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Speaker: OTAN, Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Jill Wright: So this is how we embedded our COAAP for our Digital Literacy Academy project. I am Jill Wright. And my team member is Viki Costa. She may be able to be here. We're not really sure about her schedule. She wasn't sure. We work with Oxnard Adult School, and we are part of the current DLAC cohort, which is an awesome program. And I highly encourage you all to join or to apply anyway, if you can.

All right, next slide. So why did we do this? DLAC program asks each participating agency to come up with a site-specific project. And at the beginning of the pandemic and before the pandemic, we realized at our school that we were dealing with a need to change and expand our thinking. We wanted to ferment our culture and move some things forward.

We wanted to shift away from preconceived notions of teaching and learning towards incorporating technology as a learning medium. We recognized an uneven distribution of technology services and resources, there was definitely and still is, a lack of tech know-how. And we wanted to help people, our students and our teachers, move forward into the 21st century and use technology in teaching and learning as a 21st century life skill.

One of the presentations I went to this morning was talking about that very thing, and the digital divide, and what people can and cannot do if they know or do not know technology. And we really wanted to move this forward.

So we felt that our curriculum would fill a specific need at our school. And we conceived our DLAC project to address these needs. Digital literacy, again, it has become a life skill. So what is a COAAP? A COAAP stands for Civic Objective and Additional Assessment Plan. They are part of the CASAS California, English Language Civics and Civic Participation. And each Civic objective has one or more alternative assessment plans.

COAAPs are literacy and language objectives. They're not tech objectives. And the goal of California EL Civics education is immigrant integration. So we wanted to take this and combine this with our digital literacy vision. So first, how do you find a COAAP?

First, you go to www.casas.org. Click on California EL Civics. Click on Civic Participation. And I'm going to show you how to do this. All right. So here we have the CASAS website. So to find COAAPs, scroll down, down, down, down over here to California EL Civics, down a little bit, not too far, California Civic Participation and IELCE.

And then we go here. And I always get this one mixed up. I believe this is the right one. Yes. No, it's this one. All right. Does everybody see my screen saying Civic Objectives and Additional Assessment Plans List. Yes, we do. Thank you, thank you. So there are three tech COAAPs-- 47, 48, and 73.

So the way we look at them is we search for the number that we're searching for, 47 program here, and then you click Go. When we look here, we see different options that we have for the content of the COAAP. So here we've got 47.1, .2, .3. And here this area tells you what the COAAP requires the student to do in order to pass the COAAP.

So for example, identify and categorize common uses of the internet. Research, read, and summarize literature. Read aloud and/or discuss issues. Identify common online safety issues. Identify vocabulary and/or describe actions and precautions that can be taken to reduce online risks. That's really important. And demonstrate the ability to read and interpret, blah, blah, blah.

OK. And next to these, you have a number that corresponds to what that objective is. If you look at 47.2, the objectives are a little bit different. So 47.1 is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6. 47.2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 12, 15. And then 3 is 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, again. And then here, it tells you the levels of ESL students that would participate in this particular assessment or COAAP. So we were looking for something Beginning Low to Advanced, and all of these are Beginning Low to Advanced. All right anybody have any questions so far?

Susan Gaer: Not in the chat pod.

Jill Wright: OK. All right, so let me go back to my slides. All right. So here we were, Civic Objectives and Additional Plans List. OK. Back to our project. So our project had several iterations. Our first idea was a 30-hour face-to-face pre-class orientation for ESL students. And we would teach the tech that was necessary for class only. That would be face-to-face, then the students would go into their level classes and hopefully continue to use that tech.

Our second idea, we really thought, well, if we're doing this, we could do that. And we could do the other thing, too. And oh, why not put all of that together into something amazing, and big, and comprehensive?

And it would be absolutely wonderful. So our second idea was, we said it was a 30-hour face-to-face pre-class class-- probably, it would have been longer than 30 hours-- that would include embedded COAAPs. Comprehensive, we would start from the very, very beginning for all students, also prior to entering ESL. Got a little bit of pushback on that one.

So our third idea, our big idea, the one that we have right now is we would also start from the very beginning, be thorough, explicit. Now, when I say start from the very beginning, I mean, this is a cell phone. This is the button, the "on" button. This is the "off" button, so really, really, really basic.

We identified the minimum technology skills that students need to be successful in our school, technology objectives, and then we wrote objectives for them. And we broke down the larger concepts into smaller, more manageable bites. We integrated our COAAPs. We pulled out the literacy objectives and stuck them into our curriculum.

We decided to teach both tech and literacy together at the same time. And each objective contains a tech skill, a specific related vocabulary, specific grammar, and a mini assessment that goes just with that specific thing. And we call it digital literacy skills for learning and life.

