Thursday, April 8, 2010
ALA Committee on Literacy and State Chapters
The ALA Committee on Literacy is making connections with local state associations through ALA Chapter Relations. If you would like to know more, contact Sandy Newell at snewell@dos.state.fl.us or call 850-245-6624 , past chair of the ALA Committee on Literacy to learn about the work of the committee and how it relates to state associations.
Folk Tales and English Language Learners
The national conference for adult education was held in Chicago last month. It was combined with ProLiteracy. I just saw an interesting post about a program that someone attended,called “Cultural Literacy and the Adult ESOL Learner.”
The post said the following:
The presenter was Planaria Price, a teacher from Evans Community (school) in the LA area of CA.
Ms. Price asserted that adults learning English are disadvantaged without the “cultural hooks” of childhood folktales and nursery stories and other stories that U.S. children learn through print and video media. These tales help learners build up needed “linguistic schemata” (background information) to increase their fluency and literacy in English. She presented video and media clips showing allusions in movies, TV shows, newspapers, and so on to such common stories as Humpty Dumpty, Cinderella, the Three Little Pigs, and others. The story she mentioned as being most frequently mentioned in print and video media was The Wizard of Oz.
Ms Planaria recommended teaching these folktales/stories/rhymes and then asking learners to “fish” – to look for references to these stories in print or other media – in the newspaper, in TV shows, in TV commercials, or in the movies.
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This got me thinking about what this means to volunteer literacy and libraries....
I know that literacy tutors have probably used folktales in their lessons at times, especially for moms. Or, since folktales are found across cultures, they are a good bridge for learning, But, I hadn't thought about using them for their ability to introduce aspects of our culture.
Do any of you use folktales in lessons? If so, how and what titles have you found the most useful? Please recommend any books/stories that you have built lessons around and share your lessons with VALF so we can share with others?
Libraries could do displays of titles along with lessons plans as handouts in the area where tutors work. The display could include folktales across cultures with a poster introducing simlarities between the stories from culture to culture. What else could libraries do to support volunteer tutors and adult learners?
Sandy Newell
VALF President
The post said the following:
The presenter was Planaria Price, a teacher from Evans Community (school) in the LA area of CA.
Ms. Price asserted that adults learning English are disadvantaged without the “cultural hooks” of childhood folktales and nursery stories and other stories that U.S. children learn through print and video media. These tales help learners build up needed “linguistic schemata” (background information) to increase their fluency and literacy in English. She presented video and media clips showing allusions in movies, TV shows, newspapers, and so on to such common stories as Humpty Dumpty, Cinderella, the Three Little Pigs, and others. The story she mentioned as being most frequently mentioned in print and video media was The Wizard of Oz.
Ms Planaria recommended teaching these folktales/stories/rhymes and then asking learners to “fish” – to look for references to these stories in print or other media – in the newspaper, in TV shows, in TV commercials, or in the movies.
-------------------------------------
This got me thinking about what this means to volunteer literacy and libraries....
I know that literacy tutors have probably used folktales in their lessons at times, especially for moms. Or, since folktales are found across cultures, they are a good bridge for learning, But, I hadn't thought about using them for their ability to introduce aspects of our culture.
Do any of you use folktales in lessons? If so, how and what titles have you found the most useful? Please recommend any books/stories that you have built lessons around and share your lessons with VALF so we can share with others?
Libraries could do displays of titles along with lessons plans as handouts in the area where tutors work. The display could include folktales across cultures with a poster introducing simlarities between the stories from culture to culture. What else could libraries do to support volunteer tutors and adult learners?
Sandy Newell
VALF President
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
ALA Connect and Public Library Literacy
The American Library Association (ALA) has its own version of facebook which has some library literacy groups. It is called ALA Connect. Nonmembers can register and access public forums. Members have broader access.
One of the public forums is for public library literacy practitioners. To register for ALA Connect go to this link. To get to the public library literacy practitioner site go to this link. There are several other sites related to library literacy. One is called Literacy for All and was set up last your for the ALA Committee's Library Literacy Summit. It is for all types of literacy and all types of libraries.
Sandy Newell, President of VALF, will be presenting a program on ALA Connect and other library literacy sites at the Florida Literacy Coaltion Conference on Wednesday in May.
If you have questions about ALA Connect or want to know more about library literacy, contact Sandy Newell at snewell@dos.state.fl.us or at 850-245-6624.
One of the public forums is for public library literacy practitioners. To register for ALA Connect go to this link. To get to the public library literacy practitioner site go to this link. There are several other sites related to library literacy. One is called Literacy for All and was set up last your for the ALA Committee's Library Literacy Summit. It is for all types of literacy and all types of libraries.
Sandy Newell, President of VALF, will be presenting a program on ALA Connect and other library literacy sites at the Florida Literacy Coaltion Conference on Wednesday in May.
If you have questions about ALA Connect or want to know more about library literacy, contact Sandy Newell at snewell@dos.state.fl.us or at 850-245-6624.
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