Random early December announcements and thoughts.

I hope everyone had a lovely Thanksgiving with friends and family.

Accolades and fabulousness

ALC election event The Adult Learning Center successfully sponsored their election event on November 16, “We the People – Sing,” involving ALC staff and students in election simulations, songs, and skits focused on key election issues at various points in history. This is one photo from the event, taken by ILS Program Administrator Ashleigh Cassemere-Stanfield.

Writing Project Associate Director Joe Bellacero’s short story won first place in Cape Cod Online’s writing contest. Can we all read it, Joe?

Mathematics Project Director Suzanne Libfeld is the incoming Eastern 1 Regional Director for the National Council of Supervisors of Mathematics. She will officially assume the position at the NCSM meeting in April, but feel free to congratulate her now!

The NYC Writing Project facilitated two spectacular workshops at the National Writing Project Annual Meeting in Las Vegas. Elaine Avidon and Diane Giorgi led one session focused on the forthcoming NYCWP book, Stories of Impact, to be published by the NWP. Here they are, with Alison Koffler-Wise looking pensive in the foreground!

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Alison and Susannah Thompson led an NWP workshop called “The Uncommon Core: Writing Argument from a Place of Curiosity and Engagement.”  Erick Gordon introduced the workshop with a video documenting Alison and Susannah’s summer institute on this topic. More than 70 NWP teachers and site directors attended!

Reading around

Some of you know that I am drawn to quantitative reasoning (QR) as a bridge that connects mathematics and literacy education and has the potential for cross-program synergies at the ILS. Our work with the Common Core Standards underscores the necessity of QR. As Neil Lutsky writes, “Quantitative reasoning can help students as they construct and evaluate arguments. This is because quantitative reasoning can contribute to the framing, articulation, testing, principled presentation, and public analysis of arguments.”

Nate Silver at the NY Times, for example, blogs little masterpieces of quant-driven arguments.

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If you are interested in learning more about QR, I recommend that you take a look at NICHE. NICHE (Numeracy Infusion Course for Higher Education) is a CUNY-wide NSF-funded project based at Lehman College. The driving force behind it is sociologist Esther Wilder, a close colleague and collaborator of mine. If you click through the pages (navigation is on the lower right), you will find videos, articles, teaching activities, and book references that address quantitative reasoning across the curriculum.

Here’s one video linked to the NICHE site: a quick animation illustrating what one trillion dollars looks like through a simple comparative frame.

Enjoy!

–Marcie

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