Watauga County Literacy Association
Watauga Literacy Association provides and promotes individual, family, and workplace literacy.
Volume 10 Number 1 February, 2007
Celebrate the Power of Literacy 5
Celebrate the Power of Literacy 5
The President’s Column…
As we welcome a new year of opportunity, Watauga Literacy Association continues its mission to improve literacy by providing trained volunteer literacy tutors for people wanting to improve their literacy skills. We increase awareness of literacy and recruit tutors by speaking to civic groups, through newspaper publicity, and by personal representation at events such as book fairs and volunteer expos. This past year, we organized the Boone Author’s Festival as part of Kraut Creek Festival, which provided an excellent opportunity to meet more people interested in helping others through tutoring. Tutoring is like coaching and cheerleading—learners request help because they see a personal need to improve. The tutor merely helps guide them toward their own goal. Welcome, new and continuing tutors, to the opportunities of 2007!
Gail Bedell, WLA President
Over 30 million adults in America cannot read well enough to fill out a simple job application or apply for a driver’s license.
ProLiteracy Worldwide
2006
Appalachian State University
2007 ABSPD
MATH Summer Institute
SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITY
May 20--25, 2007 or
May 27--June 1, 2007
Adult Basic Skills Professional Development Program (ABSPD) is offering one scholarship to a new participant from a community-based organization such as WLA. Each scholarship will cover the meal plan, housing, copy card, and parking fees. The recipient will be required to pay the registration including the ASU processing fee if enrolling for academic credit for the first time. Tohelp our tutors take advantage of this excellent week-longinstitute, the Watauga Literacy Association (WLA) will underwrite the cost of conference registration.
For additional information and to download the scholarship application in PDF format, go to www.abspd.appstate.edu/scholarshipapp.pdf
Application deadline is March 16, 2007. For additional information and assistance with completing the application, please contact Gail Bedell, at 265.4509.
DATES TO REMEMBER
EVERYONE INVITED!
Tutor Training Session
Saturday, March 10, 2007
9:30 A.M. Getting Acquainted
10:00 A.M. Session Begins
Watauga County Public Library
WLA Board Meeting
Monday, March 12, 2007
5:30 PM
Watauga County Public Library
Friends of the Library
Annual Meeting
Watauga County Library
Sunday, April 22, 2007
Lee Smith, Guest Author
WELCOME, NEW TUTORS!
WLA has enlisted the time and talents of several new tutors since fall 2006. Thank you for contacting us and for your willingness and enthusiasm to serve the adult learner. We welcome you as Watauga County volunteer literacy tutors.
Bill Apple
Lissa Brown
Genele Byrd
Franya Hutchins
Kelly Lynn
Georgann Nedwell
Nancy Sharpe
Neva Specht
Crystal Watley
Rudy Whitley
TUTOR TRAINING SESSION
March 10, 2007
Please join us on Saturday, March 10, 2007 to learn new strategies for working with the adult learner. Tutor strategies will be available in the areas of writing, vocabulary instruction, reading, and mathematics. Other information will be available to answer the first critical question most of us ask, “How do I get started?”
To register for the training session or if you have questions contact Carol Deal at 264.2931. If she is not at home, leave a message on the answering and she will return your call.
We look forward to sharing with you on March 10, 2007 at 9:30 for coffee and getting acquainted. We will begin the sharing session at 10:00 A.M. and we will conclude by 12:00 P.M.
Friends of the Library
Lee Smith to Visit Watauga County Public Library
April 22, 2007
2:00 PM
The Friends of the Watauga County Library is sponsoring guest author, Lee Smith at their annual meeting. She is the author of eleven novels, including Oral History, Saving Grace, The Devil’s Dream, Fair and Tender Ladies, and most recently Agate Hill. Her novel The Last Girls was a 2002 New York Times best seller as well as co-winner of the Southern Book Critics Circle Award. A retired professor of English at North Carolina State University, she received an Academy Award in Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1999. Visit her webpage at www.leesmith.com.
The PUBLIC is invited!
Get REAL Youth Services
Offering Youth a Chance
Get REAL was designed to help local youth achieve their career goals, education, and dreams! The program is free and assists early adolescents in discovering and developing their talents and skills.
This youth program creates local youth systems which are closely linked to the labor market and which provide youth with a set of year-round, comprehensive service strategies. It blends traditional employment and training activities with development activities, such as maintaining positive relationships with responsible adults and peers, and developing leadership skills. The program is designed to provide an appropriate range of services based on the needs of youth as they grow and mature. Counselors ensure that appropriate services are provided in a coordinated and youth-friendly manner.
For additional information, you are welcome to contact Ron Rognstad, Career Coach at 828.265.5385 at the Watauga JobLink Center.
WLA NEWSLETTER by E-MAIL
If you prefer to receive the WLA Newsletter electronically, contact Carol Deal at . Please note an underscore appears between cb and deal (cb_deal).
Celebrate the Power of Literacy 5
TIPS for TUTORS
VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION
How do I decide which words to teach in order to understand the meaning of the passage?
REFERENCE
Beck, I., McKeown, M. and Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing Words to Life:
Robust Vocabulary Instruction. Guilford Press.
Celebrate the Power of Literacy 5
According to the research of Nagy and Anderson (1984), the English Language is made of approximately 8,000 word families. An example of a word family is introduce, introduction, reintroduce. Another example is graph, photograph, graphology, graphite. Through the selection of words which are part of a word family and through demonstrating how to construct other words that might be different parts of speech; we can support the adult learner with expanding his/her vocabulary. This strategy helps the learner with making connections to the content along with analyzing the meaning of other new words with the same root. Thus, the adult learner unlocks the meaning of additional words by identifying meaningful chunks within their personal reading world.
How do you, the tutor select the words to teach when engaging the adult learner in the learning process?
1. Select an appropriate passage from the leveled materials provided through the Caldwell Community College Basic Skills Center. Additional materials are available for Watauga Literacy Tutors at the Watauga County Public Library.
2. Capitalize on the learner’s personal interests as a guide for selecting motivating reading materials. You are welcome to select an excerpt from a novel, a children’s’ story, a biblical passage, the drivers license manual, or a newspaper article, etc.
3. List the words which are likely to be unfamiliar to the adult learner.
4. Analyze the word list! Ask yourself the following questions:
§ Which of the tier two words are critical for comprehending the content?
§ Which words did the adult learner identify as needing clarification?
§ Did you identify other words that are necessary for comprehension? If so, which ones?
5. On the basis of your analysis, you are to decide which words to teach. Ask yourself the follow questions:
§ Which words will need only brief attention?
§ Which words will need additional instruction for the terms to become automatic to understand the passage?
§ Which words does the learner want to know more about to develop understanding?
Celebrate the Power of Literacy 5
Celebrate the Power of Literacy 5