Much adult ESOL education today is focused on helping learners develop the skills they need to acquire “good” jobs—those that pay a family-sustaining wage with opportunities for growth on a career path. This webinar series will guide you through the steps needed to locate local high-growth industries (including health care, hospitality, and advanced manufacturing), identify the skills and materials that employees need on the job and in training programs within these industries, and plan learner-centered, rigorous language instruction using the context of these workplaces, their associated skills, and authentic materials. Each of the three 1.5-hour interactive online webinars focuses on one step in this process. Between the online sessions, you will work on assignments tailored to your particular context and learners, and participate in online discussions through the Blackboard learning management system.

The combined number of professional development hours from the three webinars and the self-directed activities for this offering is 10.

Prior to the first webinar session, you are required to read the LINCS issue brief Preparing English Learners for Work and Career Pathways, register for LINCS, respond to an online reflection prompt, and take an online needs assessment.

• In Webinar 1, we explore a variety of tasks that help learners identify their skills and interests, locate and explore local high-growth industries, research the requirements of these industries , and have the option to prepare to conduct informational interviews, either face to face or online. Between the first and second webinars, you select one local high-growth industry; identify potential positions and required skills within this industry, and begin to generate contextualized lesson objectives using data from your learners and your research. 
• In Webinar 2, we refine your contextualized lesson objectives; look at differentiation options; identify the types of authentic materials that support your objectives; and look at instructional strategies we can use that correlate to the CCRSAE and the Massachusetts ESOL Curriculum Framework. 
• Between Webinars 2 and 3, you finalize your lesson objective, locate an example of authentic material that can be used in this lesson; use a checklist to indicate how the material(s) will be used, and post the checklist and material(s) on Blackboard. 
• In Webinar 3, we explore a lesson plan template that outlines the lesson objective, evidence of learning, and learning activities; mines authentic materials for additional learning activities; Your final task will be to complete your lesson and post it, along with a final reflection, on Blackboard. With guidance and support from facilitator Jayme Adelson-Goldstein (a national TESOL trainer, author, and presenter on college and career readiness), you will have the opportunity to engage with other participants throughout the state, exploring authentic workplace contexts and materials to prepare English learners for work and career pathways.