Using Your Cell Phone for Instruction via ProLiteracy

Using Your Cell Phone for Instruction

ProLiteracy Blog: 4.02.2020 by Jessica Gilmour

ProLiteracy has an excellent list of resources you can use with students during this period of social/physical distancing including instructional resources and tools. Let’s talk about some of those resources and tools. Let’s start with a tool that you and your students all most likely have—a cell phone.

If you’re working with ESL students, one of the easiest ways to use a cell phone is to set up regularly scheduled calls where you can talk with students and they can practice their conversational English. Aim for at least a 10 minute conversation two times a week. Before you end your call, determine what you will talk about for the next call so the student has a chance to think about what he or she wants to say and can practice the relevant grammar and vocabulary. If you need topics, I suggest using current events topics from News for You. News for You Online is providing the courtesy password 22667F through June 30, 2020, so anyone can access News for You Online.

If you want to have a phone call with more than one student at the same time, you can google “How to make a conference call on my [insert whatever phone you have].” Though the instructions are different for each phone, they are all straightforward and easy to find. READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 10

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 14-15 yrs. Old

(Ninth to Tenth graders)

Family Literacy on Your Smartphone via Education Week

Family Literacy on Your Smartphone

Education Week: 7.19.2017 by Matthew Lynch

By Vinod Lobo is the founder and CEO of Learning Upgrade.

For years, we've been talking about how adult English language learners (ELLs) make up a significant part of the estimated 36 million adults in the U.S. who read at a 3rd-grade level or below. Only 10% of adult ELLs are able to take advantage of federally funded programs. So what about the forgotten 90% who are severely underserved? It's time to stop talking about teaching adults English reading and start taking action. 

Recent data shows that adult ELLs engaging in a blended model of in-person and at-home smartphone-based learning improved at an average of 7.8 points on the CASAS scale. (CASAS is an assessment designed to test language proficiency and mastery.) These are significant gains achieved in just 10 weeks. This tells us that the blended approach works. Now, we have to scale it up.

First, the Funding

Up until three years ago, there was virtually no state funding for adult education programs, and federal funding was hard to come by. Adults with a desire to learn English would get on waiting lists for in-person classes, attempt to learn the language on their own, or try to learn it from their children.

In 2015, California launched the Adult Education Block Grant (AEBG), which created 71 consortia around the state that include community colleges, school districts, and other education providers. The goal was to improve coordination and better serve the needs of adult learners within each region. In two years, $500 million of state AEBG funding was divided among the consortia and providers to support adult education programs throughout the state. Since the funding was put in place, there has been increased coordination and accountability for all members of the consortia, which has had a positive impact on California's adult ELL programs. For example, the AEBG requires educational providers to test and report on learners' improvements using assessments such as the CASAS test.

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Low-literate adults often do not have computer or Internet access at home. However, a report from Digital Promise notes that an estimated 75% of students enrolled in adult education programs own smartphones. For many of the adult ELLs, an app is the answer. Today, thousands of adult learners are using Learning Upgrade, a differentiated app-based curriculum featuring songs, videos, and games in 300 English and 600 math lessons. Although users may only have time to engage with the app for a few minutes in a row, those minutes add up. Learners who used to spend 30 minutes per week on a lab computer at an adult school can now spend two to four (or more) hours per week on their phones. Learners complete lessons everywhere including but not limited to - on the bus, at school waiting for children, on work breaks, or at the doctor's office. READ MORE @

Smartphones Will Read and Write Better Than 32 Million American Adults in Next Decade

Smartphones Will Read and Write Better Than 32 Million American Adults in Next Decade

PR Newswire: 3.10.2017 by Project Literacy founded by Pearson

@rewritinglives

While progress in improving human literacy rates has stalled since 2000^[1] -- leaving 758 million^[2] adults worldwide and 32 million Americans^[3] illiterate-- a new report predicts that technological advances will soon enable over 2 billion^[4] smartphones to read and write. At the current rate of technological progress, devices and machines powered by AI and voice recognition software will surpass the literacy level of one in seven American adults within the next ten years.  

In their report, '2027: Human vs. Machine Literacy' the global campaign Project Literacy and Professor Brendan O'Connor, University of Massachusetts Amherst, call for society to commit to upgrading its people at the same rate as upgrading its technology,  so that by 2030 no child is born at risk of poor literacy. They highlight:

 > Machine literacy already exceeds the literacy abilities of 3% of the US population who are non-literate^[5]

 > There are more software engineers^[6] in the United States than school teachers^[7].  We are focusing so much on teaching algorithms and AI to be better at language that we are forgetting that 50% of adults cannot read a book written at an eighth grade level^[8]

 > 32 million American adults can not currently read a road sign.  Yet 10 million self-driving cars are predicted to be on the road by 2020^[9].

 > The 2017 U.S. Federal Education Budget for schools is $40.4bn^[10]. In 2015, investment in AI reached $47.2 billion and is expected to keep on increasing.^[11]

Project Literacy, founded and convened by Pearson, is a campaign backed by more than 90 partners as diverse as UNESCO, 

Microsoft, Worldreader, the Clinton Foundation, Room to Read, Doctors of the World, the Hunger Project and ProLiteracy.

"'Machine reading' is not close to mastering the full nuances of human language and intelligence, despite this idea capturing the imagination of popular culture in movies such as 'Her'. However advances in technology mean that it is likely 'machines' will achieve literacy abilities exceeding those of one in seven Americans within the next decade" said Professor Brendan O'Connor, University of Massachusetts Amherst. "I was interested in exploring this topic as while there has been a lot of discussion around machine learning and machine reading, directly comparing machine literacy with human literacy really highlights the dichotomy between the two."

"Our new report highlights the gulf between technological and human progression. It is predicted that more than two billion smart phones will soon be capable of reading and writing, but 758 million people in the world still lack basic literacy skills and this skills gap is being passed on from generation to generation.  It doesn't have to be a zero-sum game -  technology has a crucial role to play in the fight against illiteracy' said Kate James, Project Literacy spokesperson and Chief Corporate Affairs and Global Marketing Officer at Pearson.

Project Literacy commissioned the report to draw attention to the shocking lack of progress being made in fighting illiteracy as well as shine a spotlight on the potential for technology to help bring about change.  The global movement aim to harness the power of technology to tackle the illiteracy crisis through a range of technology-led partnerships [See Notes to Editors for Case Studies].

The report was launched ahead of Project Literacy's upcoming presence at SxSW in Austin, where representatives will be on the ground raising awareness of the issue of illiteracy among the tech-savvy festival goers. Project Literacy will be encouraging the public to get involved in the fight against illiteracy through a number of unique experiences including an interactive Spelling Bee and thought-provoking talks. To support the initiative, Pearson will be matching donations from the festival on a 1:1 basis [See Notes to Editors for full details].