Among her many duties at the Literacy Council, JoAnn arranges for student assessments, communicates daily with assessors, students, government and community agencies and staff, and is now creating our student/tutor matches. Her dedication and compassion for our adult literacy students shines through in every email and phone call she makes on our student’s behalf. We are very fortunate to have JoAnn on our AACLC team!
Phil Tawes, Dixie Catlett, Darryl Byrd, Maggy McCullum and Charlie Catlett were our September tutor trainers, with Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church graciously hosting both tutor training sessions.
On October 26th a Tutor Follow-On Workshop will be held at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church for our thirty three new tutors. We anticipate our next tutor training will be held in February 2014.
If you would like more information, please email programdirector@aaclc.org
Lisa Vernon, Program Director AACLC
Our free adult literacy program offers hope and a second chance in life. In addition to tutoring at all fifteen county libraries, we are also tutoring GED-bound Head Start parents at Shady Side and partner/collaborate with The Abilities Network, Arundel Lodge, Vesta, Chrysalis House, HCAAC, Jennifer Rd. Correctional Facility, the Light House Shelter, Ordinance Rd. Detention Center, The Salvation Army, Department of Social Services, St. Mary’s ESL Program, Waxter Youth Facility, and St. Philip’s Family Life Center Inc. QUAD-E Program. We have 145 tutor/student matches and plan to continue expanding our free adult tutoring program in 2014.
Warmest regards
Lisa Vernon
programdirector@aaclc.org
410-798-0408
We did it again! We have won the Top-Rated Great Nonprofits award again for the second year in a row.
We’ve also earned the GuideStar Exchange Seal again, demonstrating our commitment to transparency. Please take a moment to check out our 40 five-star reviews: http://greatnonprofits.org/org/anne-arundel-county-literacy-council-inc
Tutor Liz McKibbin has recently experienced the real secret behind the AACLC’s success. Workbooks, flashcards, and helpful hints may be the tools we use to help adults begin to tackle the mind-blowing difficulty of reading English. But it is simple kindness and patience that underlie the hard work that tutors and students do together.
Liz’s student Linda has only been working with her for a little more than two months. Linda, whose limited experience with the English language was gleaned from listening to people’s conversations and by paying attention to instructions she received at her babysitting job, was very self-conscious and frustrated by her inability to maintain a conversation and make herself understood properly. She despaired of ever finding help until a colleague suggested she contact the AACLC.
When Linda’s tutoring sessions first got underway, Liz noted that “Linda wasn’t quite sure how long our relationship would last and why AACLC volunteers teach people the way we do. She wasn’t expecting such kindness!” But in just a few short weeks, Liz became aware of a big increase in her student’s self-confidence. “Once she realized that I would really be there for her on a regular basis, she simply blossomed. Linda is extremely hardworking and a very easy-going person.”
Liz intuitively knew that focusing on something that had an immediate impact on Linda’s life would be a powerful motivator: “A big step for her was learning Anne Arundel County Environmental and Fire Procedures, a requirement for keeping her job. We studied together for five successive lessons, role playing all the steps she had to master, until she was ready to be tested on them.”
Recently, Linda described the difference her tutoring sessions with Liz have made in her life. Tears of happiness streamed down her face as she remarked: “I felt like I lived in a very small house with lots of windows which I could not open or see through. But now, Miss Liz has come into my life and is opening these windows, one by one, bringing in sunshine and fresh air every time I learn something new.”
AACLC Program Director Lisa Vernon was interviewed by Fay Mauro, Director for the Volunteer Center for Anne Arundel County in her weekly WNAV Volunteer Voice Spot on August 28. They discussed AACLC’s mission and tutor/student matches, current partnerships, community outreach, and upcoming September tutor training details.
Click on the triangle in the audio player below to hear the five minute interview.
Rain or shine, Deborah (above right) walks two and a half miles each way to reach North County Library for her tutoring sessions with Ray Davis (above left).
She is diligently studying to improve her reading and writing skills so that she can attend Anne Arundel Community College in the Fall. Deborah’s goal is to become a physical therapist assistant.
Dairy (above left) is from Columbia, where she earned a degree in Environmental Engineering. Because of limited English reading and writing skills, she has been employed as an Au Pair in Annapolis. Working with tutor Lana Shires (above right) is helping Dairy move forward with her career goals so that she can find a job in her field.
I just finished reading an outstanding book which I’m sure other Literacy Council members would also enjoy. The book is a compelling story about how learning to read makes such a dramatic difference in a person’s life. Here’s my review; if you could pass it on to others, that would be great!
The Rent Collector by Cameron Wright is one of the best books I’ve read in a long time. It is about Ki Lim and Sang Ly and their sick baby who live at Stung Meanchey, the largest municipal waste dump in all of Cambodia. They make their living by scavenging recyclables from the trash. It has all of the elements of a good read: well-developed characters that you soon grow attached to, a fascinating storyline, an education about a totally different and difficult way of life–and it also focuses on love, mystery, and the power of hope.
Cameron Wright is a wonderful storyteller; I loved his writing style. Although the book is a novel it is partly derived from Cameron’s son’s documentary of life in Stung Meanchey. A wonderful surprise awaits you at the end of the book, where there are photos of Ki Lim, Sang Ly, and baby Nisay, along with scenes of life at the dump. Somehow these photos made the novel even more meaningful.
I strongly recommend reading The Rent Collector–you’ll be glad you did.
Nineteen wonderful new assessors were trained on August 10th, 2013. A big thank you goes out to our trainers Phil Tawes, Judy Smallwood and Ellen Webster, as well as to Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church in Severna Park for graciously hosting this training session.
Assessors have a very important job at our literacy Council.
They are trained to give the Laubach Way to Reading (LWR)Diagnostic Inventory test to each new student. The purpose of the LWR Diagnostic Inventory is both to place students in the appropriate LWR skill book and to give the tutor a fairly detailed record of a student’s present reading skills. By profiling a student’s strengths and weaknesses in reading, the Diagnostic Inventory alerts a teacher to the skills that probably ought to receive special emphasis during lessons and to the skills that may only require relatively short periods of time for learning.
Once a volunteer completes our tutor training, they are eligible, and encouraged, to take our Assessor training.
