Consortium Minutes - October 2, 2004

Marshall Consortium Staff Meeting
Marshall Area Adult Learning Center
Saturday, October 2, 2004
Lyon County Government Center
607 West Main, Marshall, MN

Present: Ted Stamp, Vickie Radloff, Paulette Hanson, Sue Hollingsworth, Jamie Verdeck, Sally Belgum-Blad, Bonnie Nielsen, Charles Carrera, Judy Hacker, Tammy Bukowski, Stephanie Guza, Lois Schmidt, Pat Thomas, Barb Glaeser, Sue Burnett, Delores Johnson and Sandy Scheff-Belan.

Introductions: Pat introduced Sandy Scheff-Belan who is the ABE/GED instructor for the Wabasso School District.

1. EFF Standards – The EFF Committee (Stephanie Guza, Delores Johnson, Tammy Bukowski, and Lois Schmidt) presented on Decision-Making Skills. This is the focus of one of the four fundamental categories of skills that adults need to draw from to carry out the key activities that are central to their primary roles as workers, as parents and as citizens. The other three categories are Communication Skills, Interpersonal Skills, and Lifelong Learning Skills.

The presentation involved each of the committee members and, continuing the theme of clothing/dress in the workplace, each member demonstrated the use of various teaching techniques for the topic. These included use of lecture to give background and orientation to the topic; technology with a short Power Point demo and picture posters for visual; role-play with worker, parent and citizen role topic to involve audience/students with interaction and participation.

Committee members also provided an Idea List to get us started thinking about topics around which EFF could be incorporated in the classroom as requested from teachers at our last Consortium meeting.

Finally, with this meeting we began and will continue providing our ideas, research findings and sample forms of ways that we can track student progress and assessment with mastery of EFF skills. A "Mind Map" form and a "Goal Setting Form" were shared and may be most useful for us. Our next meeting presentation will focus on Interpersonal Skills. For those who want to check out helpful information and useful ideas relating to EFF, here's the web address for the State of Vermont's Dept of Education (a tip we picked up through those who attended a workshop on this at Summer Intensive):
http://www.state.vt.us/educ/new/html/pgm_adulted/eff.html

2. Reading Skills for Today’s Adults – Sally presented a review of reading research and strategies presented by Al Greenfield at Summer Intensive. A common theme in reading research is the importance of creating opportunities for language development in young children. This is necessary for reading proficiency. Five year olds entering kindergarten who have been interacting (read to, talked with, played with) yearly for 50 hours (2 minutes a day) know 4.000 or fewer words; whereas those who have experienced 2000 hours (1.1 hours a day) of interaction know 10,000 to 12,000 words. Children need to know about 10,000 words to be successful readers.
Proficient readers understand the alphabet system of English and can identify printed words; they use strategies and background knowledge to create meaning from print; and, they read fluently. We examined some vocabulary strategies (see handouts) and talked briefly about constructivist comprehension strategies where the emphasis is placed on the student being the meaning maker in the reading process, while the teacher provides support.

3. Managed Enrollment/Contracts – Tammy shared the pros and cons of several programs the committee looked at. They didn't think the attendance rewards, reward activities such as proms, or homework would be appropriate for our GED program. They did like including goal setting, formal orientations, and a handbook on the computer, and optional rewards. They expect to get more program models to examine, and will report any additional findings.

Sue Burnett briefly reminded staff members that her committee would be looking into managed enrollment so that in the future when our students numbers increase we will be prepared. We are also going to take a look at what other consortiums are doing to retain their students.

4. Reading Recognition – Delores informed staff that a pilot program is being done in Pam’s class. Staff and students are being trained along with development of a program that goes beyond just the computer program.

5. ESL 101 (aka: What does teaching a second language learner encompass?) –
Tammy and Vickie presented the following highlights:

1. ELL Teachers are concerned with addressing student needs from the broad spectrum; they don't get stuck on one aspect. They realize that all instruction needs to be embedded in meaningful setting.

2. Discussed the differences of needs between learners in their native language and learners in a second language. We discussed factors which broaden the spectrum of learners, such as: literacy level in their native language, lifestyles in the native culture, experiences and time in the second culture, and available practice/models in the second language.

3. Explained the criteria to earn a license in Teaching As A Second Language licensure.

6. Updates
> Pat reminded staff that Self Evaluations should be completed and turned into her. She wants to have all visits completed by November 1st. When meeting to go over your self-evaluation Pat also asks you to give her input on the following questions:
*What do you want me to keep doing?
*What do you want me to stop doing?
*What do you want me to start doing?

> Barb reviewed the student exit procedure for the 04-05 school year. Exits will be done on a quarterly basis. Please refer to the revised exit form and directions. The first set of exits should be turned in by November 15th.

> Barb handed out reports that show MISSING information for students. Instructors are to try and find this information and give it to Barb ASAP. If an entry educational level is missing, that means a student has not been given a pre-test.

> Upcoming Workshops:
Southwest Fall Regional @ Jackpot – Friday, October 29th
LDA In-service @ Marshall – Saturday, October 30th