Help National Literacy Directory Celebrate 10 Years ▬ NCFL

Help Our National Literacy Directory Celebrate 10 Years

stories@nld.org

Share a short video about your adult education experience

NCFL: 7.31.2020

Where have hundreds of thousands of students and volunteers looked to find literacy and community education programs since 2010? The National Literacy Directory (NLD) at nld.org !

We’re celebrating 10 years of being the go-to online portal for finding classes across the U.S in early childhood, family literacy, adult basic education, English language learning, and citizenship.

Help us celebrate this milestone!

1. Share this page with your network

2. Send us a video about your education experience for a chance to be featured as part of the 10-year milestone. All submissions will be entered to win an iPad!

Have you participated in classes to further your education?

Send us a video sharing how those classes have impacted your life and your family. 

Have you volunteered to help others in literacy or community education programs?

Send us a video sharing what you have learned from your experience or how this experience has enriched your life. 

Have you used the NLD to advertise your program’s services?

Send us a video describing how the NLD has helped connect you to your community.

Creating your video is a snap! 

A cell phone will do the trick and 30-60 seconds is all you need. Just be sure to hold the phone horizontally (landscape mode) and face a good lighting source like a window, lamp, or outside. Look straight at the camera (not down).

All submissions are due by Aug. 31, 2020. Just email your video to stories@nld.org to enter!  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Readability Consensus

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 7

Reading Level: standard / average.

Reader's Age: 11-13 yrs. old

(Sixth and Seventh graders)

FLUENT Act of 2020 :: NCFL

@NCFL

Families Learning and Understanding English Together (FLUENT) Act of 2020

NCFL

The Families Learning and Understanding English Together (FLUENT) Act of 2020 aims to improve the educational, social, economic advancement, and employability skills of families with English language learners in need of literacy skills by expanding and enhancing family literacy services.

Recognizing that parents have a powerful influence on their children’s success, family literacy programs work to enhance the literacy strengths of the family while also addressing their needs.

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The FLUENT Act authorizes a program that awards grants to family literacy providers for family literacy programs aimed at English learners. The grant program it creates aims to serve the hardest-to-reach populations, including those with the greatest economic and social needs, and integrates all of the following activities:

➧ Interactive literacy activities between parents and their children.

➧ Training for parents regarding how to be the primary teacher for their

children and full partners in the education of their children.

➧ Parent literacy training that leads to economic self-sufficiency.

➧ An age-appropriate education to prepare children for success in school and life experiences.

The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) is calling on our partner

organizations to endorse this bill. We ask that your organization consider sending an indication of support to Mr. Matthew Bryant at Matthew.Bryant@mail.house.gov by Wednesday, May 20. We thank you for supporting families with English language learners throughout our country.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 16

Reading Level: very difficult to read.

Reader's Age: College graduate

Literacy Reports & Statistics

Children

Kids and Family Reading Report, Scholastic

Kids Count Data Center, Annie E. Casey Foundation

National/State Report Cards – Reading, NCES

State of Preschool, NIEER

2018: Education Leader’s Guide to Reading Growth, Renaissance

2018: READ•FOR•SUCCESS: Combating the Summer Learning Slide in America, RIF

2009: Developing Early Literacy, National Early Literacy Panel - NIFL

2003: The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3, American Educator

Nominate A Student Speaker :: 2020 NCFL Families Learning Conference

Nominate A Student Speaker For #NCFL20

NCFL Blog: 3.03.2020

The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) is seeking past or current family literacy and family learning students to share their stories with practitioners and peers across the country this fall.

All nominations are due by 11:59 p.m. PDT

on Friday, May 1, 2020.

APPLY NOW

NCFL is seeking student speakers for its 2020 Families Learning Conference, which will be held Oct. 19-21 in Dallas. Each year during the Conference, students share their learning stories with attendees during General Sessions. These stories of determination, hard work, and achievement inspire us all.

In addition to the opportunity to tell their story in front of approximately 1,000 family literacy and family learning professionals, student speakers receive all travel, lodging, and registration for the Families Learning Conference courtesy of NCFL.

