Literacy – Spanning the US :: Murfreesboro TN :: Tifton GA :: Rockville MD :: Greensboro NC

Literacy: Spanning the US

@readtosucceed

Read To Succeed Receives 2 $10K Grants From the Dollar General Literacy Foundation

Murfreesboro Voice: 5.21.2020 by

The Dollar General Literacy Foundation recently awarded Read To Succeed two grants, a $10,000 grant to support Youth & Family Literacy and a $10,000 grant to support Adult Literacy. These local grants are part of more than $8.6 million in grants awarded to more than 950 schools, nonprofits and organizations across the communities Dollar General serves.

“Read To Succeed is so grateful for the Dollar General Literacy Foundation. We both have the same goal and that is to change the trajectory of individuals in our community through literacy,” RTS Director Jolene Radnoti said.

Read To Succeed’s Family Literacy Program serves the child and family. With two key programs offered in collaboration with Rutherford County and Murfreesboro City, Head Start and support summer Community Summer Camps; Read To Succeed aims to bring the family together to celebrate literacy along with the JOY of reading. Family Literacy Events are conducted throughout the school year in partnership with local universities in our local elementary schools. Imagination Station events are held in collaboration with Community Development Institute Mid-Cumberland Head Start sites in Rutherford County.

The Adult Literacy Program works with adults 18 years-of-age and older to provide one-on-one tutoring in basic literacy at no cost to the learner.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 13

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 18-19 yrs. old

(college level entry)

Literacy Volunteers 

 Tifton Tift County

Literacy Volunteers Seeks Tutors For Online Outreach Program

Tifton Gazette: 5.23.2020 by Mary Beth Yeary

Literacy Volunteers of Tifton-Tift County is looking for volunteers to be tutors in their online outreach program this summer. The online outreach program is for those who need to improve their literacy skills or study for the GED exams.

Bonnie Sayles, executive director of LVTTC, said the organization works closely with Southern Regional Technical College (SRTC) and they have been working with the college online and GED classes.

Sayles said one of the organizations that Literacy Volunteers is a part of, ProLiteracy, conducted online seminar programs on distance learning.

“At this time with so many people doing Zoom meetings and FaceTiming, it seemed like a good time to do distance learning,” said Sayles.

Taylor Hand, an Abraham Baldwin Agricultural Center senior who interns with Literacy Volunteers is recruiting volunteers for distance learning.

“We are encouraging students, ABAC instructors, teachers off for the summer and retired teachers to contact Literacy Volunteers to be a mentor or coach working with GED students and Literacy clients over the summer,” said Sayles. Sayles said she would train the volunteers to be able to do online outreach.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 14

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 21-22 yrs. old

(college level)

@LCMCMD

Literacy Council of Montgomery County

Studio 501c3 EP 19: 4.23.2020 by Kim Jones

The LCMC (Literacy Council of Montgomery County) teaches English to adult students as Executive Director Gabriel Martinez Cabrera tells Studio 501c3 host Kim Jones on this episode. But there is more. The associated programs offered by this nonprofit also prepare clients for family-sustaining work.  WATCH 15:00

@readingconnect

Reading Connections Continues Work To Offer Stability Amid The Pandemic

My Fox 8: 5.27.2020 by Katie Nordeen

Reading is a fundamental skill that too many adults in our community lack. Reading Connections is on a mission to change that.

“By educating parents and educating their children, we’re working towards breaking that cycle of illiteracy and thereby breaking the cycle of poverty,” said Allison Welch, Literacy Manager with Reading Connections.

“We serve adult students, both native English speakers as well as immigrants and refugees, and we help them improve their English literacy skills,” said Welch.

Since 2006, it’s offered The Family Literacy Classes — a 10-week course for parents and their children.

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For now, Reading Connections is offering distance education programming and providing their families a bit of stability during these uncertain times.

“They’re dealing with job loss and filing for unemployment and many other things that many other folks are dealing with during this difficult time,” Welch said. “But the fact that our students continue to seek out these opportunities to improve their English skills is awesome.”  WATCH 01:53

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 11

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 15-17 yrs. old

(Tenth to Eleventh graders)

National Literacy & Library Events :: June 2020

National Literacy & Library Events :: June 2020

Literacy & Library Events & Conferences

Events-National & International Events

Events-International: Language Magazine

National Audiobook Month

Rainbow Book Month

Summer Library Program Libraries Rock

May 01      Choose Privacy Week  

May 04      Children's Book Week "A great nation is a reading nation."

