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A Triple Play: ElCivics, Oregon Adult Basic Skills Learning Standards and College-Wide Core Learning Outcomes in

Thinking Critically.Presenters

Indira Bakshi and Diane DaudtLane Community College, Eugene OR

Introduction

Who are we???

Why are we here???

Background

The ElCivics instructors from the previous year chose to implement the competency area “Nutrition # 46” in Spring 2012. Nutrition # 46: Access resources for nutrition

education and information related to the purchase and preparation of healthy foods.

Critical Thinking is a component of the Nutrition’s Language and Learning Objectives.

Background

ElCivics 2011-2012 professional development focused on training instructors in Oregon ABS Learning Standards. 2 ElCivics instructors participated in Oregon ABS

Learning Standards Institutes. 2 attended Learning Circles. Both trainings included outcomes-based

learning. Critical thinking is also a component of Oregon

ABS Learning Standards.

Background

In the Fall of 2011, two ELCivics instructors attended a workshop on College Core Learning Outcomes. This is continuing college-wide effort to teach and

assess College Core Learning Outcomes in all LCC classes.

The focus for 2011-2012 was Thinking Critically So we applied and received a grant $$$$ to

develop and assess critical thinking skills in our ElCivics classes

The “Aha Moment”

We realized we could get a ‘three fer’ from the Nutrition Unit ElCivics ! Oregon Learning Standards ! Lane’s College Core Outcomes- Think

Critically!

Perfect Storm

What started out as a simple idea became the blob that ate Cleveland or at least the Willamette Valley!

We had so many ideas and so many things we wanted to do with the Nutrition unit and so much fun that…….

Return Engagement

We’ll do it again!!! High student need and interest Enthusiastic community participation Planned for Winter Term, 2013

Some Definitions

ELCivics Oregon Learning Standards Lane Core College Outcomes Critical Thinking Assessment Criteria

What is EL Civics?

A federally funded grant that support many ESL programs around the State and across the nation!

“The intention of EL/Civics is to provide integrated English literacy and civics education to immigrants and other limited English proficient populations to promote effective participation in the education, work, and civic opportunities of this country.”

(See handout )

What are Oregon Learning Standards?

The Learning Standard is a global statement of what learners at any level should be able to do, related to speaking/listening/reading and writing.

The State of Oregon has adopted these standards for Adult Learners across the state in ESL and ABE programs.

(See handout for more detail.)

What are Lane’s Core College Outcomes?

Adopted at LCC to have a common reference points for students in primary areas of competence

THINK critically ENGAGE diverse values, perspectives and

civic awareness CREATE ideas and solutions COMMUNICATE effectively APPLY learning

(See handout for more detail.)

Critical Thinking Lane’s Core College Outcomes

In order to demonstrate the ability to think critically a student must:

Identify and define key issues Demonstrate knowledge of the context and

complexity of the issue Integrate other relevant points of view of the

issue Analyze supporting evidence, data and

specific details Construct appropriate and defensible

reasoning to draw conclusions.

Who Was Involved?

Evening Program ESL and ElCivics Classes Level 3 Combined Skills (ElCivics) Level 4 Combined Skills (ElCivics) Level 5 Combined Skills (ElCivics) 2B Reading/Writing (non-ElCivics)

Class Levels

LCC Levels: Beginning to Advanced Best Plus Oral Assessment SPL’s 3-7 CASAS Reading Assessment Scores 180-220 Federal NRS Levels: High-Beginning to High-

Intermediate

About Our Classes

All classes met on MW nights 6:15-8:35 p.m. Total class time: 5 hours a week

Students

More than 50 students in total participated. They were mostly Spanish speakers from Mexico,

Guatemala, Peru and other Latin American countries.

But, there were also speakers of other languages such as Chinese, Korean, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, and Gujarati.

What We Did

Classes did activities related to their levels and abilities.

All classes studied vocabulary related to food, grocery shopping and nutrition.

Levels 2 and 3

Learned vocabulary for food items Read about hidden sugars found in foods, healthy

and unhealthy diets Read and analyzed the labels of common foods Learned about quantifiers and count and non-

count nouns Wrote and talked about what they eat and why

they eat that way.

Level 3 and 4

Levels 3 and 4 kept daily food journals for 3 to 5 weeks.

