Literacy:
Spanning the U.S.
Adult
Learning Center reaches out with literacy tutors
In
addition to preparing students for taking their high school equivalency exams,
the Adult Learning Center coordinates volunteer tutors with adults who cannot
read.
Lebanon
Democrat: 4.14.2015
Adult
literacy is an issue nationwide and in Wilson County the ALC
is one of the agencies addressing this concern. Thanks to assistance from
Leadership Wilson 2013’s class, the ALC is much better prepared to help this
sector of our population.
Janet
Driver is one of the ALC’s tutors. Leadership Wilson attended a retired
teachers meeting and asked for tutors; that was when Driver first learned about
the Adult Learning Center and its literacy program. In her 44-year teaching
career, she has taught at Carroll-Oakland Elementary, in Chicago, and on an
Indian reservation.
“I love
teaching,” she said, “When a student says ‘I get it’ and their eyes light up,
it makes it all worthwhile. READ MORE !
Can You
Read This? Literacy Rates In Our Area Below Average
My
Twin Tiers: 5.05.2015 by Jessica Bard
"Even
though we're a small city we have some challenges that we face that really are
the same as larger urban areas,” President of Chemung County Child Care
Council, Donald Keddell said.
The
average literacy rate here in Chemung County and specifically in the City of
Elmira, is alarmingly low compared to the national average. According to the Literacy Volunteers of Chemung County,
one out of six adults have low literacy levels.
“So
that's about 11,000 to 12,000 individuals in Chemung County and about 4,000
individuals in ELMIRA alone that have low literacy levels. What that means is
that they read and write at about a 5th to 6th grade level,” Literacy
Volunteers Coordinator of Chemung County, Brandon Saylor said.
This is
data all collected from area school’s regular proficiency exams in English and
math, the tests of adult basic education literacy assessments, cencus data and
poverty rates.
So why
so low? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Poverty is the main reason.
When people can’t read well, they’re not job ready. When they’re not job ready,
they can’t find work. When they can’t find work, they live in poverty. The
cycle perpetuates and continues to cause even more problems. READ
MORE ! [VIDEO]
Literacy
helps break Language barrier
Altus
Times: 3.21.2015 by Ida Fay Winters literacy1@spls.lib.ok.us
They work
long hours…before, during, and after school days. They are about 8,500 miles
from their native country of Laos, a small country in Southeast Asia.
-But
Bounthane, nicknamed Bonnie, and her husband Leut Keochanthanivong, who moved
to Altus in 1997, enthusiastically come to the Great Plains Literacy Council
for their English lessons with volunteer tutor Jennifer Stanley at the Altus Public Library.
The Lao
language is so different from English. Bonnie and Leut fled Laos as refugees in
the mid-1970s to Thailand. Then after a few years, US sponsors provided their
separate arrivals to Lawton, Oklahoma, where they met each other. The sponsors
helped them with their legal paperwork and in finding jobs, even though they
didn’t know English.
“When we
moved to America,” Bonnie recalled with a laugh, “we could not understand the
people. Even asking to go to the restroom was difficult!” READ
MORE !
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