1

Volume 9, Issue 4

WINTER 2009

The Arkansas Adult

Learning Resource

Center provides equal

access to all programs

and activities.

On September 17, 2009, several agencies gathered at the Jefferson

School in Fayetteville to greet members of our area.s homeless popula-

tion. Known as “Hope 2009," the occasion was a “one-stop shop" re-

source event that provided assistance to homeless veterans and other

area homeless. The Jefferson School in Fayetteville is the new Fayette-

ville Adult and Community Education location.

The Veterans Administration Medical

Center, Fayetteville Adult Education,

and Congressman John Boozman.s of-

fice teamed up to provide a special day.

Before the doors even opened, many

individuals and families anxiously

awaited entry. Inside they would be met

with a joyful group of providers, ready

and willing to offer whatever they could.

71 clients, 24 of whom were veterans, were matched with resources they

needed to get back on their feet. These no-cost services included dental

exams, eye exams, haircuts, clothing, groceries, pro bono legal advice,

substance abuse counseling, housing assistance, Social Security ser-

vices, and employment opportunities. Lunch was provided at no cost.

Some of the partners donating services or materials were Tyson Foods,

Arvest Bank, Harp.s, McBride Distributors, Allen Canning, Little Debbie,

Legal Aid of Arkansas, Bodiford Eye, Blue Cliff College, Fayetteville Adult

Education staff, and students from the University of Arkansas.

Each client attending the event was paired with a volunteer navigator

who stayed with them throughout the process. The navigator guided the

client throughout the facility to the specific services that he or she needed

or requested. This type of event has seen great success in regional com-

munities such as Little Rock and Springfield, Missouri, and will now be an

annual event in Fayetteville.

The event was styled after Veterans Administration “Stand Down." The

first stand down was conceived and held by the Vietnam Veterans of San

Diego in 1988 to provide assistance to homeless Vietnam veterans.

“Stand down" is a military term which basically means a relief from the

stresses of operations for a period of recovery.

One measurable outcome of this event for the Fayetteville Adult Educa-

tion program was the subsequent enrollment of a 17-year-old child of a

homeless family. But also important was the new and very different ex-

perience of the staff, who left with a new perspective of the struggles that

many people endure on a daily basis. Homelessness can happen to any-

one. For those staff and every volunteer, it was a good day of service

and reflection.

Arkansas Adult Learning

Resource Center

3905 Cooperative Way,

Suite D

Little Rock, AR 72209

Phone: 800-832-6242

501-907-2490

FAX: 501-907-2492

http://www.aalrc.org

Provided by Kathy Spigarelli

Hope 2009

Fayetteville Adult and Community

Education location

2

Adult Learning Network

Governor

Mike Beebe

State Board of Ca-

reer

Education

Director,

William L. “Bill"

Walker, Jr.

Division of

Rehabilitation

Services

Robert Trevino

Division of

Adult Education

James H.

Smith, Jr.

Division of Career

& Technical

Education

John Davidson

Communications

Deborah Ger-

many, Interim

Human Resources

& Development

Pam Harris

Finance

Charles Brown

Calendar

All events are at the AALRC unless otherwise noted.

January

Jan. 8, 20,& 29 - ESL Basics Session ID: 112311

Jan. 11-13 - LTA in Magnolia (I) Session ID: 112351

Jan. 18 - MLK Holiday Closed

Jan. 21-22 - Literacy Strategies (I) Session ID: 105531

Jan. 30 - LD 101 for Literacy Action of Central AR

February

Feb. 15-16 - LTA in Little Rock (II) Session ID: 112351

Feb. 18-19 - Literacy Strategies( II) Session ID: 105531

March

March 2-3 - Teaching With Manipulatives Session ID: 105065

March 11-12 - Literacy Strategies (I) Session ID: 105534

March 22-26 - Spring Break Closed

April

April 15-16 - Literacy Strategies (II) Session ID: 105534

Meetings/Events

A group of local program administrators, teachers and literacy resource cen-

ter staff attended the National College Transition Network Conference in

Warwick, RI on November 16-17, 2009. Those who attended included Pat

Collins, adult education director from Russellville; Shelly McCall, adult edu-

cation director from North Arkansas College in Harrison; Janie Carter, adult

education director from University of Arkansas, Monticello – College of Tech-

nology, Crossett; Kathy Spigarelli, director, and Debbie Smith, teacher, from

the Fayetteville Adult Education program; and Marsha Taylor and Nancy

Loftis from the AALRC.

