Literacy – Spanning the US :: Richmond VA :: Rapid City SD :: National City CA

Literacy In The News :: Spanning the US

@TheREADCenter

Adults Learning To Read Embrace Virtual Classes At The READ Center
Chesterfeld Observer: 3.24.2021 by Eileen Abbott

Deborah has been struggling to read since elementary school, where she says a teacher called her a “dummy” many years ago.

Now a grandmother in her 60s, she is determined to learn to read well enough that she can obtain her G.E.D. “It’s never too late to learn,” she says.

For two years, Deborah has been a student in an adult literacy class at the READ Center, a Richmond-based nonprofit that provides classroom instruction at no cost to the students and includes two Chesterfield learning locations.

During the past year, those classes have continued without pause despite the pandemic, thanks to the center’s ability to quickly shift gears from in-person to virtual classes to protect students and teachers from COVID-19.

“When the closure of public buildings came late last winter, there were no contingency plans for teaching sans a physical classroom,” recalls Donald Wilms, a retired English teacher with Chesterfield County Public Schools who now teaches with READ. “At the time only one of my students had easy access to both a laptop and the Internet. But everyone had a smartphone and several of the tutors who work with me were more than willing to teach over the phone one-to-one with a student so that learning could continue.”

For many of READ’s adult students already challenged by low literacy, the past year has meant persevering through the added challenge of acquiring the digital skills needed to learn remotely.  READ MORE ➤➤

 

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)

 

@SFECSouthDakota

Woman Honored For Work Aiding Students, Educators In Pandemic
Rapid City Journal: 3.25.2021 by Tanya Manus

Morgan VonHaden leads a team at the South Dakota Statewide Family Engagement Center that created digital resources to help families, educators and students of all ages with learning during COVID-19. On Wednesday, VonHaden received a national award from the Coalition on Adult Basic Education.

COABE, an organization dedicated to advancing the field of adult literacy, honored VonHaden with its 2021 Local Excellence in Advocacy Award during its online national conference. The award recognizes an individual outstanding advocate.

“It’s such an honor to get this award,” said VonHaden, project director for the Rapid City-based South Dakota Statewide Family Engagement Center. “I have about 14 staff throughout the state that have developed these amazing resources we share with schools and adult learners. … My team has been knocking it out of the park since COVID-19 happened. It’s cool we’re getting recognized at a national level.”  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)

 

✱ Meet Our Tutors: Samuel V -National City Library Tutor

National City Literacy
Resource Site

Literacy Services Newsletter: March 2021

My name is Samuel, I have been tutoring at the National City Public Library for more than 2 years. First a work study tutor from my school and then as a volunteer, proud to say I have absolutely no regrets to have been around this library for this long. The amazing people I have met, both fellow workers and learners are just one of the many reasons why I would not trade this experience for anything.

I have tutored GED, ASVAB & other subjects like general education in high school, middle school, and even elementary school for the Children’s department. Each one of my learners has been special and has led me to not only discover more about them, but it has also led me to discover more about myself.

It is always amazing to see the determination of each learner to take the step forward to do something that could potentially help them improve their lives forever. Ranging from the youth who wish to excel in their classes to adults who know they still have not achieved their full potential and want more out of life.  READ MORE ➤➤

 

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on 7 readability formulas:

Grade Level: 12

Reading Level: fairly difficult to read.

Reader's Age: 17-18 yrs. old

(Twelfth graders)

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Literacy – Spanning the US :: Sioux Falls SD :: Midland MI :: Frederick MD

Literacy: Spanning the US

@REACH_Literacy

Reach Literacy Is Providing Books & Masks To Young Readers

Keloland: 4.16.2020 by Whitney Fowkes

Reach Literacy is used to providing books to people of all ages. Now, the organization is providing masks too.

The bookstore has bundles of books for kids and adults. When you purchase a kids bundle, a Reach Literacy employee will give you a mask for a child between the ages 2-10.

She said since the organization’s unable to perform its main focus to help adults learn how to read, its main focus is on the bookstore.

“Our main mission is adult literacy, so we really work with adults and we teach adults how to read. The bookstore is a supplement for that programming. We are really dead in the water right now for tutoring,” Carda said.

