Literacy:
Spanning the U.S.
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Two
new volunteers join Literacy Council
Salisbury Post: 8.30.2017
Two
new volunteer tutors have joined the ranks of the Rowan County
Literacy Council after completing a training program though ProLiteracy,
the country’s largest adult literacy organization.
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“After
reading an article in the Post about the Rowan County Literacy Council and
discovering that the program currently has students on a waiting list, I
decided that volunteering was something I could do to be a blessing to someone
waiting for a tutor, to help make a positive difference in their life,” Boyd
said.
“You
can tell she believes in the motto ‘Each one, teach one,’ and now I am a
believer,” Bruce said. “The motto is true — if you have the capabilities to
teach, then you better be doing it.”
Harry
said about 60 percent of the council’s students are Spanish-speaking, 30
percent are English-speaking and the remaining 10 percent speak other languages
such as Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic. READ MORE @
Passing
the citizenship test
Amherst's
Jones Library helps immigrants learn English, become American citizens
Amherst Bulletin: 8.31.2017 by Marietta Pritchard
Try
this challenge: You are working with an immigrant who is relatively new to
the United States and has limited English but who is eager to pass the
citizenship test. One of the questions on the practice test asks: Name two
cabinet positions. Your student, who has answered the previous questions with
no trouble, is momentarily stumped. But she is a quick study and good at
storing away obscure bits of information. Devise something to help her.
Here
is how Dimi DeRose worked this out with her student: “Remember,” she said,
“that the people in the cabinet are called secretaries. What is a secretary?”
Dimi offered two definitions, the usual one of someone helping do office work;
the other, a piece of furniture. “Think about the furniture,” Dimi said. “Maybe
it has a cabinet in it. A separate compartment to keep things in. Can you keep
that picture in your mind? Secretary, cabinet?”
A
hot July day. They sit at a picnic table behind the apartment complex where
Nafie Diop Sane and her family live. At the table are Nafie, Dimi and
Nafie’s preschooler. There are coloring books, colored markers, a couple of
favorite small toys for the little boy. And there is a copy of “Citizenship,
Civics and Literacy: Passing the Test” for the adults. Nafie is working to
master the skills and information required for citizenship. Dimi is her
tutor.
“Sometimes
there’s a plan,” Dimi says about their sessions; other times, there’s “a
natural lead-in” that gets them talking. She volunteers in the Jones Library’s English as a Second Language (ESL) &
Citizenship program. Nafie, an ebullient 27-year-old from
Senegal, has just gotten her driver’s permit, which she’d been studying
for during her sessions with Dimi.
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Literacy
program reaches kids, adults alike
Herald Argus: 9.01.2017 by Jon Gard
Volunteer
reading tutor Ken Berner says he can see the wheels turning as his 15-year-old
student struggles to form letters into words and phrases into sentences. He can
hear the barely audible whispers as the boy sounds out syllables.
“You
have to listen,” Berner tells Kris Toffer during one spelling drill.
Kris,
inseparable from his phone, pauses for a moment before tapping the
word onto his screen and, after another moment of hesitation, showing his
tutor.
“Excellent,”
Berner says. “Nice job.”
Kris,
a freshman at La Porte High School, has a learning disability. A year ago, he
was reading at a fourth-grade level, but he’s made progress since then.
“I
can tell, he reads with more confidence now. He’s better at sounding out
words,” says Berner, who volunteers with READ La Porte
County, a United Way agency with a mission to improve
reading, math, English and digital literacy in the community. READ MORE @
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