Literacy: Spanning the U.S.
Air
Guard recruiter’s ESL experience inspires students at Literacy Council
dvidshub:
5.10.2018 by Airman 1st Class Shannon Chace 168th Wing
The
classroom is small, but organized. A clean white table is centered with several
chairs around it. A white board takes up most of the back wall and several
hanging maps cover the rest of the walls. There are two computer stations, and
leaning books fill a small shelf in the back corner.
When
Carlos Rosario, a tutor with the Literacy
Council of Alaska, walks into the room he has a smile on his
face so big his eyes are almost squint shut. He says hello to the student and
smoothly transitions to speaking in Spanish.
The
student is Yaniris Dubose. She is originally from the Dominican Republic and
came to the literacy council looking for help to attain her GED diploma. After
a staff member compared her goals and needs with the volunteers available she
was paired with Rosario.
Tech
Sgt. Rosario, a recruiter with the 168th Wing, Alaska Air National Guard, began
volunteering as a tutor with the literacy council in 2014. His goal was to help
other people and also to improve himself.
“When
I first came here one of the reasons why I wanted to be a tutor is to make
myself better,” said Rosario, “I had to make lesson plans and I had to research
what I was teaching.”
The
literacy council is a non-profit educational institution that provides classes
and tutoring for adults. They offer a variety of educational assistance
including English as a second language, GED, and citizenship. READ MORE >>
Friends
of the Library teaches adults how to read
It’s
not necessarily true that everyone who walks into the San Benito County Free
Library actually knows how to read.
Friends of the Library, a nonprofit
organization whose volunteers often lobby for the library at government
meetings and hold fundraising events, provides reading tutors for adults who
are either illiterate or need to improve their reading comprehension skills for
a specific goal.
County
Librarian Nora Conte said the Adult
Literacy Program is a feature at many libraries throughout
the state. Originally, she said, the program was offered at the San Juan
Bautista Library. Soon after coming to the county library in 2006, she applied
for state funding. While the amount varies, she said it ranges from $16,000 to
$22,000 each year.
“That
pays for a staff person to run it and we purchase books and materials so
individuals can practice their reading and writing skills,” Conte said.
The
head librarian said there are around 18 volunteers to help with the program. A
volunteer must first read a three-hour guide online to be prepared to instruct
those who sign up for the program. She said some of the volunteers are retired
teachers. Most are at a point in their lives, she said, that they want to give
back to the community.
Retired
teacher Rebecca Salinas, 13-year member and treasurer of the nonprofit group,
is currently working with her fifth student to up their literacy skills. Her
love of libraries goes back to when she was a girl growing up poor in East Los
Angeles.
“The
one thing that opened to us becoming more educated and more Americanized was
the library,” Salinas said, crediting libraries for how well she and her
siblings have done. “One of my brothers was the president of Sacramento State.
Another brother was the CEO for a nonprofit corporation that weatherizes
low-income homes.”
Salinas
recounted how her father was always reading and his love of books influenced
her and her siblings. As soon as Salinas and her brothers discovered the
library, they spent many hours there. She eventually became the representative
of her East Los Angeles neighborhood library to the California State Library. READ MORE >>
Literacy
Project wins Arts & Humanities Award
The
Literacy Project is based in Greenfield with approximately 300 students
studying in its classrooms in Greenfield, Orange, Amherst, Northampton and
Ware. Adult students study reading, writing, math, social studies and science
to prepare for the High School Equivalency Exam, formerly known as the GED, now
called the HiSET.
“Along
the way, as they study and work in our classrooms, they fall in love with
reading and writing,” said Judith Roberts, executive director of The Literacy
Project. “The Literacy Project has long believed in connecting literacy with
literature. We all share the capacity to be uplifted by the power of poetry,
prose and the arts, yet our students are nontraditional participants in the
world of arts and humanities. We are deeply honored to have NEPR recognize The
Literacy Project students and teachers for the work we do.”
The
Literacy Project has been teaching reading and writing and preparing adult
students in the Pioneer Valley for the high school equivalency exam for 34
years. READ MORE >>
Convincing
adults to seek help for reading, writing and mathmatic skills can be tough
Lining
up volunteers to help with the adult literacy program is less difficult than
persuading some grown men and women to acknowledge they need help, Robin
Gilton, Lincoln County Adult Literacy coordinator
told village councilors.
Many
adults who struggle with reading, writing and mathematics are reluctant to ask
for help, she said last week. She began her presentation by thanking the
village for allowing the program to be housed in the Ruidoso
Public Library, where she has received help and resources.
“It’s
a great place for our nonprofit program,” she said, introducing members of the
program board including Councilor Joe Eby, then encouraging anyone interested
in serving on the board to contact her.
A
need for literacy services exists in Lincoln County and on the neighboring
Mescalero Apache Reservation, she said. The program offers basic literacy
service to adults in reading, writing and mathematics below grade six, aimed at
improving the skills of rural, ethnic, underserved or disadvantaged adults. READ MORE >>
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