Literacy:
Spanning the U.S.
2 former Cook County
Jail inmates become tutors at Literacy Chicago
It could have been a
game show, or a variation on Hangman.
A word on a whiteboard,
a highly vocal studio audience and at the front, with markers in hands, LakeSha
Sims and Tracy Cisero running the game.
The game was adults
learning how to read.
FREQUENTLY. PROPHESIED.
And PULCHRITUDE, because the class members, who pick the words, sometimes like
to give tutor Rob Shindler a hard time.
The class was filled
with the kind of adults who regularly seek help from Literacy Chicago — adults
who for a variety of reasons never learned to read and have swallowed
embarrassment and fear to learn now.
But Sims and Cisero
were a new kind of tutor.
They have just finished
serving sentences for felonies at Cook County Jail.
Shindler, a longtime
volunteer at Literacy Chicago and an attorney, wasn't looking for tutors when
he began teaching at Division 17, the jail's therapeutic treatment program for
women, 18 months ago at the invitation of a jail psychologist.
He assumed he would be
teaching the women how to read.
"So I wrote the
letters AEIOU on the board," he said. "And they started laughing at
me."
It turned out that many
of them already knew how to read — some of them well. Sims attended DeVry
University, where she is proud to say she earned a bachelor's degree in
engineering.
So why had they come to
a class on literacy?
Sims, 36, who was
serving a 120-day sentence for identity theft, had hoped to learn some tips for
teaching her dyslexic daughter.
Cisero, 46, whose
120-day sentence was for violation of probation on an earlier retail theft
conviction, had been bored on a Wednesday afternoon.
"I was
embarrassed," Shindler said. "I thought I didn't have a purpose or
place with these ladies. Then someone said, 'You know, I have an uncle and
everyone in the family knows he can't read. He holds the menu, then says, I'll
have what you have.'
"Then someone else
chimed in, 'I have a son at home who can't read.' Then everyone chimed in.
Everyone had a story about knowing someone who can't read."
And then came the
suggestion that transformed the class.
"Someone said,
'Teach us to be able to teach someone else,' " he said.
Shindler and June
Porter, Literacy Chicago's director of adult literacy, paired the readers up
with the nonreaders and trained the readers to become tutors. And every
Wednesday afternoon, the tutors sat with a fellow inmate to work on
reading. READ MORE !
Palm Beach County Celebrates National Literacy Month
Time to hit the books.
September marks National Literacy Month, with September 8 designated as International Literacy Day,
a worldwide movement created by UNESCO to promote
literacy efforts. 2015’s theme, Literacy and Sustainable Societies speaks to
the importance of literacy, a key driver for sustainable development, as UNESCO
puts it, “literacy skills are the prerequisite for the learning of a broader
set of knowledge, skills, attitudes and values, required for creating
sustainable societies.”
Literacy is
foundational, not just for attaining a higher plane of knowledge, but also in
building self-esteem. Palm Beach is getting in on the literacy fun with a
number of reading events scheduled throughout the area. Here’s a look at where
you and yours can get in on the reading fun.
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With story time
programs geared for children at all 17 county library branches, there is a
reading session Monday through Saturday in number with a number of themes, each
designed to accommodate specific age ranges and their reading/listening levels.
For newborns and toddlers, to pre-k and up, story time incorporates
fingerplays, songs, crafts, and dramatic interpretations and responses to the
stories, helping broaden their experience, all while developing language and
listening skills, as well as socialization skills, an important component for
academic success.
For adults either learning
to read, or learning a new language, the PBC Library System’s Adult Literacy Project
is a great resource to help in the process. Led by volunteer reading tutors,
the program is free, with study materials provided by the library to help in
the lessons, making this an invaluable resource in fighting illiteracy in South
Florida. According to the library, 22 percent of U.S. adults function at the
lowest levels of literacy; these programs are designed to help the more than
70,000 county residents who fall in that spectrum. READ MORE !
Literacy Month in
Oklahoma
Altus Times: 9.05.2015 by Ida Fay Winters - GPLC
Coordinator
Mary Fallin, Governor of
the State of Oklahoma, has proclaimed September 2015 as Literacy Month in Oklahoma. She has called
attention to the impact of low literacy on the state. According to the Oklahoma State Assessment of Adult Literacy,
43% of Oklahoma adults could benefit from improving their reading and writing
skills. The lack of reading, writing, and speaking skills affects the ability
of these individuals to fully function in the workplace, home, and community.
Governor Fallin is appreciative of literacy organizations throughout the state
providing basic literacy instruction.
In the past year,
Oklahoma’s volunteer tutors alone have provided more than 91,000 hours of
instruction valued in excess of two million dollars. Great
Plains Literacy Council had 51 volunteers who contributed
approximately 2,000 hours. The value of one volunteer hour of service in
Oklahoma is $21.45, according to the Independent sector. These in-kind
contributions from all the volunteers this year figured to about $43,000 of
value contributed to the program offered in Jackson and Harmon Counties.
Great Plains Literacy
Council, along with other organizations across the world, will also celebrate International Literacy Day on Tuesday,
September 8. All tutors are encouraged to come to the Altus
Public Library on Tuesday anytime from 10 am to 8 pm to talk
to the literacy staff about the procedures, book check out, and discussion
questions and vocabulary on a new project called “Breakthrough To Books”. READ MORE !
San Bernardino Public Library spotlights International
Literacy Day
The world will mark the
48th annual International Literacy Day on Tuesday to
remind all that reading, writing, and basic math remain an elusive target for
nearly 800 million adults around the globe, including about 23,000 adults in
our community.
The Jack L. Hill Lifelong Learning Center at the San
Bernardino Public Library is part of a national network of organizations that
work every minute of every day to end the adult literacy crisis, according to a
library news release.
=In recognition of
International Literacy Day, the Learning Center will receive a proclamation
from San Bernardino Mayor Carey Davis. This will give awareness to and remember
that “Literacy and Sustainable Societies” is the key to the development of
skills that are necessary for sustainable societies.
According to ProLiteracy,
the largest membership organization advancing the cause of adult literacy and
basic education in the nation, more than 36 million adults in the U.S. lack the
most basic literacy skills, and 15 percent of Americans without a diploma don’t
have jobs.
“About one in six
adults are still not literate, and approximately 67.4 million school-aged
children are not enrolled in school,” said Paula Miller, literacy program
coordinator.
“Here at home, in our
own community, we know that 31 percent of adults experience literacy issues in
their lives. Literacy helps families be healthier and safer and provides people
sustainable opportunities to support themselves through work, contributing
ultimately to the economic growth of our region and our country.” READ MORE !
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