- The variety of technology integration options in ESL instruction
- The role of digital literacy instruction in reducing the digital divide
- The role technology can play in problem-based learning
- The benefits of using technology to support learner-centered instruction at all levels of ESL and in various learning environments
- to tested Public Lessons presented to children and groups of observing teachers;
- to guided tours of reflective mathematics practice, identifying what makes teaching, learning, and improving instruction in mathematics a difficult enterprise;
- resources for teachers to improve their practice;
- to mathematics teaching and learning tools and resources to support the daily practices of classroom teachers, math coaches, and administrators; and
- to a professional learning community in which you are invited to open your own classroom and engage in conversation about teaching and learning.
- Tools for educators;
- Classroom videos;
- Common core resources;
- Problems of the month; and
- Performance assessment tasks.
- Break instruction and activities into short modules with opportunities for feedback, checks for understanding, and encouragement. Cognitive research has shown students process more efficiently and learn more effectively with short lessons followed by focused activities that require them to apply and reflect on what they have learned. Not only do adults learn more with short lessons, they are also more engaged because short lessons provide regular feedback and a sense of success.
- Build in tools and opportunities to help adult learners visualize information and concepts. Just as short lessons take advantage of how the brain learns best, visual, or graphic, organizers mimic how the brain records and organizes information. Learning is the process of creating or strengthening connections between neurons that form the map that is the brain. Visual organizers replicate this map for learners, helping them understand and therefore strengthen the patterns being formed between old and new information. The more learners can manipulate the visuals themselves, the more effective the tool or activity will be for cognitive development.
- Provide clear, simple ways for adult learners to access a large bank of resources for practice. The more resources and activities available, the more opportunities there are for adult learners to deepen their learning. Adult learners need access to resources of many types. Digital products are the perfect vehicle for support resources because they can store all types of content (documents, PDFs, videos, sound files, etc.). The more resources and activities available, the more opportunities there are for multiple ways of learning. In addition, adult learners need easy ways to access these resources. Research has shown that students who feel they have strong support when learning online are more likely to stick with it.
- Design in multiple ways for learners and instructors to communicate outside of class time. The more support adult learners have from their teachers, the more they believe they can overcome obstacles and succeed as learners. Technology can provide multiple modes of learner-teacher communication: reflective activities (blogs, emails, videos), regular feedback (emails, discussion threads, videos), and “office hour” chats (written, video). Technology can also help deepen connections between learners and teachers by happening outside of class time, in turn building learners’ confidence and helping them progress more quickly. technology can provide anytime communication. Learners have control over time with digital learning, as they can use the learning tool whenever they want.
- Design in tools and opportunities for peer-to-peer interactions as well. By learning from and with peers, adult learners not only deepen their learning but also develop an additional support system for managing their learning. Working with others increases the social-emotional memories of a learning experience, thus increases the learning. For adult learners, these social and emotional connections also add to their confidence because they are learning with and from others who are also managing all that comes with being an adult learner. As with learner-instructor connections, digital tools are a perfect match for providing peer-to- peer interaction that goes beyond face-to-face.
- Proposes which math content deserves the most attention and which can play a supporting role at each of the three highest levels;
- Organizes that content coherently within and across the three levels so that mathematical ideas build logically and connect naturally to one another; and
- Prioritizes the content so that students will have opportunities to learn the most critical concepts and hone their mathematical skills through solving well-crafted problems.
- a PDF version of the lesson plan;
- a full version of the video ranging in length from 8 to 35 minutes that shows the entire activity from beginning to end; and
- a shorter 3- to 16-minute version that gives an overview of the activity and highlights the instructions and teacher-led transitions.
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Abstract:
This companion learning resource, Integrating Digital Literacy into English Language Instruction, provides numerous examples of instructional models, strategies, tools, and tasks for integrating digital literacy into English language acquisition instruction.
Publication Year
2016
This Companion Learning Resource provides a synthesis of the main ideas and practices in several existing seminal resources from the adult English language learner (ELL) resource collection. It also extends and expands upon these resources by offering many hands-on ideas and techniques to help practitioners integrate digital literacy instruction into adult ELA classes. .
Highlights of key concepts and practical strategies include:
Benefits and Uses
Formatted as a digital magazine, this clickable PDF contains embedded resources and links to websites that encourage users to delve deeply into the areas of greatest relevance. It includes task-based lesson plans, problem scenarios, open educational resources, and digital literacy tasks that integrate language development, information literacy, and technology integration. Practitioners are able to link to concrete examples taken from multiple sources including, where relevant, from other contexts (e.g., K–12 education).
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
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Abstract:
Inside Mathematics provides a resource for educators (teachers and administrators) who strive to provide the best mathematics instruction they can for their students.
