I went to a very interesting presentation at TESOL probably three years ago.
The presenter talked about a program they had instituted in conjunction with
the public libraries. I believe it might have been with Crossroads Café.
(and it might have been in Virginia or California). Anyway, if someone was
interested in checking out a video, they had them take a quick pre-test (ten
questions or less). When they returned the tape, they took a short
post-test, so there was a way of documenting progress. The thing I was most
impressed with, though, was that when they looked at the people who were
using the tapes, they found out that they were mainly young Hispanic wives
who said they would NOT go to a class. So it was a great way of reaching a
population that would otherwise not be served. 

Kathy Olson

-----Original Message-----
From: focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov [mailto:focusonbasics-bounces at nifl.gov]
On Behalf Of Barbara Garner
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 12:51 PM
To: Holly Dilatush-Guthrie; focusonbasics at nifl.gov
Subject: Re: [FocusOnBasics 283]   Re: Pre-Enrollment out of school study

It's encouraging to learn about so many different models of out-of-school
study in use around the country...

Does anyone ask learners on intake whether they have been doing
self-study before coming to enroll? If so, do you have any sense of what
proportion of your learners did? And why are they choosing to enroll if
they have been studying on their own?
Barb Garner
Editor, Focus on Basics

=====================
From: Holly Dilatush-Guthrie <Holly.Dilatush-Guthrie at ccs.k12.va.us>
Date: Mon May 15 10:53:59 CDT 2006
To: focusonbasics at nifl.gov
Subject: [FocusOnBasics 283]   Re: Supporting out of school study

Yes * Charlottesville City Schools (Charlottesville VA) has been piloting a
very successful ESL at Home program since October 2005, via an EL/Civics
grant.   Although not yet cost-effective, student success has been great!

We've modeled our program similar to one used by North Carolina (LEAD
program) and are using Crossroads Cafe video series as our curriculum.  We
have had our first two 'graduates' this month (finishing all 26 episodes,
worktexts, and a review test after each episode)!  
We've had several learners show reportable gains, many many many anecdotal
success stories.   

We have an optional virtual classroom on the internet, http://theHsmile.org
(then ESL at Home with Crossroads Cafe] using MOODLE.
http://www.moodle.org) as our Course Management System (CMS).

Enrollment for this class is ongoing (the only ongoing open enrollment
course in our Adult Learning Center's program); we began with 6 students in
October, have had a total of 46 to date, with approx. 30% dropping out
before sufficient hours completed to 'officially count' them.   31 of the 46
who have registered into our pilot group so far have registered on our
virtual website, over 20 are active on the site.  The virtual classroom has
many supplemental activities: discussion forums, resources, quizzes,
assignments, a chat function, more!   

I'm happy to share more details (off the discussion list) for anyone
interested.
Holly

"No matter what our attempts to inform, it is our ability to inspire that
will turn the tides."
Holly Dilatush
ESL distance learning, Dialogue Cafe, Volunteer coordinator
Charlottesville City Schools Adult Learning Center
1000 Preston Ave., Suite D
Charlottesville  VA  22903
(434) 245.2815 office
(434) 960.7177 cell/mobile
http://theHsmile.org  ['home' to several Moodle CMS (course management
systems/virtual classrooms)]
http://www.Charlottesville-ESL.org 
"Live with intention. Share inside~out smiles, inspire hope, seek awe and
nurture in nature."


>>> julie_mcKinney at worlded.org 05/12/06 12:25 PM >>>

Does anyone else out there do any kind of distance education or have
methods to keep students studying when have to drop class for a while?
Part of the NCSALL research Barb mentioned suggests that most students,
over the course of several years, are forced to move in and out of class
programs, due to changing life circumstances. This means that programs
will need to move toward offering support for students to keep learning
during their out-of-class phases. So it is interesting to hear about
Katrina's program and others that are working towards that. 



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