Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with literacy

Libraries are awesome

serazin — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 21:11:52 -0800

I've taken responsibility for a very small children's library and I'd love your ideas for making it awesome. My kid is going to a tiny little school where every parent takes a volunteer job. I chose the job of managing the small library. I'm supposed to keep it organized and accessible, and to create displays and possibly events. I'm also supposed to coordinate a Scholastic book fair (I'm sure everyone would be open to some alternative to Scholastic - so suggestions welcome on that score as well.)

I don't have a ton of time, and the school doesn't have a ton of money. Given those limitations, I'd love to hear any ideas you have for making the library useful, attractive and vibrant.

(Note that I admire and respect librarians, and recognize that I am not one! I wish all schools had a paid librarian, but this school doesn't - it only has two paid staff people all together - so I hope to do my best with what's available.)

Paper pushing en espanol

nameleech — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:39:39 -0800

What online tutorials or books are best for learning literacy only in Spanish? I am applying to a credit card disputes department at my workplace in October because they have need for the Spanish-literate. I'll be dealing with written statements from Spanish speaking customers primarily.

However, my language skills are so rusty I'll definitely need to do some brushing up beforehand. What books or online tutorials are best for achieving literacy only in Spanish? Free is better, but I'm willing to pay if the lessons are quality. Thanks all!

Adult literacy materials?

graytona — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 18:09:27 -0800

What books could you recommend that might help a slightly mentally challenged adult start learning to read? I'm asking this on behalf of my mother. She knows a young man who's about 25 years old, but cannot read. Although you cannot tell at first impression, he is slightly developmentally disabled. Unfortuantely, neither I nor she knows the exact nature of his disability.

The man asked my mom if she knew of any way he might be able to learn to read. She's already recommended people he speak to, and programs he might consider, etc... but she'd like to give him a gift. And that gift would be some books that might help him to begin learning how to read.

The hard part is finding books that
a) don't already require you to be able to read
b) aren't babyish, cartoonish, or otherwise childish-looking (he is sensitive about this)

The man has no computer access. He probably has access to a CD player. He may or may not have a literate adult to help him go through the materials.

Can anybody recommend any books (or books with a CD companion, for example) that might fit the bill?

Much appreciated! This is so much better than taking a stab in the dark on Amazon!

How do I help an adult with LDs find an expert tutor?

Jennifer S. — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 15:04:12 -0800

I need help finding free expert literacy tutoring for an LD adult learner in Charlotte, NC, or a grant source for an adult learning center there. I don't just need a community literacy volunteer. I need someone who has been trained to work with adult learners with learning disabilities, and can work intensely with a learner. OR I need a grant source that might pay such an expert to help a struggling learner.

The backstory:

I used to work with a Charlotte adult literacy center, teaching an adult learner I will call Delores.

Delores was in her 60s and totally illiterate, a second-grade dropout from a low-income family. We worked together for months with very little progress.

I raised money for Delores to be tested for learning disabilities. I was told by the tester (an expert in LDs and special needs education) that Delores probably had significant learning disabilities.

He recommended that someone work with her several times a week, not just once a week as we had been doing. He also recommended that she work with someone who had experience with learning disabilities, and acknowledged that even with help, she might never learn to read.

His recommendation has so far proven impossible. Delores is beyond being helped by even the most gifted and persistent community volunteer, but has no money to pay for professional help. She is falling through the cracks.

People who have expertise want money she and I don’t have. I asked the local college for volunteers from the education department, no luck.

I wrote a grant to pay for an LD professional to come to the adult learning center and work with Delores and the center’s other LD learners. The adult learning center did not offer me much help in applying for grants for its under-served learners (Delores is not the only one with this problem, and my contact at the center said others need the same help). I'm not even sure they did anything with my grant letter. No luck.

I have now moved to another city several hours away, making it even harder to help. Delores still gets help from community volunteers, and has made next to no progress.

There is no budget for any help for Delores, at least not until I am out of college.

I am aware that Delores might never learn to read, but it’s still not certain that that’s the case. She deserves time with a real LD professional before anyone writes her off.

So here’s what I want to know:

Is there something I’m not thinking of to get Delores help, or get the Charlotte adult literacy center the funds it needs to pay someone teach its most challenged learners to read?

Is there another Charlotte-area organization to ask or talk to about learning help from someone who really knows how to teach LD adult learners?

Are there grants/organizations you know of that could fund the learning center in a way that would help Delores (i.e. paying for a professional who is experienced with working with LD adult learners)?

And does anyone have any stories -- good or bad -- about an adult learner who struggled to learn to read through learning disability and disadvantage? What’s happening out there with other dedicated adult learners in a long-term struggle? I want to know.

Is there anything else I should know to help Delores?

Thanks for your time!

At-home literacy and spelling help for seniors?

