Learning More than English
November 30, 2012 at 1:00 PM | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Learning More than EnglishAt the Literacy Council of Northern Virginia we believe that literacy is a survival skill. We frame our English classes with this belief in mind, teaching English in the context of life skills and everyday language our learners will frequently encounter. Though our aim is for students to acquire English language skills in speaking, reading, writing, and reading and for them to feel empowered by this knowledge – I have noticed that our students have an added advantage that is unique to our geographic area – their fellow classmates.
In Northern Virginia, we are all so fortunate to be a part of a community that is rich in cultural diversity. We have the benefit of being exposed to many different languages, cultures, religions, and customs which allows us to expand our knowledge base and worldview. While our students are learning English, they are also learning about each other as they work together towards a common goal.
In just one of my classes I have fifteen students who represent twelve different countries and seven different languages. Last week this class was learning words of frequency; always, sometimes and never. We went around the room and each student provided a sentence in the context of daily routines for something they always, sometimes, or never do.
One student, a man from Mexico, answered that he sometimes goes to church because he only goes to church on Sundays.
The next student, a woman from Afghanistan, answered that she always prays because she prays five times a day.
The student from Mexico asked her to repeat.
So the woman repeated, “I always pray. I pray five times a day.”
The man asked again, “Five? I don’t understand.”
The woman then explained when she prays during the day and told the student that she is Muslim. This opened a discussion in the class about religious customs, what religions the students practiced and how they were different and how they were the same. The students used the words of frequency, expressed understanding of the concepts different and same, and posed Wh- questions to each other all in English – an entirely student led discussion that began from a desire to understand a culture different from their own.
As the teacher I can provide the English words and structures – but the students are each other’s greatest resource in their education. There is a vast collective knowledge in all of our classrooms and our students are so fortunate to have the opportunity to communicate with each other and learn so much more than English during their classroom experience with the Literacy Council.
Rachel Conn Martin
AmeriCorps Instructor
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042
www.lcnv.org
Please include LCNV in your Cyber Monday shopping!
November 26, 2012 at 7:27 AM | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments Off on Please include LCNV in your Cyber Monday shopping!If you haven’t kicked off your holiday season by signing up to gift wrap for LCNV, please consider a gift to our students today as you check out Cyber Monday deals! LCNV makes it easy for you by letting you know exactly what we need for our students on our Amazon Wish List. After you finish shopping for yourself your friends and family on Amazon.com, click on this link, or on Amazon.com, click on the Wish List link in the top right corner of the webpage. Then, search for “Literacy Council of Northern Virginia” to see items that we currently need to serve our students. Our address is preset in the system so that you can easily have Amazon.com send the item directly to us. Many of the items are the children’s books that are used by LCNV’s Family Learning Program, which provides English literacy instruction for children (ages 2 – 12) and their low-income, immigrant parents in a supportive classroom environment, emphasizing the goal of parents increasing involvement in their children’s educational activities. The books are used for instruction within the curriculum, then given to the parents to take home to start their own at-home libraries!
Another easy way to support LCNV while searching for Cyber Monday deals is to search using GoodSearch.com, which donates a penny to your non-profit of choice every time you search! Click “Choose a Cause” on their homepage to easily start donating to LCNV today! The site even allows you to track your impact and how much you have raised for our learners. While you’re there, check out GoodShop.com, which allows you to shop at 2500+ retailers like Amazon, Target or Staples and up to 30% will be donated to your cause. You get to give back while doing the Cyber Monday shopping you need to do and save with over 100,000 coupons on the site!
Thank you for thinking of LCNV during the holidays. We hope you can take a break from all the busy-ness and join us for a potluck meal next week, on Tuesday, December 4, from 6 – 8 pm. You can find more details here: http://www.lcnv.org/events/annual-holiday-potluck.
Suzie Eaton
Senior Director of Development
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042
www.lcnv.org
Sign Up for LCNV’s Holiday Gift Wrap!
November 14, 2012 at 8:00 AM | Posted in Uncategorized | 1 CommentDo you love books…or wandering around bookstores?
