Approaches to Managing and Improving Your Students Attendance

Approaches to Managing and Improving Your Students’ Attendance (Session II) Classroom Environments and Practices That Promote Student Attendance/Persistence MICHAEL FEHER, FIRST LITERACY JERI BAYER, PROJECT LITERACY NEELA JAYARAMAN, HOTEL TRAINING CENTER 11/22/2013

Sharing of Action-Plan Activities What did you try? What worked? What didn’t? Takeaways from the experience? What would have helped?

Involving our Students: Why are our students here? What are they looking for from us? Establishing class values and practices Students’ identifying learning and other goals Student input on class materials and activities Student feedback on class materials, activities

Establishing and Nurturing Relationships with Students From the start, at intake and orientations By Educational Advisors/Counselors and Others in Program BY TEACHERS! Before, during, after and between classes!

Creating a Healthy, Supportive Classroom Environment Support by teacher and classmates Establish clear class values, expectations, and practices Including attendance/ punctuality (homework, quizzes and tests) Try to involve students in this!

Stress Management Incorporate Stress Management Techniques

A Valuable Resource… World Education Managing Stress to Improve Learning through NELRC http: //nelrc. org /managingstres s

Students and Their Goals Identification Refining, Updating Measuring and communicating progress on goals

A Related Resource National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy (NCSALL) Adult Persistence Study http: //www. ncsall. net/index. html@id=332. html “Helping Adults Persist: Four Supports” 1 Managing Positive & Negative Forces 2 Self-Efficacy 3 Establishment of Goals 4 Progress towards Goals

Plan a Variety of Activities in Different Learning Formats Develop different skills Keep multiple intelligences in mind Be explicit about class materials and activities - making clear reasons for them! Whole-class, small-group, individual learning activities Field trips, “authentic” activities Involve your students in planning activities!

Use a Variety of Materials Published Authentic Teacher- Generated Student. Generated Involve your students in choice of materials as you can!

Encourage and Support Out-of-Class Work Supplementary learning resources Student partners, circles Tutorials Homestudy during vacations

A Valuable Resource… New England Literacy Resource Center (NELRC) Persistence Study http: /www. nelrc. or g/persist/

Long-term Action Plan What are your long-term action plans? What steps are you planning on taking? What resources or program support do you need?

Thank you! TO BE CONTINUED… FIRST LITERACY - APPROACHES TO ATTENDANCE BLOG MICHAEL FEHER: MFEHER@FIRSTLITERACY. ORG JERI BAYER: JBAYER@WATERTOWN-MA. GOV NEELA JAYARAMAN: NJ. NEELA@GMAIL. COM