Free Workshop on Program Management

Read the post on Evaluating Your Program to get more information about our VALF free workshop in September. Please register today.

More on Partnerships

One of the best way to develop partnerships to get support for your program is to get more involved in civic groups. For example, when I was starting up my first volunteer literacy program in Panama City, I also joined Altrusa. At that time it was the women's group -- which, to some degree, mirrored Rotary. Literacy is still one of their priorities.

Through my work with the group, we got financial support, tutors and tutor trainers. As you grow your collaborations, you will need to invest your time in other causes to help attract support to your program. One of the roles of volunteer literacy board members to reach out to other groups, to raise the awareness of adult literacy and the work of your own organization.

Please comment about your partnership experiences.

Sandy Newell,
VALF President

Partnerships and Rotary

Partnerships have always been part of volunteer literacy, but in these difficult times they are vital. Civic clubs are logical partners, and many, like Rotary, have literacy as a priority. Pat Bauer, a VALF board member, is active in Rotary and created a power point on Rotary and literacy. We have posted it on our wiki on our page with cost saving ideas.

Take a look at it to get more ideas on how to partner and to better understand how Rotary works. This is the time of year that civic clubs are planning for their new year. Go ahead and touch base with Rotary to speak about your program. As your local club gets to know you and your literacy program, they may contribute funds. Often these groups think of literacy in the context of children. It is up to you to put a face on adult literacy.
Posting by Sandy Newell, President, VALF

Lake County Library System --Citizenship Class

Jim Briggs and Kitty Adler, Literacy Tutors, celebrate with some of the learners

14 learners, 17 classes, and 2 tutors equals a winning combination at the Cagan Crossings Community Library! It has been an amazing journey that has already resulted in 1 learner passing the citizenship test, others submitting their applications & awaiting their appointments, and the rest preparing to complete their applications over the next few months.

Between the efforts of Jim Briggs and Kitty Adler, citizenship tutor team, the support of the other Cagan tutors, and Maria Martino, Literacy Contact, the citizenship class was a great success. The participants were all smiles on their last night but, admittedly, sad that they would no longer be coming together as a group – they have become friends and enjoyed it tremendously! It doesn’t end here, though, they are excitedly awaiting the launch of a conversation group so that they can continue to improve their English skills. Congratulations to all!!

Interested in the materials this class used? This is the first LCLS citizenship class to use the Citizenship - Passing The Test series, a New Readers Press publication. It contains 3 workbooks, audio cd-roms, and teachers guide. Combining the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (http://www.uscis.gov/portal/site/uscis) flash cards and other downloadable resources and this series made for an amazingly interactive and fun class. The tutors felt very comfortable facilitating the group and the learners were fully engaged from beginning to end!

Music, Cartoons and Literacy

I just saw a post about the history of music, cartoons and literacy in WWI and WWII. I would like to hear your comments on how you use music and cartoons in teen and adult literacy instruction. Do any of you use graphic novels? If so, which titles?



Many soldiers did not have basic skills, and thus the Army provided instruction using cartoons and songs. Below is part of a post by Thomas G. Sticht on the National Institute for LiteracyAdult English Language Learners mailing list EnglishLanguage@nifl.gov. It is a busy list. To subscribe go to http://www.nifl.gov/mailman/listinfo/englishlanguage



Here is part of the post:

One innovation introduced in the literacy training programs was the use of a cartoon strip featuring fictional soldiers Private Pete and his sidekick Daffy. These cartoons were usually two page spreads in a special newspaper for literacy students called Our War. Our War editors understood that the hearts and minds of the troops were on family and friends, often girl friends, back home. The cartoons sometimes told stories about visits with girl friends and included scenes in which Private Pete and friends were singing songs. One popular song of the time was aimed at making separations between the soldiers and their sweethearts more bearable. In the August 1943 issue of Our War the cartoon strip was about a letter Private Pete got from another soldier friend of his who told about how he was going overseas. A cartoon frame shows him and a group ofhis buddies travelling in the back of an Army truck singing a song called



Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree:

Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me

Anyone else but me, anyone else but me

No! No! No!Don't sit under the apple tree with anyone else but me

Till I come marchin' home



Don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me

Anyone else but me, anyone else but me

No! No! No!Don't go walkin' down Lover's Lane with anyone else but me

Till I come marchin' home



I do remember this song and "hear" it my head as I read the words. If you are interested in old cartoons go to http://www.barnaclepress.com/
Today's Blog Post is by Sandy Newell, President of VALF

Evaluating Your Program

Two years ago VALF implemented a persistence and retention study of five volunteer literacy programs in Florida. We learned that retention of students was challenging, a fact backed up by other studies and observations by program managers.


We also explored how volunteer programs could do a better job at keeping students and volunteers. We learned that ongoing support for students and volunteers was extremely important.


If you want to know more about how to improve your program, attend this free workshop.


Balancing Act: Volunteer Adult Literacy Program Management Workshop

Learn how quality volunteer literacy programs manage all aspects of running a program. Find out how they pay equal attention to both support as well as to intake of volunteers and students.
Learn concrete strategies to help plan, manage and package your literacy program in challenging times.
The workshop is based on the experience of VALF members, the book, Maintaining the Balance: A Guide to 50/50 Management and the 2007-2008 VALF student retention and persistence study.


