Lending Library is up and running

August 24, 2012

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Hello  Tutors,

Our lending library of books for tutors is up and running!

We hope you will stop by the AACLC office, browse the selections for teaching reading, and check out materials appropriate to use with your
student.  Each book has a checkout card so we can track the books in use.

The office is located in Annapolis, at  80 West St., on the northwest corner of West and Calvert St.   There is on street parking, as well
as a garage nearby.

The AACLC’s small office, which contains the book shelves, is located  on the first floor.   The Dept. of Social Services receptionist can point you to the corner office.

  1. Please sign your name and date on the checkout card for every item you are borrowing.  There is a wooden box in which you may leave the cards.
  2. When you return the books, please do not return them to the shelf. We need to check the books in.  Leave them in the box specified for that purpose.
  3. There are supplemental materials which do not have check cards. 

Please feel free to use those, as needed, and return them later.

Much of our materials are from New Readers Press, and you can peruse some of the materials at http://www.newreaderspress.com/Items.aspx?hierId=1200

Pat Mitchell, AACLC Literacy Librarian
115 Archwood Ave.
Annapolis, Md. 21401
pgm119@verizon.net
 
Photo credit: Sanja Gjenero, Zagreb, Croatia via StockXChng

Helping Your Student Write a Good Story

August 23, 2012

The success story (“How Being a Student Changed My Life”) in AACLC’s blog about my student Dwede was actually her own story, scribed by me.  She was willing for the Literacy Council to share her story with people in order to encourage more volunteers to be tutors.

We have been studying how to write an essay in preparation for the CASAS test at AACC (Anne Arundel Community College)  The guidance is to have:

  • an introduction
  • a closing summary a
  • two or three paragraphs in the body that have a logical progression

I wrote those headings on a blank sheet of paper, and we discussed what might be in each paragraph, but at a very high level.  Usually, Dwede wrote out her essay by hand, but for this assignment, she dictated it to me as I typed it into my laptop.  She read what I typed, then added in the part about her job because she felt that was an important part of the story.

This technique is very much like using a graphic organizer with “fill in the boxes” format to guide the writer.  Even students who cannot spell well will write a good story with the help of their tutor scribing for them, word for word, (could be either typing or hand writing) and it is encouraging for students when they can read their story back.

Dixie Catlett – AACLC Tutor

Illiteracy To Voting Citizen: Ullysses’s Story

August 23, 2012

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On November 4th, 2008, Ulysses Martin voted for the first time in his life. Ulysses was 57 years old. Ulysses and I have been partners in a student and tutor pairing for the past several years.

While Ulysses’s reading skills have grown much since he made the decision to learn to read, nothing has so signified how much he has progressed as voting in his first presidential election. With that single act, he crossed over barriers, both real and imagined, and signaled to himself and the world around him that he had achieved something important, something long hoped for, something precious that he earned for himself and no one could take from him.

As Ulysses’s reading tutor, I could say how proud of him I was as I watched him vote, and I am proud of him, but my greater feeling was the joy I shared with him at that moment.

If Ulysses’ reading skills are still developing, his knowledge of world affairs, his interests, and his opinions were those of a mature 57 year old man. We discussed and debated the campaign and news items of interest and importance. As the campaign progressed we discussed voter registration. Ulysees was not a registered voter. He had never been a registered voter. If you cannot read, you are often excluded from many of the things people who read take for granted. Registering to vote became a part of our reading lessons and getting that first voter registration card a mark of special achievement. Voting in the election itself became the next great mountain waiting to be climbed and conquered.

We made our election plans months in advance. On Election Day, after going to the polls and voting with my wife, I picked up Ulysses and his friend, Nadine, and drove them to their voting site. He truly enjoyed being there and the easy acceptance that comes from participating as a member of your community in this fundamental civic responsibility. He felt a part of something that he had forever been apart from. After voting, we went to breakfast, and Ulysses told me, “We did it, our vote counted!” I believe at some level, that remark revealed a deeper, more fundamental connection to a community that he has often viewed from afar. In registering to vote and voting, Ulysses closed that gap and rightfully took a place in his community that he had long hoped for.

Stan Milesky, AACLC Tutor

How Being A Student Changed My Life: Dwede’s Story

August 23, 2012

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My name is Dwede, from Liberia, West Africa.  I am married with two kids.  I go to school to learn to read and write better.

The hardest part of being a student is having children and going to school at the same time.  Doing assignments and studying makes me so tired.  I have to take care of the kids, do housewife work, cook, cleanup.  I like to do my homework early in the morning when the children are sleeping.

The good part of being a student is that I can read my bills, letters from my son’s school, read my assignment and understand it.  See the sound and understand. That makes me feel good and happy.

I work at a hotel where I am a housekeeper.  At work, you have to write down if you spend one hour in the room, or more than one hour, you write down why you spent that time in the room.  If you can’t write, then maybe it will not reach to the manager because she could forget.  If it is on the paper, then when she is doing the paperwork, she will see what you put on the paper.

I will never give up in life!  I just have to get my high school certificate for me and my children because it is good to read and write and to understand what you read and what you write.  It will make me able to get a better job.  It will make my children learn how to read and write and be able to do their own assignments by themselves.

We’re Growing!

August 11, 2012

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Lots of good things are happening at our Literacy Council.  This past fiscal year, we grew from 29 to 80 matched tutor/student pairs, and collected 5,098 tutor volunteer hours! That averages out to 9.4 hours of tutoring per month, per active tutor/student match.  We are also planning on training an additional 30 new tutors at our Fall training, and matching each of them with students immediately afterwards.

