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This guide is primarily for organizations that help formerly incarcerated individuals successfully transition to work, family, and civic roles. It's purpose is to help them better understand: (a) the central role that basic skills and related educational credentials can play in successful prisoner re-entry and (b) how reentry agencies can collaborate with basic education providers to help returnees develop necessary basic skills. It is also written for basic education providers, policymakers, and funders interested in supporting collaborations among reentry and adult basic skills service providers. Examples are provided for how these agencies can contribute to the planning and delivery of services.

We Speak NYC (formerly We Are New York) is New York City’s English Language Learning program that provides civic-focused instruction through videos, web and print materials, and free community classes. The videos and materials highlight City services and have been used extensively in both formal and informal ESL classrooms as well as for self-study by English Language Learners (ELLs). The first season of the We Speak NYC videos addresses issues such as education, health, emergency preparedness, and domestic violence. Each of the Season One videos are accompanied by a 36-page full-color workbook containing storyboards and exercises for intermediate learners to practice English at home and in the classroom, a short reader for high beginners to practice reading skills, and multilingual magazines providing in-depth information about City services that are highlighted in the videos. The second season focuses on workforce development, worker rights, mental health, elder care, social services, early childhood education, and immigration legal help. Season Two videos have closed captioning in Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, English, Russian, and Spanish. Users can also download the video's script in order to practice their reading. An evaluation of the We Speak NYC program reported that immigrants learning English found the videos especially helpful because the production values (e.g., actors speaking clearly and slowly directly into the camera, repetition of key vocabulary, and subtitles) make the content accessible in ways unlike any other English language TV show. Viewers reported that they want to watch the show because they can understand the English; the storyline is filled with topics that are relevant to their everyday lives; and the cast reflects the demographics of the City’s immigrant population.

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions for ensuring that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities. Taken together, the Guidelines lead to the ultimate goal of developing “expert learners” who are, each in their own way, resourceful and knowledgeable, strategic and goal-directed, purposeful and motivated. The Guidelines are not meant to be a “prescription” but are instead a set of suggestions that can be applied to reduce barriers and maximize learning opportunities for all learners. They can be mixed and matched according to specific learning goals and can be applied to particular content areas and contexts. The Guidelines are organized horizontally and vertically. Horizontally, the “Access” row includes ways to increase access to the learning goal by recruiting interest and offering options for perception and physical action. The “Build” row suggests ways to develop effort and persistence, language and symbols, and expression and communication. The “internalize” row highlights how to empower learners through self-regulation, comprehension, and executive function. Vertically, the Guidelines are organized by three principles of UDL: (1) engagement, (2) representation, and (3) action and expression. The principles are broken down into Guidelines, with detailed “checkpoints."

The English Learner Family Toolkit was created to help families choose education services that meet their child’s needs. U.S. educators, elementary and secondary school teachers, principals, and other school staff can also share the toolkit as a resource for English learners and their families. The English Learner Family Toolkit consists of 6 chapters, and each chapter contains 5 sections - an overview, family and student rights, questions to ask schools, tips, and resources.

Smart About Money is an online, comprehensive site regarding financial literacy.  While it is not strictly from an adult education framework, it is designed to address many different scenarios, for as many students as possible. The site is divided into three sections: Courses, Tools, and Topics. The Courses and Topics sections cover most of the basic content areas associated with personal finance and financial literacy. Both present information in one-page chunks that use short sentences and common vocabulary. Some pages have graphics that help to convey the content. The self-selected, self-paced courses help users make empowered decisions to improve their financial literacy. These in-depth guided learning experiences take approximately 45 minutes to complete and include tools and resources (e.g., worksheets, calculators and quizzes). Smart About Money allows users to explore collections of resources (e.g., informational articles, calculators, graphics, videos, and tools) organized by topics such as: crisis and fraud, education and career, family and finances, holidays and money, housing and transportation, insurance and taxes, retirement and aging, saving and investing, and spending and borrowing. Users can also easily find materials available in Spanish in the Topics section. The Tools section has worksheets, questionnaires, and frequently asked questions that would be helpful tools for a teacher developing learning activities around this content. Tools includes a new resource, Common Money Questions, which provides guidance on common scenarios, including what to do in times of transition and crisis. All of the resources are available without registration; however, registration is free and allows a user to save personal budgets and other worksheets.  

The Kentucky Skills U Instructional Framework Series was designed to provide a common instructional foundation for all of Kentucky’s adult education providers. Local adult educators provided the impetus for this project. The Reasoning Through Language Arts Instructional Framework enumerates language arts standards, standards descriptions and resources related to teaching to those standards. Many of the resources are Kentucky-based, but users from any state can create an account to have access to full lesson plans and materials.  There are many links to a range of resource materials.

Mathematics anxiety affects almost half of the learners in adult education classrooms. Fear interferes with the part of the brain needed for reasoning and problem-solving. Math anxiety can also affect teachers in ways that negatively affect students. In this presentation, participants learn how math anxiety affects learners and specific stratgegies to help ease and overcome these effects. Strategy 1: Make students aware of the physiological effects of math anxiety. Research shows that when someone is experiencing math anxiety there is a physiological effect similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Strategy 2: Change the learner’s mindset about their potential and teach math in a way that is open and free enough for them to learn and grow. Studies show that learners learn best when they are active learners, which can be encouraged with a growth mindset. Strategy 3: Promote ideas of mathematical freedom because students' feelings of loss of control can shut brain function. Refrain from tying self-esteem to success in math. Strategy 4: Encourage student authorship of processes and ideas. Give students multiple solution tasks, which opens up authorship and promotes ideas. That shifts the focus from a correct answer to what I think. Strategy 5: Create a positive learning environment by establishing positive norms in the classroom through things like validating mistakes. Stragtegy 6: Develop a memory bank of positive math experiences. Students may use pictures or write down experiences from class and deposit them into their bank. Students can look back at their positive experience to combat negative self-talk. Strategies that can help teachers overcome their math anxiety include:

1. Develop a growth mindset
2. Feel mathematical freedom
3. Share a sense of discover with their students. It’s ok if you don’t know all the answers.

Cynthia Bell's presentation begins at the 08:45 mark in the recording.

• Basic computer skills
• Internet
• Windows OS
• Mac OS
• Email
• Social media
• Microsoft Word
• Microsoft Excel
• Microsoft PowerPoint
• Information literacy