Sunday, November 17, 2019

Literacy – Spanning North America :: Rathdrum ID :: Pittsboro NC :: Vancouver BC :: Farmington ME


Literacy: Spanning North America

Literacy For All, Large And Small
Coeur d'Alene Press: 9.20.2019 by Devin Weeks

Without the ability to comprehend the words on the pages of textbooks, tests and other reading materials, Jill Fletcher kept her head down in high school.

“I kept quiet and had my hair combed, nice clothes,” she said. “I stayed under the radar.”

And she stayed in that literacy struggle. Her mother and sister helped her with homework assignments and papers she was supposed to write.

“My mom did everything for me,” she said. “The teacher smiled because she knew I didn’t write them.”

Her teacher, who evidently lacked the resources or knowledge to help Fletcher learn, would let her off the hook.

She was placed in special-education classes because, growing up in Washington in the 1970s and ’80s, teachers just didn’t know what else to do. They classified her as dyslexic.

“In the ’70s, ’80s, dyslexia was kind of the big flash word. A lot of people who were struggling readers were thrown into dyslexia,” said Kat Gilmore, director of the Lakeland Literacy Project. “I’ve worked with adult literacy for seven to eight years before coming here, and most people were labeled dyslexic when they weren’t necessarily dyslexic.”

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In just a year working with the Lakeland Literacy Project, Fletcher has earned her driver’s license, registered to vote and is now taking classes at North Idaho College.  READ MORE >>

Chatham Literacy Sees Avenues For Growth
Chatham News Record: 9.20.2019 by David Bradley

In archery, you must aim your arrow at the target before you release it. Without a target, you can’t aim your arrow.

Literacy service organizations have been working to find that target, and in a county the size and diversity of Chatham, the target isn’t always easy to find.

It’s tough to hit any unknown target, and with more than 25 organizations in Chatham County providing some level of literacy services, the target that they are trying to hit comes from the answers to these basic questions: What are the needs in the community? Who is meeting these needs? Who are we missing?

With these questions in mind, Linda Nalty, chairman of the Chatham Literacy Council’s board of directors, began a research project to find the bullseye.

After a meeting with provider agencies to discover needs for their clients, and where their clients go to address literacy needs, a survey was developed.

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There were some surprising results.

Newell said “a high percentage of those interviewed own smart phones, and a high percentage have access to the Internet, most through phones and many through libraries. There was a high interest and demonstrated needs for English, and financial literacy, how to obtain affordable housing, how to get a job, promotion, or better job.”  READ MORE >>

Raise-a-Reader: Chilean-Canadian Mother of 10 Gets Needed Literacy Break
Vancouver Sun: 9.21.2019 by Susan Lazaruk

For a large, blended family of 12 with a sole breadwinner, an unexpected health scare that took Victor Vazquezm out of commission was devastating.

Devastating, for starters, to his wife Melissa Arancibia, who relies on a Canucks Family Education Centre (CFEC) program partly funded by The Vancouver Sun’s Raise-a-Reader campaign, to help improve her English.

Arancibia, who was born in Toronto but grew up in Chile, came to Vancouver 15 years as a young, single mother of three girls — Constanza, Maria and Aranxa — to live with her parents. She wanted to give her children a better life.

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‎Four years ago, Arancibia was accepted into CFEC’s English class and now she’s in the equivalent of Grade 11. She’s grateful for the chance not only to learn English, but also to have some adult interaction without which she would be isolated at home, she says.

But earlier this year, Vazquez lost his job as a pool-maintenance worker and a few weeks later had a heart attack and a triple bypass. When the family learned he would be off work for three to four months, Arancibia was stunned.

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The literacy skills of almost half of British Columbians aged 16-65 may make it difficult for them to understand newspapers, follow instruction manuals, read health information, fill out a tax return, read a rental agreement or use a library catalogue, according to Decoda Literacy Solutions, B.C.’s provincial literacy organization.

And about half of the province’s population of the same age may have difficulty calculating interest on a car loan, using information on a graph or determining medicine dosage, says Decoda, which provides resources, training, funds and support for community-based literacy programs and initiatives in 400-plus B.C. communities.  READ MORE >>

Literacy Festival Kicks Off New Learning Center at Phillips Public Library
Daily Bulldog: 9.21.2019

A weekend of fall celebrations will kick-off on Friday night, Oct. 4 in the Phillips Public Library Studio building with an evening featuring folk singer Jan Benschop at 7 p.m. Admission is $10.

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This festival is also to kick-off the collaboration between the Phillips Public Library, Literacy Volunteers of Franklin and Somerset Counties, and Franklin County Adult Education to introduce their new North Franklin County Learning Center site inside the library.  READ MORE >>


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