From A to Z: Literacy Treasures

We posted about this story on our Facebook wall, but I wanted to share this with all my followers as well. First let me say that I am totally guilty of not always reading to my kids at night. Lets face it, sometimes we parents are so tired we can barely keep standing. Even before reading this story I had made a secret promise to myself that I would fight the urge to just put my kids to bed and I will read them at least one story every night. No matter what.

After reading this story I am more committed to that than ever. I should never ever take for granted the fact that I can read, and therefore can read to my children.
Please read the story and get inspired yourself!

A new learning center is opening in Massachusetts. A one stop shop for all adult learning needs. We need more of these all over the US.

"Lives will change as a result of this building," said Robert Pura, president of Greenfield Community College. "Lives will change for the better."

Read the story on gazettenet.com

This print for sale on Etsy:

Introducing HONEY! Bringing awareness about adult literacy. Oh and she is a dog!


W stands for WOW. Please read this blog post, written by an MD, on the NY Times website. I literally said OMG when I read it.



My husband and I recently decided he needs to be wearing some sort of medic alert jewelry. He told me he would be the least annoyed with a dog tag necklace. Here is the one I found on Etsy. I think anyone who suffers from a medical issue like seizures, or diabetes or such should wear something like this. But how much more important for someone who can't speak the language. If they are taken to an ER, they show their bracelet, the team automatically knows they suffer from seizures and are on this medicine for them.


Understanding prescriptions and medicine labels is a huge part of health literacy. It became very clear how big an issue, after the tornadoes in Joplin.


Good News! NJ Health Literacy Coalition now has a website! I will be adding it to my "My Favorites Internet Trips" page. Check it out!

Fun Finds For Funky Tutors

One thing I have learned since officially becoming a "blogger" is that bloggers read many many blogs. I have a blog roll on my page that lists my favorites, but I read so many more than that. I get ideas, both for content and for style from my fellow bloggers.

One thing I have picked up while strolling across the 'net is this obsession most bloggers have with Etsy.

Etsy is awesome. It is a website where crafters and artists and sculptors and thrift shop junkies can sell their wares.

I recently purchased that really cool necklace above from Etsy. I wear this thing every day. I have a thing for bumble bees and have decided this necklace is just a first for my collection. To add to the variety of my posts I have decided to post some cool things, all literary, that I come across on Etsy.

SO... This week we have:

This really cool print, I want it!

Wouldn't these be cool to teach an ESOL student the alphabet

Yes Please!

Yes Yes Please!

Ok, the description for these says "for your child" (which actually is cool too) but I could see using these for a student also. They are super cute!

And last but not least, I so need one of these!!

Have fun shopping ya'll!

From A to Z: Weekly Treasures

Hmmm. I am really unsure how I feel about this first article I found on EducationNews.org. On the one hand I know from personal experience how difficult it really is to tell the level of a person's intelligence simply by testing. On the other hand it is really the only tool available to determine the levels across a broad range of people.

I do however agree that testing can be improved, but then that requires more funding and more manpower. Shouldn't those resources go to helping people instead of testing them. Read the article, Maliteracy Practice in the Assessment of Adult Literacy , and see what you think. I am interested in know your thoughts!

I am so impressed by anyone who holds these large conferences. Mainly because I know how much work goes into them.

I love to hear about a literacy program getting honored!

A very informative article from about the problem of health illiteracy specifically regarding consent forms.

More stories that illustrate how important health literacy is. I love the line at the very end: “I never ask, ‘Do you understand?’ ” she added, “because they say, ‘Uh-huh,’ and you don’t know what they understand. So instead I’ll say, ‘I know your daughter is going to want to know about this, so what are you going to tell her?’ ” From the journalgazette.net.

I did not know this! Obama Administration Announces Start of Student Exam Window for 2011 National Financial Capability Challenge.

Does anyone have a high school student who took this? I am really interested to find out the results!

April is National Financial Literacy Month. Check this unofficial website to learn about the 30 steps to financial wellness.

And finally this, it is powerful.

From A to Z: Weekly Treasures

From the Oak Cliff Advocate, a story about a literacy tutor helping to make a difference in Texas. I LOVE stories like these!!

The Open Doors program in Winnipeg Canada is helping to change the learning experience for adults who can not read. Here is the whole story from The Times website.

Ok, this is so cool. I found out about this on the BBC website. Well known personalities in South Wales were approached to write short novels that are aimed at new adult readers. What I want to know is when are we going to do this in the US?

Quick reads boost adult learners

Health literacy is a two-way street. Agreed Agreed! Check out this blog post from the timesunion.com. It is written by a doctor who seems to understand that improving health literacy comes from both sides. I really enjoyed the "Mom's RX" list at the bottom, especially the advice: "Talk to your doctor when you are fully dressed, not while sitting in a hospital gown."

