Sunday, January 25, 2015

Literacy: Spanning the U.S. - Laredo TX :: Memphis TN :: Quincy MA

Literacy:  Spanning the U.S.

LCC partners with Laredo Public Library for English as a Second Language, GED classes
KGNS TV: 1.15.2015 by Matt McGovern

The Laredo Community College is bringing English as a second language, GED and civics classes for free to the city of Laredo's Public Library.

This is the first partnership with the Laredo Community College and the city of Laredo's Public Library.

The college is offering their services at the public library for anyone who would like to take ESL, civics and-or GED classes.

Sandra Cortez is the director for the adult education and literacy program department at the Laredo Community College.

She says the program will work as a stepping stone moving participants from ESL to GED and then transitioning into workforce programs.

"The whole objective of our program is to get people into the workforce make them self sufficient and be able to have a career if they are able to", said Cortez.  VIDEO !

Literacy Mid-South looks to recruit 75 additional volunteers
My Foxal WBRC: 1.16.2015 by Andrew Douglas

There are more than 100,000 people in Shelby County who can't read. For more than 40 years, Literacy Mid-South has been trying to change that.

Former truck driver Charles Rais is spending his retirement years learning how to read. He spent years keeping his secret of illiteracy by following lines on a map book.

"I went to places and found places that the guys who could read couldn't find," said Rais.

Literacy Mid-South has 500 people in its free reading program every year, but they need more volunteers to help.

"We have about 250 volunteers right now we probably need 75 more this year alone just to teach people to read just to meet the need," said Kevin Dean.  READ MORE !

For some adults, Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts fills a void
Boston Globe: 1.18,2015 by Taryn Plumb


For the first 50 years of his life, Paulo Ramos simply got by.

He relied on universal symbols, committed the visual makeup of certain essential words to memory, and copied by rote letters and numbers that friends assembled for him.

But even as the Weymouth resident held down various jobs and eventually went on to run his own cleaning business, the extent of his literacy was being able to pen his own signature.

He had never read a book or newspaper, and had never sat down to write a friend or family member a letter or e-mail.

“When I started, I was nothing,” the 54-year-old Cape Verde native said of his first session with a literacy tutor in Quincy four years ago. “I [had] just learned to sign my name.”

You are probably reading this story without even thinking about it. You have no need to sound out the vowels and consonants, consult a dictionary, or puzzle over context.

What you may not realize is that, reading these words — as simple as it may be for you — can be a confounding and incapacitating task for many adults in this country.

This is where the nonprofit Literacy Volunteers of Massachusetts-Quincy fills a void; for more than a quarter century, the program based at Thomas Crane Public Library has enabled hundreds of locals like Ramos to acquire the reading and writing skills that many of us take for granted.  READ MORE !

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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

EveryLibrary Announces :: "Vote Libraries"

Announcing “ Vote Libraries ”
EveryLibrary: 1.20.2015 by John Chrastka

Our job is to help library campaigns communicate better with voters. One problem is that the visual images, the ‘creative deck’ for library campaigns to use on on social media, in print and on yard signs, is kind of uneven. What’s available on the open web is OK….

Library campaigns need high quality design to open eyes and reach voters. We need specific “Vote Libraries” messages to cut through the clutter. So we need your help to improve the impact of local voter engagement.

In 2015, we hope to launch “Vote Libraries” to create new, professional, high-quality, high-impact visuals for library campaigns to use on social media, on yard signs, and in voter outreach. With your help, “Vote Libraries” we will be a new suite of copyright-free images created by designers and artists who know how to do campaign communications right.  We will commission the artists and designers with creativity and talent to help pass library bonds, levies, and other referendum.

With your support, EveryLibrary can bring this same type of high-quality, high-impact images for libraries.

EveryLibrary needs $10,000 to make “Vote Libraries” happen for 2015 campaigns. We are looking for 25 people to donate $100 to kick this off. If you want to “buy a share” in a new Vote Libraries image and be thanked by name forever, we’d welcome your $500 donation. And, any new $10+ per month donor between now and mid-February who comments #votelibraries at rally.org/everylibrary will get a commemorative print of the image of their choice. If you are a $100 or $500 donor, you’ll get a commemorative print too. Don’t worry. But put #votelibraries in the comments just to be safe.

