What Would You Do? :: Nasty Cashier Bullies Man For Not Being Able To Read via Trend Central

Nasty Cashier Bullies An Adult Man For Not Being Able To Read, Until This Girl Teaches Her A Lesson

Trend Central: 8.30.2019

Adult illiteracy is a very serious issue affecting societies. In the United State only, 32 million adults in the US being functionally illiterate, lacking minima skills like reading and writing to function well in society. Unlike children, adults seldom have access to remediation programs meant to tackle illiteracy. So the possibility of going illiterate for life is high. Illiteracy comes with a stigma, forms a cycle of poor literacy skills and gets difficult to breakthrough. Most adult victims hide their inabilities in public places for fear of been ridicule by the literate.

WATCH 07:21

Today’s video is about a social experiment on adult illiteracy crisis in Jasper, Alabama tagged “What Will You Do?”. ABC News staged in a real-life scenario in a coffee shop where an illiterate man is being shamed and debased by a cashier because of his inability to read the menu list and make his orders. Varying answers were explored with the help of hidden cameras that captured individual responses to the scenario These individual’s split-second decisions to intervene or mind their own business reveals a typical response from the larger society. WATCH 07:21

What Would You Do? Adult Literacy - ABC 9 pm

Futon Critic: 8.23.2018   [ literacyspace 8.23.2019 ]

A worker makes fun of a customer struggling to read from a café menu in Jasper, Alabama.

How will others react to this scenario on adult illiteracy, an issue that effects 32 million adults in America?  WATCH 9:00 pm

ProLiteracy

Literacy Reports & Statistics

Adult

2019: Adult Literacy in the United States, NCES 2019-179

2013: OECD Skills Outlook 2013: First Results from the Survey of Adult Skills,OECD

2009: Literacy of America's Least Literate Adults, NAAL 2003

2006: Literacy of America's College Students, AIR

2007: Literacy in Everyday Life, NAAL 2003

2003: National Assessment of Adult Literacy, NAAL

2000: Programs for Adults in Public Library Outlets, USDE, NCES

1992: National Adult Literacy Survey, NALS

Library of Congress Announces Winners of 2019 Literacy Awards

Library of Congress Announces Winners of 2019 Literacy Awards

News from the Library of Congress: 8.29.2019

Three organizations working to expand literacy and promote reading in the United States and worldwide will be awarded the 2019 Library of Congress Literacy Awards at the National Book Festival gala, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden announced today.

Hayden and philanthropist David M. Rubenstein will award the top prizes to: ProLiteracy Worldwide of Syracuse, New York; American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults of Baltimore; and ConTextos of Chicago.

The Literacy Awards, originated by Rubenstein in 2013, honor organizations doing exemplary, innovative and replicable work. They spotlight the need for communities worldwide to unite in working for universal literacy.

“Literacy is the ticket to learning, opportunity and empowerment on a global scale,” said Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden. “Through the generosity of David M. Rubenstein, the Library of Congress is proud to honor and celebrate the achievements of these extraordinary organizations in their efforts to advance reading levels and give people the foundation for a better life.”

Prizes and Recipients

David M. Rubenstein Prize ($150,000)

ProLiteracy Worldwide, Syracuse, New York
ProLiteracy Worldwide advances and supports programs to help adults acquire literacy skills needed to function more effectively in their daily lives. It has 1,000 member programs across 50 states and works with 30 partners in 25 countries to provide a wide range of adult literacy and basic education services to vulnerable populations.

American Prize ($50,000)

American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults, Baltimore
Established in 1919, the American Action Fund for Blind Children and Adults is a service agency that assists blind and deaf-blind persons in securing reading matter, educates the public about blindness, provides specialized aids and appliances to the blind, gives consultation to governmental and private agencies serving the blind, offers assistance to those losing vision in their later years, offers services to blind children and their parents, and works toward improving the quality of life for the blind and deaf-blind.