And let's see if I can go here and show you what that looks like without doing-- there we go. OK, everybody see my spreadsheet?

Susan Gaer: Yes, we do.

Jill Wright: OK.

Susan Gaer: And I put the link for people if they want to follow along in the chat box.

Jill Wright: All right. Thanks. So we put this all on a spreadsheet, which is going to be difficult for me to show you with the Zoom stuff on the screen. It's quite extensive. So the yellow issues-- the yellow boxes are areas that we have not resolved yet.

One of the things that our teachers always commented on or complained about with regards to EL Civics was, but they need grammar, they need vocabulary. And there's so much technology. Vocabulary? Not as much grammar, but there is a lot of vocabulary. So we just stuck it all right in there.

So for example, this objective here, so, "Identify and demonstrate the basic parts and functions of a computer." We've got all this vocabulary, different parts of a laptop, different parts of a desktop, parts of a Chromebook tablet and smartphone. And then we've got, what do you do? You scroll up. You scroll down. You refresh. You undo. You redo. You copy. You paste. You move to trash.

And these are all words and things that we use every day. And we don't really think a whole lot about it, or maybe we do think a lot about it. But we decided that this is necessary vocabulary for our students to know. And then there's grammar. It's really basic. This is "a." What is this? What is that? Where is this? Where is that? But I didn't put in there. Maybe I need to add is, what does this do?

And then the tech skill is navigating the device. Or here, we've got tech skill as using a mouse or a trackpad or a keyboard. Then we go into keyboarding shortcuts, keyboarding-- it's just basic typing. Anthony was talking about that. Copying and pasting, undo, redo, I've taught this to teachers. Scroll up, scroll down, refresh, and move to trash.

So the device, we really want to be inclusive. And it's becoming more and more difficult with the proliferation of devices. But most of our students use laptops, Chromebooks tablets, and smartphones. Some people also have desktops, and we still have them in school. So people need to know how to be able to use this stuff.

All right, we've identified four basic levels for our curriculum. We've got basic text skills, and that's this section where we're concentrating our efforts. Once a student has mastered this section, or maybe once a student is proficient in this section, they would move up to All Things Google.

And we were going to write a Google curriculum, and then we remembered about the applied digital skills and thought, well, we don't need to reinvent the wheel. So we'll move students into that, and then look at the assessments-- we have not started that yet-- look at the assessments that are built in and see what we want students to be able to produce, maybe shift around some different assessments.

Do the same thing with Microsoft. And then ultimately, hopefully, Canvas and-- well, we said Canvas and Moodle, but it looks like Moodle might be going away, so we might not be able to-- we might not do that. All right. And we are writing. We've got a scope and sequence. So we've got week 1, basic parts, week 2, week 3, 4, et cetera.

And again, all of this is still a work in progress. And then our cover sheet is all kinds of different resources. And eventually, there will be a full set of lesson plans that include digital worksheets, digital practice, slides so that a student can look and see, oh, yeah, that's "on" button. That's the "volume" button. And where do I click now to go to that thing? And they'll have all of that.

And basically, that's pretty much it. So I'm going to stop sharing. I've got the PDF of the slides, which I'll put in the chat. And they were here a moment ago. Where did they go? There we are. So everybody's very quiet. And that was a quiz-whiz fast through our year-long progress and our year-long project. Anybody have questions?

Susan Gaer: Well, I have one, Jill.

Jill Wright: Yes, please.

Susan Gaer: Could you please go back and show us how you embedded the COAAP?

Jill Wright: [laughs] Yes. OK.

Susan Gaer: And then, we have another question from Lori, how have the students responded?

Jill Wright: All right. Let me show you how I embedded the COAAP. Oh right, so if we go this way, in our Assessment sections, we have COAAP tasks. I am not a spreadsheet girl. And I am really-- I do not like spreadsheets. I do not like working with them or anything else. So if I'm looking really wonky with the spreadsheets, because I am.

So anyway, what we did was we identified for each tech objective the COAAP objective that would go with that tech objectives. And then we just embedded-- made sure that all of the teaching points were in there, and that the vocabulary, and that the student could actually do what they were supposed to do at the end of that particular COAAP.

And we embedded that in the teaching points. And then the assessment is the COAAP assessment part. And so for this one, this one is-- let's go back. So this one here is use email, click on links-- this is all my vocabulary-- Hotmail, Yahoo, Google, Chrome Sign, and password, email, et cetera, et cetera, as my grammar is. Sign in using imperative, using correct register. Recipient, send, receive, sender, date, signature, opening and closing body link username password.