Do you like getting in the holiday spirit…and chatting with other happy holiday shoppers?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you might like to volunteer for LCNV’s gift wrapping events at local Barnes & Noble Booksellers. We have arrangements with five of the local stores to wrap gift items purchased at those stores, while at the same time talking with folks about all the good things that LCNV does. These gift wrapping events are viewed as a fundraiser for LCNV. As people learn about the importance of our mission, they may be more inclined to make a contribution to LCNV via the donation jar.
One of the volunteer gift wrappers from last year shared: “It was heartwarming to see the generosity of the customers. It also made me feel good about doing this for a worthwhile cause.” Another volunteer said she liked the “opportunity to help LCNV and spread the word about the organization,” and added “I also appreciated the opportunity to expose a young man I’m mentoring to community service. It was nice to see people’s reaction to the whole experience.”
We would love to have you join our gift wrapping volunteers this year! Each gift wrap shift generally lasts three hours but a few shifts are a little longer (but no more than four hours). The Barnes & Noble stores where we will be doing gift wrapping this year include Clarendon, Fairfax, Potomac Yard, Seven Corners, and Tysons. Dates begin as early as November 23rd and go through December 24th. Click on this link to see a listing of the gift wrap schedule. To volunteer for a specific shift, please send an e-mail to lcnvgiftwrap@gmail.com. Thank you in advance for your generosity!
Mary Tack, Development Assistant
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042
(703) 237-0866 x 108
www.lcnv.org
Upcoming ESOL Parent Meeting
November 9, 2012 at 8:00 AM | Posted in ESOL, Family Learning, Uncategorized, Volunteers | Comments Off on Upcoming ESOL Parent MeetingTags: ESOL Parent Meeting, ESOL Services, Fairfax County
Fairfax County Public Schools will be hosting its last ESOL Parent Meeting on November 13, 2012
(Tuesday) from 5:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. at Woodson High School in Fairfax. Dinner and childcare are provided, as well as interpreters for Arabic, Farsi, Korean, Mandarin, Spanish, Urdu, and Vietnamese. Fairfax County Public Schools holds these meetings for parents to learn about ESOL services available to their children, the new elementary progress report, advanced academic offerings, preparing for college and career, and other services to support families.
Samantha Poyta, Parent Education Coordinator for SCAN of Northern Virginia & Carisa Pineda, LCNV’s Family Learning Specialist at Hayfield Secondary ESOL Parent Meeting
The Literacy Council of Northern Virginia was present at the first two meetings. The first meeting was held at Hayfield Secondary School in Alexandria on October 10 and the second was at Chantilly High School in Chantilly on October 22. Parents were very interested in LCNV’s offerings and filled out forms to receive information about classes for next semester; they also showed interest in ongoing conversation classes. LCNV will also be attending the Parent Meeting at Woodson. A special thank you goes to volunteer Julia Zurkovsky who attended the Chantilly meeting on LCNV’s behalf and will be attending the Woodson meeting.
To learn more about the FCPS ESOL Parent Meetings, go to http://www.fcps.edu/is/esol/parents.shtml.
Photo: Samantha Poyta, Parent Education Coordinator for SCAN of Northern Virginia
and Carisa Pineda, Family Learning Specialist LCNV
at Hayfield Secondary ESOL Parent Meeting on October 10
Carisa C. Pineda
Family Learning Specialist
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042
(703) 237-0866 x 108
www.lcnv.org
LCNV Students Learn about Civics & Community
November 5, 2012 at 8:00 AM | Posted in ESOL, Teaching | 1 CommentTags: AmeriCorps, citizenship, civic engagement, esol learners, naturalization ceremony, USCIS
As an AmeriCorps instructor for LCNV, I try to provide a place for adult students to experience English. In this regard, October 11 was a gift – I was able to bring my students to one of two Naturalization Ceremonies, which the James Lee Community Center hosted. A new LCNV student, Candida, participated in the ceremony and is now an American citizen! The Naturalization Ceremony compliments the curriculum in LCNV’s Civics and Community term:
Where are you from? What’s your name? What languages do you speak? Speaking about basic personal information is a crucial life skill. At the beginning of the term, my class also practiced this skill to build a sense of community. We weren’t learning English alone; we were learning English with peers from eight different countries and five different language backgrounds. Before reciting the Oath of Allegiance, naturalization candidates stand when their home countries are called. There’s no mistaking what it means for individuals, who hail from dozens of countries, to initially stand separated by country, then as one as U.S. citizens.
