Institute/Session Summary:

Teachers of adult learners are faced with the overwhelming task of getting their students to buy the textbook, read the textbook, learn from the textbook and become successful with what they learn from the book. But for many college students who do not know how to read well, it is the absence of knowing how to "use" the text, more than simply a problem of slow reading or insufficient vocabulary.

Many teachers of adult learners know their topics well, but struggle as to how to present those topics and guide their students to self-directed and self-discovery learning. The college teacher will not be around forever; we need to learn how to teach our students to focus their attention to learning how to use text and find the powerful learning that lies among the challenging, yet learnable, words in the book.

This presentation will bring a larger-than-normal overview of what our college learners are bringing into our classrooms and what they can be taught to truly become life-long learners. Attendees will interact with three very different kinds of presentor-teachers, practice with simple techniques that can be taught to students so they learn how to "use" their textbooks and learn a wealth of information found within them, and what can be expected of them as they leave school and enter into the world of work, where continual learning is expected and demanded.

The learning outcomes of this session will enable teachers to utilize all the carefully printed parts of a college textbook for student learning, to learn how to use carefully researched activities for understanding very difficult academic text, and to construct reading assessment that helps the teacher and tutor successfully guide college students through challenging reading and learning.

The three presenters are all teacher-trained professionals who impact our students in very different ways. This father-daughter-son team of teachers will take the attendees on a larger-than-normal overview of what our college students need to do with the texts and the demands of learning.

David Reynolds is a college professor of English and Philosophy and a California Reading Resource Specialist who has forty years experience teaching adult learners and training new teachers.

Jenna Reynolds is an Oregon "ELL Newcomer Teacher” who works with students who are new to the United States and immature in the use of the English language, both spoken and written. She is an experienced teacher, both in this Country and in Uganda, Africa.

Scott Reynolds is a General Manager with one of the Northwest's largest companies which hires large numbers of secondary and college students, training and retraining them in the academic skills needed to work in business and with the general public. He is a credentialed Oregon teacher, employed with The Holland Inc. company and working on a MS degree about "leadership in ecology, culture and learning."

The one-hour session will involve audience participation (two hands-on activities will demonstrate ‘touring’ students through the literacy parts of a college textbook and digging deeply into a very difficult adult novel text), discussion (open-floor discussions between the attendees and representatives of K-12, college, and public workplace teachers as to the literacy skills brought into the classroom and the employment facility and what is needed to be changed and improved upon), reviews of professional books that teach current research of and about literacy-learning (including “Fifty Strategies for Teaching English Language Learners,” “Reading for Understanding,” “Strategic Teaching and Learning,” and “Teaching Reading in the Content Areas”), video clips of college students talking about difficulties and successes with their academic reading, PowerPoint displays and practice of reading and comprehension techniques and strategies (such as Syntax Surgery, Textual Think Aloud, Talking to the Text, Text and Task Analysis, Pictorial Comprehension, Reading Logs, Reading Worksheets, Rhetorical Patterns, Reading Surveys, samples of unique Text Study Guides and Assessments), and two handouts of literacy activities and samples which may be used and adapted into any academic college class (including an authentic exhibit of real students analyzing difficult college reading and making meaning from the text).

Presenter1 Name: David Reynolds
Presenter1 Institution: West Hills College - Coalinga
Presenter1 Bio: David J. Reynolds is an experienced educator of nearly 40 years, currently Professor of English and Philosophy and Director of TEAM Teach Education Training in a California college. He holds BA and MA degrees in Philosophy and Education (Reading & Literacy). He is a tri-credentialed K-12 teacher and a Reading Resource Specialist. He and his wife Judy (a Kindergarten teacher)live in Central California. They have four children and six grandchildren.

Presenter2 Name: Jenna Reynolds
Presenter2 Institution: Gresham-Barlow School District
Presenter2 Bio: Jenna Reynolds is an Oregon "ELL Newcomer Teacher” who works with students who are new to the United States and immature in the use of the English language, both spoken and written. Jenna is an experienced teacher in America and Africa. She holds a BA degree from Pepperdine University and is a credentialed teacher for the State of Oregon.

Presenter3 Name: Scott Reynolds
Presenter3 Institution: The Holland Inc. Company
Presenter3 Bio: Scott Reynolds is an Oregon credentialed teacher and General Manager with one of the Northwest's largest companies which hires large numbers of secondary and college students, training and retraining them in the academic skills needed to work in business and with the general public. Scott is a graduate of Cascade College with a degree in education. He is also working on a MS degree in "leadership in ecology, culture and learning." He and his wife Susan and their four children live in the Portland area.