Literacy – Spanning the US :: Livermore CA :: Milwaukee WI :: Placentia CA :: Columbus OH

Literacy: Spanning the US

@LivLibrary

Livermore Public Library Honors Volunteers Of The Year

KKIQ: 6.17.2019

Chris Irving has been chosen as the Livermore Public Library’s 2019 Literacy Volunteer of the Year. As a new retiree, Chris shared that she wanted to use her professional skills to help others. She has done exactly that since beginning to volunteer with the Literacy program three years ago. Chris’ volunteer work includes meeting regularly with her adult learner who says Chris is very nice and very patient. In addition to seeing her learner achieve significant goals, Chris assists with literacy outreach, planning special events, and facilitating the English Conversation Groups when needed. She recently served as a beta-test reviewer for a nationally developed online tutoring resource and she has also embraced the role of tutor trainer, welcoming new tutors and sharing her valuable and insightful first-hand experience. Along with her dedicated commitment, Chris is also known for the good humor she generously blends into her work.  READ MORE >>

@LiteracyWI

‘I Put That Bookbag On And Did What I Had To Do’:  How  Adult Learners Can Put High School Behind Them

Milwaukee News Service: 6.11.2019 by Ana Martinez-Ortiz

Jacklyn Isabell was 15 when she made the decision to drop out of James Madison High School.

She was pregnant, and her mother had recently died. But while taking college courses at Milwaukee Area Technical College, she learned she was not being given credit for coursework taken at other schools, including Midwest Theological Institute.

“Here I was with all these college credits and no high school diploma,” she said.

Frustrated, Isabell thought about giving up. But her children’s father encouraged her to complete her high school journey.

“I got two girls looking up at me,” she said. “I got to finish this degree.”

So, in February, the 34-year-old began taking classes at Literacy Services, 555 N. Plankinton Ave., through MATC’s high school equivalency program. In May, she completed her work and is planning to finish her associate degree in early childhood education by the end of the year.  READ MORE >>

@placentialib

SPOTLIGHT ON LITERACY: Meet Our Learners & Tutors

Explore – Placentia Library: Spring 2019

Sumi is a prolific reader from South Korea. Her love of literature lead her to sign up for the adult literacy program. Her goal is to improve her English to be able to read classic literature. We are working towards achieving this goal by reading simplified versions of classic novels, learning new words, and completing engaging lessons on reading and writing.

In Sumi’s words, “Thank you for the Placentia Library’s adult literacy program that gave me the pleasure of learning English with such a great teacher. The literacy program has had a big impact on my life.” Sumi is tutored by Raul, a recent graduate from CSUF. Raul combines his education and skills to help Sumi build her reading and writing skills. They meet every week for an hour and a half.

In Raul’s own words, “The Placentia Literacy Program has helped me develop into a better teacher so that I can be successful in my career as an ESL instructor and has given me a way to be more connected and involved in my community.”  READ MORE >>

@cbusliteracy

Columbus Literacy Council Helps Immigrants Hone English Skills, Break Down Barriers

Columbus Dispatch: 6.11.2019 BY Ceili Doyle

In a converted Downtown brownstone, a man and a woman sit at a desk in what used to be a living room, but now serves as the Columbus Literacy Council’s Tutoring Center.

A poster of flames is taped over the opening of the fireplace and banners with pictures of tutors and students imprinted with words such as “READ,” “EXCELLENCE” and “LISTEN” are pinned to the walls.

Halima Alim, 33, of the North Side, paused while she studied a mock email from a lesson in a workbook. She looked up at her volunteer tutor, Mark Dubovec, quizzically.

She is from Somalia and hopes to use these tutoring sessions to get a better grasp on the English language.

Alim wants to understand her children's school system — she has four kids all under the age of 10 — and learn how to communicate with their teachers.

"I want to help them," she said of her children.

Vilvi Vannak is the director of the Tutoring Center on 92 Jefferson Ave. She started working for Columbus Literacy Council more than 19 years ago. In 2011, Vannak began hosting one-on-one and small group conversations with students who wanted to improve their English in the council's old location, which eventually evolved into the Tutoring Center.

Vannak prides herself on her students’ success stories, which she believes happen every day — in large and small ways.

“One student I know just passed her citizenship test,” she said. “But my very first success story was an American-born man who joyfully called me one day to say because of the center’s help he was able to read the instructions on the back of a bag of microwave popcorn for the first time in his life.”  READ MORE >>

Reading Aloud To Adult Learners? via LINCS

Reading Aloud To Adult Learners?

LINCS: 6.13.2019 by Susan Finn Miller

Hello colleagues, Do you see value in reading aloud to your adult basic education class, or is there just no time for that? If you do read aloud, what do you choose to read? If you don't read aloud, but you would like to, what texts would you choose to read aloud? 

What do you see as the pros and cons of reading aloud to adult learners?

Those who are interested, can check out Kasey Short's blog post on the benefits of reading aloud to older learners for 5 minutes in each class.