Publication Year
2016
Inside Mathematics provides a resource for educators (teachers and administrators) who strive to provide the best mathematics instruction they can for their students. According to their website, “Inside Mathematics opens doors:
Benefits and Uses
Although K-12 educators are the site’s targeted audience, Inside Mathematics provides resources that adult educators can use to support the implantation of CCR aligned instruction. To adapt these resources for adult learners, first read the “Permissions” section (under “About”), located at: http://www.insidemathematics.org/about/.
Use the variety of classroom-ready resources with ABE and ASE mathematics students. Search for relevant content by grade level as well as by mathematical strand. Also, watch videos of some of these classroom lessons. The performance assessment tasks include student work samples and a teacher discussion of these samples. These can provide valuable insights into student thinking in relation to the task.
Each “problem of the month” is divided into five levels giving access into different aspects of the problem and stretching students out into mathematical complexity. These different levels of complexity provide useful scaffolding and differentiation tools for teachers of multi-level classes. Note: When using this feature, attend to the grade level for the problems and determine its appropriateness for your students.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
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Abstract:
This brief discusses five research-based principles for product developers to consider when designing digital learning tools for adult learners.
Publication Year
2016
To effectively learn online, students must be active learners, but adult learners, particularly low-skilled adults, are often not prepared for this kind of learning. As a result, adult learners will achieve the most when using digital learning tools if they have additional support and help moving progressively toward stronger understanding (i.e., scaffolding). Research on instructional strategies that provide this support suggests five principles for product developers to consider when designing for the adult basic learner. Taken separately, each principle can help enrich the learning experience but incorporating all five will provide the richest support for learners.
What the experts say
Designing Technology for Adult Learners: Support and Scaffolding clearly sets out helpful principles on which the scaffolding for the successful expansion and integration of technology resources into adult classrooms can be built. The principles clearly build on the most promising and prominent theories of adult education and create practice-based applications of those theories. The examples of the principles in action are particularly helpful and exciting in terms of how well and how much they can create opportunities for further learning. The five scaffolding principles are the most useful resource features and provide the foundations for the expansion and implementation of technology into adult classrooms.
This description of five design principles for online learning apps should be very useful for software developers for the adult basic skills market, its primary audience. It should also be of interest and use to teachers, curriculum developers and professional developers in adult basic skills education who integrate online learning (e.g. apps, instructional software, and learning resources such as video and audio files) with face-to-face learning, and for those who create distance learning curricula and lessons. The descriptions of the five design principles are the heart of this paper and are the useful resource features.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
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Abstract:
This guide provides content and progress standards for the Pre-Interview, Interview and Test, and Post-Interview phases of the naturalization process.
Publication Year
2016
The Office of Citizenship in U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) created this guide to help adult citizenship education program administrators and teachers in developing a citizenship curriculum and thematic lessons, choosing textbooks and supplemental materials, and creating effective learning activities.
This guide is organized around three naturalization content areas with correlated progress standards. The guide emphasizes the importance of foundation skills necessary for students to learn citizenship-specific content. Using the foundation skills and content standards outlined in this guide, teachers can link the skills and knowledge their students need for the naturalization interview and test with classroom instruction.
Benefits and Uses
This guide to will help adult citizenship education program administrators and teachers identify the content knowledge and foundation skills students need to know for the pre-interview, interview and test, and post-interview parts of the naturalization process.
There are several ways that these standards can be used. At the most comprehensive level, the standards serve as a complete content inventory from which program staff can develop a citizenship curriculum with course outlines, syllabi, lesson plans, and activities. There are several ways that these standards can be used. Teachers can use them as a checklist to ensure that they are teaching the content that adult citizenship students need to successfully navigate the naturalization process as well as study for and learn the content on the naturalization test. Teachers can also use the standards to create thematic lessons by combining related or complementary progress standards.
This guide will help program administrators and teachers identify areas of instruction that may not be covered in the program’s curriculum or class textbook. Program administrators and teachers can use this guide to determine what additional information on the pre-interview, interview and test, and post-interview parts of the naturalization process may need to be taught so students are prepared for the all parts of the naturalization process.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
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Abstract:
This guide offers a way to manage higher-level math standards to address time constraints and other potential impediments to full implementation.
Publication Year
2016
This guide offers a way to manage higher-level math standards to address time constraints and other potential impediments to full implementation. In building this resource, StandardsWork drew on the principles of Understanding by Design (or UbD) a three-stage backwards design process. First, the guide’s developers defined the Big Ideas for each of the Middle Intermediate, High Intermediate, and Adult Secondary levels of learning. Next, they subdivided the Big Ideas into Priority Topics. Then they translated each Priority Topic into a set of specific Instructional Objectives. The information revealed through the analysis process proposes the critical content, instructional priorities, and time-on-task that can be covered effectively and efficiently in a systematic fashion. The components connect one to the other but with the necessary flexibility built in so that this resource can be used with any curriculum.