CKmtl — Sun, 07 Dec 2008 11:19:40 -0800

One of my neighbours has asked me for some advice and I'm pretty dumbfounded. A senior (~80yo) that she knows has said that he'd like to learn to write and spell, but she has no clue where to start. So, what resources are out there that could be of help? Some more info about the situation:

- The problem is mostly with the writing side of literacy (he can read and comprehend newspapers). He's more bothered by stuff like not being able to write words and sentences properly, not being able to tell if something he wrote is spelled incorrectly, etc.

- Undiagnosed dyslexia is a likely factor.

- He probably would not want to attend classes, because of bad experiences with teachers in the past.

- He has access to a computer and the internet, but he is not terribly computer/net-savvy. His keyboarding would be very hunt-and-peck. Software could be installed for him and he could be helped with learning how to use the programs, though.

- Nothing too childish, as he'd be a bit humiliated by that sort of thing.

- Freeware or free websites are preferable. Paying for software or books isn't completely out of the question, but they'd have to be on the inexpensive side. Fixed income and all that.

Please recommend books on infant mortality rates in Peru

Solomon — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 11:57:40 -0800

Please help me find a present for my sister's 30th birthday. She's asked for book(s) on certain topics that she's interested in, but I have no idea about these particular genre's. The first genre she mentioned is India. She wants a book about the country, with specific leanings towards things like female literacy, projects that help the poor, infant mortality, etc, and less on the geography and politics of the county. Basically, what is being done there on a grass roots level to make people's lives better for them.

The other genre she mentioned is what sounds to me like an atlas of world issues. It seems to be about things like freedom of speech, poverty levels (and stuff like the example above), around the world. She's been to South America, and speaks Spanish, so maybe something about SA would be nice.

She works with less-well-off communities as a job, to help improve people's local spaces, if that's relevant. I bought her a Kiva gift certificate for Christmas, and she's been quite into that ever since.

I've tried looking on Amazon, and Googling, but I know very little about such things, and I'm not having much luck. I'm looking to spend about £20-25, which is about $35-45, I think. Product recommendations would be great, or links to websites where I can have a poke about would be cool too.

Where can I get the Islamic equivalent of Jewish Literacy?

parkbench — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 18:45:37 -0800

Where can I get the Islamic equivalent of Jewish Literacy? I've been working my way through some literature on Abrahamic religions and I've found Jewish Literacy indispensable. Now I'm wondering if I can find a similar sort of thing about Islam--quick deconstruction of notable events in the Qur'an and breakdown of important historical figures/movements.

Any suggestions?

How common is familiartity with .ZIP archives?

unmake — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 03:22:36 -0800

Is it safe to assume that anyone professionally employed in a computer-using job (secretary, assistant, ect.) is familiar with ZIP archives? What about the public at large? I was using LHZ almost 20 years ago, but most of my (less technically-inclined) friends have acquired their computer literacy in a more casual/disinterested manner - I cut my teeth on a lengthy textfile CLI tutorial that covered this stuff; I'd imagine it's covered by whatever courses today's 16-22 year-olds have to take, but how did contemporary ~30+somethings figure this stuff out, assuming it wasn't covered in the rudimentary computer courses we took (think: classrooms full of IBM PS/2's, Windows 3.1, and the LOGO turtle)..

This question is probably more applicable to Windows users, as Mac's tend to decompress archives to the Desktop by default.

Book learnin'

Slam I Am — Wed, 01 Aug 2007 11:42:39 -0800

What are the social benefits of public libraries (and literacy)? New South Wales did a study entitled Libraries and Social Capital; the Urban Libraries Council published Making Cities Stronger (both PDF links), and I'd like to read more, especially from sources that aren't actively trying to justify their funding (not that there's anything wrong with that) to market-thinking 'crats.

Why are physical public libraries important? What's their relationship to "the social fabric," esp. in terms of marginalized groups, crime, etc.?

Also, why is old-skool literacy important to a society, or at least how does it have a different impact than electronic literacy?

Rants from resident librarians welcome as well.

How can I learn to recognise more languages?

PuGZ — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 21:07:06 -0800

How can I learn to recognise more languages? I'm a literate English-speaker who knows more than a smattering of French and I can usually guess the language of texts written in most Western European/SE Asian/Programming scripts, but I'd like to improve. I recently received an email in Turkish and I had no idea what language it was, which made it difficult to find a machine translation. How can I train myself to recognise more languages and hence find resources for translation?

Puppets no can read good?

magikker — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 20:15:14 -0800

I need help writing a puppet show to teach the importance of literacy to kids k-5. I'm in a service organization at my university. One of the many things we do is give educational puppet shows to local elementary school kids. The problem is that a lot of the puppet shows aren't very good. They are out of date and kinda awkward. So we asked the teachers what they would like to see a puppet show about. The two things that they wanted was a good show about the importance of math and the importance of literacy. We knocked out a fun one about math in a couple hours. We are really stuck on the literacy one. We can't figure out a plot or anything.

Can you help me out? How can you convey to elementary age kids that reading is important?