International Prize ($50,000)

ConTextos, Chicago
ConTextos brings literacy to schools, prisons and communities in El Salvador via two programs: Soy Lector (I’m a Reader) and Soy Autor (I’m an author). The Soy Lector Program trains local community members and teachers to develop libraries to encourage reading and the discussion of ideas in the community and schools. The Soy Autor Program encourages youth affected by violence to write their memoirs.

The Library of Congress Literacy Awards Program is also honoring 15 organizations for their implementation of best practices in literacy promotion. These best practice honorees are:

Bring Me a Book, Redwood City, California

The Conscious Connect, Springfield, Ohio

Friends of Matènwa, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Hartford Public Library, Hartford, Connecticut

The Jane Stern Dorado Community Library, Dorado, Puerto Rico

Literacy for Incarcerated Teens, New York City

LitWorld International Inc., New York City

Meridian Library District, Meridian, Idaho

Nal'ibali Trust, Cape Town, South Africa

One World Education, Washington, D.C.

The PEN/Faulkner Foundation, Washington, D.C.

Razia’s Ray of Hope, Wellesley, Massachusetts

Ready for Reading, Dorset, Vermont

Riecken Community Libraries, Washington, D.C.

Western Massachusetts Writing Project, Amherst, Massachusetts

READ MORE >>

National Literacy & Library Events :: September 2019

National Literacy & Library Events :: September 2019

Literacy & Library Events & Conferences

Events-National & International Events

Events-International: Language Magazine

Library Card Sign-Up Month

International Literacy Day

World Kid Lit Month

Sep. 04      Indigenous Literacy Day (Australia)

Sep. 06      #ReadABookDay

Sep. 06      World Congress on Learning Disabilities Houston TX

Sep. 08      International Literacy Day

Sep. 13      Roald Dahl Day

Sep. 15      International Dot Day

Sep. 16      Curiosity Day with Curious George

Sep. 18      Read an eBook Day

Sep. 18      School Backpack Awareness Day

Sep. 19      Plum Creek Children's Literacy Festival Concordia University NE

Sep. 19      Reading Hour Australia

Sep. 21      Museum Day Find participating museums near you Get A Ticket

Sep. 22      Banned Book Week

Sep. 22      Hobbit Day

Sep. 22      Adult Education & Family Literacy Week

Sep. 24      National Punctuation Day

Sep. 24      National Voter Registration Day

Sep. 25      Plain Language Conference Oslo Norway

Sep. 25      ProLiteracy Conference San Diego CA

Sep. 26      Banned Websites Awareness Day

Sep. 26      Black Master Storytelling Festival Minneapolis MN

Sep. 27      Colorado Health Literacy Coalition Conference Denver CO

Sep. 30      Global Read Aloud Dreamers by Yuyi Morales  

Sep. 30      International Translation Day

State Library Associations :: Conferences

African American Book Events

Book Fairs by State Library of Congress

Children’s Book Council Kid Lit Events

College Children’s & Young Adult Literature Conferences Festivals

Everfest Book Festival Calendar

ILA :: Literacy Calendar Worldwide

Storytelling Events

US Book Festivals

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Illinois :: Porterville CA :: New Mexico

Literacy: Spanning the US

Illinois Literacy 

Newsletter

Jesse White Awards Over $5.6 Million in Adult Literacy Grants

Cyber Drive Illinois: 7.25.2019 by Rachel French

Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White awarded over $5.6 million to the Adult Literacy Grant Program to help learners develop and enhance their  reading, math, writing and English language skills.

“An estimated 2.1 million Illinois residents need adult literacy and/or English-language instruction,” White said. “I am pleased to provide funding for 113 local literacy projects that will allow adult learners to achieve their utmost potential in the upcoming year. I will continue to do all I can to ensure that every citizen of this state has access to quality literacy programs.”

