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Upfront with Laura: A Few Successes to Share
- Hats off to Salem Avenue students in HARC’s Lighthouse After-School program. Coached by longtime Literacy Council tutor Kathy, multi-lingual students got their first taste of drama club, preparing a short skit based on the book “Do You Have a Hat?” by Eileen Spinelli. LCWC was brimming with pride over their great accomplishment!
- Another grant! Many thanks to The Richard N. Funkhouser Foundation for their generous grant of $2,500 to support general operations of the Literacy Council. This is the second year they have provided funding.
- Graduation: It’s always bittersweet to see students take off, but we’re very proud of Neda, who has achieved so many of her goals – a job, a car, an apartment, and most of all confidence in her future. It takes a village: many thanks to Sonya, Judy, and others who supported Neda’s efforts.
Tutors – send us student success stories. They make us all feel good!
Tutor Spotlight: Jean Thomas
Jean Thomas is a retired RN who, in the last 2½ years with the Literacy Council, has tutored three students for GED preparation. “I have tremendous respect for these adult learners who are motivated to overcome daunting challenges to achieve the goal of passing the GED. Whether it’s English as a second language, a traumatic brain injury, or a learning disability, each of these students has demonstrated great courage, insight into their need to master fundamental literacy and analytic skills, and openness in seeking assistance in overcoming learning hurdles. It brings me great joy to work with them one-on-one and to build a trusting relationship as they gain confidence, skills, and knowledge and as each finds his or her way.”
Jean is also a Washington County Master Gardener, volunteers at the St. Mark Food Bank, and serves in several ministries at St. Ann Catholic Church. She and her husband Mark have been married 44 years and have two adult children – a son in NYC and a daughter in San Diego.
6 Free Resources for Learning a Language That Aren’t Duolingo
- Anki (apps.ankiweb.net) – a free, open-source spaced repetition flashcard app, with thousands of community-shared decks including frequency-based vocabulary lists.
- Forvo (forvo.com) – a pronunciation dictionary with recordings by native speakers.
- Journaly (journaly.com) – a platform where you write in your target language and native speakers correct you.
- Clozemaster (clozemaster.com) – a fill-in-the-blank game that teaches vocabulary in the context of full sentences, drawn from the Tatoeba corpus.
- Librivox (librivox.org) – free audiobooks of public domain texts, read by volunteers, in dozens of languages.
- Easy Languages (youtube.com/@easylanguages) – street interviews with native speakers in cities around the world, with dual subtitles.
Upcoming Events: Tutor and Student Ice Cream Social
Join us June 22nd, 1–3 PM, in LCWC’s study rooms to celebrate summer, our students, and each other with a cool treat! Tutors, please bring your current and/or former students. If you don’t currently have a student, just bring yourself! RSVP for you and your student by June 20th. Recognition forms will be made for all registered attending students.
Ideas or suggestions? Email Laura Gross at office@literacyofwcmd.org
