Session 2: Teaching Critical Thinking (Workshop Series)
Critical thinking is an essential skill found in both the College and Career Readiness Standards and the English Language Proficiency Standards for Adult Education. Critical thinking skills are needed in every facet of our lives, and in particular as we are inundated with more information from a variety of dependable and undependable sources. This online workshop series will prepare you to include a variety of critical thinking strategies in your adult education classes. It is presented in three 1.5 hour webinars. Registration information*: Registration for these sessions is now closed. Scheduled session dates and times are as follows: Session 1: Tuesday, April 29, 2025 | 2:30 PM – 4:00 PMSession 2: Tuesday, May 6, 2025 | 2:30 PM – 4:00 PMSession 3: Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM*Please note: Registering for Session 1 automatically registers you for Session 2 and 3. Certificate of Completion will reflect hours attended.
Session 3: Teaching Critical Thinking (Workshop Series)
English Language Proficiency Standards for Adult Education. Critical thinking skills are needed in every facet of our lives, and in particular as we are inundated with more information from a variety of dependable and undependable sources. This online workshop series will prepare you to include a variety of critical thinking strategies in your adult education classes. It is presented in three 1.5 hour webinars. Registration information*: Registration for these sessions is now closed. Scheduled session dates and times are as follows: Session 1: Tuesday, April 29, 2025 | 2:30 PM – 4:00 PMSession 2: Tuesday, May 6, 2025 | 2:30 PM – 4:00 PMSession 3: Tuesday, May 13, 2025 | 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM*Please note: Registering for Session 1 automatically registers you for Session 2 and 3. Certificate of Completion will reflect hours attended.
Application Deadline: CALPRO Professional Learning Community (PLC) Institute
CALPRO is pleased to announce the opening of the application to the 2025-2026 Professional Learning Communities (PLC) Institute. Participating teams and individual members can choose to attend the full-day sessions in November and May either virtually or in person. The Institute will consist of the following training schedule and topics:October 10, 2025 12:30-2:00 This kick-off and orientation webinar will focus on institute expectations and process.October 10, 2025 - November 6, 2025 Teams are expected to complete online assignments.November 6-7, 2025 This two-day session in Sacramento, CA will focus on the framework and the training needed to craft plans and start a PLC process of school improvement focusing on student learning through ongoing professional development embedded in the agency’s school calendar. November 7, 2025 - May 7, 2026 Participating schools are expected to use the intervening time between the November and May sessions to take action on plans to lay the groundwork for PLC implementation for the 2023–24 school year and complete online assignments.January 23, 2026, 12:30-3:30 This webinar will focus on PLC big ideas and essential questions.March 6, 2026 12:30-3:30 This webinar will focus on team assessment collaboration.May 7-8, 2026 This two-day session in Sacramento, CA will focus on continuing training, feedback, evaluation, and problem-solving in support of implementation. Please note that you will meet with your implementation coach once per month during the Institute. The training, coaching, and online activities across the six months of training are approximately 50 hours. Applications must be received by September 30, 2025. To learn more about the Institute, please click on this link. Benefits Of Participating In The PLC Institute:Shift school culture to focus on learning results.Develop PLC processes of inquiry to achieve better results for the students you serve.Establish collaborative teams to identify essential student learning.Work collaboratively to develop common formative assessments for learning.Work collaboratively to analyze evidence of student learning and use that evidence to learn from one another.Embed professional development that fosters the ongoing processes of collective inquiry and action research.Eighteen months of PLC implementation coaching supportWho Is Eligible To Apply?Any California Department of Education, Adult Education Office WIA Title II, or California Adult Education Program (CAEP) funded agency may apply. The Agency Director/Principal and a nominated lead teacher or PD staff member will participate as a team in the CALPRO Professional Learning Community Institute. To access the application, please click on this link.For More InformationFor more information, contact coordinator Sudie Whalen.
Summarizing and Sentence Combining: Helping your Students Develop Two Critical Writing Skills
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.
Helping Your Adult Students Increase their Writing Fluency
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 studentsďż˝ 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.
Evidence-Based Writing Instruction in the ABE Classroom
This COP is focused on writing instruction for intermediate and advanced level adult basic education (ABE) students. The information provided in this training is intended to guide teachers of these adult learning communities to prepare and deliver instruction, including appropriate instructional supports that promote student achievement.
Evidence-Based Writing Instruction in the ESL Classroom
This COP is focused on writing instruction for intermediate and advanced-level English as a second language (ESL) students. The information provided in this training is intended to guide teachers of these adult learning communities to prepare and deliver instruction, including appropriate instructional supports that promote student achievement.
Strategies for Teaching Writing
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.
The ESL Writing Process: Practice, Polish, Publish
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.