Jose and tutor Diane McBee
Working with Jose has been great. He is a very hardworking and kind young man who came to this country from El Salvador. Because he works as a waiter, he realizes how important it to communicate clearly with his customers and co-workers and appreciates how improving his reading skills will enable him to comprehend the menus, signs, and legal documents that he confronts in his daily life. We work on pronunciation, too; there are a few tricky sounds that we practice regularly.
Jose is an enthusiastic student. While we’ve completed several workbooks, we’ve found that the website “www.openenglish.com” has been an especially useful resource. The website includes lots of lessons at different levels, and even offers online classes with teachers. After working independently online, Jose can come back to me with questions.
We also like exploring the cultural differences between El Salvador and the United States. Perhaps my biggest challenge has been trying to explain the difference between American and Salvadoran football and what a pass option is!
Tutor Sarah Gardner
The weather is getting colder and wetter, and there are homeless people stuck outside.
Kingdom Celebration Center is collecting gently used coats, jackets, gloves, shoes and blankets for people of all ages.
If you have ANYTHING cluttering your closets that might be useful to keep someone else warm this winter (that could be given to homeless men, women, children…. families and singles), please bring them to
Kingdom Celebration Center, located across from the Odenton Public Library and M&T Bank off of MD-175.
They are also providing Thanksgiving dinner at a senior living center on Thanksgiving Day. If anyone has any office frozen turkeys or other can goods that they want to donate; we’ll accept those, too. I roast a mean stuffed turkey in orange juice!
Clara, Joan, Annie, and Dianne
Two AACLC tutors and a pair of sisters exemplify just how much teamwork can pay off. When significant vision problems forced tutor Joan Thorseth–a seasoned special education teacher–to not only retire, but give up driving, fellow tutor Dianne Hagerty provided wheels for the two of them. Now Dianne and Joan schedule separate but simultaneous literacy sessions with sisters Annie Wilkerson and Clara Claggette.
Both Annie and Clara had long wanted to improve their reading skills. Born into a large, hardworking farm family, it proved difficult for the two sisters to juggle the demands of schoolwork with burdensome farm chores and long walks to and from school. Their home also lacked electricity, so doing homework at day’s end was difficult. As adults, Annie and Clara devoted themselves to raising families of their own, but never lost the desire to improve their reading skills.
Annie was determined that her children would have the educational opportunities that she had been denied, and worked multiple jobs so they could attend private schools. One of her now-grown children even became a teacher. Today all of her offspring tell her how proud they are that she now “goes to school.” Dianne supplement’s Annie’s Laubach lessons with teaching internet research skills and providing additional reading material that ranges from information on pertinent health issues to books about famous African Americans.
Like Dianne and Annie, Joan and Clara work with Laubach readers, and also are tackling the Challenger series. Clara feels that her growing reading skills have boosted her confidence in many day-to-day situations, both at home and at church. Her husband now hands her the family’s medical bills to decipher! Clara notes that even her speaking skills have been strengthened, and she feels more confident about sharing her opinions. Clara’s growing ease with reading has led to a new interest in researching her family’s genealogy.
Clara’s sister Annie is also grateful for the reading help and boost in self-confidence she’s received from the Literacy Council. She says that her experience with the AACLC has given her the motivation to “pay it forward” by joining the Foster Grandparent Program. Her involvement with this program, as well as with various church activities, has enabled her to encourage many disadvantaged children to work on their reading skills and to stress the importance of education in their lives. And Annie is starting to focus on another goal, too: She would like to write the story of her life.
As we near Thanksgiving, we want to thank you for your staunch support of the Anne Arundel County Literacy Council. Last year 205 county residents received free, individualized, and convenient literacy instruction. In addition to basic literacy and English as a Second or Other Language (ESOL) instruction, we also expanded our services to include math and pre-GED tutoring. Interest in these services has been great, both from current students as well as new inquiries throughout the county.
We are now partnering with over 17 community agencies. These partnerships include the Anne Arundel Community College GED program (pre-GED students), the Phoenix Academy (out-of-school youth), Bellgrove Elementary school (moms of 1st and 2nd graders desiring help with improving their reading and writing skills), and Head Start at Shady Side (moms working towards their GED).
We are proud of our accomplishments and thank you for being an integral part of our success!
Best regards,
Lisa Vernon, Executive Director
Lisa Vernon, Executive Director
Anne Arundel County Literacy Council
301-523-6750 (cell)
Student Ha Nordrum with tutor Lizzie Allen-Jones
Ha Nordrum and her husband moved from her native Vietnam to the U.S. in 2008 and she now works as a nail technician in a salon in Odenton. Ha’s work ethic and drive to master English is so admired by her coworkers that they encourage Ha’s English studies and allow her to do her homework and practice her new skills during slow times at the salon.
AACLC tutor Lizzie Allen-Jones began meeting up with Ha at the the West County Library in Odenton last May. Lizzie found that while Ha’s formal education had ended in the 8th grade, her reading ability was noticeably good. However, it was equally apparent that Ha needed help in articulating English sounds.
