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Tips, Useful Techniques, Other Relevant Stuff

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Notes from the Chair Records Report Calendar To Our Volunteers	Volunteer Highlights Help Wanted Helpful Websites Abbreviations Dictionary

Board Members: Bob Burger - Chair Ellie Scholz - Secretary Liz Koester - Placement Nancy Calcagno - Treasurer Bonnie Wolfman - Public Relations Notes From The Chair Dear Volunteers and Friends,     I hope all of you have had an enjoyable summer.  Fall weather seems to have collided into summer as temperatures dropped from the 90's to the 60's in just 48 hours.  Sadly, our funds are dropping as quickly.     Congratulations to Obdulia Enriquez for passing the GED examination.  She studied at Rogue Community College and also received math tutoring with the Council.  (She was my student - pardon me while I pat myself on the back).     Welcome to our new tutors Valerie Barr and Denny Devine.  Valerie is already working with a student.  Hang in there Denny, we're screening new students as this newsletter is being written.     An upcoming event is our annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at Marie Callender's restaurant in November.  The date has not yet been set, but we will call or e-mail our volunteers once it's decided.     Thanks to all of you for your support of the Literacy Council. Bob Burger, Chair MENU Records Report July - September 2009 Volunteer Hours .... 99.5 Student Hours ....... 42.5 Students Served ......... 5 MENU CALENDAR Board Meetings October 28 November 18 (No meeting in December) All meetings - 1 PM to 3 PM Literacy Council office: 1175 Royal Ave, Suite B, Medford Phone: 245-8699 MENU Because You're Special (Author Unknown) We sometimes take for granted In the rush of all we do, And forget to say a special thanks To volunteers like you! So we send this note to tell you How much all you do means, Your gifts of time and of yourself Are special ones indeed. MENU VOLUNTEER HIGHLIGHTS For three months now, I've been tutoring a married couple, Galen and Mahlona, to read.  Even though they are both learning impaired, they are making noticeable progress.  Galen used to struggle with almost every two or more syllable word, but now he can read several paragraphs in a social studies textbook with only a few stumbles. His wife, whose homework assignments are to watch PBS children's shows, had to overcome her whole-word training.  If a word started with the letter "K" she said "kite."  We start each session with some phonics and then read some simple children's stories.  Her poor eyesight tires and frustrates her, but she doesn't give up.  Now she can read a simple story with few errors.  She also seems to suffer with dyslexia.  She reads new words backwards a lot, but I make her spell out the word before saying it.  That helps. Although they are both improving in being able to read, they still have to work at comprehension.  That will be my task for the next three months.  I admit that early on in their training I thought that they were beyond help.  Some sessions seemed to have no affect on their reading skills.  However, the first rule of being a teacher is to be patient.  Now I'm glad that I stuck with Galen and Mahlona. Bob Burger, tutor MENU VOLUNTEERS WANTED The Literacy Council of Jackson County offers many volunteer opportunities. Here are just a few of them: * * * * * ESL Tutor: Assist students one-on-one to master the written English language sufficiently enough to fill out employment and health forms, follow directions on medicines, read maps, use public transportation effectively, enjoy computer applications, and open the doors of knowledge at libraries and the Internet. No experience necessary, we will train you. GED Tutor: Help individuals study for the GED exam. If you think you can teach math, science, history, reading comprehension and writing, then we want you to share your knowledge as a volunteer tutor. No experience necessary, we have plenty of useful materials in our library. VOLUNTEERS WANTED Librarian: If you have a couple of hours a week to spare and know how or want to learn to use a computer for keeping our library records up to date, we want to hear from you. No experience necessary, we will train you. Newsletter Editor: We finally filled this job when Nancy Calcagno, our Treasurer, accepted this responsibility for our October 2009 issue. We hope to feature more tutoring tips in future newsletters once Nancy settles into this new role. Also, look for changes in the newsletter format as Nancy plans to apply her design skills to the task. * * * * * If any of these volunteer opportunities suits you, please give us a call at (541) 245-8699 or send us an e-mail message at LITERACY@JUNO.COM MENU Helpful Websites www.literacyvolunteer.com Tips for teaching word families, steps in language experience stories, find quizzes www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/Links/ LessonLinks.html You can print out these exercises or student can do them on line eslus.com/eslcenter.htm Variety of activities for the more advanced student www.tv411.org If you have internet access at your tutoring site this is a great address for more advanced student activities literacyvolunteer.homestead.com Help with developing writing skills iteslj.org/Lessons/ Variety of activities: grammar, conversation topics, cultural awareness, games, etc. darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/ pizzaz.html Pizzaz: Creative writing lessons www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/quizzes/ Self Study Quizzes www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/cw/ Crossword Puzzles iteslj.org/questions/ Conversation Questions for the ESL Classroom darkwing.uoregon.edu/~leslieob/ themes.html Opportunities in ESL: Creative writing/ discussion topics webnz.com/checkers/free2.html Free Services for Students www.conversa1.com/ eslcurriculumbeginninglevel.htm ESL Curriculum, Beginning Level www3.kumc.edu/diversity/ Diversity Calendar: Holidays around the world ADDITIONAL SITES www.writefix.com www.englishclub.com www.Learningexpresslibrary.com www.50states.com www.ESLmonkeys.com www.reading.org www.sitesforteachers.com Contact us if any of these succeeded for you! MENU Abbreviations Dictionary ABE Adult Basic Education: teaching basic kindergarten to 8th grade skills such as reading, writing and math to native speakers of English. ADD: Attention Deficit Disorder ESL English as a Second Language: teaching basic kindergarten to 8th grade skills such as listening, speaking, reading, writing and math to non-native speakers of English. GED General Education Development test: test which gives students a diploma equivalent to a high school diploma. LCJC: Literacy Council of Jackson County LD: Learning Disabled RCC: Rogue Community College MENU