Adult tutoring has stopped due to social distancing for COVID-19. Another step the nonprofit has taken amid the COVID-19 pandemic is limiting their hours to 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. They began offering curbside pickup and an online bookstore. Then they began offering masks donated by one of their volunteers.  READ MORE ➤➤

Automatic Readability Checker

Based on (7) readability formulas:

Grade Level: 6

Reading Level: fairly easy to read.

Reader's Age: 10-11 yrs. Olds

(Fifth and Sixth graders)

Legacy Center for

 Community Success

Local Literacy Efforts Continue Amidst Pandemic

Our Midland: 4.18.2020 by Jennifer Majorana and Kristi Kline (Dir LCCS; Dir student reading)

It is safe to say our world has been turned upside down in the past month. COVID-19 has completely changed the landscape of our community. At the Legacy Center for Community Success, all in-person tutoring and outreach has been suspended and staff are working from home. That does not mean we have stopped providing services to those who need it, though.

Literacy tutors who usually meet with their students face-to-face are trying video conferencing platforms instead. Our weekly conversation class has gained new students who were not able to attend before but can now join remotely. Our resourceful tutors are using old-fashioned phone calls, paper-based workbooks, and scrabble tiles to continue literacy tutoring.

They are also trying out different video conferencing platforms, screen-sharing software, and internet-based curriculums to keep learners focused on their goals. About 30% of our 120 tutoring pairs have transitioned to online learning in the past few weeks. Tutors and learners alike say they want to stay connected during this unprecedented time, not only for the sake of developing literacy skills, but also to maintain a sense of normalcy and rhythm.  READ MORE ➤➤

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)

@LCFC3

Volunteer Appreciation Week: Celebrating Our Superheroes

Literacy Council Frederick County Blog: 4.23.2020

The Literacy Council is celebrating Volunteer Appreciation Week April 19-25 by paying tribute to our 150+ wonderful long-time and new volunteers!  You know what it takes to serve our community seven days a week.

Today, the adult learners we support through our adult literacy programs are facing even greater obstacles than ever before during these unprecedented times of the COVID-19 public health emergency – including unemployment, loss of income, health risks, challenges accessing food and other basic essentials, supporting their children’s education from home.

Our volunteers are rising to meet the challenge! Great things are happening at the Literacy Council as you continue to serve our students using any and all means to provide support as our tutoring and class instruction programs transition to using multiple online platforms that support distance learning!

Thank you for embracing change. Thank you for being a trusted and devoted source of information for your students. Thank you for your willingness to learn, serve, and engage in new ways.

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In honor of our Literacy Council volunteers, we invite you to watch this special Literacy Council Volunteer Appreciation video we created for YOU, Our Superheroes!!  WATCH

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)

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Modesto CA:: Bath ME:: Rapid City SD :: Milwaukee WI

Literacy: Spanning the US

Opera, Movies, Zombies, Ice Skating Are All Part of Jane Austen Takeover of Modesto

Modesto Bee: 12.26.2019 by Deke Farrow

Jane Austen’s takeover of Modesto began quietly enough this fall: An emphasis on her works by LearningQuest-Stanislaus Literacy Centers for its adult learners. A 244th birthday party for the English novelist in a downstairs room of the downtown library. An escape room, also at the library, with puzzles designed to inspire participants to read her works and learn more about her life.

Soon, though, it will take to the streets, the stage, the silver screen and even a skating rink. And it won’t be over until the slender lady sings.

It’s a Jane-vasion, with Opera Modesto and its production of the opera “Mansfield Park” at the center.

Opera Modesto board member Hillari DeSchane long has wanted to do an opera based on a work by Austen, said Roy Stevens, the company’s general and artistic director. Her wish is coming true thanks to “Mansfield Park,” a 2011 chamber opera by composer Jonathan Dove, based on Austen’s third novel, published in 1814.