This blog post is about reading aloud to middle school students. How is it different for adults?  COMMENTS

Reading Aloud to Middle School Students

Hearing books read aloud benefits older students, enhancing language arts instruction and building a community of readers.

Edutopia: 5.14.2019 by Kasey Short

By the time many students reach middle school, they no longer have books read aloud to them at home or at school. But research shows benefits of hearing books read aloud, including improved comprehension, reduced stress, and expanded exposure to different types of materials.

For five minutes of each class period, I read aloud to my middle school students. I’m often asked how I “give up time” each day to read, but the five minutes are a gift to my students. Spending this time each day enriches the classroom community, allows me to share a love of reading, enhances my language arts instruction, and exposes students to new authors, genres, and themes.

ENRICHING CLASSROOM COMMUNITY

During daily independent reading, students choose a book that is both interesting to them as individuals and appropriately challenging for their ability. Reading aloud provides an opportunity for students to experience a shared text together.

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Modeling reading strategies also conveys my expectations for how students should approach their independent reading. I use several strategies I use here.

Thinking aloud:

Demonstrate how to think critically and often about reading and making connections.

Monitoring understanding:

Check for comprehension and reread when needed.

Visualizing text:

Encourage students to think about what pictures form in their mind while reading.

Application:

Ask students to consider how to connect the book to their own life, other books, current events, or cross-curricular content.

Questioning:

Formulate questions about what students can learn from the text to apply to their lives.

New USA Learns Course Launched! via OTAN News

New USA Learns Course Launched!

OTAN News: 7.17.2019

USA Learns has launched a new beginning high / intermediate low course: English 1 Plus. As the name suggests, this course builds on USA Learns' 1st English Course. It gives students the opportunity for more vocabulary, listening, and grammar practice before they move on to the 2nd English Course, addressing a long-time need for a bridge between the two levels. If your learners know how to navigate other USA Learns courses, English 1 Plus will be a snap.

English1 Plus was created in partnership with Voice of America Learning English. Each lesson is based on select clips from their Let's Learn English 1 videos. These amusing, easy-to-understand videos are accompanied by USA Learns-style interactive activities that help students explore the language in depth and practice their skills.

The course consists of five units with six lessons each. Each lesson includes practice activities for listening comprehension, grammar and writing, reading, and speaking.

Learners go to the USA Learns Homepage and click Start Now to register for the course. There's also a teacher side at the USA Learns Teacher Homepage. Teachers can easily create a teacher account to deliver free online instruction to their learners, monitor progress, and get user-friendly reports about time spent and scores.

The 1st English Course is a video-based online English course for beginner students. Learn English with the video stories of the beginner students in an adult education class. Online activities using video, photos, sound, charts and text teach vocabulary, grammar, spelling, and life skills, and give you practice in English listening, speaking, reading and writing. There are 20 units in this English course covering basic topics like time, clothes, weather, places in the neighborhood and more.

English 1 Plus is a beginning high / intermediate low course based on videos from the Voice of America Let's Learn English series. Learn English with fun videos about Anna, who works in Washington, D.C. Watch stories about her work, friends, and activities while you learn English vocabulary, listening, grammar, writing, reading, and spelling. This English course has 5 units, with six lessons each. We recommend that you complete this course after the 1st English Course.

The 2nd English Course is a video-based English course for Intermediate students. This English course includes five engaging video stories about the situations of different characters living in the U.S. There are 20 units covering topics like Workers and the Workplace, Housing and Family Life, Taxes, Law and Community Issues and more. Interactive practice activities combine video, sound, charts and pictures to teach vocabulary, grammar, and life skills in all language skills – listening, speaking, reading and writing.

The Practice English and Reading course contains Intermediate level readings on a variety of topics. The stories originally came from news reports. Besides reading the story yourself, you can also listen to a native speaker read the story. Each unit contains a reading, vocabulary and spelling practice, comprehension questions, and a writing activity. Pronunciation practice is also part of the vocabulary section. In this intermediate English course there are dozens of stories in 11 different topics.

The USA Learns Citizenship course helps immigrants prepare for all parts of the naturalization interview, including the steps to becoming a U.S. citizen; who needs legal help and where to get it; how to avoid immigration fraud; preparation for the oral review of the N-400 application, section by section; U.S. history and government for the Civics test, including practice with speaking, reading and writing; what to expect at the interview, including making small talk with the interviewer and following instructions; vocabulary and grammar for answering interview questions; and what to do after becoming a U.S. citizen.

USA Learns is an ongoing project of the

Sacramento County Office of Education's Internet and Media Services Department.

Is Teaching Writing As Important As Teaching Reading? via VOA

@VOALearnEnglish

Is Teaching Writing As Important As Teaching Reading?

VOA: 7.16.2019 LISTEN 04:49

When educators think of literacy -- the ability to read and write -- they often place more importance on students’ abilities to read and fully understand a piece of writing.

But experts say critical and creative writing skills are equally important. And, they say, they are too often overlooked in the classroom.

