Literacy – Spanning North America :: North Port FL :: Sarasota FL :: Charlottetown PE :: Vernon BC

Literacy In The News :: Spanning North America

Literacy Volunteers 

S Sarasota Co

Lessons In Life, North Port Volunteers Helping Foreign Language Adults
Your Sun: 9.26.2020 by Craig Garrett

Mary Seyler is teaching a literacy class.

The retired New Jersey educator is into Lesson 2: The Family Reunion, a simple story that helps adults with intermediate English skills.

“Obnoxious … what does that mean?” Mary asked one student pages into the Lesson 2 workbook.

Pausing to gather her thoughts, the student in a thick accent responded: “Not pleasant,” to which Seyler and others in the class crack up laughing.

While there’s nothing unusual about older immigrants picking up literacy skills, what’s new is the virtual platform — the students are on laptop screens as a masked Seyler on her laptop glides through Lesson 2 of the workbook.

One student, in fact, was in Poland while the others were in their North Port homes, on their couches tucked away from COVID-19.

Seyler and others are tutors with Start Now! North Port, affiliated with Literacy Volunteers of South Sarasota County. Because of COVID-19, tutors use video platforms to run their classes.  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)

 

@GoodwillFL

Goodwill Manasota Provides ESOL Classes For Its Employees

Sarasota Herald-Tribune: 9.29.2020 by Sharon Kunkel

In an effort to help its employees succeed in work and life, Goodwill Manasota is offering virtual ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) classes each week for team members whose primary language is not English. These classes, which are taught by instructors provided by the Literacy Council of Sarasota, are provided while employees are on the clock, at no cost to them.

Literacy Council 

Sarasota

Goodwill GoodPartner Coach Pamela Bavo reports that, this year, Goodwill Manasota employs 73 team members who do not speak English as their primary language. She notes that many employees with limited English language proficiency come from diverse work histories – including engineers, pharmacists or veterinarians – who can’t pursue those careers here because of the language barrier or because their credentials don’t meet U.S. requirements.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 13

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 18-19 yrs. old

(college level entry)

 

@PEILiteracy

New Program On P.E.I. Mails Free Books To Kids 5 And Under
CBC: 9.30.2020 by Sheehan Desjardins

The P.E.I. Literacy Alliance launched a new program Wednesday that mails books to kids under the age of five for free.

"We're really excited to bring this program to P.E.I.," said Amanda Beazley, the family literacy director with the P.E.I. Literacy Alliance.

"We've had our eye on it for a while."

@dollyslibrary

Dolly Parton's Imagination Library program provides free books to kids in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Republic of Ireland and Canada.

'There's no charge at all,' says Amanda Beazley with the P.E.I. Literacy Alliance. 'The books are high quality, they're age appropriate.' (CBC)

Currently, Beazley said funding is in place to supply books to 2,000 children across the Island. But, the plan over the next three years is to grow that number to 4,000.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 5

Reading Level: fairly easy to read.

Reader's Age: 8-9 yrs. old

(Fourth and Fifth graders)

 

Literacy Society 

Vernon

North Okanagan Literacy Society Raises Readers
Keremeos Review: 9.30.2020 by Jennifer Smith

The North Okanagan Literacy Society is doing just that, and is gaining support from the Post Media Raise-a-Reader, the Vernon Morning Star and Decoda Literacy Solutions Society. Together, they are meeting these challenges locally through the important Raise-a-Reader donation campaign.

@decodaliteracy

“This year has been particularly hard on students and families,” society executive director Wendy Aasen said. “We are very eager to fill all the learning gaps that we can, but more importantly, the Post Media Raise-a-Reader campaign presents an opportunity for the community to show children and families that they care about their futures, too. We all have a stake in raising readers.”

The Literacy Society is working to support students and families at community locations (with school and library access limited).  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 11

Reading Level: difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 15-17 yrs. old

(Tenth to Eleventh graders)