On Track in Indianapolis: Key Takeaways from COABE 2026

The Ellii team is back from another spring conference—COABE 2026 in Indianapolis. This year, five of us made the trip, some racing in from other trips to TESOL and Japan! We gathered from various states and provinces: Columbus, Ohio (Teacher Trainer Christine), the San Francisco Bay Area (Teacher Trainer Kylie), Richmond, Virginia (Editor Ann), Windsor, Ontario (VP of Publishing Tara), and Winnipeg, Manitoba (CEO & Founder Ben).

As a remote team, it was the first time some of us met in person. For me, finally connecting face-to-face with our new(ish) teacher trainers who joined us at COABE for the first time was the standout memory of the trip.

At the Ellii booth with editor Ann and teacher trainer Christine and some COABE attendees

Teacher trainer Kylie with a former student

#ELT Trending Topics at COABE 2026

At Ellii, spring conference season is one of our busiest times of year. Whether large or small, conferences often have a standout theme or “hot topic”—the kind that fills sessions to standing room only. In recent years, we’ve seen trends emerge around civics and citizenship, family literacy, SLIFE, and, of course, AI.

This year, however, felt a little less focused on AI and what it can and can't do. In fact, as our editor Ann pointed out, COABE 2026 didn’t seem to have one clear overarching theme at all, and I’d agree. Beyond the expected focus on workplace in adult education, a range of topics surfaced across sessions.

Some of the most common themes included:

• Career pathways
• Digital literacy (Ellii's theme of the year for 2026)
• Soft skills (Ellii's theme of the year for 2025)
• Financial literacy
• Assessment
• Speaking
• Differentiation

Top Speakers & Sessions

Ellii always sponsors, exhibits, and presents at conferences like COABE. This year, Christine did a demo of Ellii Polls & Dilemmas, and had some fun talks with attendees about tipping and splitting the bill. Kylie talked about Adult Literacy and showcased our First Five section. In my role as head of publishing, my primary focus was attending sessions and learning from teachers, administrators, and fellow publishers to ensure we’re on the right track. Our head editor Ann was busy doing important research too! 

These conferences play a key role in helping the Publishing team plan and refine our offerings for the year ahead, and we rely heavily on the insights we gather at COABE. Writing an annual reflection also gives me something to revisit the following year. I like to highlight a few of my favorite sessions—both for those who couldn’t attend and as a way to consider how these ideas can be applied to my work at Ellii.

Here are three sessions that stood out above the others at COABE 2026:

#1 – The Gift of the Gab: Empowering Adult ESL Students to Speak

Presenter: Claudette Session

Focus: low-anxiety activities to get ELLs talking and building oral proficiency

This was the first session I attended, and it set a fantastic tone for the conference. Claudette packed it with practical ideas, all centered on engaging speaking activities.

Core Speaking Skills

• requesting
• expressing
• explaining 
• directing
• offering
• describing 

Tips from Claudette

• ELLs are more engaged when talking about topics they enjoy.
• Familiar topics help build confidence and fluency.
• Teachers should provide lots of practice with third-person forms (e.g., reporting what someone said or did).
• Using visuals—especially candid photos—is an effective and safe conversation starter.
• Teachers should set clear speaking expectations early. Meet with students individually if possible, allowing shy learners extra time while still encouraging full participation.
• Teachers should try recasting errors instead of directly correcting students in a classroom setting.
• Tracking common errors during class allows teachers to address problems in short review lessons rather than singling out students.
• Establish simple visual cues (like Claudette's “do” stick) to remind students when they are making a common error (such as forgetting "do" in a sentence).

Speaking Activities

• Guess the Photo: students have to ask Yes/No or information questions until they can guess a picture that only a teacher (or one student) can see
• Fast Stories: students retell something three times, getting faster each time (can also be done for reading fluency)
• Story in a Bag: students receive five items (or photos of the items) and have to create the story
• Foodie Talk: students post pictures of something that has been in their fridge too long and describe it
• One-Minute Podcasts: students record how to do something, such as how to get rid of the hiccups

Milk it!

~ Claudette Session on getting the most out of an activity or task

Ellii Takeaways about Speaking

This session gave me some great ideas for a new Photo Prompts series featuring candid photos. I would also like to add some How-To prompts in our Speaking in English section too. Claudette definitely has the gift of the gab and would be a great speaker to invite to our next ElliiCon! 

