Fahrenheit 451 and LCNV
August 26, 2011 at 12:27 PM | Posted in AmeriCorps, Basic Literacy, ESOL, Family Learning, Staff, Tutoring, Uncategorized, Volunteers | 1 CommentTags: AmeriCorps, Basic Adult Literacy, New Staff, students, Volunteer, Writing
In honor of Ray Bradbury’s 91st birthday this week I decided to reread Fahrenheit 451. Rereading this book as an adult, I found myself thinking quite a bit about the work we do at LCNV. Arguably Bradbury’s best known work, Fahrenheit 451 is an eerie novel set in the near future in a society that outlaws books. Rather than fight fires, Bradbury’s firemen are charged with finding and destroying outlawed books, and all books are outlawed. Owners of these books are punished severely.
We can thank our lucky stars that Bradbury’s fictional world does not exist in northern Virginia. People are free to read what they like in books, magazines, newspapers or on the electronic device du jour. However, this isn’t the case for many people across the globe. Around the world women are routinely denied access to education and punished for trying to improve their lives and the lives of their families through education.
Lack of education and illiteracy is a problem in our own back yard as well, as evidenced by the many natural-born citizens who contact the literacy council every day. Regardless of where someone comes from, LCNV tries to help, because without the skills to read the many texts available to us, we are denying access to knowledge, just as though we were burning books. Bradbury’s hero comes to the realization that destroying knowledge is a terrible mistake and says, “We have everything we need to be happy, but we aren’t happy. Something’s missing. I looked around. The only think I positively knew was gone was the books I’d burned in ten or twelve years. So I thought books might help.”
Many LCNV students have full, happy lives. Many have exceptionally complicated lives with some of those complications being caused or exacerbated by their limited literacy skills. It can be overwhelming to try to help someone who is surrounded by difficulties that seem larger than life. Giving someone the tools they need to become fully literate provides access to the larger world and all of the services to which people are entitled. Denying access to literacy marginalizes people and limits opportunities to lead a full, productive and happy life. But, teach someone to read and there’s no telling what might happen. I have to agree with Bradbury, “books might help.”
-Molly Chilton, Tutoring Program Specialist
Exciting Changes to BAL Tutor Training
July 27, 2011 at 3:51 PM | Posted in Basic Literacy, Training, Tutoring, Volunteers | Leave a commentTags: Basic Adult Literacy, collaborate, thank you!, training, tutoring, volunteers
Summer can be both busy and relaxing. We often spend a lot of time trying to relax and take a break from the work we do all year. This isn’t the case for many old and new members of the BAL tutor training team! On a beautiful Saturday in July, five volunteer members of the training team (Nick Rosenbach, Mary Kate Dougherty, Pat Thompson, Anne Spear and Claire Brown) and two staff members (Katie Beckman and Molly Chilton) met to discuss changes to the content, structure and presentation of the already strong BAL tutor training. We discussed revisions to the training and made suggestions about how we could improve our support for tutors and our services for students. In a mere two and a half hours we managed to update the content of the training, rearrange lessons to make them more relevant and condense the face-to-face learning time into two Saturdays rather than three, hopefully making tutoring a more manageable commitment to prospective tutors.
We prepared for this meeting for a long time, rewriting modules from the training and raising concerns and conflicts. We didn’t always agree with each other or have the same priorities. However, at the end of the morning, we were all satisfied that this was a step in the right direction and eager to move forward. The current training is good, but we all know it can always be better and this is a belief that drives us all in our commitment to LCNV’s mission of providing literacy to all.
-Molly Chilton, Basic Literacy Tutoring Specialist
What Makes A Good Lesson Plan?
July 6, 2011 at 4:55 PM | Posted in Basic Literacy, Teaching, Volunteers | Leave a commentTags: Basic Adult Literacy, lesson plans, tutoring
Nothing can replace knowing your student’s needs, preferences, goals and learning style when it comes to a good lesson plan, but there are some other principles that are also helpful when designing a great lesson. The Basic Adult Literacy Training Team is in the thick of revising and updating some content and delivery for our fall training. One section that we are revising is the overview of lesson planning. So far we have come across some excellent guidelines that we plan to include in our new and improved presentation. Here are some of the highlights:
- Make goals, objectives and expectations clear and explicit
- Include strategy instruction; instruction that focuses on how to learn by making thought processes clear and signaling students as to when and how to apply strategies.
- Scaffold instruction: support students as needed and gradually remove support as students become more independent
- Make instruction intensive. Students should be actively engaged in targeted practice with feedback, rather than just passively listening and/or observing
- Be sure that instruction is structured so that content and skills are broken into manageable pieces and taught in a logical sequence that builds one skill on top of another and ultimately relates to the student’s goal(s)
These principles and more are discussed in Applying Research in Reading Instruction for Adults: First Steps for Teachers by Susan McShane (National Institute for Literacy: The Partnership for Reading, 2005) which is available in the LCNV library. Take a look and see if you can find new ways to support your students!
-Molly Chilton, Basic Literacy Tutoring Specialist
Beyond The Book Tutor Panel: Focus on BAL Tutoring
June 13, 2011 at 2:10 PM | Posted in Basic Literacy, Student Stories, Training, Tutoring, Volunteers | Leave a commentTags: Basic Adult Literacy, in-service, lesson plans, thank you!, tutoring
Educators often talk about creating a community of learners. In such a community, teachers and students learn from one another’s challenges and successes, trials and tribulations. Unfortunately, this community is very difficult to build in a tutoring model. Difficult, not impossible.
On June 8th, five tutors from both tutoring programs presented to a small crowd of fellow tutors. Tutor presenters from the Basic Literacy Tutoring program were Anne Spear and Amy Spencer. This space is far too small to applaud all of their great ideas, so I’ll just include some of the highlights.
