Finding compelling learning materials for ESL learners can be tricky. You’re either trapped in the children’s world of Dick and Jane, or struggling your way through adult texts. The thought of tackling a news broadcast in English is intimidating. Believe it or not, English speakers often do speak quickly! This is not the case with the Voice of America Special English broadcasts. Since 1959 this news agency has been putting out news broadcasts in English, spoken at a slower pace, accompanied by transcripts, and utilizing a core vocabulary of only 1500 words.
When a tutor recently mentioned the Voice of America website in his monthly tutor report, I knew that I had to tell everyone. If you are a tutor working with someone who wants to practice listening to English, this is the site for you. If you know someone who speaks English as their second language, this is the site for them. Follow the link below and check it out. Although our tutors strike out on their own to every corner of the county, to take on a unique challenge, some of the solutions that they find can help others. I appreciate it when they share their findings. So, thank you!
Click to check out Voice of America. You simply click on a news story, and then select a prefered method of listening to the broadcast on the right hand side of the page (stream mp3 works for me). Enjoy!
On November 11th St. Michael’s Foundation donated copies of the book Grandma’s Hmong New Year Celebration to the students of the extended school day programat Madison Elementary. Kristin Duckart, Executive Director of St. Michael’s Foundation, presented the books and read a portion to students. Grandma’s Hmong New Year Celebration, written by local author Maiker Vang, is translated into English, Green Hmong, and White Hmong and was chosen for the donation by St. Michael’s Foundation because of its language diversity.
The extended school day program is comprised of English language learners and takes the place of traditional pull-out instruction which would normally occur during regularly scheduled class time. The extended school day program pre-teaches English language learners the vocabulary and key concepts they need to know in order to be successful in the classroom, and takes place in the morning, before the regular school day begins. This less disruptive approach has successfully increased students’ understanding in the classroom and has thereby accelerated ELL students’ learning and improved their confidence.
A large number of the English language learners at Madison Elementary are Hmong American. Mary Jo Lechner, Madison Elementary’s Principal, hopes the books will be read in the students’ homes and will be a link between home life and the classroom. She says, “Promoting literacy by putting books in the hands of children is the most effective way to make a difference! These books also embrace the first language of many ELL students providing a bridge between home and school.” And for the ELL students who are not Hmong American, Grandma’s Hmong New Year Celebration provides some insight into the ancestry and traditions of many of their fellow students.
For their part, Kristin Duckart says St. Michael’s Foundation is “thrilled to gift these wonderful books to Madison School” and hopes the book teaches the students, especially those who are Hmong American, the “rich traditions of the Hmong New Year Celebration.” She goes on to say she is “hopeful that through learning about other cultures, [the students’] hearts and minds are opened to understanding and acceptance of others. For it is through this openness and acceptance of others that ultimately creates a more peaceful and richly diverse community.” Kristin’s comments demonstrate the positive relationship between business and the greater community in Portage County.
Have you or someone you know ever been confused by instructions on a prescription bottle, an appointment slip, medical education brochures, consent forms, directions from your doctor or pharmacist, or even health insurance policies? Navigating this complex system full of difficult medical terms and legalese can be hard enough when you are well, but try to do it when you are not feeling a hundred percent or when you already struggle with low literacy skills and it becomes unbearable at times. One in five adults in America read at or below a 5th grade level, yet most health care materials are written at a tenth grade level and above.
At a recent English class a student announced that two married classmates were absent because one had problems with high blood pressure and had been in the hospital. All the students knew the words “high blood pressure” but none of them knew what this meant. They asked why the pills he took didn’t make him better right away and how you could catch high blood pressure. Their questions were answered and heart health was incorporated into the lesson. Next month they will also have a bilingual visitor come to class to demonstrate healthy food choices and preparation. But most importantly they learned to ask questions to insure that they better understood what was happening and why.
The Literacy Council has received a second grant from the Ministry Health Care Fund through the Saint Michael’s Foundation to help address this important issue in Portage County. Presentations are being scheduled now for groups who would like to learn more about this important topic. Community groups, organizations and employers can benefit from free workshops on Health Literacy such as How to Talk With Your Health Care Provider, Creating a Family Health History or Understanding Prescriptions and Over The Counter Medications.
About a year ago the Portage County Literacy Council began a Rural Literacy pilot project designed to bring English instruction to rural workplaces in our county that employ non-English speaking workers. Based on our success at the Felz Dairy Farm last fall we began working with the Paragon Potato Farm in Bancroft, Wisconsin in January 2009.
40 Spanish speaking students began attending weekly English classes and 31 continued to attend regularly. Our bi-lingual instructor, Desiah Melby, provided English instruction to employees during their lunch break and also offered some Spanish instruction to the management team so they we better able to understand each others’ language and culture. What developed was an increased sense of respect and improved communication among the workforce. The usual inhibition to trying new language skills was curbed with the knowledge that both management and line workers were trying to learn together.