Applications may be completed by a student or someone nominating a student. To view questions before beginning a nomination, you can view the application (pdf).

Inspire practitioners across the country with your story or the story of a student you know. Apply to be a student speaker at the 2020 Families Learning Conference today!

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)

NCFL :: 30 Days of Families Learning Together

30 Days of Families 

Learning Together

30 Days of Families Learning Together

NCFL

NCFL’s guide to 30 Days of Families Learning Together provides a month’s worth of family literacy activities and practices designed to inspire family memories rooted in imagining, playing, and learning together. These hands-on and wonder-filled activities were hand-selected from our signature programs, Wonderopolis and Family Time Machine.

Learn to Earn Toolkit via NCFL

Learn to Earn Toolkit

National Center for Families Learning

Use the Learn to Earn Toolkit to build skills to prepare you for the workforce. Through your training on the Learn to Earn Toolkit, you will:

➧ Create your personal account and profile

➧ Be introduced to 10 topic areas of learning for the workforce

➧ Learn specific lessons within each topic area

➧ Explore career possibilities

➧ Learn new vocabulary in context

What is the Learn to Earn Toolkit?

Learn to Earn Toolkit is a free online collection of articles that focus on work skills. Articles focus on ten skills that employers say are important for new employees to have. The skills are also ones that employers say many new employees do not have. There are a total of 30 articles at each level that focus on these ten skills. Adult students can read articles and take quizzes on their own. The topics can also be used in adult education or family learning programs. Instructors can track a learner’s progress, and learners can print a list of the skills they have learned.

What is included in the content?

Learn to Earn offers a topic overview for each of the ten focus skills. Skill overview pages include a short introduction to the skill, an activity to practice with a partner, and a link to explore for more information about a specific job that uses the skill. On each skill page, you can link to three lessons for deeper learning about specific concepts of that skill.

What is the grade level of the text on Learn to Earn Toolkit?

Intermediate texts on Learn to Earn Toolkit are written at an average 4.7 grade level. Advanced texts are written at an average 7.7 grade level. Grade levels were determined using the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level.

How are the quizzes structured?

Each quiz consists of six content questions, one idiom question, and three vocabulary questions.

Choose a skill and start learning!

You’ll find an introduction to read for each skill. Read the overview, practice the skill, and explore more information about the topic. You will find three articles for each skill.

You’ll find vocabulary words to help you learn more. You can use the Word Wheel to see how many words you learn. Take a quiz after each article to add that skill to your work-related skills list.

✬ Critical Thinking

✬ English Language

✬ Oral Communication

✬ Reading Comprehension

✬ Teamwork

✬ Diversity

✬ Information Technology Application

✬ Professionalism

✬ Social Responsibility

✬ Written Communication

Literacy Funding Opportunities via NCFL

@NCFL

Literacy Funding Opportunities

Are you a library or nonprofit working to promote literacy and seeking funding?

NCFL updates a list of available grants nationwide.

Arranged by Deadline Date, Title and brief description with links.

Literacy Reports & Statistics

Grants & Funding

Nationwide List of Funding Opportunities by Deadline Date, NCFL

Nov 19 National Family Service Learning Week :: The National Center for Families Learning Applauds Congressional Resolution

@NCFL

The National Center for Families Learning Applauds Congressional Resolution

Families Learning Blog: 11.20.2018

This week, members of Congress introduced a resolution celebrating the broad benefits of Family Service Learning. The Resolution designates the week of November 19, 2018, as “National Family Service Learning Week,” and was led by Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), John Cornyn (R-TX), Cory Booker (D-NJ), Jack Reed (D-RI), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Roger Wicker (R-MS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), and Rob Portman (R-OH), and Representatives John Yarmuth (D-KY), Phil Roe (R-TN), Sam Johnson (R-TX), and Dina Titus (D-NV).

Family Service Learning is a model developed by the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL), extending service-learning benefits to families through a multi-generational approach. The six-step model provides education and empowerment to families that allow them to effect change in their communities. Working together with other families, the process allows for investigation of a problem in need of a solution and provides the steps to find that solution. Many times, this includes tapping into other community leadership or resources. The results have shown a greater sense of community pride, in addition to the development of potential workforce skills such as critical thinking and group problem solving. Among its many benefits, Family Service Learning improves workforce and literacy skills while enabling parents to become stronger teachers and role models for their children.