Anne uses a variety of materials with her lucky student, including the Washington Post Express, student and tutor created dictionaries and many word games generated by http://www.edhelper.com ($25/year). She emphasized the need to know your student so every lesson can be tailored to his or her needs. She also stressed the need to circle back to material to be sure students are retaining information and to give them practice in multiple contexts.
Amy shared many valuable and creative materials she developed for one of her lucky students to meet her goals. Rather than simply stick to Laubach 1, as she and her student were assigned, Amy created exercises that integrated the basic reading skills of Laubach 1 into relevant, practical tools, specifically, a visit to the doctor’s office. Amy used pictures and keywords to build functional vocabulary with her student so the student could independently fill out forms and advocate for herself.
Anne and Amy are just two examples of the excellent tutors we have in our community of learners at LCNV. It was inspiring to hear their ideas and even more inspiring to hear the discussion that ensued with all of the tutors present. In-service events like June 8th’s tutor panel are valuable for every tutor who attends and for each of their students. Be on the lookout for our next in-service and please let us know if you have any ideas or needs for any tutoring support – chances are you aren’t alone!
-Molly Chilton, Basic Literacy Tutoring Specialist
Three Cheers for the BAL Training Team!
May 24, 2011 at 1:25 PM | Posted in Basic Literacy, Training, Tutoring, Volunteers | Leave a commentTags: Basic Adult Literacy, thank you!, tutoring
What do a securities analyst, a librarian and a retired reading specialist have in common? No, it isn’t a joke; it’s just part of the BAL training team, and just one thing that makes this team so special. The current BAL training team consists of Marykate Dougherty, Pat May, Lisa Bellamy, Sandi Eisenstein, Nick Rosenbach and Pat Hayden. The last BAL training session trained over 20 volunteer tutors to work with Basic Adult Literacy students from all over northern Virginia, and they all go forth well-prepared by this excellent group of trainers. 
The training team has worked together for over ten years, with some members serving LCNV for more than 20 years in various roles, from tutor to staff member to board member. The current training manual was written almost entirely by volunteers, many of whom still serve on the training team.
During our last training workshop we were lucky enough to be joined by two prospective new trainers. Pat Thompson is a current tutor and Max Postman is a former tutor – both looking to become more involved with the Literacy Council. Pat and Max brought fresh energy and new perspectives to the training and we all look forward to sharing ideas as we head into summer to freshen up our already excellent training for the next crop of tutors. Stay tuned for more updates on our new and improved BAL training and if you have any ideas, please let us know!
-Molly Chilton, Basic Literacy Tutoring Specialist
Why I Like Quarterly Reports
April 28, 2011 at 10:25 AM | Posted in Basic Literacy | 1 CommentI’m going to go out on a limb and say that I think lots of tutors don’t like quarterly reports. After all, who enjoys paperwork? Or getting reminders about paperwork that is overdue (no matter how friendly those reminders may be)? I’ll admit that I’m not crazy about generating and editing lists of active matches from the database. I’m not wild about plodding clumsily through the steps of a mail merge only to realize I just sent the wrong link to over 100 people. And, what’s worse than having to go through all the mail merge steps again only this time include an apology? I don’t even want to talk about creating labels for the snail mail set. But still, I like quarterly reports.
The Basic Literacy program has over 100 actively matched pairs of tutors and students. When I read the quarterly reports these pairs come to life. Tutors share their student’s successes as well as their challenges, and sometimes both can be inspiring. For example, today I read a report that described a student’s incredible network of support from family and friends. The tutor went on to write that she loves tutoring because she so enjoys her student’s company and now she finds she doesn’t take anything for granted, like being able to read her own mail.
Tutors ask questions, clarify procedures and vent frustrations. Although nobody needs to wait for a quarterly report to do any of these things, the reports are a terrific opportunity for stopping, taking stock of how things are going and reflecting on the bigger picture. Tutoring is hard work and sometimes it can be pretty lonely. As you fill out your report, know that it is being read and appreciated. The more a tutor shares, the more I am able to understand and help. Any job can get monotonous, so when I read that a tutor has become an indispensable companion to a student, helping him navigate the politics of his new assisted living facility (and do we have any books that have practical vocabulary for nursing homes?), I am reminded of the incredible range of needs we serve and the inspiring commitment of our tutors. So, there you have it – quarterly reports – they’re not just paperwork.
-Molly Chilton, Basic Literacy Tutoring Specialist
Dynamic Tutor Trainings
April 20, 2011 at 1:28 PM | Posted in Basic Literacy, Training, Tutoring, Volunteers | Leave a commentTags: spring, thank you!, training, volunteers
This spring’s ESOL tutor training began last Saturday. Even though I have participated in over 25 of these workshops since joining the Council’s staff, no two of them are ever the same. Consequently, the experience never grows old. For one thing, the substance of the training continues to evolve. Our training team takes the feedback which participants provide on their evaluation forms very seriously. They approach the curriculum with the attitude that there is always room for improvement. As a result, they’re continually tweaking the training in an effort to keep it fresh and make it the best it can be.
The trainees themselves also keep the workshop experience interesting. Before each workshop begins, I learn a little about the participants from the information they provide on their registration forms, but this is nothing compared to meeting them in person. What admirable people they generally turn out to be. They bring such varied backgrounds and life experiences to this volunteer opportunity but are united in their desire to make a real difference in people’s lives.
In addition, each workshop definitely has its own personality. It’s always fascinating to observe the group dynamics at work, as well as the chemistry that develops between the trainers and trainees and between the trainees themselves over the three sessions.
-Elise Bruml, Tutoring Program Director
Add to your RSS Feed
Blog at WordPress.com. | Theme: Pool by Borja Fernandez.
Entries and comments feeds.