Help me find people with l33t s|
JonnyRotten — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 08:24:04 -0800
I need to find a basic computer literacy/skills test to download. Any suggestions? Or feel free to just add sugested questions in here, and I will make it from scratch.
I am getting ready to hire a entry level position that will be responsible for data entry and some other office type jobs. I would like to find out a little about their windows/office skills.
Also, Any suggestions for free and simple WPM testing programs?

Thanks!!

Best ICT literacy workshops and tech support models.

By The Grace of God — Thu, 05 Oct 2006 13:38:38 -0800

Where can I find the best, proven basic ICT/Internet literacy workshops? Where can I find the best, proven models for providing limited technical support over the phone and via email? This is for teaching a small, disadvantaged group of people who have computer access in their homes how use their computers as a practical benefit in their difficult lives.

We want to confer the basic knowledge to operate word processors, email and the Internet; to keep their computers running and secure; to get a hold of tech support when needed; and to learn how to use the Internet to search for and to navigate the medical, legal, financial, and commercial information specific to their situation that is available online.

The heart of this educational process will be a two-day, five- to eight- hour workshop given thrice a year - once in each of three different areas. Imagine one instructor and five to ten students in a lab.

The instructor is a person who is skilled at the internet and computer use, an able searcher, and has provided effective office tech support for years, but who has never taught a formal workshop.

The proposed format for the workshops is this: Day two of the workshop will follow about two weeks after day one, with one or two practical exercises given in between via email. This can change.

We will be giving a modicum of remote support (referrals for hardware stuff and anything we can't resolve within a few emails and phone calls) for these folks between the workshop days, and afterwards, for the forseeable future. The support relationship is as important as the workshops. Again, slightly techy, patient laypeople supporting laypeople who have been through the basic workshop and are motivated to learn. It will probably be one person in a charity who will be providing this support with a goodly part of their work-day. Are there any good methods or models of providing support in this fashion?

Money is available to purchase this content.

Thanks very much.

Unique fundraiser?

starbaby — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:50:26 -0800

Help me come up with fundraising ideas for my local chapter of Literacy Action. I've read the past posts for fundraising ideas, but this has to be specific to the organization. They are looking for an annual trademark fundraiser, and are coming up blank.

Here's some backstory:

Last spring, I was looking to volunteer somewhere. As I work in the local library, the logical conclusion was to volunteer for Literacy Action, an organization that teaches people to read and speak English, located in my library. They decided my boyfriend and I could be used to help them organize the fundraiser they had planned. The fundraiser--pre-selling tickets to a local play centered on literacy--was a horrible, horrible failure. I think they may not have even broke even.

The organization has very little money, very little clout to their name, and very little resources. They only have the funding to pay two employees, so volunteers are relied upon for everything else.

Aside from small amounts of grants and other such funding, the only source of income they seem to have is their participation in the annual Literacy Festival. However, this event is sponsored by many organizations, including the larger Arkansas Literacy Council, and features authors, books, companies, etc., so the local chapter of Literacy Action is somewhat overlooked as far as being responsible for the event. They are looking for something bigger; they want to get their name out there. As I mentioned earlier, something unique would be wonderful, as well as something they can repeat annually or even semi-annually.

I have been asked to brainstorm, but, honestly, I can't come up with anything, either. All of my ideas seem to be too small [bake sale], too inappropriate for Literacy Action [bachelor/ette auction], or just too overdone [carnival].

I would also appreciate the names of books that have personally helped you with ideas like this. I [obviously] have access to fundraising books, but wouldn't even know where to start as this is so far out of my area. Links to good websites are also wonderful.

I would also like to mention that the library itself holds used book sales every quarter, so this would be totally out of the question.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.

What does that say?

essexjan — Thu, 02 Mar 2006 10:55:14 -0800

Help me help someone with literacy problems. I've been asked by a woman to take her through the AA 12-step recovery programme. The problem is that she has literacy difficulties and says that she can't read the AA Big Book or 12 x 12.

I know they're available on tape or CD, so that's not a problem. She'll be able to get hold of audio copies and listen to them.

Nor do I intend to teach her to read. That's not what she's asked me for help with.

The AA programme involves, amongst other things, taking personal inventory, making a list of people harmed and various other stuff. The way I (and most people) work through this is by writing stuff down. But she won't be able to do that.

What I'd like from you good people is some pointers, tips, info, hints, whatever, on how to work through such a programme with someone who can't read.

Any experience would be welcome, this question isn't limited only to people who've worked a 12-step programme. If you have a child or sibling with similar problems, how have you been able to help them with schoolwork? Do you have a co-worker who has learning difficulties? What do you do to help?

Is listening to an audio-book less intellectually stimulating than reading the same book?

nthdegx — Sun, 18 Dec 2005 20:47:29 -0800

Is listening to an audio-book less intellectually stimulating than reading the same book, especially in terms of literacy and increasing vocabulary?

Financial Literacy and Games

blahblahblah — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 19:15:04 -0800

I am interested in teaching personal financial literacy (insurance, savings, credit cards, FICO scores) through games. I heard about this from Well's Fargo, but I was hoping for something more compelling. Does anyone know of any good financial literacy games out there? Does anyone have any good ideas for one?