“Communication is essential in not only everyday life, but to the success of a company,” says Lori Patoka, Human Resources Assistant with Paragon Potato Farms. “This program through the Literacy Council has helped us to bridge that gap, and for that we are grateful. Thank you for offering this program.”
The word about this program is spreading. Last month two visitors from the Shawano County Literacy Council came to learn about this innovative way of providing much needed English instruction, with the hope of offering a similar program to farmers in their area. Sheila Meddaugh, Human Resource Manager for Paragon Potato Farms told them, “This has been a real ‘win-win’ situation for us. The ladies at the Literacy Council have been just great to work with and we see the benefits of this service here on the job every day.”
Sometimes people ask if there is really much problem with literacy here in Portage County. I mean, we have a big university and plenty of well-educated adults, and a great school system so we couldn’t really have a big problem with literacy, right? If you tend to agree then following may surprise you.
According to the most recent report from the 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 7 % of Portage County residents ages 16 and over lack the basic prose literacy skills. That’s 3,814 people or enough to fill Goerke Field (the local football stadium for our university and high school teams)! If you live in our area, the next time you attend or drive by during a playoff football game and see this stadium filled to capacity imagine that the entire crowd could not read and understand the text in newspapers, brochures or instruction manuals. That is how real the problem is, right here at home.
If you’d like to make a difference and change this fact, you can help in a variety of ways. Volunteer some time to be a tutor with the Literacy Council and help an adult learn. Refer someone you know who struggles with reading, writing or math to our free, confidential services. Or make a secure donation to our cause online on our webpage, through Facebook Causes, donate to the United Way (and designate the Portage County Literacy Council as your charity of choice) or send a check to PCLC at 1052 Main Street, Ste. 104, Stevens Point, WI 54481. Every little bit helps us to reach the thousands right here in Portage County who could benefit from our help.
Take a look at this great 3:30 minute video from the Institute of Medicine on Health Literacy:
The Portage County Literacy Council is currently working with the newly formed Portage County Health Literacy Coalition to address these issues in our own community. Our group includes Saint Micheal’s Foundation, Portage County Health Department, Portage County Literacy Council, the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point, Portage County Leadership Alumni and other community members. For more information, contact the Literacy Council at 715-345-5341.
Generally speaking, language acquisition follows this progression: Listening comprehension occurs first, then speaking, then reading and finally writing. Given this understanding it probably should not have been surprising that some of our students were least confident in their writing skills. Recently when a PCLC teacher gave a group of beginning English language learners a piece of paper and asked them to write something in English (a sentence, a word, anything), they were reluctant to do so. Some responded, “I can’t remember anything” and “I don’t know what to or how to write”, and one even crossed her arms and wouldn’t pick up the pencil. Knowing the students’ abilities, the teacher tried a different approach.
During the next class the teacher shared some posters that students from another class had made about themselves and then wrote a paragraph on the board using sentence structure and vocabulary previously taught to describe her: “My name is Sarah. I am from the United States. I am American. I am a mother. I have two children. I have a daughter. My daughter is Lauren. I have a son. My son is Andy. I am a teacher. I have blue eyes. I have brown hair.”
The students were then eager to write examples for themselves and came up with many things to write. Those who could not yet write sentences wrote words they had learned, sometimes with drawings of what the words meant, sometimes with the equivalent in their own language. They were so excited and even the translator kept saying how he couldn’t believe how great they were all doing and how they didn’t want to stop!
The teacher took photos of each student and provided pictures of their home country’s map and flag. The students created their own posters and each gave an oral report to the class in English telling all about themselves using words and sentences learned so far. If you’d like to see these posters on display, you are invited to stop by the Literacy Council office (1052 Main Street, Ste. 104, Stevens Point, WI) in August.
Hmong elders learn about geography thanks to United Way and Sentry. (The student on the right is pointing to Laos, where most of these students are from.)
A group of Hmong elders have been attending weekly classes offered by the Literacy Council, studying English and learning about the United States in preparation for taking the Naturalization Test to become U.S. Citizens. The students are learning the answers to 100 Civics questions covering history, government and geography. These include “What ocean is on the East Coast of the United States?”, “Name one of the two longest rivers in the United States” and “Name one state that borders Canada.” (For a list of all 100 test questions click here.)
Some of our students never had the opportunity to attend school in their home country of Laos and were struggling with understanding a map of the United States. One asked what the longitude and latitude lines were on the page. When it was explained that the map was a flat depiction of a round shape, we realized that some had never seen a globe or understood the world to be round.
Thanks to the help of our local United Way, a large globe donated by Sentry Insurance was moved over to the classroom where our Citizenship and English classes are held. The students then were not only better able to understand the geography of the U.S., but also why it is nighttime in Laos when it is daytime in Wisconsin, why it it warmer in places near the equator than those further from it, and how and why the seasons change.
Thanks to all our community partners for helping to make the learning experience more meaningful for adults in our community. Whether you volunteer, donate money, or help to bring the right resources together just when they are needed, you truly make a difference!