Location: Duneden Public Library
223 Douglas Avenue, Dunedin, FloridaDunedin Florida 34698
Date: September 12, 2009
Time: 9:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m. ET

REGISTER TODAY!
at literacyflorida@hotmail.com, 850-245-6624

Difficult times call for creativity!

I am sure that you will be able to relate to one of the struggles we have been experiencing in the volunteer adult literacy arena – increased demand and fewer resources to train volunteer tutors quickly enough. Recently there has been much discussion surrounding volunteer tutor training. There are many literacy groups discussing how many hours sufficiently prepares a new volunteer; do you train before or after the tutor starts tutoring; should you train on a single curriculum or incorporate realia and a sampling of tools; and what type of follow-up program should you have for your volunteer tutor team? As we decide what makes sense and serves our community best there might be a few immediate gratification options out there for us! Do I have your attention?

Self-paced learning sites…Of course! They are not appropriate for all of our adult learners but they may offer just what you and the learners need. Let’s consider the pros and cons:

Pros –

· Provides immediate access to literacy learning for programs with a waiting list;

· Offers additional learning opportunities for dedicated learners craving more than the face-to-face tutoring can offer;

· Offers an alternative approach for those learners who enjoy using the computer;

· Ensures learning doesn’t stop when a tutor goes on vacation or is temporarily unavailable or even if the learner is unavailable – they can study on their own from home!

Cons –

· Learners must have access to a computer and, if using the library, the computer must be in a location that the learner can practice speaking skills (if that is their goal);

· Learners need to have basic computer skills;

· Not very effective if the learner has very limited English skills or needs direct guidance or direction;

· May have to consider having a tutor available to assist learners when/if they get ‘stuck’.

Here are a few websites that we think are excellent resources:

USALearns
http://USALearns.org
U.S. Department of Education just launched U.S.A. Learns, a free Web site to help immigrants learn English. This site is an easily accessible Internet learning tool providing instructional materials developed to teach basic English skills and help adults improve their English proficiency.

Activities for ESoL Learners
http://a4esl.org/
This site has over 1,000 quizzes, exercises and puzzles to help you study English as a Second Language.

Pumarosa - English for Spanish Learners
http://www.pumarosa.com
This website is designed for Spanish-speaking learners. It has beginner and intermediate levels. It has grammar lessons that are visual as well as auditory. The words are written as well as said if you have speakers. It offers the Spanish version too.

ESL Desk - Learn English as a Second Language
http://www.esldesk.com/
A site for ESL students who want to learn English online. "I am not an ESL teacher or a professional linguist. In fact, English is my second language and I am still learning it." quote from site manager.

Dave's ESL Cafe
http://www.eslcafe.com
Resources for you as a tutor and interesting learning opportunities for the learners. Links include: idioms; tip of the day; phrasal verbs; quizzes; slang; and much more. Learner friendly!

ESL Resource Center
http://www.eslus.com/eslcenter.htm
A website for learners and teachers of English. FREE ENGLISH - ESL LESSONS. This may also be good for beginner or low-intermediate basic literacy learners.

English Daily
http://www.englishdaily626.com/
Links to Idioms; common mistakes in English; English Grammar; American English slang; TOEFL Vocabulary...and more.

Workforce Education LAB
http://slincs.coe.utk.edu/gtelab/
The LAB collects and distributes high-quality learning activities that focus on the basic skills and knowledge adults need to be effective in the 21st Century workplace. Learner friendly!

Visual Dictionary Online
http://visual.merriam-webster.com/index.php
From Merriam-Webster and QA International, an interactive dictionary with an innovative approach that will help ESL students to learn English in a visual and accessible way. A quick glance at the index is all it takes to connect words with images. Or students can explore the 15 major themes to access more than 6,000 images and see words like never before. Additional features include a Game of the Week, played by associating words with images, and audio pronunciations spoken by real voices.

English Club
http://www.englishclub.com/index.htm
A FREE site to help you learn English or teach English as a second language. You'll find everything from lessons for students to jobs for teachers, including interactive pages such as forums, games, quizzes, chat, help and penpals.

Many Things
http://www.manythings.org/
A fun study site for learners of English as a Second Language. Word games, puzzles, quizzes, exercises, slang, proverbs and much more.

Livemocha: learn languages...
http://www.livemocha.com/
Community--Livemocha is the first-of-its-kind online language-learning community. Lessons -- Fun and interactive lessons that move at the right pace for you. Motivation -- Track your progress and reach your goals with Livemocha tools. Interesting perspective -- online, chat room, peer interaction...might be just right for some of the learners!

English Exercises
http://www.edhelper.com/language/language.html?gclid=CO_3vfbAr4UCFQxrNAodrV44vA
More than 200 online quizzes, organized by themes and topics (reading, spelling, grammar, vocabulary, parts of speech, punctuation, & other language skills), allow learners to get instant feedback and keep a running tally of their scores.

So there you have it…quite a few choices that should engage and satisfy many different learners with a multitude of goals! We have found that directing learners to these websites has been extremely useful and enabled us to provide extra learning activities as well as provide a stop gap measure for those locations with waiting lists and/or snowbird tutors.

I hope you find it as useful.