Stevens said he and his opera-singer wife, Annalisa Winberg, who is Opera Modesto’s artistic consultant, saw a way to stage the work primarily using members of the company’s TOP Young Artists program. Before long, “we realized we had a potential catalyst to do something more with the community,” he said.That “something more” ended up being the Story Into Song Literacy Initiative, for which Opera Modesto has partnered with LearningQuest, the Stanislaus County Library, the State Theatre, the Becoming Jane Austen Book Club (of which DeSchane is a member), city and county schools and the Downtown Modesto Partnership, among others.

The initiative is a great way to build excitement around literature and the arts, said library director Sarah Dentan. “We’re excited to partner with Opera Modesto to promote books and reading, as well as the arts and humanities,” she told The Bee in an email. “By offering complementary events at the library, we can extend our existing fan base, and perhaps introduce readers to storytelling through song.”  READ MORE >>

Rewordify

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 13.4

Lexical Density: 63.4%

Total word count 325

Unique word count 206

18 hard words

Sentence count 14

Midcoast 

Literacy

New Volunteer Database To Help Midcoast-Area New Mainers Settle In

News Center Maine: 12.30.2019 by Beth Brogan

With some 120 asylum seekers now living in Brunswick, the town's "cultural broker," Nsiona Nguizani, is learning more every day about how best to help these New Mainers thrive.

In August, the town hired Nguizani, originally from Angola, to help asylum seekers who moved from Portland to transition to life in Brunswick.

The challenge was formidable, Nguizani says. One family left their home country when their child was two-and-a-half. They arrived in the United States when he was five.

"You don't know how much time they passed in each country, but it was a long journey," he says. After a struggle to integrate into a kindergarten classroom in Brunswick, Nguizani said today, "They're playing like crazy, all the time they want to ride the bike, all the time they want to run. It's a playground everywhere."

Soon after he was hired as the town's cultural broker, Nguizani called Don Lader of Midcoast Literacy in Bath.

Lader's Bath office is lined with books, but literacy in reading and writing isn't his only goal.

His organization, funded entirely by donations and private grants, also helps people prepare for citizenship tests, teaches computer literacy and other skills.  READ MORE >>

Rewordify

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 9.5

Lexical Density: 70.6%

Total word count 187

Unique word count 132

12 hard words

Sentence count 11

Literacy Council 
Black Hills

Literacy Council of the Black Hills, Giving The Gift Of Literacy

News Centet 1-TV: 12.31.2019 by Anya Mueller

The famous Dr. Suess was quoted as saying “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.”

And in today’s society, if someone can’t read, it can limit your experience, like getting a job or just getting around town. That’s where the Literacy Council steps in to help.

Jin Washington helped at a Literacy Council in Omaha when she found her passion for helping others learn to read. She continued her work in Rapid City because she feels like the mission is important.

Jin Washington, Literacy Council of the Black Hills, Program Director, says,  “I fell in love with it, before that I didn’t know so many people are illiterate, and so I just really felt it was important to help people to read better and because I love reading.”

The Literacy Council is an all-volunteer, nonprofit that serves immigrants, or English as a second language students from over 10 countries as well as (American) teen and adult students.  WATCH 02:23

Rewordify

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 10.5

Lexical Density: 65.3%

Total word count 170

Unique word count 111

7 hard words

Sentence count 8

@LiteracyWI

Two Area Literacy Nonprofits Merge

Biz Times: 1.02.2020 by Lauren Anderson

Milwaukee-based Literacy Services of Wisconsin and Greater Waukesha Literacy, two nonprofit providers of adult education programs, have merged.

The combined organization, which will retain the Literacy Services of Wisconsin name, plans to expand its adult job readiness development, English language learning and GED/high school equivalency diploma programs, according to a news release.

“We are pleased to join with Greater Waukesha Literacy to deliver critical adult literacy services to the residents of Waukesha County,” said Jim Paetsch, president of the LSW board. “One’s ability to read and write is not only the gateway to civic participation, it’s a fundamental requirement for finding meaningful employment. Merging with GWL enables us to extend the geographic reach of LSW services and deepen our regional impact.”  READ MORE >>

Rewordify

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 16.7

Lexical Density: 71.3%

Total word count 122

Unique word count 87

10 hard words

Sentence count 5

Literacy – Spanning North America :: Sioux Falls SD :: Appleton WI :: Whitehorse YT :: Hilton Head SC

Literacy: Spanning North America

@REACH_Literacy

How A Sioux Falls Nonprofit Is Helping Workers Improve Literacy Skills

Argus Leader: 9.26.2019 by Shelly Conlon

It may seem simple, but the difference between understanding words like, "suite and sweet," can mean all the difference for Francia Weay in understanding how to navigate around town.