Compared to reading, writing is more active. It helps students be independent thinkers, take ownership of their stories and ideas and communicate them clearly to others, says Elyse Eidman-Aadahl. She heads the National Writing Project, which offers help for teachers who want to push students to write more.

Eidman-Aadahl said, “Unless we want an education system just focused on making people consumers and not focused on helping them be producers, this emphasis on reading only -- which does happen in so many places -- is very short-sighted.”

She said students’ writing work now usually centers on examining a text, instead of presenting a new idea. Writing, she said, should be “the central thing you’re learning. Not writing on a test, not writing to demonstrate you’re learning what someone has taught you....”  LISTEN 04:49

The Associated Press (7.09.2019 by Molly Sprayregen) reported this story.

Ashley Thompson adapted it for VOA Learning English.

Caty Weaver was the editor.

Literacy – Spanning the US :: Logan UT :: Franklin TN :: Lee MA

Literacy: Spanning the US

Bridgerland 

Literacy

Bridgerland Literacy Joins Utah State University’s CPD

Cache Valley Daily: 6.10.2019 by Craig Hislop

Bridgerland Literacy has joined Utah State University’s Center for Persons With Disabilities (CPD).

@cpdusu

Bridgerland Literacy’s Program Director Alice Shepherd explained the mission of Bridgerland Literacy.

“We are an adult literacy program,” she said. “We help individuals from the age 16 and up improve their reading skills, their writing skills, their math skills. And we help them just move past whatever difficulty they have.”

She said in the late-1980s Bridgerland Literacy was housed in the Logan Library, then moved to Bridgerland Technical College.

She said people may have forgotten they were around.

“We just want to get the word out that we really are here, we’re still here, we’re still helping,” she explained. “This has been going for 30 years. We haven’t given up. We’re here to help; we just want you to know.”  READ MORE >>

Literacy Event Recognizes the Work of the Adult Learning Center

Williamson Source: 6.10.2019

The Author!Author! luncheon this year will celebrate not only literacy and the written word but the work that the **Adult Learning Center has done since 1986 in Williamson County where they have worked tirelessly to provide free programs to help adults develop reading, writing, and conversation skills.

Going forward, The Arc Williamson County, whose mission is to empower people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families to actively participate in the community throughout their lifetime, will continue with this annual event in the spirit of work of the Adult Learning Center. Over the years, The Arc and the Adult Learning Center have collaborated on numerous projects including sponsoring a literacy class for young adults with disabilities who wished to pursue their dream of receiving a high school diploma and developing Next Chapter Book Clubs in middle Tennessee.  READ MORE >>

** The Adult Learning Center is closing effective March 15, 2019.

We are grateful for the support of the community during our 33-year existence. Since its beginning in 1986, the ALC/Literacy Council has helped countless adults and families throughout Williamson County.  Staff and volunteers have worked tirelessly to improve our community through adult education.

Free English Conversation Classes are available at the Brentwood Library.

@litnetsb

Literacy Nonprofit Brings Together Berkshire Residents For A Common Goal

WAMC: 6.10.2019 by Josh Landes

It’s a busy month for a non-profit organization that helps Berkshire County residents learn English.

Jennifer Vrabel is the executive director of the Literacy Network of South Berkshire – also known as LitNet.

“We are a nonprofit that provides free educational support for adults," said Vrabel. "Our mission is to provide one-on-one tutoring that can help transform the lives of adult learners, both immigrants and folks who are U.S. born through the power of literacy, education, and advocacy.”  LISTEN 04:41

Students Move Further Down School-to-Prison Pipeline With Every School Suspension via Ed Week

Students Move Further Down School-to-Prison Pipeline With Every School Suspension

Education Week: 7.12.2019 by Sarah D. Sparks

On the school-to-prison pipeline, school suspensions may be a key shut-off valve.

That's because, regardless of students' past behaviors, every school suspension weakens their connection to school and increases their odds of committing theft, assault, and other crimes. This is the conclusion of a new national longitudinal study published Friday in Justice Quarterly, a journal of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

"I really expected to see that once we accounted for the effect of prior offending on future offending, the effect of suspension would go away," said Thomas Mowen, an assistant professor of sociology at Bowling Green State University, who led the study. "Actually what we found was almost the opposite. ... It's not offending that's predicting future offending so much as it is actually that punishment that the child receives at school."

Using federal longitudinal data, Mowen and colleagues at Bowling Green and Eastern Kentucky University tracked more than 6,800 middle and high school students in four "waves." Each year, the students were asked how many times they had been suspended in or out of school, and how often they had engaged in six different criminal behaviors: assaulting someone, carrying a gun, selling illegal substances, destroying property, and stealing items worth less and more than $50. The students were also asked whether they thought the school's discipline and grading systems were fair, whether they liked and felt safe at school, and whether they felt their teachers were interested in them.

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'Cumulative Disadvantage'

The risk of offending rose for students of every race and income level, but additional punishments created a "cumulative disadvantage," particularly for vulnerable students. For example, black and Hispanic students reported fewer crimes than white students over time, but they were suspended more often; and being suspended had a stronger effect on them than on their white peers.   READ MORE >>

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