Level 4 students answered opened-ended questions about food choices and how they applied new information learned in class to their eating habits.

Level 4

Accessed websites about food labels and nutrition. Used information on sites to answer questions on

handouts. Read an article about hidden sugar in processed

foods; homework assignment was to read food labels and identify kinds of sugar on labels

Level 5

Students looked at their own family medical histories;

Identified diseases in their families; Researched symptoms of illnesses; And created posters and made class presentations

of their findings and how those findings related to diet.

Guest Speaker

Tamberley Powell, LCC Nutrition Instructor came and spoke to all the classes.

She discussed carbohydrates, whole grains and reading food labels.

Her presentation included practice looking at food labels.

Students enjoyed presentation and had positive verbal and written feedback.

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Label reading and whole grains

Choose foods with a whole grain ingredient listed first on the label’s ingredient list.

Ingredients are listed in descending order of weight (from most to least). Example: From Tamberley Powell’s Presentation

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Which is the whole grain bread?

Whole wheat flour, water, brown sugar …

Wheat flour, water, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, wheat bran …

Example: From Tamberley Powell’s Presentation

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Wheat flour, water, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, wheat bran …

Answer: has WHOLE wheat as the first ingredient!

Whole wheat flour, water, brown sugar …

Example: From Tamberley Powell’s Presentation

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Color and whole grains

o Color is not an indication of a whole grain.

o Bread can be brown because of molasses or other added ingredients.

o Read the ingredient list to see if bread is a WHOLE grain.

Wheat flour, water, high fructose corn syrup, molasses, wheat bran …

Example: From Tamberley Powell’s Presentation

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“Nutrition Facts” label and grains

o Use “Nutrition Facts”label to help choosewhole grain products with a higher % Daily Value (%DV) for fiber.

o The %DV for fiber is a good clue to the amountof whole grain in the product.

o Look for >10% DV for fiber.Example: From Tamberley Powell’s Presentation

Blood Pressure and Glucose Screening Clinic

LCC Medical Office Assisting students and Nursing students took ESL students’ blood pressure and did glucose testing on students willing to be pricked !!

All four classes participated!

Blood Pressure and Glucose Screening Clinic

Student nurses met with students and answered questions about screening results and other health questions.

Blood Pressure and Glucose Screening Clinic

Nursing students took contact information to follow up with at risk ESL students.

Blood Pressure and Glucose Screening Clinic

Nursing students spent a lot of time with ESL students and were jazzed about coming back next year!!!

How We Integrated EL Civics

ElCivics Competency Area #46 Language and Literacy Objectives were met through class activities. #1. Identify a healthy diet as recommended by USDA. #2. Identify the relationship between nutrition and good

health. #7. Interpret food-packaging labels. #10. Listen to a speaker share information about low

cost sources of healthy food. Participate in the discussion by asking previously prepared questions; take notes.

How We Integrated Learning Standards

We were required to indicate in ElCivics planning documents use of Oregon ABE Learning Standards for each competency area.

And report implementation of Oregon ABE Learning Standards for in End of Year reporting and following years application documents.

The Listening Standard

Using the Listen Actively Standard, students met many of the benchmarks for appropriate levels 2-6.

Adult learners listen actively for a variety of purposes, integrating their knowledge, skills, and strategies in the following process: Determine the purpose for listening Focus attention and choose listening strategies

appropriate to the purpose Monitor comprehension, adjusting listening

strategies as needed Integrate new information with prior knowledge to

address the listening purpose

How We Integrated The Listening Standard

Example 1: KWL activity -Level 4 (see handout) Students drew on prior knowledge; And, integrated new information with prior

knowledge to address the listening purpose by answering the questions.

Example 2: Preparing to Listen Document- Level 2BRW (see handout) By preparing to listen, students determined the

purpose for listening. Listening comprehension strategies were explicitly

taught.

The Reading Standard

Using the Read with Understanding Standard, students met many of the benchmarks for appropriate levels 2-6.

