Subject: ABE,ESOL,GED,Other Curriculum & Instruction,Trainings for Directors

Description: This four hour workshop is designed to help teachers, directors, counselors, and other program staff understand and implement effective goal setting practices and the Massachusetts DESE Countable Outcomes Policy in order to facilitate learners' Next Steps.

Subject: ABE,ESOL,GED,Curriculum Development

Description: This is session two of a 4-session series focused on the algebra strand of the Curriculum Frameworks. The first two sessions focus on algebra content, while the second two sessions focus on algebra instruction. Some brief homework tasks will be assigned between sessions. The dates for this series are January 29, February 5, March 5 and March 12. Please be sure to register for each session!

Subject: ABE,ESOL,GED,Counseling,Other Curriculum & Instruction,Learning Disabilities

Description: The first session of this two-session mini-course will cover definitions of learning disabilities/differences, characteristics and types of LD, LD and the law, and the rights and responsibilities of bot the LD adult learner and the ABE/ESOL program he or she attends. Methods of screening for LD will be presented, as well as places to refer our LD adult learners for a more definitive diagnosis, should the learner want that. The second session will present methods and materials that a classroom teacher could use to teach decoding, spelling, writing, grammar, and comprehension. Participants are urged to bring stories, effective methods and materials, and questions.

Subject: SMARTT

Description: This is a required DESE training. All programs need to have at least 2 staff members who have completed the SMARTT New User training. This workshop covers all aspects of entering and viewing data in the SMARTT system.

Subject: ABE,ESOL,GED,Curriculum Development

Description: Visible Thinking makes extensive use of learning routines that are thinking rich. These routines are simple structures, for example a set of questions or a short sequence of steps, that can be used across various levels and content. What makes them routines, versus merely strategies, is that they get used over and over again in the classroom so that they become part of the fabric of classroom' culture. The routines become the ways in which students go about the process of learning. This workshop will help to facilitate a shift in your classroom culture toward a community of enthusiastically engaged thinkers and learners.

Subject: ABE,ESOL,GED,Assessment,Curriculum Development

Description: This workshop will focus on the print skills that support successful reading comprehension--word analysis (phonics), word recognition, and oral reading fluency and how to assess and teach these skills to learners at different levels. Videos will be shown of proven techniques for teaching word analysis to lower level learners. The importance of using readability formulas for selecting appropriate texts for fluency practice will also be discussed, and participants will have the opportunity to practice using diagnostic tests of word analysis and word recognition and identify some of the practical challenges of this methodology and brainstorm possible solutions.

Subject: Curriculum Development

Description: This is a second follow up session to January 26, 2010 offering. At this second session programs will share developments initiated as a result of the first session. Action plans will be reviewed and guidance offered as to further on site professional development in the area of program wide curriculum components.

Subject: ABE,ESOL,GED,Counseling,Curriculum Development,Learning Disabilities

Description: The first session of this two-session mini-course will cover definitions of learning disabilities/differences, characteristics and types of LD, LD and the law, and the rights and responsibilities of bot the LD adult learner and the ABE/ESOL program he or she attends. Methods of screening for LD will be presented, as well as places to refer our LD adult learners for a more definitive diagnosis, should the learner want that. The second session will present methods and materials that a classroom teacher could use to teach decoding, spelling, writing, grammar, and comprehension. Participants are urged to bring stories, effective methods and materials, and questions.

Subject: Curriculum Development

Description: Adult Education in the 21st Century is a six-hour workshop, facilitated by Federico Salas-Isnardi, Adult Literacy Specialist from Texas A&M. Federico has done extensive work in applying 21st Century Skills to the ABE system and he has over 22 years in the field of ABE and ESOL. This workshop will introduce the concepts of 21st Century Skills and the implications for Adult Basic Education. Participants will learn what competencies (soft skills) that adult learners need to be successful in their next steps, whether post secondary education, job training or employment. The question “what is the role of adult education in teaching 21st century skills?” will be explored and discussed.