May 04      National Library Legislative Day VIRTUAL Advocacy

May 04      World Voices Festival of Intl Literature DIGITAL The PEN Pod

May 04      Rev Up Readability ONLINE thru June 1

May 05      Teacher Appreciation Day

May 14      Shoals Front Porch Storytelling Festival Florence AL

May 18      International Museum Day VIRTUAL Visits @ Google Arts & Culture

CANCELED - Computer Assisted Language Instruction Consortium

CANCELED - Health Literacy Conference IHA Costa Mesa CA

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

Libraries Reimagined via Human Media

@humankindradio

Libraries Reimagined

Human Media:  5.26.2020 Produced by David Freudberg

Our shared heritage – updated for the digital age

In 2019, Americans visited the library more often than they went to a movie theater or attended a sporting event. In fact, Gallup found that going to the library was – by far – the most frequent cultural activity in the United States last year. A Pew survey reports that over ninety percent of Americans view libraries as “welcoming and friendly places.”

Given that popularity, consider what happened in 2018 when Forbes magazine published an article by an economics professor. His essay proposed that Amazon replace local libraries and “save taxpayers lots of money, while enhancing the value of their stock.” The article ignited a firestorm of protest by some library patrons and especially by librarians. Within days, Forbes deleted the piece from its website.

And far from stagnant institutions of the past, libraries today are rapidly evolving. They’re carried along by the tide of technology that has transformed so much of how we receive information in modern life. Their online resources are more important now than ever. And libraries have also introduced a host of new services, from early literacy programs, to help for patrons who are living on the edge, to ‘maker spaces’, where library users create and edit original content.

A fundamental resource for democracy

As you’ll hear in this special series, Libraries Reimagined, public radio documentary-maker David Freudberg examines the role of these remarkable, locally-controlled institutions in virtually every community across America. And you’ll learn new ways that libraries help to preserve our democracy by ensuring free, unfettered access to information.  LISTEN

1: Information Age  27:17

2: Treasury of Learning  25:44

3: Early Literacy  27:00

4: Digital Literacy  24:59

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 13

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 18-19 yrs. old

(college level entry)

10 Tips for Using Poetry with Challenged Readers via Literacy Nest

10 Tips for Using Poetry with Challenged Readers

Literacy Nest: 5.10.2020

When someone says poetry, my immediate image is classical poetry forms such as sonnets. But I also have fond memories of reading Shel Silverstein poems or writing structured poetry forms like haiku when I was a child. Often, poetry is not one of the things people think of when they think of challenged readers. However, there are many benefits to using poetry with your students that may struggle with reading and writing.

What Are The Benefits of Poetry?

➧ Poetry is full of rhyme, rhythm and alliteration. These are key elements of phonological awareness.

➧ Many poems also lend themselves to the exploration of individual phonemes and help to build phonemic awareness.

➧ Poetry is meant to be performed. For students, this means that listening to poetry allows them to build listening comprehension skills and enjoy how the authors play with language.

It also means that reading poetry is great for readers theater and paired choral reading.

➧ Visually, the text of poetry is less overwhelming. There is more white space. For many students, this translates to less pressure.

➧ Poetry is also full of both visual and language patterns.

➧ Since poetry is generally short, it lends itself to working on fluent reading with repeated reading.

➧ Not only does this build fluency, but it also builds confidence.

➧ Writing poetry that follows certain structures can help reluctant writers express themselves and write something truly beautiful.

Poetry has oral language benefits as well. Poetry often uses playful language and uses language in nonliteral ways. Children’s poetry in particular is often designed to tickle your funny bone. Shel Silverstein and Jack Prelutsky both have a good grasp of children’s senses of humor. In addition to the language benefits, poetry has social and emotional value as well. Reading poetry helps build an appreciation and understanding of other people’s feelings. Writing poetry helps students express and communicate their own feelings.

There are so many benefits to using poetry with your challenged readers. I’ve answered the question of why to use poetry. The bigger question is HOW to use poetry with your struggling readers?