Photo credit: Christian Ferrari, Italy, via StockXChng

Harvey Robinson: The Gold Shines Through

August 11, 2012

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Harvey Robinson, 47, grew up in one of the roughest parts of Washington, D.C. and quit going to school after the eighth grade. He never learned to read. “I used to lie and tell them that as a child I got lead poisoning,” Robinson said. Robinson became interested in learning to read about two years ago, when he went to take the GED and a counselor told him he needed to call the Literacy Council. Since then, Robinson has been meeting with his tutor each week and feels a lot more confident about his reading skills. He’s even taken to watching “Jeopardy” and doing word games. “We have all got gold in us,” he said, “and we just have to dig deeper to see it.”

By Earl Kelly, 3/14/2011, reprinted with permission of the Capital Gazette newspaper.

Charles Fort is Robinson’s AACLC tutor.

AACLC Board Meetings

August 11, 2012

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NOTE: This post has been updated to reflect new dates and locations for board meetings in November and December, 2012.

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All AACLC Board meetings are open to the public. Executive Board meetings are held monthly to track progress; at Quarterly Meetings, we discuss strategy. Board meetings are held from 7:00 to 8:45 p.m on the following dates at the library locations listed. All current Literacy Council members are eligible to vote.

Date: September 5, 2012 – Exeuctive and Quarterly meeting and elections

Location: Severna Park (small), 45 West McKinsey Road, Severna Park, MD 21146

AACLC is pleased to announce the nomination of new members to the Board of Directors: Robert Caspar, Dixie Catlett, Megan Jackson, Mary Jane McCarthy, Thomas Vernon, Annette Graves and Tony Ocasio.

Date: October 3, 2012 – Executive Board meeting

Location: Annapolis Library, 1410 West Street, Annapolis, MD 21401

Date: November 8, 2012 – Executive Board meeting

Location: Edgewater Library, Small Room, 25 Stepneys Lane, Edgewatere, MD 21037

Date: December 6, 2012 – Executive Board and Quarterly Meeting

Location: West County Library, Room A, 1325 Annapolis Rd., Odenton, MD

Photo credit: Gavel by Jason Morrison via StockXChng

Fall Tutor Training

August 9, 2012

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Sept. 29 and Oct. 13, 2012: New tutor training

Our next two-day training for new tutors is scheduled for Saturday, September 29 and Saturday, October 13, from 10:30am to 4:00pm each day, at Woods Memorial Presbyterian Church, in Severna Park. The new tutor training format is twelve hours in length and covers both Basic Literacy and ELL (English Language Learning). If you, or someone you know, would be interested in attending this training, please email programdirector@aaclc.org, or call 410-798-0408 ASAP.  We have a class size limit of 30, and our March training filled up quickly! We plan on matching all 30 tutors with students immediately following training.

For more details and a map to the training location, see our Calendar of Events

More tutor continuing education will be held this Fall – these sessions are open to all ongoing tutors and volunteers of AACLC.

Know someone who could use our services?

Please encourage them to call us or use our Refer-a Student contact form.

 

Annual Membership Drive

August 9, 2012

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Change in Membership Drive Schedule

Many of you are accustomed to receiving our Annual Membership Drive letter in June or July; this year it will arrive later this month or early September.

Save a Stamp When You can Donate On-Line

If you would like to make a donation online with a credit card or with a PayPal Account, you can use this button:

Click Button to Make Your Donation 

Donate

Of course, if you want to stick to the low-tech donation, we welcome those too! Simply mail us a check payable to Anne Arundel County Literacy Council or AACLC and mail to:

Anne Arundel County Literacy Council
Post Office Box 1303
Edgewater, MD 21037

Maggie Cullman Tells of Student Success

August 9, 2012

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A Tutor’s Adult Literacy Success Story

Maggie Cullman, one of our dedicated AACLC volunteer tutors, brings us this heartwarming account of two students—Rose and Lan—whose lives have been changed for the better through the work of AACLC.

My current student, Rose, is a married woman with grown children.  Her story dates back to the US involvement in Vietnam. Rose’s father had worked for the Americans, and was imprisoned by the new regime after the Communist victory.  Rose and her siblings were not permitted to attend school at all.

When I first met Rose, she was extremely shy; barely speaking a word, she kept her head down and eyes withdrawn. Two years into our tutoring relationship, she is

friendly, chatty, and full of smiles. Her spoken language is serviceable and she reads at Laubach level III. Because she had received no education in any language prior to our time together, teaching Rose reading skills without the benefit of a shared language has been a rewarding challenge.

My second student, Lan, came to me when she was in her early 20s. She’d had a good secondary education in Vietnam, and showed lots of enthusiasm and drive. The only thing she lacked was English skills. I consider myself fortunate to have been able to help provide her with the linguistic keys to get ahead. Less than 3 years after we began working together, she left me to attend Anne Arundel Community College–while still working full-time at the salon and becoming engaged to a charming young man. After graduating last spring, she’s already working on completing a four-year degree through the University of Maryland. It’s been exciting and extraordinarily meaningful for me to help these individuals achieve their potential. I’m most grateful for the opportunity to do it.

Volunteer Tutors are the lifeblood of our organization

If you are interested in supporting our organization by being a tutor, contact us today to learn about training and the exciting rewards of teaching adults to read. There are lots of ways to contact us:

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