Basic Skills and Career & Technical Education

1. Basic Skills and Career & Technical Education Lin Marelick, CTL Grant Coordinator Doug Marriott, CCAA Director Chandra Arora, PhD, CTL Instructor Linda Collins, Executive Director, Career Ladders ProjectDeborah Harrington, Vice Chancellor, LA District, BSI Phase IV Director February 19 & 20, 2009 Four Points Sheraton, Fresno, CA

2. Agenda, Day 1 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljbI-363A2Q • February 19, 10 a.m.- Noon • Introductions • Outcomes for the workshop • Basic skills & CTE- BSI Handbook Chapter 13… • Misconceptions about students w/ basic skills needs. • Lunch

3. Agenda Cont’d February 19, 12:45 – 3:15 pm • California Career Advancement Academies Video: the student voice • Discussion: What opportunities & barriers do you foresee to implementing a CTL program at your college? How do you get college buy-in? • Chandra Arora, Instructor, LA Valley College

4. Outcomes • Understand how to collaborate with basic skills faculty to develop contextualized teaching and learning (CTL) for CTE programs • Learn strategies for engaging students with basic skills needs in the classroom • Develop strategies for ongoing CTL discussions at your home campus • Increase communication with CTE and basic skills faculty from other colleges

5. Introductions • Description of the exercise: • Meet and greet- introduce yourself to as many people in the room as possible (minimum of five people) • Introduce a person you met to the rest of the group

7. BSI HandbookChapter 13 • What are the basic skills that students need to be successful in class or on the job? Speaking English Reading and Writing in English Basic Arithmetic or Higher Math Skills Employability or “Soft” Skills

8. Basic Skills & CTE • Misconceptions Quiz- write True or False answers to the statements below • Students don’t need reading or math to be successful in CTE programs because they need very discrete skills for specific occupational roles. • The majority of students who get their GED continue on to higher levels of education and/or occupational training. • The only way CTE students with basic skills needs can improve those skills is to enroll in a basic skills course.

9. Learning Communities • Which statement is true about learning communities? • Learning communities reach across a limited number of disciplines • Learning communities are classes that are linked or clustered during an academic term and enroll a common cohort of students. • The faculty member is the center of activity in a learning community • Learning communities are not as effective for developmental learners community.

10. Directed Learning Activities • Which statement is untrue about Directed Learning Activities? • Directed Learning Activities incorporate tutorial centers to address basic skills needs. • Apportionment funding in the form of hours by arrangement can be legitimately collected for directed learning activities. • The goal of the directed learning activity is the completion of exercises. • The language of the activity clearly connects to the course assignments, objectives and/or outcomes.

11. Contextualized Learning • Which statements below are true about contextualized learning? • In contextualized instruction: • skills are taught in the context of what is required and relevant for industry. • skills are taught in the context of what is relevant for general life and survival skills. • skills are taught in the context of what is meaningful and relevant to previous knowledge or experience. • The best way to learn something is in context. • All of the above answers are correct.

12. Misconceptions • Discussion: • What misconceptions do you anticipate from faculty and administrators at your college who did not attend this workshop? • Groups report out

13. Changing the dialogue… Examples of dialogue. Exercise description: Role play the scripts that are on the table. Reverse roles and practice the dialogue again.

14. LUNCH BREAK12:00 – 12:45 pm

15. California Career Advancement Academies Video • The Student Voice…How do we ensure that the student voice is included in our programs? • Doug Marriott

16. Discussion • What CTL possibilities do you see for your college? • Learning Communities • Directed Learning Activities • Contextualized Lessons • What CTL barriers do you feel are present at your college? • Resistance from colleagues or administration • Time to devote to development • Resources to support development • Groups Reports • How do you get college buy-in?

17. Break

18. CTL Instructor’s Experience • Chandra Arora, Instructor, LA Valley College • Professor Arora contextualizes science, English and math. She also teaches Workplace Readiness in Health Careers for the CCAA at LA Valley College • What Do Our Students Need From Us? • What Our Students Need to Be Successful: • Regular Feedback • Know That We Care About Their Success • Assessment vs. Evaluation

19. Assessment v. Evaluation (what’s the difference?)Assessment: the goal is to improve performance using feedbackEvaluation: judges performance but doesn’t necessarily identify ways for students or employees to improveSample Rubrics

20. Agenda for day 2 • February 20, 9:00 am – Noon • Check-in, review yesterday’s discussions • Linda Collins- Effective practices incontextualized teaching and learning (CTL) Discussion on CCAA’s pitfalls, concerns, discoveries, successes, and redesigns. • Story time: Write a story about your experience teaching students with basic skills needs enrolled in your class. • Share stories

21. Agenda Day 2 Cont’d • Action Plan: Turning your experience into action. Review action plan template and develop a plan • Lunch Break: 12:00 – 12:45 • Report out on action plans • Deborah Harrington, BSI Phase IV: Overview of Professional Development Program • Wrap up- 2:30

22. April 20 • Check-in; Review previous day activities • Linda Collins- CAA Statewide (video) • Effective practices in contextualized teaching and learning (CTL) • Discussion on CAA’s pitfalls, concerns, discoveries, successes, and redesigns. • Story Time: How have your students with basic skills changed your teaching? • Prompt: What three things do you find most rewarding about teaching students with basic skills needs? • Prompt: What are your three biggest challenges about teaching students with basic skills needs? • Share stories

23. Action Plans • Creating an Action Plan: Turning your experience into action. • Review action plan template • Develop a plan • Lunch Break • Report out on Action Plans • Deborah Harrington, BSI Phase IV, Staff Development Statewide

24. YOU DID IT! • What’s next… • Take this experience back to your campus • Talk to your colleagues • Engage your students • Make a difference Best wishes and thank you for being here.