Here are some concrete tips for putting poetry into action with your students so that they can experience the benefits of poetry:

1. Start with funny poems.

Even self-professed haters of poetry will enjoy funny and silly poems.

2. Engage in lots of rereading.

Our world tends to gobble up information and text and children and many adults approach reading with that same speed and desire to consume text quickly. But, poetry, perhaps more than any other literary form is meant to be savored.

3. Find poems that relate to content.

Finding a poem about something you are studying in social or social studies gives you a lot of bang for your buck.

4. Use poetry to practice a particular phonics or grammar skill.

There is a poem for almost every purpose you can think of. There are even collections of poems written to target specific phonograms.

5. Perform!

Find poems your students really love and want to perform with another classmate.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 8

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 12-14 yrs. old

(Seventh and Eighth graders)

Literacy – Spanning North America :: South River ON :: Fairbanks AK :: Grand Rapids MI

Literacy: Spanning North America

@AlmaguinLearn

Demand For Adult Education Surging In Almaguin Highlands

'A lot of people have realized through this that they really need more secure employment'

Nugget: 5.18.2020 by Mackenzie Casalino, Local Journalism Initiative

More people are returning to school, pursuing online programs through the Almaguin Adult Learning Centre of South River.

“People are looking for things to do,” says Randie Doornink, lead instructor at the centre.

“People are still at home, but they’re starting to get a little antsy and a little bored. This is becoming a bit more normal. So it’s like ‘What am I going to do next?’”

The Almaguin Adult Learning Centre provides refresher courses and helps with high school credits for area adults, as well as soft skills and computer courses.

“We’re basically there for the hurdles,” Doornink says. “They’re moving themselves through the material and then when they hit a hitch in their work, we kind of jump in and talk them through that and we can do that at a distance.” READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 8

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 12-14 yrs. old

(Seventh and Eighth graders)

Literacy Council 

Alaska

Adult Education Student Succeeds During COVID-19 And A New Baby

Web Center 11: 5.19.2020 by Alex Bengel

Despite delays from the COVID-19 pandemic, 29-year-old Angelina Porden has earned her General Education Development (GED) from the Adult Education Program (AEP) of the Literacy Council of Alaska. During the process, she also gave birth to a son.

Porden said having a baby on the way helped motivate her in her studies. “If I am not at my best, and I am not at my top of my game, then my son doesn’t have what he needs.”

Porden’s son Lucian was born on the 18th of March, the day she was scheduled to take her final test. The test was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, which Porden sees as a blessing in disguise, as she would have had to postpone anyway.

The pandemic did, however, take a toll on her ability to take the test after giving birth. “Most definitely it slowed things down. I had to get a lot of patience and wait, because I was extremely motivated, but it definitely didn’t stop me. I was just going to sit there and wait. One way or another I was going to graduate,” she said.

Brian Davis, GED Program Coordinator and Lead Instructor with the Literacy Council in Fairbanks, works with students in the Adult Education Program, some aiming to receive their GED, others just hoping to gain literacy skills.  WATCH 01:38

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 8

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 12-14 yrs. old

(Seventh and Eighth graders)

@LCWM

*A True Handyman: Antonio’s Story

Literacy Center of West Michigan Learner Stories: 5.21.2020 by Guest blogger: Chad Patton, Director of Customized Workplace English

If there were one word to describe Antonio, it would probably be “handy.” Since Michiganders were asked to Stay Home and Stay Safe due to the Coronavirus, Antonio has been taking the time to work around the house.

“I put my gutters around the house… I got a deck, a big deck in the back yard, so I cleaned it and I stained the whole deck… and [my wife] wants me to fix a little table for her.”

Antonio, who works in maintenance for a large apartment complex by Rivertown Crossing, came to the Literacy Center to hone his handiness into a Construction Core Credential through a partnership with Grand Rapids Community College.

“When I found that there was a class like this, I said to my wife, ‘I need it, I want to take it…’”

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Due to Coronavirus, Antonio isn’t able to learn in his preferred method (hands-on learning), but he is still able to meet with his GRCC trainer and Literacy Center trainer through a virtual classroom.  READ MORE ➤➤

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Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 14

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 21-22 yrs. old

(college level)