The Change Agent

Are you a library looking to expand your literacy impact within your community? Libraries are at the heart of community learning, and we’re excited to help them deepen or expand their literacy services! As part of the American Library Association’s Libraries as Literacy Centers Initiative, World Education is recruiting eight libraries across the nation to guide in achieving their literacy goals through professional learning, collaboration, and tailored technical assistance.

This initiative will leverage new Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), spaces for library professionals to network, share best practices, and access valuable resources. Our learning opportunities will focus on three key models:
📖 Libraries as Literacy Centers
🏫 Libraries as Places of Instruction
🤝 Libraries as Literacy Conveners

By the end of this program, participating libraries will walk away with customized resources, an action plan, expert support, and a stronger network of library collaborators. Want to learn more, join our informational webinar on February 19 at 3pm EST!

Register: https://jsi.zoom.us/meeting/register/EZdG2jWuRS2jOh8LaPr1AA #/registration

Election season brings a unique opportunity for programs to tap into the current news, discussions, and debates! We must empower adult learners to navigate, evaluate, and engage with the evolving digital landscape and current events.

Looking to get started? The Change Agent’s latest lesson packet includes eight learner-written stories with activities, audio, and slides focused on , voting, and advocacy. These resources empower educators to engage learners in meaningful, real-world topics while building essential skills.

Explore the lesson packet: https://changeagent.nelrc.org/classroom-resources/lesson-packets/

The Change Agent is celebrating with a collection of articles written by adult education students of a multitude of backgrounds. These pieces showcase the richness and diversity of their experiences and unique journeys through connection with culture, family, language, community, and more. Join us in celebrating their voices and stories!

https://changeagent.nelrc.org/national-hispanic-american-heritage-month/

In the August 2024 issue of The Change Agent, students write about why they vote, how they participate in civics even if they are not citizens, what they think of politicians, what issues matter to them, and how they think critically about what's in their news feeds.

Accompanying these compelling pieces of student writing are standards-aligned pre-and post-reading activities and extensions that mean you, as a teacher, have classroom-ready materials. And your students have relevant, multi-level peer-written content that will pull them into an engaging literacy experience.

This issue is the first in the “Our Digital Future” series, co-published with Essential Education. In this 2024-25 series, students write about how they use digital tools and skills in all spheres of life.

Subscribe: https://changeagent.nelrc.org/subscribe/

“As a people who suffered and persevered, we have accomplished so much in spite of those circumstances, and sometimes because of them.”

Read the Sadler family’s account of being slaves in Texas when word of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached them, their celebrations, and how they are preserving their history with artwork. changeagent.nelrc.org/classroom-resources/lesson-packets/

Are you an practitioner in ? Join us on May 8th at 1PM ET to learn how creating a team of Voting Ambassadors can give students a hands-on way to develop their leadership, knowledge of civics, and basic skills.

Using materials from the Voter Education, Registration, and Action (VERA) campaign developed by the New England Literacy Resource Center, your students will learn about the history of voting, its importance in determining our everyday lives, and the steps involved in learning about the issues, registering, and voting.

Learn more about the VERA campaign at nelrc.org/vera and register for the webinar at bit.ly/NELRC-5-8-24

These are just two of the many students who have had their writing published in The Change Agent. Would your students like to have the experience as well? Check out our current Call for Articles. Students whose pieces are accepted receive a $50 gift card. Deadline: May 2. https://changeagent.nelrc.org/write-for-us/

students have strong (aka, ). Time management, communication, and critical thinking skills are being cultivated daily by hard-working adult learners. Employers value and seek these crucial competencies.

In this webinar, we’ll share practical classroom activities that demonstrate simple ways to teach basic skills in a way that enables students to identify and amplify the transferable skills essential for employability. Participants will gain access to Change Agent stories that feature students using transferable skills. You will also receive ready-to-use materials that can be adapted for your own use.

Learn more and register at bit.ly/NELRC-3-1-24

It is so easy to take a strengths-based approach to teaching students about . Why? Because they are already rich in these skills. But they just might not know it yet. You can help raise their awareness of their own skills by bringing in student writing that tells stories of using , such as leadership, teamwork, communication, and emotional intelligence.

World Education's current series of The Change Agent co-published by Essential Education features students writing about how they have used transferable skills in the community, at work, in school, and in their families. These powerful, engaging, relatable stories hold up a mirror so students can say, "I've done that!"

Read issue 61 at https://ow.ly/Em8K50QBZzN

World Education's The Change Agent is highlighting pieces written by Black learners for .

Hear from a formerly incarcerated person finding strength and healing through peer counseling, a wedding attendee connecting with her African heritage through fashion, and a woman embracing her race and sexual identity as a "minority within a minority".

Access these essays and more at https://changeagent.nelrc.org/celebrating-black-history/

Read three Change Agent articles that celebrate race, sexual identity, and diverse communities this . Althea Richardson, Annette Bowen, and Carl Barnes are student writers who share their journeys embracing their identities and community members by touching upon the work and legacies of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, and Bayard Rustin.

I Celebrate My Race -- https://changeagent.nelrc.org/resource/free-audio-i-celebrate-my-race/
Fight On Till the End --https://changeagent.nelrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/12-Fight-On-Til-the-End.pdf
Immigration in My Community --https://changeagent.nelrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/26-immigration-in-my-community.pdf

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