After doing some research on how to work effectively with Vietnamese native speakers, Lizzie began concentrating more on English conversation rather than reading and spelling. Ha has responded enthusiastically to this learning approach.
Ultimately, Ha would like to get her U.S. citizenship and exercise her right to vote. She is an incredibly warm and loving woman and a delight to work with!
ProLiteracy Board Member and Literacy Pioneer, Dr. Bob Laubach
Pioneer in adult literacy education and New Readers Press founder Dr. Robert S. Laubach (Dr. Bob) passed away on Friday, September 11 at the age of 96.
Dr. Bob and his late father Dr. Frank C. Laubach are credited with teaching more than 100 million adults to read and write in more than 200 languages. Dr. Bob helped his father after Laubach Literacy Inc. was founded in 1955 in Syracuse, NY. Laubach Literacy became one of the founding organizations of ProLiteracy Worldwide in 2002.
Dr. Bob developed literacy primers in local languages and organized literacy programs in more than 60 countries. In 1959, Dr. Bob began publishing News for You, a weekly news source for adult new readers, still in publication today. Just a few years later, he founded New Readers Press, the publishing arm of ProLiteracy, which develops and publishes instructional materials for adult learners and adult education teachers.
Today, New Readers Press has over 400 educational titles that help adults learn how to read, write, and do basic math. Dr. Bob will be greatly missed.
Tutor Joyce Rogers along with students Jamal Bidjev, James Moore, and Eric Pearmon
Joyce Rogers is in high demand as a tutor at Vesta in Odenton, and finds her students to be very hard working, appreciative, and rewarding. Joyce first began meeting with Eric Pearmon nearly two years ago. Eric enjoys working on his reading skills so that he can more effectively read the Bible. Eric has completed Laubach Book 4 as well as Challenger 3 and is currently working in Challenger 4.
James Moore noticed that Eric was enjoying his tutor sessions and asked to begin studying as well. James likes to read many different genres and is interested in maintaining his reading skills and improving his spelling. He is nearly finished with Laubach Book 4.
Jamal Bidjev is anxious to improve his reading skills so that he can secure better employment. He has been working with Joyce for less than six months and has already completed Laubach Book 1. He is currently working in Book 2.
Fall 2015 Tutor Class
40 new volunteers have enrolled in our fall tutor training this year. What a great class of new tutors we have!
Tremendous thanks goes out to Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park for generously hosting our 2 day training again this year, as well as to our tutor trainer team: Jill Mischo, Anita Ewing, Christine Harrison, Susann Felton, Sarah Gardner, JoAnn Cook, Bonnie Wright, Ronnie Mencarini, Al Odierno, Bill Harrison, and Perinaaz Gandhi.
I hope you enjoy reading our tutor and student testimonies each month. To me, they powerfully capture the heart and soul of what we do at the Literacy Council. Eirly, Ha, James, Jamal, and Eric are spotlighted in our October newsletter and will be appearing soon on this website, so please take a moment to learn more about each of them and their tutors.
Any adult or out-of-school youth in Anne Arundel County can receive free reading, writing, math, or speaking English instruction from the Literacy Council to achieve personal goals such as earning a job, a better-paying job, or a GED. There is no charge for the tutoring or the books, and we can meet in any public location, including all 15 county libraries.
If you know of anyone who could benefit from our free literacy program, please share the good news and encourage them to call our office to get started.
Best regards,
Lisa Vernon, Executive Director
Lisa Vernon
Director, Anne Arundel County Literacy Council
410-269-4419 (office)
301-523-6750 (cell)
There is freedom waiting for you,
On the breezes of the sky,
And you ask, “What if I fall?”
Oh, but my darling, What if you fly?
~written by Erin Hanson
We were very fortunate to have Tad Johnston, Mathematics Education Consultant for the American Institutes for Research in Washington, DC, as the teacher/trainer for a recent Math Workshop for AACLC tutors on October 1, 2015. This program was part of our ongoing effort to equip our tutors with as many skills and tools as possible to meet the various needs of their students.
Adult learners bring their experiences and common sense to math problems. If they view math as only symbol manipulation, a reasonable answer often gets lost. Education research has shown that students who represent problems with diagrams have greater success in solving them.
In this session, participants worked with tape diagrams to visually represent a variety of word problem types. Tape diagrams are quick to draw, are applicable to many problem types, and look like “adult” (back of the envelope) mathematics. The goal of the workshop was to help tutors learn to use these diagrams with their students to help them use their common sense as mathematical problem solvers.
Tad Johnston
About Tad Johnston:
Tad is employed as a Mathematics Education Consultant for the American Institutes for Research (AIR) in Washington D.C., one of the largest behavioral and social science research organizations in the world. Their mission is to conduct and apply the best behavioral and social science research and evaluation towards improving peoples’ lives, with a special emphasis on the disadvantaged.
Tad has 17 years of teaching experience in middle and high school and has taught mathematics education courses at both undergraduate and graduate levels. He has experience as a professional developer, curriculum leader and instructional coach at the school, district and regional levels and consulted nationally on mathematics standards projects.
