Literacy Assistance Center
Follow us!
  • Home
  • About
    • Board of Directors
    • Staff Directory
    • Contact Us
    • Travel Directions
  • Professional Development
    • LAC Sample PD Workshops
    • Strengths-Based Adult Education Cohort 2025
    • FELT
    • TEALL
    • TESLA
  • Data Services
    • ASISTS
  • Advocacy
  • Ed Resources
    • Resource Blog
    • 7 Elements Effective Remote
    • Adolescent Literacy
    • Adult Education Conferences
    • Adult Literacy Policy & Advocacy
    • ABE/HSE
    • ESOL
    • College and Career Readiness
    • Immigrants Rights
    • Investing in Quality
    • Race and Racism
    • Remote Instruction
    • Technology and Digital Literacy
  • Jobs Board

Cohort Series FY2019

Printable Schedule
The Cohort Series are courses that consists of several face to face sessions and work to do between those meetings to apply what you have learned.  Together we will develop strong foundations in the subject focused on with the specific course.   

There are limited seats in each cohort series.  Successful applicants must be able to attend all sessions and must have the support of their program manager.  Application links and application deadlines are listed within each cohort series description.

Developing Applied Digital Skills Using Google Tools
Overview: WIOA defines digital literacy as “the skills associated with using technology to enable users to find, evaluate, organize, create, and communicate information.” In this cohort series we will explore how we can better integrate digital skills into the academic skills we are already developing and strengthening with our students.  We will explore how the Google Drive, Google Forms, Google Docs and Google Slides can be used to develop and strengthen reading, writing, and critical thinking skills (for all levels) with an emphasis on the digital skills laid out in WIOA’s definition of digital skills.  We will also review Google’s Applied Digital Skills curriculum which provides free project-based video curricula designed to develop practical digital skills for teachers and students.

For this cohort series we will be using Google tools.  If you have a Gmail account, please make sure to bring your login credentials.  If you don’t yet have a Gmail account, please create one before the session.  Here is a tutorial on creating your Gmail account: http://bit.ly/GmailSignUpTutorial (case sensitive).

Presenter: Nell Eckersley
Location:  WeWork, 85 Broad Street, Room 18D, New York, New York 10004
Audience: ABE, Pre-HSE, and HSE Instructors
Application Deadline: Thursday, April 4, 2019
Application Link: bit.ly/abehsecohortapp

This Cohort Series will include the following sessions (all Fridays):
Session 1: 5.3.19 Introduction to the Tools in Google Drive
Session 2: 5.24.19 Introduction to the Applied Digital Skills Platform from Google
Session 3: 6.7.19 Using Google Forms to Create Self-Scoring Quizzes
Session 4: 6.21.19 Creating Hyperdocs using Google Docs and Google Slides

Sessions 1: Introduction to the Tools in Google Drive
Date: 5.3.2019
Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Description: In this session, we will explore what Google Drive has to offer and why it is so useful for adult education.  We will review four Google tools including Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Forms.  We will practice organizing, sharing, and copying our Google files and folders.

Session 2: Introduction to the Applied Digital Skills Platform from Google
Date: 5.24.2019
Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Description: Google’s Applied Digital Skills Platform is a free, video-based, online curriculum designed to prepare teens and adults for the evolving job market. The curriculum teaches project-based digital skills relevant to real-life situations like event planning, budgeting, creating a guide to an area, finding a job, and more. The curriculum can be facilitated by an instructor or taken independently. In this session, we’ll take a tour of the platform and explore the lessons through the lens of reading and writing skills.  We will look at how to use the lesson ideas with different levels of students.
 
Session 3: Using Google Forms to Create Self-Scoring Quizzes
Date: 6.7.2019
Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Description: In this session, we will cover the basic mechanics of creating a self-scoring quiz using Google Forms. Participants will learn the different types of questions available in Google Forms, how to insert videos and pictures into a Google Form, how to set up the self scoring component, and how to share the quizzes with students so they can take them on their smartphones.

Session 4: Creating Hyperdocs using Google Docs and Google Slides
Date: 6.21.2019
Time: 1:00pm - 4:00pm
Description: A HyperDoc is a digital document—such as a Google Doc—where all components of a learning cycle have been pulled together into one central hub. Within a single document, students are provided with hyperlinks to all of the resources they need to complete that learning cycle. In this session, we will explore the use of Hyperdocs and how to create them using Google Docs and Google Slides.  We will examine how Hyperdocs can be used not only to support content learning but also the development and strengthening of digital skills.

Past Cohort Series

Enhancing Students’ Reading and Writing Skills to Achieve Success 
Overview:  This cohort series aims to strengthen ABE-HSE instructors’ ability to teach reading comprehension to enhance students’ reading and writing skills. We will share research on mindset, student engagement, reading comprehension, and new trends in writing instruction. This cohort series has four sessions and participants who attend all sessions will receive a certificate of completion. 