It can mean the difference between what hospital rooms she visits or how she interacts with patients at Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center.

And it can lead to the difference in her current role and the role of others wanting to move up in the medical field in South Dakota.

But that difference is also what's driving her and other students to join a new adult literacy program partnering local businesses like Sanford Health, Avera and Grand Praire Foods with a local nonprofit to improve their overall literacy skills to better their workplace opportunities.

After piloting the program for about two years, Reach Literacy has officially launched workplace academies to pair tutors with working adults wherever they are, offering to meet an hour twice a week for eight weeks to review everyday literacy skills.

═════════►

It can take about 70 to 100 hours for someone to begin seeing appreciable progress and improvement in their literacy skills, Carda said. An academy partnership like this also allows employees to feel reassured that their employers care about their success.

The course builds in camaraderie, but focuses on reading skills related to financial issues, housing, food, shopping  — practical things someone might use daily, but can also build on, Carda said.

"People talk a lot about workforce," Carda said. "We want to expand, and we want people to be in that workforce, but actually physically working with people and seeing them moving up is super rewarding."  READ MORE >>

@FoxValleyLit

Faces Of Literacy Gala Celebrates Adult Learners' Accomplishments

NBC 26: 9.25.2019 by Stacy Engebretson

More than 12,000 adults in Outagamie County are believed to have low literacy skills, that's according to Fox Valley Literacy . The nonprofit organization was founded 29 years ago and has since helped thousands of adults, 18 and older, learn how to speak English and read and write better with the goal of improving the entire family's situation.

Rene Delgado moved to Appleton 13 years ago.

"Looking for a better opportunity, because it's hard in Mexico," he explained.

═════════►

While the adult learners get so much out of the program, so does Davis.

"Just satisfaction that they're doing so much better, and then they go on to do other things that they wouldn't have been able to do before."

Delgado works in a restaurant and is on a path to becoming a U.S. citizen. His successes, and those of the nonprofit's other 350 learners, will be celebrated during the Faces of Literacy gala.  WATCH 02:23

Yukon Learn

Learning To Read At 86: Yukon Elder & His Tutor Receive Literacy Award

CBC: 9.10.2019 by Mike Rudyk

You're never too old to learn.

Just ask 86-year-old Kwanlin Dun First Nation elder Louie Smith, whose lifelong dream was to learn to read in English.

After four years spent working with Ted Ackerman, a tutor-volunteer with Yukon Learn, the two were recognized at an award ceremony in Whitehorse. They are this year's recipients of the Council of the Federation Literacy Award.

The national award recognizes outstanding achievement, innovative practice, and excellence in literacy.

"I had a little bit of trouble with my eye and a cataract bothered me a little bit, but I'm doing my best and I started learning how to read a little bit now," said Smith.

He says he can now go to a bank ATM and take out cash because he now knows how to read.

Smith was raised in a traditional lifestyle living off the land. His father taught him Southern Tutchone and Northern Tutchone. English is his third language.  READ MORE >>

The Literacy Center

Starting Over In A New Land

Hilton Head Monthly: 9.27.2019 by Jessica Sparks

In Venezuela, Javier Campos was a petroleum engineer and Karla Losada was a lawyer.

When they decided to move to the Lowcountry two years ago with their two children, they knew they wouldn’t easily step into the same professional lives.

Despite the high number of Spanish-speaking residents in the area, the language barrier made it hard for the couple to find work. Friends directed them to The Literacy Center, where now they are working to become fluent in spoken and written English.

For 46 years, The Literacy Center has been helping Lowcountry residents learn English and improve their reading skills. Today, the center is also working to address another major problem in the Lowcountry: A shortage of trained workers in the workforce.

“We’re working to move from just basic ESL services that we do now to workplace services,” said Brad Steele, executive director of the organization.  READ MORE >>