MN ABE Connect Archive
Recent Newsletter Articles
PANDA Offers Free Online Relicensure Courses
PANDA provides free disability training and support for teachers. In collaboration with Literacy Minnesota, these are FREE online courses, available to take at your own pace. Check out the newest course, "The 3 L’s: The Difference Between Learning Disability, Low Ability, and Low Literacy", or any of the other courses on PTSD/traumas, suicide prevention, reducing the stigma of mental illness, and teaching about mental health. Read More
Diversifying Your Image Searches
How can a beginner level ESOL class be made more culturally responsive, when the content and skills we need to cover seem so basic? I realized that in order to embody the values that our field aspires to hold, I needed to figure out how to make them real and tangible in my classroom. This school year, that mission became my primary focus. I’d like to share some of my thoughts and takeaways from my journey so far. Read More
Fun Minimal Pair Activities for English Learners
Where to begin with easy and effective pronunciation instruction? Read on to learn about two pronunciation activities targeting minimal pairs that are a great starting point for teaching pronunciation, as well as where you can find the recordings and materials from ATLAS’s latest pronunciation webinars. Read More
Questions! Questions! I Have Testing Questions!
The first question is “What does this dog have to do with CASAS and TABE testing?” That’s an easy one! The dog has absolutely nothing to do with testing, but it’s cute and it got you to stop and take a look at this article! Read on to learn more about assessment training over the next few months. Read More
Community Collaboration: Water Safety Class
Learn how the Shakopee Community Center, Parks and Recreation Department, and Adult Education collaborated recently to run a Water Safety Class for immigrant women who are frequently not reached through traditional resources. Read More
What Do Your Students Want to Be Ready for?
Adult educators in Minnesota have access to the EdReady platform (approved for DL proxy hours in MN ABE) from the NROC Project free of charge. When given the option to review and improve foundational skills through an online program that targets specific gaps with a personalized study path, many students show meaningful – and often accelerated – skills improvement, as well as increased confidence that translates to greater success in programs of study! Read More
Civics/History Curriculum: An Introduction to the CILIA-T Curriculum Project
Adult ESOL teachers: When choosing resources, what makes a curriculum “teachable”, and what tells you that it just won’t work? Check out this introduction to the CILIA-T Project, a new open-source, tech-integrated civics content curriculum being built for adult ELLs, and how educators in our field are already contributing input on its development! Read More
Resources for Volunteer Tutors Series: Classroom Activities for Adult ESL Learners Video Series
As a part of a brief, weekly series in MN ABE Connect, Literacy Minnesota’s Training Department is back with another valuable resource for volunteers – the Classroom Activities for Adult ESL Learners Video Series. This resource is a veritable treasure trove waiting for you and your volunteers to explore! Read More
Manipulatives Are a Fun and Engaging Way to Help ESL Students Learn! – Part 2
Miriam Bosveld, a Level 1 ESL teacher at the Robbinsdale Adult Academic Program and a PANDA consultant, wrote the following article series about the relevance of using manipulatives in teaching her students. Using manipulatives is also supported in the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) free training that PANDA offers each year. Read More
Choose Your Own ACES Adventure
The ACES Foundations Course was intentionally designed to be a “choose your own adventure” experience, in which participants decide which of the six category modules to complete. Take this self-paced course to gain a deeper understanding of what transitions skills are, how they form part of our MN ABE content standards, and how to develop them with your learners. You can also earn a total of six CEUs after submitting the final assignment! Read More