (9/29/10) at ACE!

Please join FATDEC at our next face-to-face meeting that will take place during the ACE Conference!  This meeting is open to members & potential members or anyone else who would like to know about online courses for adult students.  The meeting will be held from 5:30-6:30 p.m., Wednesday, 9/29/10, in the “Lake Hart B” room of the Hilton Orlando.

Check out the updated FATDEC member map found here.   Welcome to the new members who are joining FATDEC for the 2010-2011 school year: Hernando County Public Schools, Lee County Public Schools, Northwest Florida State College and Sarasota County Public Schools.

Don’t see your area represented yet?  Contact Kim Gates (kim@fatdec.com) for information on how your organization can be a part of FATDEC!

FATDEC Welcomes New Members

The Florida Adult and Technical Distance Education Consortium (FATDEC) is proud to announce some new members!  Hernando, Lee, and Sarasota Counties, as well as Northwest Florida State College, will be offering online courses for adult students for the 2010-2011 school year!  Hooray for them!  As other new members join, we’ll update our website and also announce it here on the FLC blog!

FATDEC is a group of public schools, school districts, and community colleges working together to deliver curriculum in a web-based environment for adult education and career technical programs in Florida’s postsecondary public institutions.

The online courses offered are very beneficial for adult learners as they have 24/7 access to the program – allowing them to customize their schedule - and many of the courses are free of charge!

Want to know more about FATDEC?  Click here.

Click here to read a previous post about FATDEC.

Strategic Reading Instruction to Improve Comprehension of Struggling Readers

Tuesday night, tutors from across the state participated in a virtual training to learn about Strategic Reading Instruction to Improve Comprehension of Struggling Readers. 

Below is a quick summary of the training from presenter, Iris Strunc, of Northwest Florida State College.

Iris Strunc

Comprehension is the fundamental reason for reading.  Reading without understanding is merely a futile exercise of readers running their eyes across a page of text.  Many struggling readers, therefore, indicate that comprehension is their most serious reading problem.  In order to understand the text that they are reading, readers must be able to identify the topic and what the author wants the reader to know about the topic (main idea).

One of the strategies demonstrated during this session was analyzing the paragraph for words that carry the meaning in each sentence (key words) and using these words to identify the topic and the author’s point about the topic.  The steps include the following:

• Reading the first and last sentence of the paragraph
• Identifying and circling the words (key words) that carry the meaning from the first sentence to the next
• Identifying and circling the words (key words) that carry the meaning from the second sentence to the next
• Identifying and circling the words (key words) that carry the meaning throughout the remainder of the paragraph
• Using the circled keys words to look for patterns to identify the topic (subject) of the paragraph
• Writing the topic at the top of a post-it-note
• Determining what the author wants the reader to know about the topic of the paragraph
• Writing that information under the topic on the post-it-note
• Combining this information on the post-it-note to write the main idea sentence  of the  paragraph

Students who are directly taught this strategy usually are able to comprehend the text that they are reading without having to reread the text several times.

This training was a collaborative learning event brought to you by the Florida Adult Literacy Resource Center, a program of the Florida Literacy Coalition. This training was made possible through the support of the Florida Department of Education, Division of Career and Adult Education.

Did you participate in last night’s training?  Let us know your thoughts; leave your comments in the box below!

Don’t Miss FLC’s Virtual Tutor/Teacher Trainings

FLC is offering TWO virtual tutor/teacher trainings this month.  These trainings are free; participants need to have telephone and internet access simultaneously to participate.  Click here to read the presenters’ bios. These training sessions are specifically designed to assist literacy tutors and teachers.

TRAINING 1

• Training Topic: Strategic Reading Instruction to Improve Comprehension for Struggling Reader
• Date: June 22
• Time: 6:30 – 8:00 p.m. 
• Instructor: Iris Strunc, Northwest Florida State College
• Description: Although many school hours are devoted to reading instruction, many students simply do not understand what they read.  This training will explain how strategic analysis of text can help focus struggling readers on the text and task in front of them.  Participants will be shown specific comprehension strategies using highlighters, post-it notes and index cards to assist ineffective readers to analyze and comprehend text better.  

 TRAINING 2

• Training Topic: Effective Vocabulary Instruction for the Struggling Adult Learner
• Date: June 30
• Time: 12:00-1:30 p.m.
• Instructor: Cecilia A. Hicks, Florida State College at Jacksonville
• Description: Many adult learners struggle with reading for a variety of reasons. This workshop will explore several of these reasons and offer instructors  research-  and evidence-based solutions to this literacy dilemma. The primary focus of this training will be on vocabulary development. Participants will leave with proven strategies and activities designed to foster vocabulary development in the adult learner.

HOW IT WORKS

Participate from the comfort of your own home or office.  All you need is a telephone and access to the Internet. We will send you a toll-free number and web address (URL) when you register. On the evening of the workshop, you simply join the conference call and go to the web site which will allow you to access the slide show. 

Register today! 

Questions?  Contact Yari Payne at payney@floridaliteracy.org or (407) 246-7110 ext. 203. 

These trainings are collaborative learning events brought to you by the Florida Adult Literacy Resource Center, a program of the Florida Literacy Coalition. These trainings are made possible through the support of the Florida Department of Education, Division of Career and Adult Education.