​Presenters: Be Jensen and Lizelena Iglesias
Location:  WeWork, 85 Broad Street, New York, New York 10004
Audience: ABE, Pre-HSE, and HSE Instructors

This Cohort Series will include the following sessions:
Session 1: Using TABE Results to Inform Instruction and Improve Learning 
Session 2: Reading Comprehension Strategies that Work 
Session 3:  Ask the Right Questions and You’ll Find the Right Answers: Challenging Students to Think Before They Respond
Session 4: Making Writing More Engaging for Students in the Digital Era

Session 1: Using TABE Results to Inform Reading Instruction and Improve Learning
Date: 10.19.2018
Time: 9:30am - 4:30pm 
Description: In this session, participants will learn to analyze the TABE Reading results to inform their practice and facilitate students’ learning through targeted and focused instruction.
Presenter: Be Jensen
Location: WeWork, 85 Broad Street, New York, New York 10004, Room 18E

Session 2: Reading Comprehension Strategies that Work
Date: 10.26.2018
Time: 10:00am - 4:00pm 
Description:  Reflect on well-researched comprehension strategies that can be used in the classroom with ABE-HSE students and leave this session with a practical collection of reading strategies that will enhance your practice. This session will be formatted to provide instructional support on these various strategies.
Presenter: Lizelena Iglesias
Location: WeWork, 85 Broad Street, New York, New York 10004, Room 18E

Session 3: Ask the Right Questions and You’ll Find the Right Answers: Challenging Students to Think Before They Respond
Date: 11.9.2018
Time: 9:30am - 4:30pm 
Description: During the first part of this session, participants will understand how text-dependent questions help students develop close-reading skills. They will learn to distinguish between Text-Dependent-Questions (TDQ) and Non-Text-Dependent-Questions.  They will learn to formulate TDQ to encourage close-reading among their students. In the second half of the session,  we will look at the levels of cognitive expectations, or “depths of knowledge” (DOK), that are required for the students to complete a task that is assigned to them or to answer a test question. Participants will learn how to formulate questions at the four levels of DOK to assess students' depth of understanding of the lesson.
Presenter: Be Jensen
Location: WeWork, 85 Broad Street, New York, New York 10004,  Room 18E

Session 4: Making Writing More Engaging for Students in the Digital Era
Date: 11.16.2018
Time: 10:00am - 4:00pm 
Description: During the last session of this cohort we will explore ways teachers can integrate digital literacy into existing writing instruction. We will look at resources and best practices that can help teachers expand and enhance the writing process in the ABE-HSE classrooms.
Presenter: Lizelena Iglesias
Location: WeWork, 85 Broad Street, New York, New York 10004, Room 18F

Achieving Flow: Growth for Teachers of Mathematics
Overview: This cohort series is meant to move practitioners out of their comfort zones of instructional automaticity into the deliberate practice of “flow,” which is the state of mind that causes you to be energized and focused. Consequently, achieving flow as a practitioner will lead to growth, especially for those who don’t see themselves as math teachers but rather teachers who have to teach mathematics.

​Presenter: Cynthia Bell
Location: WeWork, 85 Broad Street, Room 18G, New York, New York 10004
Audience: ABE, Pre-HSE, and HSE Instructors.
Application Deadline: Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Application Link: bit.ly/abehsecohortapp

This Cohort Series will include the following sessions:
Session 1: 2.8.19 Effective Growth for Teachers of Mathematics
Session 2: 3.8.19 “Help, I’m Stuck”: Responses for Successful Interventions
Session 3:  3.22.19 Coherence: The Tool of Mass Instruction
Session 4: 4.12.19 There’s More to Learning than Thinking

Session 1: Effective Growth for Teachers of Mathematics
Date: 2.8.2019
Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm
Description: Whether you see yourself as a math teacher or just someone who teaches math, there are some basic exercises that should be engaged for growth. In this session, we will reflect on our current practice, discuss three principles that should be integrated into our practice, and plan how to beef up our Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT).

Session 2: “Help, I’m Stuck”: Responses for Successful Interventions
Date: 3.8.2019
Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm
Description: One of the best practices for teaching and learning mathematics is Supporting Productive Struggle in Learning Mathematics, but understanding how to support effectively can sometimes be unclear. Wouldn’t it be great to know which responses to student struggle are effective and lead to student progress, compared to which responses can limit students’ perseverance and sense-making? Attending this session will help you know the differences.

Session 3: Coherence: The Tool of Mass Instruction
Date: 3.22.2019
Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm
Description: Mathematical Knowledge for Teaching (MKT) has two components--content knowledge and andragogical (pedagogical) knowledge. This session will aim to focus on deepening practitioner’s content knowledge by analyzing coherence strands and discussing effective means for teaching and learning major mathematical concepts.
 
Session 4: There’s More to Learning than Thinking
Date: 4.12.2019
Time: 10:00am - 1:00pm
Description: Did you know that having the intention to learn makes you more likely to learn something; or that you can teach a well-executed and engaging lesson in which students fully participate but don’t necessarily learn? What does it mean to learn? How can we know that students are learning and not just thinking? In this session, we will discuss answers to these questions and more.
Literacy Assistance Center | 85 Broad Street | 16th Floor | New York | NY 10004
​

Staff | About | Prof Dev | Data Services | Advocacy | Ed Resources | Jobs Board
Donate