The Effective Transitions Conference is for adult and postsecondary educa-

tors and administrators. Workshop topics included:

Promising practices for career pathways and ESOL/ESL programs

Preparing students for college-level reading, writing, and math

Building student self-efficiency

One of the keynote speakers was an adult education student who very suc-

cessfully transitioned into the university system.

National College Transition Network Conference

Provided By Nancy Loftis

Continued on page 3

February 4 - AACAE

February 5 - Wage

March 19 - ALC Board

January 15 - ALC Board

January 26 - Technology Meeting

January 27 - Administrator.s Meeting

January 28-29 - Advisory Council in Little Rock

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Adult Learning Network

It was very motivating to hear from a student the challenges that are encountered and the proc-

esses to overcome them. Jeniffer Herrera-Andújar, an adult learner from New York City, earned

her GED in 2003. She then transitioned to Lehman College of the City University of New York

(CUNY) and in 2008 earned her BA in Sociology with a minor in Psychology. She worked for the

NYC Mayor's Office of Adult Education (MOAE) as the Adult Learner Leadership Coordinator

where she assisted the MOAE and CUNY Office of Academic Affairs in establishing and planning

an adult learner leadership network.

Jeniffer is now part of the FUTURE NOW team at Bronx Community College (BCC). She is the

Leadership Coordinator for IMPACT (Improving My Progress At College Today), a student-led or-

ganization that provides leadership and support to GED graduates and college students. She is

currently enrolled in CUNY's School of Professional Studies at the Graduate Center for her M.S. in

Business Management and Leadership.

The group that attended from Arkansas divided the sessions so that many topics could be covered

by the attendees. Some of the sessions that were attended included:

Making the Transition to College Reading

Transitioning to college reading which focused on a comparison between reading skills require-

ments for the GED and skills needed for successful college reading. The presenter discussed both

reading theory and application for practice in ABE/GED classes designed to enable students to

make a successful transition to postsecondary education. The presenter also explored many online

resources for transition reading.

Maine College Transitions Program Evaluation and Implications for Best Practice

In 2007, the Maine State legislature added a line item to support twenty-two local College Transi-

tions Programs. Funded programs were a combination of existing pilot, MELMAC Foundation

funded, Nellie Mae Foundation funded and Betterment Foundation funded as well as newly state

funded programs. This interactive workshop described the first two years. learning on program crea-

tion, program implementation, and evaluation results.

Academic Survival Skills: Transitioning from the GED Test to Postsecondary

More than 60% of all adult education students want to continue their education after receiving their

GED credential. In order to be successful, students need better skills in communication and higher-

order mathematics. In this session, participants learned what types of skills students need and re-

viewed sample materials that will move adult learners successfully into a college classroom without

having to spend valuable time or money on development coursework.

Are You Ready to Develop College Transitions.

This workshop was an important starting point for teachers, counselors, and administrators inter-

ested in developing a transition component in their programs. Participants learned about barriers to

postsecondary education that adult learners face and discussed five strategies that they can imple-

ment immediately to address them. Participants also identified ways to build on existing program

components to support college transitions.

After attending the conference, the attendees met on December 8, 2009, at the Russellville Adult

Education Center to de-brief and discuss beginning measures to implement a statewide transition

framework. As a framework is developed, local programs will be asked to help and also kept ap-

prised of the progress.

National College Transition Network Conference

Continued from page 2

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Adult Learning Network

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

How Can I Teach Sarah. The Saga of One Tutor’s Quest for Answers, Part 1

I get a pretty good number of questions from local programs regarding provision of services for

students with disabilities. I recently worked with a tutor in a local program who was having diffi-

culty making progress with a student. Our brainstorming process may be helpful to other tutors

and teachers who are working with students who have similar issues and/or learning characteris-

tics, so here.s Part 1 of the saga. We.ll call the student “Sarah," and the tutor will be “Gail."