Donate today. And Vote Libraries.

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Sunday, January 18, 2015

Literacy: Spanning the U.S. - White Co AR :: Redlands CA :: Randolph Co AL

Literacy:  Spanning the U.S.

Tutors, bookstore power literacy council goals
Arkansas Online: 1.11.2015 by Angela Spencer

For many people, reading is a skill they use daily but often take for granted. When reading a book, a social-media post or this newspaper, people usually don’t think about who taught them to read. It is just another skill, like driving a car.

But what about those who did not, for whatever reason, learn how to read and write? Amanda Partridge, director of the White County Literacy Council, said the illiteracy rate in Arkansas is somewhere between 13 percent and 20 percent, and in White County, that number hovers around the 13-percent mark.
-That is where the White County Literacy Council comes in. The council provides free adult literacy classes to help people in the community who never learned to read and write as children.

“The literacy council is dedicated to teaching adults how to read and write,” Partridge said.

There are many reasons adults might not know how to read, Partridge said. Sometimes they have learning disabilities and were not given a chance to learn to read when they were in school, and other times, economic factors prevented them from attending school.

“Most of our older students grew up in very poor homes,” she said. “They had to stop school very young and start working.”  READ MORE !

Smiley Library hired adult literacy coordinator
Press Enterprise: 1.13.2015 by Penny E Schwartz

Dottie Podolak, adult literacy coordinator at A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands, learned from a recent phone call that the program has lost one of its students.

“She had met her goals and gotten a full-time job, so she no longer needed our services,” Podolak said. “It was wonderful to speak with her because setting and meeting goals is the reason why we are here.”

Podolak is the first paid coordinator of the program, hired part-time in November to support long-time volunteer coordinators Katherine Gifford and Trudy Waldron. Podolak works a 20-hour week organizing and doing assessment and tutor training.

“I have stepped into a solid program that I see no reason to change,” Podolak said. “I hope to strengthen the program by providing more resources and to help it grow in computer knowledge, which is so basic to the literacy skills needed today.”

To that end, the program will offer a computer literacy class later this month for tutors and learners now participating in the program.  READ MORE !

Program to help adults learn to read returning to county
Randolph Leader: 1.14.2015 by Penny L Pool

Not knowing how to read can affect every aspect of your life, from getting a job to reading labels on products in the grocery store.

Annie L. Awbrey Library is restarting the Randolph County Literacy Coalition in hopes of helping non-readers, according to Library Director Margaret Calhoun.

"We're going through growing pains getting it started. We still need tutors. Luckily we have Kathy Pate on staff and she taught for 35 years. She was my second-grade reading teacher," Calhoun said.

She is hoping Pate will oversee the program, she said. The idea is to promote general literacy by one-to-one contact.

Persons of any age can get help from a child not reading at the proper level to an adult wanting to get a General Equivalency Diploma (GED.)

The first person to sign up on the list is an English-as-a-second-language student, she said.

This program was highlighted for Calhoun at a city council meeting when councilman Mack Arthur Bell and Jeanetta M. Stephens-Springer made the point if those on probation can't read the GED test they very well cannot take it. Obtaining a GED is one of the requirements for those on probation.  READ MORE !

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Thursday, January 15, 2015

21st-Century Libraries: The Learning Commons :: Edutopia

The Learning Commons:
Seven Simple Steps to
Transform Your Library
21st-Century Libraries: The Learning Commons
Edutopia: 1.14.2015 by Beth Holland

Libraries have existed since approximately 2600 BCE as an archive of recorded knowledge. From tablets and scrolls to bound books, they have cataloged resources and served as a locus of knowledge. Today, with the digitization of content and the ubiquity of the internet, information is no longer confined to printed materials accessible only in a single, physical location. Consider this: Project Gutenberg and its affiliates make over 100,000 public domain works available digitally, and Google has scanned over 30 million books through its library project.

