NCFL Literacy Now

Today, NCFL is excited to announce that Springdale, Arkansas, has been awarded one of the 2008 Toyota Family Literacy Program (TFLP) grant awards. Springdale faced very stiff competition! NCFL received proposals from 191 cities across the country for the TFLP award; Springdale was one of only five selected.

What makes this award so special is that the whole community of Springdale is involved with the implementation of the program. Elmdale, Jones and Lee Elementary Schools were chosen as the program sites, but the commitment to family literacy extends to community partners like the University of Arkansas, United Way, and the Rotary Club.

We look forward to witnessing the positive changes created as a result of the Toyota Family Literacy Program. Families progress in dramatic ways when parents and children learn together. Picture parents helping their children with homework and getting so excited that they continue the passion for education while relaxing at home. Picture children getting excited about attending school and gaining joy out of lifelong learning.

NCFL is excited to expand the Toyota Family Literacy Program to Springdale, AR. Congratulations!

Please click here for a corrected link to the Thinkfinity Literacy Network Survey. Please accept our apologies for the technical error.

How are you using the Thinkfinity Literacy Network?

Take this short survey, and you could win one of three $100 gift certificates from BetterWorld.com!The Thinkfinity Literacy Network, managed by NCFL and ProLiteracy, is rich resource for all things literacy. Your input and feedback is critical to help guide the content and opportunities on the site for the coming year. Please take a few minutes to complete this short survey to let us know your opinions and the ways you use this important tool. And don’t forget to enter your email address for your chance to win one of three $100 gift certificates from our friends at Better World Books.  Deadline to complete the survey is Monday, Dec. 1 at 5:00 EST.

Click here to get started.

Mayor to parents: Read to children
Forget Mozart CDs and Baby Einstein videos, Boston’s mayor is urging parents to teach preschool children the old-fashioned way: by talking, reading, and playing with them. From the Boston Globe.

The Education Podcast Network
The Education Podcast Network is an effort to bring together, in one place, the wide range of podcast programming that may be helpful to teachers who are looking for content for the classroom and interested in exploring issues of teaching and learning in the 21st century.

Itipani Community Project
Dr. Chris McConnachie and his wife Jenny came to this impoverished region of South Africa in the early 1980s. In addition to providing medical services and training, they helped establish a preschool, an after-school program, and a tutoring program. Now, women from the community run the school, impacting the lives of thousands of children. From KarmaTube.

In partnership with the Goodling Institute for Research in Family Literacy, NCFL has developed and supported the Certificate in Family Literacy-a series of graduate courses available through Penn State University’s online World Campus.

Supporting the evidence that credit-bearing professional development provides that “intensity and duration” proven to be most effective for family literacy students, we’ve seen steady growth in interest and enrollment across the few years these courses have been offered.

Students represent a variety of careers and positions from all across and outside our nation, including teachers for children and adults, librarians, family literacy providers, educators supporting literacy for English language learners and literacy learning within other fields, such as health care.

We are pleased to announce the courses that will be available for Spring Semester 2009 and encourage you to enroll now and join this diverse community of learners. Expand your professional development to include Certificate in Family Literacy graduate courses through flexible online learning at Penn State University. Get the rigor of high-quality practical content that can immediately impact your perspective and practice.

Spring 2009 classes run January 21, 2009 through April 22, 2009 and registration is underway.

Certificate courses offered this semester include:

- ADTED 456, Introduction to Family Literacy, which probes comprehensive family literacy services as a way to break the cycle of intergenerational poverty and under-education.

- ADTED 459, Interactive Literacy: Parents and Children, a course that prepares educators to understand, plan and practice interactive literacy strategies in intentional and strategic ways. There is an ongoing focus on effective learning strategies for all children and families, including English language learners.

For more information visit http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/FamilyLiteracyCertificate.shtml or contact Dr. Sheila Sherow at sms20@psu.edu.

Or you can click here to register!

Thanks to Misti Lauer, 2008 Finalist for the Toyota Family Literacy Teacher of the Year Award, for these words of advice on building a family literacy program. To apply for the 2009 Teacher of the Year award, click here.

Creating a family literacy program takes plenty of thought and planning; most important is a thorough look at the community needs and current resources available. Collaboration is an ongoing process as needs and resources change, but partnerships and collaborations are assets to any family literacy project. It is important to avoid duplication within the communities that are being served, so the project directors and key personnel must first take an inventory of or get familiar with the services that already exist. It’s easy to let the motivation and passion for a project take over without considering what is already being done. With a little forethought and planning, your program can profit from and be enhanced by other existing agencies.