Sarah is a 60-something-year-old student at a literacy program in Arkansas. A member of the pro-

gram.s staff told Sarah.s tutor, Gail, to contact me when Gail expressed a lot of frustration about

the lack of Sarah.s progress. In her first email, she wrote, “I need some help figuring out if

Laubach is going to work for Sarah. She is so inconsistent on the phonics that it gets really, really

tedious for her. For example, today she could NOT read a list of rhyming words (buck, duck, luck,

truck, etc.), but on the same page could read, „It is so good to have Chuck come to visit us,. and

„Chuck has good luck hunting. He gets a big buck.. Also, she does not differentiate between be-

ginning, middle, and ending sounds, and the series we are using emphasizes that a lot. What are

some options. I have started not

emphasizing the phonics skills and spending more time on read-

ing whole sentences and stories, but I don.t know if that.s what she needs. Could she be dys-

lexic."

Oooh, good call, backing off the frustration of asking Sarah to do

what she probably cannot do at this point. I told Gail that it does

sound like Sarah is exhibiting some hallmark characteristics of dys-

lexia: inconsistency, difficulty with phonics, persistence...so yes,

she probably has difficulty distinguishing among the different pho-

nemes, which makes memorizing sight words easier for her than

decoding. However, there.s no way to know if dyslexia is the prob-

lem or not without a formal evaluation by a certified psychologist.

I suggested that Gail start investigating Sarah.s strengths, and a learning styles inventory is a

good place to start. (Note: if you need one, I can email one to you.) Statistics say that about 80%

of students with learning disabilities are primarily tactile-kinesthetic learners, but 80% is not 100%,

so it.s good to check. At any rate, Sarah had never been diagnosed, so most of what we started

with was guessing. And just a reminder that in my opinion, the most important part of the inven-

tory is when you look at the page that describes the inventory's results, and you talk about those

characteristics with the student. Every time the student says, "Oh yeah, that's right, I do that!" it's

a learning moment, and the more the student understands how she learns best, the better student

she can be.

One of my first questions for Gail was concerning Sarah.s goals. Was Sarah trying to work to-

wards a GED, or just wanting to improve her reading skills. I got an interesting response. Gail

wrote, “Sarah is far from GED bound; she barely reads at all. Her goal is to be able to write num-

bers on checks! She is as sweet as can be, but I am not really sure how far she expects to go in

terms of reading. She tries very hard but often gets tired and loses focus. She is also diabetic

and I suspect that her blood sugar levels on any given day affect her concentration. She was sup-

posed to go to the doctor this week, but I know that she never checks her sugar level and is not in

very good health. She serves, however, as the transportation for her adult children. They run her

ragged!"

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Adult Learning Network

AALRC

Advisory

Committee

Dubs Byers,

Chair,

Pine Bluff

Emily Barrier,

Little Rock

Carrie Boden,

Little Rock

Janie Carter,

Crossett

Richard

Hampton,

Texarkana

Tara Rice,

North Little

Rock

Becky Linsky,

Hot Springs

Nancy

Whitmire,

Vice-Chair,

Batesville

Ruth Ann

Williams,

Conway

So let me end Part 1 with a few observations. First, there have been a

number of students who have been diagnosed with dyslexia who read at a

very low level, but have successfully completed their GED program with

accommodated instruction and testing. So just because Sarah “barely

reads at all," doesn.t tell me (1) whether or not she has a high school di-

ploma, or (2) whether or not she wants a GED diploma.

Because if she just wants to read better, and she's already got a diploma or

doesn.t want one at this point, I would say yes, still work on remediation,

possibly with manipulatives (depending on Sarah.s strengths) and also let

her read full sentences so she can continue to experience success in that

area. Maybe have her illustrate some flash cards with words/sounds/

pictures to help her remember them. But I would also want to teach her

about the available free and/or cheap assistive technology that could allow

her to function more independently while she's in the long haul of remedia-

tion.