Libraries are reinventing themselves as content becomes more accessible online and their role becomes less about housing tomes and more about connecting learners and constructing knowledge. Cushing Academy in Ashburnham, Massachusetts has been in the vanguard of this transition since 2009, when it announced its plans for a "bookless" library. A database of millions of digital resources superseded their 20,000-volume collection of books, and a café replaced the circulation desk. With this transition, not only did the way in which students consumed content change, but also how they utilized the library space. Rather than maintain a quiet location for individual study, the school wanted to create an environment for "collaboration and knowledge co-construction."

From Library to Learning Commons
Printed books still play a critical role in supporting learners, but digital technologies offer additional pathways to learning and content acquisition. Students and teachers no longer need a library simply for access. Instead, they require a place that encourages participatory learning and allows for co-construction of understanding from a variety of sources. In other words, instead of being an archive, libraries are becoming a learning commons.  READ MORE !

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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Literacy: Spanning the U.S. - Benton County AR :: Altus OK :: Frankford DE

Literacy:  Spanning the U.S.

Benton County Council Gives Gift Of Literacy
NWAOnline: 1.01.2015 by Melissa Gute

BENTONVILLE -- Ahmad Aziz sketched a simple floor plan of his home. His literacy tutor told him to label each room.

"This is the kitchen," Aziz said, then began to say the letters as he wrote them. "K-i-c-h..."

"No," Chuck Kovach, his tutor, said softly to indicate Aziz missed something.

"K-i," Aziz began again. "T-c-h-e-n."

"That's right," Kovach said. "You got it."

The two moved around the diagram to each room -- the living room, bathroom, each bedroom -- then moved outside to the sidewalk, driveway and garage.

Aziz has been going to the Literacy Council of Benton County three times a week for five weeks. He moved from Afghanistan to Bentonville with his wife and three children in August.

Aziz was a driver for the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, for six years. He learned to speak English, but cannot read or write it.

About two years ago, Aziz decided to apply for a special immigration visa in order to bring his family to the U.S., he said. An embassy worker from Bella Vista suggested he moved to Northwest Arkansas.

Life is dangerous in Afghanistan, Aziz said. A bomb could explode in front of, or beside, a person as they walked down the street, he said. It would end in one of two ways.  READ MORE !

Literacy volunteerism is her goal
Altus Times: 1.01.2015

New Year resolutions usually cover personal goals. Janie Velazquez of Altus has a goal, not for herself, but to help others with literacy tutoring. A week ago, she contacted the Great Plains Literacy Council at the Altus Public Library to express her 2015 resolution.

She was not a stranger to the local literacy program as she had been an adult learner in 2008. Connie McQuinn had been her volunteer tutor and helped Janie with the success of learning English and passing the citizenship test to become a United States citizen. Now that her youngest child Hector, who was born 16 days before her naturalization ceremony, is in school, she wants to give back to literacy and become a tutor.

“I am employed at the Altus Intermediate School,” said Velazquez. “I will attend a training next Wednesday at the library to learn about available resources to help me as a teacher. I plan to donate once a week an hour or two in an afternoon as a tutor. I believe it is important to give back to the community by helping an adult needing to read better or reach their own personal goals.”

After the training, Velazquez will be matched with an adult learner in a one-to-one weekly session, usually for one hour. Some tutors have enjoyed it so much that they have remained in the program for many years! Volunteer tutors are matched with students according to a mutual schedule.

“Imagine what life must be like for those who can’t read or have low English skills,” stated GPLC Coordinator Ida Fay Winters. “Non-readers face daily challenges because of this problem. Taking care of daily business, such as reading letters, recipes and prescription labels, is frustrating. Even reading a book to a child is a pleasure non-readers don’t experience.’  READ MORE !

Del. library worker gives gift of literacy
DelmarvaNow: 1.03.2015 by Rachael Pacella

Leafing through the most simple book, teaching basic letters and sentences, Joan Loewenstein is moved when she remembers the first time she entered a library as a child.