Adult learners read diverse texts for a variety of purposes, integrating their knowledge, skills, and strategies in the following process:

Determine the reading purpose Select and use reading strategies appropriate to the

purpose the content and reflect on the underlying meanings

Analyze the content and reflect on the underlying meanings

Integrate the content with prior knowledge to address the reading purpose

How We Integrated The Reading Standard

Example 1: Reading Food labels in class and with guest Speaker Students analyzed the content and reflected on the

underlying meanings –is this really healthy? How much fat? How many calories?

Example 2: Identifying and researching family illnesses ( Level 5) on internet and coming up diet and other lifestyle changes to prevent illnesses. Students integrated the content with prior

knowledge to address the reading purpose.

Lane’s Core College Outcomes:

Think Critically In order to demonstrate the ability to think

critically a student must: Identify and define key issues Demonstrate knowledge of the context and

complexity of the issue Integrate other relevant points of view of the

issue Analyze supporting evidence, data and specific

details Construct appropriate and defensible reasoning

to draw conclusions.

How We Integrated Critical Thinking

Teachers changed approach and asked more open ended type questions and held more discussions

This helped students identify and define key issues;

And, demonstrate knowledge of the context and complexity of the issue.

Also, students listened to other relevant points of view of the issue in hopes that they could see more than 1 side of an issue.

How We Integrated Critical Thinking

In some classes, students wrote in journals about what they ate and why they made those choices.

In other classes, they answered reflective questions on the back of their food diaries, about what they were eating and why and how they were using and applying the information they learned in class to diets.

This allowed students to demonstrate knowledge of the context and complexity of the issue.

And analyze supporting evidence, data and specific details

Finally, these guiding questions gave students the opportunity to construct reasoning to draw conclusions.

How We Integrated College Core Learning Outcome: Critical

Thinking

Finally, teachers assessed critical thinking skills using the Critical Thinking Rubric developed by the LCC Assessment Team.

See latest version of the rubric in the handout. See Data in handout! This is what we were

required to submit.

ELCivics, Learning Standards and Critical Thinking: What are the correlations?

Critical thinking skills must be used and thereby developed in achieving ElCivics Language and Literacy Objectives in Nutrition Key words appear in LLO’s: identify, interpret.

Oregon ABE Learning Standards specifically indicate the need to use critical thinking skills to achieve benchmarks and sub-benchmarks. Key words that appear in the standards: identify, analyze,

synthesize, evaluate, draw conclusions, critique, make connections etc….

ElCivics LLO #10 states should prepare to listen to a guest by writing questions. This is a key component of the Oregon Listen Actively Standard

How the ELCivics, Learning Standards and Critical Thinking

Outcomes Correlate In the end, we realized

that we weren’t really doing three different things, but instead looking at the same class activities through three different lenses.

It was simply a matter of reframing what we did with the different outcomes, objectives and standards.

Challenges: Classroom

It was a new topic for teachers—huge amount of materials and many areas of focus; We had trouble staying on track.

It was difficult finding and coordinating speakers and staffing for screening clinic.

In some classes, the topic was covered over a longer span 3-4 weeks and keeping students interested was difficult.

Challenges: Classroom

We realized that we needed to do more pre-teaching; not assume students didn’t know as much as we assumed they knew about nutrition.

We tried to do it all and do it right!!!!

Challenges: Assessment

Difficulty of assessing critical thinking skills in writing samples of lower level students. How do you identify elements of critical thinking

when the language output is limited by lack of proficiency in English?

Can you really imply from writing that students used and were developing these skills?

Difficulty of assessing critical thinking skills through discussions. Wished I could record them---too much trouble. Ended up taking notes on BB and summarizing from

memory.

Success: Enthusiastic Responses!

ESL students responded positively to Nutrition speaker and BP/Glucose Screening Clinic activities.

Guest Speaker and LCC MOA and Nursing students also responded very positively to coming and working with our students.

They all want to come back Winter 2013 and loved working with our students!

Success: High Student Interest

ESL Students said they appreciated information from speakers and the screening clinics;

Asked many questions during both activities; And, even remembered information from the

presentation weeks later!!!

Success: Students’ Comments

One student said she didn’t eat unhealthy foods

because she didn’t want to write it on the food log!!

Other students reported that it was difficult to eat healthy and work full-time.

One student said he didn’t like having to look at the label because he wanted to eat what he wanted to eat, not what was “healthy”.

Questions?????

Thank You!!!!