Take this test which is an excerpt from he Newest Vital Sign written by Dr. Barry Weiss. This blog post written by Joe Rojas-Burke challenges: "Are you health literate?"

This video of an adult literacy student named Edward is so awesome! Brings a tear to my eye!

"Going slow does not prevent arriving." ~Nigerian Proverb

Life is overwhelming in general for me as it is for most people. I am a mother and wife and I work part time and help out at my daughters' school all the time. I feel like every day I am going 60 miles an hour and sometimes I forget to slow down and enjoy something that I am doing. When I am tutoring D, I am forced to slow down and revel in the process of learning and teaching. I leave our sessions actually breathing slower and feeling more calm. We read a story together and talk about it and I help her learn new words and understand them and while we only get through one story in an hour, it feels like longer because we take our time. While I know I am helping to teach her something new each week, she is inadvertently teaching me about patience.

D never comes to class prepared. I have been asking her to buy a cheap spiral bound notebook and maybe a little journal and some pencils since the first week we started. She has never brought them. I never say anything negative about it, I just keep reminding her to bring them. She also does not do homework most days, but I still try and give her at least one small assignment to do each week.

D is still a child in many ways, she lives at home still, relies on her family for most things like transportation and she actually whines sometimes to me about how hard the reading and writing is for her. I finally brought her a small examination booklet to use as a journal, just to get her writing. I asked her what she might be interested in writing about, she shrugged her shoulders. I asked her what her favorite t.v. shows were. She started naming some shows that my 10 year old daughter watches. She said "I am still a big kid." I smiled and said, we all have a kid in us.

I tell her all the time, "you CAN read, and you are very capable of learning to read more, you just need to practice, and they only way to practice reading, is to READ." She usually looks at me and smiles and says, "yeah I know."

So how do you motivate a student who has never been motivated to learn to read or write fluently. They teach us all about goal setting in tutor training, using the SMART goal system. But she has only one goal in mind, to pass her online masseuse course and get a job. It is not going to happen that way. The goals need to be broken down into smaller pieces. This is something I am determined to work on with her next week. Otherwise she will never be motivated to do the work in between now and her ultimate goal.

Some new things I have learned: 1. She really enjoys reading magazines. We tried with some People magazines for a couple of weeks, because she told me she is really into gossip and entertainment news. But she stumbled over so many of the words that I knew it was too advanced. So I thought about some kids magazines. I pulled a National Geographic for kids and a Girl's Life magazine out and let her choose. She picked the Girl's Life magazine and did much better with the reading. She really enjoys reading human interest stories and I noticed that once she got into the story she was reading much more fluently, and sounding out words without me having to remind her. She would stop after each paragraph and ask me questions about the story and I would smile and say, "let's keep reading and find out."

2. Also as you can see in the picture above I have her use a pencil point to keep track of the words while she is reading, and it has helped so much with helping her keep track of where she is and to focus on really reading each word. When she gets to a word that she doesn't immediately recognize she often tries to guess at it, but I make her sound it out. I use my thumb and finger to cover parts of the word to help her break it down.

I will continue to push her, though I have learned it can not be too much. I will continue to push myself and keep learning new things and new ways to help her learn. Next week we will be working on some short term goals, and I am going to try reading a play with her, I think the back and forth of the dialogue will be an interesting change.

The business of tutoring continues everywhere, everyday, and I am really enjoying being a part of the process. I am reminded each week that patience and caring can go so far. Until next week...

Adult Literacy Weekly Treasures

I have become somewhat obsessed with finding out as much information as I can about adult literacy. I have started "googling" adult literacy almost everyday, and have particularly enjoyed some of the blogs I have come across. I am going to try posting my latest finds each week. Happy reading!

From Washington D.C.'s Street Sense: an excellent article about the shame some adult students feel about their illiteracy.
http://www.streetsense.org/2010/10/adult-literacy-a-silent-crisis/

From the Durham Literacy Center, Adult Literacy Community Blog: a post about a little known syndrome some adult students are facing.
http://dlcal.wordpress.com/2010/09/20/irlen-syndrome/

From the UNESCO Institute for Statistics: Some findings about the number of illiterate adults both Nationally and Worldwide.
http://www.uis.unesco.org/ev.php?URL_ID=6401&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201

From Media Post Blogs: An article about the clever ideas used to promote literacy at Greenville Literacy Association in Greenville, South Carolina.
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=136025

Last but not least, and ad from the Ad Council called Barriers-Adult Literacy.
http://scaryideas.com/content/19614/

Hope you enjoy these links as much as I did.