And my grammar is sign in, use the correct register, formal versus informal email language. My tech skill, that corresponds to this one, is create. A personal email account if the student doesn't have one already. Access the school email retrieve an email message open it recognize legitimate and non legitimate email messages-- we've got some examples-- and then ultimately, respond appropriately to the school email message.

That one would be either from the EL Civics person. If it's a school-wide COAAP that we're doing at that moment, or if this is just a class and it's not a school-wide COAAP, then that email would be from the teacher. So this is the COAAP that we are looking at, COAAP 48.1, Task 2, or Task three.

Now, we've got Task 3 for intermediate low advanced. Let me find it right. So now we're back at the COAAP list. I'm going to go to 48.

Susan Gaer: When you're done with that, I have a couple of more questions for you.

Jill Wright: Sure. So here's 48. We go to 48.1. I click over here on View Details. So when you click on View Details, you get the comprehensive picture of the entire COAAP. So it tells you that the number, the Civic Objectives, the tops pro form. This particular assessment type is written. This one is for Beginning Low here, rather excuse me. From Beginning Low to advanced.

We want to be inclusive, so we want to teach this to all of our students. And so that's why we chose Beginning Low to Advanced. And then we scroll down. I think I said 48.1. So this one is one, identify internet uses and communication techniques. Student will demonstrate understanding of common uses of internet and conventions specific to online communication for work, for study, for friends and family.

Student will identify and/or describe orally or in writing, five pictures or video clips depicting common uses of the internet for communication, for example, email or chat. And then the next one is student will identify and/or describe up to 10 vocabulary items. Other stuff commonly used in online communication. If we go down to task 2-- interpret an online communication.

So, given a level-appropriate authentic email, blog, social media post, or video clip, or something like that, student will respond orally or in writing to five-level appropriate questions or prompts about the content, format, style, central idea, details, point of view, et cetera. So we can send our students through their school email account a simple email, or for more advanced levels, a little more complicated email.

And then they can respond via email to that particular message. And then we assess them according to this scoring rubric. So regarding the content, the answer is appropriate, clear, complete, and has correct content. Maybe errors, but they don't interfere with meaning. Then the answer is appropriate and has correct content, maybe partially complete. There may be errors that interfere with meaning, but the answer can be understood with inference. Or the answer is incorrect, or incomprehensible, or no answer.

So that's one. And then here is our wonderful email. That's for intermediate low through advanced. So this tells us how the student approaches the email that was sent to them and how they must respond.

Susan Gaer: So I have a few questions.

Jill Wright: Sure.

Susan Gaer: So one, Jill, Julie asked, are you differentiating for the ESL levels? I think you kind of answered that.

Jill Wright: Yeah.

Susan Gaer: In the class. Yes.

Jill Wright: Yeah, maybe, so we're not assuming that the higher levels know all this stuff. And we're not assuming that the lower levels don't know all of this stuff. The approach that we took is that we would start from the very basic of the beginning with everyone. And then that way, people who no more, or levels or classes who know more can produce can proceed more quickly.

And then groups that don't know more-- they don't have that previous knowledge-- then they will proceed more slowly. In doing this research, I found names of things I didn't know. Not that I know everything.

Susan Gaer: So Dana asked, what is the length of the course?

Jill Wright: Well, we're still aiming at 30 hours. But honestly, I have a feeling that it could go for longer than that. We have not yet had the opportunity to pilot this.

Susan Gaer: And another question, is this course open to all students like non-ESL students as well?

Jill Wright: Oh, that's an interesting question. We haven't really discussed that one. At this time, at our site, it would be open to ESL students only. So at our site, the high school diploma and high school equivalency students, they're working on computers. And so they get a little bit more computer instruction in their classrooms. And then CTE students, a lot of those are also using computers in a very different way, much higher level to begin with.

Susan Gaer: That's all the questions you have.

Jill Wright: OK. All right. OK, here we go.

Susan Gaer: Beverly has a question for you. Do you have a copy of your screen showing the basic computer curriculum design?

Jill Wright: There was a link there. Hang on.

Beverly Hatch: I came in late, and I did click the link. But it looked like it was the link to embed that code.

Jill Wright: For the slides?

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Susan Gaer: This link here is the-- I think this is the spreadsheet.

Beverly Hatch: Oh, yeah, you know what? When I clicked on that, there might be something with my computer I wasn't able to open it.

Susan Gaer: I've got--

Jill Wright: [inaudible]

Susan Gaer: You have to make a copy of the copy.

Jill Wright: But let me put that in the chat again.

Susan Gaer: This is their curriculum.

Jill Wright: Oh, you just did that.