A total of 14,352 learners will be served by adult literacy programs around the state. A total of 6,086 volunteer tutors will provide training for learners putting them on the path to lifelong learning. Adult literacy projects help adults who read below the ninth-grade level or speak English at a beginning level to improve their reading, writing, math or use of English as a new language.

The Secretary of State’s Illinois State Library Literacy Office administers the Adult Literacy Grant Program that supports services in the following areas:

 Adult Volunteer Literacy Project — Provides training for volunteers who tutor individuals ages 17 and older in basic reading, math, writing or language skills.

 Penny Severns Family Literacy Project — Provides educational services to parents and children to enhance basic reading, math, writing or language skills.

 Workplace Skills Enhancement Project — Provides on-site instructional services to employees of participating Illinois businesses, enabling them to enhance their basic reading, writing or language skills, and improve their chances for promotion. (A list of grant recipients is enclosed.)  READ MORE >>

Porterville Library

Adult Learning Center Provides Needed Services

Porterville Recorder: 7.26.2019 by Jamie A Hunt

Rebecca Jaurequi and Annamarie Olson both run Porterville City Library’s Adult Learning Center where there’s a large amount of learning, language, and reference books and specific materials to help adults perfect their English language skills and literacy, or obtain language or math assistance from a tutor. The learning center also has information about jobs, resources to find and apply for jobs, complete the GED, High School diploma or HiSET exam.

On Wednesday, Nancy Sotelo and her tutor Ema Enriquez met at the learning center, and Sotelo explained she has been working on pre-algebra for one month so she can be a step ahead when she attends Porterville Adult School. “I see a lot of improvement,” Sotelo said. Enriquez said, “I think this is helping Nancy, and she is very determined to reach her goals and go on stage and receive her diploma and inspire her son.

Besides improving reading and writing skills, learners can receive assistance with the GED or HiSET exam at the center, and also work on the citizenship exam with one-on-one tutor help.”  READ MORE >>

@NMAdultLiteracy

If You Can Read This, We Need Your Help

Albuquerque Journal: 7.26.2019 by Braden Anderson, Past Pres., NM Coalition For Literacy

The New Mexico Coalition for Literacy (NMCL) has opened its Operating Assistance Grant and would like to encourage anyone in their local communities to consider supporting or starting an adult literacy program. As past president of the NMCL, I have seen the cause go through many ups and downs in terms of funding and specific community needs, but one thing has remained constant: the need for reading instruction, which is dire in our state.

In the spring of 2020, estimates of adult literacy ability will be released nationwide and will offer statistics for New Mexico county by county after what has been an almost a 15-year wait. What we know from the 2013 National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) is that 16% of New Mexicans lack basic prose literacy skills at Literacy Level 1. Level 1 is the expected reading and comprehension level for ages 5 to 7 and consists of tasks like reading simple signs, medication instructions or ingredients lists. Imagine administering prescription medication to yourself or your child in that situation. It could be critical.

Low literacy is statistically related to social welfare issues like poverty, incarceration and preventive health care. Given these facts, it is critical that all concerned New Mexicans should take note and raise a call to action to their elected officials, private and public entities, and individual residents in support of adult literacy programs.  READ MORE >>

2019 Canada Life Literacy Innovation Award

@abclifeliteracy

Family Services of Greater Vancouver is top winner of the Canada Life Literacy Innovation Award

ABC Life Literacy Canada: 8.26.2019

ABC Life Literacy Canada (ABC) is pleased to announce the top and honourable mention winners of the 2019 Canada Life Literacy Innovation Award (LIA). The annual award recognizes organizations that develop and implement innovative adult literacy and essential skills programs in communities across Canada.

The LIA top award will be given to Family Services of Greater Vancouver along with $20,000, which the organization can use towards future programming. In addition to the top winner, four honourable mention winners will receive $5,000 each. All will be honoured at ABC’s Life Literacy Night ceremony in Toronto this October.