If, however, she would like to work towards a GED diploma, I would sug-

gest starting a learning disabilities screening process to see if it would be

important for her to get a formal evaluation in order to request and receive

accommodations during the GED tests.

Another observation is that Gail already knew Sarah.s goal, which was to

be able to write numbers on checks! That.s great that she knew that, but

my question was – of course – how were she and Sarah working towards

that goal during their lessons. Unfortunately, that goal had been put on

hold while Gail worked with Sarah on her phonics. Fortunately, Gail was

willing to go back to that goal and spend the first part of each lesson work-

ing towards it, thus emphasizing the importance of the student.s own goals

within the program goals, and validating Sarah.s own perception of her im-

mediate learning needs.

My last observation is a short one: Sarah has diabetes. Gail is totally cor-

rect that yes, that can indeed interfere with learning and concentration, es-

pecially if she.s not dealing with it by checking her blood sugar levels and

keeping doctor appointments.

I.d like to make this series a bit interactive, and now invite you to respond to

Part 1 with your own comments and suggestions for screening compo-

nents, instructional strategies, follow-up questions, etc. Maybe you have

some experience with one or more students who shared some of Sarah.s

goals and/or learning characteristics.

Send your comments and suggestions to me at

prwhite@madisoncounty.net

, and I.ll include a summary of those in the

next issue. Thanks so much for participating in my first stab at an interac-

tive newsletter article! And stay tuned for more on the Gail and Sarah

saga!

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

6

Adult Learning Network

AALRC Staff

Director

Marsha Taylor

___________________

Administrative

Assistant

Wanda Johnson

Professional

Development

Coordinator

Nancy Loftis

Media

Coordinator

Klaus Neu

Secretary

Toccara Baker

Information

Technology

Specialist

Rob Pollan

Disabilities

Project

Manager

Patti White

News from the Disabilities Project Manager

New Workshop Coming in February!

Giving Struggling Readers Hope:

The Research-Based Guided Reading Approach

By Kathy Martin

Reading has been one of the hardest areas to show educational gains. Many

times, our lowest-level reading students will not continue their education long

enough to have an educational gain; therefore, our program and the student suf-

fer. Using guided reading gives hope to struggling readers. With a combination of

small-group learning (a mainstay of most adult education classrooms), and

guided reading (a component of a balanced literacy program), this approach to

reading instruction gives teachers the opportunity to explicitly teach the skills and

comprehension of reading proficiency.

I used the approach in my own adult education classroom while also researching

the approach. When I analyzed the data I collected, I found the use of guided

reading was extremely beneficial for the struggling readers. As a bonus outcome,

many of the students also developed a love for reading. Guided reading had an

impact on the students. educational reading gains, boosted students. confidence

in reading, and greatly improved students. attendance. Students made significant

progress in both the constructing of meaning and evaluation/extending meaning.

At the workshop in February, I plan to briefly review the results of my research

and then teach to the following learning objectives:

Become acquainted with several activities that help build the match between the

reader and the material being read.

Identify teacher-directed reading strategies for aiding struggling readers.

Learn a number of activities that assist and guide students to better understand

text.

Understand a number of strategies that help foster reflective thinking.

Applying the use of graphic organizers in reading.

Become acquainted with the steps to the guided reading approach.

Practice activities using guided reading.

Identify ways to incorporate reading across the curriculum.

Identify resources that could be used in reading across the curriculum.

The workshop will be held on Feb. 3-4, 2010 at the AALRC. On Day 2, the teach-

ers will mostly be applying the strategies learned on Day 1. The teachers will

practice strategies and make lesson plans that they can use in guided reading.

The teachers will also identify ways to incorporate guided reading into an already

busy day. Workshop registration will be online, and the Session ID number is

112672.

Ed. note: Kathy Martin holds a Bachelor.s degree in Elementary Education and a

Master.s degree in Education. She is an adult educator with the University of Ar-

kansas at Monticello College of Technology-Crossett. Kathy has been teaching

for 26 years, with 21 years in adult education. She has a passion for teaching

struggling readers. Kathy has developed and presented numerous workshops,

both regionally and statewide, for professional development.

