California Adult Literacy Professional Development Project

Presenter: Dr. Mary Ann Corley, American Institutes for Research

This session briefly reviewed findings from current research on effective writing instruction and discussed how these findings can apply to the adult education classroom. It covered practical strategies such as sentence combining and summarization. Sentence combining is a skill that allows students to write more complex, sophisticated sentences, thus giving their final written products a polished look and feel. Similarly, summarization, a skill required for success both in postsecondary education and the world of work, provides students with tools for identifying and understanding important concepts of the subject they reading and learning about. Combining sentences and writing coherent and correctly developed summaries are two of the most powerful skills that students can cultivate.

Presenter: Mary Ann Corley, Ph.D., Principal Research Analyst, American Institutes for Research (AIR)

This session briefly reviewed findings from current research on effective writing instruction and discussed how these findings can apply to classroom instruction. It covered practical instructional strategies such as reducing students� reluctance to write, helping students with pre-writing, and using frames as an aid. It also briefly discussed writing skills required for success in postsecondary education and the workplace.

Facilitator: Guillermo Verdin, ABE Instructor, Los Angeles Unified School District Division of Adult and Career Education

Do your learners struggle with writing assignments? Not sure how to engage them in the writing process? Wondering how to integrate direct, explicit instruction into your writing lessons? This webinar reviews the practice of direct, explicit instruction and then models teaching a lesson using that approach to teach a writing lesson using writing frames.

Presenter: J. Adelson-Goldstein, CALPRO Facilitator

In this session, participants looked at the research supporting the use of the writing process in second language writing instruction, in order to explore activities and tasks that guide learners through that process. The webinar focused on the pre-writing tasks to help learners delve into the writing topic and organize their thinking; writing models and prompts that are meaningful for adults; and editing exercises and instructor feedback that help learners polish their work. Ways to celebrate successful learning outcomes through publishing learners work were also addressed.

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.