My name is Sarah Fredericks. I am originally from Ireland but currently live in Maryland with my husband Carl. Growing up in Ireland, one of my keenest pleasures was to seek out a quiet corner and read a book. When I was a good child, and occasionally I was, my mother would hide books under my pillow as a surprise. My pillow became my gateway to Oscar Wilde’s Fairytales, “The Famous Five Mysteries,””Arabian Nights,” and “The Golden Treasury of Poetry” by Louis Untermeyer. When I was older, my mother would smile and say, “Sarah, read this,” placing a well worn volume into my hands: “Jane Eyre,” “Emma,” the poetry of Omar Khayyam, or “Pepys’ Diary.”
Since then, I have added many other books to these favorites, until, not too long ago, I said to my husband, “Honey, I think we need more shelves.”I have gotten so much joy from reading over the years that I decided to help others learn how to read. When Edie, my next door neighbor, told me about the local Literacy Council, I took the March 2014 tutor training workshop. Soon after that, I was introduced to Ira Richardson.Ira and I have now been working together for five months. He is a very determined and motivated gentleman with aspirations of going to college. We are currently working on the Laubach Series 4 book during class time, Challenger 1 writing exercises for homework, and other reading and writing assignments. In the space of five months, Ira has made wonderful progress in many areas, especially in his comprehension skills, spelling, pronunciation, and writing skills. I have no doubt that Ira will reach his goal of attending college in the not too distant future. It is a pleasure to work with him.
Lastly, this July, I created a Facebook book review page, “Sarah’s Great Reads,” to help spread the joy of reading. I write about literature, drama, poetry, and include arts and humanities audio and video clips. My page address is as follows: www.facebook.com/sarahsgreatreads.
Harvey, who lives with his wife in Davidsonville, has struggled with reading throughout his life. He had to leave school at age 15 to work and help support his family. More than 50 years later, Harvey sought help from the AACLC so he could more confidently handle the paperwork associated with his job installing power lines.
Since starting work with tutor Chelsea Caspar, Harvey reports he is doing more reading on his own. Reading documents on the job comes easier, too. And perhaps the sweetest benefit arising from his work with Chelsea recently became apparent: When one of Harvey’s 22 grandchildren asked him to read a book together, he was happy to oblige.
Rosalyn came to the Literacy Council after struggling with the writing requirements for her GED prep course at the community college. Refusing to give up and determined to succeed, Rosalyn discovered the Literacy council while doing a search for “reading tutors” on the internet. She contacted the Literacy Council and a reading assessment was scheduled. Rosalyn tested at a Laubach 4 reading level and was then matched with tutor Lynette DelPrete.
Since their first session last May, Lynette knew she was working with a focused, hard-working student who was not afraid to use all of the resources available to accomplish her goal. Rosalyn arrives early to every session, completes extra homework, and researches grammar, sentence structure and writing tips on the internet. She does all of this in addition to her busy personal schedule.
Rosalyn is very grateful for the help she receives from Lynette and the Literacy Council. When she is not in tutoring sessions or practicing reading and writing at home, Rosalyn spends time with her husband of 23 years, her four daughters and her 8 grandchildren. She also works full-time as a stock person at Walmart and is active in her church. With Rosalyn’s continued hard work and ability to use all of the resources available to her, Lynette has no doubt that she will attain her goal of earning her GED very soon.
Juan has passed the test to be accepted in the pre-GED course at the community college! His score was 226 compared to his previous score of 183. Juan was very complementary of the help he received from the Literacy Council and felt the literacy and math he learned contributed greatly to the difference in his scores.
Lisa
Twelve tutors attended the September 6th pizza party at Katie Williams’s home. Tutor trainer Deborah Stoeckle coordinated the event, which allowed tutors to get to know one another while exchanging ideas/suggestions/tutor resources concerning their students. These meetups will now be offered quarterly in different parts of the county.
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Above: Tutor Al Odierno and student Marc
Tutor Al Odierno firmly believes that much of the good in this world is done by people who labor quietly in the background. Well, it doesn’t get much quieter than a back table at the county library branch in Edgewater. There, Al and his student Marc meet for two hours each week to work on reading, writing, communication, and organization skills.
Marc, who lives in Davidsonville, works full-time for the Prince George’s County school system in their bus maintenance division. But his true love is centered on his work as a volunteer firefighter at the Woodland Beach firehouse, where he hopes to become an EMT someday. When Marc realized that his literacy skills needed improvement, his captain at the firehouse–who admired Marc’s hard work and positive attitude–recommended that he contact the AACLC.
Once he started working with his tutor Al, it quickly became apparent that Marc had brought his impressive work ethic and good cheer to each tutoring session. “Aside from being a motivated, patient, and dogged learner, Marc also has keen intellectual curiosity,” notes Al. “Each week we read an article or letter-to-the-editor from The Capital, and then talk about it. Once, when we were reading a particularly long article together, we had to stop mid-way to go on to something else. But Marc insisted we return and read the whole thing; he wanted to have a complete understanding of the article. That made my night!”
Marc says he realizes how reading well is not only an important practical skill; it also creates opportunities for “a better life and lifestyle.” He sums up his experience with the AACLC: “It’s definitely been worthwhile. The ‘one-on-one’ teaching approach works very well for me.”
Tutor Al agrees. “I’m a pretty traditional educator in a lot of ways, but it’s become more clear to me than ever before that people learn in different ways. When I was educated, teachers followed a one-size-fits-all approach that didn’t always work so well. Today’s educational system is very aware of learning differences, but cannot realistically address every single one. At the Literacy Council we are able to do just that–and it’s not that complicated. We simply return education to its essence: face-to-face human interaction.”
Please take a moment to check out our new-and-improved Literacy Library page at https://icanread.org/literacy-
