Literacy – Spanning the US :: Gainesville FL :: Philadelphia PA :: Connersville IN

Literacy: Spanning the U.S.     

@alachualibrary

Alachua County Library Wins Grant To Teach English To Those Who Don’t Speak It

WUFT: 2.22.2019 by Jessica Curbelo

English literacy is a family affair for Bruno Pedreira.

Pedreira, with his family in tow, arrived in July for a year of agronomy research with the University of Florida. While he settled into work, his daughters settled into J.J. Finley Elementary School’s ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) program. His wife, Sylvia Moraes, found her own tutor at the library: the Tower Road branch of the Alachua County Library District, to be exact.

A tip from another member of Gainesville’s Brazilian community inspired Pedreira and Moraes to go. Pedreira said it was at a social mixer where Moraes met her coach. Within weeks of arriving in the United States, Moraes was a part of the library’s English Language Learners (ELLs) program.

The program this month began using a $10,000 grant from the American Library Association that would help it expand and offer tutoring services to more people like Moraes. The Alachua County Library District was one of 16 recipients. Patricia Carr, the project director for the ELLs program, said the aid was much needed.

“We have a lot of people who come in every day,” Carr said. “Some days, we get two or three applicants a day.”  READ MORE >>

@FreeLibrary

Learning The Language Of Survival: English Lessons Through Civic Engagement At The Free Library

Philly.com: 2.27.2019 by TyLisa C. Johnson and Jesenia De Moya Correa

Carmen Cancel often left her doctors’ visits feeling unsatisfied and misunderstood, despite having a medical interpreter.

Cancel, a native Spanish speaker, just wanted to talk directly with the physicians who care for her spine, without the middleman.

“I want to have a conversation with them, not have someone speak for me,” Cancel, 56, said in Spanish. Then, “I could tell them what I am feeling.”

About a year ago, Cancel began adult English classes at a local nonprofit. But it wasn’t until she joined the Free Library’s English for Civic Engagement class a month ago that she grew confident enough to speak English.

“This course is giving me the confidence I needed to be able to talk,” said Cancel, of Fairhill. “This is what I was missing.”

The first of its kind, the eight-week class is offered only through the Lillian Marrero Branch in North Philadelphia. It teaches adult students the phrases, vocabulary, and grammar needed to navigate daily experiences through a curriculum tailored to individual needs and robust discussions, mostly in English, about community issues.

It breaks with the more traditional English as a Second Language (ESL) classes offered at branches across the city, and instead embraces a curriculum shaped by its students.  READ MORE >>

Fayette Co

Literacy

Mardi Gras Party Aims To Help With Adult Literacy

News Examiner: 2.28.2019 by Leana Choate

Fayette County Community Voices is looking to start a program to tutor adults in Fayette County who need help with reading. The group is having a Mardi Gras party Tuesday to help raise funds for it.

The Fayette County Literacy and Education Capital, a group affiliated with Community Voices, is organizing the project.

“We’re trying to get something set up to help adults in our community who need help with reading and writing,” Lea Ann Robinson, Community Voices president, said.

Community interest has waned for adult tutoring, Robinson said.

“We talked to surrounding counties and they haven’t had their adult tutoring programs in years. The Morrisson-Reeves Library in Richmond used to have a program but they stopped because these programs were not able to find tutors,” Robinson said.

Amy Engle, the adult basic education coordinator for the Whitewater Adult Education Program, said that 18 percent of adults 18 and older in the community do not have a high school diploma or a High School Equivalency degree.  READ MORE >>