She was awestruck. And she remembers the exact moment she loved reading. She was in second grade, and she was reading a story about animals who had personalities.

"It makes me sad if people can't read. It would open them up to so many things. A book, to me, is like having a friend. If you're sad, you read and it can make you happy," she said. "I think reading is a gift."

It is a gift that some people never get, for one reason or another. Some speak English as a second language, others have had learning disabilities or emotional problems that prevented them from learning fully in school. The estimates for illiteracy in Sussex County are old, last completed in 2003, but that year the National Center for Education Statistics estimated 11 percent of people lacked the basic skills needed to search, comprehend and use continuous texts while reading.

This causes a number of problems, according to Loewenstein. People can't read medicine labels properly, have trouble finding jobs and if they have a job, have trouble advancing.

"I think it really helps the whole community if everyone knows how to read," Loewenstein said.

It is for those reasons that she started an Adult Literacy program at the Frankford Public Library about three months ago, which has now gained six students.  READ MORE !

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Friday, January 9, 2015

Books Are Awesome by Andy Craven-Griffiths


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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Scholastic :: Kids & Family Reading Report 5th Ed.

Kids & Family Reading Report
Scholastic

The New Kids & Family Reading Report™ from Scholastic Explores the Reading Attitudes and Experiences That Most Influence Children’s Reading Habits, Including Reading Aloud at Home, Independent Reading at School, Presence of Books in the Home, and More.

Key Findings

In fall 2014, Scholastic, in conjunction with YouGov, conducted a survey to explore family attitudes and behaviors around reading books for fun. The key findings of this research, based on a nationally representative sample of 2,558 parents and children, including 506 parents of children ages 0–5; 1,026 parents of children ages 6–17; plus one child age 6–17 from the same household, are as follows:

The State of Kids & Reading
~Half of all children ages 6–17 (51%) are currently reading a book for fun and another one in five (20%) just finished one.
~Both parents of children ages 6–17 (71%) and kids (54%) rank strong reading skills as the most important skill a child should have. Yet while 86% of parents say reading books for fun is extremely or very important, only 46% of kids say the same.

Reading Aloud at Home
~When it comes to being read aloud to at home, more than eight in 10 children (83%) across age groups say they love(d) or like(d) it a lot—the main reason being it was a special time with parents.

Spotlight: Reading with Kids from Birth
~Nearly three-quarters of parents with children ages 0–5 (73%) say they started reading aloud to their child before age one, yet only 30% say they began before the age of three months.

Reading in School
~One third of children ages 6–17 (33%) say their class has a designated time during the school day to read a book of choice independently, but only 17% do this every or almost every school day.

What Kids Want in Books
~Ninety-one percent of children ages 6–17 say “my favorite books are the ones that I have picked out myself.”
~The majority of kids ages 6–17 (70%) say they want books that “make me laugh.” Kids also want books that “let me use my imagination” (54%), “tell a made-up story” (48%), “have characters I wish I could be like because they’re smart, strong or brave” (43%), “teach me something new” (43%) and “have a mystery or a problem to solve” (41%).  READ MORE !

Fourth Edition

Third Edition

Second Edition

First Edition


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Sunday, January 4, 2015

Literacy: Spanning the U.S. - Little Rock AR :: Altus OK :: Wisconsin

Literacy:  Spanning the U.S.

Program teaching adults to read to shut down
KHTV: 12.23.2014 by Astrid Solorzano

There are more than 30,000 adults in Central Arkansas who struggle with basic reading skills.

The non-profit, Literacy Action of Central Arkansas that teaches more than 350 people at a time will be shutting down in January after losing state funding.

Sara Drew, the lead coordinator of the non-profit says it's hard to get people to care about the issue. "Adult literacy is not a problem that people see as important as hunger and poverty and environmental degradation," said Drew.

Drew teaches adults how to read through a program once funded by a department of education grant. "There would be nowhere for the adults who don't know how to read to go," said Drew.

She says there's a specific age group that uses her services.