Each of the winners have demonstrated that their program has made a positive contribution to the lives of their adult learners as well as the community, and all serve as a model for other organizations to adapt.

═════════►

Since its inception in 2012, 40 LIAs have been awarded to literacy organizations across the country (8 top awards and 32 honourable mention awards), representing $320,000 in funding for the field.

═════════►

TOP WINNER, receiving $20,000

Family Services of Greater Vancouver, Vancouver, BC

Program: Caring Neighbours

Caring Neighbours is a community kitchen program that uniquely combines health, food and financial literacies and creates important social connections among vulnerable and socially isolated families, children and seniors.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS, receiving $5,000 each

Community Living Toronto, Toronto ON

Program: Individualized On-campus Post-Secondary Experience Network (IOPEN)

The program provides an inclusive post-secondary learning experience for adult learners with an intellectual disability.

Literal Change, Toronto, ON

Program: Literal Change Facility Program

A team of trained teachers work one-on-one with the adult male learners in two maximum-security facilities to build level-appropriate basic literacy skills.

Momentum Community Economic Development Organization, Calgary, AB

Program: Momentum’s Money Matters

This financial empowerment program is designed to increase confidence and help participants with mental health and/or addition challenges successfully manage their money.

Sioux-Hudson Literacy Council, Sioux Lookout, ON

Program: Discover Online Integrate Information Technology (DOI2T)

The program provides access to new and exciting technology while encouraging participants to learn at their own pace.  READ MORE >>

How One Brave Man Turned A Page :: Learned To Read At 41 via Devon Live

How one brave man turned a page in his life and learned to read at 41

''Life is too short to give up, you're never too old to learn.''

Devon Live: 8.18.2019 by Charlotte Vowles

Imagine not being able to read a road sign, not being able to understand cooking instructions, or the warning on your box of paracetamol.

For around 2.4 million adults in the UK who struggle to read, or can't read at all, these problems are a reality.

Read Easy Exeter was set up in February 2018 to help tackle this issue. The group is run by community-based volunteers and helps adults who are completely new to reading and those wanting to improve their skills.

41 year old Jason, is one of Read Easy Exeter's success stories. He lives in Exeter and joined the group after a suggestion from his mother-in-law.

After taking the brave and life-changing decision to get in touch with Read Easy Exeter, Jason has never looked back.

═════════►

Paul Fisher is the Team Leader at Read Easy Exeter. He said: ''We take for granted how literacy allows us to participate in ordinary life. Over two years, people can get to a good basic standard of reading, which will enable them to participate.''

All the readers have coaching twice a week for half an hour at a time. Sessions take place on a 1:1 basis in a public, but quiet space, such as a library, café or pub.

Paul said the readers are carefully matched with their coaches to ensure that it's a totally comfortable process. He said: ''The course is so brilliant and done so well. It's all about a 1:1 relationship.''

The readers follow a reading programme called Turning Pages, which has been specially designed by The Shannon Trust, a national charity that works with prisoners.  READ MORE >>

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Ithaca NY :: Los Angeles CA :: Sugar Land TX :: Cambridge MA

Literacy: Spanning the US

@tcplny

Literacy Inside And Out: Tompkins Library Program Will Bring Books Behind Bars

Ithaca Voice: 7.18.2019 by Devon Magliozzi

The book collection at the Tompkins County Jail is, as one county librarian put it, not very expansive. It rolls around on a single cart, offering a small collection of titles for those in custody to choose from. A new partnership between the Tompkins County Public Library and the county jail aims to stock more books behind bars and to add titles that jail inmates and educators have requested.

