The benefits and uses section will include the:

• Reasons the resource has implications for the adult education field;
• Resource’s potential use; and,
• Most significant or useful features to the target audience(s).

This Issue Brief provides a synthesis of the research supporting the need for increased rigor in Adult ELA programming. It delineates the elements that should be integrated systematically into instruction, including academic language (e.g., complex texts, expressing cause and effect), language strategies (e.g., listening or reading for different purposes, inferring meaning from context, recognizing attitude), and critical thinking, all of which have been shown to be critical for full access to academic and work opportunities. Suggestions for how administrators can support these efforts are provided as well. The Issue Brief can serve as an introduction to its Companion Learning Resource or as a stand-alone overview of the topic.

MAP provides instructors and administrators with excellent resources in implementing and evaluating the College and Career Readiness (CCR) standards in mathematics.  The resource is valuable and well organized and provides very good examples of real-life applications of mathematics. MAP provides teachers and professional developers with honest examples of how mathematics is used in real life.  Built around rich problems or tasks, the Classroom Challenges aim to provide a critical supplement to any curriculum. The lessons are structured as formative assessments and are ideally delivered in small classes or group work classroom settings. Opportunities for interaction with and feedback from the instructor are recommended. The lessons are extensive tasks that provide opportunity for students to demonstrate their thinking, to be involved in some degree of productive struggle, and to be able to show modifications in their solutions based on teacher feedback. The support materials provided to instructors are critical in using the task appropriately with students and in providing feedback and evaluation of students’ work. Student work samples are provided to assist instructors in formulating language or instructional strategies that might assist struggling students. It is possible for instructors to either modify the task or select a subset of questions within a task.  With some careful preplanning, the lessons could be condensed and used in a class that has less time for working with larger problems of this type.  The Professional Development Modules, which help teachers with the pedagogical and mathematical challenges of the lessons, are particularly helpful. The whole site is recommended; the Classroom Challenges are particularly helpful. The lessons have a strong alignment to CCSS and individual lessons are linked to specific content standards and the Standards for Mathematical Practice. The lessons incorporate well-designed formative assessments and provide a wealth of material for instructors. This includes the lesson plan with detailed teacher guidance and a presentation PowerPoint, which includes the task information for students. Though designed for specific grade levels, for the most part, the lessons can be presented to students of all ages. As the lessons are aligned to the CCSS, users can search for lessons aligned to CCR mathematical content standards and specific Standards for Mathematical Practice from the “Common Core State Standards” page http://map.mathshell.org/stds.php Optimizing Security Cameras http://map.mathshell.org/materials/lessons.php?taskid=482&subpage=problemis an example of an exemplary lesson suitable for an adult education classroom.  The lesson involves the placement of security cameras to provide maximum security for a given floor plan of a store. This real-life application problem integrates several content domains and requires strategic thinking and an ability to explain and interpret explanations. The lesson plan includes several student work samples that help teachers understand the goals of the lesson and how it develops the targeted standards. The extensive package of resources connected to this lesson is extremely helpful to teachers.

Steve Hinds demonstrates various approaches:

• Communicating in Math Classrooms
• Deepening Conceptual Understanding
• Resisting the Temptation to Be Too Helpful
• Scaffolding Adult Numeracy Lessons
• Building Deeper Understanding of Decimal Numbers

Each short video also contains background essays and discussion questions.  

Designed for adults who are looking for a job or want to improve their skills in order to get or keep a better job, Workplace Essential Skills shows students what to expect from the job interview process, what skills and attributes employers look for, and how those skills are put to work in real on-the-job situations.   Users will need to be logged in to the PBS Learning Media site to access the video.

The benefits and uses section will include the:

• Reasons the resource has implications for the adult education field;
• Resource’s potential use; and,
• Most significant or useful features to the target audience(s).

This Issue Brief draws from scholarship and highlights the current issues in the topic for adult educators and other relevant audiences including professional development specialists, policymakers and researchers. The Issue Brief describes four components of digital literacy and ways to integrate digital activities from each into the classroom.  It also describes how activities can be integrated into a wide range of topic-, project- or problem-based approaches to develop: 1. Basic digital literacy skills, 2. Skills to create and communicate information to extend English language acquisition, 3. Skills needed to find and evaluate information online, and 4. Skills in solving problems in technology-rich environments. The Brief includes multiple examples and links to relevant resources. The Brief can serve as an introduction to its Companion Learning Resource or as a stand-alone overview of the topic.