After examining potential collaborations, another element to consider is your students and your stakeholders. Essential to any project success is developing tools for ongoing evaluation; this might include student surveys, documentation of educational gains, and evaluation of marketing/recruitment efforts. Evaluation should be a collaborative effort with the adult and early childhood staff, but it is valuable to solicit the ideas and comments from participating students. These efforts will ensure that you provide your grant funders all the necessary project information.

Grading with Games: An Interview with James Paul Gee

An interview with James Paul Gee about video games in the learning process from Edutopia.org. Gee is the Mary Lou Fulton Presidental Professor of Literacy Studies at Arizona State University. Want to see him in person? At our 2009 Conference, Dr. Gee will present “Using Technology for Families- Across the Divide.” Click here to attend this institute or register for Conference.

Play the News Jumping off from Dr. Gee’s interview about video games, visit Play the News. The FAQ page on the site describes it as “an engaging, community driven experience - imagine fantasy sports meets the evening news. Play the News is a web-based platform that brings interactive gaming elements to the online ‘news media’ industry changing the paradigm of news consumption from passive reading to active engagement.” Thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for this site.

Breaking boundaries on adult learning. Check out this story from South Africa about literacy changing the lives of men and women in their seventies. From the Independent Online.

Schools helping to teach civic duty. Reading, writing and arithmetic are only part of the curriculum in these schools in Texas. From KRISTV.com.

Thanks to Kay Aguilar for telling us her story.  If you would like to submit your story, just click here.

If you could accomplish, or see accomplished, one thing to further the cause of family literacy in the next five years, what would it be?

If I could accomplish one thing to further the cause of family literacy in the next five years, it would be to create a family learning center at our school’s library. I would like to see my library opened up to the community and have parents come in to read to their children, or just come in to the library with their young children to listen to a read-aloud, something like they do in the public libraries. I am starting a “Book in Bag” program where each Kindergarten student will be taking home a book to share with their parents at home. This is an effort to have parents read to their children at home.

Last week Literacy Now experienced some technical difficulties, and those of you who subscribe by email did not receive the posts. The problem is remedied now! Here’s a rundown of last week’s missing posts. Just click on any one of them to read more.

Tech teams compete in 6th Annual LTAB
Guest post- Strategy Talk: Comprehension from the Start
Special Edition of LVR: National Family Literacy Day
Guest Post: Grammy-Nominated Gospel Singer Beverly Crawford Shares Her Triumph Over Illiteracy

Beverly Crawford, famed Gospel singer, joins NCFL as a family literacy ambassador. Read Beverly’s post to learn why she is personally committed to NCFL and the family literacy cause. Click here for a link to the press release announcing Beverly’s relationship with NCFL.

The struggle that was most painful in my life was my challenge with reading. While I was able to learn the basic fundamentals to carry me through middle school, the real challenge occurred in high school. Because of my reading problems, I found myself struggling in every class by the end of my freshmen year. By my senior year, I graduated with average scores but with no hope that my future would include college.

In my teen years, my battle with illiteracy made me feel overwhelmed with hopelessness. I resorted to my first attempt of suicide by trying to stab myself, and just as I was aiming the knife to my body, my mother walked in the room. I understood my father’s strong teachings of the Bible, yet I suffered with bouts of depression. This depression triggered my second attempt of suicide, when I planned to overdose on a full bottle of pills. However, what I thought to be prescription drugs turned out to be simple water pills.

After that last attempt, I learned to love myself and teach other women self love. I took on that victorious attitude I was always taught by my father, and, amazingly, God allowed me to develop and sharpen my skills in reading. My husband, Todd, and I started our own ministry in Florida, and now I go before God’s people with the confidence of knowing that He has equipped me with the skills necessary to lead them.

My personal struggle with literacy has made me a firm supporter of education. I understand that education promotes confidence and strong character because that is exactly what it has done in my life. That’s why I’m proud to announce that I have become an ambassador for NCFL and the cause of family literacy.

In the years to come, I hope to see our education system continue to grow and advance so our children can acquire the skills and information they need to be effective citizens in their communities. NCFL is taking the steps needed to make that hope a reality.