The Literacy Inside and Out initiative will use an outreach grant provided by the Finger Lakes Library System to get new reading material to people in local custody and to add resources at the library for those who are reentering the community after serving their sentence.  READ MORE >>

@LAPublicLibrary

Spring Spotlight on Adult Literacy

LAPL Literacy Blog: 2.06.2019 by Megan Katz, Librarian, Office of Education and Literacy

Looking for a way to contribute to your community? Consider becoming an adult literacy volunteer with the Los Angeles Public Library! Statistics show that an estimated 33% of the adult residents of Los Angeles lack basic prose literacy skills. This means that, at best, they may be “able to locate easily identifiable information in short, commonplace prose text, but nothing more advanced” (National Center forEducation Statistics, 2003). Of course, many of these people cannot read at all.

Los Angeles Public Library tutor Luisa Latham says of her students: As a result of being illiterate, these individuals have felt isolated and alienated and not able to function fully within their communities… [They] have expressed to me their fear and hesitancy around any experience where they would be asked to read—to fill out a job application, to vote, to do so many things that we take for granted and that they cannot participate in. You can help alleviate literacy inequality by becoming a volunteer. We have many different opportunities, including teaching classes, working one-on-one with a student, and more.

Tutor Claire Chandler decided to use her time to help others, “When I retired, I thought about volunteer opportunities and about how to work toward changes I would like to see in the world. Even though I had no experience teaching anyone how to read, I applied to be a tutor at the Adult Literacy Program.”

Adult literacy volunteers change lives, but the most inspiring thing about volunteering may be what you will gain from it. Tutor Lorena Lordanic tells us, “Tutoring Carmen this past year has benefited my life in so many ways. Not only do I get to think of innovative ways to help her reach her goals, but Carmen also inspires me to continue learning.” READ MORE >>

@ftbendliteracy

The Literacy Council Of Fort Bend County Piloting A Family Summer Reading Camp 

Katy News: 7.25.2019

The Literacy Council of Fort Bend County is piloting a Family Summer Reading Camp where they are inviting members of the community, including esteemed community volunteers and  local authors, to read and actively engage with children and their parents over the summer.

According to Literacy Council Program Director Alisha Procter, “the purpose of the Family Summer Reading Camp is twofold, first, to help show parents how to teach critical reading comprehension skills which are important to teaching children to read and two, improving their reading comprehension skills as adult learners.”  READ MORE >>

@cambridgepl

ESOL Program Expands At Cambridge Libraries As Need Grows

Cambridge Wicked Local: 7.24.2019 by Marylu Bautista

The English for Speakers of Other Languages classes at Cambridge Public Libraries are about more than just learning English. They offer students an opportunity to connect with their diverse Cambridge and greater Boston neighbors.

On a spring morning, in the basement of the Central Square Public Library, teacher Monica Klien greeted her classroom with a cheerful “good morning” and reminded everyone to sit next to a person who spoke a different language than they did. A group of students who all spoke Chinese rearranged themselves throughout the classroom and took out their name tags.

Surrounded by a range of international flags on the ceiling, the students sat on fold-up chairs with plastic tables in a semi-circle facing Klien and the chalkboard. Among the 15 students, there was a Brazilian woman, an Italian man, a Chinese woman and a Peruvian man, just to name a few. The students were only allowed to speak English, especially during their small in-group conversations, which was a highlight of the class for some students.

Juan Quispe Cabanillas, a neurology researcher from Peru, was a first-timer at Klien’s class but quickly realized the important social aspect of the class.

“The class is a means of coexistence with people from different countries, and at the same time, it is free, which makes it easier for people to get together. I think the class is necessary as a meeting point,” Cabanillas said in Spanish, as he was packing his notes up.  READ MORE >>

Digital Literacy and Adult Learners via Digital Promise

Adult Learner Landscape

Digital Literacy and Adult Learners

Digital Promise

An estimated 36 million adults in the U.S. lack the basic math, language, and digital literacy skills necessary to find well-paying jobs and navigate public and social systems. Technology can increase access to education, provides support and scaffolding, and offers personalized learning pathways for these learners to advance in their careers and life.

Integrating Digital Tools for Adult Learners: Four Critical Factors 2016

Digital Readiness Gaps, Pew 2016