"It's the people that got by and now are older and can't continue to physically work in the labor force." The grant that funded her program for the last 26 years is now being cut.

"We just want to raise awareness, and raise money," said Drew. "Those are the two main things we need to do in order to stay open."

"B-L-E-S-T" 66-year-old Sammy King is a perfect example of how Literacy Action works.

King says after 64 years it was time to learn how to read- "When people would find out, some of my best friends would treat me different, just because of that new information."

His mother died when he was young and his father didn't know how to read. "I went to sixth grade and they weren't teaching me nothing, so I went home one day and told daddy I wasn't going back."  READ MORE !

‘Citizenship Corners’ Available
Altus Times: December 30. 2014 by Ida Fay Winters, literacy1@spls.lib.ok.us

The process of obtaining US citizenship is lengthy, complicated and expensive. Often for non-native speakers of English, this can cause fear and misinformation. The Southern Prairie Library System and the Great Plains Literacy Council are working together to provide direction, technology assistance, tutoring sessions, and practice opportunities in preparation for the citizenship requirements.

These community agencies are not providing legal services, but rather free access to the official US Citizenship and Immigration Services for accurate information and free tutoring. Both the Altus Public Library and the Hollis Public Library offer “Citizenship Corners” as citizenship knowledge cluster areas. These locations are designated with the most recent information, practice tests, and videos available through the official USCIS website at http://www.uscis.gov/us-citizenship, plus flashcards and other resources. Another requirement for immigrants is obtaining the correct citizenship forms from the official USCIS website available through the use of computers and printers at the libraries.

This project is supported by grants from the Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Library Services and Technology Act, administered by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries, and the Carolyn Watson Rural Oklahoma Community Foundation Grant.  READ MORE !

Life's Voices: Ginger Duiven Leads Efforts to Increase Adult Literacy
WUWM Milwaukee Public Radio: 1.01.2015 by Erin Toner

As part of our year-end series "Life's Voices," we profile Ginger Duiven, executive director of Literacy Services of Wisconsin.

The series features people in the community who’ve devoted their lives or careers to helping others.

At Literacy Services of Wisconsin, volunteers help adults learn to read, to speak English or get their GED. Duiven has seen the skills it provides completely change lives.

“It’s very typical for people to come in with a deep sense of shame and embarrassment, especially those who have been non-readers and are concealing it from the rest of the world,” Duiven says. “It’s a big source of embarrassment for people…they come in with their head down, looking downward, kind of slumped shoulders, the typical features that you would expect from someone who doesn’t have any confidence. And by the time they leave, they’re holding themselves upright, they’re making eye contact, they’re smiling. I mean, it changes just how they are in the world.”

In one classroom, adults work toward their GEDs. Photos of recent graduates, in blue caps and gowns, line a wall. In the other two classrooms, adults learn to read or to speak English.

“In this particular area it’s incredibly diverse. People come to us who are illiterate in their own language and then we have students who come to us who may actually have multiple languages, just not English,” she says.  READ MORE !

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Friday, January 2, 2015

2015 Banished Words List :: Lake Superior State Univ

Lake Superior State University's 40th Annual List of Banished Words
12.31.2014

The tradition created by the late W. T. Rabe, former public relations director at Lake Superior State University, begins its fifth decade with this year's annual List of Words Banished from the Queen's English for Mis-use, Over-use and General Uselessness.

Rabe and fellow LSSU faculty and staff came up with the first list of words and phrases that people love to hate at a New Year's Eve party in 1975, publishing it on Jan. 1, 1976. Though he and his friends created the first list from their own pet peeves about language, Rabe said he knew from the volume of mail he received in the following weeks that the group would have no shortage of words and phrases from which to choose for 1977. Since then, the list has consisted entirely of nominations received from around the world throughout the year.

BAE: 'before anyone else'
Polar Vortex
Hack
Skill Set
Swag
Foodie
Curate / Curated
Friend-Raising
Cra-Cra
Enhanced Interrogation
Takeaway
-nation (suffix)

Previous Lists
Complete List

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