California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project

The California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project (CALPRO) and the California Department of Education are pleased to offer a unique professional learning opportunity! Join other agency teams of ESL instructors, CTE instructors, and program administrators for an Integrated Education and Training (IET) Implementation Clinic. 

FORMAT
There are five principal features of this unique online professional learning opportunity, which is open to up to 8 agency teams (each team is composed of 3 staff members).

1) Two day-long virtual training sessions. Participants will have the opportunity to engage in interactive planning and curriculum development activities as well as to share best practices.

2) Live, interactive discussion through three 75-minute online webinars with engaging guest speakers, seasoned facilitators, peer mentors, and colleagues from around the state (see below for complete details). In each meeting we will:

• Highlight the relevancy and value of the featured topic for the work that we do
• Explore best and promising practices in the featured topic
• Learn from subject matter experts and peer mentors on effective related strategies
• Share successes and common challenges with fellow teachers and program administrators
• Get help on solving issues we face

Topics will be tailored to the needs of the participating practitioners and identified through the application process and may include:

• Starting Strong: Developing the Team Teaching Partnership
• Co-Teaching & Alternating Teaching: Which Model, Why, And How?
• Developing a Single Set of Learning Objectives & Integrating Lesson Plans
• Building an Integrated Syllabus
• Promising Intake & Onboarding Strategies for lET
• Action Planning: Process considerations, potential challenges, and solutions to address challenges.
• IET and Distance Learning: Considerations & Strategies

3) Ongoing online discussions, sharing, and resource creation through a designated private group within CALPRO’s online Community of Practice.

4) Completion of a capstone project and presentation of the project at the second day-long session.

5) Coaching now included! IET clinic participating teams will now have the support of an IET implementation coach to support you for nine months upon completion of the IET clinic. 

For more information, contact calpro@air.org. 

WHAT AND WHERE? 

CALPRO annually conducts the Training-of-Trainers (ToT) Institute for the new community of practice (CoP) at the CALPRO office in Sacramento. The purposes of the ToT Institute are: 

1. To develop a group of certified trainers to facilitate presentations of CALPRO professional learning modules 
2. To build professional development capacity and leadership in California adult education.

WHAT IS CALPRO’S COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE INITIATIVE AND HOW DOES IT IMPACT THE ToT?
Communities of Practice are formed by groups of professionals who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain (adapted from Wenger, 2002). CALPRO’s Communities of Practice (CoP) Initiative aims to increase the field’s focus on supported implementation of skills, strategies and action plans that participants develop in CALPRO trainings and institutes. 

For each CoP training, an online community is established. Participants meet each other and begin learning together online; they continue to build community, knowledge and skills in the face-to-face training sessions; and they have the option of continuing to support each other’s efforts to apply new learning after the conclusion of the face-to-face sessions. CALPRO CoP trainers facilitate the entire process, including online and face-to-face sessions. 

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?
The ToT is open to applicants from all California Adult Education Program (CAEP) funded agencies (see page 2). The ToT is for individuals who will commit to following up on the ToT by presenting the module for their agency, for their region, or for CALPRO at least once within a year of the ToT. 

WHAT ARE EXPECTATIONS OF PARTICIPANTS?
Participants will be expected to complete pre-Institute assignments online. Participants are expected to attend the entire ToT Institute – no exceptions –  and demonstrate facilitation skills in practice sessions during the ToT. After completing the ToT, participants are expected to be available to facilitate training at their agency, at other agencies, or at CDE- or CALPRO-organized events within a year of the ToT. Trainers will receive an honorarium for training conducted. 

WHAT’S IN IT FOR MY AGENCY? 
Your agency will have trained facilitator(s) on your staff who can serve as an in-house content specialist. Your agency will have increased capacity to provide high quality professional learning opportunities. 

WHICH AGENCIES ARE ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE? 
Employees of all California Adult Education Program (CAEP) funded agencies are eligible to apply. For more information, contact coordinator Marcela Movit. 

Description:
This self-directed course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.

Many adult education classrooms contain students whose ages, native languages, educational backgrounds, and academic skills vary widely, which poses many teaching challenges for instructors. Research shows that differentiated instruction is one of the most effective approaches for helping students learn. This course walks participants through the steps of planning a differentiated lesson, including how to write effective learning objectives, choose among approaches to differentiation (content, process, product), and design assessments. In completing the course, participants produce their own differentiated lesson plans that are suited to their instructional content and environment. The estimated course completion time is 5 hours.

Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.

Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.

Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.

Course Description:
This self-paced course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.

Do you wonder how to integrate employability skills into your adult education setting to support workforce preparation for middle-skills jobs? Employability skills, also referred to as 21st-century workplace skills, soft skills, or non-cognitive skills, are needed by our adult education students for readiness and success regardless of the industry or job position. This course will provide an overview of the middle-skills job landscape, an employability skills framework, and strategies and hands-on resources to connect the needed employability skills for these jobs within the adult education setting. The estimated course completion time is 2 hours.

Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.

Goals:
By the end of the course, participants will be able to: define “middle-skills jobs” and provide several examples; define “employability skills” and explain why they are important; categorize employability skills using the Employability Skills Framework; describe the connections between the Employability Skills Framework and the College and Career Readiness (CCR) Standards for Adult Education; and apply the Employability Skills Framework to their lesson plans to identify ways to improve their instruction.

Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.

Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.

Course Description:
This self-paced course supports independent professional development; there is no facilitator nor other participants. Sign up now and access the class for 3 months. There is no official start or end date to worry about.

This is the first of two online courses from the California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project (CALPRO) on designing literacy programs to be responsive to the needs of adults with learning disabilities. This first session is an awareness session that will help adult educators understand what learning disabilities are and recognize the characteristics and consequences of those disabilities in the learning environment, whether classroom-based, tutor-led, or technology-based distance learning. This CALPRO online course provides an overview of the assessment process (diagnostic testing versus screening) and outlines the legal rights and responsibilities of the learner and the literacy program. The estimated course completion time is 14 hours.

The second CALPRO course in this series addresses instructional strategies appropriate for teaching adults with learning disabilities. Completion of Session 1 is a prerequisite for Session 2.

Enrollment verification with Moodle login information will be sent to registrants within one business day of registration.

Goals:
Identify a working definition of learning disabilities (LD); recognize common characteristics of adults with LD and their effect on learning; distinguish between screening and diagnostic testing and the uses of each; identify the importance of self-determination, self-advocacy, and disclosure to successful learners and workers; recognize the rights and responsibilities of learners with LD as well as of literacy providers; and begin the process of identifying and bringing about necessary changes to make programs more responsive to adults with LD.

Registration Information:
This course is free of charge to all California adult education programs.

Contact Information:
Please contact CALPRO at calprohelp@air.org or at 916-286-8803 for more information.

Virtual Community of Practice (CoP)

This fully online CoP incorporates the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and introduces accommodations and modifications that support learning, self-determination, and success. 

The CoP offers an opportunity to discuss the challenges adult education professionals face while supporting adults with learning disabilities and share strategies and tools that work. 

Participants will be able to apply UDL principles to design curriculum, instructional methods, and assessments that accommodate and engage all learners including students with learning disabilities.

With more than 8 participants, CALPRO can set up a regional CoP for your agency/consortium. 

To enhance student learning gains and to help adult learners meet their goals as productive workers, family and community members, and lifelong learners, and to foster continuous program improvement, this training will provide a framework for teachers to reflect on their own teaching and to identify areas on which they would like to focus and where they would like to improve their practice.

Civic Education and Democratic Literacy play a pivotal role in empowering students to become engaged and informed citizens. Individuals equipped with this knowledge understand political and civic systems, allowing them to navigate these systems effectively and contribute meaningfully to the improvement of their communities.  

The goal of this CoP is to enhance the capacity of adult educators and programs to provide instruction that amplifies student perspective and voice, builds civic engagement, and dives deep into participatory approaches to democratic processes for adults including those who are developing literacy and language skills. 

California is a state of immigrants, and benefits from the cultural, social, and economic contributions they confer to systems, communities, and our state as a whole. Adult education plays a significant role in the lives of immigrants. This CoP/Training will support educators in best serving immigrants through civics instruction understood within the lens of the California Immigrant Integration Initiative and aligned to approved English language learner (ELL) Civics metrics.

This training outlines the process of curriculum alignment to help adult learners successfully transition within adult education programs and from adult education to post-secondary environments.