7

Adult Learning Network

Tech

Talk

Note: To link to any web address (URL) in this newsletter, go the AALRC's home page at

http://aalrc.org

, look up this newsletter, and then just click on the appropriate link.

Slow Computers Part 1 can be seen at

www.aalrc.org

, click on

newsletters – then Spring 2009.

Windows Services

Services are started upon boot up and run background programs in Windows. The problem is

there are many services that you don.t use, and these services slow down your computer and use

up memory. To see the services that you have running, click on START – RUN – in the run box

type “services.msc" and press OK. To see the services that are actually running, click STATUS

twice at the top of the column to arrange the services by “Started".

The list below contains information on services that are generally safe to disable. Keep in mind

that you can disable a service that you actually need. For instance if you use wireless to access

the Internet on the computer and you disable Wireless Zero Configuration then you won.t have

Internet access. Most of these are safe to disable and doing this will speed up your computer, just

read the descriptions first. For a full list of services and which ones you can disable, go to

http://tinyurl.com/7hb7o

.

Common services that can be disabled:

Alerter - disable.

Application Management - disable.

Clipbook - disable.

Error Reporting Service - disable.

Fast UserSwitching - if you have multiple

users logged on at the same time leave this

on, otherwise disable it.

Indexing Service - this is a resource hog,

disable it.

Messenger - disable.

Net Logon - if you.re computer is not in a domain,

this can be disabled.

NetMeeting - disable.

Network DDE/Network DDE DSDM - disable

both of these.

QOS RSVP- disable.

Remote Desktop Help Session Man.- disable.

Wireless Zero Configuration - if you don.t use wireless, disable this.

Remote Registry - security risk, disable.

Routing & Remote Access - unless you

specifically use this, disable it.

Smart Card / Smart Card Helper - disable.

Telnet Service – security risk, disable.

TCP/IP NetBIOS Helper Service - disable.

Uninterruptible Power Supply - If you don.t have a battery backup (UPS) disable this.

Web Client- disable.

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Adult Learning Network

This year.s keynote speaker Randy Frazier

AACAE News

Updates from the current AACAE president Wes Pillow

Hello from your 2009-2010 AACAE Executive Board. It has

been less than two months since our fall conference ended,

but it has certainly been a busy and productive two months.

To start, the AACAE Legislative Committee, chaired by

Patricia Bates, secured a meeting with Governor Beebe. That

meeting took place on November 10. Everyone felt that it

was very successful, and we look forward to what the legisla-

tive committee does next with the Legislative Luncheon.

We have also been busy planning for our 2010 confer-

ence. The dates have been set for October 21 - 22 at

the Embassy Suites in Little Rock. We have already

been talking about some exciting changes for this

years. conference and the search is underway for a

dynamic theme and guest speaker. If anyone has any

suggestions for either, please let me know as soon as

possible at 870-215-0433 or

wpillow@smail.anc.edu

.

We are looking forward to a great year!

Wes Pillow

AACAE President

Reflections from former AACAE president

Sandra Miller

As I reflect about my favorite part of the 2009 AACAE/

ALC Conference, a smile immediately radiates from my

face. Then, when I attempt to narrow the positives to one

favorite, I am totally confused.

The scenery in Northwest Arkansas was inspiring within

itself. The keynote speaker was not only dynamic but also

informative. The sessions, accommodations, food, and

vendors added their own special touch to the conference.

However, if I must choose a favorite, I would have to conclude that the best part of the conference

was the ability to interact with the people. The individuals who took the time to present, those who

"manned" the hospitality suite, those who "stuffed" conference bags, prepared registration pack-

ets, set up A/V equipment, and especially those who stopped by with an encouraging word were

amazing and touched my heart with their kindness and willingness to assist.

It was another great conference because it was comprised of some of the finest folks in Arkansas!

Thanks to each of you for the special part you played, and I look forward to seeing you in Little

Rock in 2010.