Susan Gaer: If you can make a copy, then you can adapt it for yourself.

Jill Wright: Yeah. And then, I don't remember the link of the Applied Digital Skills, but it's very comprehensive. It's a little confusing to somebody who's not well-versed in figuring out what's on the screen. But it's very comprehensive. All right, anybody else?

Susan Gaer: Jill, you might want to show them the tabs at the bottom of the spreadsheet, how they can navigate through--

Jill Wright: Sure.

Susan Gaer: --because that's confusing for people who don't know spreadsheets.

Jill Wright: I've made that mistake. OK, so here we are, back again. This is our scope and sequence. So here, can you see my cursor all the way down at the bottom?

Susan Gaer: Yes.

Jill Wright: So I went crazy with resources, and I just threw links to everything in there. I'm not going to show you that. This is basic scope and sequence. And then here we've got Basic Tech Skills. And then you can navigate left and right going like this. Oh, standards! Susan, we didn't talk about standards.

We've also included the ISTE Digital Citizens Standards. It's 1.2. And this is the standards that we found would correspond most closely with our goals. So that's the Basic Text Skills tab. And then over here, next one is All Things Google. And you can see. I started throwing some stuff in here. And then I was like, well, why do we reinvent the wheel? There's no reason to do that. So I put in-- this is the link I was looking for-- to apply digital skills.

And you just click on that. And this is where it takes you, to Google. As a teacher, you can sign in for free teacher account, and your students can sign in for free student accounts.

All right. And then the next one is Microsoft. And again, I just put in the same list of stuff that I had started to put in the Google, and we've done nothing here, and then the same thing with Canvas and Moodle. But the format is the same. So assuming we actually get to Canvas, and to teaching our students Canvas, it will be the same sort of thing.

So they're going to need to know the vocabulary. Grammar? Probably, less so. It's probably going to be a repeat of the same kind of grammar. Text skills are going to be what they're doing with Canvas on whatever device they've got. And then the assessment is actually doing the thing. We hope at some point to move all of our classes-- well, we hope at some point to move our online classes to Canvas, but we're not there yet.

Susan Gaer: Jill?

Jill Wright: Yes?

Susan Gaer: Somebody would like you to put that digital literacy link that you showed into the chat box.

Jill Wright: Oh, sure. Sure. I will do that. You can find it here on the Google tab. And let me copy it for you. Copy. Chat. There you go.

Lori: Jill, So can I just-- this is Lori. Just wanted to sort of add on. I like that you said that this is really for all levels because it's possible that your advanced students or some students know how to do all the tech, but they don't have the language related to it and vice versa, so it really can be done in sort of a multi-level situation, and people can be helping each other.

But all the goal of the COAAP would be to learn the language surrounding it. But they are learning the tech, of course. They have to learn the tech in order to speak about it appropriately. So that's a great lesson.

Jill Wright: Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, this was really brought home to us during the pandemic, how much they know, how much they don't know, and where that gap is because we lost so much-- just like everybody else, we lost so many students. And the students who were able to attend, they themselves knew where to click, or they had somebody in their household who could show them where to click.

And yeah, just like everybody else, I spent a lot of time talking to teachers or talking to my students and saying, OK, click here. Now it's going to take you somewhere else. Now you do this. So anyway. OK. Dana, willing to share our instructional materials for our COAAPs for this course? Are you talking about lesson plans, Dana?

Dana Orozco: Yes, that would be awesome. We do two of those, 48.1 and the 47 one is, how to be safe online? But I'm really intrigued by the other ones that you do. So I would love to see your instructional materials that you have for it right now.

Jill Wright: I would be happy to share when we're done.

Dana Orozco: Thank you.

Jill Wright: Yeah, you're welcome. I just put my email in the chat. Feel free to keep in touch.

Dana Orozco: Thank you.

Jill Wright: Yeah. What we want to do when all of this is, I want to say, complete, but also if we recognize, what-- the digital universe, it's never really complete. But once we've got a product in a package, we want to put this out as an open educational resource. Oh, thank you, Paulina.

Susan Gaer: You said you haven't piloted it yet. Do you know when you're going to be piloting this course?

Jill Wright: We actually have a teacher, two teachers who are conducting a computer lab. And I only recently found out about this. So I want to talk with them. I've not had the opportunity to do that this week. So that's high on my priority list for next week to see if they would be willing to work with this.

I have a feeling they might say yes if we can provide them with really detailed lesson plans because they're a little bit tech nervous. So I think it's awesome that they've agreed to do a computer lab for students. And yeah, Northstar Digital Literacy, so I'm not familiar with them, but their name keeps coming up. So I'm going to spend more time with them as well. Thank you for that.