Hello, my name is Savannah and I am currently working as the Portage County Literacy Council’s volunteer intern. My tasks vary from day to day, but I can tell you I’m always doing something worthwhile and productive. What I want to tell you about though, is how I came to be at the literacy council.
I am currently a student at the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point majoring in Communication with an emphasis in Public Relations. After several public relations classes I came to realize that I could not picture myself at some Fortune 500 business twisting stories to make the top executives look good. That, in essence, is how I came to the PCLC. I was searching for something meaningful that could be done in public relations.
I actually heard about the PCLC through United Way’s volunteer’s rock website. I gave the PCLC a call and within weeks was working on a regular basis; putting out newsletters, organizing data, and learning about the world of non-profit in general. The reason I chose the PCLC out of what seemed like hundreds of options on volunteers rock was one simple thing: I love to read. That simple pleasure was something I never realized I take for granted. There are so many people in Portage County alone that can’t pick up a book on a lazy afternoon and read about swashbuckling pirates, rafting trips down the Mississippi River, or magical wizards at Hogwarts. I couldn’t think of a better way to spend my free time then doing whatever I could to help further the cause of the Portage County Literacy Council and their mission to help Portage County Adults develop basic math and English literacy skills necessary to achieve economic self-sufficiency and community integration.
There are tons of volunteer opportunities at the PCLC, not just for those interested in public relations. Opportunities like tutoring, becoming a board member, volunteering on a committee and much more! If you want to get involved and make a difference check out the following links:
When I first started working in the Literacy Council office I met a man who had been coming in to work on his reading skills using a self-paced, computerized learning program. “Bill” had a checkered past but was determined to reach his goals of improving his reading skills, finding a new place to live and getting a job. It wasn’t easy, especially given the current economic situation.
One day he came in with an application for housing and asked for some help in filling it out. The application was standard, but like most, it required a level of reading proficiency above his own. I read the questions on the form aloud and gave explanations when they were confusing to him. He carefully wrote his answers on each line. Another time he brought in a letter from an attorney that he struggled to understand due to the formal language in which it was written.
I would see him regularly and he reported on the dozens of applications he filled out each week to no avail. With the news full of headlines about rising unemployment figures and layoffs, this was not an uncommon experience, but we kept encouraging him and would keep him informed of job openings we learned about. More than one person has commented that our office may have been one of the few places where he was treated well and received positive feedback.
Over the past few months we celebrated little victories with “Bill”, first that he got a part-time job and then that he had found an apartment. Recently he obtained full-time employment. He has been saving as much of his income as possible so he can reach another of his goals, to travel and move out West to be closer to family.
“Bill” continues to work on his reading and stops by to see us frequently. He is proud of his accomplishments and that he is supporting himself and lives in his own home. He still faces certain obstacles, but we are hopeful that he will continue to succeed. And he knows that the Literacy Council will encourage him every step of the way.
Have you or someone you know ever been confused by instructions on a prescription bottle, an appointment slip, medical education brochures, consent forms, directions from your doctor or pharmacist, or even health insurance policies? Navigating this complex system full of difficult medical terms and legalese can be hard enough when you are well, but try to do it when you are not feeling a hundred percent or when you already struggle with low literacy skills and it becomes unbearable at times. One in five adults in America read at or below a 5th grade level, yet most health care materials are written at a tenth grade level and above.
“Communication is essential in not only everyday life, but to the success of a company,” says Lori Patoka, Human Resources Assistant with Paragon Potato Farms. “This program through the Literacy Council has helped us to bridge that gap, and for that we are grateful. Thank you for offering this program.”
During the next class the teacher shared some posters that students from another class had made about themselves and then wrote a paragraph on the board using sentence structure and vocabulary previously taught to describe her: “My name is Sarah. I am from the United States. I am American. I am a mother. I have two children. I have a daughter. My daughter is Lauren. I have a son. My son is Andy. I am a teacher. I have blue eyes. I have brown hair.”
The students were then eager to write examples for themselves and came up with many things to write. Those who could not yet write sentences wrote words they had learned, sometimes with drawings of what the words meant, sometimes with the equivalent in their own language. They were so excited and even the translator kept saying how he couldn’t believe how great they were all doing and how they didn’t want to stop!
The teacher took photos of each student and provided pictures of their home country’s map and flag. The students created their own posters and each gave an oral report to the class in English telling all about themselves using words and sentences learned so far. If you’d like to see these posters on display, you are invited to stop by the Literacy Council office (1052 Main Street, Ste. 104, Stevens Point, WI) in August.
Hello, my name is Savannah and I am currently working as the Portage County Literacy Council’s volunteer intern. My tasks vary from day to day, but I can tell you I’m always doing something worthwhile and productive. What I want to tell you about though, is how I came to be at the literacy council.
When I first started working in the Literacy Council office I met a man who had been coming in to work on his reading skills using a self-paced, computerized learning program. “Bill” had a checkered past but was determined to reach his goals of improving his reading skills, finding a new place to live and getting a job. It wasn’t easy, especially given the current economic situation.