Celebrate by including a lesson on the Constitution using Thinkfinity resources. Lessons cover the Constitutional Convention, the First Amendment and also include an interactive tutorial called, Charting the Constitution.
For more information visit the Thinkfinity/Verizon website: http://thinkfinity.org/constitution-day
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Welcome to the Literacy Resource Center’s Social Services Directory. This tool provides information about a variety of consumer and social services offered in Florida. The directory primarily provides information about state and regional agencies and organizations. If you do not find information you need about programs in your area, we encourage you to contact one of the agencies listed and ask for a local referral.
Please select the topic area you are interested in and hit the “submit” button. The next page will show you all the contacts and phone numbers for that particular topic area. By clicking on one of the contacts, additional information, including website and address will be provided.
This directory was made possible through the support of the Florida Department of Education, Division of Career and Adult Education. Special thanks to Florida Division of Consumer services for providing agency/program information.
Click below or copy and paste to get to this website! http://www.floridaliteracy.org/listFSSD.asp
By J. NIELSEN Correspondent,Sarasota Herald Tribune
Published: Thursday, August 5, 2010 at 1:00 a.m.
Literacy Council of Manatee County volunteer tutor Verna Urbanski, left, and her student, Alifonso Casique, study inside the Manatee County Central Library.CORRESPONDENT PHOTO / J. NIELSEN
One person at a time, the Literacy Council of Manatee County is improving lives by helping people with their English skills.
According to a National Center for Education Statistics surveys conducted in both 1992 and 2003, nearly 25 percent of people age 16 and older scored on the lowest level of reading proficiency.
There is a need for people like veteran Ann Zimmerman and newcomer Verna Urbanski to become volunteer tutors, providing free help to people who want to learn to read and write.
Zimmerman, 67, moved to Bradenton from St. Louis more than 20 years ago. Almost as soon as she arrived, she volunteered with the Literacy Council.
"You don't just sit one hour a week and do reading; you get involved," she said. "I've done various things when people need help. Even the simplest of things can seem overwhelming for someone not familiar with the language."
Helping people with difficult tasks, such as navigating the quagmire of government bureaucracy to earn their citizenship, is fulfilling for Zimmerman.
"The Literacy Council does a job on a shoestring that is so important to the community," she said. "People that cannot read aren't able to fully participate in the community. We have a lot of immigrants in this area, and they need to know how to communicate."
Her reason for helping others is simple.
"As a child, I lived in a very small town," Zimmerman said. "There was no television. I grew up reading. I got to thinking about how much I enjoy reading, so I decided there's no reason I can't teach someone how to read."
Urbanski, 61, moved to the area from Springfield, Mass., in 2000. She began volunteering about seven months ago.
"I was looking for something to do on the weekend," she said. "I thought it would be a good fit."
Her reason for volunteering?"I work for the Women's Resource Center in Sarasota County," Urbanski said. "I see the impact we can have on people."
Urbanski was partnered with Alifonso Casique, who waited for two years to be a assigned to a tutor.
In addition to books supplied by the Literacy Council, Urbanski bought her own tutorial books to help Casique.
Focusing primarily on vocabulary during a recent study session, Urbanski also addressed the rudiments of grammar in addition to suffix and prefix work. "He likes to be challenged," she said.
Examples of the evening's spelling words were "imagine," "sandwich" and "paragraph."
Beside Casique was a new book. He recently began reading Jules Verne's "A Journey to the Center of the Earth." He recently finished reading Verne's "Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea."
"I let him choose his books to read," Urbanski said.
Casique, originally from near Mexico City, has been in the United States for 11 years and works full time in masonry. He and his wife have three young boys, ages 4, 6 and 10.
"Four months ago, my children had no interest in me reading them a book," Casique said. "But now they come to me asking 'Poppy will you read me a book?'"
And that is rewarding for his tutor.
"He's a good student," Urbanski said. "He's prepared. He's not wasting my time, and there are many more like him out there. He wants to learn."
I’m excited to let you know about some of the new things available on MakeBeliefsComix.com, the online comic strip generator used in literacy programs.
Beginning July 26, MakeBeliefsComix.com each week will post a new theme or topic for students to create a comic strip with our comic strip generator and submit to us. After reviewing all submissions, we’llselect a sample to post on our Facebook wall.
The theme for the first week is:A Day In Your Life: What’s Happening?
Our educational online comic strip site also has added another feature that enables users to post their comic strips on their very own Facebook walls.Those who create a comic strip and send it to themselves will receive an email with two links: one to view and print the comic, and the other allowing them to postthe comic to their Facebook wall to share with friends and family.
Posting or publishing these comic strip creations in a public arena helps validate all the effort a youngster puts into creating the comic.
Since MakeBeliefsComix.com was launched four years ago, over 2 million people from 175 countries have visited our free educational resource. Google and UNESCOnamed us as among the world's most innovative web sites that encourage reading and literacy and we won the Parents' Choice Foundation’s Recommended Award.This year the American Library Association selected MakeBeliefsComixfor itsannual ‘’Great Web Sites for Kids ’’listing. The site offers 80 different characters, blank talk and thought balloons to be filled in with text, story prompts and printables, and accepts text in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese and Latin.
Our site is used by educators to teach language, reading and writing skills in an easy, fun way.It also is used bystudents in English as a Second Language programs to facilitate self-expression and storytelling, as well as to gain computer literacy.Some educational therapists use the online comicsfor children with autism or for those who are deaf to help them understand concepts and communicate. Parents and children also can create stories together, print them to create comic books or email them to friends. There also are printables and writing prompts on the site.
Please try the new summer fun feature with your students and send me your feedback at wmz@aol.com. We want to be the best educational web site we can be for you. We hope you will share what we are doing with your family and friends.
I wanted to let you know that our website: http://www.citizenshipstudyguide.com has transitioned to a completely free site. There is no longer a user/login or member requirement and all study pages, flashcards, questions and quizzes for US citizenship preparation, in both English and Spanish, are now completely accessible to anyone who accesses the site. This resource can now be used not only jointly by the tutor/instructor but also by the student independently, 24/7.
A lost book, useful to tutors and students has been replaced in the Council Library. The book is titled, "How The Brain Learns". This book is also available for checkout from the collection of the Manatee County Public Library. Five chapters provide recent and useful results of the surging research on how the brain functions and lessons for tutors that can facilitate literacy learning. Please call the office or come by if you would like to check this book out! Thanks to Don Meals for purchasing this book for LCMC.
DON'T HAVE TIME TO MAKE IT TO CLASS? ONLINE COURSES MAY BE RIGHT FOR YOU!
FATDEC,Florida Adult and Technical Distance Education Consortium, a group of public schools, school districts, and community colleges who are working together to deliver curriculum in a web-based environment for adult education and career technical programs in Florida's postsecondary public institutions.
Benefits of Online Courses
Many courses are free
Make your own schedule; 24/7 access
Work with a certified instructor by email, chat, discussion boards and phone conferences
Current courses include adult high school and career/ technical education
For complete information go to http://www.fatdec.com/
Welcome to the Literacy Resource Center’s Social Services Directory. This 