Results from an independent evaluation of Family Service Learning show that Family Service Learning can:

➧Expand voice, social capital, and networks of participating adults;

➧Expand self-efficacy and self-confidence;

➧Increase formal learning, including content knowledge, research, and academic skills;

➧Increase technology skills;

➧Increase opportunities to develop work-based skills;

➧Improve employment status—46% of participating adults secured a job or improved their existing work status.

READ MORE >>

NCFL Family Service Learning: Six-Step Process

1. Investigation: Parents and children investigate community problems that they might potentially address. Investigation involves research and a community mapping activity.

2. Planning and preparation: Parents, children, community members, and teachers learn about and plan the service activities. This step includes acquiring content knowledge and addressing the administrative issues needed for a successful project.

3. Action (implementing the service activity): Parents, children, community members, and teachers carry out and complete the Family Service Learning project.

4. Reflection: Parents and children debrief and reflect on the service-learning experience. Activities include thinking about the project implementation, the meaning and connection between parents’ work and the community, and what children have learned in school.

5. Demonstration of results and celebration: Families, program staff, community participants, and others publicly share what they have achieved and learned.

6. Sustainability: Parents and program staff plan how to make their project or Family Service Learning an ongoing endeavor. This may include strengthening or cementing partnerships, generating and leveraging resources, and identifying and securing funding sources that are available over time. Through this process, Family Service Learning can become integrated into the culture and goals of the family literacy program.

NCFL seeks adult learners to share their learning stories :: 2018 Families Learning Conference

NCFL seeks adult learners to share their learning stories

NCFL Blog: 2.21.2018

The National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) invites adult learners to apply to be a speaker at the 2018 Families Learning Conference, held from September 24 to 26, 2018, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

2018 Families Learning Conference

Each year during our Conference, students share their learning stories with attendees during General Sessions (a time when all attendees are gathered together at once). Having students share their stories of determination, hard work, and achievement inspires us all.

Students can nominate themselves

Program staff can nominate students

The DEADLINE is Tuesday, May 1, 2018, 11:59 p.m. EDT

APPLY NOW

By speaking, student speakers receive

A free round-trip flight to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, from September 23 to 26, 2018

Three free nights at the Fort Lauderdale Marriott Harbor Beach Resort & Spa

A free registration to attend all Families Learning Conference sessions and events

Free meals from September 23 to 26, 2018

A professional photo taken of their family in advance of the Conference

The opportunity to share their unique story with an audience of hundreds of attendees from around the country

The opportunity to raise awareness of their school or program to a national audience

A DVD recording of their speech

Free time to enjoy the beach and pool

INFORMATION SHEET

We ask student speakers to:

• Submit a draft of their speech to NCFL in advance of the Conference

• Work with NCFL staff to revise their speech as necessary

• Attend a rehearsal on September 23 to practice speaking onstage

• Make the most of their trip by attending Conference sessions and events

Speech guidelines:

• Speech should be approximately 1500 words

• Speech should take about 8 minutes to read

• Tell the story of your learning journey, including what your life was like before you began attending a learning program and how your life is different now

• Incorporate a Thank You message to the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL) and program sponsors

National Family Literacy Day: Nov 1

National Family Literacy Day
November 1
National Center for Family Literacy

Cultivating Readers is a parent guide to building reading skills in children ages birth to eight. The guide gives tangible tips for parents to implement and also includes a calendar of monthly language activities to stimulate learning throughout the year.
Available: November 12.
Can download or be ordered free of charge for a limited time (in English and Spanish).

Wonderopolis:
Create. Laugh. Imagine. Explore. Learn. Smile.
A place where wonder and learning are nurtured through the power of discovery, creativity and imagination. Learning is happening everywhere, all the time! Learn something new, try out an idea, create a masterpiece, imagine possibilities. It’s easy. It’s fun.