But what is a “citizen”? When we practiced filling out forms with basic personal information, my class profiled important American figures and world leaders. Some students became familiar with President Obama, Governor Mitt Romney, and Governor Bob McDonnell for the first time. When the ceremony prompted the question of what it means to be a citizen, we demonstrated how a person with U.S. citizenship can elect Barack Obama or Mitt Romney this November for president.
Even further, the ceremony motivated two of my students to share that they too want to pass the citizenship test – a chance to avail them of LCNV’s tutoring services. Events like the Naturalization Ceremony are English-in-action, illustrating ways to expand LCNV lessons and activities into the Northern Virginia community.
Gratitude must go to the James Lee Community Center for co-hosting the Naturalization Ceremonies with LCNV, and to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services for permitting our classes to join in the celebratory occasion.
Xavier Muñoz, AmeriCorps Instructor
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042
(703) 237-0866 x 108
http://www.lcnv.org
Don’t Miss Volunteer Networking Night!
November 2, 2012 at 8:10 AM | Posted in Volunteers | Comments Off on Don’t Miss Volunteer Networking Night!Tags: charles beatley library, tutoring, volunteer communities, volunteer networking, volunteers
The Literacy Council supports its volunteers with events at the main office. Now, LCNV would like to try this at a local level and foster volunteer communities. Come to the Volunteer Networking Night! This event in Alexandria is our pilot attempt to do this. We hope you’ll come and share your experiences, challenges, and successes as a teacher, tutor, or class aide with the Council.
When: Nov. 5, 6:30-8:30 PM
Where: Charles Beatley Library, 5005 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22304
Hope to see you this Monday!
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042
(703) 237-0866
info@lcnv.org
http://www.lcnv.org
Today is National Family Literacy Day & Nov. is National Family Literacy Month!
November 1, 2012 at 3:07 PM | Posted in Family Learning | 1 CommentTags: Family Learning, family literacy, National Family Literacy Day, National Family Literacy Month
What is family literacy and how LCNV involved? Family Literacy is multi-generational learning where adults and children are engaged together in the education process. Family Literacy looks very differently from program to program across the country, but all Family Literacy Programs have components in common.
The federal definition of Family Literacy includes four components:
1) Adult education (ESOL, basic education, GED, etc.)
2) Child education
3) Parenting skills (understanding the school system, supporting children’s learning at home, etc.)
4) Parent and Child Together (PACT) time – parents and children engaging in learning activities together
Because it has all four of these components, LCNV’s Family Learning Program (FLP) is a Family Literacy Program. How does LCNV’s Family Learning Program fulfill this definition?
1) Adult Education: While the Adult Education component can vary greatly from program to program and can include parents who are native English speakers to programs that are taught in a family’s home language, LCNV’s program focuses on ESOL instruction to adults. The adult participants in the program are parents, family members or childcare providers.
2) Child Education: In LCNV’s Family Learning Program, the adult students may bring their children to the children’s room where children’s teachers engage the children in a variety of ways . Morning classes with pre-school aged children emphasize pre-literacy skills such as introduction to books, fine motor skills, color recognition, etc. Evening classes which include school-aged children can provide homework help. The curriculum for the adults supports their children’s education whether the parents bring their children to the program or not.
3) Parenting Skills: The LCNV FLP curriculum provides teachers with content that is especially relevant to the parents they are serving. LCNV partners with schools, libraries and other organizations to provide parents with information that is relevant to them.
4) Parent and Child Together (PACT): A few times a month, the FLP classes bring the adults and children together for joint learning activities. Teachers also send home PACTs for families to do with their children at home. The adult FLP students receive children’s books for their home libraries. Throughout the semester they learn and practice reading the children’s books to encourage reading with their children at home.
For more information about LCNV’s Family Learning program please contact Carisa Pineda at familylearning@lcnv.org
For more information about Family Literacy visit the National Center for Family Literacy
Carisa C. Pineda
Family Learning Specialist
Literacy Council of Northern Virginia
2855 Annandale Rd., Falls Church, VA 22042
(703) 237-0866 x 108
http://www.lcnv.org
Create a free website or blog at WordPress.com.
Entries and comments feeds.