Benefits and Uses
The Guide to Effectively Managing Higher-Level Content Standards in Mathematics is designed to work specifically with states’ CCR content standards for adult education. The guide:
Required Training
The Professional Development Units for CCR Standards in Mathematics, located at: https://lincs.ed.gov/programs/ccr/math, are highly recommended. For best results, the developers recommend experiencing Foundational Units 1 - 4 as well as Advanced Units 1 - 3.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
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Abstract:
A video series featuring teachers leading adult ESL classes through common classroom activities.
Resource URL
Publication Year
2016
Observing classroom instruction delivered by experienced teachers is a good way for teachers and tutors to acquire classroom management techniques and learn new activities. Because finding time to do in-person classroom observations can be difficult, the Minnesota Literacy Council developed the Classroom Activities for Adult ESL Learners video series. The 17 videos feature professional teachers leading adult ESL classes through common classroom activities. Teachers and tutors can use the videos to develop their teaching practices and become more comfortable introducing new activities to students.
Each activity includes:
What the experts say
The activities modeled in the Classroom Activities for Adult ESL Learners videos bring variety and interest to the classroom. They will be helpful to beginning tutor and teachers as well as those who previously relied on workbooks and lecture. Many of the activities are directed toward beginning learners, who often present a challenge to teachers. There is, however, little information about learner preparation or follow-up activities.
The videos in the Classroom Activities for Adult ESL Learners series show teachers working with adult ESL students without a formal workbook or worksheets. The videos feature teachers facilitating cooperative/collaborative learning activities with small group work and discussion. ESL students are quick to learn and engage when the instructor (like those in the video) demonstrates a true interest in them and their learning. Performance-based assessments activities are used in some of the videos that concentrate on oral communication and/or reading.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
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Abstract:
This webinar recording features a panel of leading experts from around the country who discuss how IET models are being implemented and provide real examples of the opportunities (and lessons learned) for administrators and practitioners to develop quality IET models.
Publication Year
2016
CLASP recorded a webinar on Integrated Education and Training (IET). Experts from around the country discussed how IET is being implemented and opportunities for practitioners to develop quality IET models.
Benefits and Uses
IETs are a core educational strategy for career pathways jointly developed between WIOA partners. This webinar highlights the many ways that states and individual programs have interpreted the definition and core elements of IETs and in turn used them to develop IETs as a strategy across all levels of service delivery in Title II of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA). The panel, comprised of nationally recognized leaders in their field, provides easy-to-understand information starting with what an IET is to the ways data is collected and reported, and how partnerships can be formed.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.
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Abstract:
The newest revision to the Career Pathways Toolkits includes writeable worksheets that can help State and program teams develop, maintain, and enhance career pathways systems and programs.
Publication Year
2016
The Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOLETA) is excited to release the Career Pathways Toolkit: An Enhanced Guide and Workbook for System Development. The new Toolkit will be especially helpful for State offices and partners required to develop a Unified Plan as well as staff members supporting State Workforce Development Boards.
DOLETA revised the Career Pathways Toolkit to align with the new vision, definition, and requirements of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). It also reflects major advancements and emerging promising practices in the field over the past five years.
The enhanced Toolkit features the Six Key Elements of Career Pathways. Each element now includes embedded – and writeable – worksheets to help State and local teams with implementation. Users can type directly into the worksheet fields and save and print as they go along.
Benefits and Uses
Under WIOA, which was signed into law in July 2014, States and localities collaborate with adult education, postsecondary education and other partners to establish career pathways systems to make it easier for all Americans to attain necessary skills and credentials to secure meaningful jobs in their regional economies. The Career Pathways Toolkit will help stakeholders develop more comprehensive and combined systems for workforce development.
Resource Notice
This site includes links to information created by other public and private organizations. These links are provided for the user’s convenience. The U.S. Department of Education does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness, or completeness of this non-ED information. The inclusion of these links is not intended to reflect their importance, nor is it intended to endorse views expressed, or products or services offered, on these non-ED sites.
Please note that privacy policies on non-ED sites may differ from ED’s privacy policy. When you visit lincs.ed.gov, no personal information is collected unless you choose to provide that information to us. We do not give, share, sell, or transfer any personal information to a third party. We recommend that you read the privacy policy of non-ED websites that you visit. We invite you to read our privacy policy.