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#2 The English Language Proficiency Standards: Cracking the Code

Presenters: Jenny Siegfried & Catherine Porter

Focus: discovering key concepts and skills in the standards; enhancing ESOL lessons for ELPS alignment

In this session, the speakers helped crack the code behind the English Language Proficiency Standards, challenging attendees to come up with one word or phrase for each of the standards. This was a practical lesson for me since we've been adding these standards to all of our content at the section level and tweaking them at the lesson level. Being able to associate each standard to one word or phrase is super helpful for tagging content. 

Ellii Takeaways about the ELPS

It is time to add the English Language Proficiency Standards to Ellii's interactive activities (Ellii Polls & Dilemmas).

Here are the ELPS that apply to Ellii Polls & Dilemmas: 

• ELP 2 (two-way communication)
• ELP 4 (claims & evidence)
• ELP 6 (evaluate & reasoning)
• ELP 7 (register / adapt language)
• ELP 8 (understanding vocabulary)
• ELP 9 (coherence)
• ELP 10 (grammatical conventions)

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#3 Skillful Living Now: Developing a Soft Skills Course for Adult Learners

Presenter: Ray Agliata

Focus: tools to help adult learners develop critical soft skills for today's workforce, including communication, adaptability, and leadership

Soft skills was Ellii's theme of the year for 2025, so I was eager to attend this session to find out how our Soft Skills for Hospitality Workers course measured up.

Ray Agliata, an author, shared a statistic that 89% of the reasons people don’t succeed in the workplace are related to soft skills.

10 Soft Skills Hiring Managers Are Looking for in 2026

1. Attitude
2. Attendance
3. Appearance
4. Confidence
5. Leadership
6. Communication
7. Work Ethic & Self-Motivation
8. Flexibility & Adaptability
9. Teamwork
10. Problem-Solving

After sharing notes about these top skills, Ray walked attendees through how to build their own soft skills courses. His #1 design tip was to think like TikTok, creating small bits of information that can be consumed quickly. He also suggested using real, exceptional people that you know in your own life to be a source of inspiration for your materials. Ray talked about using Keri Mandell, his friend, in his course. She completed seven marathons in seven days in seven continents. That must have taken all 10 soft skills!

"Don't do it on your lunch hour. That's ridiculous!" 
~ Ray Agliata on creating your own courses

He reminded us that adult learners need learning to be relevant, achievable, and applicable. I'd say this is also the case for conference session attendees! I found this session to be all of the above. 

Ellii Takeaways about Soft Skills

In this session, there was a question about how to help students showcase their soft skills in an interview. I noted this as something that would make a great lesson on Ellii. I also learned about a baseball player that we should add to our Easy Reader or Famous People section. Mariano Rivera, a New York Yankee, used soft skills to progress from being an ESL learner to closer to Baseball Hall of Famer. I also hope to invite Ray Agliata to speak at our next ElliiCon! (Find his book listed at the end of the post.)

"I believe you are one choice away from a different life." 
~ Kyle Quilausing, pro golfer, turned Hawaii's most wanted, turned GED graduate, turned motivational speaker at COABE 2026

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Recommended Resources at COABE 2026

Here are some more resources we learned about at COABE 2026 that you may want to check out:

• Marshall Adult Readers
• Skillblox
• Tabetest.com
• TABE Edge
• Notebook LM
• Vids (Google tool)
• Digital Inclusion Library
• Ready for Industry (workforce app)
• GED & Me

Book Recommendations + a Final Note 

There’s always plenty of book talk when you’re surrounded by language lovers. I finished the classic Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl on my short flight from Detroit to Indianapolis and picked up Theo of Golden by Allen Levi for the trip home.

Ann, Kylie, and I also discovered we’d all recently read (and loved) The Correspondent by Virginia Evans, which turned into a mini book club at our final lunch. Ann challenged us to write and send a letter to someone by the end of May! Coincidentally, an email I scheduled five years ago to my father, who was in the hospital during the pandemic, got sent this week and it was a fun surprise and exercise to receive a letter back. Did you know you can schedule gmail up to 49 years ahead? This could be a fun time-capsule exercise to try with your students.

Here are a few books recommended by COABE attendees:

• The Anxious Generation by Jonathan Haidt 
• The Names by Florence Knapp (fiction)
• Skillful Living Now: Lead Human: Leadership in an AI World by Ray Agliata 

Lastly, some of the best advice—and always the best stories—the Ellii team takes away from conferences come from time spent with our founder and leader, Ben. This year, Ben shared a video he had once shown his daughter—and one I’ll now be sharing with mine as she heads off to graduate school. Its message is simple but powerful: if you want to change the world, start by making your bed. 

Indianapolis’s bicentennial mural, 43 Hoosiers

See you next year in New Orleans!

Tara & Team Ellii 

Kylie, Christine, Ann, and Tara closing out COABE 2026