Teaching with The Change Agent

The Change Agent online magazine features writings by adult learners and aims to inspire adult educators and learners to make civic participation and social justice part of their teaching and learning. Each issue explores a different topic through student writing, news articles, opinion pieces, classroom activities, poems, graphics, and cartoons. The Change Agent website includes many additional resources, including audio versions of articles, leveled texts, links between specific Change Agent articles and the College and Career Readiness Standards, and extra resources for each issue.

Virginia adult educators and their learners currently have free access to The Change Agent with username VALRC and password VALRC2024 through a VALRC-sponsored bulk subscription. (Note that the password is case sensitive.)

In March 2023, Change Agent editor Cynthia Peters joined Virginia adult educators to offer two webinars showcasing Change Agent resources and demonstrating how teachers can use them to to promote student reading, writing, reasoning, and engagement. She also shares how Virginia adult educators can use their free access to The Change Agent for themselves and their learners. Here’s an archive of those webinars:

• The Change Agent for ABE & HSE Instruction
• The Change Agent for ABE & HSE Instruction (Google Slides presentation)
• The Change Agent for English Language Instruction
• The Change Agent for English Language Instruction (Google Slides presentation)

Other useful Change Agent links include:

• Call for Articles Written by Adult Learners
• Audio Index with Article Reading Levels
• College and Career Readiness Standards for Adult Education (CCRS) Alignment Charts
• Teaching Tips (a library of short videos for adult educators)
• Edtech Center’s Social Issues in the Classroom with The Change Agent Self-Paced Course

If you have questions about accessing The Change Agent as a Virginia adult educator, please contact Hillary Major at VALRC.